Pigs WILL Fly?

Gail Plowman and her team believe that anything's possibly where there's a will. (Wait, I think I got that proverb wrong; oh well...)

I discovered fellow-Aussie Gail's site last year after a tip-off. Pigs Will Fly is an independent, self-funded, self-help website with a can-do attitude that provides an e-bulletin, Australia-wide jobs list, small business, tourism & community information with strong environmental and justice themes.

Here's a taste of the interesting posts available:

• ‘100 Miles To The Gallon’ US Bid To Resurrect Electric Car
• Waverley Industries - Employer Of Disabled People - Seeks New Clients
• Sustainable Indigenous Land-Sea Management Policy?
• ‘Weak democracy’…citizens have no real role

You get the idea...

Gail's bio reads:

Gail Plowman is an ex Melbourne French teacher who in the late 80s, with husband Ian and their three sons, moved to Sale in country Victoria, to build the Marina Hotel at Loch Sport on the Gippsland Lakes. They went for one year, stayed for ten, and the boys, now young men, all identify as ‘country kids’ - loved the community spirit, country living and the grassroots enthusiasm and creativity!

Reluctant to leave, Gail has now settled back into Kangaroo Ground on the outskirts of Melbourne. Through the Loch Sport business and country tourism association promotional efforts, it was a natural progression to become involved in grassroots community and tourism development, helping to set up the Loch Sport Community House and a ‘local rag’ “The Loch Sport Link” along the way.

[She now works] closely with Local Government and local communities trying to work out how, together, the public and private sectors could achieve more for all the effort everyone puts in.

To Gail and her team, keep up the awesome work!

Pay them a visit folks.

The Public Speaking Blog

On Eric's About Page we find:

Eric Feng is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to impress your customers, employers and investors through public speaking. Known for his generous dose of humor and incisive coaching ability, Eric has successfully helped over 3000 students, executives and entrepreneurs to become confident and compelling speakers.

As a celebrated Toastmaster in Singapore, Eric has won a number of national level speech competitions. In 2005, he won the championship title for the Division Level Humorous Contest in Philadelphia, United States. He was also a two-time winner of the International Speech Competition at Division Level. As acknowledgment for this speaking achievements, The Straits Times featured him as one of the top 25 alternate achievers in Singapore.

Apart from speech coaching, Eric also heads a training company (Area 9 Training International) that conducts corporate programs at the regional level. The successes he has created at his company got him recently featured on Business Week as one of the top 25 young entrepreneurs in Asia.

We also find these titles amongst recent posts:

Here’s The Formula To Winning The Toastmasters’ International Speech Contest

How To Craft A Powerful Speech In 60 Seconds Using Borden’s Method

The Best Speeches Are Never Written…

Here’s The Other 69 Public Speaking Blogs For You To Check It Out

If you are interested in public speaking, Eric's site is one place on the MUST visit list!

5 for Friday

A Billy Collins trail "5 for Friday" featuring

1 - Word Lovers Unite!

If you are a word lover, you are in the right place. Think of this blog as a virtual bulletin board for words that surprise, inspire, connect, and resonate.

2 - A lesson learned

I am a first year teacher at an "alternative school" for at-risk students in Santa Cruz CA. I am examining and reflecting on my practice and my life around it.

3 - Constant Growing Amazement

Amazed LDS wife, mother to 5, grandmother to a growing herd. Loves life. If it is creative, I love to do it!

4 - The Borrowed Poem

Be patient that I address you in a poem. There is no other fit medium.

5 - MPL's Blog where the top read posts in the last couple of days were:

• More Like "Lame Monster"
• The Biggest and Baddest Bear Ever
• Required Reading Before Seeing Pirates of Caribbean 3
• Big Bad Texas Gator
• 8 Ways Pirates of Carribean steals from Return of the Jedi

Enjoy!

Me~Tronome

Continuing the Billy Collins trail, we find ourselves in the Windy City with Larry Sawyer:

Poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Court Green, Vanitas, MiPOesias, The Prague Literary Review, Coconut, Exquisite Corpse, Ygdrasil, the Miami Sun Post, and Ocho. Poetry was recently anthologized in The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books, 2007). Larry Sawyer curates the Myopic Poetry Reading Series in Wicker Park, Chicago and edits the online literary magazine www.milkmag.org.

