But Rashenbo, you didn't review my site!?!?

Fear not, grasshopper. I am a blogaholic. I surf the mighty waves of blogginess and always like to find new little treasure blogs. Somehow I've developed the desire to continue checking out my fellow bloggers and I will probably try to feature a blog (just one - not 212) every month. Who knows, maybe I'll do it more frequently. I'm just not sure yet. Edit: So far, I'm reviewing a site each Saturday.

I know that I love to shamelessly promote my site... so if you would like to send me your blog for review - go right ahead or promote one of your friends' blogs. Rashenbo at gmail dot com and just do me a favor and put "review me" or "blog for your review" in the subject.

Bloggers are writers, after all, and this is a blog for writers so if you've got a blog you're eligible!

Note:

I have a pretty thick skin and am not easily offended, but I would like my reviews to be of material I can actually share with my readers. Porn or heavily offensive sites may be immediately tossed.

Past Reviews

Cheese Party
Bite the Rabbit

MuHaHaHahaaaaaa!

I blame solipsistic scribbling:


How evil are you?

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Dear Fellow Nablopomo’ers,

Today we say “adios”. The journey of the last 30 days ends as we reach our destination. Some of us will part ways and never cross paths again. Some of us have widened our network to include many more of our new friends. Some of us have found true gems that will permanently join the favorite list and a glorious friendship will last well into the future.

The Nablopomo was wildly successful for its first annual event, over 2,000 blogs participated. People from across the world joined. With the randomizer and the reviews the web tightened around the participants, creating a special little club. We were the members and only we had the secret decoder rings. We shared our troubles, from fear of miscarriage to injury and illness. We shared our joys, from pregnancy to weddings, love and more. We shared nonsensical ramblings and silly nothings. We shared humor and entertainment. Universally, we shared the passion for blogging.

There are those who blog and those who do not. Trying to explain the joy and the need to blog to a non-blogger is futile. I’m sure many of us experienced that when we panicked and said, “oh no, I can’t miss my blog post today!” and others looked at us as if we were from another planet. What drives us to blog? Do bloggers share some inner need that is only met by blogging? Have we set aside the chains that bind us in our cave and ventured into a world of our own creation? We have embraced the shadows and turned them into our own expressions.

Blogging is: liberating, satisfying, fulfilling, entertaining, educational, cathartic, rebellious, political, stimulating, reactionary, the list goes on.

Blogging allows us to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and at the same time, gives us the ultimate ability to retain our individuality. A blog is a reflection of what you want to share and you control your own presence.

When blogging, a friend is only a click away. I have gained many new friends during the Nablopomo and Fussy has my greatest thanks for creating and supporting this event. I’m not sure what she was expecting, but it was something fun! In the dwindling light we share the lingering questions like: how much traffic will I lose? What will happen to the randomizer? What will Fussy think of next?

It has been my pleasure to participate in this event. I have greatly enjoyed visiting my fellow Nablopomo’ers.

Cheers to you my friends. May the season be joyful, your readers many, and your satisfaction great.

I’ll be seeing you,

Nablopomo Fools

If you haven't visited Crushing Krisis you should do so... right now!

Zee End.

And here we are... at zee end. *sniff*

There are 9. Yes, only 9 blogs. I'm not quite sure what to do. The S's were over 200 - the W's over 100...

3 are male bloggers
4 are female bloggers
2 I have no idea... We'll call them the ITS

They all count as personal/family blogs.

3 of them are out. The Z's are dedicated bloggers!

Zanshin has some nice little posts. One of them he wonders if his traffic will continue to remain as high as it has been during November. We all wonder that, I'm sure.

Zazan in the Moonlight has a catchy title and is searching for ITS path to a better future... Its is thinking of computers. Good luck!

My favorite Z blog is the Zero Boss. I loved the Wal-Mart post... and the contraceptive... and even the wiggles... and I HATE the wiggles. He's wery, wery clever that Zero.

Zinereem is starting to talk about diet and exercise... yup, I guess it's that time of year again. He mentions 1,500 calories in a day... Wow, I eat WAY too many calories. So many that I just can't tell you. Let's just say that it's about dieting time for me too!

Zoot is a riot!! Donut necklaces... it's got to be a first. Hahaha :)

Wow... that was the fastest it has taken me to review a category!

WoooWee those W's are GUD!

The W's took me quite a good bit of time today actually. I kept getting distracted and with an entire month of posts... there are some great reads out there.

Approximately 40% of the W's are OUT. By now, most blogs have blended into a mixture of eclectic tastes and themes. A few remained focused on their theme - those were mostly the health oriented, craft oriented, and food blogs. I only found like 5 or 6 male bloggers of those blogs still in the competition. The females definitely out weigh the males in this letter. Must be the W for WOman! There were so many quality blogs and quality posts that it was difficult for me to limit... I'm afraid I just had to keep mentioning the blogs and posts that caught my eye. So here you go, the fun stuff from the W's.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop is a simple blog but very informative. Her son has a metabolic disorder and she includes many helpful links. It definitely has a health spin but I was interested in reading over the information and her experiences. My daughter has a connective tissue disorder, so I tend to find these things interesting. Walking To Do had one week of cat blogging. I'm not much of a cat person, but I bet some of you are! Her template's not too bad either.

Most livejournal blogs don't appeal to me. Wandering and Wondering was easy to scroll through... and yes, there is a calendar to glance at the posts. I really enjoyed all the pictures on this blog: oceans, beaches, flora and fauna...

I've read a lot of mom blogs but every now and then a post takes me back and I not only empathize with the blom but I remember so clearly what it was like when my children were young and sick. I enjoyed visiting Washi Waxing because I was just in the Lafayette area of Louisiana. She shares some great information about New Orleans, including a restaurant list... and some information on a trip to New York. And - she's a Heroes fan. I just love that show!

Watermark is one of those blogs that I just got lost on! I found myself reading several posts. She hit 50k words on the Nano on the 25th... Awesome! This is definitely a site I'm favoriting! Web log may be a little bit on the plain side for a blog but his post on ruling the world made me chuckle... I'd like to rule the world too... maybe :)

I have to give props to Caffinara at Welcome to Caffinara... she's got a great blog with some interesting personal tidbits and photographs... and she helped review some of the Nablopomo participants. Go... visit... I have spoken.

What if no one's watching really caught my eye as soon as I opened it up. Nice layout and today's post is very good. It's about women making history and the woman featured was born in 1976, the same as me. The blog just has a lot of interesting and thought provoking posts. What was I thinking is another nano winner... and did a "drawmo" each day... the little sketches are kind of a cute blog addition.

I really liked visiting What was I thinking (the other one, not the last one!)... it's got lots of links and gadgets. I love the header image and the tagline... and her posts are just great. I chuckled many times. this is definitely another one I'll have to visit frequently!

Whatever works has some Nablopomo reviews and some interesting posts! I totally dug the 20 Things You Didn't Know About Sesame Street on When Crazy Seems Normal. I liked the look and feel of When you wish upon a star, some nice posts and lots of little images to add some pretties to the posts.

Where's your sense of adventure is a tag team blog and it's got a great feel to it... and some good posts.. and their mini-shnauzer is so cute!

One of the few male bloggers of the W's... he's got spam comments... I've not received spam comments before. Does it make you special? (Edit to say... I'm joking about spam comments. In case it's not coming across.) Whoopdedoo was getting a little desperate I guess for content! :) Some very funny posts here. Hehe, you've got to check out the Toasted Gift Guide, on Wind in the Wire. I think Wonder Mom has a fantastic header and it's just a nice overall mom blog!

Work in progress has a great little blog going... and she's been under the weather. Hope you get better soon! Oh no.... Look what Write Coast linked... The Holidailies... can I resist it? Must my obsessive-compulsive tendencies win the war??? YES. I signed up. Feel free to smack me any day now.

Another good mom blog (or blom as I like to call them) is WWW new mom. I know I enjoyed visiting.

You guys that have kept up the posts are just awesome. So much entertainment... so little time. I'll be back!

My sleeping pose!

Wow... these online quizzes will just tell you everything! I love em... I'm really going through the W blogs. I promise. You can thank Waking Jonas for this little distraction!

Find your own pose!

What's in a name? A deeper look at the S - by request.

I had received a request to consider why there were so many S blogs in the Nablopomo 'blog post every day in a month' competition and then to list my favorites.

First, let's consider why the S's have the most blog names. I think S is a perfectly good letter... but I've not really thought about what makes one letter more common than another. I did some looking around today and one site said that more English words begin with S than any other. I tried to look for a secondary source to support that, but I couldn't find one. We'll just say it's right. Then I stumbled upon a sight that discusses cryptograms and ranks the percentage of letter frequency and then I found this site that has a bunch of letter frequency statistics.

I would guess that S is just a very popular letter.

Now then, for my favorites. The list is over 200 blogs, let me tell you... it's hard to just pick a favorite blog name. The first thing I did was weed the list down to about 91 blogs. I dropped those blog names that didn't really catch my interest and have fairly uninteresting blog names. Then I went through the lists and tried to weed it down again, ended up with 60 blogs. Then I went to each blog and checked to make sure they were still in the Nablopomo competition (this is all prompted by the nablopomo after all and only those dedicated bloggers get the count).

I looked at the name: Did the title grab my attention? Did it make me want to click and see what the blog was about? Your title is the only way you get my click today. I was only looking at those blogs that the titles interested me enough to get my click. Without a blog description or previous knowledge of what you write about - your title is the only thing marketing your blog and drawing in your readers.

