Jay Prickett

Greetings, and welcome to my new site. The latest entries of my blog can be found immediately below. If you want to wade through older posts, follow the archive link in the header. Or for a hand picked selection of entries that I thought were better than the rest, click the articles link above. For more information about me, visit the bio page, where you can find links to all the avenues of the internet I run through, as well as contact info, should you wish to drop me a line.

From his intro to the new template:

I made the decision to switch to the new version of Movable Type after some major issues with both installs of WordPress. This, combined with the decision to unite my blog and my front page, will mean little to you, dear reader. But I will explain the few differences anyway. The first difference is that there is no longer a front page and a blog, instead both are now a part of the main site. There is still a shortened version of the linkroll and my latest Twitter post are in the sidebar (and both are still pulled into my tumblelog, along with whatever random crap I run across on the net). The most recent blog posts are listed in truncated form on the front page.

Check out the template and consider adding this site to your RSS Reader!

Teen Literacy Tips - Nick Senger

Thanks to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, I now have a terrific “teachable moment” when I start school on Tuesday. When my students ask me what I did on my summer vacation I can tell them I was accused of violating copyright and learned all about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the SFWA and counter-notifications. I can tell them the reading list I just handed them is Internet contraband. I can tell them the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America personally apologized to me on my blog.

I’ve been teaching my students about copyright for years, but now I have a personal experience to help make it real.

Read the complete post here.

Nick writes in his About page:

Nick has been teaching literature since 1990, and in 2001 he was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the National Catholic Education Association. He is a husband, father of four, Catholic school teacher and vice principal, and author of ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skills for Transforming Your Life through Literature.

He currently teaches eighth grade at All Saints Catholic School in Spokane, Washington, where he has worked since 1991. He is available for workshops, seminars and consultation.

Consider adding this site to your RSS Reader!

Special BlogDay 2007 - 5 for Friday

... there is something lost when forms are open. There is beauty found in submitting you're self to a guide, in giving yourself, your freedom, over to a master. May this be God or a form, either way, there is beauty is submission that is lost in the passion of free will. Yes e. e. cummings is sexy to read. Yes Billy Collins has great images. But both miss the beauty of Frost, Shakespeare and Milton who set out to say great things (both cummings and Collins have set out for this) and mindfully craft their words to the image and the form while doing so.

Read the remainder of this posting here. And then check out Chase Whittemore writing at nighthink

The origins of music, like the origins of poetry, are buried in the dust - make that the strata of dust- of time, but we know that they've been hand-in-hand, or perhaps heart-to-heart, for eons. The lyric voice of poetry is named for the lyre which, an age or two ago and an ocean away, often accompanied it; the term "lyric poetry" has been in use in English since at least 1581, and is used to denote, as the Oxford English Dictionary has it, poetry

adapted to the lyre, meant to be sung, pertaining to or characteristic of song. Now used as the name for short poems (whether or not intended to be sung), usually divided into stanzas or strophes, and directly expressing the poet's own thoughts or sentiments.

Read the remainder of the posting here. Then check out Jeff Davis writing at Natures

To Spite the Gloaming

When no great thoughts have I to tell or sing
I then to tomes and library retire
to fuel inspiration—reading’s the thing.

All seems said or written before. What sting
to burn for creations my own but tire
when no great thoughts have I to tell or sing!

Stories tell themselves of a calm evening,
and tale-tellers to tell but lies require
to fuel imagination. Reading thing

upon thing – story upon fable to cling
and struggle with the truth of life entire
when no great thoughts have we to tell or sing.

And so it is our fine-crafted lines fling
across blank pages – spread rhyme like fire
to fuel inspiration. Reading’s the thing

that makes us write of life winter to spring
throughout cycles unbounded. But we tire
when no great thoughts have we to tell or sing;
to fuel inspiration, reading’ the thing.

© 2004 David Pitchford

And then read more of David's writing at BitterHermit's Hideaway

David is

Museum Editor for the Illinois State Museum; President of Poets & Writers Literary Forum of Springfield, Illinois; MA recipient (UIS: English, emphasis in poetry); Founder and Publishing Editor of Prism Quarterly; Author of three novels and numerous poems; Bitter Hermit (SFReader.com); all around word artist, editor, consultant, pedant and purveyor.

I would put it in a nutshell, but I’m a few pounds overlimit . . .

And then shifting gears from verse to green

Green Wombat takes public transport to work, uses compact fluorescent light bulbs in the Berkeley burrow, and dries the washing on a clothesline. But when it comes to air travel, the wombat is a carbon criminal. The conundrum of being an environmental journalist for a national magazine with a global outlook is that the more I write about green technology the more I fly. So far this year, Green Wombat has logged more than 70,000 air miles, which according to some carbon calculators means I'm personally responsible for about 30,000 pounds of CO2 emissions from my frequent flying. In contrast, the average Californian's carbon footprint from all activities is 26,301 pounds, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Read the remainder of the posting here. Then click through to read more of Todd Woody writing at the Green Wombat.

And finally to complete this 5 for Friday, we head to the Far East to read about all things Shanghai, you need to read the Shanghaiist

You can read about

Prof Yu Dan (于丹), 38, now with cleavage
Probably the most popular exponent of Confucius ever, Yu Dan, has found her way back into the media spotlight -- this time in an IHT article which places her at the centre of the current rage for China's ancient philosophies. Her book has sold 4.2 million legal copies and about 6 million pirated versions. But wait a minute, Yu is not even a Confucian academic. She is a media professor at the Beijing Normal University, certainly one who understands that a bit of cleavage will do your popularity good, as this latest picture of her shows. We too ended up buying her DVD's and found her sounding shockingly similar to our pastor back home, except that she was preaching Confucius and quoting Hegel at the same time, and basically anything else that fit her message.

