June 2, 2006

Terror and the Bagthorpes

So, I have this great love of a young adult series called the Bagthorpes. I mean, these are some of the best kids' books I've ever read. Hysterically funny. Back in October, I posted about them, listing the one that I thought I was missing (only to discover I'm missing Bagthorpes Battered as well as the Bagthorpe Triangle). I thought I'd run a fast eBay check for them, and had to look up the names of the ones I was missing. What I see on my blog is this (click through for the larger picture):

This does just boggle the imagination, doesn't it? I don't think the word terrorist appears in that post at all. Nor Iraq, nor weapons of mass destruction, nor anything else that might lead to Adsense thinking terrorism ads might be a valuable link here.

As near as I can figure out ... the main kid in these stories is Jack. Everyone in the U.S., it seems, is obsessed with Jack Bauer. Jack Bauer fights terrorism. Hence, anti-terrorism ads on my blog.

Jack Bagthorpe is NOTHING like Jack Bauer. For one thing, Young Master Bagthorpe is from the U.K. Another, he's 11. Another, he's ordinary. That's why the first book is called Ordinary Jack. He can't get around the house in 10 minutes, let alone get around LA in ten minutes.

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:05 AM | Comments (2) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble

May 18, 2006

Contest Winners

It's time to reveal the answers to the 10 Questions and the winners of the contest.

Without further adieu, Beth answered all of the questions first and correctly. In fact, she answered them so fast, that I decided to give away an additional 300 BlogMad credits to a random entrant because I knew from about two hours after the contest had opened, someone had already won the 500! The answers will follow below the announcement of the other winners.

I went to Random.org to get the random numbers when choosing the random second place winner for the 10 Questions contest and the winner of the Red Monkey pictures contest. Here's a screenshot of the spreadsheet and the results. The first column of names on the left are for the random 10 Questions drawing ... and the number generator picked: 2 and the second name on the list is Lucy, who gets 300 BlogMad credits. (Click the picture for a larger version - which includes the full link to the random generator.)

The second drawing was for 250 BlogMad credits for sending in a link or picture of the Red Monkey. The number generated was 3 ... and the third name on the list is Seawave. (Click the picture for a larger version - which includes the full link to the random generator.)

Beth's answers:

1) Where are the Caelum Moor stones now? water treatment facility /archives/2005/11/more_caelum_moo.html

2) My first skateboard had what kind of wheels?metal /archives/2005/07/you_cant_be_car.html

3) I went to high school with someone in my list of sidebar links. Who and what's the URL to that blog? Andy http://www.kiltedliberal.com

4) How did I change the script of Star Wars (when I was in third grade)? Princess Leia gets Darth Vader Drunk
/archives/2006/02/how_dry_i_am.html

5) Who offers Amanda Hades DVDs and what is Amanda Hades? 3rd Floor Productions web show about how news doesn't reach the people because of mainstream media being so corporate
/archives/2005/06/communities.html

6) One of my third grade teachers made a tactical error. What was the error and what subject did she teach?math She announced one day that anyone belonging in the high math class should come over to a certain area /archives/2005/06/the_us_educatio.html

7) Who was my illustrious locker partner? Kyungah Kim (Janet Kim) /archives/2005/05/make_new_friend.html

8) Send me a screenshot/JPG/GIF/image of your favourite design from my CafePress site.
http://www.cafepress.com/coyotethunder.38749956

9) What Fisher Price toy did I haunt eBay for and finally find? Sky Surfer /archives/2005/12/the_sky_surfer.html

10) I turned the Little People Village into what? pueblo village
/archives/2006/01/adobe_pueblo.html

Posted by Red Monkey at 2:25 PM | Comments (4) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble

May 16, 2006

Blog Celebration

Wanna win 500 BlogMad credits?

Here's the deal ... in honour of Red Monkey's one year celebration, I'm gonna give away 500 BlogMad credits to the person who answers at least 4 of the following questions correctly. That means you only have to answer 4!! The contest closes at noon (Eastern time), May 18, 2006. The winner will be the person who answers the most questions correctly. If there are multiple people who have answered the same number of questions correctly, the person with the earliest entry will win. All answers can either be found in Red Monkey blog within a single post, or by deduction from reading several posts. Comments are also fair game for inclusion.
You must EMAIL your answers to me at: red-monkey AT coyotethunder DOT com.

