The Alderdice household is a big fan of Jeff “Action” Woods, sportscaster extraordinaire, good pal, and just a generally great guy.

Jeff isn’t a fan of the fact that I’ve nicknamed him “Action” and petitioned him on several occasions to adopt the moniker on air.  Friends and gentle readers, I believe we can make that and more happen for old Jeffrey.

I sent myself an email reminder exactly one year ago so I wouldn’t forget about this. Nominations have begun for the 2010 Best of Bowling Green.  The contest recognizes favorite restaurants, stores, and individuals in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Most of all, I want to see Jeff “Action” Woods as a finalist for Category #104 — Best Local TV Personality.

Do you know who won this category last year?  Radar the Weather Dog.  I’m not even kidding.  A dog beat out a real-life human being for best local tv personality.  Had Jeff been nominated, this would not have happened.

Never again.

Here’s why I’m asking you to do this: Jeff has been one of my dearest friends since he helped me move into my dorm room sophomore year–when I didn’t even know him.  He was my roommate in college and suffered all manner of degradation at my hand.  For some reason, he even agreed to be a groomsman in my wedding.  He’s one of the nicest guys in the world, honestly.

I am asking all of my friends to participate in the nomination process.  There are lots of categories; however,you need only vote for 104. BEST LOCAL TV PERSONALITY. Please enter Jeff “Action” Woods in field number 104. You will have to cycle through a few pages to get to the page with this category.  It’s kind of annoying, I know, but there is no direct link for the page.

It’s that simple.  Please vote early and often.  To make the final voting round, Jeff must be one of the three vote-getters during the nomination phase.

Look how happy the little fella is in the photo below.  Imagine how happy he’ll be if he wins.

Talk about a bad of case of being 2 steps behind on things! Today, while browsing a favorite blog of mine, The Curvature, I came across the charity event, Blogathon. Mmm. Bloggity blogalicious blogging! The rules, according to the site, are as follows:

Now, remember when you were in school and you would bowl for charity? And for every pin you knocked down you got, say, ten cents? Or run for a dollar a mile? During the Blogathon, people update their websites every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. For this, they collect sponsorships. Pledges can be a flat donation, or a certain amount for every hour the blogger manages to stay awake.

How nifty is that? If I had known, I definitey would have at least tried to sponsor a site. There are 161 participating blogs, go check ‘em out!

As a lover of all things internet, I just wanted to direct more attention to Boing Boing’s post about the Ada Lovelace Day pledge that’s going on for March 24th this year. Put yo’ bloggin’ pants on and git to goin’!

From the pledge via BoingBoing

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Over 300 people have already signed a pledge to publish a blog post, video blog or podcast episode about a woman they admire on 24th March 2009. We need 700 more people for the pledge to be successful.

Recent research by psychologist Penelope Lockwood discovered that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones. But in the tech world women’s contributions often go unacknowledged and role models are hard to find. Ada Lovelace Day is a chance for us to sing the praises of the women who make tech tick: entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants… The list of tech-related careers is almost endless and we want to see examples from all of them!

Ugh. It still didn’t help.

The price of beauty has always been, well…pricey. Since the Egyptians’ use of lead to whip up new compounds to lather on their faces, humans have had vanity in our veins no matter how “skin deep” its purported to be. While the folks over at Web MD assure us that the government is diligently monitoring the cosmetics industry, the writers at Bitch beg to differ.

Currently, the government is *barely* keeping an eye on the self-regulating industry in a move tantamount to leaving fraternity members to chaperon a high school prom. Sure, there are some that will act responsibly but the arrangement still makes you squirm a bit. Additionally, it appears that the few regulatory measures it *does* have only opens the door for more misleading marketing. Between federal loopholes regarding chemical testing, minimal safety requirements and dodgy standards for what qualifies as “organic” and “natural” (that same Bitch article points out that a product can advertise itself as ‘organic’ if it contains 1% certified organic ingredients).

More scary info from Bitch :

Makeup menaces are nothing new: Some Elizabethan enchantresses died for their love of white lead–laced face powder, and Victorian vamps used deadly nightshade to lend their eyes an alluring glow. But today, when a $50-billion cosmetics industry has replaced apothecaries and home brewers, we expect the FDA to protect the public from dangerous beauty aids. Yet while its name might lead us to think otherwise, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act gives the FDA far more regulatory power over food additives and drugs than over cosmetics; the agency isn’t authorized to approve cosmetic products or ingredients before they hit the shelves. Manufacturers are under no legal obligation to register with the FDA, file data on ingredient safety, or report injuries caused by their products. The European Union has banned 1,132 known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, and reproductive toxins from use in cosmetics, but only 10 such chemicals are banned in the United States, leaving us with mercury in mascara, petrochemicals in perfumes, and parabens in antiperspirants. And just as none of the offending lipsticks’ labels indicated the presence of lead, the FDA allows potentially hazardous chemicals like phthalates—industrial solvents linked to birth defects in boys’ reproductive systems and premature puberty in girls—to slip into ingredient lists under the umbrella term “fragrance.”

[...]

It gets worse. Only 11 percent of the 10,000-plus ingredients used in personal care products have been assessed by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, the safety panel established and funded by the Personal Care Products Council that—conflict of interest be damned—is the primary source of information for the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors. The industry touts the CIR as a scrupulous safeguard that renders outside oversight unnecessary, but in the more than three decades since it was founded, the panel has deemed a scant nine ingredients unsafe. And manufacturers aren’t even under any obligation to follow the CIR’s recommendations—one of the nasty nine, the likely carcinogen hydroxyanisole, is still found in Porcelana skin cream, for instance.

For what it’s worth, the author does recommend the Cosmetics Database for anyone wanting to make sure their body glitter won’t spontaneously com bust when mixed with hair spray.

Read up on it. This isn’t one of those “Argh – quit using make-up and go au naturale” deals. Yes – everyone should feel confident and comfortable in their own skin – but I don’t believe putting on a little lip gloss makes you patriarchy’s hand puppet. This is just one of those, “Hm. I didn’t know they put anti-freeze in deodorant. How ’bout that?” sort of deals. Ultimately – I figure it’s better for folks to know that concerns have been raised – and allow the consumers the right to dismiss or investigate the claims to make their own choice.

Better to be informed about the products than deformed later because of them – right? Right.

If you’re a tree-hugger living in a decidedly non-deciduous urban area, a G-Rated groper grappling with a need for recipients’ permission or simply someone who agrees with Juan Mann’s belief that the world would be a nicer place if we just “hugged it out” on the streets more often.

If so – check out www.freehugscampaign.org for information about the Free Hugs movement. You can buy Free Hugs t-shirts to replace the one you’re wearing that stinks of a lack of publicized pathos.

“Real men beat their meat, not their women and children.”

Check out the site for more politically/socially/culturally conscious t-shirts. If not – then keep rocking what you’ve got on. It brings out your eyes.

Here are a few – but seriously – if you like the videos, then visit their site.

Internet Censorship

Water

Jailbirds

Internet Porn – Mildly NSFW. No nudity or language – but some suggestive images.

Business of Death