Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. Approximately 67 million people worldwide have glaucoma, including more than 3 million in the United States.

The Glaucoma Foundation compares a healthy eye to a sink. The faucet is always running, and the drain is always open. The aqueous humor is constantly circulating through the anterior chamber. It is produced by the ciliary body, which is situated behind the iris. The aqueous flows between the iris and the lens, and after nourishing the cornea and lens, flows out of the eye through a very tiny spongy tissue called the trabecular meshwork. The trabecular meshwork is situated in the angle where the iris and cornea meet.

When this drain becomes clogged, aqueous cannot leave the eye as fast as it is produced, causing the fluid to build up. But since the eye is a closed compartment, the “sink” doesn’t overflow. The backed up fluid causes increased pressure to build within the eye. To understand just how this pressure affects the eye, think of the eye as a balloon. When too much air enters the balloon, the pressure builds and the balloon pops. The eye is too strong to pop, so instead, it gives at its weakest point, which is where the optic nerve leaves the eye.

The optic nerve is part of the central nervous system and carries visual information from the eye to the brain. This nerve is made up of over one million nerve axons, which are nerve fiber extensions of the retinal ganglion cells. When the eye pressure is increased, the optic nerve becomes damaged and the retinal ganglion cells begin to die. This results in permanent vision loss.

At this time, there is no cure for glaucoma. However, through early diagnosis and treatment, blindness can be prevented.

I am one of the lucky glaucoma patients. I was diagnosed eight years ago, at the age of 27. I see my doctor frequently, and I am on daily medications to control the disease. I have suffered very little optic nerve damage so far, and with any luck, it will stay that way. I dream of the day a cure is found – hopefully in my own lifetime.

You can help. On July 28th, Mike and I will be participating in Blogathon 2007. Beginning at 9 AM Eastern, we will blog for 24 straight hours to support The Glaucoma Foundation. Please consider making a pledge for our cause. Every dollar you contribute will help to further research into this horrible disease. As an added incentive, we will be giving away a $25 Amazon.com gift card at the close of Blogathon 2007. For every $5 you contribute, you will receive one entry into the drawing.

At the close of Blogathon 2007, you will receive an email reminder about fulfilling your pledge. Several people have asked about PayPal. At this time, The Glaucoma Foundation is not accepting PayPal; however, they said that you are welcome to send a check by mail if you do not have a credit or debit card.

Thank you for your help!

Categories: Announcements, Health

Ten Questions with Helen of HelenChatter.com

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.

Helenchatter.com is simply my relaxed, non-serious home away from home. I use helenchatter whenever I feel a little homesick and out of myself (even when I am physically at home). It is a place where I can mentally return to myself. Hence, everything and anything goes at the site!

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.

My Big Fat Life

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?

I’m honest, I don’t censor myself, and I’m open. I also don’t fake games and pretend to be who I’m not. Not to say that others do this, but I think my “Don’t Care” attitude when it comes to blogging and the online world makes me feel a little less desperate to be popular, which allows me to be myself.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?

I am one of the veterans of blogging — before it was made popular by blogging sites like blogspot, blogger, movabletype, and wordpress. I used to blog by hand, hand code each blog entry. Heck, I blogged before it was even called “blogging.” It was something I needed to do, and I thought it was so original at the time (1996) because very little people did it. It caught on really quickly.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?

Internet cliques, blog dramas, 20-somethings playing middle school games and writing random crazy stuff about anonymous people. Oh, and copycats and layout stealers. I abhor plagiarists.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.

MovableType. I can’t believe I used to hand code each and every entry.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be?

Anne Frank.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?

It’s allowed me to express myself and overall taught me how to be myself without fear and walls.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?

Be who you are, don’t hide, be honest, get your feelings out, use it as a medium for expression.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?

I really like Jann Arden’s blog. It is inspiring, beautiful, honest, and non-pretentious.

Categories: Personal, Ten Questions

Ten Questions with Danielle of Pink Internet Marketing

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Random, overly enthusiastic, and even whimsical at times, my blog is anything but serious, because funny is better than dull and utterly silly is better than stern. An all around link love blog where I promote sites on a whim, I give links away in the spirit of Pink Hat SEO. I always respond to my comments, and like a nosy neighbor who always has to peek over the fence into your yard, my blog is always “alive” and sure to come visit yours.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
I wrote this post with myself in mind – thinking what would it be like to date me at this point in my life and what the poor fellow have to put up with. I pity the fool.