Zhang Huimin, 8, runs her way to the Olympics 2016
Little Zhang Huimin, who stands at just 1.25 meters tall and weighs a mere 20kg, has run from Sanya, Hainan all the way to Beijing, wearing out 20 pairs of shoes and covering a staggering 3,560 km in 55 days. That's an average of 1.5 marathons per day! Her goal is to win the marathon at the 2016 Olympic Games (and only God knows for now where that will be held). See that man next to her on the motorbike? That's her father, and her trainer who has made her wake up everyday at 3am for training since the day little girl could run. Starting with 3 km a day since she was three, Zhang was hitting 23 km daily by the time she was seven.

In Headliners. People who made the news this week.

5 for Friday

A name, like money, doesn't exist in the same way my hands and mouth do, but to treat names as simple identifiers instead of the textual embodiment of a whole person would put every human relationship I enjoy in peril.

From Paul Ford writing at the Ftrain. Read the whole post here.

People at the top of every profession share one quality — they get things done. This ability supercedes intelligence, talent, and connections in determining the size of your salary and the speed of your advancement.

Despite the simplicity of this concept there is a perpetual shortage of people who excel at getting results. The action habit — the habit of putting ideas into action now — is essential to getting things done.

From John Wesley at PickTheBrain. Read the full post here.

Company that I work in does some fantastic practices. I’ll give you one example.

We are publishing house, and our final clients are readers. Where do readers get our books? Of course in the book-stores! So every month we go to the book store (the biggest one in Moscow) and work there for 2-3 hours as a book consultants. We talk to customers, recommend them books. But understand me correctly - of course we recommend our books a bit more (because we are sure of their quality), but also we recommend ALL good business books even if they are published by our competitors.

This process involves all the people from the company, even our directors take part in it.

From Dimitri Linkov writing at Dimitri Linkov.

I’ve created a WordPress plugin which creates an iCal feed from your blog posts. It creates a calendar which can be added to pretty much any popular website (such as Google Calendar) or application (such as Microsoft Outlook).

I built this because I wanted to see when I made my WordPress posts, in a more graphical interface. I already used Google Calendar, so I would have loved to see my posts right in my calendar.

You can do that with my plugin - no configuration necessary! Just download it from me, upload it to your server, and then activate it in your WordPress plugins page.

From Gary King writing at King Gary. Read the remainder of this post here.

More than a year ago, I made a list of what I considered the 6 essential elements of a website widget in these web 2.0 days. It’s a simple list, but nonetheless I’ve used it multiple times when developing widgets, and it has in most cases helped to increase gains from pushing a widget. I then wanted to write about these 6 elements, but as with many of my other posts, I’m slow at finishing it.

From Stefan Juhl writing at Stefan Juhl. Read the full posting here.

Enjoy!

Media Nation - Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy writes his blog at Media Nation. He is

a visiting assistant professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. He writes for The Guardian, CommonWealth Magazine and the Boston Phoenix, and is a regular commentator for WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney".

A sampling of recent posts:

• A teaching moment
• Smearing Al Gore again (and again)
• Judge Murphy's latest money grab
• Analyzing the online news audience
• Debating the debates

For good insights on media, especially here in the metro Boston area, this is a must site to add to your RSS reader of choice.

Idaho Gardener

From cultivating the employees to cultivating your garden, in Idaho of all places!

All about gardening in Idaho and the Rocky Mountains, Zone 6 and I’m stickin to it

Mary writes about herself:

Hi and welcome to Idaho Gardener. My name is Mary Ann Newcomer. I also have several nicknames - the printable ones are M. A. , Auntie Mame , Dirt Diva, Princess Dew Sparkle and Duchess of Dirt.

A native daughter of Idaho, I have been gardening since I was a small child. My grandmother and grandfather were avid gardeners and I was given a 3′x3′ plot for starters. I was encouraged to grow radishes, I believe because they came up in just a couple of days (instant gratification for a 5 year old) and because the first sets of leaves were heart shaped (a message from my grandmother).

And she's thinking ahead:

Alright, we are planning our autumnal gatherings already! Mark you calendars for November 3, at the Grove, another symposium for “Rethinking the Idaho Landscape.” After many many days of 100 degree days, it is time to rethink lots of things.

Read the remainder here.

Assuming you like gardening and can pick up a few pointers here add this site to your RSS Reader of choice.

HR Horizons HR Blog

Human resources, the talked of, and in fact, most important asset a company has. Recent posts cover the following topics:

Reducing Employee Turnover Begins With Better Employee Selection

Retaining Key Employees When Closing a Facility

Seven Ways To Improve The Well Being of Your Team

and one that I like

The Kash Model

The KASH Model consists of four phases: knowledge of a better way, attitude, skillful application of the new knowledge, and habit. Knowledge of a better way is trying to get learners to accept that there is a better of doing things.

If this is your cup of tea, then click on over to add HR Horizons, HR Blog to your RSS Reader of choice.

AskPatty

Yes, women and cars go together. Usually it is the guy driving. Sorry, I am not meaning to be sexist but just restating an obvious point. Those were yesterday's attitudes.