Once I entered: I considered the look and feel of the blog and how interesting I thought it was. Nice colors? Images or graphics? The layout - was it easy to navigate and a pleasure to surf through?

Now that I've enjoyed the atmosphere, how's the steak: I reviewed the content (how interesting were your posts?). Did you have a long history of blog activity? Did you get some chuckles out of me? Did you keep my interest to click through and scan many of your posts or even read posts in your archives?

What's the entertainment or side-show for the evening: I looked at your addons, widgets, and gadgets. Do you have things I can look at? Click through? Play or do something? Do you have some blog tools that I like and would want to use on my own?

So... here we go. THE TOP TEN. The winner's of Rashenbo's favorite S blog titles:

Say It, Don't Spray It

scripturient

Sex Ed in Higher Ed - OUT

(Update: I missed that she missed a post!)

Slackermama

Solipsistic Scribbling

Somewhat Refined

Sozzled

space monkey pants

Spasmodic Blog

Stinky Mouse

Sarcastic FringeHead

I wonder if I should make a little button?

The runners up who caught my eye and who I really enjoyed visiting:

Sarcomical
SchnozzFest.com
Semantically driven
Sermon on the Mount of Laundry
Sex and Salt Lake City
Shadow Muse
Shootin' The Poop
Shutterfool
Slashboing
Snapshots Into Oblivion
Streaks on the China
Sunday School Rebel

I'm a dedicated reader!

Why can I NOT keep myself from getting distracted?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Eeep! I've been cloned!

I should totally be working on those W blogs but I got side tracked... now I'm wondering what my clones are doing out in the world. I really need a housekeeping clone... one who does my laundry and the dishes... and dusts. Yes. The clone must dust... so, do you have any clones?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Beauty & The Inspiration

Beauty

Inspiration

Sssss, not just a silly little sound

Because I love you... or perhaps because I'm neurotic, I'm back at the nablopomo list and today - I've hit those on the S list. There are 212 blogs that start with the letter S. I have visited all of them today. That's a lot, so I won't be giving you all the statistics right now, I'll just highlight some of the blogs that have stuck out to me and I'll follow up with another S post (I hope) and cover some more of the statistics you all seem to enjoy so much.

There were only a handful of blogs that started with a form of Sarah, like only 5 and I expected more for some reason. More started with a form of Super (including supa) - about 8 of them. At least 71 of the 212 blogs are out of the running. There are probably more, but some of you bloggers have blogs that are kind of hard to scroll through the history on... and I'm lazy! At least one blog was about rugby and one blog focused on the joy of shopping... And, look at this, a blog from the Mount of Laundry, you all know what I think of laundry blogging... but this blog, it's OK with me :)

The sabominator & co starts off the S list. It's a personal blog that has some nice posts. I almost thought she was out, but she showed a screen shot of her time and how can I not give her the point for that? Her formatting is off though and it shoves her sidebar down on the side. Sangey Dorje is a posting fool! 40 posts in November alone and they aren't one liners either. One of his posts includes a link to a yoga nap book that looks pretty interesting to me!

Some images of a few of the blogs I liked:

The layout of Sarae.net was nice and neat and I really enjoyed browsing through the posts and photos.

Sarah says has a nice layout and some very entertaining posts. Sarcomical has a lovely look and feel & I enjoyed the posts.

Say it, don't spray it! has a great little blog. Nice, neat, fun posts, lovely photos, clever title... nice. I like the Schnozzfest blog and love the nothing button in her side bar. I read an interesting post about internet access in public schools on Scribbit's site.

One of the quote's of the day has to come from scripturient with the statement: "I would have already shit out my spleen in terror." How's that for a visual?

Semicolonblog was a great find for me! The teacher lady has some nice posts over at sex ed in higher ed, and that title does tend to catch the eye. Shaken mama has a scare about her pregnancy and I hope all is well for her. An interesting blog about a student who talks about life and classes is she's so suburban. A blog with an intriguing post tidbit is on Kaybee's. Shooting the poop is a great mom blog. I really got a KICK out of sidekick Canada and I enjoyed visiting the silent "I".

For the folks that like crafts and arts, sky bell arts has an image on nearly each post and some of the art/crafts look pretty neat. I got a few chuckles from reading slacker mama and a slash boing has a post featuring the product we all know and love - SPAM.

Don't flamers and trolls make great post fodder? I had one anonymous visitor tell me I was a moron and the post wasn't even one of my silly ones. I'm just amused that they actually thought it was worth their time to drop an insult. Although, calling someone a moron ranks about a 1 on the 10 point flame chart, next time be more creative.

You can not keep yourself from getting hungry when you visit the smitten kitchen... YUMMY. Space monkey pants just made me laugh - lol! Ooo streaks on china has a boxer in one of her pictures. Boxers are the best breed - eva! Supacoo also went on a road trip for vacation and I enjoyed Super Becks grace for mistakes post and how can you not read through a blog by someone called the Spaz Goddess? I liked the look and feel that superwonderultragirl has. Sweetisu has a nice little blog and as a cancer survivor, she captured my interest.

Phew, it was a lot of blogs to go through in one category and I don't think I did all the participants justice. I'll have to follow up with some more statistics or highlights for you to enjoy... and I can't forget to comment on the blog titles!

Home at last. Home at last!

We departed yesterday morning at approximately 10:00 am... we arrived home just a few moments ago. Yay! God bless safe road trips and cable internet! No more dial-up!!!! YAY!!

Signs you've been in the car too long:

1. Your butt is completely numb.
2. You can't get the kid song: "Down by the bay.... where the watermelon grow... " out of your head EVER
3. The atlas has become the most interesting thing you have to read in the car.
4. You can't remember what city you are in... let alone the state.
5. You get excited when the temperature on the gauge drops below 40 because you know you are getting closer to home.
6. The entire family spends five minutes discussing what the dog must have eaten to create such an atrocious odor.
7. You've stopped even attempting to eat healthy and dinner consists of twinkies, funyuns, and coffee.
8. No one gets to pee within 100 miles of the destination.


I am sooo glad to be home and tomorrow I can get down to some more serious blogging business :)

On the road!

On our way back home!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope all of you had a wonderful turkey day with friends and family around.

Cheers to you!

Happy Cooking Day

I know so many folks are doing a lot of cooking to prepare for the feast tomorrow. I really was going to get back online yesterday and edit the five things post. But, I was enjoying a crab, crawfish, and shrimp boil and even though I feel very wise when I consume a bottle of wine. I decided not to share that wisdom with you!

Cheers!

Five things about Moi

I've been tagged to share five things about myself.

1. In high school I was named "most unusual" for my senior year and year book. I'm still not sure if that was a compliment or not! I tend to have a unique sense of humor. I find most things funny. I don't like wasting my time on negativity and I prefer to spend my time being silly.

2. I love to read. I use it for my stress relief and to recharge myself. I was body slammed in elementary school. The injury knocked my spine out of alignment, injured a disc, and almost pinched a nerve enough to make me a quadriplegic. I was lucky and it was only my right arm that was paralyzed and after two months of physical therapy my arm was back to normal. Before my injury I led an active childhood - swimming and diving were my passions. After my injury I was unable to participate in any sports for at least a year. My mother handed me several books and it was during the year of inactivity that I truly became addicted to books.

3. I used to be a terrible procrastinator. Yes, I was TERRIBLE. I would put everything off until the last minute or never get around to it. A mother of one of my friends gave me an application to join the procrastinator's of America club... I never did get around to it. I was a fairly smart kid so I never really needed to study and I always just rushed to complete my assignments at the last minute. Once I entered the "real world" I couldn't function and be successful as a procrastinator... so now, I have to do everything right away. I've turned my greatest weakness into one of my strengths.

4. I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. I frequently become obsessed with something and I'll spend hours of time researching, getting involved, sending emails, drafting up documents, etc... and then I'll lose interest. I can't tell you how many projects I've started and then just turned around and dropped. One of my funny little quirks is the way I run errands... it drives my husband crazy. I have to make a circle or square pattern when I run errands. I plot out all the places I have to go and I make sure that I hit each one in order. I can't make zig-zags and I can't go back. When we go strolling down a street of shops, I have to go up one and then cross and come down the other side - no criss-crossing. Also, when we pump gas, the amount has to stop on .00 or .50. My husband will just fill the tank and when the pump stops, he's done with it.

5. The greatest fear that I have is that I will develop cancer. Most specifically... I'm terrified of colon cancer. My family has a high risk of cancer and heart disease. Heart problems concern me, of course, so does my weight and the possibility of diabetes (something else that is super common in my family)... but cancer just down right terrifies me.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler"

"Let the good times roll!"
Happy Monday to you all. This week begins a holiday week and I hope many of you are able to take some time off. This week is a period of time when we are supposed to appreciate what we have and give thanks.

It's going to be a short post today because my sister-in-law has just arrived and I have a little nephew I haven't seen yet. I'm off to spoil him rotten.

One of the many things I am thankful for is my family.

On a side note, some more reviews have been completed.

Nightmare Memoir: A Book Review

Nightmare Memoir is a book by Claude Letulle and describes his four years as a prisoner of the Nazis during WWII. If there were ever a book to make me thankful of my life, this is surely one of them. Mr. Letulle lives in south Louisiana where my husband's family lives. The author, Mr. Letulle, was signing copies of his paperback book and several family members picked up a copy.

