On this Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to express my gratitude to all my blog readers and all my Twitter followers! Thank you for making it so that I’m just not talking to myself all the time. Because that would be worrisome.

Anyway, what better way to thank you all than by spreading the love a little bit and having a drawing to boot?

So, I am going to have a drawing where you can win the amount of pennies equal to the number of my Twitter followers. At the moment, I have 2,804 followers on Twitter. So, that would mean you could win 2,804 pennies, which is $28.04. (Prize will be paid by PayPal, so if you want actual pennies, you’ll have to go to your bank and ask them for the pennies.)

The final value will be based on the number of followers that I have on Twitter at the end of this month. So, when the clock strikes midnight (my local time, EST) and the calendar turns to December 1st, the number of followers I have at that time will determine the prize. The minimum prize will be $10.00, so even if I lose a bunch of followers (perish the thought!), there will be a minimum of a $10.00 prize. The maximum prize will be $50.00. The odds of me getting 5000 followers in the next few days is probably pretty slim, but I feel I ought to have some protection lest I somehow end up with 100,000 followers or something. So, minimum prize of $10 and maximum prize of $50. Got it?

And, if you’re not following me on Twitter, you might want to start right now to increase that prize money. You can follow me at dcrTweets.com.

So, now you’re wondering how you enter. It’s pretty easy. Below, you will find a list of questions. The answers can be found at the linked blogs. You visit the blogs, find the answers and come back here and leave your answers in the comments eMail me your answers. Each correct answer gets you one (1) entry in the drawing. If you get all the answers correct, you get an extra five (5) entries.

For example, if you answer four of the five questions correctly, you get four (4) entries. If you answer all five questions correctly, you get ten (10) entries. Make sense?

Throughout the Thanksgiving weekend, I will have additional sets of questions, so be sure to keep checking in so that you can get more entries. All this comes to an end Sunday night. I will draw a winner next week.

Void where prohibited. You must be able to accept a PayPal payment. So, if you’re in a country not served by PayPal, sorry. Any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the winner. And, I reserve the right to retroactively apply any legal stuff I should have included but didn’t know I should have.

Okay, with all that out of the way, here are today’s questions:

1. What did Pete crop out of his wild blue yonder image?
2. What does Robert Hruzek hate that he first got in 2001?
3. What are Michael Kwan’s two newspapers of choice? (You correctly identify both.)
4. What 11th century Indian yogi did Sasha Kane write about?
5. What type of societies did Miragi begin reading about earlier this month?

So, there are your questions. Get out there and start hunting down the answers! Don’t forget to come back here and leave the answers in a comment to this post eMail me your answers! Please send your answers to askdcr@dcrblogs.com.

You may remember a while ago that Teeni declared war on my avatar. Here is the list of her little army of thugs that did horrible, horrible things to my avatar:

• Note to Self
• Other Mac
• The Bead Den
• Birdpress
• Two Lazy Dogs
• MacBros Place
• Brit and Grit

Well, since my own band of minions went cowering under rocks and pebbles and all sorts of dark hiding places, I guess I was on my own.

So, I made this little guy as a special “gift” for all of Teeni’s evil minions:

So, last week, Teeni tagged me with this Tearjerker Song Meme, where you’re supposed to show a song that is meaningful to you in someway, and it doesn’t necessarily have to make you cry.

Which is a good thing, actually, because men don’t cry. Oh, sure our eyes water from time to time, but that is just the body’s way of flushing out the tear ducts to keep them lubricated and running smoothly.

Since this is somewhat one of those “make money online” blogs, my first instinct was, naturally, this song (1).

Or, maybe I could go more personal and mention this song (2), which I think I knew word for word at one time. Then, we can quickly go back to something related to money making with this song (3).

I used to know all the words to this song (4) too.

Then there was this song (5) which was on the first album I ever bought.

There was also this song (6), which reminds me of times I spent writing at the computer, listening to the radio. This song (7) also reminds me of that.