Today, women do more on their own! So for a site to let women talk about their cars, go to AskPatty.

AskPatty has a blog (of course).

Has a service where you can load your car's data and then it will prompt you with reminders.

The Ask Patty.com, Inc. website, blog and Second Life venue is a safe place for women to get advice on car purchases, maintenance and other automotive related topics. Women can shop for vehicles at our network of certified female friendly dealerships across the U.S. AskPatty.com is a 2007 sponsor of the No. 112 AskPatty.com Chevrolet driven by the highest ranked professional female race car driver Deborah Renshaw, who heads up the panel of automotive expert women. AskPatty.com is a member and 2007 corporate sponsor of the Women's Automotive Association International based in Detroit, MI, Chair of the UnitedSpinal.org Motorsports program, Member of the California SkillsUSA.org board, on the Women's Board of the Car Care Council, a SEMA member and a member of the SEMA Business Women's Networking Group.

I was going to try this on behalf of my ladies and I decided to just let them do it on their own.

Go visit AskPatty and see if it something you would do on your own!

5 for Friday

Friday rolls around again. Why does it do that faster for some weeks than others? Anyway, time for 5 blogs again.

1 - A new contributor to the Joyful Jubilant Learning group, Ariane Benefit. Ariane writes at the Neat & Simple Living blog.

2 - Heading to the State of Washington to visit with a writer and librarian whose blog is called "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Found on the "Billy Collins trail".

3 - Bike to the Burn!

Welcome to my blog, Bike to the Burn! The topic: a 700 mile bike ride that will take me over mountains and through deserts, to Burning Man, the annual week long festival in northern Nevada. People who hear what I'm planning almost all react strongly and almost all fall into one of two camps: "that's amazing!" or "that's crazy!"

4 - Found the Bike to the Burn via Mary whom I found on the "Billy Collins trail". Mary provided a Mini Ivan Report as well as How to Build your own Hobbit Hole.

5 - The Kenyon Review also has a blog and you can find it here. The Kenyon Review blog was also found on the "Billy Collins trail".

One Thing I Know

“One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see." - John 9:25b

This blog is what I would call the Compleat One Thing I Know. It contains the contents of my old Wordpress blog "One Thing I Know," as well as the contents of my other blogs "Proclamation," "Word and Table," and "Will's World in Pictures."

Father writes:

I have been an United Methodist pastor for 20 years, am blessed with a beautiful thirteen year old daughter, and try (as best I can) to follow Jesus. More than any other factors, these three things define who I am. This blog contains my thoughts on matters important (or not).

Recent posts:

• The New Terror Threat: Zombies
• Posters, Postcards
• Video of the Week - Part Two: Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
• This Week’s Video - Part One: Star Trek meets Monty Python
• Collapsing Bridges, Repentance, Judgment, and God as the Divine Punisher
• This Week’s Quote: Karl Barth

and one of these indicates how we found this blog on the Billy Collins trail. Stop here and rest a while, plenty to read and think about.

Moondoggy's Pad

Moondoggy's Pad is a

Blog on poetry, literature, pop culture, and life as a Canadian expatriate in the USA

Greg Santos was born in Montreal. His work has appeared in print and online publications. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut and studies in New York.

It was found on the Billy Collins trail and worth a peek or two!

Confident Writing

As we all get to write, some more so than others, this is good advice:

I was writing the other day about 'telling it in ten', my (current) top tip for confident writing. The gist of it was learning to stand back from your writing and identify the key message - which should be tellable in ten words or less. One of the comments on this post reminded me of one of the most important elements of this strategy. How can you tell when you've got to the point? How will you know?

Well, you'll feel it somewhere inside you. When you read or write the words that get to the heart of the matter - you'll be able to sense it. This isn't a rational, intellectual reaction. It's a physical, physiological sensation.

I don't know if it will be bubbles of excitement in your stomach or hair rising on the back of your neck. I don't know if you'll notice that your fingertips start itching to type, a or if you'll be aware of a shiver that runs over your arms... I don't know how you'll feel it - but I know that you will.

Yes, not a quantity, a feeling! Yes, Joanna, I agree with you. Read the remainder of the posting here.

Joanna returning from vacation (as I head out) has these thoughts upon her return:

Writing helps us to make sense of it all. Vacations provide a great opportunity to be still, to be away, to change perspective, to take stock. Words and ideas tumble out when we're away. But making sense of it often needs to wait until we come back - and writing it down is surely the best way of starting to fathom what it means.

Read the remainder of her posting here. If you haven't taken vacation yet, now you have some tips. If you have, then perhaps one or two of these can be put to great use.

If you do any writing, you should consider adding this site to your RSS Reader of choice, stay in touch with Joanna and become a more confident writer!

5 for Friday

Friday and time for five in honor of the 5th day of the week.

1 - We'll send you to visit with a new contributor to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog, April Groves. April is a realtor, mother of four down in Georgia, and writer of two blogs: Making Life Work for You and My Beautiful Chaos.

2 - On the Billy Collins trail, we find Amy King currently teaching and writing in NY. Her blog can be found here. A link to four of her published poems can be found here.

