Blog Posts That Have Caught My Attention

I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis.  Or rather, I TRY to read a lot of blogs/websites on a daily basis.  Things don't always happen the way I intend.  But one of the things I am going to try to do regularly is point you toward some of the blog entries that have caught my attention each day.  Since I usually read the blogs in the morning, some could be from the previous day.  But good doesn't usually have a time limit, does it?

West Metro Mommy wants to know how you feel about bloggers making negative comments about businesses on their blog.  Pop over and give her your dime (inflation's brought it up from 2 cents, you know.)

I love to read Lifehacker, because I always find interesting things to grab my attention.  This article on using a 5-calendar system might be just right for my need to try to become more organized.  Heck, I'm willing to try anything!

They also mention using an old piece of heavy cardboard, such as one from a large appliance box, for your chair mat.  It's definitely a cheaper alternative to buying a floor mat specifically made for rolling chairs.

The third one from Lifehacker today involves a tool that I may look into - Pistash.io.  It is a bookmarking tool that allows you to sort your bookmarks into categories and set reminders so you don't forget that you wanted to go back to them. A lot of times, I'll find something on a blog or elsewhere that I want to return to later.  I'll bookmark it and then... well, life will happen.  Six months later, I'm looking through my bookmarks and find that the page I'd marked involved something that ended three months ago.  This, or so I hope, should keep me from missing stuff that I want to check out again later.

Gizmodo has an article about Pandora's new Workout Channels. They've got good things to say about the music that plays on these stations.  Me, I think it's a great, free way to get me working out like I need to.

They've got an awesome picture of the moon from it's north pole. If you're a space-geek like me, you definitely want to check it out.  Whenever I get tired of Green Arrow, I may have a new background for my computer.

The geek in me is enjoying reading io9's article about the superhero boom post 9/11. Being the big superhero fan that I am, I found it an interesting read.  I honestly hadn't thought about superheroes becoming more popular post-911.  They've always been a part of my life.  But I can see both sides of the argument - the need for feeling more powerful after a powerless time and the the fact that technology has finally arrived to make the superheroes be able to do their cool things and have it not look cheesy.  I do like the fact, however, that supers are a way to help our nation heal.

Every weekday, The Mom Pledge blog features a different community member.  If you haven't checked them out before, you should now.  There's a bunch of great blogs in this fantastic community.  Today, the blog features Mungee and Me. I haven't checked out this blog yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so. A quick glance shows one really cute kid and a mom with a great sense of humor!

Over at Adventures with Three Girls, Jessica Anne has a great post about Bras 101.  She lists fun facts along with ways to make sure you have the right bra fit, as well as ways to make your bras last longer.  As one who always has a hard time with bras (HATE underwires with a passion, yet have pretty large breasts), I'm going to keep a lot of these in mind.

Life on the Mama Track struck a cord with me.  After a frustrating couple of days with her little one, she got a first hand reminder of why she's glad to be right where she is. I had a similar moment yesterday.  Pete had been throwing a fit because he did NOT want to sit in his car seat to go to the store before PDO.  He wanted to sit in the front seat and tried to throw himself out of the straps to get to where he wanted to be.  High pitched screams drove me insane.  He'd calmed down a little after we got to the store, but I was still incredibly grateful for PDO.  We got to the church about 30 minutes early, so I let him out of his car seat so he could grab the things that fell to the floor.  All of a sudden, I felt two little arms wrap around my shoulders and his sweet voice saying, "You my bes' fend, Mommy."  It makes it worth it.

For my crocheting friends, my friend Tracie, of Fibers by Tracie, has posted a bunch of pictures and links for some of her designs.  Check it out.  Because she's got some really cute things over there!

Finally, Free iTunes has mentioned a free video for download entitled 9/11: The Day that Changed the World.  I'm downloading it.  Maybe I'm masochistic, but for me, it's necessary. I figured I wasn't the only one.

Apps, Giveaways, Cool Links, and a Cry for Help!

Once again, I'm going through my daily blog reading and wanted to share some cool links with you.

But before I do even that, I need to promote one of my favorite apps for Google Chrome.  It's Feed Squares.  I rarely go to Google Reader any more because of this app.  It puts every feed that you have on your Reader into neat little squares.  It's fairly customizable and really easy to use.  You even have choices on how you read things.  Each of your folders is a link at the top and, when you click it, it pulls all of the feeds that are filed under that folder together and takes away the rest.  You can choose whether to read entries from oldest to newest or vice-versa, to not show read entries, to dim down blogs without updates... it's truly an awesome app.  And best of all, it's a free app.  I say try it and if you don't like it, disabling is easy as well.

Now on to the stuff I'm finding in my daily reading.

First up, is a giveaway over at Better than Naked Vintage Finds.  This is a blog that I started following for one of the Swap-Bot Blog swaps I did.  Not only does she show off the finds that she has for sale at her boutique, but she does weekly giveaways on Wednesdays.  This week, the giveaway is an awesome 60's Upcycle Purse.  The rules for entering are there and incredibly simple.  So if it sounds like something that might interest you, check it out!



