Week-End Review: Travels around the blogiverse near year-end

Assorted Announcements

This is officially my last Week-End Review of 2009! Although it seemed to get more reader response when I posted it on Saturdays, I’m still not sorry I moved it to Fridays. However, I won’t be posting one on Christmas Day – and I certainly hope you’ll have better things to do next Friday than look for it, anyway! I’m not certain yet whether I’ll be posting on January 1; I suspect that the amount of link fodder out there will slow down a lot over the next couple of weeks. Regardless, the Week-End Review will be back at the end of the first week of 2010!

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Also at the end of the first week of January: Bloggiesta is back! While this “blogging marathon” is hosted by a book blogger, Natasha extends the invitation to the broader blogiverse:

“…I’d love to welcome anybody who has a blog who would like to write content or improve their blog to join in.  In addition to adult, kidlit, YA, romance, mystery, historical fiction, non-fiction, and publishing book blogs  any other bloggers are welcome.  Movie blog?  TV blog?  Mommy blog?   Gardening blog?  Photography blog?  All are welcome!”

This three-day weekend event – don’t worry, you don’t have to participate for anywhere near 72 hours! – is meant to give you the chance to get lots of blog housekeeping done, while being cheered on by (and borrowing ideas from) other bloggers with the same plan. It’s scheduled for early January to help get your blog off to a great start in the New Year. Find all the details, including suggested blogging activities and sign-up info, over at Maw Books Blog.

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Here’s something that might not wait till after the first of the year – the official launch of “Tuesday Tangents,” to be hosted right here at The 3 R’s! Born of my own random ramblings – things on my mind that don’t necessarily warrant a full post of their own – these “10 items or less” posts have gotten a good response, and I’d like to invite you to join in at your own blog! There’s no guarantee that I’ll be doing it every week myself, so feel free to participate as often, or as rarely, as you like – as long as it’s on a Tuesday!
 
I’ve even made a button – it’s right down below, and it’s also posted in the right-hand sidebar. You’re welcome to grab it and use it whenever you post your own Tuesday Tangents!


Dispatches: Links of the Week

I WISH I had the time to “Do Nothing But Read” this Sunday, December 20, but it’s five days before Christmas and the to-do list is just a bit too intense! (But maybe I’ll have my own DNBR day during my vacation week between Christmas and New Year’s.) Are you joining in?

There’s still time for another holiday gift guide (and one reason I like this one is that it mentions books I haven’t heard about before!). Speaking of books and gifts, these are the books she’s giving this year; she’s giving books to a dozen girls; and some kids already know that books can be the perfect gift

Your “best” may not be my “best,” and just because it’s a favorite doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “best” anyway

Maybe lots of things actually taste better than “skinny” feels?

We’re all “those people,” really

Customer-(non)service story of the week, or The Death of a Device; online support of a much more personal variety – part of a culture that some still don’t understand

Still working on your disclosure policy? Here’s some inspiration

Things your iPhone can’t do, but this one can…


Panic in Aisle 5, via Not Always Right

Grocery Store | Paxton, IL, USA
Customer: “Hello, young man, can you help me?”
Me: “Yes ma’am. What can I do for you?”
Customer: “Where do you keep your scratch?”
Me: “Excuse me?”
Customer: “Scratch! Where do you keep it? I need some to make pie!”
Me: “I’m not sure that I’m clear on what you need. Can you tellme what you are going to use it for?”
Customer: “My husband says that I need to make pie from scratch for Christmas, so I need to buy some scratch for the pie.”
Me: “Ma’am, that just means that you buy the ingredients and make the pie yourself.”
Customer: “I don’t have time to make pie myself! I need some scratch!”


New Arrivals in my Google Reader


OK, so who’s going to be trying to finish up their Christmas shopping this weekend? We’ve done most of that, but the house isn’t ready, so we’ll be tree-trimming on Saturday and Sunday!

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15 comments

  1. We did our tree-trimming and decorating right after Thanksgiving because we all had time off from work and school. Now we have to finish up shopping, nothing major thank goodness, because we were going to go tomorrow or Sunday, and now we're supposed to be getting up to 10 inches of snow! UGH!

    –Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

  2. Anna – 10 inches of snow?! I hope it's gone by Wednesday – that's when my son is supposed to fly out from DC.

    We've held off on the house decorating until after my stepson's birthday party tomorrow, but then we need to jump in with both feet. Good luck with the shopping!

  3. Christmas is exactly a week away, I just realized. It'll be here before we know it.

    I'm glad you are going to be doing the Tuesday Tangents. 🙂

    I'm not joining in the Do Nothing But Read Day, but it does sound like fun.

    Thank you for all the links, Florinda. I hope you have a great weekend!

  4. Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I think I've about got Christmas dinner figured out, and the gift shopping's mostly done. There's a lot of wrapping to get to, though!

    Wendy (Literary Feline) – Yep, it's just a week away. Where does the time go, anyway?

    I hope you'll join in on Tuesday Tangents some weeks :-). I'm glad I decided to do it, too!

  5. Tuesday Tangents sounds fun. We'll see if I can get my blogging schedule under control. It's been a mess lately. 🙂

    We have one old manual phone stored away, just in case. (Actually, it's more due to being slackers, but this sounds better. 🙂

  6. Florinda,
    Thanks for sharing the link to the blogging housekeeping event – sounds like a great way to start the year. I plan on doing a NBR day at least once this break, just curl up on the couch under a snuggly blanket and become one with the new books I'll hopefully find under the tree. There's nothing like being in PJs all day with a great book you've been dying to read. Hope you get your day too!

    Vanessa

  7. one more gift — a book — still to come in. But the tree is up, our boy is home, the cards are out, the packages mailed, and when I can finish some of this corporate work, I'll start cooking again.

    I want to cook.

    More than a foot on the ground now, where I am.

  8. Lenore – If your efforts to make a cake "from the scratch" aren't going well, do you "scratch" the project :-)?

    Mike – I definitely think you could do the "tangents" part; not so sure about the Tuesdays, but I'd like to see you try :-D!

    We probably SHOULD have a manual phone around. I think it's actually a good idea.

    Vanessa – I hope you'll have some time to join in on Bloggiesta! And do enjoy your NBR day. I hope to get a good bit of reading (and hopefully some writing as well) done during the break too!

    Anna – I talked to my son this morning and there was already half an inch on the ground; now I'm hearing as much as 2 feet in some areas (!). I just hope the clouds, the roads, and the airport are all clear for him to travel on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

    Beth K – I want to cook, too. I'm baking cookies tomorrow so I can bring some with me to the airport when I go to meet my son's plane :-).

    And while the East was getting snowed in, we got almost up to 80 degrees today in SoCal. I feel almost guilty – and at the same time, envious.

  9. Kathleen – I may not have any this week, but I'm sure that Christmas will send me off on quite a few! I hope you'll think about joining in :-).

  10. Anna – Thanks! Chris did make it to work this morning on the Metro, although it was running slow, and hopefully he'll get to Dulles for his flight on Wednesday with no problems :-).