3 - Also on the Billy Collins trail, we find Grub Street's Penny Dreadful blog:

grub street is a non-profit writing center dedicated to nurturing writers and connecting readers with the wealth of writing talent in the Boston area. We have two vital roles. We support writers at every stage of their development by offering writing classes, fellowships, employment, and networking opportunities, and by promoting the work of local authors. Equally important, we enrich the lives of Boston-area residents by introducing them to a community of fellow readers and writers through author-hosted book clubs, informal discussions, movie screenings and more. grub street builds on Boston's proud literary tradition by making the city more welcoming for writers, and more inspiring and culturally alive for all of us.

4 - Continuing the Billy Collins trail, we end up traveling from East coast to West coast to find C Dale Young in San Francisco writing at Avoiding the Muse:

I currently practice medicine full-time, serve as poetry editor of the New England Review, and teach in the Warren Wilson MFA Program . My books of poetry are The Day Underneath the Day (Northwestern 2001) and The Second Person (Four Way Books, Spring 2007).

5 - Finally, going to the southern coast we find Katie Kidder writing at The Poet's Lounge in New Orleans.

A venue for poetry, literature, and all things of entertainment and interest.

Katie wrote a poem about her muse:

Oh, it's so bad
to get stuck with a muse you don't want.
Why couldn't I have been assigned Bobby Frost's muse,
or someone with something like grace?


Mine belches and scratches her ass in the hall.
She has the sickly sweet smell of children
and stale Nilla Wafers, as though she was sprung
from the foam of the sofa.


She grabs at my smokes during the two-point conversion,
and she swims in my wine like a gnat.
I trip over her, by the bed, reading Plath on the floor
at six in the morning when I get up for tea.


My muse is nothing like me.
She waxes perverse in the thighs of thin blondes
when we've a perfectly good blonde at home.
And that bitch burns my old lovers' letters
and makes up her face with the ashes.


Kissing my muse, I imagine,
is like swallowing a mouthful of honey and rust,
and twisting your legs in her legs in the cold comfort of dark
is like spooning, in the sea, on the rag, with a shark.


My muse works with the mercy of bullets, falling.



Enjoy!

WhimseyLand

From August 2004:

I've been following the Best American Poetry series for 7 years. I have a complete set, something that's harder to acquire than you would think. I've also entered all the poets and contributing literary publications in a database, to make some sense of what poems get selected, and by whom, and why. I made a study of the results a couple of years ago, which, in retrospect, was both naive and accurate. I have a different view of BAP nowadays. I still believe that it's a snapshot of America's more interesting/noted/trendy poets, and not the American poetry per se. Having had a large fraction of a decade to digest the series, I'm beginning to come around to the notion that BAP does a good job of circumscribing the Big Tent. If you read five or six in a row, of course, which irons out the idiosyncracies of individual guest editors (e.g., the adored or despised BAP 2002).

I've just begun reading BAP 2004 seriously. Lyn Hejinian is this year's guest editor, which would lead some to believe that we were in for another round of Creeley's excesses. Not so, really. This year's model is an intriguing mix of the Same Old White Guys (e.g., Pinsky), the Rebel Contingent (e.g., O.K. Davis), the PoPoMo Crowd (e.g., Alice Notley), the Big Press Run Poets (e.g., Jane Hirshfield), the Deep Poets (e.g., Carl Phillips and Anne Carson), the Poets Who Refuse To Capitilize (e.g, kari edwards), and the Poets Whose Name Is Just Short Of Believable (e.g., Heidi Peppermint). And that's not all. There's Wagoner, Silliman, Stern, Addonizio, Koch, Dinh, and Burkard. For God's sake, there's even BC. Extra points to Ms. Hejinian for inserting Mary Jo Bang between Ashbery and Bernheimer. You have to hand it her for throwing together perhaps the most eclectic volume in the series' history.

And then three years later Whimsey still is speaking!

Just scrolling through the first couple of posts I find some hidden gems. Little links going to great places with little notice of where you are going, except that you are enticed to go there.

Enjoy!

The DV Show

The only weekly podcast dedicated to answering listener questions related to digital video. Every Sunday night at 8 p.m. EST, The DV Show is recorded LIVE then delivered as a podcast fresh and piping hot to subscribers worldwide every Monday morning. The show is described by listeners as informative, edgy, offbeat, irreverent and interactive- featuring technical advice, careful reviews, product news, tips, contests and high-profile questions and answer sessions with industry professionals -- all in a quick and engaging 60 minute format.

On the trail of sites referenced during the Boston Media Makers meeting on Sunday, August 5th. Brian Alves participated in the session and talked about his work.

They had a set of experts who will answer your question on editing digital video. The archives and FAQ's are loaded with tips and tricks.

They have a blog you can also subscribe to.

The DV Show should be a good source of info for any one interested in video blogging or vlogging.

Five Word Coffee Shop Reviews and more...

Any real cyberspace hitchhiker knows that the best fuel for the journey is coffee. But on today's journey, where will I find the best "bean" for my buck?

I know! I will go and consult Markk of My Opinions Are Important and his Five word coffee shop reviews. (Yes that's Markk with 2 k's). He writes:

I have a dream. I have a dream that one day, every coffee shop will be judged not by its brand name but by the quality of its coffee. To this end, I have instituted the Five Word Coffee Shop Review. One day, I’ll have a five word review of every coffee shop in existence! I’m not quite there yet though, which is where you can help. Submit a review in the comments below and I’ll add it to the list. All coffee shops reviewed are in Melbourne (Australia), except for the ones that aren’t.

Some of the reviews are quite inventive, given the 5-word limit. So far Markk has reviews coming in from 2 Australian states AND Taiwan! Maybe some American and European readers can add to his list...