Mommy Mandy is my giveaway central today, at least thus far.  I have   giveaways and promotions from her site to share today.

I'm fairly low-maintenance when it comes to my hair, even more so now that my hair is shorter.  But I know that there are others of you out there who might want a chance to win hair goodies.  Mommy Mandy is giving away a Karmin G3 Salon Pro over on her blog.  The giveaway ends April 19.  So if it sounds like something that might interest you, head on over and take a look!

She's also doing a promotion for Famigo, the Mobile Fun Company for Families.  Take a 5 minute survey (link is on her website), and you'll be entered for both the $20 Target gift card that Mommy Mandy is giving away and the Kindle 3G that Famigo is giving away.  This is one that I HAVE entered.

The next one is for PillowPets, again from Mommy Mandy.  All you need to do is let Mommy Mandy know what your favorite part of the new PillowPets site is. (Her giveaway entry is here.)  She's also got info regarding getting extra entries.

I'll try to post some more giveaways tomorrow.  Because lots of my favorite bloggers have pretty awesome giveaways.

Now for the cry for help.  I want a button for my blog.  Not only do I want a button for my blog, but I want the cute little thing where people can just take the code for my button and put it on their site and off they go, letting people know that they read me (at least occasionally) and think that my blog is worth checking out.  But there are two problems with this.

Problem number one, I have very little creativity.  I do try, and sometimes I come out with cool things.  But usually those are non-electronic.  I know that there are some places out there where someone could make their own blog (and I also know that some of my friends love to create things on PSP or PhotoShop).  I need to be pointed in a good direction for where I could make a button or who I could beg with tears for help making one.

Problem number two, I have not been able to figure out how to put code on my blog in a way that could be easily copied.  I've looked around and I haven't had any luck. I'm probably putting in bad search terms.  But if someone could just point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Now off to my regularly scheduled posts...

Check out these Blog posts!

As I posted the other day, I'm trying to find new things to liven up my blog.  Some of you may notice the new commenting system that I implemented.  I'm hoping that it will encourage me (and you) to have conversations in comments about the things you read or see here.  The comments are tiered with replies rather than everything being on the same level.  It's easier to tell who is replying to whom.

Another one of the things that I wanted to do was share some of the great blog stories that I find among the many blogs that I read.  And that's what today is for.  I'm probably going to do this every other day or so.  Starting with today.

And away we go!

Guest Post about Cyber Bullying on The Mom Pledge - Elizabeth asked Andrea Weckerle to guest post for her on The Mom Pledge blog.  Andrea is the founder of Civilination, a non-profit resource for online civil discourse. Andrea is also an attorney and can speak to the legal ramifications of cyber-bullying.  In this post, Andrea tries to define what is and is not cyber-bullying for the reading public.

 The A to Z Challenge - You know me.  I love challenges.  I may not always be able to follow THROUGH with them, but I certainly try.  This challenge is set up for bloggers to post every day, minus Sundays, in the month of April.  Each daily post should involve a different letter of the alphabet, but where and how you incorporate it or chose to interpret it is up to you.  I'm hoping to get a couple posts done tonight then be ready to join in tomorrow.


Paradoxical Paint Job - I love optical illusions.  The way they trick and tease the mind.  The blog, Mighty Optical Illusions is one of my favorites to read regularly because I never know what great illusions may be waiting for me.

Just a few for today.  I hope you enjoy reading them.  And please, feel free to reply with some of your favorite blog posts of the week!

Various thoughts running through my head

I came downstairs this morning and got on the computer as per usual.  I found the last thing that Rich had been reading - an article about why some bullying should be allowed in school. It was inspired by the Casey Heynes video in which an overweight high school kid that was being bullied by classmates turned the tables and finally hit back.  Dr Johnson doesn't advocate "turning high schools into publicly-funded 'Lord of the Flies' re-enactments", but instead states that some amount of bullying helps kids navigate in the real world.

I'm torn between agreeing - because, as the need for The Mom Pledge goes to show, bullying exists for adults as well - and thinking he's hopelessly naive.  Because, while the physical bullying is a bad enough thing, it's the psychological bullying that's the worst.  For every one Casey Heynes, there are hundreds of kids (and yes, I'm pulling the number out of the air so don't take this as gospel) that have fragile egos that makes them both easier prey and life a living hell for them.  And of those, there are a small percentage that snap like Michael Carneal in 1997 and resort to extreme violence.  It's a lot harder to catch the psychological bullying because kids are crafty enough not to do where adults can hear.  And for all that we tell our children that they need to tell an adult when this kind of thing is happening, most kids don't feel comfortable doing so for a variety of reason - no good home life, don't feel like adults take them seriously, feel like telling on the bully makes them a coward.  I think this is the kind of bullying that anti-bullying stances are trying to eradicate.  Because, I do applaud Casey Heynes for standing up for himself, but think that it will be difficult for a lot of other kids to do the same.

(Yeah, my thoughts aren't completely coherent right now. I may try to write more on this later after coffee and my errands for the day are done.)