I saw it on the counter and decided to read it. The book is short but powerful. Mr. Letulle was a soldier for the French army. He was captured and spent four years as a prisoner. He worked on farms, mines, and in concentration camps. He shares his experiences in a way that moves the reader. I wanted to share just a few parts of this book with you.

Page 26:

Running through my mind continually were the possible tortures I might have to suffer once we reached Germany. I was absorbed in thought when a few guards came along and, faithful to their bestial habits, began to beat us. "Get up. Fast, fast!" they demanded. We had walked a few minutes when I felt a hand holding me by the collar. I turned around to face a guard, pointing his rifle at me. He told me to remove the bandages around my feet, and since disobeying him would mean death, I sat down on the wet ground and began to unravel the wrappings. I had hardly finished when another guard walked up with a piece of barbed wire in his hand. Before I imagined what he might have in mind, he beat my feet with the wire...

Claude struggled but managed to continue walking as the guards led the prisoners to a small town. In the town they packed dozens of men into cattle cars. They were packed so tightly they could not breathe and many men died and remained upright because there was no room.

While he worked in the concentration camp his job was to clean the torture room and he describes some of the atrocities he witnessed in the torture room.

Page 89:

"What are you going to do?" one [of the female attendants] asked the doctor. He replied, "I would like to see if repeated electrical charges to the testicles will sterilize him permanently. You will help me," he added, going to a closet. He returned with a wooden plank that held a generator and small electric motor.The generator had two long wires, each with a metal clip and spring. "Attach a clip to each testical," he said. The woman planted the attachments into the flesh. I watched her face, which contracted with pleasure. She was an image of the perfect sadist.

There are several tortures that Claude shares with the reader, but they are not appropriate to place in this venue.

Page 171
Claude remembers his role when the war between Germany and Russia became worse.

A truck drove the bodies to the pit we had dug and unloaded its cargo [dead Russian prisoners] as if it were dumping a load of stones. We were forced to go into the pit and line up the bodies, and it remains the most horrible experience I have had in my life. Some of their eyes were opened and seemed to be looking
at us reproachfully. In some cases, the skin had ruptured, leaking a putrid liquid as we walked over the bodies. I got out of the pit sick to my stomach and nearly out of my mind.

This book gave me chills to read. If you have any interest in the holocaust or what the Nazis did during WWII... this is definitely a book to pick up.

Human Kind at its Finest!

So, I stumbled across the Wacky Warning Label site and I had to laugh. One of the warning labels is on a hot glue gun or heat gun. The warning label says: "Do not use heat gun as a hair dryer".

I also found Loony Laws off the site... I just love finding these things. I also saw at the bookstore there is a new Darwin award book out... I may have to go pick it up. I love the Darwin Awards.

Oldie but a Goodie

I didn't give you any friday fun yesterday so I thought I'd toss up a video. It's one of my favorites!

A blog "head's up"

Crushing Krisis has a great post on some of the nablopomo participants. I really enjoyed reading it and visiting the blog! If you haven't stumbled across the site yet, here it is.

Sneaking in a little blog time!

I was able to sit at the computer for an hour or so this morning and play with that little thing we all know and love - the nablopomo randomizer.

Light & Darkness has missed a day (I think) but has a review of Casino Royale. I was curious about how the new guy works as a Bond.

Web Goddess has a baby name link on today's post with some name drawbacks. That was a nice little distraction.

I found Wirehead's blog and enjoyed spending some time there today.

I was seriously going through blog withdrawals and just had to spend some time surfing. Although, it seems like many folks are out... I wonder what the count is... near the end of the month I think I'll do a count just to see how many actually made it.

It's time for the Blogaphor!!!

It's day 16 of the post-a-day competition and many bloggers are feeling the pressure to keep the creativity and energy up. So, here to exercise that noodle is the Blogaphor.



Post as a comment or take the fun to your own blog. The mission: come up with clever blogaphors for your reader's amusement. A blogaphor is much like a metaphor, except it's tailored specifically for blogs.

met·a·phor (mt-fôr, -fr) n.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a stage” (Shakespeare).

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” (Neal Gabler).

Be funny. Be serious. Be silly. Be dramatic... It doesn't matter, BUT, be clever and remember, it must focus or refer to blogging in some way.

I can't really pick my most favorite humor blog because they all made me laugh like the mad scientist who thinks he's won and has just thrown his head back and chortled like a hormonal PMS-suffering, chocolate-addicted woman who just landed in a vat of hershey's milk chocolate!!!

His blog offered a mirage of images, much like the images that are supposed to pass before your eyes when you are about to die, but then you don’t.

That blog is exciting, it’s like when you are digging in your car for loose change and instead of finding a quarter, you find a whole dollar.

AOL + Dial Up = The DEVIL!!!

No offense to those of you who happen to use AOL, or still have Dial-up... or if you particularly religious and take offense to my use of the word... DEVIL

If you use both AOL and Dial Up... you have my pity. My husband's family appear to live in a town without any form of high speed... or something. It is absolute torture to have to sit on this machine and wait for not a tenth of a second, but MINUTES for a page to load.

The Pain... The Horror... The Annoyance...

I hope everyone is still having a fabulous, fantastic and thrilling blogorama as we move into the middle of the NaBloPoMo. I really wanted to do an overall count of how many were out by now... but I'm afraid dial up has beat me. I'll have to go find some place with wifi... probably in another town.

The lovely volunteers have done some more category reviews. I'm still updating the review list - you get to it by clicking the seal on my side bar. I'm too lazy to make a link right now :)

I've been in Louisiana for 3 days and I've already had my smothered chicken, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, mini pork-roast, red beans and rice... and today! It's GUMBO!!! I know you are all jealous. I will be thinking of all of you while I'm violating every diet plan known to man!

Answers to the TT 12/14/2006

I've hidden this post in the archives so that I can link to it for those folks who want to go ahead and just jump to the answers.

1. Crazy Aunt Mabel. She's Real! She is my mother's sister, her name's not Mabel though. Yup, she was nuts. The psychologist told my mom she was an only child born into a family of 10 children. If she had been all by her onesie she would have been fine. It's one of those twists of fate, it's sad... because she was sick. But, she didn't think she was sick and she was fine with her life... and man, the stories are just so damn funny. Remind me to tell you about the inflatable body suit story sometime. She passed away this year from CHF.

2. Double O Z. Yeah, this @##hole is real. Unfortunately, and I'm only sharing the basics with you. If I told you all the details you'd think I was making him up to be more creative. For two years I worked in hell. The devil is actually short hunch-backed Frenchman with an addiction to raisinets. ##@##@#@#@#$#@#$@#$ GRRRR. If he wan't so litigous I'd tell you guys the good stuff.

3. EcoChallenger - FAKE. This is Sean Watts, he's the protagonist in my action-adventure work in progress. He currently works as a tour guide on the Rio Negro of the Amazon.

4. The Hillbilly - Not only is the hillbilly real, it's me! :) My maiden name is Jenkins. In high school a few kids would call me Jinks. And yup, what I mentioned is true. I was born in the Ozarks of Missouri and my dad's got one wierd family.

5. The Doctor - FAKE - This is Polly Brown. She's a doctor with the World Health Organization ad she's a sub-protagonist with Sean Watts in my current novel. She's currently working with villages in the Amazon rainforest.

6. Ditzy blond #1 - REAL - She was one of my co-workers and we worked together under #2. She's now one of my good friends.

7. Ditzy blond #2 - FAKE - She's also a sub-protagonist in my current novel. She's a telecommunications specialist and was geocaching in Brazil. She's currently in a race for her life with Sean and Polly.

8. The Executive. - FAKE - Adelia Harkness is the protagonist in my current novel. She's got a lot more to her, but I'm afraid I can't share all those details with you yet. *wink*

9. Cajun Bob. - FAKE. Cajun Bob is a new character to me. He's going to be appearing in my next novel which is set in Louisiana.

10. The Dermatologist - REAL. She was the business partner with #2. She's now a great friend of mine. I'm actually going to dinner with her on the 22nd. She's so much fun!

11. Psychic Claire - FAKE Doesn't she sound interesting though? She'll have an important role in my next novel.

12. The Twin - REAL. She's the wife of one of my husband's bosses. She tried to get me involved in Arbonne. She's really nice, though... in an overly nice *kiss, kiss* kind of way.

13. The Housewife - REAL. Another great friend of mine. Her daughter and my daughter were best friends for a while. She's lovely and sweet... but she's got some baggage. I try to give her moral support.

Meet Mr. Funky Monkey

Mr. Funky Monkey says, "If it walks like a duck; If it talks like a duck... It's not a damn goat."

The Sociopath in Your Life. A book review.

Have you identified the Sociopath in your life?

I know that I’ve identified at least one in mine. I’m not big on self-help books. In fact, I rarely read them. My tastes usually go toward more brain candy than brain enrichment. But a friend that used to be a co-worker gave me a copy of Martha Stout’s book, The Sociopath Next Door. It’s not exactly intended as a self-help book, but it certainly helped me. I'd tell you more of the personal side of this particular story... but the person I'd talk about is a little too litigious.

The main point of this book is that Stout suggests and believes that 4% of the population or one in 25 people are sociopaths. What’s a sociopath? The basic definition is someone with a social disorder or the lack of conscience. Wikipedia has a pretty good run down of antisocial disorder here and I think most of us are familiar with the term by now.