On his main blog, Markk keeps his posts organised according to the following categories:

22 Percent
Off
Blogging
Christianity
Coffee
Communists and
Nazis and bears! Oh my!
Deep & Meaningful
Family & Friends
Five word coffee shop reviews
Humour
Interesting, but otherwise unclassifiable
Melbourne
Mundane day-to-day stuff
Nutbar
Random
cat-related Internet stuff
Rants
Romance
Science
Sydney
Things
that are coming to KILL US ALL!!!!

PodCamp Boston 2 - October 26-28, 2007

PodCamp Boston 2 is rapidly approaching. We are into August and October 26-28 feels like it is just around the corner.

It was a great event last year and I expect this year to be even more so.

There are already 290 registered for this event.

Are you in New England? You should consider participating!

Even if you are outside the Boston metro area, this should be a good excuse to get here and participate!

The PodCamp website with additional info can be found here:


Register here:




Technorati Tags: podcamp, PodCamp Boston, podcast

5 for Friday

It Friday and time to catch up on some good sites.

1 - Do you take photos? Would you like some tips and tricks? Via email or RSS?
Check out Photojojo!

2 - Ever dreamed of hitchhiking around the USA? Yes, I know we focus on the blogosphere but in so doing we found (yes, somewhat late) a site that tracked the trip to all 50 states in the USA and they blogged about it on their way. Still good to go back and see what and how they did it. Check out Hitch 50!

3 - One of IBM's leaders in innovation, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, has his own blog and it is well worth spending some time with.

4 - How about stopping by a fellow Massachuesett's blogger:

I'm a 37 year-old hominid known to inhabit Westford, Massachusetts. I was born in Athens, Greece of American parents, and raised in Saugerties, New York. I am a 1991 graduate of Harvard College, with a degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics. I am a member of the American Philatelic Society, the American Topical Association, the United States Chess Federation, the Massachusetts Chess Association, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the American Homebrewers Association, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the ACM, the OASIS ODF TC, the OASIS ODF Adoption TC, INCITS V1 and a trained SkyWarn weather spotter. I work for IBM, as a performance architect, as well as on various ODF technical topics. In my free time I grow and eat berries. A lot of them.

Check out Rob Weir at An Antic Disposition.

5 - Finally for today (but only for today, as of course the trail goes on) Mark Healey's blog where you get a host of good stuff as well as links to other sites including

Jude Healey Photography My wife's gig

Jude and Mark The other side of this web

So have a good time cruising this Friday!

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog

From the About page:

Focused on Deming’s ideas, lean manufacturing (lean thinking), six sigma, customer focus, systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) and innovation.

New readers might want to try our popular posts or view the posts by category (at the top of each category page some recommended posts are highlights) - listed on the left of this page.

The author of this blog is John Hunter.

The blog was added to Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections (which began in 1995) in 2004.

Also see our Curious Cat Management Improvement Encyclopedia.

There is a nice 3-column layout (yes, I am partial to those) and tons of informative links. You could get lost here for hours.

The one benefit if you did, you should come out as a smarter CAT!

Blogger Stories

Stories From The Blogosphere

the personal stories of how blogs have touched peoples' lives

Relax..take a story-break and read a Blogger Story!

So as you cruise amongst the blogosphere, and find a site, you can get more of the story behind the blogger.

Gee, maybe we should do a partnership of some sort... places we find here on the trail, the authors can tell their own story there?

Check out a few: (just selected the A's from the alphabetic listing) (no, it is not that A list!)

• Alex Genana
• Allison Gower
• Andy Hayler
• Andy Howard
• Ann Handley
• Average Jane

It also looks like they need more stories!

Sublimation

On the Billy Collins trail, I find this opening statement:

My about statement was here just a second ago. I don’t know where it could have wandered off to. It’s too big to hide under my header. I’m pretty sure it’s not curled up taking a nap somewhere in the archives.

No worries. I’m sure it will turn up.

Let’s just keep our eyes peeled, shall we?

For now let’s just say I’ve written lots of poems. Though publishing isn’t my focus, I have managed to publish some of them — a couple in fancy cool places but most in regional journals you wouldn’t have heard of. I’ve published less than some of you and more than some of you, neither of which matters.

I am going to start working on a big fat graduate degree in poetry this summer. Will it make my writing better? That remains to be seen. Does my pedigree really matter? Not really. Because it’s the writing that counts. It all comes back to that, doesn’t it.

Let’s also touch on this: Why I am not more serious here. Why I don’t have a buttoned up, straight-laced blog polished to a high sheen that illustrates what a level-headed and well-versed (pun intended) poet I am. The answer is simple: I don’t want a blog like that.

And her attempt at a paradelle

So go read more at Sublimation

part Life Coach, part Death Coach

Hiya.

Welcome to the ever-evolving world of Laura Young.

I'm part Life Coach, part Death coach. After all, you ARE going to die someday and that DOES have implications for how you are living today, even if you don't like to think about stuff like that. You'll find pretty quickly here that I'm not afraid to call it like I see it because I think an awful lot of people are just dinking around with their lives and need to take a good hard look in the mirror once in a while. One of my clients recently described me as "brutally compassionate". Hey, we're all human, just don't let that be an excuse for not giving your best to this life you've been given.