Enjoy!

Merisi's Vienna For Beginners

Continuing the Billy Collins trail, we find ourselves in Vienna where:

All images are original works copyright of Merisi, and are protected under International Copyright laws. They are for online viewing purposes only and may not be copied, saved to a computer hard drive, reproduced or distributed without her express permission.

The images are delightful, wonderful, dramatic... help me come up with additional adjectives for this wonderful photo site.

Recent posts reveal the following headlines:

• Promise of Spring
• Bewitching
• Metamorphosis
• Elephant in a Porcelain Store?
• Walking from Liliengasse to St. Stephan's Cathedra...
• Women in Vienna

Enjoy!

Age of Conversation 2.0

If you've ever wanted to be published, here is your chance.

Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton are amassing authors to collaborate on a marketing-business book to be published later this year. The actual topic is up for a vote now. You don't have to volunteer to participate. You can cast your vote on a topic without committing to the writing process.

Please help. All proceeds will go to charity.

Tags: Age of Conversation, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton

Days of the Insane - Cat Marsters/Kate Johnson

One of those unique sites where you get multiple viewpoints from the same individual:

Cat writes naughty books about vampires and werewolves and fae, oh my. Kate writes nutty books about blonde people being stupid. They both live inside the head of the same person, most of the time.

She writes On Beauty:

Fast-forward twenty or so years, and we've turned a corner so sharp we're facing back the other way. The beautiful heroine is No More. In her place is a gal with a few extra pounds, hair that's unmanageable, and tiny little flat bosoms. She doesn't have the time or money for designer togs and expensive manicures (but she can still go out without make-up, so she can't be truly ugly). She's meant to be like you and me. She's meant to be normal. But the gorgeous blonde with the dainty hips and giant bazoombas hasn't gone away. She's still there...as the Evil One.

She is quite the published author, be sure to check out her book list on the left column. And if you really want to do her a favor, buy one and see if you want to buy another!

In the meantime, consider adding her site to your RSS Reader of choice

Bibliolatry

On the Billy Collins trail, we find Bibliolatry:

I believe reading is essential to living a good life. This blog is my attempt to share my favorite (and not so favorite) works. Recommendations and opinions are welcome.

Where you can find the following recent posts:

• The Longest Title EVER
• Do you read a poem a day?
• The First Annual Bibliolatry Awards

Enjoy!

5 for Friday

Today, 5 for Friday is really covered with one site, one email that you can subscribe to and receive daily. Each day this week, my email subscription has brought a gem of a find to me.

Visit the Very Short List

Today I heard about a new film made in Iceland whose trailer is intriguing with beautiful photography.

Thursday it was about Val Newton, the producer behind the low budget horror films at RKO in the 1940's.

Wednesday it was a video using stop motion

Tuesday it was folk singer Basia Bulat

and Monday the week began with love stories

click through to their home page and subscribe so you can begin next week with the Very Short List

Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering

Sarah writes in her profile:

If I'm not off hiding somewhere with a good book, chances are I'm chasing a toddler or a Jack Russell (or sleeping, because every mom can use a nap!). I found Prince Charming and married him, and now we enjoy the idiosyncrasies of life in an old farmhouse. Oh yeah, and we root for the Buckeyes. Every time.

And of her December reading summary:

December was a month for reading series, and for remembering old loves. I read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books and I started the Traveling Pants series. Then, because that to-read shelf is overflowing, I read a book that I just can't buy my own copy of right now (it's unavailable on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble!), though I certainly will. I was pretty amused to notice that in 2006 I read 57 books, but this year, I only got up to 40 - could that be the Lemony Snicket books? Perhaps the fact that I haven't listened to audio this year? Maybe that I've been otherwise engaged? Hard telling, really. And it's not really a matter of much importance, that final number - it's just interesting to someone who loves lists - and when you love lists and you love books, well, a list of books is a natural thing!

