(If you got that title reference, you are officially old enough to remember the 1970’s heyday of C.B. radio.)
Bulletin Board
*****Have you met my new widget over there in the sidebar? I’m participating in the 2008 DonorsChoose.Org Blogger Challenge with the Los Angeles Moms Blog! Your donation – as much or as little as you want – goes directly to support the specific classroom teacher project(s) you choose from this list. (By the way, several of them are looking for books for their classes, like this project that I donated to – and which I was notified on Friday has been fully funded!) You’ll help our local public schools, and help the LA Moms Blog raise more money for this cause than all those other mom blogs – just a little friendly competition for a good cause! And after you’ve done that, why not search the site for a project to support in your own town, too?
*****If you’d like to help some of the children and families affected by Hurricane Ike in Texas, here’s some information about Operation CRAYON.
*****I know I told y’all about this last week, but I’m on the move to end Alzheimer’s – Saturday, October 18. My most recent post on the LA Moms Blog is sort of about that, but it’s mostly about remembering my mom. Somewhat related: if you’re an American Express cardmember, final voting for this year’s Members Project is going on now, and the project Alzheimer’s Disease: Early Detection Matters is guaranteed some funding – the final vote tally will determine just how much money it gets, so please vote!
*****The BBAW Directory website – a followup to Book Blogger Appreciation Week – is now up and running! Search out some new blogs, or suggest an addition to the nearly 400 blogs already listed!
*****I can finally mention what I couldn’t talk about last week (for fear of jinxing it): we’re moving in just over a month! The new place is just across town, but it’s more spacious and in a nicer neighborhood (not next door to the train station). No, we’re not buying – are you KIDDING? This is Southern California! – but I know our new landlady from my book club. Preparing for the move may cause some slowdown on the blog front for the next few weeks, but you know I can’t stay gone for long.
New in Google Reader
Raising Mommy, via House of Prince
Julia’s Mexico City, (indirectly) via Mar Vista Mom
Greeblemonkey, via Blog Nosh Magazine
Literarily
Random reading – the week that was
A few things left out of the parenting manual; what can happen when parents don’t act like parents, a/k/a yielding to the “kindergarchy;” in celebration of a child; remembering a father
Connecting and reconnecting, or the Internet actually is good for something
I’ve lived in the suburbs for much of my adult life, and I’ve always been rather ambivalent about it, because I really want to be a city girl at heart. But I’ve never wanted to be one of those shiny happy rural people…
Box tops for bailouts? Financial distress and a flashback to F. Scott Fitzgerald; but it’s not the end of the world. And here’s an unusual suggestion for addressing it…
Should fiction writers write about politics, or technology, or basically anything that isn’t fiction? (If the answer is “no,” I have to wonder whether anybody should write about anything…) Also, why can’t politicians always be this mature?
A classic e-mail scam gets just a bit too personal; and scammers are still using snail mail, too
With so many reasons not to love California, it’s a wonder that anyone does
Did I forget the “thou shalt not share hats and get lice” commandment?
Would you prefer to keep your personal library on your personal computer (in this case, that has to be a Mac, though) instead of online? I haven’t tried it, but there’s some new (free!) software to do just that.
I know this is Thursday’s news, but someone got hold of Sarah Palin’s prep materials for the VP debate:
Random question of the week
If you use Feedburner for your blog feed, and you track your subscribers through it, do you have any insight as to how it works with Bloglines? My Google feed stats stay fairly consistent. Bloglines is 11 one day, 16 the next, back to 11, up to 19 the day after, then back down to 11 again. I’d be really surprised if that many people are adding and dropping the feed from one day to the next, so I’d love to know what’s going on here. Has anyone else noticed this with your feeds? Or should I just stop caring?
Book notes
Featuring some reviews others posted for Banned Books Week:
Just a (Reading) Fool got his Personal Banned Book Week Challenge underway with a re-reading of the genre-hopping existential classic Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and later gave in to Lois Lowry’s The Giver.
For the wishlist:
Who By Fire, by Diana Spechler
Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
The Best Place to Be: A Novel in Stories, by Lesley Dormen
The Pools, by Bethan Roberts
Congratulations on your upcoming move, Florinda. It sounds like a great opportunity for you. 🙂
I love Shana’s blog! I am glad to see you’ve added her to your Google Reader. And I wish Patois’ daughter was old enough to run for President of the United States. She’d have my vote. Lisa’s friend’s story is truly scary. I can see a lot of people being taken that way–they worm their way in, play on your emotions, earn your trust over time and then take advantage of that.
Hey, Good Buddy! (I love trucker talk, BTW.)
First of all, thanks for the link to the kindergarchy article…I really appreciate that!
And congrats on the move. Some people hate it, but I’ve always loved moving. Love the change and the “fresh start” feel of it all. Packing, of course, bites hard. Good luck for a smooth one…
I’m flummoxed by my feed situation, too. I just recently moved to feedburner and I see the same up and down that you’re seeing. Doesn’t seem right to me, either, but maybe I’m misinterpreting what that number means. * sigh * It’s a mystery.
Have a great weekend…
:^) Anna
Florinda: As always a joy to see what you’ve been reading this week (not just because it’s mine too). Especially the link to the BBAW Directory. I’ll have to catch up later with the rest. Thanks again for the mention, but as always the other great links as well.
Literary Feline – Thanks! The whole moving thing came together unexpectedly (and I’ll have a post up with more details on Monday) but it looks good. It looks good enough that Tall Paul keeps trying to find something wrong with it :-).
I’m not sure what took me so long to find Shana’s blog, but I’m glad to have done it!
Anna – I should have known the reference would not be wasted on you :-D!
I’ve seen some mention on Twitter this week about Bloglines readers having problems, and someone else whose own posts weren’t showing up in Google Reader, so I have no idea whether it’s a RSS-reader issue, a Feedburner issue, or a combination. I’m just glad I’m not the only one seeing it, at least.
The cleaning and packing will get underway tomorrow – we’re looking at moving the first weekend in November. Eek!
UnfinishedPerson – As ever, thanks for giving me good stuff to link to! I’ve bookmarked the BBAW directory for browsing at my (hypothetical) leisure.
10-4 Good Buddy! Yup, I’m officially old!
The Sarah Palin flowchart is so funny!! Have you seen the Palin Bingo cards??
Good luck with the move!
LisaMM – I’ve heard about the bingo cards, but haven’t actually seen them. I should probably look; I’m sure they’re very easy to find online.
Love that chart!
April – Someone e-mailed it to Tall Paul, and when he forwarded it to me, I said, “That’s awesome. I’m totally blogging it.” I think a lot of people had the same thought, though – I’ve seen it in a few other places.
Heh, CB’s. My brother had one before he had a car. He had a car battery in his bedroom and set it up. It was kind of lame if you think about it, but I thought it was cool at the time.
Great, it’s 4:30am and I read the post about the lice. Now I’m going to be itchy until it is time to go home. Thanks a lot! 🙂
Mike – Yeah, CB radio was kind of lame, but we did think it was cool at the time. We were young and silly then :-).
Sorry about that. I’m fairly suggestible in that way myself, so I know what you mean about being itchy. Hope that got better eventually!
Hopping over from April’s blog. I LOVE that flowchart. Too funny!
Jeff – Nice to meet you! That chart definitely seems to have worked well for SP.