Be forewarned: Hanging out at this blog is not always for the faint of heart. I like to get in to the big questions of life and I'm here to tell you that there aren't Ten EASY Steps to ANYTHING! Life is about the lessons. Learn as much as you can and put it to good use. Of course, that means sometimes you have to be willing to walk right into the dragon's lair so you can see what you are really made of. You just might surprise yourself. Don't worry, if you need someone to watch your back, I'm right here.

I stand, strongly and unflinchingly, for integrity and love. Not woo woo fluffy girly love. I care, deeply, that you get out of life what you came here for. I care, even more, that you give something real of yourself back to us along the way.

Now, let's go have some fun...

This site was found on the "Billy Collins trail"!

wanabehuman

From the About page at Wanabehuman

"Ideas..." wrote John Maynard Keynes, "when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood...Practical men, who believe themselves...exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist...The power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas."

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If you are a budding student journalist, or wannabe writer, or even a professional journalist, or just want to try out something a little different, then Wanabehuman can provide an excellent platform for you free thinkers around the world.

We believe that virtue is knowledge.

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Mavericks at Work

On the efficiency trail this week...

Okay, I'm stretching it a bit. But when I give you eight sites for one yesterday, and today: a book, a blog and a downloadable manifesto... well come on now, isn't that being efficient?

Today, it is Mavericks at Work

You can find their web site here

Order their book here

Download their manifesto here

and find their blog here

Tomorrow?
That is another day... who knows?


Enjoy today! Carpe diem!

Frugal Village

It is fitting that as I introduce you to Frugal Village, you get not one, not two, not three, but EIGHT sites from which to chose:

• BudgetChristmas.com
• FrugalVillage.com
• FrugalVillage.net
• GamesGirlsPlay.com
• HomeBeautyRecipes.com
• Homekeeping101.com
• HomesteadGarden.com
• VillageBlogger.com
• WeightLossMoms.com

Now, is that frugal or what? Check in with Sara Noel and see what she is doing with ME TIME Media.

Enjoy!

I Miss Fafblog Spot

Remember when Fafnir wrote this? "This is a good blog. This is the best blog. It is about god and the universe and those horrible screaming monkeys and that time I made a pizza out of an old tire and a can of whip cream. It is the Fafblog." I do too [sniff]. I miss those guys

and then

Missing Fafblog! can be like the solitary life of the Sumatran rhinoceros. I Miss Fafblog, Spot!? A salt lick around which to congregate.

Yes, cruise on by to check out the Missing Fafblog Spot! A riot!

5 for Friday

On the "Billy Collins" trail to find five sites for this Friday.

First stop, Philippines: Flickers of Flight

Second at: My Desultory Musings

Third at: A Delightful Visit

Fourth at: HartfordYorkHats

and finally at: The glamorous (or not) life of a young conductor


and a bonus sherku: spontaneous hitchhikers

Go delight, fly away
No musing, just visit
Keep your hat on, Conductor


What is a sherku?

Doodlebean

Yes, doodles with a purpose!

Colorful, inspiring! Awe inspiring!

Go to Doodlebean now. Do not stop. Do not collect any money along the way.

Go to Doodlebean and feast your eyes!

The Borique Lens

Continuing along the Billy Collins trail, we stop in the suburbs of friendly Philadelphia.

She writes:

Hello from the sunny 'burbs of Phila-del-phia. I've been getting back into the swing of poetry these days after a too long hiatus from composing original work. In 2001, I had the privilege of being invited to a writer's retreat in Washington State and there I finally had the courage to come out as a writer and poet.

Read the full posting here.

A sample of other recent postings:

• A Queen Just Needs a Hero
• What do we want? Free and low-cost Healthcare!
• Latinos Will Not Be Televised...
• Call For Submissions

Check out the Borique Lens!

Daily Dickinson

Along the "Billy Collins" trail, I have come across the Daily Dickinson a few times so I can not leave it unmentioned here.

All things Emily!

From the "About" page we find:

What to expect…

from me

Every day, until I run out of poems, pictures, or patience, I’ll post an Emily Dickinson poem. The text will be from the Project Gutenberg Dickinson, checked against a print copy of the Complete Poems where appropriate. A photograph in that poem’s spirit will come along for the ride.

Some commentary may be included as well, if the poem warrants it. Don’t expect close readings or fanciful deconstructions or elucidations of the signified and the signifier; I’ve lost those brain cells to Guinness and Diafine and XML. I hope to offer thoughts that won’t detract from the poems, that clarify some obscurities (if they need clarification), or that offer a personal reaction.

No, I won’t help you with your term paper.

from you

Visit when you can, enjoy the pictures and the poems, leave a note. If you’re moved to buy a card or a book, then thank you very much! But if not, that’s fine; this sort of project is a cheap enough hobby, and clearly not a revenue stream.

If you like what you see, leave a comment or drop a line. Constructive criticism and hosannas are both gladly accepted here.

Thanks for visiting!

Michael Hartford

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 114 from 8 AM until 9 AM (Eastern time) on Monday July 16th Benjamin Bach, Greg Balanko-Dickson, Phil Gerbyshak, EM Sky and Steve Sherlock will join host Karen Salmansohn on the the Be Happy, Dammit! show for what is sure to be a fast and furious 60 minutes of conversation.

Can't catch it live? Don't worry, check out the Be Happy Dammit archives, especially this great show with Keith Ferrazzi, and soon, you'll see the JJLN show there too!

We'll be talking about all things learning, and no doubt learn a thing or two from Karen! Hope you can hear us soon!

