The blog from Plan Ceibal in Uruguay shares links to the best blogs from school-aged children [es] across the country as part of the campaign, “Your Ideas are Valued.”
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Bye Bye 2009
The DeathList 2009

Best (er, worst) of 2009: Obama cult education video of the year
South Asia: Looking Back At 2009
Full List - 50 Best Websites 2009 - TIME
From A Geek’s Geek: Daniel Raffel’s Favorite New Projects, Products and Features of 2009
My Six Favorite Airline Reporter Blogs of 2009
25 Best Blogs 2009 - TIME
Caucasus: 2009 Blog Review
Blog posts about best 2009
Movies 2009 - Best & Worst | 2009 Movies Guide | Movie Moron
Around The Blogosphere 31 December 09

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Facebook was the No. 1 most-visited website in the U.S. for the first time. Observers say Facebook is the new Christmas Card. Also from HuffPo: Terrorist Watch List is Like MySpace; It's There, But No One Checks it Anymore...
NPR Summer Jam ::: Interesting but biased piece airing across NPR (but, like so many of these reports, it comes from one individual's interpretation of pop music) about songs that "takeover" the airwaves and the imagination (and the digital downloads) during Summer months in the USA. But go to New York City, Chicago or L.A. and the people there would laugh at this ridiculous report! Especially :::
(1) Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" was played by so many people so many times, an argument could be made that it was the summer jam of both 2001 and 2002. D'oh - Not around my neck of the woods! (2) Rihanna in the video for "Umbrella" — the summer jam of the decade. HARDLY!!!! Vitamin C's "Graduation Song" trumps everything else as "summer jam of the decade" with cross-appeal across the lines of age and race! BETTER CHOICE ::: The decade in music (nice retrospective from USA Today on the rise of digital, the fall of record companies)
Seeking greater social inclusion through new communication technologies is a strategy with a long and accomplished history that has persisted through waves of new inventions including the telegraph, radio, television, satellite, and of course, the Internet. But has any "communication for social inclusion" project been as successful as hip-hop? Just ask the bloggers from Rising Voices citizen media projects.
Reader "bil" passes along his BLOGGER's RESOLUTION FOR 2010 ::: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE OVERBLOWN, OVERRATED SOCIAL MARKETING AND SELF-PROCLAIMED BLOGGING "EXPERTS" with fancy-shmacy websites. The word "Agenda" comes to mind.Will RUSH LIMBAUGH be the last celebrity claimed by 2009? CLOSE but no cigar?
Gawker unveils Sarah Palin's list of BANNED BLOGGERS.
So, not READY for 2010? Maybe you need a PLAN, man!
Actor Michael Cera, profiled in New York Magazine, reminds me of the kid in the 1980s UTFO video Beats And Rhymes...
Internet Squelching::: Following the blocking of veteran Internet essayist He Caitou's (@hecaitou) two longstanding blogs hecaitou.net and caobian.info on December 25, renowned columnist Lian Yue (@lianyue) had yet another one of his blogs, lianyue.net, blocked on the 29th; late on the evening of December 30, Peking University new media associate professor Hu Yong (@huyong) discovered his independent blog, yong.hu, has also become inaccessible from mainland China.
William Andrews at the Tokyo Art Beat blog reviews the Tokyo art scene for the past year
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Around The Blogosphere 30 December 09
China: Cui Weiping tweets elite views on Liu Xiaobo. John Kennedy writes "Many Chinese public intellectuals take flack for keeping quiet on major social issues. Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping has sought to change that by tweeting her peers' views on the recent sentencing of China's most prominent democrat."
Russian popular blogging platform LiveJournal has suspended an account of a historian Yuri Felshtinsky [ENG] after he had published a link to a Russian translation of his book “The Age of Assassins: The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin” -Staying in Eastern Europe / Western Asia: Tatyana Yumasheva (LJ user t_yumasheva), daughter of the former Russian President Boris Yeltsin , recollects [Google Translation in EN] on her blog the early years of Roman Abramovich, Russian oligarch and the 51st richest person in the world.
Tunisian bloggers have organized a White Note Campaign to protest against online censorship on their blogs.
Finally, The 100 Millionth Deviation on DeviantART Is A Gay Sex Story, But I’m Going To Show You This Arctic Unicorn Instead - On deviantART, the site for anyone who thinks they are an artist, member submissions are known as "deviations." The site's been around since 2000, blogs TechCrunch.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Michelle Malkin Live Interview

Join Book TV's In Depth on C-SPAN2 Sun., Jan. 3, 12-3pmET for a live interview with author and columnist Michelle Malkin. Ms. Malkin, a blogger and Fox News contributor, will take your questions by phone during the program, by email booktv (at)c-span (dot)org, or via Twitter @BookTV.
Schumer: Give Janet A Chance!

