I didn’t have a lot of links to share this past Sunday – partly because work was so busy last week that I skimped on blog reading! – so I decided to keep the collection open a little while longer this time.
Announcements:
******** I have set up a FriendFeed – it’s yet another way to share online activity, centralizing your participation in various services. In my case, it’s recapping blog posts, Twitter updates, LibraryThing activity, and Google Reader shared items. The nice thing about it is that once you set it up, it can be completely effortless (unless you get involved in its “discussion” capabilities…). If you’re using it too, let me know so I can subscribe to your updates.
********* One of my favorite book-blogging people – make that favorite people, period – is Wendy, better known as Literary Feline of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. In honor of her blog’s second anniversary, she is offering a chance to win 14 books in Hachette Book Group’s Summer Reads Giveaway. Even though your entry will reduce my own chances of winning, if that sounds like your idea of a good time, you can find out about the books offered and how to enter in this post on Wendy’s blog (deadline is August 2nd).
******** Just a reminder that I will be hosting the August Bookworms Carnival! The details:
Theme: You’re Never Too Old – Children’s and Young-Adult (YA) literature
To submit a post, email: 3.rsblog at gmail dot com
Book reviews, essays, or even your own short fiction are welcome, as long as they are related to children’s or YA literature.
********* Next week’s topic for Ten on Tuesday is “10 Least Favorite Celebrities,” and I’m taking a write-in poll. Who has totally worn out his or her welcome with you? Leave their names in the comments (you don’t need to list ten yourself, unless you really want to), and I’ll work them into the list – with credit and a link to you, of course!
New in Google Reader:
The Unfocused Life, via Everything Under the SunMar Vista Mom, via Twitter
Blog Nosh Magazine – what’s that? find out more here
Random reading:
I was a little behind on blog-reading last weekend, so I didn’t get to these excellent Independence Day–related posts until after I posted last Sunday’s “snippets.” Speaking of blog-reading (and writing), were you aware that the average blog lifespan is two months? Thanks to Cynical Dad for that tidbit as he marked his third year of blogging! It’s been well over a year now for me, and I suspect most of you who read here regularly have been at it for far longer than that average as well – in fact, let me know in the comments just how long you’ve been blogging!
It’s not like Mir Kamin needs me linking to her, but I really related to much of what she said in this post, particularly the parts I’m about to quote:
I dislike the implication that ANYONE needs a mate to be happy…You cannot rely on a PERSON for happiness, because the last time I checked, people were fallible and that’s a crappy paradigm for emotional stability. Just sayin’.
I believe that we are all working out our own salvation. Put plainly, we don’t get what we can’t handle or what we’re not ready to receive. I am positive that this phase of my life fell into place once I had done the personal work necessary for it to happen…I think these great loves came into our lives when we were finally ready for them. We are happy now in large part because we have mates with whom to share our lives, yes, but we have those mates in large part because we’d figured out how to be happy without them. See?
“Career” vs. “job” – what are the distinctions? And both in and out of the career/job realm, I’ve always been most comfortable in the second-banana role myself – what about you?
Well, what do you know? Twitter serves a purpose after all.
I’m a dog person, which is one reason I enjoy reading people’s rants about their cats. I also enjoy their rants about their husbands, even though I probably shouldn’t have laughed quite so much at this one. (Dude, just read the manuscript – your armpit hair is at stake!) And don’t almost all of us rant about spam?
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My first post at the Los Angeles Moms Blog is up! The blog is in “soft launch,” but building an archive and adding contributors, and I’m excited to be one of them. This time, I’m talking about life with an eight-year-old Pokemon addict:
I have been a parent long enough to know that kids go through these periods of intense attachment to particular interests or activities. In some cases, it does turn out the be the proverbial “going through a phase,” particularly with younger children. Sometimes it lays the foundation for a lifelong love affair, like the one my son has with baseball. But regardless of the eventual outcome of the obsession, it can make living with the obsessed one very interesting – or, just as likely, very boring… My stepson’s all-consuming interest in everything related to these junior-grade anime characters is something else – and for the rest of us, but especially for me, what it mostly is is exhausting.
If you’d like to read the rest, just click here – and it would totally make my day if you’d leave a comment for me over there, too!
Hee. I asked my wife if she was going to do Ten on Tuesday this week because she can’t stand Heidi and Spencer from The Hills. She wants to but then she has to say they are celebrities, which they aren’t. Not really.
Ah, cats. They are not friendly. But they can be fun when cat nip is involved. 🙂
About the Bookworms Carnival. You want submissions from us? I don’t have a book to review, but I do have a favorite book or two I read as a kid that I can talk about. (Maybe I should be e-mailing you this.)
Anyway, good links! 🙂
Well, I was going to tell you I was on FriendFeed, too, but I guess you’ve already found it. Yay! Yet another way to connect, isn’t it great ?(!#@$%!)…um, yeah, I guess. Like we need another way to communicate with folks, huh? Although, bonus, I have met some interesting “folks” here in the blogosphere like yourself…I passed along your post to my sister, who also is a “Mommy Blogger” (I like quote marks as you can tell and parentheses). Her blog is Boondock Ramblings.
Mike – I think most of the candidates for a “least favorite celebrities” list would be people we hate to admit ARE celebrities – because there seems to be no good reason WHY they’re celebrities. Jenn should make a list for next week.
I’m going to have a follow-up post about the Bookworms Carnival tomorrow, so if that doesn’t answer your questions, let me know – but you’re definitely welcome to participate!
JustA(Reading)Fool – You may have noticed I’m fond of parentheses myself – and dashes :-).
FriendFeed let me know that you’d subscribed to my feed, so I reciprocated, of course. Yeah, one more way to connect – this may be the easiest one yet, though. And I’ll check out your sister’s blog – thanks for the link!
That’s great that you’ll be hosting the Bookworms Carnival! I’ll have to go through my archives and see if there’re any related book reviews to forward to you. 😉
Melody – Thanks! I got the links you sent; you’re the first to submit anything.
Thank you for posting about my giveaway and anniversary, Florinda! 🙂
An average of 2 months for most blogs . . . Wow! It’s like me with any exercise routine. 😉
My husband went through a card game phase in college where he was collecting all sorts of cards for a vampire roll playing game. He and his friends would get together and play. I even played a couple of times. I remember having to scour all the hobby shops and comic book stores in search of cards he wanted to add to his collection.
I enjoyed the cat story links. My cat’s gotten shut in the cupboard a few times because he sneaks in when I’m not looking. Luckily there haven’t been any accidents. In the cupboard at least. Once when he was accidentally shut in the spare bedroom, he did have an accident. used a blanket on the bed to cover it up. At least his litter box practices carry over.
Literary Feline – Glad to help promote your giveaway, Wendy, even if more entries reduce my own chances :-D!
So, with the vampire role-playing game cards – are you telling me they don’t always outgrow this stuff? Actually, both my ex-husband and my son were still playing D&D in college, so I knew it already…
My husband doesn't play D&D anymore, but he still reads all the new play books that come out. I don't know if he'll ever grow out of it. 🙂
LF – Tall Paul was never a D&D player. I've told him that his nerd credibility is a little shaky because of that :-).
I don't think Chris plays D&D anymore either, but he may still play Everquest online…fortunately, I don't have to know that stuff anymore, now that he's living on his own.