Mindsay Reunion Tour @ MindSay

Oh good -- I can come out of hiding now.

What? You thought that you could get rid of me that easily? Heavens, no! Especially not when I've got an important announcement to make.

*ahem*




We'll be using TalkShoe as the platform for this show -- which allows a chat room and calling in to the radio show!  We'll send out the link closer to the date.

The show will also be saved as a Podcast for those of you who can't make it live.

Hope to see you there!

I have a vision! I am asking the ENTIRE Mindsay online community out there to take part in a good cause by creatively coming up with a cool name for us as a fantasy magic group or school or troupe (what-have-you) that could be used in a fantasy novel. We can be called MINDSAYERS. If it's cool enough and, as part of a charity raffle, inspires a large butt load of donations to Heifer International, our blog community name could be immortalized in a book. Don't believe it's possible? Well, an old friend of mine from my college days is international bestselling fantasy author, Patrick Rothfuss. Last year he had a raffle and raised a lot of money for Heifer International. This year he's doing something very different and I want to invite you all to take part, as a group (this means THE whole Mindsay community) or individuals (especially if you have a cooler idea than mine), to give to Heifer International AND take part in the raffle. You can find all the fine details for the raffle here on Patrick's blog or I'll kinda break it down later after I pitch the Mindsay reunion tour name idea.



After reading all the wonderful entries the folks on this blog community have written, I've discovered we all really are quite the family. As a real city or institution somewhere, maybe a band or troupe of bards, I'd like to think we would, in a fantasy world/setting, also be a community that hosts or shelters people of a like mind; people who "mind say" or who are "mind seers" normal folk can turn to where anything can be confessed or said. No matter where you are in this fantasy world, there is a "mind sayer" out there you can turn to to help you express yourself or find yourself, especially if you are lost. The "real world" Mindsayers here are always free to express themselves. Mindsay as a community is host to thinkers and writers. Imagine us as the fantasy people who could be known as "Mindsayers" -- a vagabond kind of travelling storytellers, seers, wise people, performers, etc. who speak with their minds and invite others to do so as well. What say you, Mindsayers?



Not familiar with Patrick Rothfuss' fantasy series? Don't worry. Let this be your invitation to pick up book one The Name of the Wind. And I apologise if I'm sounding like a pimp, but I've known Pat a long while and he's an excellent writer. I would be very pleased if we can help out with his favorite charity, if nothing else! So....


This is a very informal, spur-of-the-moment idea and has yet to be okay-ed by Brian or Adam but I hope they will be keen on the idea and, if anything, will inspire them to donate to Pat's Heifer International raffle.


DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 15!!!!



I know this doesn't leave much time, but if you follow the instructions below quickly and mention you are donating to the raffle with the name "MINDSAYERS" and mention in clear handwritten or typed/printed script what this idea is about, or if you have a better name idea and include MINDSAYER as part of the character name, I think Pat will catch on to the idea. I just kinda-sorta mentioned the idea to Pat on Facebook, and I don't think he'll mind a group name idea as a raffle. We'll have to see. We're a vocal group, so if this proves popular, no matter what we'll get his attention. Also, my own personal individual donation will be sent via snail mail and I'll write out the entire idea I suggested here to Pat. I'll let you know ASAP if he responds.




After checking out Pat's official rules and info, here's how I've broken down the donation process with the following (but be sure to refer to his rules for best clarification):



1. It works like a regular raffle where you buy tickets that are $10 each.

2. You have two ways to buy tickets: by snail mail or paypal.

a. Snail Mail: Make out a check to Patrick Rothfuss for the amount you want to donate and send a 3x5 index card with 1) Your phone number on top, 2) Your Real Name in full, 3) The Name you have ingeniously created to be included in Pat's next book, 4) Your Email, 5) Mail this to the following address:

Pat Rothfuss
PO Box 186
Stevens Point, WI 54481



b. PayPal: Each online donation will be $11 per ticket. Go to Pat's blog to automatically donate via the buttons provided there REMEMBER, HOWEVER, TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IN A NOTE: 1) Your phone number, 2) Your Real Name in full, 3) The Name you have ingeniously created to be included in Pat's next book, 4) Your Email. Do that with your online donation or it can't be added later. Again, for all the details go to Pat's blog and it'll be explained much better there.



There is even a poorboy raffle method and THE COOL NAME OPTION of which I'm pitching to the whole Mindsay community here and then run it by Pat to see what he thinks. It would help greatly if I could back up the idea with PLENTY of donations from you all, my dearest friends. I have yet to approach Pat about it, so I can't promise it'll work, but if I can get you to donate money so that families in third world countries can get some healthy livestock... Well, that's more important to me than trying to stick a name I came up with in Pat's next book, right?



Got a better idea than mine? REPLY TO THIS BLOG ASAP and we'll cook something juicy up!

There are a few reason why I no longer feel the need to fill these pages with my ramblings: some of which include, but are not limited to the fact that I do not have enough to say to fill a blog entry like I feel I should; the fact that any improvements to Mindsay are nonexistent; the fact that most of my friends here are MIA; the fact that I do not have the time I once did when I was a machinist and I had hours to sit and do nothing but listen for tool breakage or machine malfunctions; etc…

Things change and there is nothing that can be done to stop it from happening. These changes are for the better or for the worse, but rather they are changes that just happen and must be accepted as they are. Mindsay provided me with about two years of joy, but that has changed. If you check through all of my entries here you will find that I still visit on occasion and I add to my growing post count here. But as they say in my country – it’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there…

Mindsay is stuck in 2006 and I have evolved since then. Every entry I have placed here has been to the public and I would have liked to have seen non-members of the community having an opportunity to comment on things I have written and added to the discussion, but that will never happen. I would have liked to have more creative freedom to change the pages to reflect my personality, again this will never happen.  There are changes that could have been made to keep me interested enough to keep me here, but we all know that Mindsay is not being developed any further than what it is at this moment…

So I will stop by when I need to and lay a flower upon the grave of this old friend…

So this has been a wild success, do you agree? I didn't expect so many people to come back, and I didn't expect so many people to be good to each other for a week. Once the full statistics for the week become available on Alexa.com , it'll be interesting to see how the demographics and time spent and pageviews shifted (The number one viewed blog here was by a spammer, co-incidentally, and one of the top searched terms leading to mindsay is "How to make crystal meth").

There were many posts this week about Mindsay being a certain kind of digital home, and no matter how long you stayed away-- when you came back it was just like you never left. This is because, one, nothing really does change here except for the twitter box (Thanks for using mindsay butterflies.) and because, I guess in a certain sense some of us will always be here talking regardless of who is reading or listening.

I started blogging here in May of 2004 because I was fighting with lanie about nothing really important, and someone was pretending to be me back when it was livejournal style lite, and you could reply anonymously.

I met some amazing people here, and talked about some thing that to me are still very important. I need catalogs of my past, it helps me to remember. I've journaled since I was 6, and I doubt I'll ever stop. From here I've learned how to write to an audience, how to communicate (maybe) better, all kinds of things. I need this to know what I'm thinking.

This is going to be an annual event, so look forward to this again next year. Regardless of how much we seem to fight and complain in this community, we do seem to care for each other in some bizarre way. It was nice having everyone under the roof again.

I feel like at this point that I'm rambling, so I'll draw this to a close. If we don't talk again till next year, remember, don't wear socks outside in the rain.

That's the best advice I can give.

Don't know what to say except thanks for welcoming me back so nicely. Thank you.

I shall be back. It's hard to stay away from good people.