The event was a trifecta for the Senator: (1) he took a grand tour of Proctor's and got a look at the recently expanded venue and vowed he'll support the theater's green energy initiative... (2) The visit was the "last stop" of his 11th-year in a row "tour" of all 62 of New York State's counties... and (3) He went to bat for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in the wake of her infamously uttering "the system worked" after a Nigerian terrorist failed to blow up a jet airliner, NWA Flight 253, as it landed in Detroit.
See Also: Terrorist Watch List is Like MySpace; It's There, But No One Checks it Anymore....And, while on the subjects of terrorism and homeland security, Michelle Malkin dares to ask The Interpol question...
Tags: Schumer, Napolitano, Terrorism

Enter the Dragon
As did I, Mayor Jerry Jennings braved the cold snap to attend the "grand opening" of the mini-mall.
The new venture promises to bring a "taste of China" to the streets of New York's Capital City!
The Chinatown complex is located at 303 through 305 Central Avenue...
Here's a link to my story as heard on WAMC.
Tags: Albany Chinatown, Albany Chinatown

Monday, December 28, 2009
Hips Don't Lie (and other stuff...)
Hmph! Seems to me Xiaxue should be summoned to weigh in on this! Have a look at the letter sent by Demi Moore's attorneys to Boing Boing (PDF). Next, view the response to Ms. Moore's attorneys, prepared by Marc Mayer of MS&K. Finally, here's links to Demi Moore cover image, "W Magazine Korea" and the Demi Moore cover image, W Magazine US. What do YOU think?
US MAGAZINE: Demi Moore's Hips Retouched (Again), Photographer Claims
Open thread: Obama’s statement on the Christmas Day jihadi attack; Perfunctory, hasty, and bloodless -
Russia: Role of Stalin Debated on RuNet:::Heated discussions on RuNet in the wake of the 130th anniversary of Joseph Stalin showed how divided people are regarding his role in Russian history. Meanwhile, St Petersblurb describes a recent misadventureat the Russian-Polish border and explains that “the criminalisation of tourists is just another huge nail in the coffin of Russia’s tourist industry.”
twitter.com/simonjclebon - It's Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran, one of the best 80's bands.
The blog from Plan Ceibal in Uruguay shares links to the best blogs from school-aged children [es] across the country as part of the campaign, “Your Ideas are Valued.”
Around The Blogosphere 28 December 09
Bloggers can relate to this::: Pat Austin piggybacking a post by Stacy McCain all about "Seasonal Traffic Suckage Syndrome" - what might I add to the discussion? Inaccurate counters, renegade widgets. Curiously, my post about the Hero of Flight 253 (despite qualifying under a few different 'hot' topics categories on Google trends) only pulled in about 100 extra visitors, which meakes me wonder if Google might be regionalizing or otherwise reducing the number of internetters who see any particular blog appear in search results. For example: once when my blog was unknown and getting 30 hits a day if I was lucky, an old post I wrote about a local woman got 19-THOUSAND hits in a single day from Google when the woman made national headlines. I would think that my Flight post should have pulled in AT LEAST bare minimum 500 visitors. Something doesn't add up!
Not to burst ProBlogger's baloon (or step on his toes), but this fellow is SO overrated! Take his roundup of blogging tips and tricks with a grain of salt!
From wzdsb.net:
Controversial rapper Eminem has agreed to refrain from performing homophobic lyrics during an upcoming festival in the United Kingdom next summer...
2009 Reflections
2009 has been the best of years and the worst of years for me personally... I'm just wondering what I'll do next... just let life unfold around me... or take a more active role in that unfolding process? I have a great job that I love. I'm getting by. Not rich but not poor. Middle class? No, I don't think we really have one anymore.
The newspaper has an article about mortgages and it seems the home-buying market right now is totally upside-down. Many families forced out of their homes due to mortgage situations or job loss or both. For the moment I have a safe place to stay where I am warm and there is food on the table. (Takes a moment to give thanks.)
Airline terrorism is back in the news. They say airport security will be stepped up to a higher level. Sorta like locking the barn door after the horses have taken off. But, "they" have to do something to save face. A month before 9-11 I took a flight from Albany to Miami. I arrived at the airport with our bags at 0740.I boardedthe plane and was in the sky a little after 8 and landed in Florida around 0930-ish, if I remember correctly. That flight started a wonderful trip in a rented van from Miami to Orlando to Indianapolis to Chicago to Washington DC to New York City - an adventure in itself -sadly, many of the places I went to and things I did in DC and NYC are not available to the public today, thanks to terrorism.
The Grim Reaper in 2009 took a lot of celebrities. Many of those deaths were especially sad and quite unexpected. It's that "thief in the night" lesson from the scriptures. Death will come to us all, and we won't know the day or hour. The GR will blindside you and I. A car crash. A heart attack. Dug overdose. Skiing into a tree a la Sonny Bono. A sleep from which there will be no awakening.
A small newspaper article about a celebrity with marital problems. For the lower classes, MONEY is at the heart of most marriage difficulties. Why can't people be thankful and enjoy the blessings they have? Despite the publicity given to those like Tiger Woods who engage in infidelities, I believe most married couples are tight and loyal. Those material thing-issues can be nutcrackers in a relationship. One couple I know, really did "have it all" but "all" was not enough for one of the partners, who goaded the other into senselessly dissolving the marriage. As the house got bigger and vehicles more numerous, one partner did not feel fulfilled, had a yearning for "something different." Now there are two lonely people and a disillusioned child. A huge drop in class and standard of living for all. Getting by for both now a struggle. Two fine people. They live in a very distant city, and I always remember them in my prayers. And I always wonder what it would take to open that one partner's eyes and wash the nonsense or distress away.
