{by Leslie from Mrs. Flinger}

I don’t always believe in Fate. I want to keep my life organized in such a way it does not possibly involve anything other than my own strength. But sometimes I have to confess that there are strong coincidences that can not, nor should be, over-looked. I had no idea this post would be one of them.

When Blog Nosh Magazine came to me with an offer to read about and reflect on the founder of Pepperidge Farm, I said yes without truly understanding the impact this would have. I did not know I would lose my job this week, nor could I have known how much I would identify with Margaret Rudkin. Truly, I did not appreciate the exact timing of such an offer.

I do now.

Sitting in my “Mommy Time Out“, reading over the tale of how Pepperidge Farm began, I found myself appreciating the community of motherhood, entrepreneurship, and clean eating. These three things are the tenants of my site here, the foundation of my life. I found myself reflecting on how easy it is to forget this balance, to allow one aspect to dominate another. As a mother trying to re-group in the business world while finding a path to healthier eating and lifestyle, I was simply inspired by Margaret’s tale.

Hey, Margaret! My first bread attempt sucked, too!

{Originally published on The Bloggess}
first appeared on Blog Nosh Magazine on September 28, 2008

Yesterday someone asked me how to deal with trolls and haters. I have no damn idea.

Trolls are just like you and me. Only shittier. Or more honest. Or likely to murder gypsies. Fuck, I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know the motivation of everyone reading your blog but what I do know is that in real life you come across assholes and weirdos and someone out there is selling computers to these people. People like the guy who left me this comment:

“I was right, you aren’t that hot. Damn.”

I didn’t mind that some stranger thought I was un-hot but what was disconcerting was that in the photo the guy was referring to? I was seven. And totally hot.

Or that comment I got on my I-invented-a-scooter/flame-thrower/cookie-warmer post which simply said:

“Your retarded.”

{Originally Published on MomDot}

While we are all so invested deeply in reviews and giveaways chit chat, I wanted to take some time to discuss something that MomDot did that spawned into a $10,000 charitable donation project that is still going strong all due to reviews and giveaways. With products floating around the net daily and bloggers being offered the majority of them, we realized we had a perfect opportunity to do some good with the pitches.

We opened up what was to become Bloggers Give, an organization that asks review and giveaway bloggers whom work with companies to have them send an extra product directly to us, where we donate them all to a predesignated charity.

In the beginning, we asked our site for charity suggestions and I made phone calls to some of them and ended up speaking with Stormi from The Center for Courageous Kids. The Center for Courageous Kids is a camp for children and their families facing difficult medical situations, to come for a week and have their minds off of that and into some fun. The camp has a full medical facility, access to a hospital, horseback riding, and more. Even better, the camp had a need for products, any kinds. We knew we could pass them all the donated products and what they couldn’t use in the camp in day to day operations, they could distribute to the families that attended their camp as assistance.

{Originally published on Okay. Fine. Dammit.}

One of my best friends lived for some time with her great aunt in the finest home in which I have ever set foot.

It’s not that it was a mansion or anything, although I suspect by some definitions it was. Auntie was a wealthy woman, advanced in age and experience, and the widow of a founder of a large grocery store chain. Her home was modern, tucked like a jumbo gumdrop on the curved cul-de-sac window of an elaborate gingerbread-home-neighborhood in a wealthy Minnesotan suburb. From the outside it looked like your average run-of-the-mill parade home, as cookie-cutter and interchangeable as any McMansion. On the inside, it was anything but.

At the time, back in 1997, Dave and I were newlyweds and we had just purchased our first house. It was large, and fine, and I was utterly intimidated by it. When I went to visit my friend I had lived in my new home for several months, but the overwhelming majority of my belongings were still packed in boxes. I was so afraid that I would ruin my beautiful new house with my silly, shabby, adolescent stuff. I used to walk through the door of my own home and feel like an uninvited guest, or worse, like the girl invited out of pity, out of place among my fancy, rich, important peers. The modest apartment we’d moved from may have had sloping floors and a two foot gash through the front screen door, but it was home. It didn’t make me feel inferior, unworthy.

Auntie’s house changed my life. Even all these years later, I still recognize and honor the impact. I don’t know how to describe the decor, and that’s the point; She didn’t follow a single rule. She didn’t care what you thought, or how you defined her. She was patently original.

There was an entire room devoted to her ethnic roots, wallpapered in the colors and traditions of her home flag. There was art everywhere, and mostly in unexpected places – like above the dog bowl, or sideways and at eye-level next to the couch where you might like to lie. There were books everywhere, and places to sit and dream at every turn…

{Originally published on Writing Roads}

I’m not sure if there is such a thing, but I’ve decided that today is make up a new word day. Honestly, as a writer, every day is make up a new word day. I feel totally fine with bending, twisting and manipulating the English language (and some others as well). My newest word is ’sarcasticate’ and it means: to make something sarcastic. It’s a verb. I like it so much, I’m writing a whole post about it, and here it is.

Sometimes, I wish I could write code or do computer programming. First of all, it would make me smarter and more able. Secondly, it would help me with an issue that I keep running into.

You see, I can make things bold. I can italicize. I can underline. I can even strikethrough. But, I can’t sarcasticate.