Television and popular novels have used sociopaths over and over again. They are a perfect tool to create a compelling criminal or monster. A person that can steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the elderly without any remorse; A person who can quietly spread lies just to watch someone break down in tears and question their very reality; A person that can look at a child in a busy restaurant and just pull the trigger – these are frightening people. They are people we can’t understand. These examples are ones that some of us have heard about in the news or from stories… but the scarier truth is that many sociopaths are never seen for what they are. This book helps make the reader aware of what people who lack a conscience are really like, how to recognize them and what they are capable of.

From The Sociopath Next Door:
Quote:

“Do Sociopaths understand what they are? Do they have some insight into their nature, or, instead, could they read this book from cover to cover and fail to see themselves reflected? In my work, I am often asked these kinds of questions, especially by people whose lives have been derailed by collisions with sociopaths whom they did not recognize until it was much too late.”

Personally, I found this book fascinating on several levels. As a writer always looking to better understand human psyche, this book gave me the clues to developing a sociopath as a character. As someone who had been derailed by a sociopath – it helped me understand why sociopaths behave the way they do. It opened my eyes and allowed be to bury the hatchet on a few issues that continued to linger with me. As someone who likes to learn new things and understand more about life in general, this book was intriguing.

In the book Stout provides insightful examples of sociopaths. She describes people that are realistic and believable. I was sure I had met people just like the ones she was describing. It was an awakening to read the characteristics and underlying guidance mechanisms of sociopaths. She also touches on the science and neurological aspects of the disorder – again, simply fascinating.

The key, which is so difficult to grasp, is that sociopaths truly do not care. They are willing to do anything they can think of to get what they want. They make the pretense of caring. They develop amazing skills for acting and manipulation. Stout also includes why sociopaths may have a place in society, what to look for and most importantly – 13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in every day life.

“1. The first rule involves the bitter pill of accepting that some people
literally have no conscience. These people do not often look like Charles Manson or a Ferengi bartender. They look like us.”

“At present, Socipathy is “incurable”; furthermore, sociopaths almost never wish to be “cured”. In fact, it is likely that, building on the neurobiological configuration of sociopathy, certain cultures, notably our Western one, actively encourage antisocial behaviors, including violence, murder, and warmongering. These facts are difficult for most people to accept. They are offensive, nonegalitarian, and frightening.”

Now, I’m sure one of the reasons I found this book so interesting and helpful was because I had experienced an encounter with a person I could not understand; and I could not make peace with myself until I understood what had happened and why. I recommend this book to:

- Anyone who has ever wondered about people without a conscience
- Anyone going through a breakup of an unhealthy relationship (abuse, neglect, etc)
- Anyone that has been scammed by a “con-artist”
- Anyone who has asked the question, “how could he/she do something so cruel?” When confronted with a crime or situation that just seems unfathomable.
- A writer who wants to do some research on a sociopath for a character.

Vacation, here we come!

Today we and by we I mean: Husband, self, 9 year-old, 6 year-old (with ADD), and the 5o pound 10 month-old Boxer (with stinky farts), begin a 1,300 hundred mile car ride to LA (the state, not the city).

It is earlier than I like to be up. I will be hitting the blogs while I'm traveling and on vacation, though, expect some short posts, some posts from my mobile device, some fast posts with pictures and other shintzy blog posts while I'm busy on vacation!

Must... Have... Coffee... Coffeeeeeeeee

TTFN!

The Kinds of Bloggers

Having read so many blogs... I definitely see similarities between some of the bloggers and I thought it might be interesting to try and come up with blogger types. Do you think you fit into one of these? Or, have I missed one you think should be added?

The Blogaman: A blogger who is in touch with the deeper elements of the world. The blogaman searches for answers and seeks to share their wisdom with the rest of the blogosphere.

The Blogtivist: A blogger who seeks to make change. They provide thought-provoking and persuasive arguments. Their goal is to improve something.

The Blogitician: Their blog includes some posts similar to the blogtivist, but their posts tend to be focused more on the debate, than the cause. They include propoganda to further their cause and obviously tailor their site to gain more support.

The Blogster: Life's a game and there is humor to be found in every occasion - from every day activities to plain 'ole fashioned jokes and silly videos.

The Blogolescent: A blog with posts that display a person on the cusp of emerging into the stress and joy of mature life... mortgage, marriage, children, college, career, etc. Posts can range from rants on parents to emotional entries coping with friends, school, and hormones. These blogs also may include many posts of nights out at the bar or silly road trips with roommates.

The Blom: Yes, she is a blogging mom. She writes about what she loves - her family. Pictures of the drooling baby, little reflections of words and lessons learned... and the blogs share woes, heartache, wisdom, advice and support for other bloms.

The Blusinesser: The blog is for business information, tools and advice tailored specifically for businesses or business-minded folks.

The Blogvertiser: This blogger wants CASH!! Adsense, adbrites, blogger ads, the ads abound and readers get the feel that seeing the ad is more important to the blog owner than enjoying the content offered.

So... who am I missing?

Star Wars: Which Character are You?

My husband and I took Matt's Star Wars "Who Am I" quiz:

My husband's result:

My result:

As my husband finishes completing the wifi connection on our 9 year-0ld's PSP (which he has played just as much as she has)... I wonder, have we moved into complete technogeekdom? I have two computers on my work desk (I work from home). We have one laptop that sits around as a junker. My husband has his laptop. We've got the parts for another computer or two in the basement. Our 9 year old has her own computer. We have two playstation 2's. One Xbox. One Xbox 360... Now he wants to wait in line for a PS3. I told him no...

The Don't Post About List... Round 1

1. Do not announce the arrival of your period. Period. I doubt we find it as fascinating as you do.
   
2. Do not blog about the laundry, ironing, folding, the detergent you used or your lint filter. Ever. It will NOT be interesting. Laundry sucks. I will be forced to send you the BALB image repeatedly.
   
3. Do not use bright yellow for your font color on light backgrounds. If you do, we will be forced to imagine that we are throwing small rubber balls at you.
   
4. Unless you ate a salad that had $100 bills as the lettuce, I doubt it will be that interesting.
   
5. I really don’t want to see a picture of your half-eaten medium-rare hamburger. Really. I don’t.
   
6. Unless you are in an unusual storm, natural disaster, or other significant weather-type of event… don’t make a post where the only thing you write about is how it’s cold today. If I wanted to know what the weather was like where you live, I’d go to weather.com.
   
7. If your hangover is that bad… go to bed, blog tomorrow. Tomorrow you will either edit the hell out of this post or delete it forever.
   
8. If you start your post with, “I shouldn’t be telling you this…” something interesting should follow.
   
9. Writing a detailed itinerary in ten minute intervals of your day is really not that interesting when your itinerary includes driving, sitting in class, stopping at a red light in traffic, working, etc.
   
10. Don’t set your blog up so that a visitor has to have SuperGeek technology powers to leave you a comment.
    

A post I particularly enjoyed from today's randomizer was Blog Today. Tomorrow You May Be Eaten.

Have a don't you'd like to share? I'll be adding edits or additional posts as more and more "dont's" come to light!

A Theme, A Theme, A Theme!

I'm seeing a lot of people respond to the themes or categories that me and my fellow nablo readers are using to make fun/interesting statistics of the participating blogs. I wanted to comment on this.

Many bloggers have no theme. They write about anything and everything that interests them. These folks are often dropped into the "personal, random, or not sure what they are talking about" categories. "Personal" is a great category, but it can be a little overwhelming to a random visitor. If you are blog surfing and you find a post you like, you may check to see what the blogger writes about on a regular basis... why? To see if they are worth adding to your link list. There are tons of folks that I really enjoyed one or two posts, but over all, the blog just wouldn't be one I'd regularly visit. No offense, I just don't have the time I'm spending right now on visiting blogs and I can only visit so many in a day.

Many bloggers have a theme and probably 75% of posts and discussions touch on this theme. A theme can be good if like minded people want to find you. For instance, my theme, category, focus (whatever)... is writing. I can include tons of stuff and some of you random visitors may find it interesting, but your time is valuable and the majority of my posts won't really mean much to you. After nablo you'll never come back again, and that's fine. But, there are some folks I do want coming back... just the way I keep going to their site.

Themes can help you link. Themes can help you build your network. Themes can make it easier to "market" your blog in a way to capture your intended audience. With this in mind, what you want to achieve with your blog is in your hands, tailor it to meet your desire.

By no means MUST you have a theme... sometimes it just makes it a little easier for readers.

What do you think?

Oh, and as far as an update to the reviews go, Suzanne has just finished the K's. Awesome!

What made a blog stand out?

Yesterday, I reviewed the G’s. It will be some time before you see another nablo review by me. I’m not scheduled to reappear until much later in the month. Lovely volunteers will be covering the other categories. That doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to visit… or periodically mention someone that is worth a visit!

In the last 10 days I have seen at least 520 blogs from the 0 – G bloggers. This number does not include the favorites I have that I visit at least once every day or every other day - many of them are in my sidebar. This also does not count the blogs I see with the randomizer, which I use just to surf through participants, some of you I’ve already seen and some of you are new to me. That number also does not count the blogs I visit that are my Absolute Write buddies. I think it’s a safe estimate to say that in the last 10 days I have been to at least 700 blogs.