Then there's the story of the woman who assaulted the Pope. Psychiatric problems. Maybe that's what's going on with that couple I know, something psychiatric but borderline enough that it wouldn't be noticed or even qualified as some sort of verifiable disorder.
The global economy and climate change have been making headlines. I can't recall who the economist was who cautioned about a possible "double dip" recession. But I do wonder if that might be what is happening right now: "indicators" and "experts" assuring us that we're heading out of recession / depression territory. ??? With so many jobs lost, homes foreclosed on, people can't get loans to buy new cars, banks just not lending to anybody for any reason... maybe the S hasn't yet hit the ol' fan. As far as climate change goes, all we need is for one of the major volcanoes to blow (like what happened in the 1800's when there was that 'year without summer') and cool things off in hurry!
As for blogging and tweeting and facebooking and technology: best advice I can give is just keep your eyes open, You never really know what the next "big hit" will be - or what might end up taking a "big hit." Many lament missing the opportunity to jump in and buy Google stock when the search engine first went public. I remember it seemed quite pricey at the time, and who would've thought it would have quadrupled in value? Some things appeared on the scene and no one had any inkling they'd take off: twitter, youtube, facebook... And who would have guessed MySpace would have morphed into whatever people think it is right now. The there's MyBlogLog: so f'n great yahoo forked over millions to buy it, and now they're shutting it down. MBL could have been Facebook or Twitter but took a wrong turn somewhere along the Information Highway!
"Lifestreaming" seems to have gone the way of "Vlogging" as far as becoming "the next big thing after the blog." I conclude there is NO such thing as "the next big thing after the blog." Anytime you hear some alleged "marketing genius" or "web guru" apply such terminoloy to any widget/product/service, steer way clear of it! It's the same poisonous thinking as "So-and-so is the new So-and-So" - there is NO replacing the original: those in the public eye who are most successful in careers are the folks who are NOT compared to someone else when they're starting out or coming up. The same goes for stuff on the Net. So next time you hear about something that will kill all blogs, kill 'it' instead!
WiFi-enabled smart phones and Netbooks are all the rage as we head into 2010. I've previoulsy written that I'm not at all keen on "cloud computing" and we'll see where that goes.
As we engage in the reflection process, monday-morning quarterbacking the year 2009, Social Networking sites and bloggers have joined the frey: Twitter came out with its list of the most discussed topics of 2009. Facebook then released its Facebook Memology.
Although I realize it's simply one man's opinion, Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr's article concerning "What Twitter and Facebook’s 2009 Trends Tell Us About Ourselves" is just a bit off-mark.
Parr is actually dead-on EXCEPT for where he comments about "Trends Reflect Differences Between Facebook and Twitter Users" - (Snippet:::"Facebook (once limited only to Harvard students) is still about personal connections: The fact that family ranks so high indicates that more mothers and fathers have joined the service, mostly to connect with their friends and their kids. The fact that religion popped up as a top trend supports this assertion.") YES but, I wonder if Parr realizes that outside the United States Facebook's role is that of those now defunct "MyFamily" type websites that in the mid to late 1990's offered a place to communicate, share photos and text, create calendars and notify other family members scattered around the globe about birthdays, anniversaries, family gatherings and other special events. Facebook's role WITHIN the states has taken three paths:
1 - bringing users together on a professional basis (kind of a 'LinkedIn' where most of your friends are professionals but a family member or an old friend who is NOT is not barred from being your friend)
2 - becoming the replacement for both MySpace and Friendster with easier-to-load pages and a much more friendly interface
3 - Yeah Yeah the family & friends part
Conclusion, Facebook is NOT as 'PERSONAL' in the USA as Parr may lead one to believe.
Gaurav Mishra at Gauravonomics lists five reasons why Facebook is good for your soul... YuMe, a Vietnam-based social networking site with more than 2 million members, is Facebook's main competitor in Vietnam.
The act of blending Facebook and Twitter (My tweets post to my FBK and I can tweet out of Facebook via "twitgether") makes the two even stronger and more endearing. Just about everybody I know online has FBK or tweets or both. And a few have LinkedIn. And all of my old MySpace buddies rarely do any interacting on the site. if they are performers they upload stuff that other can download, but I've noticed they've put thier twitter or FBK URLs directly onto their MySpace icons... get the picture?
I DO AGREE WITH BEN PARR that This Year’s Big Technology Wasn’t Google Wave, It Was Twitter.
And guess what: I don't think WAVE is gonna catch on the way Google thought it would. It'll become Google's "MyBlogLog" in time!
I'm not sure what 2010 has to offer me. I'm not sure what I can offer it. Let the New Year unfurl: I am ready as I'll ever be!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Felices Fiestas