10 Signs You’re Dating a Blogger

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
My “blogging attention deficit disorder” is what really sets me apart from most bloggers. I have changed my blog design about 10 times in 3 months, and post on topics such as Google PR, my unsent love letter to Prince William and my scooter. I would like to say that this is because I am a “renaissance woman” but I know it is because I jump to new thoughts and ideas without any regard for the ones I had previously. I am constantly forming new opinions, and devising new plots, and hopefully that is enough to make my blog special.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I had tried blogging over the past few years, and it was about as interesting to me as speed skating. Last March when I entered a search engine optimization contest, I started blogging to help grow my site. About one month into this it dawned on me that I was really enjoying myself, and since then I have been having a sweet love affair with my blog, and now I want to post “I love my blog” on 1 Million Love Messages.

5.What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Having my content scraped or stolen. Just imagine my dismay at seeing my great post about promoting yourself on Yahoo! Answers on someone else’s blog with a comment from the lead designer at Yahoo! Answers thanking the blog’s owner for writing the article. This blog linked to me, but did not clarify that the link was to the author of the post. Keeping in mind that I am a big fan of search engines in general and their associated products, imagine how much more exciting it would have been if Yahoo! staff had commented on my blog.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I would probably go on living regardless of plugins, widgets or services, and I would also go on blogging without them. But if I had to be dramatic about it, I would likely say I could not live without Google products like Analytics and Webmaster Central. I love being able to see how my blog was found and what keywords I show up for in the search engines, and I love seeing how Google crawls my site and what it “thinks” about what I am doing.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog,who would it be and why?
I would like to see my mother or father do aguest blog post for me. Partly because I am interested in what they would post on my blog, and mostly because it would be funny as they would hate every second of it and apparently I am evil. If they did a guest blog post on my blog it would mean that pigs could fly, and I have always wanted to see that too. Tell you what, if I ever go to the emergency room because I crashed my scooter, I will make that happen, because how could they say no to me then.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I don’t believe that people can become better, they just become different, and I further believe that we are constantly in a state of becoming. With that said, blogging has not made me nicer or more conscious of the world around me, however it is helping me get over this ultra shy and nervous phase I appear to be going through. And though this does not make me a better person, it does make me feel better about myself.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Post what interests you, not what interests others because your readers can tell the difference between what is genuine and what is contrived. The rest is just gravy.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
There are so many I could mention, so eeny meeny miny mo – The Shrub Blog. This is a great feminist blog that speaks from and to all perspectives, providing its readers with all facets of what it is to be a woman. It is intelligent and well-informed, and features a blogroll that reads like a map of the feminine experience. In a nutshell, it’s the Second Sex of “new media journalism”.

Categories: Blogging, Ten Questions

Greetings fellow blog luvers! Tish and I are happy to announce that Blogathon.org officially began sign-ups today for Blogathon 2007, which means we are now registered and good to go! This also means that we can now begin receiving pledges on behalf of The Glaucoma Foundation, our charity.

If you’re a new visitor to BlogsWeLuv the Blogathon is an annual event where bloggers come together to blog for their favorite charities. The event is held this month, July 28th beginning at 6am Pacific Standard Time and lasts for 24 hours. That means Tish and I will be parked in front of our computers the entire time making one new post on this blog every half hour until the Blogathon ends!

If you appreciate what Tish and I are doing here, enjoy the site and would like to make a pledge to our charity, you may do so by clicking on the button up there on the left or on the right in the sidebar. For each $5 donated you will receive one entry to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. So if you make a ten dollar pledge, that’s two entries!

The Glaucoma Foundation was established in 1984. It is the premier not-for-profit organization committed to leading the fight against glaucoma and identifying new treatments and cures. There are currently 3 million Americans and 67 million people worldwide suffering from glaucoma. Tish is one of them.

