Sickly Memeing

I've been ill for a while, and unable to post. I'm still not feeling that great, but I do have the energy to share with you a little meme I just got from a Facebook friend.

Just Google your name followed by the word "need" in quotes and see what you get! Post the top ten you see, then tag ten or so people and have them try it. Its hilarious!

1. Christina needs to realize that she in fact is not a bad ass. (oh, come on now!)
2. Christina needs Facebook. (well, it's not really a NEED, per say, more like an addiction...)
3. Christina Needs To Go.
4. Christina Needs Help. (in more ways than one! *chuckle*)
5. Christina needs a big family. (got one, thanks)
6. Christina needs an exorcism. (!!! LOL !!!)
7. Christina needs an adoption sponsor. (almost too true, I need a guardianship sponsor... close enough, right?)
8. Christina needs to release a statement or something that she WASN'T showing her..... (oh dear lord, the hits you get from sharing Aguilera's first name!)
9. Christina needs a baby-sitter. (okay, I'll go for that)
10. Christina Needs Spectacles. (yep, I'll take that too)

Wasn't that fun? Now try it yourself! I'm tagging Faith, Andrea, Todd, Angela, and everyone else who reads this, because I am far too tired after all of that to look up all of my dear internet friends and pick only ten.

Giveaway Oops

I made a mistake the other day when I sent you over to Products & Places, my review, freebies, and giveaway blog for our first little giveaway. There wasn't a giveaway going on then, but there is now. Somehow, in all the rush to get things done, I had completely forgotten to publish the post for the giveaway!

If the response is good for this giveaway, we'll up the ante over there with even better prizes and goodies.

But it's up now, so go on over and have yourself a look see! *smile*

Don't forget, there's a slew of samples about twice a week, and great reviews on products you may be interested in. Remember, every review is fully honest, whether good or bad, and many of my reviews could save you a pretty penny or three.

New Stuff At Products & Places!

New posts over at the review and freebie blog again this week, and several more scheduled regularly for the coming weeks, so stay tuned over there for more exciting freebies, giveaways, and reviews!

Currently showing for your viewing pleasure;

A review of the new Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber that I was lucky enough to have the chance to try(with a free coupon for you), and a whole slew of new freebies.

A new review of our favorite dance club is up on the front page as well, so be sure not to miss it.

Go have a look, and tell me what you think. Don't forget to comment over there, comments are pretty slow there at the moment. *grin*

UnGuzzling

With the rising cost of gas gouging holes in everyone's budget, and the 5 cent off per gallon Kum&Go gift cards no longer reloadable, I decided it was time to tackle some of the methods you can use to cut fuel costs.

Our family just moved closer to the majority of our daily activities so that we could walk or ride bikes more often to where we needed to go. This alone has cut our fuel consumption by 75% in the last month.

The first rule of driving to conserve fuel is to drive as if you were riding a bicycle. A lot of the ways I drive a vehicle, I learned when I was taught how to ride a ten-speed. Now, many years later, I am truly surprised to discover that a lot of the methods I have been doing since I bought my first car are now being suggested by the people who vehemently encourage fuel efficient driving.

Hooray for instinct! *grin*

Find out if your town is flat or slanted. We were happy to discover that our entire town slants down hill towards the southwest corner. This means that traveling to run certain errands or visit some of our friends takes less gas than going other places, as we can coast almost the whole way in one direction. We've begun to plan our trips so we can take advantage of the slant more effectively.

There's a lot more conservation methods on my advice & services blog; Earthereal Guidance.

Since we're talking about saving money, the freebies have started back up over at Products & Places as well. It's just a weekly thing until I get the time on my hands to do more, but with the prices going up all over, every little savings means a lot!

Cre8ing BuzZ

I've been really busy lately with all sorts of things, and haven't been doing all of the social networking or business extra stuff I usually would do in a day, so it came as a huge surprise when a week or two ago, my ranking on Cre8Buzz ranking was 42, and yesterday I looked and it was #1!

WOW

Just wow.

It only lasted a day, so I popped in and added more new content for folks to check out and rate so I can pop back into the top slot, but it is really exciting to be at or near the top of the heap in my category. Of course, now that I'm working to maintain top doggy in my category, I guess I am supposed to work towards being in the top 10 site-wide. It's really fun meeting new people and sharing interests with them, and some of the best new bloggers I've discovered in the last 6 months have been found by browsing around there.

