The Blog

The Blogger – Andy Andrews is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Noticer and The Traveler’s Gift.  He is also one of the most sought after speakers and business consultants in the country.  He has spoken at the request of four different U.S. presidents.  Once homeless, he is living proof that dreams do come true.

A Post We Luv – After spending 15 years with the Andrews family, Andy’s Dalmatian recently passed away.  In I Loved Lucy, he shares  just how much this beloved pet meant to him, and how there will never be another who is better – because “Lucy was the best”.  Grab your tissues!

10 Questions with Sy of The Wheel is Turning, but the Hamster is Dead

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
The site is a testament to a man who used to have a lot of time on his hands. It is a mash up of various types of posts, all dependent on what is going on in the world at the time. The site is universal, and I try to make it acceptable for the majority by not writing posts that may offend on purpose. I try to write in “plain” English rather then use crazily long words that make people think. The site is not about thinking, but is more about mindless escapism.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
It’s a Kind of Magic. Possibly of the Mushroom Kind.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I don’t think I can say I am set apart from other bloggers. I read many other blogs, and am astounded at the quality of the blogs out there that can post day after day. If anything, it is that I make a point of replying to every single comment, and try to strike up online friendships by email with my readers by actively encouraging them to contact me off of the site.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I used to read a lot of IT news sites, and always “had something to say”, but humour was always my thing in life and decided in December 2007 to give it a go just after being burgled and wanting to vent about it. I put a humour angle on it, and the site went from there.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Having the time to create content people want to read, and having the time to get my site out there and get new readers. I have found promoting my blog a hard task as my home life has changed and the time I have to surf has decreased.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Stats. Be it Feedburner or Statcounter, it is important for me to know that people are reading my site. After all, I spend a lot of time writing posts, so it would be sad to know that no one is reading it.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Ade Edmondson. A lot of people wouldn’t know of him, but he is a UK TV star. His comedy has me in tears and I would love to see what he could do on a post. If his posting skills are half as good as his acting and script writing, my site would benefit many times over, as would my readers.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I cannot say that it has made me a better person per say. If anything, it has made me painful to my wife in my constant attempts to write good humour posts and bugging her asking her if she thinks it is OK. Of course, she always says yes, but I think it is because she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings!

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Do not become obsessed with stats. People will come if you get your name out there, and there is no such thing as a thousand hits a day 3 posts in to your blog! And cut down on the ads. Do you want to write a site, or do you want to make a lot of money? If it is the money, then you need to look elsewhere. I have no ads at all on my site. Enjoy writing your posts and do not let yourself turn in to the perfectionist. Trust me, it makes each post harder and harder!!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
It’s a Funny Thing…
I love Don’s posts. The photo manipulation makes me incredibly jealous, while making me very happy that I found his site. He seems to have an abundance of posts available which makes visiting there a pleasure.

Julie is an all around fun kind of friend to have. I can count her for a good Skype chat when she’s online, and we can talk about all sorts of things from the latest internet craze to how she rocks the house playing Rock Band with her hubby and teenage sons.

Her latest adventures include her son’s cute new chihuahua puppy, attending the Zappo’s vendor party, and cleaning out her huge book stash and selling them on Amazon.com. Looking for a book? Julie might just have it in her mountain of books for sale this month.

Julie’s Journal is what a I love in a personal blog, it’s fun, up beat, and realistic. There’s no over the top insanity, and there’s no fluff or padding, just a real gal living in the real world in Las Vegas. Enjoy hanging out at Julie’s, and BYOB.

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
The easy answer is “a southern belle turns beach bum.” After a tough year last year, a death and a separation, this life-long-land-locked-lady moved to the coast of Florida, a place I had never been before in my life. So my posts and photography are about my exploration of the area, the little “hidden gems” outside the tourists’ radars, the beauty of nature around me, the people I meet, and the basic lifestyle of coastal living. Sometimes I’ll just post a photo, or sometimes my posts are semi-personal, but it all usually relates to the bigger theme of my new life living on the Cape.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
That’s tough to say because I think they just about all define who I am, but it would probably be these two that are related through my love of nature.

