The SoapBoxers

With Peter Rabbit a hare busy this week, we’re swapping days. Fiction Friday will occur today and Carrots of Wisdom will be featured on Friday.

This is a bit of commuter fiction. The majority of the story was composed on the drive home from work on Tuesday.

Avery Miller threw his final warm up pitch. As the catcher returned the ball to him, he reflected on the enormity of the situation. Bottom of the ninth, one run lead, sacks jammed, division title on the line. This was the situation that called for a shutdown closer – a guy like the dominant reliever for the Gazelles, Antwon Stapleton. Unfortunately, Stapleton had gotten them into this mess, and his utter lack of command had forced the manager to turn the game over the Miller.

Miller took a deep breath, toed the rubber, and took a big stride toward the plate. The book on Miller was that he tended to nibble around the edges with breaking balls, so he cut loose with his best fastball. The ball took off like a missile, bound for the low, inside corner of the plate. Mark Irick of the Cougars was looking for the fastball and made solid contact. The ball soared high into the air down the left field line. The umpire twirled his finger to signify the home run. Avery cursed under his breath. The crowd roared in appreciation of the blast that propelled their team into the playoffs.

In the midst of the melee, Gazelle manager Spud Walker popped out of the dugout and headed for home plate, where he proceeded to argue that the ball was not a home run – rather, he said, the ball had drifted slightly to the left of the foul pole.

The umpires huddled briefly before heading to the instant replay booth. The crowd held its collective breath as the umpires reviewed the call. When they finally came back onto the field, they ruled that the ball was foul by inches. The crowd booed lustily.

Mark Irick readied himself for the next pitch, this time with a count of no balls and one strike. He tapped his bat against each of his spikes three times, in order to knock the imaginary dirt loose. He loosened and tightened his batting gloves. His routine finished, he stepped back into the batter’s box.

Miller shook off a couple of signs from his catcher before getting the call he wanted – a pitch outside the strike zone. He was hoping that Irick would be overaggressive and swing at the bad pitch. The former MVP was not fooled, however. The bat never left his shoulder as the pitched sailed past him for a ball.

Miller’s next pitch was a bit high and inside. Irick flinched a bit, but stood his ground in the box and watched to count go to 2-1. The next pitch was in the lower third of the strike zone, but was a bit more toward the middle of the plate than Avery would have liked, and Irick swung and drove the ball high and deep – but way foul.

Miller’s next pitch was outside by a half inch, and the count was full. With the bases loaded, Avery couldn’t afford a ball, so he was forced to throw in the strike zone. Irick fouled one pitch just out of the range of the third baseman and the next pitch was fouled into the crowd in back on home plate.

The stadium, in spite of the capacity crowd, was as quiet as a tomb – allowing Irick to focus intently on the pitches.

Miller took another deep breath before snapping off a 12-to-6 curve. As the pitch broke sharply, the bat entered the strike zone and launched the ball toward the deepest part of center field. David MacFarland raced toward the wall in a futile effort to catch up to the ball. Incredibly, he caught up to the ball as he reached the outfield fence. MacFarland timed his jump perfectly and extended his six foot four inch frame to its maximum extent. The ball hit the edge of his glove for a split second before popping back up into the air and falling to the ground. A moment later, MacFarland landed on the ground with a thud.

As the first Cougars runner crossed the plate, Mark Irick stood at home, spellbound by the play. As another runner raced toward the plate, Irick broke free from the trance and began to run toward first base.

Left fielder Brian Johnson raced to the ball and freed it from under MacFarland’s body. He set himself and gunned the ball toward first base. The first baseman stretched to catch the wild throw. He gloved the ball and tapped first base with his foot a split second before Irick crossed the base.

Since the play was a force out, the runs that had crossed the plate did not count. Avery Miller escaped the game with a save, and the Gazelles were playoff bound.

Back On April 15, we launched a Stock Market contest (click link to see insights from the participants) in which a team of Goliaths (personal finance bloggers) were matched up against a team of Davids (people who were not personal finance bloggers). At the end of July, the Dow stood at 9171.61 and had gained average 11.59 points during the course of the contest, making the Davids the favorites.

The market had its strongest August since 2000, and ended the month at 9496.28, up 324.67 for the month.

At the end of the day on April 14th (the 104th day of the year), the Dow was at 7920.18.

