Slashdot Mirror
Gaiman Naming Auction
Embedded Geek writes "Neil Gaiman is auctioning the opportunity to help pick a name in his upcoming novel Anansi Boys. Proceeds will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. "I've got to name a currently unnamed cruise ship in Anansi Boys. I have no idea what to call it, and, a couple of days ago, realised that my utter lack of inspiration could do good things for the CBLDF. If you wish, you can bid to have the ship named after you, your loved one, your dog, or even your favourite word." As of 10AM PST the bidding is up to US $2,225.00, but surely some slashdotter who cashed out of the bubble at the right time can bid it up. Be warned, though - the auction indicates "Successful bidder agrees to pay actual shipping costs.""
surely some slashdotter who cashed out of the bubble at the right time can bid it up.
Yeah, so the problem is that while some of us cashed out at the right time, we reinvested it in the stock market and lost our collective asses just like everybody else. Since I was tech heavy (hey, I was in my twenties and did not know anything about investing at the time), much of it disappeared as paper worth. Given that we are five years out from the crash, it is interesting that many estimates say the NASDAQ is another good decade from reaching the levels we had back then, which should teach you younger folks here about the value of market diversification.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
From his site mentioned in summary:
...are you going to be keeping veto power over the name?
I think we can burn that bridge when we come to it....it's remotely possible that someone at Miramax or Lamy Pens or TeaDirect Tea may decide that this is a heaven-sent opportunity for cheap product placement, and it'll suddenly become the USS Latest Lindsay Lohan Movie or the SS TIVO RULES. But I sort of doubt it'll happen like that.
Sounds like he could be setting himself up for a lot of hurt.
Other than that, here is an interview with Neil Gaiman talking about this book and his previous one called American Gods and here is Google's Print of American Gods.
As for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, here is a site with some highlights of cases that they have helped.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
And if you are looking for a little lexicographic assistance in finding that perfect name, try the following lists of 6,000 female names, 5,000 male names, and 5,000 surnames:
_ girl_baby_names_boy_baby_names_popular_babies_fema le_male_free_download_unusual_list_naming_children /babynames_baby_names_girl_baby_names_boy_baby_nam es_popular_babies_female_male_free_download_unusua l_list_naming_children.html
http://www.spywarearcata.com/babynames_baby_names
Free and open source.
"Mike and Alice said goodbye to their friends at the dock and then boarded the USS www.goldenpalace.com, eager to start their long deserved vacation."
"surely some slashdotter who cashed out of the bubble at the right time can bid it up"
Naw, I waited until all of my investments went to under 10 cents before cashing out. And I don't know how Neil Gaiman is. Maybe I'm not as nerdy as I thought... No, I'm still a nerd!
(courtesy of Yahoo! image search -- don't get me wrong, I love Google, but Yahoo! image search is much more up to date).
We might end up seeing the SS CowboyNeal, or, worse yet, the SS Goatse! :-)
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
If you wish, you can bid to have the ship named after you, your loved one, your dog, or even your favourite word."
Half of slashdotters have the same word for two of the above.
The winner of this auction "will receive a signed, first edition of Anansi Boys when it is published this Fall." - This explains the shipping costs.
Marketing.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Proceeds will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Oh my! Is the Comic Book Guy in trouble? Worst... lawsuit... ever!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
The Good Ship "Overtly gratuitous use of profanity".
Actually, that sounds a lot like an Ian Banks Culture ship.
The USS Spawn Would Kick Sandman's Ass In A Fight
HMS NeverWhoCares
The SS Morpheus? Isn't He In The Matrix?
Personally, I think the best name ever for a ship was the Size Isn't Everything in Iain M Banks' Culture novels
It's fine. Not even any ads that I saw (firefox+adblock), though possibly it's some kind of brand-awareness ploy...
I'm not so sure about the quality of the list. "W" as a potential name for your baby girl? Possibly to go with middle and final names "T" and "F"?
Slashdot - Mutual Assured Discussion
That he may be named as a result of a slashdot link is scary.
Dear god, I don't think the world is ready for a Goatsecx Jones....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I think someone should commemorate /. by naming the ship by a common /.ism, like
* U.S.S. Slashdot
* The Cowboy Neil
* The Goatse.cx
* All Your Ship Are Belong To Us
* In Russia, The Ship Names You!
I'm sure someone else can come up with more witty suggestions in this vein.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
A+++++++ insightful comment!!! prompt posting!! would read again!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
i doubt this is really writer's block, but rather an attempt to help an organization he genuinely likes to help. He's been involved with a number of auctions with proceeds going to CBLDF.
Certainly he can come up with a name for a boat; just about every character in his writing has an interesting name. This is likely just a case of "I'm going through draft 0 of the story and realized I still have USS (insert name here) in the text and need to correct that. Let's try something fun and unusual and worthwhile for one of my fav organizations."
... will get the winning bid. Goldenpalace.com has been bidding on any and every high profile auction in recent history as a means of getting more publicity. See how it's worked? I'm sitting here mentioning their URL right now because of other auctions they have won.
.. I almost said it again!
Sneaky Goldenpa.
Not just boys, but Anansi boys.
If you're going to make homo jokes, please try to make them as complete as possible.
(For the Brit-challenged: "nancy boy" is slang for an effeminate, presumably homosexual young man. The title of the book is a clever pun... one that many Americans will, sadly, not get.)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
What about the Fark.com UFIA Arena?
... Ah, forget it. Those didn't make the cut last time, either! /got nothin'
Abe Vigoda Memorial
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
So .. let me get this right. I'm supposed to pay you for the chance to do YOUR job FOR you?
"Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Anansi The Spider is a West African folk character who is also quite popular in the carribean and the States.
The main character in Gaiman's book is the son of a spider god.
Heard 'im speak at the Princess Mononoke US version premiere in Austin. He pronounced it Gay-min too.
Cheers and thanks for that.
Read Errant Story.
Might be easier to rename your dog, though. :-)
Money for nothing, pix for free
As far as a know, the best living British author Terry Pratchett occasionally auctions off names of secondary characters for good causes. Pratchett, of course, co-authored Good Omens, which you should have read because it is brilliant, so they know each other (one would hope).