• Like Mother, Like Son – Because I have an almost insane love of thunderstorms.
• Show Some Respect for Nature – Because I get irritated by the laziness and irresponsibility of people who take nature and their fellow human beings for granted.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
What sets me apart from other bloggers is observation. Through simple observation, I (hopefully) open people’s eyes to both our differences and similarities, and the dozens of people and things we see everyday yet dont really see.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I first discovered journaling online back in the early 2000’s. I had been a member of several writing workshops when a group of online friends and I discovered a small site called Journalscape. It is exactly how it sounds, a place to journal. It was (and still is) a site mostly for writers and artists, a place for us to share thoughts and accomplishments about our work, and even write about our personal lives. There are no ads, no monetizing, no spamming, no marketing. In fact, it’s strictly forbidden…it’s just a nice place to commune with other like-minded people. I tried blogger a few years ago, but at that time there was no way to pull people in (like with blogcatalog, my bloglog or Entrecard) to read your blogs and it didn’t “feel” like a community. A few months ago, a friend and I were slaving away over our computers writing seo/marketing copy for a woman, getting paid next to nothing. We decided to do our own sites, with better quality content, and have since been in the process of setting them up. After moving to Florida, I decided I wanted to start my own blog about living on the coast and…well now, here I am.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
My biggest pet peeve about blogging in particular would be these people who don’t keep up with their blogs. Personally, I write at least one post a day, if not more. I get frustrated to (while dropping ecards) visit the same blog over and over and see it hasn’t had a new post in almost two weeks. And these are people who have tens, sometimes hundreds of readers (per their feedburner chicklet.) Oh, they’ll still drop a card in your widget, but yet they don’t update their blogs. I also don’t like these sites (like the woman I used to work for) who cram 50 or more crappy, keyword-filled articles on their site to raise themselves up in the search engines just so they can sell a book they probably didn’t write themselves.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I love the Adsense Plugin for WordPress. I don’t know a thing about css or php, and the Adsense Plugin (which isn’t just for Adsense) allows me to place any java or html widget (including the Entrecard widget) or chicklet on my sidebars through the dashboard, without having to manually go in and edit the template code itself. It’s like “Blogging for Dummies”

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Wow, that’s a tough one. I’m not real big on guest posters either. I might be if I ran a blog on Internet Marketing or SEO Optimization, but I don’t. I would do it as an interview. Since I’m a lover of history, Katherine the Great, or maybe the author of one of my favorite books, ”A Confederacy of Dunces,” John Kennedy Toole. However, even the interview would be within the theme of my blog, “So is this your first visit to Cape Canaveral?” “Do you think you’ll take surfing lessons at Ron Jon’s?”

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Well, I know online journaling has made me a better person because as a closet introvert it helped me to open up. My newest blog has just taught me to be myself. I also enjoy meeting other bloggers and anytime you can meet other bloggers that makes you a better blogger.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
See answer #8. No seriously, just be yourself. If writing about yourself, make it relatable to others, find the universal truth. Also, there’s a writer’s rule, “to become a good writer, a writer must read” so I’d say, read other blogs, leave thoughtful, relevant comments and those bloggers will generally come back and not only read, but comment on your posts as well.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
The one great blog I read is on Journalscape, and so as not to “out” her often personal journal, I’ll just have to keep that one to myself. However, I really enjoy reading Caledonian Comment, The Thinking Blog. Not only does he cover stories, mostly political, around the world, but Americans don’t always know about the inner nuances of the British government. I mean, the whole world saw President Bush do his best Elaine Benitz dance in Africa, but we didn’t see PM Brown lull to sleep a group of Israeli school children during a speech to the Israeli Parliament. So for me, it’s very educational, and I enjoy his use of photos and subtle wit. Plus, I like that he has the CNN latest news widget on his sidebar, so I can easily check out some of their newer feeds right off his page.

10 Questions with The Vegas Art Guy of The Desert Glows Green

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
My blog covers just about everything, including religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin. During the school year it’s mostly about education and my adventures in the classroom. When school is not in session, it’s open season.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
There were several, but this one is a good one: Good News for a Change

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
Why, me of course. :) That and I don’t stick to just one subject, and I’ll admit my faults and successes.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I kept hearing about blogs and how cool they were. I poked around and started to read a few that I liked and decided to give it a try.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
All the cursing, and working really hard on a post and not getting any response, then mailing one in and you get huge discussions, go figure.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I love Haloscan, it makes managing my comments way easy. It’s way better than the comment system Blogger uses.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Ronald Reagan. I’m a big fan of his and he wrote and spoke so plainly and yet so eloquently.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
It’s made me write more clearly and has made me a better communicator. It’s also forced me to think more critically than I used to in the past.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Be honest, especially if you screw up. Return comments and visits from other blogs. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and make sure if you do politics to do some research before you just spout off your opinion. In addition you should put up an entry every couple of days or so, that way your readers will keep coming back and please have fun!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Just one? That’s not fair! :( OK I read American Power every day. Dr. Douglass’ posts on the political scene are always interesting and I always learn something new when I visit his site. OK I’m addicted to his blog… lol