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Teddy is scared to death of our cat, Lemon.  Lemon has a split personality - sometimes he'll want snuggles or be content to lay at the top of the stairs, watching the world go by and other times, he decides that biting or scratching needs to happen at that moment.  It's happened often enough to Teddy that he hates to walk by Lemon, afraid that this time it's going to be a time that he'll be scratched or bit.  (And this, without realizing it until now, does seem to tie into my above remarks because Lemon is very much a bully.)  And a thought ran through my head that gave me a small smile - you so often hear of kids terrorizing pets.  How often do you hear of pets terrorizing kids?  Not that I'm making light of Teddy's fear of Lemon.  I know it's something that really bothers him and I'm trying to help him get over it.  But the juxtaposition was an odd one in my mind.

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I've finally made an appointment for Teddy to see the doctor.  We're going to need to leave soon.  We won't get to see his doctor, but we will get to see Dr Steigelfest, who is one of Dr Rothman's fabulous partners.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to figure out what's up with Teddy.  Because fevers up and down for the last week is getting worrying.  We'll see what they say.

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And now, I need to get my butt in gear, get my kids dressed and head out the door.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to make a stop at Michael's while we're over there, but I think we'll be done before they open at 9 (appointment is at 8:15.)  Maybe I'll get lucky.

More thoughts to come later, because I know I haven't written them all out.  And really, would I be able to?

The Last Blog Post for Tonight

I know.  I've been very bloggy tonight.  I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but I do want to spend some time with my husband playing some Heroes V.


I'm shortly going to be adding a new page to my blog for the Blog Hop that I've joined over on Bloggy Moms.  Specifically, it's the Blog Dare Blog Hop.  For those unfamiliar with a Blog Hop, when you put the code in, the same list of links will show up on your blog as with every other blog that uses the same bit of code.  It updates the page that you have the code on whenever anyone adds a blog to the list.  And, since there's a lot of great Mom Blogs that are part of Bloggy Moms in general and Blog Dare in particular, I'm hoping to help generate not only some more traffic for me but for these other blogs as well.

I'm hoping to spend some time tomorrow working on both the swaps that I have due and the reviews that I'm so far behind on (since that's part of a swap as well).  I've got some "out of the apartment" time, since it's Story Time at 10:30 and I'm getting together for lunch with my friend Becca and her kids afterwards.  I've also got to remember to go by the store and pick up some black ink for the printer so I can print out some of the things that I want to add for swapping.

Speaking of swapping, I just realized that I have some awesome crafting tools that I need to steal from my kids.  (Ok, borrow....)  For Teddy's treat bags at his party, I'd included some plastic stencils that I'd picked up at Wal-Mart.  I hadn't looked at them too closely and I'd honestly forgotten about them until I saw my boys using them as swords today.  But they're perfect for embellishments on crafty things that I'm doing.  So I have a new craft tool in my bucket.

A couple bits of good from tonight, aside from all my blogductive work (I love this word.  Don't know if anyone's ever used it before, but I see it as being a very common word in my future).

1. We finished listening to A Maze of Bones, the 1st book in the 39 Clues series.  Teddy won't let Rich and I listen to book 2 without him around.  He's become very interested in it as well.
2. Rich found an awesome group of YouTube videos that someone put together.  It's a series of Phineas and Ferb songs put together in 18 minute chunks.  He brought me in to see some from an episode we haven't seen (damn having to get rid of cable!)  It's called "Rollercoaster, the Musical".  The first song showed Phineas singing through a variety of musical homages and I recognized every single one.  There's a reason Rich called me in for it, and it was because he knew it would hit my geek button in a positive way.
3. I love websites that make me laugh out loud.  One of my favorites is Not Always Right.  It's a blog of funny, stupid, sometimes ignorant conversations that happen within hearing of people that deal with customers.  Sometimes it's a conversation between a customer and an employee.  Sometimes it's a conversation between two customers.  Sometimes it's reported by the employee and other times by the customer.  But there are very few of the posts in this that don't have me laughing out loud and begging Rich to listen to the latest one. And having been both a customer and a CSR of varying flavors much of my life, I can really find the humor in most of these.

Now, I'm off to play with my husband.  Good night, all!  And thanks for reading my posts today.

Caught Dead In That

Caught Dead In That

I came across this site through today's VSL (a wonderful site that sends you something interesting every day - whether it be a website, a book, a movie, music - but always interesting). I'm a huge lover of cemeteries, so this is going to be one of my favorite sites, I think. He hasn't been doing it long, so there's not a ton to read through. But if you like things a bit unusual in the tombstone department, check it out!

See What They Have to say About Me

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've had a few people review my blog as well.  Here are a few quick links in case you're interested in what other people have to say about my blog!

Kim reviews my blog along with all her other partners'

Nikki's review not only my blog, but her other partners and the ones that review her!

Vicki review my blog along with two of her other partners'

Kendy's review of my blog as well as her other partners'

I'm still waiting on the review of 3 more bloggers.  I need to send them my blog so they can take a look at it!  I'll link to them when I get their reviews.