At the end of the day on August 31 (the 243rd day of the year), the Dow was at 9496.28.

This is a gain of 1576.10, or 11.34 points per day. If we assume that the market will contain to gain at exactly the same rate throughout the rest of the year (yes, a ridiculous assumption), the Dow will be at 10879.92 at the end of the year (+ 2959.74 from April 14).

How do our contestants stack up?

I also invited visitors to play along at home. Let’s see how they are doing.

Team David remains firmly in the lead at this point.  There are still four months remaining in the years, but Team Goliath would need a signficant downturn in the market in order to emerge victorious.

With Johnny Goodman out on assignment, I’m jumping in to bounce around the world of sports.

September Callup Time

Today marks the day when Major League Baseball teams can expand their rosters from 25 players to 40. Not all teams will call up an extra 15 players, though. Calling a player up to the major league starts his service time “clock”, which affects when they will become a free agent. Thus, the short term benefit of having the players in the major leagues for one month can be outweighed by the long term financial benefit of keeping him away from free agency for a full extra year.

However, September typically features the debut of a lot of players who are expected to contribute the following year. The teams get to see how the players adjust to playing major league competition, and the players get to play though a bit of the rookie “yips” in games that often don’t count for a whole lot.

For teams that are in playoff contention, the situation is much different. The expansion of rosters allows teams to add extra hitters to their bench and extra arms to the bullpen – making it possible for the bullpen to pitch more innings than normal in the throes of a pennant race.

On a related note, players acquired before midnight last night are eligible for postseason rosters.  (Confused about the fact that the trade deadline was a month ago?  Players acquired after July 31 must clear waivers first; players acquired earlier do not need to clear waivers.)  The NL West leading Dodgers acquired slugger Jim Thome from the White Sox and starting pitcher John Garland from the Snakes.  The Rockies countered by picking up pitcher Jose Contreras from the White Sox in exchange for prospect Brandon Hynick (a casual Facebook friend of mine).  Advantage to the Dodgers.

Rockies Update

My beloved Rockies just finished what I considered to be a critically important stretch that included seven games against the Giants and three against the division leading Giants. After taking three of four against the Giants, the Rockies took the first game from the Dodgers – pulling to within two games of the division lead in the process. Unfortunately, they lost the final two games of that series before being swept against the Giants in a series in the bay. The Rockies have fallen into a wild card tie with the Giants, setting up the potential for a great September race.

As for my favorite player, Troy Tulowitzki pushed his OPS (on-base-plus-slugging) over 1.000 for August on the strength of a homer and double in his August finale. After a dreadful start to the year, Tulo has record three straight months with a 1.000+ OPS.

Former Rockie Matt Holliday (now with the Cardinals) finished August with “only” a .963 OPS for the month, on the heels of a 1.150 OPS in July. Hidden by the arbitrary nature of the months of the calendar is a 24 game stretch beginning July 20 and ending August 15 in which Holliday posted a 1.355 OPS. While Holliday did manage to hit 7 homers during that stretch, it was the .474 batting average that was a major factor. The tricky thing for the Cardinals is whether or not they will be able to hammer out a new deal with Holliday’s agent, Scott Boras – or whether Holliday will test the free agent waters with a strong non-Coors season under his belt.

NFL

Fantasy Draft season is in full swing. This is a good sign that the NFL season in just around the corner.

On the positive side, we face a year without the “insight” of John Madden.

On the down side, my Minnesota Vikings gave $25 million to sign Brett Favre for two years. I’ve never been a fan of Favre, and his recent off-field antics have served to sour me on him even more. My plan is simply to ignore the NFL until it has been purged of Favre. I have really been focusing on baseball 365 days a year in recently years, anyway, so this should not be a major sacrifice.

College Football

College football also kicks off this weekend, highlighted by Iowa State’s Thursday night game against North Dakota State. I’m hopefully that Thursday’s game will be but the first step in a season that will end with a BCS Championship for my Cyclones.

Or maybe just a bowl.

The University of Michigan is making news for possible NCAA violations. Anonymous current and former players allege that the amount of time Wolverine players spent on football activities exceeded the limits set down by the NCAA. Michigan suffered their first losing season in more than 40 years in 2008, and this news can only be a distraction as they get ready to face Western Michigan in their maiden 2009 contest.