Great folks, good times, laughs and useful information, all in one close-knit community. I'm so glad I found it!

To join in on the fun, click the kink in the blue widget/box on the left of this blog to go to my profile page and hit the "login" link at the top of the profile.

See you on the BuzZ!

Wanna Be A Top Momma?

Top Momma is an ongoing contest that is just for fun. You get to the top of the page by getting your readers to click on your badge or link, and go up the page in rankings. The game is to see how long you can stay on the front page. People are rated by popularity, and those that get a bunch of clicks move up the page in ranking, while those lower on the page can be knocked off by more popular blogs. It's like pugilism for moms, without the bruising. *chuckle* It takes a bit to get added, but it's all in good fun.

Choose a picture and join in. How long can you stay on the front page?

Tagged for Greatness

I found Whimspiration listed on someone else's blog again a while back while browsing the Internet, and had to go take a look at what they were doing and why my little blog had made it to a place of honor on their piece of the web. I tracked it back to it's beginning where this amazing blogger lists me as an awesome and insightful writer capable of keeping company with many of my favorite reads like Lifehacker, CopyBlogger, and Successful Blog, amongst hundreds of others.

I even got a special recognition badge for being an "Outstanding Blogger"!

Another fabulous blogger "doing the meme" challenged us all on the list (and anyone else for that matter) to join the Entrepreneur Meme and link back to the meme's starting page. For each link back he got from folks participating, he donated $1 to charity, up to $500!

Now, I can't think of a nicer thing for a body to do; provide hundreds of folks with excellent blog-fodder, amazing reading material, oodles of extra traffic, and donate to charity for each person who takes him up on the offer. Kudos!

To participate, we were to read A Complete List of 100 Attributes of People Who Start Companies: How You Can Be One of America’s Entrepreneurs. Add our own story, and either link back to him or drop him an email so he knows you've done your bit.

Now, I never managed to find the time to do the meme, but, I strongly suggest reading the article for anyone who has or is interested in starting their own business. It is a fabulous guide for entrepreneurs everywhere, in all fields of work, from service to sales and more. The traits of a successful business owner. Read it, learn it, live it. The definitive recipe for success.

I feel bad that I didn't participate, but when things are busy, sometimes there's no chance, and no time to simply "do more".

Used Up

I think I fried my creative writing ability yesterday when I jammed with ladybug to create two poems for her writing class. Helping her to rearrange her words and teaching her two different poetic methods in one night has drained me completely. I have nothing.

Absolutely nada.

On the other hand, her teacher, classmates, and the board who funds the free teen writing workshops were impressed with her creations, so I have nothing but pride in her success. It was all her work, I refuse to help her beyond a little critique, brainstorming help, exampling with things I refused to let her use, and some basic guidance. I'm not the kind of mom who lets her kids get by on anything but their own ability and merit.

Today wasn't really special, and I can't manage to single out any individual thing to write about, but I have to tell you something. You deserve at least that, just for stopping in. I know I feel let down a bit when I visit a friend's e-space after a few days and see nothing new, so I can only imagine how you feel, being used to daily updates, only to come here and find nothing at all for days in a row.

Maybe tomorrow, after some good sleep (here's hoping for decent rest), I'll be able to concentrate enough to write something with a modicum of interest.

As of right now, I am lucky to hold on to a thought for long enough to type it into the blog editor.

Love ya though!

Individual Blogger Style

There are as many different ways to nurture the living thing that is a blog as there are people who write them.

Do you set things up in advance, writing posts days ahead, fly by the seat of your pants, or ignore the blog entirely for months on end before posting again?

Are you insistent on posting every day, faithfully once a week, or only when the mood strikes?

Perhaps you are one of the uber-organized who set post outlines months in advance and fill them in as needed when you have a slow spot.

So tell me, How do you blog?

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10 Years & Counting

This week heralds the 10 Year Anniversary of Blogging. The jury is out as to whether the exact date was last Monday, or this coming Sunday, but it started ten years ago, my internets, here on the web for all to see.

Now, that's not to say, like most have, that I believe the first ever instance of the word being used was a mere 10 years ago. Nay, I say. That was just the first use of the word to refer to a web log or journal online.

