"This Night" - Current Info About the Scrapbook Volume 5

Hello and welcome to another "issue" of This Night. I'd just like to briefly let you know about several things that have been going on. First, let me tell you about two new folders that you will see in the main folder of "And So it Goes." The first is called "Scrapbook Information Center." In here, I will post updates about the scrapbook. In addition, you will be able to find this and all previous copies of "This Night." While I will try to post all relevant updates, if you're interesting in knowing specifically when and what new stuff is added, I suggest becoming a member. Please read the document called "Become A Member Today!" in that folder.

The second folder I'd like to tell you about it called "Billy Joel Information Center." This is supposed to be a place where current information about Billy Joel is placed. Many people requested an area where we can keep on top of what's going on with Billy. However, as you can see all that is really in there now is the FAQ. I'd like to have more information, and I'm sure you would too. So, here's my plea. PLEASE, if you hear anything about Billy that is of interest (this means stuff like is he working on a new album, will he be touring, TV shows he will appear in, interviews he will do, magazine articles on him, special merchandise that is released, etc.), whether it be rumor or true, please let me know. What I mean by this is lets say on your local news they mention something about Billy, or if you see an article about him in the newspaper. So, read the article, watch the TV, and then RUN to your computer. Go online and e-mail me a short summary of the news you just heard. A paragraph or so is fine, just write it in your own words. Or, lets say there in a significant discussion in a newsgroup or mailing list that seems to be appropriate for this, write up a short summary. Even if it's just a rumor, it's OK, just say that it isn't quite confirmed yet. Does this sound like it's a homework assignment? I hope not. The way I see it, the more people we have "scouting" out information, the more we can keep up-to-date on Billy Joel. I know that most of you are ALWAYS keeping an eye for Billy Joel related news anyway, so if you hear something, why not share it with the rest of us? That way we can ALL keep track of what's going on with Billy Joel.

The next thing I'd like to discuss are the contests. There are several reforms that I wish to briefly discuss. I have changed the way I will be doing the schedules for them. Every contests will run the same way, this includes all of the contests (Trivia, Lyric Trivia, Name That Tune, and Name All You Can!) So, here's how I will run the scheduling for them. Every contest will end on the first of the next month. That means the November contests will end on the first day of December. Any response received after then will not count. Then, within the first few days of the month, the next contest will be posted. And hopefully, the results and winners of the previous contest with get posted within a week.

It sounds simple enough, but it isn't. I need a lot of help because there is a lot of "behind the scenes" action going on. And with 4 contests, it can get confusing. Just keeping track of results, getting the contests posted, getting the answers posted, and everything else can get extremely confusing. Not to mention that someone needs to make up the contest, and someone needs to tally the results. There is NO WAY that I can do all of that. That is why once again I'm asking for a little help from my friends.

Most of you have been great when it comes to sending in stuff for contests and I really appreciate that. So, lets keep that going. What I'd like to have is maybe one person in charge of getting the actual questions for each contest. People who are interested in creating a contest questions or puzzles can send ideas to that person. (or that person can make up the contests by themself). Then that person will send me the contest. For instance, Jaldo has volunteered to do this for Trivia. However, I'd like to have the contest sent to me during or before the last week of the month to give me enough time to get it ready to post on the first of the month.

I also need a person for each contest to be in charge of tallying and finding winners. Almost like a judge. After I receive all entries, I will e-mail you a log of them all. Then you have to go through the and see who won and who didn't. Then you can e-mail me a list of the winners. It's not difficult. I will give you a week or maybe a little more to do it, I don't think it will be a problem for anyone. The person must have a decent knowledge of Billy Joel to judge entries that may be questionable.

If ANYONE is even a little interested in doing something like that, PLEASE let me know. It's actually pretty fun (at first :-) anyway!). I'd even like to continue doing some of them myself. However, there is NO way that I can do all of this work by myself, I simply don't have that much time. If I don't hear from enough people I'm just going to have to cut a few of the contests. And I really don't want to have to do that, especially after all of the letters I've received from people saying how much they enjoy these contests. I'd just like to organize these contests better. They've been fun, but full of chaos and confusion. I'd like to establish some continuity and order to them.

One final thing about contests. Now they are on the WWW. That means people from the Internet can play. I've received a good response from that and these contests are really starting to become fun and challenging. Lets keep it up! Thanks to all of who helped in the past and all those who will help in the future, and all those who participate.

So much for this being a BRIEF letter. Anyway, now I'd like to inform you about some WWW stuff. I've create some Billy Joel pages on the web. I'm in the process of creating a scrapbook for the web. It looks pretty nice. Anyone who is interested in checking them out, check out http://users.aol.com/bjwebpage/private/bjweb.htm. From there you can access all areas of this Billy Joel Web thing I'm working on including the WEB scrapbook. It's pretty cool.

As for new ideas, I don't have many. I'd like to basically focus on organizing the contests better and work on the web pages now before I get involved in anything else. However, if you think of anything please let me know. I always like to hear from you guys with your thoughts and opinions. Please let me know what you think. And I'm sorry if I sound like anything bad in this letter (like annoying, mean, obnoxious), I didn't mean too. Remember, don't take any $#it from anybody. And Keep The Faith!

And So it Goes...

Seth :-)