Something that longtime readers of The Soap Boxers have noticed is the gradual morphing of the writing staff from one lonely writer to a merry band of writers who are actively pushing the magazine forward. A blogger friend of mine was intrigued at the fact that I was able to get some many quality writers to join. How did I do it? Contrary to what you might hear, I am not the Pied Piper.

Honesty and Fairness

The Soap Boxers has no funds to pay staff writers, in large part because we have no funds, period. This is something that I have always been very up front about, to avoid any possibility of someone jumping to the wrong conclusion. Giving someone unreasonable expectations makes for a very shake foundation.

Since I had no ability to pay my writers, I did the next best thing – I proposed a profit sharing agreement. The gist is this – once general overhead (i.e. items that I pay for out of my pocket) have been paid for, advertising revenue will be split proportionally. At this point, the site isn’t actually turning a profit, but if it suddenly becomes the hottest thing on the web, the writers share in the upside.

[Wondering why you aren’t seeing any of these ads that have the potential to shower the staff with revenue? Well, if you’re a regular visitor, you don’t see the ads. This is a courtesy to reward you for your support.]

Look for Untapped Potential

Do you have intelligent friends who often share insightful ideas with you? These people could be writers who are simply waiting for a platform. They might not have the interest in going through the steps necessary to set up a blog and build a readership. They might be interested in jumping up onto your platform and writing a weekly or monthly article, though.

Several of the staff writers are friends whose writing I have enjoyed over the years. These writers now have the ability to see what other people think of their writing.

Chase Some Stars

I reached out to a few people who were already established bloggers. The likelihood of getting them to write for my blog was relatively low. However, I pitched some ideas and one of the bloggers (Jonna) was interested enough to give it a shot. The others declined the opportunities. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A couple of things to keep in mind here. First, there is a fine line between asking someone if they want to write for you and becoming a freaky stalker type person. Avoid being the freaky stalker type person. Give the person room to breathe. If they decline the offer, thank them for their time and move along. Don’t try to badger them. Second, try not to ask for too much. If the person already has a full time blog, it may be difficult for them to contribute more than once a month, simply due to time constraints. Third, try to approach them with an angle that is different than what they write for their existing blog. Finally, be somewhat reasonable in your expectations. For example, I’m not going to try to get Peter Gammons (of ESPN) to write baseball articles for my blog. (Although that would be pretty sweet.)

Be Flexible

Although I try to have a set schedule for articles, I am pretty flexible within that structure, and am even willing to push articles to other days, if necessarily. After all, I’m working with what is essentially a voluntary workforce. Making demands on them would really not be a smart choice.

On the technical side, I’m also very flexible. I have given my writers two basic options for submitting stories. They can either log into WordPress and write the story there, or simply email me the story. Everyone so far has chosen to simply email me the story.

Show That You Care

If your writers have blogs of their own, link to them in your blog roll. This is a common courtesy.

Leave comments on your writers’ articles. At this point, you are acting in the role of a typical reader of your blog. Read what your writers write, and share your own opinions on the subject.

Finally, make the phrase “Thank You” a normal part of the vocabulary.

What did you miss over the weekend?

• We announced the launching of TheFictionWriters.com on Friday.
• Jonna Wibelius made her debut on Friday, giving an international perspective to the US health care debate.
• Saturday featured Cheri’s Nobel’s review of the Jimmy Buffett novel A Salty Piece of Land.
• Kosmo did the math on ethanol fuel mileage on Sunday.

In the midwest, ethanol is often a key discussion point regarding alternative energy. I am not going to try to touch on the many political, environmental, and social issues regarding ethanol. Instead, I will touch base on a rather simply mathematical point.

It is often said that ethanol provides 70% of the energy of gasoline. Does this mean that your 30 mpg car will drop to 21 MPH (30mpg X 70%) when you use the ethanol pump?

No.

The 70% figure is the energy of straight ethanol (100% ethanol). What you see at gas stations is most commonly a 90/10 blend (90% gasoline, 10% ethanol) or E-85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline).

Let’s quickly run the math of the mileage for these two types of fuel.

