Have y’all ever been sitting on the porch chatting with friends and found the conversation changing from one topic to the next with lightning speed? This is one of those kinds of entries. I’ve got a lot I’m thinking about this morning, and so I’m putting it all together piecemeal. I’m switching back and forth between writing and piecing together this afghan for Share A Square.
It will be the eighth afghan that I have put together, and I have eleven of them “farmed out” with other people. I’ve gotta get that afghan off the table so we can have lunch!
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Every now and then, bloggers get a delightful surprise and someone reads a post in our archives. We pour our hearts into writing a post, and after it’s off the front page people rarely see it. Back in May, I wrote “
A Circus Story,” which was really a family story, but I told about the Gainesville Community Circus. It was founded by a man named A. Morton Smith, who was a newspaper editor in Gainesville, Texas back in the 1930s.
Recently, Greg Smith was doing a Google search looking for history about his grandfather. He came across the post and wrote to me. He sent me a link to this family picture of his grandfather. I’ve uploaded it without asking, Greg (it’s easier to get forgiveness than ask permission). He also sent me this link of pictures of the circus. Greg left this comment:
Found this blog entry while searching the web for Gainesville Community Circus pictures. My grandfather was A. Morton Smith, and my father Dan, uncle Jerry, and grandmother Louise were all clowns in the circus.
My father Dan is still alive, and if anyone reading this is interested in jogging his memory about the Gainesville circus days, I’ll be happy to put you in touch with him.
If you are interested in “living history,” I’ll give Greg your e-mail. I’m “screening his calls.”
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I also got a comment on a post I wrote called
“Helium.com–It’s A Lot of Hot Air.” This was back in February, when I had barely started blogging.
Some guy named “Alex” swooped in last month to comment and said:
You spent all of two days there and now you think you know what Helium is all about? I think you are just as uninformed about the site as the writers you trashed who participate there.
Well, I tried to write “Alex” and tell him:
I might be wrong. I did go back and spend a little more time there. Enlighten me and if you give me compelling reasons to do so, I’ll update the post with your views.~skt
Guess what. He didn’t give his real e-mail address. “Alex,” if you are “man” enough to come in and make snide comments, be man enough to give me a way to contact you. My views about Helium haven’t changed.
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Do y’all like to get a laugh in the mornings? Laughter is good for you. One of my favorite stops is
Comedy Plus.
This post gave me a giggle.
One of my favorite reads is Riley Central. Damien is a school teacher with very eclectic tastes. I always enjoy his insights. Recently, he got his wife Sarah into blogging, and now she is writing at Party of Five. Both are delightful folks, and you might enjoy reading their words. Fortunately, they both have computers so there are no squabbles about who gets to blog. There is an old saying, “The family that plays together stays together.” That may not be the case with blogging, if there is only one computer in the house.
You might also enjoy SusieJ, a sweetheart of a blogger who talks about life raising four(!) boys. In June she was selected to be a part of The Parent Blogging Network. It’s well deserved.
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I enjoy writing, but sometimes feel blocked. Has that ever happened to you? There are tons of sites out there that give writing prompts, and you can use those to build a post on days that you are floundering. One that is quickly becoming a favorite of
mine is
Manic Monday. Mo, at
It’s A Blog Eat Blog World, gives a writing prompt at 4:00 pm EST on Fridays. You can think about it all weekend and write a post; then have fun visiting other participants and see
their post on the word. I first got interested in it reading Jaime at
Duward Discussion(another site to visit if you enjoy an intelligent and thoughtful post).
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My friends
Marcia and
Harlekwin sometimes participate in Unconscious Mutterings from over at
Luna Nina. I’m not sure how free association is supposed to “bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self,” but I’m giving it a shot this week. We’ll see if that makes me less repressed
- Darling —Clementine
- Majesty —Purple Mountain
- Pebble —Beach
- Fate —Tempt
- Instant —Replay
- Screen —Door slamming
- Unplugged —Acoustic
- Dairy —Queen
- Benefactor —Sugar Daddy
- Market —Farmer’s
Hmmm. Nope. I’m still repressed.
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Yesterday, I asked y’all to answer a poll and tell me the button you would push if your life was on videotape and you had a remote control. You can vote daily (if you feel the need), but inquiring minds want to know, so I’m gonna put it in front of you again.
Right now, rewind is in the lead. Tell me what YOU think.
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Today I was going to have a raffle drawing to give you a chance to WIN FABULOUS PRIZES just by linking to Jessica The Rock Chick at Life is RANTastic. Unfortunately, as I told you, I’m cursed.
In order to do this raffle, I need Jessica The Rock Chick. She is the one who has been keeping track of her Technorati links. She lives in Chicago, which is suffering some severe weather right now (dagnab curse!), and her household is one of about 310,000 without power right now. As soon as we get her back on line, I’ll hold a raffle.
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Jessica wants links so she can be an A-list blogger. You have to have 500 current links (less than 6 months old) to be on that elite list. No matter how many links we were giving her, Jessica’s score kept dropping because her links were “old.” Harlekwin did some research about Technorati, and put together a very readable post called “
Technorati Giveth.” If you are a blogger, you need to go read it (If you are not a blogger, you will still enjoy
Boho Rhap, because it’s mostly full of gorgeous pictures and inspiring writing).
Are you one of those bloggers who say, “I don’t care about Technorati and links. I’m writing for me.”?
Is your blog public?
Then, you want readers. Don’t try to kid me or yourself. You have to care about links, because that’s how people find you. Tell me you weren’t tempted to click on one of the links I gave you. Sure, you can go around and comment on other blogs and hope that people come to visit yours. Until those links to other blogs start happening, you won’t see a huge surge in your readership. A sidebar link is grand. A mention in a post is better. You want people to link to your stellar posts. That way readers fall in love with your writing and come back to see you another day.
I guarantee that the more generous you are about giving links, the more links you will get. That’s just kinda the way life works, isn’t it? Y’all give a little “link Love” today.
I mona whup up’n afghan.
[translation: I'm going to go make an afghan.]
Technorati Tags: Share A Square, archives, Circus, Helium.com, raffle, Technorati, A-list, links
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