Thank Yous and Apologies

Getting close to the big day!!
I guess I should take some time and thank various people for helping me out with this.
After searching around for a little while, I went with HostPapa for hosting the site. Even though their name and 'papa' reference seemed like a corny knock-off of GoDaddy, they ended up getting my money for hosting fees. Their prices were pretty good, and the best part is that they are 100% powered by green, renewable energy. That is a great idea, and definitely something that I am willing to support!
The online store was set up using CafePress. There were other alternatives here as well, but cafepress had the widest selection of products and their prices were generally the lowest. Once I got all of the images and graphics created, it was pretty easy to get everything up and running.
Thanks to the folks at HappyWorker for mentioning the site. They list a bunch of interesting facts about Leap Day. And bonus points to them for getting in a reference at the end of their writeup for the show Quantum Leap. I used to love that show.
Lastly, I guess I should apologize to the user named ILVSBI. You were the first ever to comment on the blog, and I promptly ignored you. I appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to attend my party. Have you ever seen those 'Catch a Predator' Dateline shows? There are some real creeps out there on the internet. ILVSBI, I'm sure you're cool, and you are not like those sick guys out there looking to hook up with some random teen. I just don't feel that good about giving out my home address and a open invitation for anyone on the internet to just show up. I hope you understand!

Words of Encouragement

How is everyone doing out there? Did anybody come here looking for words of encouragement? Feeling a little down and need a pick me up? Yeah, tell me about it. Maybe I just got ahead of myself, or expected too much, but this idea just hasn't taken off like I thought that it would.

I wonder if this is how Ron Paul feels. I mean, he seems like a good guy and everything, it's just too bad that more people aren't taking notice. Granted, he had much larger ambitions than I did when starting out. Maybe Ron and I could join forces. Any chance that we could get that James Carville guy to help out each of our respective causes? I would imagine that Carville is probably pretty busy this time of year. But I guess we will just both have to keep on fighting the good fight trying to improve America each in our own way. And if things don't go quite the way that we were hoping for, there is always 2012!

Here is where we stand right now:

Today Show - nothing. I got back their automated response email that said that all emails will be read, but I haven't heard anything back. No sign of Wilard yet either.

The Late Show - I got scared and never actually sent anything to Dave. They had the following disclaimer that basically seems to say that if you submit an 'Unsolicited Idea,' they pretty much own you and your idea. That is not very cool. Looks like we won't be getting an official theme song from Paul.

PLEASE NOTE:When submitting your feedback, please do not submit any story,
plot or character ideas, or any copyrightable material whatsoever relating to
any CBS television program, or any ideas or suggestions for new television
programs ("Unsolicited Ideas"). CBS's policy is to discard all Unsolicited
Ideas. By using this service you agree that any Unsolicited Ideas you do submit
shall be deemed the sole property of CBS, and you hereby transfer and assign all
rights with respect thereto, including, without limitation, copyright, to CBS.
For more information, see our Terms of Service.

Regis and Kelly - No word back from them. Not even a 'Thanks, but no thanks' generic automated email from them.

Click and Clack (the NPR CarTalk radioshow hosts) - Nada, and I really figured that they would enjoy this and include it on their show.

Maybe I will start smaller and try to get mentioned in some other radio shows. Until then, I guess I'll just wait for Ellen DeGeneres to come along and bail me out!

How will you celebrate?

We have had some good ideas come up here for what people will be doing to celebrate Leap Day!
In one of the comments, Wendy was full of ideas to do in our nations capitol. I really liked the idea of skydiving with a big banner and landing near the Washington Monument, but isn't it still frowned upon to fly over the white house / capitol area? [Disclaimer - We here at National Leap Day, do not encourage or condone any kind of celebrations that are a threat to national security, or have a high likelyhood of resulting in people going to jail.] It sure would be cool to see a big gathering at the National Mall. Everyone there could celebrate Leap Day by leaping into the reflection pool! Of course, that would be a better idea if Leap Day were in a warmer month like July or August.
I don't know yet what exactly I will do to celebrate. It would be nice to have some all-american fireworks for a day that only comes around once every four years. But, they are not legal to sell in the state of PA, so looks like I will have to make a run to the border for that to happen.
Post some comments with your ideas and plans for celebrating. When the day finally arrives, take some pictures and send them to me afterwards (NationalLeapDay@gmail.com). I will post them on here for everyone to enjoy!

To the Airwaves

So there is only a month left until Leap Day! How can we get this message out there on the TV?

Does anybody out there know somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, who is in broadcasting? If you do, be sure to put in a good word for this site!

I was thinking that getting on 'The Today Show' would work pretty well at getting the word out. Their show runs like 3 hours long, surely they can fit in a mention about this cause. Then again, the show runs in the morning and the main audience is probably people who are sitting at home anyhow.

Maybe a mention with Dave Letterman would be better. Dave seems like a pretty cool guy, he is popular, and he is on late at night. If he can devote time in his show to stupid pet tricks, surely he can spare us a few minutes. Who knows, maybe Paul can even create an official song or jingle for the campaign!

Regis Philbin is kind of a combination of the two. He is a cool, respected, fun loving guy, but he is stuck at a bad timeslot.