The Blogger – Flat Coke is a 29 year old radiology technician who enjoys sports, music, and the outdoors. She is happily involved with Mr. Wonderful, and she’s one of the most beautiful women I know – both inside and out!

A Post We Luv – There are lots of sexy photos of Flat Coke scattered about her blog. The one of her wearing nothing but a scarf is one of my favorites!

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Like me, my blog can’t be described in less than five sentences but I am going to try (dang I just wasted a sentence to describe my blog talking about how it can’t be described). Black southern female reality blogging, actually it’s a reality blog that is colored by the fact that my reality is affected by my race, gender, and where I was raised. I like to believe that I bring a creative aspect to blogging; I’m a different kind of voice that combines the melodies of spoken word and how words roll off your brain or tongue. I love words and how they sound, and when I write my tone and cadence makes you feel as if I am there holding a conversation with you, many of my blogs can be read aloud like music or poetry. My blog is written for therapy and release (every time OG writes a blog pimp hand goes down) more than anything it’s a view into my world that helps you see a different side of the world, because I, like everyone else in the blogsphere, think I bring a unique perspective to the table.

2. Link us to one post that best defines who you are.
Black Like Me
This was an extremely hard choice for me. Its one of the reasons I do not do best of list on my right hand side. My blogs are like children. I think they are all wonderful and should be read. Ok, well most of them. I choose this post because I think it speaks to a dynamic beyond racial duality while being completely about it. I think we all struggle with the many faces of the prism that make up who we are as people. We are but a sum of our parts, and some of us have lady parts. Lady parts are cool.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I think my cadence and tempo. I think my love of the English language and music with my slightly offbeat humor makes me an OG. I think the way I deliver stories about my life and my convictions is not the average delivery of today’s blogger, but doesn’t everyone think that? I think that my blogs are layered and full of life they can be read over and over and something new can be found with each new read. Maybe it was a play on words you didn’t see or a pop culture reference that had escaped you until now. In that way I’m kinda like Family Guy, except I’m single and black and southern and not a cartoon. I think my willingness to experiment outside the box and do things I have never seen before on my blog always makes it exciting to visit my blog. I think my quick wittedness (is that a word?) and positive view even on the negative things sets me a part from a lot of blogs, it’s not Pollyanna but it’s not doom and gloom. I like to think of it more as if Pollyanna woke up and found out she was black. She isn’t, is she? Is she colorless like God? I think my refusal to address things that the mainstream media wants us talking about makes me unique. In my space it will always be about what I want to talk about. I often wait for topics to die down or last longer than a sound bite before I weigh in, because some of this news we are discussing in the blogsphere IS NOT NEWS! So to sum it up, I think me being me is what sets me a part from other bloggers.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
Man, I remember blogging like yesterday. It happened in December of 2001. A very good friend of mine works for MS. She told me they had just set up a beta blog site. So I just started blogging about my seemingly happy life. Nothing too deep, just blog fodder, almost like reading the diary of a seven year old. You know how you think at seven what you are writing is scandalous and then you realize that writing about your crush on your neighbor in the 5th grade is hardly what they make playboy movies out of. Then not too long after my blogging life started, I went through a separation, divorce, and a few of life’s other hard knocks. Blogging became my way to address the pain. Unlike journaling it allowed others to weigh in and let me know I was not crazy for feeling how I felt.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Good question. I live most of my life in the black blogsphere, not really a conscious choice but we gravitate to those things that affect our lives. I think I hate the fact that many bloggers don’t spend a lot of time putting out solutions. They critique everything under the sun, but they never put out solutions. I also don’t like the amount of refusal to listen to other thoughts or views by commenters who jump on sites and refuse to see the other side of the coin. You would think as a computer operating human, being there would be more brain power to have rational discussion, but really there isn’t. So Sad. So Sad.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I don’t know if I have one. *lol* I don’t use a lot of widgets of services. My blog is organic; I don’t even have Adsense on my blog, as of now. I try to view this as a passionate hobby. I guess I’m like Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest. He said it was just him and his microphone; well, it’s just me and my laptop. Ok maybe Sitemeter.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog,who would it be and why?
I’d have to say no one. I’m not really big on it. I guess Jay Leno does have a guest host and teachers have subs, but to me blogging is not one of those things that you need to have stand-in for. If I don’t blog, then oh well. The world keeps on spinning and the big wheels keep on turning and Proud Mary keeps on burning. When I’m away I do sometimes schedule posts and while I do try to blog daily, sometimes I don’t. I think for my blog having a guest blogger would be hard because of my writing style. I like to think of it as unique and different and that bringing someone else in would disrupt its flow FAR MORE than a few days with out OG. However if that question is to just see who I admire as a writer or person in the world, I would just tell you Toni Morrison is the truth!! Despite that fact, she still can’t write a guest post on my blog. Plus I’m sure they have some special blog for Nobel Laureates to post on.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I essentially grew up on my blog. I don’t think we ever stop growing and evolving. Well, enlightened human beings don’t. I learned from my mistakes and pushed through them into this great mental space I am in right now. I chronicled all of that in some form or fashion on my blogs. Blogging about those things really helped me look at my feelings objectively and not just internalize them. Blogging saves the little bit of sanity I have left. I call it working my life’s problems out on paper. To me, blogging is the metaphorical equivalent to showing your work on your math homework. You know people want to know how I got to this space, how I found my answers and if they really want to know, all they need to do is READ my blogs from day one. You will see me work out my ideas and my life and my friends and everything right there in front of you. Some of it only I know the specifics to, but most of it you can chart. You can see me in my valleys, you can read a post and say “Oh this is where she carried the 1”. It really is the best therapy there is for me.

