"This Night" - Current Info About the Scrapbook Volume 3

Welcome to yet another issue of "This Night" While in the past issues I spent a great deal of time telling you about whats in the scrapbook, I will spend this issue talking about changes that will be taking place soon, and what I envision for the future of the scrapbook. I assume by now that most of you know whats in the scrapbook. If not, just browse around. However, I would like to create a table of contents. (Any volunteers?)

Let me first remind you about the member system. I assume that most of you are members. However, for those of you that have no clue what I am talking about, I will briefly explain. Basically, being a member of the scrapbook means that I have your name in my address book. Whenever changes occur to the scrapbook, I e-mail all of the people on my list to inform them. If you would like to receive updates about the scrapbook please just e-mail me at: BJoelScrap and tell me to add your name. I'd be happy to do so. Also, please tell all your friends about "And So it Goes." The more members we have, the better it is. If you know someone who can contribute something, please tell them about it. Thanks!

Let me just briefly remind you of a few things about writing to me. As you probably know, I really enjoy getting feedback and I encourage you to write to me and participate in scrapbook activities. But please follow the rules. Since I have never laid down any rules about e-mailing me (since I didn't really think it was necessary) I will do so now. Firstly, regardless of what I have said in the past, from now on, please send ALL questions, comments, and responses to scrapbook activities to me at: BJoelScrap. I created that account name for that reason. Since I correspond to many of you on a personal level at my other screen name, FreshSeth, many of you write to me about scrapbook stuff there. And at first that was fine, but its starting to get really confusing. So, the rule is that if it has ANYTHING to do with the scrapbook, write to me at BJoelScrap. No matter WHO you are... In addition, for many polls and contests, I request that you use a specific title. I don't tell you this just because I feel like it. The reason is so that I can easily find responses, group them together, and tally them up. Its very difficult to go through so much e-mail with all different titles. That means that if I tell you to write something in all CAPS then do it. It makes it much easier to locate. From now on, if I receive any responses to contests or polls that have a title other than what is requested, they won't count. I know that sounds harsh, but otherwise it gets too confusing. (I'll probably send you a reminder and ask that you just forward the information back to me using the correct title) The reason is that I just spent over an hour organizing my incoming e-mail for BJoelScrap because of all of the different titles that people use. I also messed up on tallying poll results because people didn't follow the format. This create a lot of extra work for me. I may have also not been able to include your vote or your correct answer to a contest because it didn't follow the fomrat and may have accidentally gotten delteted. So, please just make stuff easier for me... Thanks! And while I'm on the topic, when responding to mass mail that I send to all members, please take a few seconds and change the subject to make it more specific to what you will be writing about. Otherwise I get about 20 letters about all different topics with the same subject (title). Lastly, if you have a question that is very general, PLEASE, PLEASE post it in the message folder for "And So it Goes" You can get there by going to keyword:scrapbook, click on Message Folders, and then look for "And So it Goes" And post your question or comment there. Then, people with a similar question can find it answered. And everyone, please check it out every so often. Hopefully, it will get more active and there will be a lot more posts. I will also post updates there as well as the member mail, so please check that area. Sorry to be so picky, but it would make stuff a lot easier for me. Thanks!

There are two new areas of the scrapbook that I sent out member mail today that I would like to officially acknowledge here.

A) Stories And Reviews. In this area, I will post stories that members write about different subjects relating to Billy Joel. Such as album reviews, concert reviews, what Billy Joel means to you, meetings with Billy or band members, first experiences w/ BJ, etc. Length does not matter. Basically, anything goes. As long as its in good taste...

B) My Billy Collection. An area devoted to pictures of people with their Billy Joel collections. This is your opportunity to be creative! Display all of the BJ memorabilia that you own. Make them interesting and creative. Include yourself or not. If you can scan them then please e-mail them to me. Otherwise, e-mail me and we can discuss how you can send me pictures, and I'll scan them.

Areas that should be on their way. These thoughts are still in the developmental stages, and should be arriving soon...

A) Name That Tune. I have two volunteers for this. One is a musician who will record midi piano music which will be converted to wave files and also a similar file for use on Macintosh computers. The other idea is to have someone's voice recorded singing a few words from a song. However, they are both still working on it. Hopefully, we will be able to have two different and interesting Name That Tune type contests!

B) "And So it Goes" on the WWW. I am currently in the beginning stages of putting some of the stuff in "And So it Goes" on the World Wide Web. I'm going to try to get some of the contests up on there so that members of the whole internet can take part. I'll keep you informed.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other ideas in the works. My mind is kinda blank now, but when I can think of some more I'll let you know. However, updates occur more regularly for the members, because its much easier to write an e-mail with an idea than a whole This Night volume. So, I suggest becoming a member. Thats a better way of becoming informed. So, basically, thats all for now. And So it Goes...

Seth