Christmas has passed and I enjoyed every second of its celebration, from preparing dinner to exchanging hugs. We sang a little out of tune, instead of one baby Jesus we had two, smiles showed up at early hours with rush, colors and all those details that ensured it would be a special celebration.
The party ended many hours later. –Many-. Why? Sharing just one night with loved ones is never enough. There are many reasons to be together not only blood ties, but also friendship, love ... this entire means "family”, a real family.
The floor is dirty, there are a couple of crystal glasses lying there after many toasts, and on the stairs a pair of shoes that I don’t know to whom they belong, furniture is upside down, and gift wrappings everywhere. A total Chaos!!!, a beautiful chaos that requires minimal effort when I think that the walls are impregnated with laughs and good vibes.
I feel a little bit exhausted but very happy, I enjoyed the picture captures that night and I feel privileged, I feel safe.
“I hope all you have happy holidays”
This feels good ... and I think that is just the beginning :)
Around The Blogosphere 27 December 09
In honor of the one-year anniversary of Israel's attacks on Gaza in December 2008, a number of activists have planned a targeted “tweet for Gaza” campaign on Twitter. The campaign, widely promoted by Twitter user nmoawad, is meant to draw attention to the current siege on Gaza, and is being implemented today, December 27, between 3pm and 7pm GMT, in an effort to make #Gaza a Twitter trending topic.
Twitter users across the globe are unifying for the cause, and although “re-tweets” are popular, a great number of people are using Twitter to share their own personal thoughts about Gaza, one year after the attacks which left 1,417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
China Internet Tip: Are you blocked behind the Great-Firewall in China? Cannot reach Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter? Try using Freedur VPN.
A new exclusive social networking site for mums in Bangladesh has been launched.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
"Sherlock Holmes" knocks "Avatar" from #1
Here is the Christmas box office TOP 10
1. Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros) NEW
Fri $24.8M [3,626 runs], Estimated Wkd $70M
2. Avatar (Fox) Week 2 - Cume $160.7M
Wed $16.4M [3,456 runs], Thurs $11.3M (-31%), Fri $23.5M, Est Wkd $70M
3. Alvin & Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Fox) NEW - Cume $41.3M
Wed $19M [3,700 runs], Thurs $8M (-57%), Fri $14.5M, Est Wkd $43M
4. It's Complicated (Universal) NEW
Fri $7.5M [2,886], Est Wkd $23M
5. Up In The Air (Paramount) Week 4 - Cume $16.3M
Wed $1.7M [1,895], Thurs $1.7M, Fri $3.6M, Est Wkd $14M
6. Blind Side (Alcon/Warner Bros) Week 6 - Cume $176M
Wed $2.2M [2,766 runs], Thurs $1.5M, Fri $3.3M, Est Wkd $14M
7. Nine (The Weinstein Co) Week 2 - Cume $2.4M
Fri $2.05M [1,412], Est Wkd $7M
8. Princess And The Frog (Disney) Week 5 - Cume $56.6M
Wed $2.4M [3,475 runs], Thurs $1.4M, Fri $2.02M, Est Wkd $7M
9. Did You Hear About The Morgans? (Sony) Week 2 - Cume $12.1M
Wed $1.0M [2,718], Thurs $665K, Fri $1.5M, Est Wkd $5M
10. Invictus (Warner Bros) Week 3 - Cume $20.2M
Wed $800K [2,160], Thurs $705K, Fri $1.3M, Wkd Est $4.2M
Tags: Avatar, Sherlock Holmes