Even using those smiley face emotive icons, there isn’t one that means sarcastic. They have sad, mad, kissey, sick – all of those are easily visible states of being. But sarcastic? Not so much.

It seems that sarcastication, while writing on the internet must actually be conveyed through words. There is no help. And, while I do think it’s safe to say that I have the sarcasticating gene, I also think that the reader has to have that gene too…and some brain power. Not to mention the fact that you must have actual reality downpat before you can get the sarcasm. So, conceivably, my sarcastications could be missed by some readers because of their own ineptitude or because I might be having an off day.

Without the sound of my voice, I rely on my written words…because I’m a writer…that’s the point, I get it. And, I’m thrilled that while code and program can’t currently help me sarcasticate, I can mold my meaning with my words (those that are real and those that I’ve composed).

{Originally published at Connect with Your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology}

A new book has come out about Wikipedia, How Wikipedia Works: And how you can be a part of it. I plan to write a review of the book during the coming week, however I thought that in the meantime I would share some important facts about Wikipedia that everyone should know, but might not be aware of.

1. All content in Wikipedia is completely free for anyone to use. There are no copyright restrictions.
2. Not all information is included in Wikipedia. It must be encyclopediac, neutral and verifiable.
3. The mission of Wikipedia is to make the whole world’s information available in all languages.
4. Wikipedia is just one form of a Wiki. The acronym Wiki stands for What I Know Is. A Wiki is a web page that anybody can edit (although passwords are needed in private wikis ).
5. Every page on Wikipedia has its complete history saved of every version from its first edit on.
6. Anybody can edit articles on Wikipedia.
7. As of August 2008, there were over 2,500,000 articles on Wikipedia.
8. There is no censorship on Wikipedia as long as an article meets the guidelines in number 2 above to be encyclopediac, neutral and verifiable. Therefore, there will be articles with language and material not appropriate for all.
9. There are 3 types of hyperlinks used in Wikipedia – a) external-links to pages out of Wikipedia b) internal-links to other articles within Wikipedia c) redlinks-links to articles within Wikipedia that don’t exist yet.
10. Every article has a discussion and talk page for the editors to discuss it.
11. If you see an article in Wikipedia with a yellowbar and a broom chasing dust, that means that this article needs a lot of cleaning up. This is an article ripe for edit.
12. The name for members of the Wikipedia community is Wikipedians.

{Originally published on Bird on a Wire}

This is not a plea for comments for THIS blog. I talk about my chronic commentitis here. I use my blog only as a reference point. Instead, this is a reminder that comments are like chocolate, really good if they’re rich and have some substance to them. And that if you can’t comment, you can still help out the bloggers that you like. A big shout out to Mommie Pie and Bloghernot 2008. I’ll be participating in a big way!

At the time of this blog posting, over 543 people receive this blog in their RSS reader (or via email).
Another 2,000 – 4,000 come to the site directly, depending on the day and the post. Add those up, and let’s say that around 5,000 people come here daily to read my stuff. (Hey, don’t laugh, I’m pretty jazzed about those numbers.)

If 1% of you commented, that’d be 50. (I’m bad at math. Did I do that right?) The average post on here gets a respectable 10 or so comments, but that’s about 1/3 of 1% then, of the folks who get a copy of each post. Ok, enough of the math class stuff.

This got me thinking about the other great blogs that I love.

I read several hundred blog posts a day. I comment on maybe five or six, if there is something I feel compelled to say. So I’m in there with you. I’m not commenting much, either. Does that make us bad ? Not really. If I’m able to leave a decent and thoughtful comment, I know that the other blogger will appreciate it. Sometimes, I even get a nice little email from them saying so. Comment Relish is a great little Word Press plug in that sends an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before.

{Originally published on The Bloggess}

Yesterday someone asked me how to deal with trolls and haters. I have no damn idea.

Trolls are just like you and me. Only shittier. Or more honest. Or likely to murder gypsies. Fuck, I don’t know. I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know the motivation of everyone reading your blog but what I do know is that in real life you come across assholes and weirdos and someone out there is selling computers to these people. People like the guy who left me this comment:

“I was right, you aren’t that hot. Damn.”

I didn’t mind that some stranger thought I was un-hot but what was disconcerting was that in the photo the guy was referring to? I was seven. And totally hot.

Originally published at Blogging Basics 101

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could post
our little hearts out, sit back, and watch the dollars roll in? The
truth is that there are very few people getting wealthy from blogging.
If you’re doing it solely for the bucks, you’re probably going to be
disappointed.

There are, however, a few ways to generate a bit of bloggy income.

The most obvious way to earn income is by having ads in your
sidebar, or elsewhere on your page. You can try selling these
yourself–a lot of work, but it works for some people. Many bloggers
have had success using an ad service that sells the ads for you, giving
you a percentage of the income. (They give you the code to insert on
your blog, and your ads will appear in that spot. Any ad service worth
its salt will offer you pleny of editorial freedom to block certain
types of ads from your blog.)

(click title for more)

Originally published at The Social Path

Yes, I
know. We’re all tired of lists. But studies have shown that they’re
still the most effective way to list things, and I can’t argue with
science.

(click title for more)