5 for Friday

Cruising the poetry world online, I have five for you this Friday!

The haiku poet

The sundial girl

The newer metaphysicals

Kristine Jackson

Reality writes


Enjoy!

Things That Make You Go Hmm

No, C & C Music Factory hasn't decided to blog. TDavid is actually the author of this fine blog, called Things That Make You Go Hmm, an interesting blog all about technology, music, art, and news reviews. Definitely worth checking out if you're into any of the listed items, as TDavid's reviews are never boring. I particularly enjoy the way he puts himself in the pictures of the products he's reviewing, and his smiling face makes me wonder what's behind that brain of his?

Particularly interesting recently is his video on how to press and grill hamburgers. Ah, just in time for summer!

[Phil Gerbyshak is the author of 10 Ways to Make It Great! and can be found most days writing at Make It Great! He also currently serves as the editor of 100 Bloggers, where he helps connect the unconnected.]

Branding Wire: Provocative Perspectives from a Posse of Pundits

Today's trip along the trail takes us to Branding Wire, where some amazingly smart people talk about branding, something we all do, whether we think about it or not.

The pundit roll includes:

• bizsolutionsplus
• Branding Strategy Insider
• Conversation Agent
• Customers Rock!
• Drew's Marketing Minute
• Marketing Profs:Daily Fix
• Servant of Chaos
• StickyFigure
• Strategic Public Relations
• The Brand Builder
• The Branding Blog
• The Lonely Marketer

The first excellent project was creating a brand strategy for a small coffee shop. I've read it a few times, and it's really smartly done.

In July, the pundits will take on branding a small town. Set your feed reader to Branding Wire today, and never miss another post.

[Phil Gerbyshak is the author of 10 Ways to Make It Great! and can be found most days writing at Make It Great! He also currently serves as the editor of 100 Bloggers, where he helps connect the unconnected.]

Commonplaces

Commonplace-book. Formerly Book of common places. orig. A book in which 'commonplaces' or passages important for reference were collected, usually under general heads; hence, a book in which one records passages or matters to be especially remembered or referred to, with or without arrangement. First usage recorded: 1578. - OED

Hence, the collection Beth writes here is interesting. Her recent posts include these titles:

• Doing What You Are Told
• DESDICHADO
• How to Slice a Cake
• Snark Taxonomy
• The Evening Wore On
• Providence
• Could Be A Lot Worse
• Rare Pleasures
• Bird by Bird

Consider adding this site to your RSS Reader and return from time to time to this Commonplace

Molasses Poetry

Yes, continuing the Technorati "Billy Collins" trail we come upon Wendy who writes:

Welcome to Molasses Poetry.

I’m Wendy, and my love of words and poetry began in rural northern New Jersey where I grew up. On the grassy bank of a pond, a granite outcropping on a hillside, or in the shade of the black walnut tree in our front yard, I’d dig a stubby pencil and small, bent spiral notebook out of my pocket and jot down short poems about nature. Thankfully, school nurtured my appreciation for poetry rather than stifling it. A few years after my family relocated to Virginia, one particular English and creative writing teacher intensified my poetry enthusiasm through her inventive and inviting lessons. She also piqued my interest in teaching.

Inspired by my teacher-mentor, I taught English and creative writing for four years before becoming a librarian, a profession that allows me to combine my love of teaching and literature with my fascination for science, technology, and a multitude of other subjects. I journal and read poetry regularly, write poetry occasionally, and revel in opportunities to immerse myself in poetry during celebrations like the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

I believe that poetry is not just something you read or write, but something you live - by paying attention - to your environment, your fellow human beings, and yourself.

Live poetically!

Wendy's vision:

Too often I find myself caught up in the rush and rumble of pursuing what’s next and forget to stop, breathe, and be present in my life. Molasses Poetry is my way of encouraging readers to join me in slowing down to savor poetry and reflect on words, ideas, and images that may inspire poetry or journaling. I hope it may also spark lesson ideas for teachers of poetry, literature, or creative writing.

Web sites on the link menu connect readers with poems in many forms, formats, and voices, and are featured because they provide quality, organized content from a variety of poets, are from identifiable, authoritative sources, and either have permission to share the poets’ work or have compiled works in the public domain. You can find additional poetry resources by scrolling through my poetry links on del.icio.us.

When poem links, excerpts, or quotes in posts are accompanied by my musings, these are offered as a starting point for discussion rather than “the” interpretation.

Thank you for taking a moment to slow down with me. Please join the discussion by posting comments, or subscribe to Molasses Poetry by clicking on “entries” at the bottom of the main page and adding Molasses Poetry to your favorite feed reader.

I'll come back often, there are good links in her side bars.

kellementology

On the Technorati "Billy Collins" trail we find ourselves visiting with KellyPea who writes:

I am not a mother of hoop jumpers. And I am routinely reminded of this fact.

I have diligently tried to raise my offspring to understand the construct of the world. But they are very content to think about, getting around to, considering, being involved in, possibly participating, in life’s basic rules of engagement at their own pace. They construct their own hoops. Unfortunately, when you’re their mother, the hoops resemble hurdles. Large ones.

It’s not supposed to matter to me that so-and-so’s daughter is in “advanced this” or AP that. Or that this person’s son was recommended for such and such. That this acquaintance has a daughter that crosses all her T’s and dots all her I’s all the time. Sometimes those same people don’t understand how hard it is has been to let my children be who they are instead of what I want them to be. What I believe they can become. It’s not supposed to matter. But it does. It always has.