Meet Jasper Schuringa, Flight 253 Hero

CNN Broadcasts Photo of 'Terrorist' in Custody...
Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders hails Jasper Schuringa as a "National Hero" for his role in saving a Northwest Air Lines / Delta flight he boarded in Amsterdam, from a Terrorist attempting to detonate a bomb. Schuringa said he worked with crew members to subdue the alleged culprit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian who claims to be working for Al-Qaeda. Abdulmutallab apparently used a syringe to inject a chemical into powder located near his groin, a technique known as PETN, not seen in previous attempted attacks. [Video]
Do you think we're in for new round of terror attacks? Michelle Malkin muses that this incident is reminiscent of Shoe Bomber Richard Reid. So, first it was the shoe bomber - now it's the lap bomber. Does this mean we'll be taking off our shoes and our pants at airports from now on?
Let's see: we've got those two White House Party Crashers, and now a guy who is on the terror watch list flies into the States and tries to blow up a jet??? WTF!?!?
Tags: Jasper Schuringa, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Northwest Airlines, Flight 253

Thursday, December 24, 2009
O Holy Night
----------
This message is from a Virgin Mobile customer. Enjoy.
NORAD Santa GOOGLE EARTH
Once again this year, children around the world will be able to track Santa's Christmas Eve flight courtesy of NORAD, the bi-national military organization responsible for aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada.
The Google Earth application from NORAD will show Santa's flight as it unfolds throughout the day Thursday.
NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s Christmas Eve flight every year since 1955. The organization is assisted in that effort by the men and women of the Eastern Air Defense Sector based in Rome.
More information on the tracking program and Santa's location is available at www.NORADSanta.org.
Tags Norad, Google Earth, Santa
Things Is What They IS
What do we gain from MBL's demise? I'm not sure, but we will lose th eother widget with the tiny pix of recent visitors to our blogs thru the MBL network (that's IF they visit when they are logged in to MBL, or on certain browsers and computers, if they haven't turned off their MBL cookies). Perhaps MBL could have survived if yahoo had not bought it?
I saw a disturbing article about "cloud computing" - I don't like the idea. I like having my OS on my PC. I don't NEED the internet to use and enjoy my PC. If it has to be connected to the cloud, it's no good. Kinda like the BlackBerry outages this week. The service interruption was a crippling event for the minions tethered to the device. I am slave to no device. They are tools, servants and nothing more.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Around The Blogosphere 23 December 09

