Happy New Year!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2008, and to remind everyone to please ring it in safely.

Link to me!

Well, I figured it was time I do this, so here goes... I've had a person or two ask if I had any buttons or banners they could use to link to my site, so I figured I'd better get on the ball and make a few! Please host these on your own server, and direct the links to my main page. Thanks!


80 x 15:


60 x 60:


125 x 125:



I'll upload more as I come up with them, but that ought to get it started for now... Also, this post will now be available at all times from my homepage by simply clicking "Link to Me" just below the header.

Thanks to all!

Photo Hunters: Messy

It's that time again! This week's theme is "messy" and a photo op that fit it just happened to fall into my lap. For Christmas, our four dogs got rawhide candy canes. Here's a shot of Donovan, the littlest, enjoying his:

Now, the other four dogs all managed to eat their rawhide without getting it all over themselves or anything else, but not Donovan... He had it smeared all over his face. By the time we got the camera and set up the shot, he had gotten most of it off, but you can still see some clinging to his nose:



Here's a closeup shot of his MESSY nose:

Friday Quiz: What Kind of Cake Are You?

It's no secret to anyone who's delved into my archives that I love internet quizzes. I would post one every day, but that might be a bit of over kill, so I've decided to keep it down to a weekly post. Every Friday, you can expect to see at least one quiz posting on this site, so if quizzes are just not your thing, you might want to avoid this page on Fridays... And so, without further ado:

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you're not super cutting edge, you're high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Blog Battle Royale

Some of you may have noticed that there's been a new graphic on my sidebar for a little while now that I haven't yet talked about. You know, this one:

It's for Blog Battle Royale, a new Battle of the Blogs competition that's only recently been made public. Thanks a ton to Dan of My Dusky Brain. The basic concept is you enter your blog in a challenge against another blog. Then when someone clicks on the challenge they have to view each of the blogs for 20 seconds, and then vote for their favorite. As of this writing, I'm #1 of 8 blogs. IMHO, it would be far better to say I was #1 of 100, so I'm hoping some of you out there will also participate! So what are you waiting for? Go join already!!! If nothing else, it'll earn you a few extra pageviews.

Blog365

Some of you who also read my games blog may know that I participated this year in NaBloPoMo. The idea was to post a blog entry every day for the entire month of November. Not only did I manage to complete the challenge, I was also named as a prize winner! (Btw, Robyn, if you're reading this I still haven't heard back from you...) It was such a blast that I think I'd like to do it again, but I don't want to wait till next November! So, I've decided to give Blog365 a go this year. That means you'll be seeing a lot more frequent posting here for 2008. Anyone want to join me???

Visit Blog 365

Joe Tech Rocks!

Just wanted to take a minute to post a great big Thank you to JoeTech.com for the 1000 EntreCard credits I just won. Joe, you rock!

Thing is, I'm a big fan of sharing the wealth... So stay tuned for details!

Merry Christmas

Photo Hunt: Light

This week the Photo Hunt theme is Light. I must admit that I'm cheating just a little bit though. I didn't actually take this shot. Grumpamoose did. Still, since I asked him to take it, I figure it counts. Anyway, this is to highlight the difference between my new energy saver lightbulbs and the old traditional types (the two bulbs in the background). The difference in color and the amount of light put out is not a photo trick -- that's how it really looks. I'm quite pleased with the new bulbs, and they should save us some money in the long run too, so I think we'll be sticking with them.

Writers Strike

I read a lot of blogs. I also read a lot of webcomics. When the authors of said webcomics write decent blogs, you can bet I'm on board. Such is the case with Scott Kurtz of PVP. Today he posted about how the writers' strike in Hollywood has made him look at a lot of old hobbies differently, and how he's reevaluating his television habits. Kudos to him! There's a pretty good quote on there too that really hits the nail on the head about this entire thing, but I'll let you follow the above link and read it there yourself.