Of course, maybe I should just quit worrying about whether the audience is housewives who stay home all day, or college kids that are up all night. Any publicity would be good publicity at this point. So getting to be on TV would have to be a good thing (except for getting to be on COPS, that wouldn't be such a good thing).

Here is an open letter then, to the good folks at the Today Show:

Dear Today Show,

I am interested in being featured on your fine morning show program. I am the founder of a movement to get Leap Day (Feb 29th) recognized as a national holiday. To find out more information about this, please refer to the website http://www.nationalleapday.com/.

I know that you often feature various special interest and humorous new stories on your show, and I believe that this message would go over well with your audience. With all of the election coverage and other news stories, a light-hearted feature of this campaign for a National Leap Day would be well received.

If needed, I am more than willing to be interviewed for part of the show. I would be a witty and entertaining guest, and it would be fun trying to match wits with Al Roker! I would NOT be willing to sell myself out and go all kinds of crazy (Matthew Lesko, Richard Simmons, Britney, Tom Cruise), just for the chance to be on TV. So if you are expecting something like that, sorry but I just won't do it.

It would be exciting to have the chance to see the set, and meet all of the morning show hosts. Although, I would rather meet Meredith on the set of her other gig, hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire!

If you would need to contact me for any reason, I am sure you have the resources to handle that. Just put your top investigator on the case, Willard Scott. If that guy is able to travel the country and track down all of those 100+ year old, little old ladies, I am sure that there is no hiding from him. I will not be surprised at all to have him show up, unannounced on my doorstep early some morning. I would just offer him some of his favorite Smuckers jelly, invite him inside and talk about the good old days!

So there you have it Today Show. I think that the National Leap Day campaign is an important message that your audience and all of America needs to know about. Thank you for your time, and I will leave a light on for Willard!

A more PC response

After reading over the 'Brutal Honesty' post, I realize that many people may not be ready for that level of honesty, so here is a more politically correct viewpoint.

What do I hope to gain from the National Leap Day campaign?

I am not worried about what I will gain from this campaign. I am not doing this for myself and any kind of personal gain, I am doing this for America. This great country deserves this, you deserve this! This great nation was built by hard working people just like you. It is time that we had a day to celebrate you and all of the great things that you have accomplished.

Sure we have Labor Day, and that day was originally created with good intentions. But that day is no longer treated as it should be. Many places are still open on Labor Day. In fact, many retail stores run special sales on Labor Day, meaning that for the people working there, they are going to be busier and have to work harder than on any other regular workday. Ask those people working there what they think of Labor Day!

This is something that should be recognized by all Americans. It shouldn't matter if you work in retail or production. It shouldn't matter what shift you work. Your age shouldn't matter. Your religion shouldn't matter. Your state shouldn't matter (although if you are in a state with more electoral votes, you might matter a little more than others). What matters is your country. And this is a great country.

People say that America is symbolized by baseball and apple pie. I do love those things, but America is more than that. America is also eagles soaring, labrador retreivers, John Deere tractors, Brett Favre, American made trucks, cowboy hats, and Hollywood action movies. But most of all, America is YOU. And it is time that we had a day just for YOU.

Because it is a fact that all Americans love them, and no campaign is complete without them, here are a few random shots of puppies and babies.

Thank you for your support!

Brutal Honesty

Some people have asked, what is the point of this? It is funny and sounds like a good idea, but what are you hoping to get out of this? Well, I will be perfectly honest with you (something that doesn't seem to happen much around election time). I would like the simple things in life, namely: fame and fortune (and maybe early retirement thrown in there too).
You see, I want you to like this idea. I want you to support it through the purchase of t-shirts, bumper stickers, and mugs. I will then take a small profit from those purchases in an attempt to achieve my goals, leaving you with corny merchandise that will not be valid again for another 4 years. How is that for honesty?
All right, so I realize that fame and fortune are not all that likely. So at least, I am hoping for some level of recognition. You see, my wife isn't too happy that I spent a few late nights a little while ago putting all of this together. The more people that I can say checked out the website, or posted replies to the blog, the better. At least then she will think that all of the time that I spent on this wasn't all for nothing. She seems to be holding some kind of grudge, because as far as I know, she hasn't even looked at the site yet. Of course, if you know me, you know that I probably screwed up in some other way that I am not aware of that has her angry at me. But getting some recognition from the site couldn't hurt.

What exactly is going on here?

Assuming you stumbled across this blog through my website (NationalLeapDay), you already have an idea of what is going on here.
It started as one of the many thoughts flying around inside of my head that I thought that others may find entertaining or amusing. It seemed to go over well with my group of friends, and some said that it sounded like a message that gets forwarded around. Well, we can certainly do better than that!

Basically, I think that February 29th. should be considered a national holiday. I want the website and blog to be a launching pad for the movement to get this recognized. There are really quite a few national holidays. We have nationally recognized days devoted to mothers and fathers, borrowing rodents, trees, and the planet in general (Groundhog day, Arbor day, and Earth day), as well as a bunch of days dedicated to various dead presidents. We even have April Fools day, a day dedicated to playing practical jokes and goofing off. February 29th only comes around less than once every 4 years, can't we do something to recognize it?

I don't know what exactly the process is for getting a day recognized as a national holiday, so if anyone out there has any experience in this kind of thing, let me know.
What do I need to do next, start a petition, call a congressman, write a manifesto?

Check back early and often. I will keep you updated on how things develop.