Read the full posting on Hoop Jumping and Birch Swinging

And then she writes:

“So who put the BBQ on the truck?” I asked the MoH as he jogged up the stairs to change his clothes after pulling the behemoth alongside our curb.

“Me and a guy at the store.”

“So then I can help you get it off the truck, right?” I responded like there was some sort of a legitimate comparison between my own strength and a guy’s — any guy’s. Well, except maybe a 4th grader’s. “It should be fine,” I mumbled, already wondering. “I’ll just look for something we can lower it down onto.” This had worked in the past when the two of us had to put a large TV into an armoire. Now that was scary, I remembered, picturing one or both of us bent backwards with a humongous TV ready to fall back onto our heads as we fell through the hardwood floor. Ugh. Or the time that we moved the same armoire up to our bedroom after getting a new TV.

We lovingly refer to ourselves as The Doopids, because we can get things done most of the time, but it’s somewhat of a 3rd class circus act in the delivery. “All elbows and a**holes,” as my mother would politely say before pushing one of us away from the task and getting it done herself with a few grunts and a snort. Sadly, my mom wasn’t available to remind us that one buff senior can handily put to shame two younger desk jockeys — or act like she could.

Read the full posting on Mint Julips end the BBQ Saga in Paradise

So where is Paradise?

Paradise is in Southern California. I don’t always want to live here, but do, because it’s where my house, my family, and VBF are. Oh, and since I’m now unemployed, I have to say my husband works here, so it wouldn’t be easy to pull up stakes and move to Virginia where my sister just moved. I do appreciate the qualities of Paradise as much as a house potato can, but clearly I struggle since I’m in a room with blinds pulled, sitting in front of a monitor, and it’s probably a perfectly remarkable day out there.

And who is KellyPea?

Who am I?
A woman, wife, mother of sons, daughter, sister, good friend, cat and dog lover, gardener, passionate cook, house potato, schizophrenic reader, pseudo interior decorator, movie lover, closet photographer (no, I don’t take pictures of closets), writer, persnickety music lover, non-practicing pianist, semi-novice world traveler, daydreamer, and not least, erstwhile educator. I’m sure I’ve left out a few identities, but they will most likely surface as things evolve.

What matters?
Everything — most of the time. I’m most likely not for the faint of heart. Imagine all of the above jockeying for position from day to day, or actually throughout the day. It makes my life interesting, and I am rarely bored.

So to avoid being bored, add this site to your RSS Reader and keep up with KellyPea living in Paradise!

Boston 1775

As a New England native, I am alert to learn what I can of the history of the area around me. To find Boston 1775, is indeed a good site to share.

History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.

J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

Recent posts

• Fun with John Quincy Adams's Diary
• Building Blocks of the American Revolution
• Having Fun Yet Again
• The Shape of the Redoubt on Breed’s Hill
• Who Coined the Phrase "Till You See the Whites of ...
• Who Said, "Don't Fire Till You See the Whites of T...

Add this site to your RSS Reader of choice and find out more about the early days of the American Revolution here in Boston.

Thoreau and Whitman

Did you know Henry David Thoreau had a blog?

And Walt Whitman had a blog?

Alas, Henry's has stopped updating (at least for now) but you can read what has previously been published.

Walt's seems to still be active although the last update was in May.

Two great American writers!

Thus Spoke Pragmatic Librarian

Jason writes:

You miss too much these days if you stop to think.

The quote above comes from “Until the End of the World,” the fourth song on U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby. Although the song alludes to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, the “stop to think” line seems apt for the overall scope of my blog.

As an academic librarian, I need to keep up with trends in higher education, librarianship, technology, and the disciplines for which I act as library liaison. I also ascribe to a principle similar to Murphy’s Law about technology: once I learn about a new technological development that could affect academia, “the next big thing” is already sneaking up to supplant it. As a result, keeping up can get overwhelming at times, and I feel like I have little time to reflect holistically on the true significance of all these developments.

In this blog, I try to grapple with the rapid changes occurring in higher education, librarianship, technology, and (by extension) society in general. I also want to provide a forum for those who want to “stop to think” without missing too much.

With that kind of an intro, and a tag line that reads:

Part professional. Part personal. All pragmatic.

Jason seems to have the site that you might want to add to your RSS Reader and visit.

Caferati

The Billy Collins trail takes us to India where we find:

Caferati is a collaboration between a motley group of writers who meet online at a message board on Ryze, and offline wherever the coffee is good, plentiful and cheap. We talk about getting published, books, writing, getting published, poetry, getting published, prose, theatre, and just about anything connected with the word, including getting published. We're Indian, most of us write in English and some of us are published in the dead-tree sense or earn a living from writing in some way - but none of those are preconditions for membership. You can find out a lot more about us by visiting our website, www.caferati.com.

One post starts:

Poetry, life full of surprises for Billy Collins (an interview with Richard Anderson) Excerpt:

All children, I think, write something that, for lack of a better word, is poetry … It’s really impossible to get out of the emotional turmoil of high school without, for better or worse, recording something that, again, by default if for no other reason, you might call a poem. … Someone said you don’t need to have an uphappy childhood to be a writer, you just need to have gone through adolescence … . But most people stop, just as most people stop drawing and stop playing music and stop dancing and doing a lot of things that they did as children. I think poets are just people who never wanted to stop playing with language.

For more of this, please visit Caferati