[For those of you just tuning in, this is based on the 301 Lists that Darren Rowse’s List Group Writing Project brought together. You’ll find Chapter 1 here –> A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1 ]

When We Left the . . . Studio

You might remember that at last look, our famed uncontrollable force and unpredictable influence, Lizzie and Amanda Congdon, leaving the studio of the International Blogging List Challenge! for parts unknown. The studio was in chaos after the Blogging 7th Heaven CanCan Dancers had roused the blogging audience into such a tizzy — blogging and applauding at the same time. (Which we have already established isn’t easy, if not completely impossible.)

Robert Scoble videoblogged the entire escapade.

The scoreboard read Arianna 600 Jeremy, Jeremy 200 Dave 200.

Rumor has it that the bloggers and the Blogging 7th Heaven People enjoyed a night of debauchery at 10 Rue Dante — an irony that I’d love to write about, but for once not a single blogger blogged the following 18 hours. They claimed a complete system failure — power, DS, and wireless — all out. Some spoke of eerie MySql errors written on the bathroom walls.

That lost 18 hours has gone down in blogging history as Blog Silence, Dead Feeds, and Dante’s New Level. Even Scoble’s video crew would only say, “We’re glad that MaryAm took you back to the hotel.”

Meanwhile Back at the Hotel . . .

The sun rose on a new day and gave hope to our contestants, the nationally syndicated columnist, author of ten books, international speaker and blogger, Arianna Huffington; the self-described serial entreprenuer, CEO and founder of Blog index Technorati, nationally known programmer, blogger, and blog sociologist, and friend of Janice Myint, David L. Sifry; and author, co-founder and president of b5 media, international blogger, traveler, speaker, and sometimes spy Jeremy, Jeremy Wright.

All three contestants were eating a quiet breakfast in the hotel dining room as they prepared for the show. Each was hoping not to embarrass his or her family, nation, planet, or galaxy — thereby causing an international incident of some sort. One was reading Ten Ways to Build Moats to Hold Back the Competition. Another was studying 5 Ways MyMoneyBlog Can Make You $100. The third trying to find the horoscope in the National Enquirer.

Our uncontrollable force and unpredictable influence were upstairs having their usual room service — a pizza with fresh tomato, a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries, and two bottles of Perrier-Jouet. This time they sat on the balcony discussing what to wear.

“I’ve done the black and white,” said Lizzie. “I think I might live dangerously and do deep, deep purple with a hint of pale pink.”

“That’s it,” said Amanda, laughing. “Blow that Alice-in-Wonderland image! Go for Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix. I’m wearing popurls Pearls from head to toe.”

Finally the Show Was Back On

That one day seemed to take forever. Each group had reasons why it took so long, but finally the lights, the cameras, the music, the announcements had happened and again the International Blogging List Challenge! was on.

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[For those of you just tuning in, this is based on the 301 Lists that Darren Rowse’s List Group Writing Project brought together. You’ll find Chapter 1 here –> A List Becomes 301 Links in Story — Chapter 1 ]

The Show Goes On

Backstage, Lizzie, who wore white satin and sequins, and Amanda Congdon, in beautiful blue, discussed the traits that Jeremy. Jeremy Wright had in common with James Bond and Jack Bauer.

“J”

“Too bad his last name isn’t Bright.”

That’s as far as they got when it was time for them to walk out together.

“Welcome back, everyone,” Amanda called to the audience. Then, walking past each contestant, she clicked each contestant’s button to say hello as she went by. They all smiled back.

“Hi Arianna, Dave, and Jeremy, Jeremy! Shall we start?” Lizzie said, grateful that our two VIDSTARS got to come out after the music, lights, introductions, and rules had all been taken care of.

“Tonight the Blog Board starts with the category Lists of 10. We’ll move from contestant to contestant under a time limit. Each person will be asked to blog one item on a list of 10. Each answer that is actually on the list will be worth 100 points. Scores when we left last night were Arianna — 500, Jeremy — 100, and Dave — 0.”

“Dave, we’ll begin with you.”

“I was up all night, studying every blog at Technorati.”

Top 10 Ways to Get a Technorati Top 100 Blogger to Link to Your Blog or Website

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