All pissed off because you can't find a certain Xmas gift or you've busted your budget? Awwww! Spend a moment here.
I'll DEFINITELY be doing so major switcheroos here on the old blog: Farewell MyBlogLog!
Here's Maino on Angela Yee’s show, discussing the Tiger Woods song.
Hey! A fellow-New Yorker-blogger has found THE ONEIDA STONE!
Meet the 4 Bloggers Banned from all Sarah Palin events.
Thumbnails powered by Thumbshots
iPhone gets second chance in Russia...
HO HO HO! Merry Christmas TO ALL!
It's Comin' On Christmas...
![]() | Perry Como - Home For The Holidays .mp3 | ![]() |
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![]() | Found at bee mp3 search engine | ![]() |
Beware of Holiday Lights and Christmas Tree Fires. The Home Safety Council Encourages Families to Keep Safety at the Top of their Holiday List to Protect Guests of All Ages from Injuries! (Besides, I need to hang on to my readership! ;)
An Italian born gentile living in Jerusalem, Shiksa's Laura Chiesa dreams of peace in Bethlehem.
America's "first daughters" field questions from other children during a holiday visit to a medical center.
Pastor Dale advises: "Let's not get caught up this year in all the Christmas insanity!" ::: "Take the time to tell the Lord how much you love Him. Make Christmas a worship experience. Spend time with the people you love and make sure you show them and tell them how much they mean to you. Make some memories and laugh often."
OK! HA-HA-HO-HO!!!! :)
Oh, and, enjoy the Holiday Spirits! (But DON'T Drink and Drive!)
![]() | Bing Crosby - I'll Be Home For Christmas .mp3 | ![]() |
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![]() | Found at bee mp3 search engine | ![]() |
RIP MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog was a wildly innovative service that grew fast after launching and was acquired in January 2007 by Yahoo! for $10 million. It made a deal with users: give us your personal information and we'll show you the faces of people who read your blog. That was a compelling offer and the resulting data amassed could have proven invaluable, had Yahoo! chosen to cultivate it and a developer ecosystem around it. That potential was so great, in fact, that sunset for MyBlogLog is downright tragic. It's also likely to anger bloggers all around the web."
It won't anger me. I really don't care. THIS IS WHY I ALWAYS TELL YOU - DON'T GET TOO ATTACHED TO OR TO RELIANT ON ANY ONE GADGET, PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
How fast does YOUR BLOG LOAD?
Tags: MyBlogLog, MyBlogLog

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
In Blog We Trust
Whenever I'm bloghopping (and websurfing) I always keep NOTEPAD open so I can copy URLS and jot down ideas as they come to mind. The days immediately before and after Christmas are interesting ones throughout the blogosphere, as you get the "Holiday Greeting" traffic, the "Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Lull" and then a spike around 6PM Christmas night, when those who have been given web-enabled devices take said devices out for a cruise on the Internet!
Of course if there is a huge newsworthy event (like the awful tsunami that killed thousands in Asia a couple of years back) there will be more traffic to your blog or website should you be carrying information relating to the event.
At the moment I'm making decisions / affirmations / plans:
1 - Whether or not to try to make this humble weblog a 3-column presentation. I MIGHT be able to do it. I'm NOT planning to download any templates because the problem with 3rd party material is this: suppose you have a great blog and you are using a 3rd party template, and for some reason, that 3rd party gets his or her photobucket or whatever account yanked or doesn;t renew it. Suddenly you got a blog that no longer works and you may not have the time (or patience) to repair it. I've seen this happen to others.
Actually, I'm okay with the layout I have, but a couple of other bloggers have advised going to 3-columns to make more content and widgets available "above the fold" --- another dude suggested reducing the number of current posts that appear on the blog landing page so it will load faster. I checked my blog against several others on a website that measures blog load time, and I did great: just about in the middle. Not incredibly fast, but certasinly not too slow! If I can't tweak the code I'll leave it be... I WILL toss some of the sidebar material that isn't critical to my blog.
2 - I still believe that building a loyal community of followers is essential to any blog's success, so any service, feature or widget that promotes community definitely stays. I'm still getting a feel for Entrecard, and so far I like the experience and think it definitely benefits my blog.
3 - The blog will continue on as a "mixed bag" of popular topics (because that way I can always write what I feel passionate about at any given moment) - and one thing I advise other bloggers: if you find a great link to a particular blog, website or service, put the link in your sidebar or blogroll! Circa 2004 there was a "portal craze" where certain websites begged visitors "make this your homepage" (and certain others used malicious code to make their site the hompage on your computer whether you liked it or not!) ::: My take on this: Make YOUR blog YOUR "homepage" - the place where YOU can jump to your favourite websites!
4 - Keep "Communciation Lines" open. I have left "halsocan comments," "blogger comments" and C-Box up, even though most of my readers use those services marginally, they're THERE so if someone really needed to say soemthing about something I've posted or try to contact me, they have a way to do it.
5 - Planning for 2010::: besides the 3-column idea (which may never see the light of day) I'll pretty much "carry on" with frequent postings about current events and pop culture. I try to make every post meaningful. I have a great group of regulars who've been with me since I began blogging, so I know at least a handul of people will read any article I upload. I try to check spelling - for me it's typing errors - mxinggg up cahracters - that happens when my brain is dictating faster than my fingers can press the keys. I tried a spell checker once but it screwed up the formatting when the articles were uploaded and published. So please excuse those here-and-there errors!
Right now I have a few blogs to visit, email to read and a few offline matters to attend. I still have a tiny bit of Christmas Shopping to do as I continue to prepare for the coming holidays!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Pop Clips » 21 Dec 09