So I got to thinking. The blogworld has been buzzing with talk about this strike for some time now, but I have remained silent on the matter. Why, you might ask? Because were it not for the posts of other bloggers, I would not even have realized that there was a strike going on. Grump and I cancelled our satellite tv subscription a few months back. At the moment it's been reactivated, but only so that we can catch all the Christmas specials on tv this time of year. Television hasn't held much fascination for me for quite a number of years. I mean, there have been a few shows I've enjoyed, but overall it's just a load of crap that I could just as well do without. It seems that this strike has made a lot of people realize that.

I mean really, how does television enrich my life? Or yours? Or anyone's? For most people out there it's a way of turning off all of your higher thinking processes and letting yourself just veg out. Now don't get me wrong, that's something we should all do from time to time. We all need time to just quiet our minds and not think. But not five or six hours a day, or more in many cases.

I know a lot of people will say that the internet is no different, but it is. The internet is interactive. Some folks choose to surf the mind-numbing stuff and that's it, but many more of us use this wonderful world wide web to express our creativity, reach out to other people, learn, grow and better ourselves. After all, that's what this blogging thing is at it's root isn't it? A way of connecting with people from all over the world? That's how I see it anyway. Even games aid development in hand-eye coordination, puzzle solving skills, and other fundamental abilities.

So if the writers of lame sitcoms and lamer dramas refuse to work, what is it to me? I couldn't care less. I'm quite happy here in front of my computer where I control my entertainment, rather than the other way around. I'm happy with a means of engaging my brain, rather than disengaging. And if those writers find themselves out of jobs, so much the better. Maybe if more of us would keep our brains firmly in "on" mode, our society as a whole would be a little better off. But perhaps that's just me.

Joe Tech's Giving Away 1000ec!

Don't know what ec are? Well then you obviously haven't been to Entrecard yet. Pop on over, create an account, then go check out Joe Tech's giveaway. And tell him BunGirl sent you!

Doodles

While surfing, I came across a doodling challenge on doodlage.com. Since I used to drive my teachers mad with the doodling in the margins on just about everything I ever turned in, and I still tend to scrawl little doodles in the appointment book at work unless I am very careful not to, I figured I could do this one in my sleep. Doodling is harder when you're actually trying to do it. It's like someone telling you not to picture a pink elephant. Until someone tells you NOT to picture a pink elephant, you have no trouble not doing so. But the harder you concentrate on not picturing it, the more it becomes impossible. Likewise, trying to draw without drawing anything in particular, is kind of difficult... Though it wouldn't be difficult if I wasn't trying. Anyway, here's what I came up with:

Voting Time!

The Christmas Ninja presents The Mystery Challenge #5! The topic was proposed by Scott of Scott-O-Rama, the winner of MTC #4. Below you will find all the entries for this challenge. Please visit and read them all. Once you've read all the entries, please vote for your favorite. Members of the forum may vote in the poll HERE. Guests can place their vote in this thread HERE. Voting concludes on Dec. 16th.

Read - Robby Rational: Holiday Traditions
Read - Peter Namtvedt: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?
Read - Uninhabited Man: Mystery Topic Challenge #5: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?


Read - Jester: The Christmas Colonic
Read - Leaf Probably: Mystery Topic Challenge #5
Read - Jayne d'Arcy: Holiday Traditions - MTC #5


Read - Zybron: That Holiday Spirit
Read - BunGirl: MTC #5: Christmas Traditions
Read - Some Go Softly: Traditions Are Our History


Read - ShadyLady: MTC#5
Read - Mr President: The Christmas Ninja
Read - Seaguy8: Mystery Topic Challenge: Favourite Holiday Traditions
Read - Geekgrl64: Mystery Topic 5 - What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?

How to make your photos talk for free!

This article is part of How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest which you can see at How2Blogger’s ‘How To’ site.

While surfing today I came across an interesting post from OrangeInks in which I was introduced to PQ Talking Photo. It seems they've come up with a new software that you can use to make your photos talk, like so:

Of course, the uses for this would be plentiful and plenty of fun. But, the software costs $59.90, which is perhaps more than you can justify spending right now, with Christmas around the corner and all. No worries! They're giving it away for free. That's right FREE. All you have to do is blog about it on an established blog (at least 10 prior posts) and then email the link to the good folks at blogging@pqdvd.com to get your free copy. But watch out, time is ticking... the contest is only running now through Christmas, so better make it quick!