Oh, and speaking of the big time (a line from the previously mentioned song), there was of course this song (8).

There was this song (9) that reminds me of summer mornings going to computer classes.

I remember this song (10) from the first school dance I attended. And this song (11) I think was from a football game or something. One of my friends thought the lyric was “It moose’d have been something I said.”

This song (12) reminds me of early mornings waiting for the bus.

I’ve always liked this song (13) too.

I remember this song (14) from our second high school assembly.

Can we mention theme songs? Because I like this song (15). Well, of course I can mention it. I don’t care if it’s in the rules or not because I don’t care about the rules!

Then later there was this song (16), this song (17), this song (18), this song (19), this song (20), this song (21), this song (22), this song (23), this song (24), this song (25), this song (26), this song (27) and this song (28). I know what you’re thinking, but I just liked the songs. That’s all. Nothing more. Move along now.

I remember this song (29) from a pizza party at my house in high school. Only two girls showed up. None of my guy friends. I think we watched Doctor Who, but I know we listened to this song (30). I did my own mix of it too.

This song (31) was always good. Some kids in school complained they could have written that. But, they didn’t, did they?

In high school, we had to choose a song and analyze what the lyrics meant. I chose this song (32) and got an A. Of course, I had some help in that I had a couple of her books, one of which explained what the song was about.

Then there is this song (33) that our high school valedictorian ripped apart, and then went on to make the same point the song did. Evidently, he didn’t listen to the song.

I liked this song (34) too.

Of course, this song (35) is worth another listen. But, I think this song (36) may be my all-time favorite.

Okay, so who shall I tag? Here is who I tag: Deborah, Doug, Pete and Lewis.

And, just in case any of those songs get pulled (I did try to use authentic sources where available, but such were sparse), here’s the list:

(1) “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” - The Pet Shop Boys
(2) “Head Over Heels” - Tears for Fears
(3) “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” - Tears for Fears
(4) “Glory of Love” - Peter Cetera
(5) “Only in My Dreams” - Debbie Gibson
(6) “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” - U2
(7) “Don’t Mean Nothing” - Richard Marx
(8) “Big Time” - Peter Gabriel
(9) “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” - Michael Jackson
(10) “Bad Boy” - Miami Sound Machine
(11) “(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight” - Cutting Crew
(12) “The Captain of Her Heart” - Double
(13) “Man in the Mirror” - Michael Jackson
(14) “Land of Confusion” - Genesis
(15) Doctor Who theme song, 1988
(16) “Lost in Your Eyes” - Debbie Gibson
(17) “Never Tear Us Apart” - INXS
(18) “Get Out of My Dreams” - Billy Ocean
(19) “Heart of Mine” - Boz Scaggs
(20) “Blue Moon” - Elvis Presley
(21) “Don’t Be Cruel” - Cheap Trick
(22) “Can’t Help Falling in Love” - UB40
(23) “Things We Said Today” - The Beatles
(24) “Eternal Flame” - The Bangles
(25) “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)” - Cinderella
(26) “Time and Tide” - Basia
(27) “Shattered Dreams” - Johnny Hates Jazz
(28) “Don’t Shed a Tear” - Paul Carrack
(29) “Kissing a Fool” - George Michael
(30) “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” - The Time Lords featuring Ford Timelord
(31) “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” - Bobby McFerrin
(32) “Electric Youth” - Debbie Gibson
(33) “I Wanna Be Rich” - Calloway
(34) “Vogue” - Madonna
(35) “Man in the Mirror” - Michael Jackson
(36) “What a Wonderful World” - Louis B. Armstrong

I won Michael Kwan’s Make Fun of John Chow contest.

This was my winning entry.