Cleveland-based Rapper Kid Cudi, most recently on tour with Lady Gaga, punched a fan at a concert in Vancouver, Canada. Here's the full story. Lady Gaga has announced new opening acts, and so, life goes on!
LiveJournal user becky_sharpe (Bozhena Rynska, Gazeta.ru's gossip columnist) claims (RUS) that actress Brittany Murphy, who died on Dec. 20 in Los Angeles, was a guest at a private party in Moscow on Dec. 19 and was [”hungover”] when she flew back home. UPDATE: a follow-up discussion (RUS) of LJ user becky_sharpe's post - at LJ user kashin's blog (129 comments so far). Another heart attack victim (and a victim of "celebrity death year 2009") is Kim Peek, the savant who inspired the character Dustin Hoffman popularized in the movie "Rain Man" ...
Frank Langella (The Ninth Gate, Frost/Nixon, Unknown White Male) has been romantically linked to newswoman Barbara Walters (She DENIES that!)
The image of the Joker prevails in the anti-Obama camps...

And those of you in San Diego: that apparently wasn't an earthquake you felt today. It was a sonic boom!
Around The Blogosphere 21 December 09

Christmas Cards(?) Bai-Ling style.
President Bill Clinton reflects on the accomplishments of the Clinton Foundation in 2009 and wishes his Facebook fans a happy holiday season.
Howzabout a Blue Christmas Tree to go with that Blue Christmas?
What do you get when you mix a Christmas Light show with Guitar Hero? Christmas Light Hero!
Lady Banana made a visit to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.
Photos from the annual Christmas party at Nata village in Botswana: “The festivity kicked off with an early morning breakfast. Soon after breakfast the students were treated to a game of truth or false regarding health related issues, with an answer behind every question.”
Barbados' Notes From A Small Rock and Signifyin' Guyana are catchin' the Christmas fever.
Some have gone in search of the real Camelot...
Not much time left for Christmas Shopping! Have fun this Holiday Season, and remember: Blogging is DANGEROUS!
Drunken NY Cuckoos

Despite tougher DWI laws, New York drivers are just plain STOOOOpid!
Exhibit "A"
Exhibit "B"
My Conversion to Christmas

Christmas was not always a special time for me. I spent most of my formative years as a practicing member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who do not believe in Christmas, which they regard as "pagan." But the more I learned and experienced, the more I became convinced that there had to be another way. After several crises of faith, falling in love and marrying, my children converted me to Christmas.
At first I was hesitant. But as my children got older, I grew more fond of the Christmas traditions. When we lived in Miami Shores, I even made deer tracks out of our fireplace--yes, a fireplace in Florida!--and I'd take a bite out of the cookies that had been left for Santa. More importantly, however, I grew to appreciate the Christian hope in the holiday. Little by little, I learned to accept all aspects of the season, and then, wonder of wonders, I began to write Christmas poems.
Over the years as I wrote more poems and at the urging of my friends, I gathered all the poems and a story into a book: Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas. This small volume, about which I'm very proud, portrays the Holy Family as simple people, like you and me, being called to love and to do extraordinary things.
And this is what I now believe to be the miracle of Christmas--God's gift to humanity. I also believe that our gifts and talents are God's gifts to the world that we should share as much as we can. As an eminent theologian has stated: "I experience God as the source of life calling me to live fully, as the presence of love calling me to love wastefully, as the Ground of Being empowering me to be all that I can be. So God is seen for me in lives fully lived, love wastefully given and being used to empower others to be."
For the past three years, I've been sharing some of these poems on my blog in various formats which I hope my readers will enjoy: a retelling of the Christmas story from a Caribbean perspective.
Merry Christmas, Dave, and to all your readers!
One Love,
Geoffrey
Geoffrey Philp is the author of nine books of poetry and fiction, including his most recent collection of short stories, Who's Your Daddy? And Other Stories. He maintains a blog @ http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.

Sunday, December 20, 2009
RIP Brittany Murphy

Tags: Brittany Murphy, Britney Murphy