I wanted to share with you my thoughts, opinions and observations. This is just what I think, if you don’t agree… good, now you can go make your own post completely disagreeing with me.

First, by a huge landslide, women are the more active and predominate individuals that actively blog, and gauging from my own experiences, more active participants. I.e. They comment more often, they respond to comments made by guests, and they mention comments or reference comments in their posts. Deduct from this what you will… I just think it’s an interesting observation.

Let’s begin with the blog basics:

Title: How important is it? Under the circumstances, I was visiting everyone regardless of title, style or theme. On a regular day, if I’m presented with a list of random blogs that I don’t know about, the title is what will catch my attention. If I’m given the option between: Melissa’s Blog and Adventures of a Word Nerd in Dairyland, which do you think gets my click? A title isn’t necessary, mandatory or even worth stressing over. There are BAZILLIONS of blogs. If you want random visitors you may want a title that makes your blog sound more interesting. If this blog is your personal diary and you really don’t care how many random folks visit, be happy with whatever you choose to name it, whether it’s a simple title like A Journal, Blog This, or something catchier like Colon Cancer Sucks Ass - a title that tells you what it’s going to be about, and is definitely attention grabbing.

Layout or the “look and feel” of your blog: To me I’m pretty neutral about layouts. I certainly like seeing different structures and layouts for blogs. I’ve seen some that were wonderfully unique and easy to navigate. I’ve seen some that are way too crowded or busy… or it was a real pain in my ass to navigate through. I like a little color. I like to see images of some kind, even if the “images” are buttons or badges, or gifs. You don’t have to flood your blog with photographs to make it visually appealing to your visitors. I am not fond of blogs that have annoyingly bright colors or blogs that have font that is squished or the font color is difficult to see. If I click on a blog and have to squint or blink from the brightness, I’ll be clicking right on out in less than a second. It may be clever, but if you want your reader to stay, make it pleasant for them to be there.

I saw some amazing blog layouts that really impressed me either by design or features… there were others that were just the BARE basics of a blogger or livejournal layout. Those were fine too! Maybe not as visually “spicy” but some of those templates are nice and comfortable. As a reader, you know where everything is and exactly how the blog will work. It’s like coming home and pulling on your most comfortable pair of jeans… may not make you look like a million bucks, but damn, you are comfortable!

Header: I separate header from layout because even if you keep a basic layout template you often have the ability to create a header. If you aren’t that experienced with coding, adding a header is still a fairly simple process that gives you the ability to personalize the first thing visitors see when they visit. (At least in blogger and some of the other common blog tools) If I see a basic header with just a title, I won’t click away, but if your header is unique, you’ll catch my attention faster and it may be easier for me to remember you. You can do a google search for header help on the particular blog tool you use, and frequently you'll find a few places that tell you exactly how to change the code or make the edits.

Ads and Side Bars: Personally, I like either one side bar or one side bar on each side of the main content column. I’ve seen some blogs that have two sidebars on the left side or two sidebars on the right side… I don’t particularly like that layout, but that’s just my personal preference. I enjoy seeing what people put in their side bars… and I don’t mind seeing ads. Now, let me clarify. Some ads at the top or ads at the bottom or ads on the side are fine with me… ads that come between each blog post or that are in the middle of a blog post annoy me. I certainly like seeing banners to other interesting sites and tools. I think banners and links are great ways to make your blog more interesting for visitors. Not only can they enjoy your content… they can see what you like and they can jump on over. There are some blogs that I’ve added to my favorites simply because I use that blog as a jumping board to other spots they’ve noted that I like. It’s easier to favorite one blog that has a dozen links I like, than to favorite those dozen sites. Warning: Everything in moderation. This should be the guiding principle for advertisements and links/banners/buttons, etc. If you want to have 50 billion ads… then change your message to: “Hi, this is a catalog that I’m going to periodically add personal thoughts to… please begin your shopping experience by clicking on one of the thousand ads and banners I’ve put here for you.”

Interactive Material: Another little favorite of mine is when someone has a post with a little interactive event, like a quiz or survey… or they’ve got a banner on their sidebar to go someplace to find an interactive item. Sprinkling some periodic posts with this gives your reader something to “learn” about you and something they can do to “learn” about themselves. However, the same warning applies here… everything in moderation. One or two in a month in posts or on the side bar is nice… 20 is not.

Tune in later… I’ll talk about what is really the most important part of your blog. Content.

Goodie, Goodie, Gumdrops - Geeelicious

There are 62 G blogs. Someone requested that I give a heads up on the percentage of male to female bloggers. It looks like about 10% of the G bloggers are male... 3% of them I would guess are male... but they could also be aliens... I think it would be safe to say that 85% or more of the G bloggers are women. The way we like to talk... it doesn't surprise me. It takes me at least an hour to tell my husband about my day. And then we we go to talk about his:

I ask him: "How was your day?"

He replies: "Ok."

And that pretty much sums it up.

Ok, the random (and approximate) results for the G's.

20% Mom blogs

15% Are OUT!

1% had several recent posts about the weather

5% are blogs by people that are obviously smarter than me. (The words may be English, but yeah, I have no idea what you are talking about.)

6.5% of G's use the word Geek

5% are artsy fartsy (you know who you are)

11% include the name Girl in the title

1% are about gardening

6.5% seem to just be about politics... but that just could have been with elections and nablo they've not had anything to talk about but politics for the last week.

4% (at least) are students

Gab Lab "Doing it for the Mutes" starts off our G list and gab is correct... this lady has no shortage of words to share :) I may have to keep an eye on the family blog of Gav Menagerie. She threatened to blog about the lint in her lint filter if she gets blogging crazy. We simply can't let that happen! We must unite: BALB!!! Bloggers against Laundry Blogging!

The Geezohpete really know how to drag... er celebrate a topic, their blogibirthaverse... and seriously add in the linkage. I enjoyed the post on Hustler (political, not naughty) from the 31st. Although, I did skip hitting all those links in the other posts.

Ok, if the best thing about Geek Inside's day was sticking her hand in a toilet full of diarrhea to rescue a beanie baby - she must win the crappy day award. Course... I would have seriously considered flushing it and then donned the yellow gloves and double bagged it right out to the street.

Gipsy's Musings has a neat layout and I like the blog name. I like the Egyptian style. I had no idea what she was talking about regaring her SCA friends though. Gizo has some funny little cartoons.
I liked Grace Notes and wanted to comment... but Wordpress was making me register and I get tired of registering and entering captcha codes to make a comment... so I just scooted along! A nice blog with lovely pictures and some thought-provoking posts is The Grand.

I got distracted on Grumppopotamus by her link to Mother's Pie Survey on women who blog.

Just a fast rant.

I'm sneaking a moment away from work to just release a moment of frustration. The company I worked for decided to merge with another company. Both were small businesses... ALL, yes ALL of our client service, support, marketing, AND sales employees left... (we had 20 employees...) It was just the CEO, 2 developers... and me that remained. The management realized that I was overwhelmed by taking over so many tasks and projects (in addition to handling the administrative details of the merger, client relations, product implementation, project management, oh... and all the bookkeeping). Luckily they hired a customer service rep and a tech rep right away... But they don't work on any of the things I'm responsible for... So, finally, they decide that I really am overwhelmed. I think they just got tired of hearing me say, "I didn't have time for that... or that... or that.. and well, I haven't finished that yet and I'm still working on THAT so get off my back!" They decided they'd give me a break and hire a bookkeeper to take over that part of my job.

Her first day was Monday.

Today she quits...
/sigh. I SO do not get paid enough.

On a completely side and random note... I've been saved! Yes, a lovely little Asian woman brought me a WORLD WIDE MESSAGE!!! The end of false religion is near (or so the little pamphlet she shoved into my hands says)!! OMG! I didn't even know there was a false religion... let alone that it was near! Is it hanging out in my backyard? Has it been taunting my dog?

Did you know that false religion: "Meddles with war and politics", "Spreads False Doctrine", and.... OMG!! "Tolerates Immoral Sex"... Not tolerating immoral sex! How can we continue???

Yeah, ok, whatever, I'll um, "save" this pamphlet in the handy white bucket-like storage device I keep under my desk. It's where I stick all these important messages.

Wednesday... Hump Day... F Day.. YAY!

Get yer head outta the gutter! It's another round of the Nablo reader raid. Today is the F day!

68 F Bloggers

20% are mommy bloggin fools! The majority of the blog is devoted to the kiddos!

17% are personal blogs that have a decent history, a variety of interesting posts and discuss several interesting topics.

15% (at least) are out!

5% are about food... and one of them had these photos... um, some of them weren't the most appetizing...

3% of the blogs seemed to have a different theme, but recently they've turned POLITICAL!! EEP Make it stop!

8% were artsy fartsy - yarn, thread, sketches... you get the idea

10% were students

1% claimed a writing theme

Some singles I've got to point out!

* I think that one blog had to have several authors (but wasn't that clear) otherwise it was Sybil.

1 of the blogs had a lovely Harry Potter header! yay Harry Potter fans!

There was 1, ONE, blog that clearly identified the category as:

Nuggets of Goodiness Wisdom.

First on the list: The Fabricated Goddess! And we start the F's with a personal/mom/crafter blog. She mentions a Jehovah's witness in today's post... I wish I could get rid of them as easily as she seemed to be able to. Although, my husband has this great tactic, which seems to work quite well... he answers the door in his underwear.