It has allowed me to be easier on myself. It has allowed me to see my growth as a person. The one thing about chronicling your life in cyberspace is IT IS THERE FOREVER AND FOR EVERYONE TO SEE. I made it a hard fast rule a long time ago NEVER to delete any post I published. I think because of that rule I really have to be sure when I am writing the blog it is something I am ready to share and ready to get the truth about. My blog folder is full of blogs that never see daylight. When I tackle personal subjects about people I know I have learned to be more tactful and discerning with my words just out of respect for their privacy, because you never know who is reading. It definitely makes me more creative when sharing my anecdotes. I very rarely address people that I know lurk. It’s tacky to me, but that is all growth on my part as a person and a blogger. It has also made me a better writer. It has made me a better researcher even though I very rarely use my research for anything else other than double entendre and pop-culture jokes. Man I am telling you I’m the Family Guy of blogs.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Be honest and be open. Spell check (this is my thing) and read your blog to yourself both as your editor (I am learning more about content editing the more I blog) and as your target audience. Lucky for me I’m my target audience. Realize that more people than you can imagine are reading you and take it as your opportunity to shine. Find your writing strengths, learn who your audience is as opposed to who you think they are, and above all else be true to whatever YOUR vision is of YOUR blog. Only change what it is and what you are writing on it for you. I am a firm believer in “If you build it, they will come.” I call it the Field Of Dreams philosophy. Please remember you have to build it on solid foundation; otherwise, when they come, it will crumble!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Man, I read so many, but I do have my regular stops. I don’t let my friends know I read their blogs often because I know as a blogger it sometimes inhibits your creative space when you know friends or family are reading/lurking; however at some point it becomes unavoidable. I would have to say Raving Black Lunatic. Can I say that on TV? (Just jokes people, just jokes) I have watched him develop and evolve his own style which is different from other political and social commentary blogs I see out there. I think that he offers an insightful and intelligent look at his life as a black man in New Orleans. He also isn’t afraid to tell the truth, even when it means he needs to step up his own personal growth game. I admire that. Big Man never disappoints me with his take on things and our world today.

The Blogger – JC is 36 years old and resides in Texas. He enjoys photography, movies, reading, sports, gardening, and music. He looks like Patrick Dempsey, and he’s single!

A Post We Luv – JC has been participating in the Self Portrait Challenge for a couple of years now. He has created some of the most intriguing portraits I’ve ever seen, but when he recently posted a fully nude photo of himself, I was in awe. This guy is extremely brave, and equally hot! But don’t worry. The photo is very tasty…I mean tasteful!