Accordion Guy has tracked the spelling and use back to a Superman Comic from 1959. Unfortunately, it was used as a name, not in relation to a journal or log of any sort. That was just the first time the word was used in media though.

The first time "blog" was used at all, was when Samuel Adams wrote about the Boston Tea Party in a little known journal which he titled "The Boston Log". When speaking to friends and colleagues, he referred to it as his "blog". Check the facts by scrolling half-way down this page, or join the discussion on gullible.info, a great source for true trivia and other "useless" knowledge, here. Seeing as how that was a journal, I can reliably say we've tracked the etymology of the word, all the way back to 1774.

But I digress;

It has been ten years since the word first came to mean what it does today; a web log, internet journal, or world wide web log.

Hurray, let us all celebrate 10 years of obnoxiously bad web design, flashing glittery crud and cursor trails on pages spouting some of the most angst-ridden drivel ever.

Further proof that one person, no matter how whiny and self-absorbed, can change the world.

Happy Birthday Blogosphere!

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We Did It ! & Other Revelations

Well, the internet didn't quite explode, but I had a lot of fun! *grin*

National Blog Posting Month has come to an end, and I have managed to post every day! Despite the erratic nature of the times of the posts, I've shared something new with you, reliably, for 30 whole days in a row, with hundreds of like-minded challenge-seekers.

Among the thousands of participants, I discovered a plethora of fabulous new blogs, found many new bloggy friends, and met the goal. Hundreds of other determined bloggers have made it to the end with me; overworked, successful, and proud. My comrades in wordcrafting, I salute you.

To those who didn't quite make it all the way this year for whatever reason, there's always next year! Another challenge, another day, whereupon many more of us will succeed through the power of determination, stubbornness, or just some strange form of lemming-like insanity that seems rampant on the blogosphere. *wink*

Last year was my first attempt, and I missed a couple of days like most of us do when we first try, but this year I got it right, taking a few minutes or an hour out of each day to write something new or elaborate on something I had seeded earlier in order to create fresh content for you each day.

I learned a lot this time around. A lot about myself, about other bloggers, about time management, and about prioritizing my goals. I've decided that I should meet the small goals first, then work my way up, and that no matter what else gets in the way, even homelessness, there is always a way to do what you feel is truly important. It's the most stable and reasonable way to truly reach, and then maintain my dreams.

One down, millions more little dreams to go. Maybe next year, I'll commit to the ultimate insanity and do NaNoWriMo in addition to NaBloPoMo. With any luck, I'll be doing them both from our traveling home, our very own RV.

In the nice time, you know where you can find me. *grin*


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Bloggy Date/Time Line

A friend mentioned to me the other day, that on several occasions, she has checked my blog to see nothing there, but then come back later to find that a post was published right before she had been here last, so she should have seen it on her first visit.

Sounds confusing, huh?

Despite the fact that I have back-timed a post by an hour or so before, I couldn't think of why this happened to her so often. Then I realized what the 'problem' was.

See, I've figured out another reason why sometimes my posts appear 'after' they were written. Blogger dates and timestamps everything when I start writing it, so unless I edit the time before posting, it looks like it has been 'timed-back' by the time I actually post it, sometimes to a pretty extreme degree..

Often I start a post idea in the morning and then finish it and post in the evening, or even more drastically, I start a post seed several days in advance, wait for the idea to grow, then complete it much later. At that point, I simply must reset the times and/or dates on the post to look at least somewhat reasonable.

But for those others of you that wonder why a post isn't up, then later the blog says it was up before you came looking for it, there is your answer.

I was probably still writing when you dropped in. *wink*

I am a participant in NaBloPoMo.

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JingleBlog JingleBlog Jingle all the Day

Happy Ho ho, Festivus, and gifty season everyone!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I feel the need to decorate. Seeing as how we have no home of our own to make pretties, I decided virtual decor was going to have to do. *grin*

This is my first time decorating the blog in any way but a small image in a post, and I likely wouldn't have gone so far with it (note image banner, colored text, and fancy new super-light green background color) had I not been inspired by an outside force. Heck, I even changed the colors of the Google Adsense ads to match! *laugh*

Of course, the happy little Deck The Blogs Un-contest from Contest Hotel didn't have anything to do with it. *sly wink*

It was really fun to try out decorating, and I even managed to put in a third column, which I've been wanting to get done for ages. It was a great lesson in CSS, and heavens' know I really needed a good, working knowledge of that.