Falling upward is one of the vox blogs... I've been shying away from those vox blogs because I have to sign up to be able to leave comments... but alas, I wanted to leave a comment and caved. Any fellow who buys a "nerdy" sweater and blogs about it has to be interesting, eh? And, while reading his post, I could envision someone receiving a shoebox "gift" of used hair gel.

A family blog that is REALLY family is the Family living Hatfield. I'll keep the Hatfield and McCoy jokes to myself, though, it's hard to do so... Anyway, pages on the kids, tons of posts, links... It definitely looks like a site this mom spends a lot of time on.

The Fashionable Commute has a lovely personal goal. Yes, the Cat Walker wants to be internet famous. Shall we make dreams come true? *poof* Look! You are now internet famous. I have said it is so and so shall it be... (isn't that how it works?) I'm sure you get a bumper sticker or something like that to prove your fame.

How can this not grab your eye?

Ficken Chingers. Course, I'm not sure about those Colts fans... they seem a little squirrely to me. Cheers to her on her blogibirthaverse day... Yes, I've coined a term.

Blogibirthaverse Day: the annual celebration to commemorate the birth or creation of your blog.

Fighting Alchemist Cats Exit (not quite sure where that title's going...) had a funny personal story about her sister's job, "Talking Dirty". She has some posts about what she claims to be "music" but I have this feeling that our opinion of music differs! :)

***** Important reader announcment: Do you know what I realized as I've been reading these hundreds of new blogs? Many more women announce the arrival of their period in a blog post than I expected. And among other blogworthy topics - laundry. Wow, I ignore laundry until I'm faced with the choice of buying socks so my kids' feet are covered... or washing a load. If I EVER make a blog entry about laundry, ironing, folding laundry, or anything like that... feel free to spam me with annoying emails telling me how boring I have become. Now returning to our regularly scheduled program. *******

I enjoyed visiting Finding My Voice. First, she's got a button for Fibromyalgia Awareness... since my mother has fibro, I fully support that awareness effort. Second, I allowed myself to get distracted by the blog color quiz!

You Are Rouge Red

Of all the reds, you are the most energetic and vibrant. You never need to recharge, and in fact, you often recharge others. Gutsy and brave, you've never let your fears stop you from doing anything. You figure that life is all about experiences, and you'll always take that leap of faith.

What Color Red Are You?

Fist City's post on "Nice Day for a Red Wedding" was a fun read! Five by Five does have a lovely layout and how can I not mention someone who set me up to find a targeted post! Although, I'd like to see the title on that header so my poor memory doesn't have to work so hard to remember where I am.

Flippy's "I rant; therefore; I am" - I guess I am a lot! I certainly do enough ranting! She's been posting a while... and I did enjoy her idiot of the day piece!

Fleur de Lisa is another poster with a solid posting history. She's got some fun posts and lots of great images!

Fly Around My Pretty Little Mess doesn't allow comments! *gasp* However will I leave inspiring words of wisdom????

The post, "I'll know God reads my blog if this happens" on Formation of Me was too funny... the visual of comparing Cameron Diaz with E.T. in a blond wig.... haha

Ok... this blog: Fruit Loops & Porn. It made me laugh when I saw the header and I laughed several times reading through those posts she's got. I'm definitely going to be adding her to my favorites and I will be going back to randomly jack up her sitemeter count.

Ask and ye shall receive - The Blog Participant Totals

One of you visitors asked how many bloggers are participating in the November blog "post a day" competition.

From Fussy's site today (and I believe from the recent post, they are done uploading participants).

0-1 - 25 bloggers
A - 155 bloggers
B - 91 bloggers
C - 131 bloggers
D - 94 bloggers
E - 60 bloggers
F - 68 bloggers
G - 62 bloggers
H - 58 blogger
I - 84 bloggers
J - 56 bloggers
K - 62 bloggers
L - 106 bloggers
M - 181 bloggers
N - 48 bloggers
O - 53 bloggers
P - 103 bloggers
Q - 10 bloggers
R - 77 bloggers
S - 209 bloggers
T - 109 bloggers
U - 21 bloggers
V - 23 bloggers
W - 101 bloggers
X - 2 bloggers
Y - 20 bloggers
Z - 9 bloggers

2,019 bloggers are currently listed.

That's a lot of posts! Note, some of the initial reviews were done before all participants were added. There are likely discrepancies in the early review posts with the current blog counts shown.

I also have to take a moment to thank those bloggers that are actively signing up to assist with category reviews. I'm adding them to the review list - click the "dedicated reader" button in my side bar to get there. Suzanne has already done a review of the H's. Chirky, Irish Goddess, Caffinara, and Crap-O-Rama will also be participating - so be on the look out for their visit!

E for me, and E for you... it's E for Everyone!

Well, I started going through the E's much earlier today... before work in fact... Unfortunately, my day went down hill and I was focused on several work projects (in addition to remote training a new employee - always fun). Now then, you don't really want to hear about my job, so let's get down to the fun stuff.

There were about 60 E blogs, sometimes it's hard to catch each one, so I'm giving myself a +/- 1. Random percentages from the E sector:

18% are out of the running (it's getting more difficult to notice those that miss a day's posting... I feel for whoever is going to officially verify daily post entries!)

10% seem to be about knitting or crochet or some other yarn type of past time.

8% are mom blogs (huge drop from previous categories)

8% are in the student/teacher group (again, that's probably short, it's hard to tell who students are sometimes)

8% I have absolutely no idea what their blog is about... I'm thinking nablo has led them to completely random posts... some just pictures, some just links... some just idle personal observations

5% seemed to really have a writing focus

5% seemed to have a food focus

1% seemed Technogeek (and that's said with love, my hubby is a technogeek!)

2.5% seemed to focus in some way on religion

I can't even tell you how many posts there were about voting and politics today... wow... I know what everyone was thinking about today!

A few had errors loading and a few required me to create some new account or kept me from making comments. I tried to leave comments on most of the blogs that I visited, just so folks would know I was there.

The lucky first name on the E list is E.B.'s world and it seems to be a nice personal blog. Earthbound is another of the personal blogs on the list, it has a nice livejournal layout. Neat. Clean. Nice short posts. A pleasant stop on my blogging journey of the day.

I enjoyed the posts at eat bugs (catchy title) and will probably visit again so that I can read more! The blog is from a student (student-teacher?) approaching graduation and the "real world".

"If at first you don't succeed... ... maybe failure is your style." That's the tag line at Eccentrice Thousandaire. Another personal site, though she has some interesting posts regarding health issues (like SIDS and depression)

I really enjoyed visiting the Eerie Apricot, a nanowrimo participant, Eerie has some enjoyable and thought provoking posts.

E.J. Takes Life has some good posts and I really enjoyed the post, "but at least i never gave whiskey to any children" where she shares her Halloween candy tale. Plus, my initials were E.J. for the first 19 years of my life... so it catches my eye!

Oh, I experienced a flashback when I visited Elfstar. I totally had a "lightning bolt! lightning bolt! lightning bolt!" moment. She was blogging on her DnD gaming experiences... man, that just takes me back. College... beer... no kids... beer... no kids...

Elvispug has a neat idea for posting what she's thankful for each day... That's GOT to be good for karma.

I see blogs about death! Well... it's actually mortuary science... but it doesn't sound quite so interesting when you add "science" to it. I actually didn't even know there was "mortuary science"... Embalmed to the Max has some interesting stuff. It was a nice surprise to come across a post that wasn't about someone's child (not that I don't enjoy them), not about someone's wild night at the bar (not that they aren't entertaining), or someone's philosophy of life (not that it's not interesting) - but multiply those by 500 and you start to get a little bleary-eyed.

Everlasting Truth is a nice personal blog. His post from the 6th caught my eye because he (or she, I guess I should be gender friendly) drew a diagram and added it to the blog entry... I loved that little bit extra of "show and tell".

It's a WHAT kind of dictionary? OMG

I love the internet... I spend hours just surfing along. I know there are millions upon millions of websites. Occasionally, I find myself surprised by a major website that I've never seen or heard of... My husband told me to go to the Urban Dictionary.

Ok, if you've ever wanted to look up some slang or see the definition for some word you don't even think is real... you've got to go to the Urban Dictionary. Or, if you're looking for a good laugh! Noob... Noobist Colony... heheheh

Although, be warned... there are TONS of highly naughty words and some with downright disgusting definitions. I didn't notice any ratings and my husband about peed himself when he saw my reaction to some of the words he wanted me to visit.... all I can say is ICK!!! They were just wrong, WRONG!

I had no idea so many people sat around trying to think of such disgusting things to do with fecal matter. Really folks, it's not that interesting.

The NaBloPoMo Review List!

Update: As we near the end more and more participants are falling off. Here's a blogger who is trying to make up the tally. And Crushing Krisis has several reviews of categories (F, N, Q) and (M, L, T) are just two of them. Also Fried Dreams has also been keeping count of those falling out of the competition.

I am so thankful for you bloggers who are offering to participate in the great nablo read off! Reading an entire category and sharing the highlights is fun, but can be time consuming. Please see below fellow bloggers who have decided to raid the category as marked. So, now it might not just be me raiding your blog!! There are others to watch out for!!!

And remember! The great thing, all these blogs are here for our entertainment, if you decide you want to just randomly pick a category on your own and review! Awesome, send me the link to your post and I'll include it here with the others! What one reader likes, another may not!