MTC #5: Christmas Traditions

What's that behind you? Are those sleigh bells you hear? Did you see something? I think it was wearing red...could it be the Christmas Ninja? Happy Holidays from the BlogNinjas. They are the crazy internet group behind the MTC. The members rock the blogosphere in varying degrees, and can sneak up behind you in a moments notice. You can join the clandestine group after undergoing a severe and heavily scrutinized Blog Ninja review that verifies your actual existence and BN worthiness (basically, we read your blog). Post an entry, vote, maybe win, and you may be selecting the next topic. It's like a blog party.

Click here to join.

This time, the topic was chosen by Scot-o-Rama: What are your favorite holiday traditions and why?

All of my favorite Christmas traditions are things that we did when I was little.

Christmas itself would start for us on Christmas Eve. We'd pile in the car and go to the family service at church, where they'd always have a Christmas Carol Sing-Along to add to the festiveness. After the service, when we got home, Mom and Dad would have one special present picked out that we could open that night before bed, usually with a plate of cookies and some cold milk at hand. When it was time to tuck us in, the bedtime story was always "The Night Before Christmas" as read by my Mom. I can still remember most of the words to that poem. As I got older, I also got to help my Mom wrap some of my sister's gifts from "Santa" since she still believed (we're five years apart). It was so much fun to hang out in Mom's room, wrapping gifts and stuffing candy into stockings, way later than I was normally allowed to be up.

Christmas morning always came early, with Mamie usually waking us all up long before anyone was ready. There was a rule in the house: no one was allowed into the living room (where the tree was) until everyone was awake. So we'd both go wake up my parents, eager to see what we'd find under the tree.

There were certain things that were the same every year. Mamie's gifts were always on one side of the tree, while mine were on the opposite side, with Mom and Dad's in the middle. There were certain wrapping papers that belonged to "Santa" while others were from the family. For some reason, neither of us ever noticed that Santa's handwriting looked a lot like Mom's neat hand. Our stockings, while mostly surprises, always contained the same two objects in the toe. A bag of chocolate coins, and an orange. These were part of an old tradition that I only vaguely understood, but the stocking would never have been the same without these items.

Once all the presents were opened, we'd find a parade on the TV and start cleaning up the shredded paper while Mom started breakfast. Before long, the sweet smell of Pilsbury Cinnamon Rolls would fill the apartment. To this day, I still haven't figured out how she always made them so gooey soft. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying.

Christmas day would largely be spent playing with new toys and trying on new clothes until early afternoon when we'd start getting ready for Christmas Dinner. This was a formal affair, and required our very best clothes. Mom, Mamie and I would go to my grandmother's house for an early dinner with her, my uncle and my cousin Jason. She'd always have honeyed ham with pineapple rings and cherries on it. It was always a treat to make any mouth water. We'd open gifts again, from Mom-Mom and my Aunt Linda, who rarely made it back from Texas for Christmas.

Once all the festivities there were done, Christmas was still only getting started. We'd all pile into cars and venture out into the icy weather to my Great Aunt Ann's house. There the extended family would gather for dessert, including Mom-Mom's two sisters and their children. There would be more sweets, cakes and candies than any army could possibly polish off, and we were allowed to have anything we wanted. Of course, there were more gifts there, and the kids got to help pass them out, and later to collect the wrapping paper. Most of the bows, of course, wound up on the dog, Shadow. Afterward, there'd always be a football game on, and sometimes there would also be a party game. Jenga was a favorite. Aunt Ann also would sometimes have word puzzles or jokes with Christmas themes printed out. By the time we got home, we were usually so tired and/or stuffed, that we all pretty much just went straight to bed.

There are so many parts from my childhood Christmases that I plan to carry on when I have kids. Among them are the entire Christmas Eve chain of events, the stockings, the cinnamon rolls, parades on tv, and spending as much time with family as possible. When possible, we'll even show up for Christmas dessert in PA, whoever happens to be hosting it by then...

As for the why part, that's easy. Christmas was always my favorite time of year as a kid. It was one of the few times a year that my whole extended family got together, so I guess anything that reminds me of those years is a good thing in my mind.