• For the 90/10 blend (by far the most common type of ethanol based fuel), 90% of the fuel (the gasoline) will provide 30 mpg while 10% of the fuel (the ethanol) will provide 21 mpg (30 X .70). When we use weighted averages (.9 X 30) + (.1 X 21) = 29.1 mpg. This is 97% of the fuel economy of gasoline.
• For the E-85 blend (used in FlexFuel vehicles), 15% of the fuel (the gasoline) will provide 30 mpg while 85% of the fuel (the ethanol) will provide 21 mpg (30 X .70). When we use weighted averages (.15 X 30) + (.85 X 21) = 22.35 mpg. This is 74.5% of the fuel mileage of gasoline.

If you are trying to simply buy the most economical fuel, this should allow you to determine which fuel will provide the most miles per dollar.

Note: in some states, only 90/10 ethanol and E-85 is available – straight gasoline is not available. For this situation, bear in mind that E-85 provides 76.5% of the fuel mileage of the 90/10 blend.

Yes, yes I am.

I am announcing the launching of a new blog, The Fiction Writers. What will this blog feature?

A large chunk of the articles on the site will actually be serialization of short stories I have written. There are already 4 posts containing portions of the short story Key Relationships. I post updates three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), starting next week. The updates will be about 500 words each.

These stories will have previously been made available to regular visitors of The Soap Boxers, in PDF form. Serialization will allow the stories to reach a new audience, while allowing the readers of The Soap Boxers to ge the first opportunity to see these stories. The readers of the serialized stories will get to the end of the stories months after the PDF is made available to readers of The Soap Boxers.

In addition to my own stories, I am interesting in having my readers submit their own stories. These stories would be published on Tuesdays and Thursday. I can use your name, or I can post the stories anonymously – the choice is yours. If there are writers who would like to produce work for The Fiction Writers on a more consistent basis, this may also be an option. If you are interested in seeing your work displayed on The Fiction Writers, send me an email.

Finally, I will pose a question about writing or writers each weekend. This weekend’s question asks how writers feel about the impact of libraries and used book stores on their income.

In closing, I would like to thank my friend Lazy Man, operator of the web sites Lazy Man and Money and How To Fix. Lazy Man provides hosting and technical support for my blogs simply because he’s a nice guy. If you haven’t visited his sites, drop by and see what he has to say.

We present a special Wednesday edition of Fiction Friday.

“Remember – twelve and half.”

Buck Schroeder nodded his head and left the diner. He slipped the envelope into the pocket of his jeans as he walked to the parking lot. Half now, half after the game – the same as last year. The money was begging to be spent, so he jumped in his jeep and drove to the electronics store, where he dropped a couple of c-notes on some DVD box sets he’d been wanting to buy.

He took his girlfriend Dana out for supper at one of the better steak houses in town. Buck loved the start of football season. Not only did it allow him to be the big man on campus, but the money from the payoffs helped him live a better lifestyle than he could afford in the off season.

Buck fell asleep that night reading his playbook. This was a critical early season test for the Jackals. The Cougars were much improved from last year. It was even possible that Buck wouldn’t have to shave any points to keep the margin of victory below the Vegas line of 12 ½ points.

The next morning, Schroeder headed to the dorm’s soundproof music room and hammered out a few tunes on the piano. It was a tradition that dated back to junior high, and it had served him well. There was nothing like a bit of Beethoven to get his competitive juices flowing.

Buck joined his team for pregame breakfast and indulged another ritual, scarfing down four eggs, three slices of toasts, two large glasses of orange juice, and seventeen slices of bacon. Although the medical community was skeptical about the energizing power of bacon, Schroeder was a true believer.

Before long, the Jackals were taking the field in front of a raucous crowd at Morgan Memorial Stadium. Down on the field, Buck could feel the vibrations emanating from the fans inside the great bowl of the stadium. The fans sensed the importance of the game.

The Jackals received the opening kickoff. Buck dissected the Cougar defense, completing all seven passes on the drive, eventually hitting Nate Gustafson on a fade route in the corner of the end zone for the first score of the game. The scored remained 7-0 until the first drive of the second quarter, when Jackals scatback Troy Maddux found the end zone from twelve yards away to put the Jackals up by two touchdowns.

The Cougars drove deep into Jackals territory on the next drive, before faltering toward the end and settling for a short field goal. The Cougars once again drove into Jackals territory late in the second quarter. The clock became their enemy, and they eventually had to call a timeout and bring on their field goal kicker for a an impossibly long 59 yard field goal – which he promptly drilled right between uprights to draw the Cougars to within 14-6 as the first half clock elapsed.