Categories: Announcements, Contests

In the world of blogging and throughout the blogosphere there are blogs that are truly unique because of their concept and then there are blogs that are special more so because of the person behind them. Polliwog’s Pond happens to be one of those blogs. If you have yet to meet Polli (aka Paula), I can guarantee you it’s worth your time to stop by and say hello. If there were an award for bloggers with the biggest heart, she most certainly would win it.

I was trying to remember the first time I met Polli and I guess it may have been when she left a comment on my blog praising one of my little cartoon illustrations. She didn’t stop there though. She proceeded to be one of the very first people to write about me on their blog and I’ll never forget that. That’s just Polli though and the kind of person she is.

I guess one of my most favorite things on Polliwog’s Pond is Polli’s weekly feature called Saturday Stuff. This would be her version of speed linking where she gives a little love to other bloggers and points you in the direction of always interesting sites to see around the web, or in her words “a weekly recap of anything and everything that touched my fancy over the last seven days.” Polli has great taste and you’re darn near always likely to find something fun to check out.

Finally, I know I’m a guy and I’m supposed to be all macho but I’ll have to admit Polliwog’s Pond is the first and only blog that’s ever moved me to tears. In Giving Sorrow Words Polli writes about the sudden loss of two very dear friends of hers. I think sometimes we can tend to forgot just how real the people are behind the blogs we follow every day. Polli’s post certainly helped me to remember.

I’m willing to bet if you give Polli a chance you’ll find yourself returning to her blog often to see what she’s up to.

To find out more about Polli and Polliwog’s Pond, check out 10 Questions with Polli of Polliwog’s Pond.

Categories: Personal, Reviews

Hi gang! I just wanted to let everyone know that has sent in e-mail for blog recommendations or their answers for the Ten Questions feature that Tish and I ARE receiving all of them. If you’ve been sitting there each day wondering “when they heck are they going to post MY answers to the questions”, don’t fret we will get to all of them. Just keep in mind that Tish and I will really be in full swing here during the Blogathon on the 28th of this month. Right now we’re mostly in the gathering process and posting random reviews and Ten Questions so the blog isn’t completely dormant. :)

Also I’d like to remind everyone that if they’d like to include any kind of photo with their ten questions answers please don’t forget to send it along to us at contact AT blogsweluv DOT com. Thanks! :)

Categories: Announcements

Tish reminded me today that we really needed some buttons that folks can use to put on their site when they’ve been reviewed, if they’d like to. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a couple weeks now and just kept forgetting. I have the worst memory so I figured I might as well get these done before I forget again. Please DO NOT link directly to these. I’d appreciate if you save them to your hard drive, upload them to your own server and link to here, so my bandwidth doesn’t go boom. If you need a an example of how to do so, try something like this:

<a href=”http://blogsweluv.com”>
<img src=”http://www.yourdomain.com/got_review-litebg.gif”>
</a>

If you’ve been reviewed by BlogsWeLuv these are for you. The first one can be used on sites with lighter backgrounds and the second is for darker backgrounds.

If you’d simply just like to link to this site you’re welcome to use one of these two. Again the first is for lighter backgrounds and the second for darker ones.

Categories: Announcements

If you enjoy fiction but just don’t have much time to read, you will love Very Short Novels. David Hodges, writing as David B. Dale, describes his blog as “Character, conflict, emotional impact. And sentences! Everything you want in a novel, without one extra syllable.” David has done something truly unique with his blog. He boasts that he is “the inventor and only known practitioner of the 299-word Very Short Novel.” The skeptic in me copied the first story and pasted it into Word. I did a word count. Exactly 299 words! The second story was also 299 words! In fact, I tested several stories, and none of them contained one extra or one missing word.

Technique aside, I decided to read a few of the stories. Though brief, each conveyed a powerful tale – a quick snapshot of a much larger story. I was impressed. In particularly, I enjoyed the Mustache trilogy. My Mustache is the story of a man who decides to shave the mustache he has always sported. His Mustache is the same story told from the wife’s perspective. And My Son’s Mustache is the story yet again – this time expressed in the voice of the man’s mother. One story being told three different times by three different people illustrates a simple truth – very few things in life are matter-of-fact.

David has done a fantastic job of keeping the blog up to date. He has been posting several stories per week since September 2006. If you like the first story you choose to read, be sure to peruse the archives for more Very Short Novels.

Categories: Reviews, Writing & Books