There are literally hundreds (over 2,000 actually) of participants in the nablopomo competition. I decided to visit each blog in a category and then post a recap.

Read the recaps!
0 to 1 Category
A Category
B Category
C Category
D Category
E Category
F Category
G Category
H Category - Suzanne
I Category - Suzanne
J Category - Suzanne
K Category - Suzanne
L Category - Suzanne
M Category - Caffinara
N Category - Caffinara
O Category - Chirky
P Category - Chirky
Q Category - Irish Goddess
R Category - Crap-o-Rama
S Category
T Category - Crap-o-Rama *forthcoming
U Category - Holly
V Category - Holly
W Category
X Category - Holly
Y Category - Jordan *forthcoming (you impatient readers you!)
Z

Those Dexterous Dees

Here we are on another day of the NaBloPoMo and I'm once again clicking through that LOOONG list of the participants. We are now looking at the D's.

Note 1: I'm going to be on vacation for part of November. I'll be able to mobile post and post saved items... but I don't know that I'll be able to hit every category on the list. I'm thinking about finding a couple of like-minded bloggers who would like to hit a couple of the categories for me while I'm on vacation. Edit: Several bloggers have taken the torch! There is now a team of dedicated readers! One of us will be hitting your blog!

Note 2: I've been reading some great blogs. It's just impossible for me to include everyone's. If I made a post on your blog something about it caught my eye. If I mention you here, I think your blog is noteworthy. If I've not commented or mentioned you, it doesn't necessarily mean I didn't like your blog.

Right now there are 71 D blogs. Random results of things I noticed:

15% of them are out of the competition, missing a post day.
38% of them were mom (or dad) blogs.
15% were personal ramblings that I couldn't really find an overall theme for.
17.5% I really wasn't sure what the blog was supposed to be about, I guess these could also be considered personal.
5.5% were medical/medicine/doctor
2.5% were definitely student (I'm sure there were more, it just wasn't obvious)
1% seemed to be mostly focused on religion.
1% seemed to be focused on horses (and family)
6% seemed to be focused on writing (and/or books)

The first D blog on the list is Dad Daily Blog: cute slide show header... uhoh! No posts since the 1st. Dadoughkids had a very entertaining post over a 911 call made by her child. Pluck the Petal has some nice photographs, and some fun photographs of her son's hair transformation.

There were a ton of parent blogs in this category... some delightful, some rather blah. Some of the posts from today's list were slow loaders... and a couple had some layouts that were difficult to read or weren't very aesthetic.

The Dana Files, however, is a nice looking blog with interesting and well written posts.

Entertaining titles and posts abound at Dante's Inferno with Children. I found The Days are just Packed a nice site with some interesting posts and some nice pictures on today's post. It's a simple template layout, but it's still nice. I've never really given much thought to hot water bottles... but Derivative of Witty has a post on hot water bottles and apparently they come in many different shapes and sizes. I wonder if some people are grasping for blog topics or if the posts I'm seeing represent their regular posting habits... I guess we'll just have to keep on reading to find out.

Destinations Journey of a Restless Mind has some nice looking images.

Devilish Southern Belle is definitely a nice place to visit... great design, loved the header, and interesting posts. I found a distracting link on Dharma's Universe. I just had to stop and find out which wife I would have been:

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

I have to add that I just don't find Myspace blogs as nice as other blog tools.

For a killer (yes, it might send you into diabetic shock) cake recipe, scroll down on Diary of a Crazed Mommy's blog. Hehe, I really enjoyed visiting A Dingo Ate My Baby. Displaced was an interesting stop and so was, Distracted by Shiny Objects. Doah Leigh caught my eye with her post titled, "My Magic Underwear". Hahah

Oh look! Here's an absolute write member, Drive by Booking. She's got some great nano/blo movement! Keep going and good luck!

I'm Crazy, with a Capital C!

And, I'm not Gnarls Barkley. No, it's another attack of the Nablo list. I'm calling it an attack because I have just spent hours going through the C blogs on the list. Psshhhh, hours.. you say. Seriously, 110 blogs on the C list (right now, my time, not yours). The stats on these 110:

6% are mostly food oriented.

7.5% start with the word Crazy.

10% are already out of the race (missed a post from the 1st, 2nd or 3rd.)

23% are "maybe in/out" - they've not posted yet today (at the time I hit their blog today).

30% are mom blogs (well, like 2% of that is actually dad blog, but this is my blog and I can lump you together if I want. I counted a blog that had significant posts or pictures on their children. If there were very few references I didn't really count them.)

First on the C list is Cafe Kim - it's a cute site with a nice layout and cutesie cartoon logo. Then I stumbled across a naughty one definitely has some rant related posts but should probably come with an M for mature and a C for controversial.

I liked the header at Canned Tan Chick and I liked the post that showed a cute t-shirt, but no post yesterday! Carissa's blog has some funny "life" stories and certainly has some lengthy posts!

Lol! A letter to red bull energy drink was humorous over at Carolynne Bites. Caylynn's Contemplations has some interesting posts, a nice header and she's balanced the use of images and pictures to make an overall interesting blog.

Cherry extract had a neat post on blue men. And, I have to admit that when I saw her name really was Cherry I could only think of that movie where most wives were robots and real women were more rare... and the title was... Cherry 2000, I think... Is that it, help me out movie buffs.

I thought Chirky had a great layout. Nice, clean and fun to visit.

Ok, I really like the coffee cup on Chookooloonks journal today. I want one! And, what an interesting handle, course, I do have to note that there have been some really interesting handles or blog names and I apologize for all of you I'm skipping over. I promise, I did visit your site! I just don't want a 10 foot long post.

Citizen of the month is a happening place to be! An active blog with lots of interesting posts and comment threads.

Coffee Crochet was a great stopping spot! I loved the Hasselhoff entry! Hahah...

Lol! "Plowing through life in the country... one calf nut at a time." Go Pioneer Woman - love the tagline.

Crazy mom cat has a great blog!

Creative Quilt has a great picture on her header!

It was fun... but I think I may be ALL blogged out for the day guys and gals.

Things to do INSTEAD of Writing...

Yup, only 600 words finishing up chapter 8 and I'm already surfing the blogs... I've got to get dinner started, load the dishwasher and I really wanted to complete chapter 9... /sigh

c/o Bosphorus Ramblings

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I may live in Minnesota and I may be picking up some parts of the accent. But I try to speak clearly most the time.

The Thesaurus: Friend or Foe?

I realized I've not included many posts of specific interest to writers. I've got some, but I want to make sure that I continue to incorporate the passion of writing into this blog. So with that in mind... let's talk about the thesaurus.

Mrs. Brain Bomb reviews manuscripts and provides editing services to literary agents. She has some interesting posts and one of her recent ones got me thinking. The post: Inside Dope for Other Writers. The part that got me thinking:

"The obvious avoidance of a thesaurus. I recently read a MS where the character "frowned" throughout the entire story. Umm, humans have many facial expressions. Let's get creative or at least spare me from reading the same word twenty six times."

I would be lost without a thesaurus. I use mine constantly. I have a good ole hardback and I use www.thesaurus.com on a regular basis. Sometimes I can't quite remember the word I'm looking for but I've got a close spelling to it, or I want to confirm the meaning. Sometimes I'm looking for a word that has a certain sound to it, or portrays a tone. Sometimes I'm just trying to avoid repetition.

How important is your thesaurus? How often do you use it?

This also leads me to look at it from the other side. As a reader, do you enjoy seeing new/unusual/unknown words? I do, although, I like it best when the author uses the word in context so that I can figure out the gist of the word. Every now and then I've read something that doesn't put the word in context and I have to do a quick search if I can't figure out the meaning.

Since I like to read new words, as a writer I like to sprinkle words that I view as adding "spice" or authenticity into my writing. Here is a sentence from my work in progress:

"A tangle of lianas wove a web of thick vines before him."

It's short, it's simple... but I've tossed in "lianas", which is a type of vine. I've had readers compliment the use of new terms. Then I've had readers that point it out specifically during the critique with the comment, "I don't know what a liana is."

Where is the line between interesting and confusing? It is impossible to please all the people all the time, but when is a word ok to use if it's not well known... and when should you shy away from it?

Let's discuss...

Day 3 A Case of the Bbbbbs

Is it me or is the Nablopomo prize list growing? And what's this??? *Gasp* Fuzzy added more A's... /sigh sorry you new A's on the list. It's the B's turn.

As of right now (my time, not yours) there are 61 B blogs on the NaBlo list. 5 of them are out because they missed one of the days for posting... 8 of them are in the "maybe" category because they've only got a few hours left before Day 4 begins. That 8% out and 13% that haven't posted yet today.

Bad Biology is first up on the list and it's the blog for a field biologist, cool. Neat posts, book list, has a link to despair.com (I love that site). Uhoh... No post for 11/2/2006.

I have to say that I loved the blog header... and the tag line for Badger. Here's the tag line: "Sometimes Evil drives a minivan and sometimes Evil is too drunk to drive!"

As I'm browsing through these blogs and peeking at the content and post history... I see quite a few that pop on to post a single picture or just a brief sentence... Come on... You can do better than that!!! :)

One of the mom blogs that I enjoyed was the Bean Blog.

Beks and Ro, Life in Kottayam quickly pulled me into her posts with her lively tone and interesting story! And, I had to google because I had no idea what or where Kottayam was.