So in thanks to my lovely and talented motivators, and in cooperation with the contest rules, you will see the contest badge on the left side of the page.

Oh what fun it is to find a new contest to play!

I am a participant in NaBloPoMo.

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Whooo Aaaare Yooouuuu?

Who indeed.

Red Monkey writes about cultural identification, what it means to have a place to belong, and the search for a heritage, when there is none to be found in your own family. Robin's family always said they were American, which led to a personal lifelong search for something that fit. It's a great read, and really made me think.

We also say that we are American, but only because our family tree branches like Yggdrasill. I am Spanish, Italian, Scotch, Irish, English, German, and Native American. Keebler is Norse, Slavic, French, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, Polynesian, Egyptian, Native American, Greek, and a light dash of some Asian, such a small amount that they haven't properly traced it back yet. Ladybug's father is mostly English with a dash of French and German, while Littlebit's birth mother is English and Welsh. 100% muttbred. *grin*

We adopt cultural traditions and recipes from all over, creating in our own family a sort of mashed cultural identity, which I deem very appropriate for who we are, the place this country is, and who/what all goes into it to make it what it is.

We are all people, from all places, coming together for common goals. We are a blend of the best and worst of all cultures. We are American, even if we never achieve the goals that first brought us together.

Who are you?

I am a participant in NaBloPoMo.

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Google Fun & Surprise SEO

I've been looking at some new blogs and "meeting" fabulous new people this last week online as a break from other, much more tedious tasks, sitting on the floor and utilizing the neighbor's free-yet-nebulous WiFi. In my journeys online, I discovered that you can find out where your site visitors come from, and what searches on Google brought them to you.

So I decided to give it a try. *grin*

Single most popular search term that brings new folks in right now: anything relating to the Fly Fusion Pentop Computer. Anything at all.

fly fusion review
Fly Fusion Pentop Computer
fly fusion reviews <- First Page! fly fusion pen reviews <- First Page! reviews "fly fusion pentop computer" <- First Page! fly fusion pentop computer reviews <- First Page! fusion like pen <- First Page! LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer reviews <- First Page! flyworld pen <-First Page Higher Up! FLY Fusion Pen Top Computer reviews <-First Page Higher Up than the last! fly word products <-First Page Higher Up than the last! does the fly fusion pentop computer work <- Third on the list! what can the FLY fusion pen do <- Second on the list!! fly pen that hooks up to computer <-TOP Google Rank!!!

Of course all of those lead to my thorough review of Leap Frog's newest product.

I don't blame them though, that thing is fantastic, and to top off the amazing, no lead paint! (They put the lead in the white paint see, so even without special testing, I know that my gray pen with a black icon has no lead, a quality that is increasingly rare in popular holiday toys this year.) I do so love this thing! Heck, I'm practically gushing! *chuckle* No, really, buy one. Even better, buy one by linking from the Amazon ads on this blog. *conspires* You'll be glad you did.

These next ones didn't come in on the front page, likely because there are several different versions of this online, and some of the websites they are on actually pay huge marketing firms for advertising. *wink*

thanksgiving tree craft
hands tree crafts thanksgiving

Where you can discover how to create lasting memories and thought-provoking, compostable fun for the whole family while taking up no floor space whatsoever, or the two smaller versions that I created and posted about later that month.

But it is the season for such searches, and with winter coming on fast, the next one was a no-brainer as well.

cardboard faux fireplace
recyclable fireplace
temporary fireplace
faux fireplace instructions <- First Page!
large cardboard fireplace <- TOP Google Rank Again!!!!!

Where you find instructions for creating the most simple and easy, eco-friendly recycled fireplace craft on the planet.

Ending up the lot is a bit of green to remember the past season.

guerilla gardens planting seeds in ugly places <- First Page!
steps to addiction <- TOP Google Rank Once More!!!

Which lead our lucky searchers to my tutorial about how to easily get addicted to beautifying your city with Guerilla Gardening, a process that relies on regular people reclaiming neglected places through horticulture.