Need something easier??? Look at the bottom of the post for a faster chance to win.

Answer at least four. EMAIL me your answers. LIST THE DATE OF THE POST where you found the answer (except for numbers 3 and 8).
1) Where are the Caelum Moor stones now?
2) My first skateboard had what kind of wheels?
3) I went to high school with someone in my list of sidebar links. Who and what's the URL to that blog?
4) How did I change the script of Star Wars (when I was in third grade)?
5) Who offers Amanda Hades DVDs and what is Amanda Hades?
6) One of my third grade teachers made a tactical error. What was the error and what subject did she teach?
7) Who was my illustrious locker partner?
8) Send me a screenshot/JPG/GIF/image of your favourite design from my CafePress site.
9) What Fisher Price toy did I haunt eBay for and finally find?
10) I turned the Little People Village into what?

Luckily, you should be able to use search to find most of these quickly and easily. Maybe I should disable search during this contest? hehehehehe
Naw, I'll play nice. Enjoy the hunt and I hope you'll stick around and read some of these old posts as well as hunt for answers.

Meanwhile, scroll below and read the story of The Red Monkey. :)

UPDATE: In addition to the grand prize of 500 BlogMad credits, I will also give away two additional prizes, both randomly drawn. The first random winner will be picked from those entering the 10 question contest and will win 300 BlogMad credits.
The second random winner will go to someone who emails me with a picture (or the URL of a picture) of THE red monkey ... but it cannot be a picture that is hosted on coyotethunder.com. This winner will get 250 BlogMad credits.
Both of these random winners will be announced May 18th, along with the grand prize winner of the 500 BlogMad credits ... you can only win one of the three contests, but you're welcome to enter all 3! (Well, if you enter the 10 questions, you're entered for the random drawing on the 10 questions, so I suppose you're welcome enter both contests.)

Posted by Red Monkey at 2:33 AM | Comments (0) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble

May 4, 2006

Dark Side Experiment

There's another new addition to the right sidebar ... I am running a two-week test with Google Adsense. I know, I know, stop screaming. It's an experiment. I kinda figured that I get this INSANE number of hits for those stupid Red Monkey Jeans that I never even knew existed before I started my blog. Nearly 45% of my total website hits (if you hit the home button up top, you go to my main homepage for CoyoteThunder.com) are for those jeans. It suddenly occurred to me the other day ... I'm always going to get those hits. The way the search engines work, I'm always going to get hits for those jeans ... so why not kill two birds with one stone? If Google will put some Red Monkey Jeans ads in that sidebar, then the folks looking for Red Monkey Jeans will get what they came here looking for ... and maybe I'll make some cash and quit whining about all the people who land here looking for those stinking jeans.

We'll see. If this doesn't really generate anything worth speaking about in two weeks, I'll resign from the Adsense program and remove the ads. If it does work, then I will seriously look at re-designing the template and moving to a real 3 column design to better leverage space.

Meanwhile, sound off about the migration to the dark side in the comments.

Posted by Red Monkey at 9:30 AM | Comments (3) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble

April 27, 2006

25 Blogmad Credits

Okay ... a lawyer in Austin, Texas, started a group of heterosexual folks who are supportive of GLBT folks. In fact, the purpose of the group is outreach and education of the hetero community about the gay community. She calls this organization the Atticus Circle.

Why Atticus?

Leave a comment with your guess ... get it right, get 25 BlogMad credits ... first person with the complete answer successfully left in the comments gets the credits.

Posted by Red Monkey at 3:32 PM | Comments (5) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble

April 23, 2006

Moveable Type error

Interesting error ... you cannot use the word t a r in a post ... you'll get an internal server error. Took me thirty minutes to figure out that I couldn't use the phrase "beat the t a r out of me" in the last post. Sheesh!

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:56 AM | Comments (3) | Blog | TrackBack | Stumble