The Best of My Life gets kudos because I love that Napoleon Dynamite "dance" scene...

There were a few others that did stand out to me Bite the Rabbit, Blogorrhea, and Bored Now.

Keep it up guys and gals!

Ack!!! Yet another addiction preys upon the innocent.

Yes, my dear friends... Stand up and give voice to your addiction.

"I am an internet addict."

Fear not, help can be found!

I saw this article today and it poses the question: Are you an internet addict?

From the article:

Here's a list of common symptoms to watch out for:
1. Lying about how much time is spent online.

2. General decrease of physical activity and social life.

3. Neglecting obligations at home, work, or school to spend time online.

4. Spending too much money on computer equipment or Internet activities.

5. Feeling a constant desire to be online when they're away from the computer.

6. Going online to escape real world problems.

7. Disregarding the emotional or physical consequences of being in front of a computer all day.

8. Denial of the problem.

1. Well, I don't lie about how much time I spend online. I work at home for an internet company. I'm on the computer all day long and most evenings.
2. I thought that was caused by aging?
3. Hmmm, work sucks, housework sucks...
4. People still pay for "internet activities"? WTF - blogger is free! The absolute write forum is free! I've got a few memberships I've paid for, but most of my time is just surfing and goofing off!
5. I've felt that way from time-to-time.
6. Who doesn't try to escape real world problems with whatever "fun" activity is around?
7. What? There are consequences? No one told me! OMG I've got to sue someone.
   What problem?

I make light of this because I find it humorous. I'm sure there are some people that are addicted to being online as much as someone is addicted to cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol. Anything taken to excess is likely to harm you. I'm not sure why people can't understand this.

There is an internet addiction test if you are worried. I actually scored a 45 which means I'm an average user.

Fun things to do INSTEAD of Writing!

Item #10:

Google Thyself!

Yup, I found a picture of me at an opening ceremony in Shanghai, China. It was on a Chinese website so I don't know what it said.

That was in my not-so distant past when I lived the life of an international distribution manager.

Note: I'm not blonde and I'm not Asian.

Hmm, there are more people with my name than I thought there would be... interesting...

Nanoblo... Day Two

Yesterday I thought it would be terribly clever of me to review each grouping of participants of the NaBloPoMo and it would give me something to post about fairly regularly. The 0-1 category has 12 blogs. 12 is a nice number. It's a happy number...

The A category has 76. *hiccup* Have I mentioned today was a sucky day at work and after I put the kids to bed I decided to have a tasty beverage... or two... or five... :)

Yes, the A category has 76, did I say that already... 76... I have a five minute attention span. Do you know how hard it is to pick a favorite blog out of 76 options? It's pretty darn hard. I don't think I realized how many mothers blog. That's a lot of moms blogging out there because I think at least every other blog I visited was a mom blog! I'm a mom. I love mom blogs... but geez... I read blogs by moms, blogs by students, blogs by artists... blogs that were ... yes, I have to say it BORING! and blogs that made me giggle.

I simply can't list my favorites... but I will share with you some of the highlights of the 76, yes, 76 blogs I visited this evening. (This doesn't count my favorites that I neurotically visit numerous times each day.)

I thought Chichimama's username was clever... and how can you not be tickled by someone who actually knows how to use gregarious in a conversation?

How many people have read "A Day In The Life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn" and thought about naming their blog: A day in the the life?

Although, A Day in the Life by Quilldancer has a cute header and some interesting posts.

A Horrible Warning seems to include some humorous posts, but there are only so many hours left in day two... how many participants are already falling off the wagon?

With my um, slightly inebriated state, the blogs that really stuck with me were those blogs that had interesting layouts or entertaining titles and posts. I have to say that A Little Maryment caught my eye with the post, "I'm not a gay pirate, I have sex with my parrot all the time." How can that NOT catch your eye... and parrot activists... settle down, it's just a joke.

I enjoyed visiting African Kelli and reading through several of the posts there.
For whatever reason, it also stuck with me enough that I decided to capture a little screen shot of it to share with the rest of you.

I also enjoyed visiting Alice's adventures underground.

All eyes on Jenny seems to have some fun and interesting posts... and I liked her header and layout.

There is a student over at an eye for detail that had some interesting posts that kept my attention for a little while.

An udge and a wink definitely caught my eye when I saw mention of 8 degrees... that's friggin cold... and then I saw she or he (I guess I should be gender friendly) is in Germany.... BRRRRR
Edit to clarify the 8 is in C... not F... Duh, you would think I'd remember that.

I also enjoyed Average Jane and Avalon Landing's post on Nano'ing.

I'm sad to say I can't name my favorite... but out of 76 A blogs participating in the November blogging event... these are the ones that stuck out to me.

What's the story of your handle, err username, err persona?

The internet is truly an amazing tool. People across the world can meet and make friends. In the blogosphere we have entire networks of friends that share daily experiences and observations. Some of us do this as ourselves and some of us do this as an online persona. Some persona’s, like Miss Snark, are widely known. Other’s, like mine, are not. The persona can hide who we really are… an older gentleman can act like a young school girl. A young woman can act like an older biker dude. People can create a fantasy of who they are and then share it as “fact”. I think this creates an interesting avenue for discussion.

If you’ve seen the username Rashenbo somewhere, more than likely it’s me. I’ve used it for years and to me, it’s as much my name as the name that’s on my birth certificate. I have friends who know who I am, yet to them, I’m Rashenbo.

What do you think about online personas? Do you use one? Why? What’s the story behind your username or online persona? Is your persona your alter-ego? Are you afraid of people finding out something personal and using it against you? Do you act out under your persona as if that “name” has its own behavior and attitude?

To start the discussion, I’ll tell you where mine comes from. My parents were told they couldn’t have children. Surprise! They were delighted. I was due on December 9th . On December 20th I decided to share my presence with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I was breach. My legs were tight against my body and my feet were against my neck and along with my feet - my umbilical cord, wrapped nice and neat around my neck.

My heartbeat was failing and my mother weakened with each contraction. The doctors had to perform an emergency C-section. They warned my father that the infant might not survive. Now, my father is not a man who would be described as emotional. He also has an extremely, well weird, sense of humor that a lot of people don’t get. He does, however, love my mother completely.

When my mother and I arrived safely in the room following surgery she asked him what my name should be. He made an elaborate, and I’ve been told, highly entertaining story and told her that I should be named Rashenbo. They didn’t name me Rashenbo. But the story means something to me… and that name MEANS something, to me.

Now it’s your turn.

Announcing the Rashenbot!

For immediate release: Writing Aspirations is announcing the new role of RASHENBOT. Yes, the Rashenbot will visit this blog from time-to-time during the month of November and make a post if the one and only REAL Rashenbo is unable to meet those November Blogging commitments.

Rashenbo (yes, I am speaking in the third person) will be trapped… errr, enjoying a lovely 24 hour long car ride with darling husband and delightful daughters… oh yes, and the excitable 50 pound boxer puppy, Boudreaux on November 13th. Because the grey matter will be pulsating with weariness, Rashenbo will not be logging online the 13th or 14th. Rashenbot, the handy “save to be published on” feature will be ready to come to the rescue! If I am not prompt in my email replies, visits to your blog, or responses to your comments it’s probably because I’ve gone insane and I’m running around some strange McDonald’s cackling like a mad scientist.

Miss Snark... The Woman, The Myth... The gaggle of geese?

Recently in writer news the very existence of Miss Snark was questioned.

Is the Snark a Snark? Is she a woman? Is he a man? Is it a Dragoon of Snarklings? Perhaps it's a pack of google paid blog-bombers? Perhaps it's a flock of literate geese?

Inquiring minds want to know!

What is the mysterious Miss Snark?

A goddess of womanhood! A man truly in touch with his fashion sense! Miss Snark is actually a Dragoon of Snarklings, silly. It's true... Miss Snark is a pack of Google paid blog-bombers. A gaggle of brilliant and witty geese. Miss Snark is a Snark, of course. What's a Snakr?

Create Free Polls

November 1st Kick Off!!

For many, today begins the mad rush to the 50,000 word finish line.... Cheers to all of you Nano'ers of 2006. I look forward to reading some very interesting creative endeavors. For those of us who aren't Nano'ing away, we may be Nablo'ing. Yes, it is the first annual NaBloPoMo and for those of you thinking it sounds a little naughty... Get yer head outta the gutter!




There is a huge list of participants and I can only wonder how many I will stumble across as I surf through the blogosphere. Well... why leave it up to random surfing? The list of participants (the long list) is right there on the page. I decided I'd go through each section and pick out my favorites from the list. Luckily, the 0-1 list is nice and short, easy for my limited attention!


There were two blogs that I think I enjoyed the most from this section:


24/7 A Mother's Work is Never Done


This blog has some delightful comments and observations of a mother. And, check out that awesome header... I wonder where she got that?

She has a lovely description of who she is and I chuckled several times while reading through her previous posts. This blog appears fairly new in the blogosphere as I only see four months of history. But, from what I've seen, it's entertaining and a place I think I'll enjoy visiting again.


Number Two on my favorite from the 0-1 list is the:

50 Books

What can I say? I love the written word and blogs about books and writers and writing are always interesting to me.

50 Books has some great tidbits of the book world, some nice reviews, some great images and an overall fun atmosphere. I enjoyed reading through past entries and I definitely think I'll be adding this site to my browser favorites to visit again.