And of a new service she wants to share

There's a new service that I just have to share with you, because I find, in my current state of life, that I just don't have time to properly review things and check things out the way I used to. (Gee, I wonder why?) Catholic Media Review is a place where a few of my favorite Catholic bloggers (Jean from Catholic Fire, Leticia at causa nostrae laetitiae and Cause of Our Joy , Julie at Happy Catholic, Christine at The World IMHO) are focusing on reviewing "each film in the light of Catholic teaching and to warn parents about films that will present a danger to our youth. We also want to encourage people to see those films which we believe will have a positive impact on our society. ...Wouldn't it be wonderful if we as Catholic Christians could make a major impact on the type of films that come out? We have this power simply by purchasing tickets to those films that are of excellent quality. You can count on us to keep you informed."

Having read this far, you might want to add Sarah's site to your RSS Reader of choice.

Primal Sneeze

The sun is in Uranus or somewhere like that, the moon is out at night because it can and the first snows of winter have fallen, 1cm deep in places, bringing the country to a standstill. We are fast approaching the feast day of St. Brigid, patron saint of wide open spaces, large garments and arts & crafts. Other than that it is January, this all means it is time to make your nominations for the Irish Blog Awards.

But act fast! The deadline is … I don’t know, sometime. No one knows. So maybe don’t act fast. Think long and hard about your selections. Remember lives are at stake here. Egos and Ids can be shattered. Super-egos too*. Despite the pleas of the Irish Dental Association teeth will be gnashed and not only Black Tie will be renting garments. Make an error of judgment and children, even babies, will be wrenched from their mothers’ arms and thrown to small, but very hungry, fluffy house pets. All this and worse could have happened last year when Sweary was passed over were it not for the timely intervention of some peace-loving associates of a well known construction and refuse magnate.

Continue reading as he scrolls through the categories and shares his thoughts on the nominations for Irish blogging awards.

His tag line is in Latin: Noli nothis permittere te terere

What does that translate as? Check out the answer here

Check out his FAQ section

Check out his blog of the week section. Maybe he'll consider join the Hitchhiker Team?

Don't spend too much time on his about page and consider adding this site to your RSS Reader of choice!

Martinator's Bicycling Blog

2007 - Year in Review

I did a lot of riding in 2006, including a 3-day 240 mile North to South tour of NJ. I did not think I would be able to match the mileage I racked up in 2006 in 2007. By the end of July 2007 I had only logged 683 miles on my road bike. Almost 375 miles less that the previous year at the same point. So at that point, I accepted the fact that I probably wouldn't match 2006's totals, made peace with it, and moved on. Instead of pressuring myself to try and match 2006's totals, I just made a goal to get out when I could and not worry so much about the mileage numbers.

read the remainder of the year in review here.

Then if wheeling is your thing, I'd suggest adding this site to your RSS Reader of choice.

Brain Frieze

Kim writes:

I am a native of south Florida, and currently live in West Palm Beach. Although my time in college and the Army took me away from home for 10 years, I've otherwise been living in the land of sunshine, Africa-hot summers, and early bird specials all my life.

I am currently on Career 3.1. After working full-time as a web design teacher for the Palm Beach County School District I moved up the career ladder and now work at the district office where I am responsible for web stuff in general, and our Learning Tools web site in particular. Career 1.0 saw me in the Army as a Field Artillery officer for 6 years. In Career 2.0 I spent 10 years running the family business, designing and building custom furniture and cabinets.

His blog has cool categories, amongst them I found

• 6 words: check them out
• On teaching: check them out
• What passes for humor: check them out

Check out Kim's blog at Brain Frieze

David Maister - podcast

David Maister has new series of podcasts effectively introducing the audio version of his new book: Strategy and the Fat Smoker.

Well worth the 19 minutes for the first of this series!

Sassy Sundry Thoughts

What does Fluff have to do with the single female?
It likes to travel. Check out these scenes.

What to do about dating during the holidays?
Check out these exploits here, here and here.

She describes herself

Dang, I miss that Big Wheel . . . Thirty-four-year-old woman having adventures while trying to figure it all out. I get my kicks traveling, reading obsessively, checking out flea markets, walking all over the place, watching interesting films (and sometimes mindless ones), seeing live music, and just hanging out with friends. I’m open to new ideas.

If you'd like to read more of Sassy Sundry Thoughts considering subscribing to her RSS Feed.

Happy New Year

Thank you for coming here to read and continue the conversation.

Wishing you and yours all the best this year!