**** My Blogiversary Giveaway closes TOMORROW, folks – if you haven’t entered yet, click on that link to see what your options are! Also: if you HAVE entered already, please make sure you have left me an e-mail address in the comments. If you’re the randomly-chosen winner of the $20 Amazon.com e-gift card, I will need to provide your e-mail address in the recipient info when I order it – I’d hate to see you lose out because you forgot to give it to me! I’m planning to announce the winners on Tuesday, so stick around for that!
**** PSA of the week, once again via SoCal Mom (Donna): fighting hunger, with a virtual food drive to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
Daily Mish Mash, via My Friend Amy
Sometimes I feel like I’m perpetually in the new-friend stage, even with friends who aren’t so new
The recession may be a good thing for dating coaches
It’s the bread that gets me every time, too
The real meat here is in the comments – a genuine discussion of whether blogging is about connection or community
This week’s parenting advice from a non-parent – a little bit blunt, perhaps, but it certainly clarifies who’s in charge. Somewhat related: the things we learn from other people’s children; Parent of the Week (part 1)
Parent of the Week (part 2), via Not Always Right:
Customer: “How much did you say the prescription was?”
Me: “$49.99.”
Customer: “What’s the difference between this and what I can get over the counter?”
Me: “There’s no cough medicine you can give your 8 month old, sir, other than this.”
Customer: “Well, what’s in it?”
(He picks up the prescription papers and starts rustling through them.)
Customer: “If I can buy everything that’s in it over the counter, I’ll just make it myself.”
Me: “…excuse me?”
Defining a good bad movie
R U (& ur kids) not speling rite b/c of txt-speak?
Everyone talks about the weather… (link via Karen of Verbatim)
I Tweeted this on Tuesday:
This “beginner’s guide” to book-review blogging is also a good “checklist” for the more experienced blogger. Bonus: the “stoplight guide”
Trish asks: How do we help encourage everyone in our lives – not just our kids – to read more? Also via Trish – hey, I won a Slanket!
Getting paid to review might sound nice, but what about being required to write a favorable review and post it on assigned sites in order to earn that pay?
Enjoy your weekend – I’m certainly hoping to enjoy mine!
Congratulations on your slanket win! I hope you have a great time on your birthday trip.
Great post. I’m going to spend some time going through some of the links you posted. 🙂
You hit all the discussion hot spots this week — and there were some good ones: connection vs. community, selling out to paid (positive) reviews, etc.
Thanks for the link to my IM/txt comments. I didn’t mean to start a NCLB conversation, but that’s where it has gone!
I hope you’re having a great bday weekend!
Thank you for the great links, Florinda.
I was reading about the pay for favorable reviews on LT last night. I am glad Tim decided to add something about that. I would love to make money reviewing books, but not at the cost of my integrity and freedom to speak my mind freely.
Bread is my downfall too. 🙁
I especially liked the article about defining a good bad movie. 🙂
Thanks for including my “chick lit vs. wit lit” post! I just posted another piece that lots of folks seem interested in: NOTE TO … Glamour Magazine. Hope you’ll check that out at well. I think it’s a good message to spread around.
I’m going to add your blog to my blog list!! Thanks, Penelope
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – Thanks! It was a very fun weekend.
Marie – Hope they kept you busy :-).
Dawn – NCLB gets blamed for a lot, and I think it deserves much of it. Considering what its aim is SUPPOSED to be, I am floored sometimes by the things my kids don’t seem to be learning in school.
Wendy (Literary Feline) – The “good bad movie” post came from Marie Phillips’ blog. She’s the author of Gods Behaving Badly, and her blog is frequently hilarious.
The ethics of reviewing are becoming quite a discussion topic lately, and that probably needs to happen.
Penelope – Thanks for stopping by. I saw your “Note to…” post and liked that as well. Your blog is on my regular reading list :-).
Thanks for the linkage. Congrats on the Slanket win!
Chris – That was a great post; happy to link it out. And it’s warming up a bit here so I’m not sure how much I’ll use the Slanket right away, but I’ll be glad to have it anyway!