To blog or not to blog… that is the question

July 29th, starting at 10:30am Island time.

That according to the offical website is the date for the 2006 Blogathon.

I know what a few of you are thinking already. You have two kids now… are you out of your freakin’ mind? The answer: of course I am. Can I actually do another 24 hour marathon with two kids and a nagging wife? I think I can and for the second straight year, I’m going to blog my ass off for a good cause. As luck would have it, my weekend off does fall on the same date of this year’s blogathon so I’m good to take part. What I might do this year is use one of my left over vacation days and book that Monday off for additional recovery. So with the time on my hands, I’m primed to write for charity again!

My long time readers know that Last Year’s Blogathon was a real strain on the eyes and the hands, but I also raised money for a good charity, which was Amnesty International. It was a lot of fun, and I met some great people who are still in my favorites from the event.

Last year, I set a reasonable goal to raise $100 for my charity, but ended up surpassing that with $250 in pledges! So this year, my goal will be to raise one dollar more this year than I did last year, which means my goal is to raise $251 dollars! Seeing how much I made last year with only a week’s notice, I think this is a resonable goal since I’m going to start collecting pledges early this year, and hopefully will raise more money for my new charity.

Yes, for this year’s blogathon… I’ve decided to raise money for a new charity. I loved raising money for AI last year, but this time out I’m going to spread the love around and pick another worthy charity. This year I’ve picked a real winner for the 2006 Blogathon. This time out I’ve decided to take pledges for The Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto.

The Hospital for Sick Children is one of the largest paediatric academic health science centres in the world, with an international reputation for excellence in health care, research, and teaching. As a local hospital, SickKids meets not just the basic health needs of children who live in the City of Toronto. More than half the patients come from outside the city. Not only do they come from other parts of Canada, and from around the world. This is a great medical facility, and to help treat kids from around the world, they depend on the charity of others to help sick children. I couldn’t think of a better charity to write for…

For that reason alone, I’ve pretty much decided to take part in this year’s Blogathon. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I had fun last time and this year will do better cause I know what to expect. For that reason alone, I think this year’s will go a little smoother. Hopefully Leah will be a little easier on me this year, but we’ll have to wait and see. So when the site goes up again, I will start promoting early and hopefully that will lead to more donations. Hopefully…

But that’s months from now. Right now I’ve got to concentrate on the present. I’ve got some packing and other stuff to do. So everyone hav a good Saturday and I’ll be around.

Peter