Schroeder hooked up with speedy wideout Sean Warren on a fifty yard strike early in the third quarter to put the Jackals ahead 21-6. At this point, Schroeder began to lose a bit of touch on his passes, ostensibly because of a hit he absorbed from one of the Cougar defenders. In truth, however, he needed to have the Cougars pull back to within 12 ½ points.

Two Cougars field goals made the score 21-12 as the clock began ticking down in the fourth quarter. Buck needed only to manage the game a bit in order to win the game while also keeping the winning margin below the point spread. On a third and ten from the fifty yard line, he threw an inaccurate pass in the general vicinity of Nate Gustafson. A stunned Schroeder watched as Gustafson adjusted his route as the ball was thrown, apparently sensing that the ball would be thrown too far toward the far sideline. Gustafson grabbed the ball off his shoe tops, dodged a defender, switched directions, and accelerated into high gear, leaving an army of Cougars defender in his wake.

Schroeder had difficulty watching, as the Cougars fought to get back into the game. A field goal would not do them much good at this point in the game – nor would it do much good for Schroeder, who needed to see the sixteen point lead erode by more than the value of a sole field goal.

The Cougars quarterback dinked and dunked down the field. The Cougars were inside the five yard line as precious time was eaten up. The Jackals defense held strong three times, before finally yielding on a fourth and goal from within the one yard line. The Cougars then proceeded to pound the ball back into the end zone on the two point conversion attempt.

Thirty seconds remained in the game. With the Cougars within eight points, every fan in the stadium expected an onside kick. The Jackals sent the “hands team” onto the field, and Buck breathed a sigh of relief. The Jackals simply had to recover the onside kick and then have Schroeder take a few snaps to run out the remaining clock and preserve an eight point win.

The ball popped into the air and was grabbed by reserve receiver Jeff Casey. Instead of falling to the ground to down the ball, the lead footed Casey took off down the sideline. The rest of the Jackals raced downfield to block for Casey and the senior walk-on waddled into the end zone for the first touchdown of his career.

Buck Schroeder winced as the scoreboard flashed the score of 34-20. The PAT was added to make it a fifteen point difference.

The Cougars attempted a hook-and-ladder on the ensuing kickoff, making it as far as the Jackals forty yard line before the ball carrier was tackled, ending the game, and putting Buck Schroeder’s part time job in jeopardy.

The felony murder statute (or felony murder rule) seems to pop up in the news every now and then, but the general public does not seem to have a great deal of awareness of it.  Some people think that the term simply refers to “normal” murder.  In fact, it is a special type of murder.  So, today, I’ll weigh in on the felony murder statute.

Although the specifics vary by state, the core of the statute is quite simple.  If you are involved in the execution of a felony and someone dies, you can be charged with first degree murder in their death.  This most often applies to cases involving robbery, rape, arson, burglary, terrorism, kidnapping, carjacking, and escape.

The felony murder statute can apply even if it’s not one of the “good guys” who dies.  For example, let’s take the case of robbery.  If you and your friend rob a bank and the police shoot and kill your friend when you attempt to flee, it is you who will be charged with the murder, not the police officer.  This is why, at times, you will see a defense attorney declaring that his client should not be convicted, because he did not kill anyone.  Indeed, his client did not directly cause anyone’s death.

What, exactly, is the theory behind the felony murder statute?  The theory is that the perpetrators of the crime are engaged in acts that are inherently dangerous, and that they should know that there is a relatively high likelihood that the activity could result in death.

Opponents of the statute claim that it is unjust, because the perpetrators never intended to kill anyone.  Thus they lack “mens rea” (premeditation), which is typically must occur in order for a crime to qualify as first degree murder (deaths that do not involved mens rea are typically prosecuted as lesser crimes).  While the perpetrators may have premeditated the robbery, they did not premeditate the death.

Supporters counter the lack of mens rea by saying that transferred intent exists; that is, the intent to commit the underlying felony transfers to other activities that occur during the commission of the felony.

Where do I stand on this issue?  Although I am often liberal in my views, I come down firmly in favor of the felony murder statute.  I believe that this is a case were common sense should substitute for mens rea.  Although the perpetrators did not specifically intend to cause death, it is only logical that certain types of activities have a high probability of resulting in a death.  Not only does the felony murder statute serve to adequately punish the criminals, but it is also my hope that it will cause some people to stop and think before committing crimes such as robbery and arson.