I guess I'm in a quiz-taking mood these days!

Your Score: Ki-lin

You scored 50% Esotericism, 24% Power, and 34% Malevolence!

A mythical being of Chinese mythology, comparable with the Western unicorn. Ki-lin personifies all that is good, pure, and peaceful. It lives in paradise and only visits the world at the birth of a wise philosopher. The unicorn, which can become one thousand years old, is portrayed as a deer with one horn, the tail of an ox, the hooves of a horse, and a body covered with the scales of a fish. It is one of the four Ling.

Link: The Mythological Profile Test written by LacedWithASmile on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

(Hat tip to Mr President for this one)

Yes, I am a Grammar Nazi, thank you very much.

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Photo Hunt: Long

This week's theme is "long," so in continuing with my Christmas decorations series, I'm posting a shot of a long strand of Christmas lights.

When I was a kid, my Dad LOVED having a ton of lights. I think the tree was about the only thing he actually liked about Christmas, and it had to be just covered in lights and tinsel. We lived in a very cramped apartment, so stringing up the lights took up the entire living room and part of the dining room too. My sister and I would tiptoe through the long strands of blinking, twinkling or just shining lights, checking for bulbs that weren't working. Then would come the actual placing on the tree part. We'd form a line, holding out the whole strand so it didn't get tangled with any of the others, with Dad wrapping it around the tree just so. It had to be done perfectly, you see. No single light could be out of place. By the time the lights were all up, the tree would look like it couldn't possibly have room for ornaments, but we'd pile those on as well. That was mostly left to the girls though. Mamie would place the lowest ornaments, I'd take the middle and Mom would get the stuff that needed to be up high. Then Mame and I would be off to bed and Mom would rearrange the ornaments so that there weren't any glaring gaps or clumps, and dad would cover the whole thing in two or three boxes of tinsel.

My tree these days is a bit different. We only have three strands of lights, quite a bit fewer ornaments (we haven't been collecting them for 20+ years!) and no tinsel as it's just too tempting for the dogs. It's not quite the same, but it still holds that spark of Christmas wonder. I know it's really Christmastime when I see the hubby start laying out those strands of lights!

Stay tuned for more Christmas memories tomorrow as the Blog Ninjas present Mystery Topic Challenge #5, and more photo fun next week with the theme of "small."

Life in the Blogosphere

Lately, I've been spending more and more time on blog-related websites. Partially, this is because of two specific sites: Entrecard and Blog Ninjas.

Entrecard, for me at least, is more than just a blog promotion tool. I've found several great sites through it. It's fun to just surf from one to another, dropping cards as I go and reading perspectives from all kinds of people. I've added several sites to my RSS reader that I would never have found otherwise.

At Blog Ninjas, I have found not only a fun blogging challenge, but also a great community. It's still small enough to be interesting, but large enough that there are plenty of things going on there on any given day. There too I have found a plethora of new blogs to read.

So I just wanted to do a little promoting for my two favorite websites of late. If either sounds interesting, and you decide to sign up, drop a comment here and let me know.

75%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Photo Hunt: Red

I've been thinking for a while about doing a weekly themed post, similar to some of the ones I've participated in before, but I wanted to try something new. While surfing through Entrecard, I came upon Colloquium, and saw her beautiful entries to Photo Hunt. Seems perfect to me, so here goes...

This week's theme is "red," a color which naturally makes me think of Christmas. So I've decided to post a shot of the pretty red bows we hang from our front porch railing this time of year. In fact, the Grump will be hanging said bows today, so it's quite appropriate timing.

I've always favored traditional and clean-looking Christmas decorations, and the way we decorate our house reflects that. I like little white lights, evergreen garlands and big red bows, all of which are in this picture (though you can't see the lights entwined in the garland because it's too sunny and they aren't lit). We're probably going to add candles in the upstairs windows this year. We also have three little white Christmas trees made of lights going down the walk, and of course the tree in the front window.

So, that's my entry for "red". Tune in next week for "long" -- I have an idea, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the shot I want... so we'll see!