Thanks to all for your support and tolerating the endless parade of entries. Here they are again for your viewing pleasure tolerance:

1. John Chow Meets the Even More Evil John Chow
2. John Chow Kills Kenny
3. Chow Wars
4. Britney’d John Chow
5. John Chow and the Pandas of Dot Com Doom
6. Recession Hits John Chow Hard

The question is, does this count toward my blog earnings in August? I think not, since it was a contest and not a payment of some sort. Plus, it’s a box of goodies and not a cash prize.

John Chow Hit Hard by Recession

I had to do another entry in Michael Kwan’s Photoshop contest, which is running on Beyond the Rhetoric until the end of July, which is today. I was moved to action after seeing the “Dot Com Segway” video, where I noticed something familiar…

As you may recall, Nina, a.k.a. SF Girl, tagged me with the “Seven Weird Things About Me” meme, which she caught from Mel. Here’s #1 and #2.

Weird Thing About Me #3

I can sew. I don’t think too many men sew these days, and it seems a dwindling number of women do as well. My maternal grandmother has two daughters, two granddaughters and one grandson, which would be me for those of you who are really bad at math. Guess which one knows how to sew?

Well, there you go. Stay tuned for Weird Thing About Me #4 who knows when?

I was tagged by Awake in Rochester with this meme.

So, here we go:

I am, I am, I am Superman. (JD)
I think I’m gonna be sad. (JD)
I know what I know if you know what I mean. (JD)
I have run through the fields, only to be with you. (JD)
-> I wish I could go back to the day before we met.
-> I hate myself for losing you.
-> I miss you (I miss you). There’s no other way to say it.
-> I fear the most is whatever I see before me.
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow. (JD)
I smell like I sound, I’m lost and I’m found. (JD)
-> I crave for you.
-> I search the place for your lost face.
-> I wonder a-what went wrong with our love, a love that was so strong.
-> I regret and drown out these embers.
I love Rocky Road. (Teeni)
-> I ache for you.
-> I am unafraid.
-> I believe that when the hurting and the pain has gone, we will be strong.
-> I dance around with the night down in blue eye.
-> I sing today, today, today.
-> I cry just a little, when I think of letting go.
-> I fight against the hours.
-> I win, we lose.
-> I lose, bad news.
-> I never told you, I’m so happy that you’re mine.
-> I always knew that we’d survive.
-> I confuse the rain with memories.
-> I listen to the rain, whispering your name.
-> I can be found sittin’ all alone.
-> I am scared of the dark.
I need you tonight. (JD)
I am happy, don’t worry. (Awake in Rochester)
-> I imagine your hand on mine and I’m filled with butterflies.

Well, you know I have to put my own spin on these things. Each of the lines above is a song lyric, or a partial lyric. Be the first to identify a song and artist and get a link. In the case of multiple artists for a song, if you pick one from the 80’s, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Bonus points if you can identify which song would be my favorite among these.

And, no you’re not getting out of this meme either. I tag:

JD
Michelle
Pete (Oh, he’ll have to do pictures. Won’t that be a challenge. Muhahahahaha.)
Teeni

John Chow and the Pandas of Dot Com Doom

Here is another one of my entries into Michael Kwan’s Photoshop contest, which is running on Beyond the Rhetoric until the end of July. Now, he said one could do anything with the pictures he supplied, so I take that to include deleting everything but what I want to use. This one is my most radical departure from the base pictures, as I’ve pretty much deleted everything except for John Chow and Ed Lau.

Since I haven’t yet finished my regularly scheduled Monday post, I’ll do another one of these entries into Michael Kwan’s Photoshop contest, which is running on Beyond the Rhetoric until the end of July.

This is my third entry.

Chow Wars

After the Clone Wars, there is a little known episode of the Star Wars saga, and that is the Chow Wars. The newly-formed Galactic Empire was struggling with a poor economy and turned to a smuggler even more evil than Darth Vader for help.

As previously mentioned, Michael Kwan of Beyond the Rhetoric has a Photoshop contest running until the end of July.

This is my fourth entry. (Haven’t finished the third yet.)

Britney’d John Chow