What are your thoughts?  Does anyone want to offer a counter-argument?  The floor is yours.

I’ve noticed a slight increase in Google traffic this week as we made a push toward 250 articles. I suspect that 250 files (article + pages) may trigger Google to give you a bit more love. At this rate, we’ll have at least 3 unique visitors every day by the end of the year 😉

While I can sometimes sort of understand what Google is doing, I have some difficulty understanding what PEOPLE are doing sometimes.

In the aftermath of Google showing us a bit more love, the two most popular search terms over the weekend were:

• Johnny Goodman’s article, Live From the Solheim Cup
• A five month old article regarding How Many People Make More Than $250,000?

OK, these both make sense. Johnny’s article was very topical, and the article about how many people make more than $250,000 will be relevant as long as some politicians consider this to be a break point between those who are rich and those who are not.

So, you ask, what are some of the most commonly searched for articles, all time?

• What Are the Best Baseball Sites? – reviews of several baseball sites
• A Review of Librivox (a site that offers free audio book downloads for works in the public domain)
• Ferdinand The Turtle -a short story I made up while rocking my daughter to sleep one night. I also wrote a prequel later

The baseball article makes a lot of sense. It functions very nicely as portable baseball bookmarks file. Librivox was hot (OK, hot is an exaggeration, but definitely warm) for a few weeks and then suddenly dropped off for no apparent reason. Ferdinand the Turtle, however, has been a steady performer for several months. I honestly have no clue what these people are searching for. I suspect that they are not looking for a children’s story about a turtle who grows up to be king of Turtle Island (with the help of his trust gofer, Bob the Squirrel), but I may be wrong.

Are there some articles that I wish more people would be searching for? Definitely.

• Roth vs. 401(k) – compares the two retirement options under a couple of different scenarios
• My fictional account of Manny Ramirez signing with the Hanshin Tigers. I’m biased, but I think it’s funny.
• And, of course, the one that started it all – article 001 – my tongue in cheek Guerrilla Investment Advice

Apparently, however, more people are concerned about the exploits of Ferdinand the Turtle than a comparison of Roth vs. 401(k). And maybe that’s how it should be …

On July 23, I launched a dinosaur book giveaway as part of a multi-part dinosaur extravaganza.

I am happy to announce the following winners:

• The winner for “best comment” goes to Evan from 40tech.com. I’m not going to point out a specific comment, but I’ll just award it as a “monthtime achievement award”. Evan has been commenting for a while now – always with interesting comments. Now, if I can just figure out why his comments always go into my spam filter! Plenty of other folks had good comments during the month as well. Evan – I hope you enjoy Anonymous Rex – I know that I did! (Note: the rest of the winners won the DK Pockets mini reference Dinosaurs book)
• I also picked one random winner from among everyone who commented during the timeframe of the contest. People with multiple comments received multiple entries (a maximum of one entry per day). The winner is Spivey.
• I also picked a random winner from among people who retweeted a post from The Soap Boxers. Sate3 is the winner.
• Kelly from The Centsible Life is the winner for mentioning The Soap Boxers. She added The Soap Boxers to her blog roll.
• None of the RSS readers emailed me to enter. However, I still do want to give away all of the books – so I’ll give away the remaining DK Pockets Dinosaurs reference book to one commenter who expressed a desire to own it – Dana.

Winners – you should have an email from me (or, in the case of Sate3, a tweet). If you don’t see an email, drop me a lne at kosmo@observingcasually.com I hope you enjoy the book you receive, or have a family member or friend who will enjoy it. Didn’t win? Don’t despair. These books – and other dinosaur related items that were mentioned during the dinosaur articles are all available on Amazon. If you order them via the links below, I receive a small commission (and you still pay the exact same Amazon.com price ).

I have really noticed a surge in comments lately, especially in the last week. We appreciate the feedback – continue to comment on articles. Many times, the comments can spur the discussion into new directions. As a bonus to commenters who have their own blog, a link to a recent blog post will be included in your comment. Thus, commenting is a win/win situation – we get good comments on our site, and you get some exposure for your blog.

Anonymous Rex
DK Pockets – Dinosaurs
Jurassic Park – Book
Jurassic Park DVD combo pack All 3 movies!