Of course, then there are the folks who just Google "Whimspiration", as well as the token obligatory "I forgot I was typing in a search box instead of the browser window" full URL search. *chuckle*

I've never checked my page rankings for various search terms before, and this was both really fun, and enlightening. Can you tell by all the exclamation points that I am excited about my newly discovered search engine rankings? *grin*

Where'd you find me?

I am a participant in NaBloPoMo.

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Website: Take 4

There is a monsoon in my yarden.

Found out the reason why I couldn't install OSComerce on my server manually. Seems that the new server they put me on had a pre-install module already loaded that did literally all of the work for you. No wonder... *sigh* Though it would have been nice for the ESL Indian email tech support to have told me that in the first fracking place instead of making me wait 2 months to finally calm down enough from the last batch of failed attempts to actually go back and try again on my own, ya know? *grr*

Torrential downpours taking over the streets creating flash flood city.

The server also has several spots for other auto-installations like Joomla and Wordpress, so I'm thinking of just taking the plunge and doing it all. Heck, it couldn't hurt, right? *grin*

Sheets of rain with no letting up make it near impossible to drive, but the force is strong in this one, and we got home safe.

Now I know I'm just setting myself up for more anger when trying to integrate Joomla and Oscommerce, or when trying to make anything look even half-way decent in CSS (which I know positively nothing about), but I've got to start somewhere and go through the screaming, or I'll never have a business website again. *wink*

Have I mentioned how wet it is out there? I need to change my shirt, I'm still soaked.

At least the plants are happy. *grin*

Decision Time

There comes a time in every blogger's life, when people they had not planned on find their blog, or might soon find it due to some circumstance or another.

While blogging is a public sharing of honesty and truth, sometimes I feel the need to edit something or reword a thing in order to not possibly hurt feelings, even when everything is anonymous, but then comes the question; "When does blogging change from honest storytelling into couched pandering to people you might accidentally offend?

Is it right to modify a style or the level of honesty because you could hurt feelings?

Is it a different thing entirely if relationships could be ruined by the truth of how you feel about a subject or five if you posted t your blog about them?

Every blogger had their lines they draw int he sand for themselves, and I am at a turning point. Do I continue to near-blatantly honest about my life and the doings of family and business, or do I change who I am on the blogosphere? Do I betray all of my readers for the sake of a small (albeit important) few?

Being a polite and taciturn person, I am torn between honesty and kindness.

Where is this line? What would you do in my position? Why?

2000 Bloggers

Getting back into reading my blogs a little again, I read on Everyday Goddess about Tino, who is putting the faces of 2000 bloggers into a fantastic art and community linking project. Click here to try and locate me.

You can even get included in the project, regardless of your popularity or niche. How fun!

What A Ride

Well, my first NaBloPoMo was quite the adventure. *smile* I had a great time participating, and hope to take part again next year. Maybe I'll sign up early and post every day too! *chuckle* Ah well, it was worth a shot.

And if it weren't for those meddling electrons, I might've made it too! *wink* Oh wait, that's meddling kids idn't it? *laugh*

Thanks to M. Kennedy for hosting this great event. See you next year!

11 Goals In My Post-Thanksgiving Agenda

Ben over at Instigator Blog asks "What are your post-Thanksgiving goals?" for the post Thanksgiving goal writing project.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year;

* I will recover all of my data from a hard drive I thought was dead and back up all the data, twice!

* I will attempt to recover the data from my other previously-assumed defunct hard drive, as I now think there may still be hope for it.

* I will continue to blog every day, even after NaBloPoMo is over, no matter how busy I get.

* I will manage to get the holiday pictures taken, gifts made, and most everything delivered.

* I will make the ArtFoodFun website into something that is at least functional and possible to make purchases from, even if my divatastic artist self recoils in horror at the way it looks. At least I'll finally have some form of functionality. After two years of nothing, working is a step I'll be happy for, no matter how ugly it is. *sigh*

* I will spend more quality time with my children.

* I will finish cleaning and organizing the closets.

* I will breed the rabbits.

* I will get the yarden clean and straightened out.

* I will post two new recipes to the blog.

* I will finish building the raised bed and fill it with leaves and compost.

What are your goals before December 25th?

Tags: Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project instigator blog instigator rabbits cleaning recipes goals writing group writing project data recovery blogging gifts delivery presents holiday photo website web design web store ecommerce yarden gardening garden food not lawns quality time children Thanksgiving Christmas Yule raised bed compost