I had a tough week. Busy with work (three meetings in a row with three different clients) and then the real anxiety-provoker, dealing with my father’s surgery. He’s doing well. So I got the chance to write my most creative post last night:
Keyword and Link Challenge: I am challenging you, my readers, to put your favorite post (can be yours or someone else’s) in the comments of that post. Then I’ll come up with a post using a few of those links. Sort of like paper bag dramatics: you put a bunch of objects in a box, then you and your group put on a skit.
I have another picture from the parade I hope to post for Summer Stock Sunday. This was my first entry for that summery meme hosted by Robin: Summer Beach Items
Nature Notes: New Moon (aside note: best wishes to Michelle in dealing with her mom, who is in the hospital)
I didn’t get a chance to do a Weekly Review last week, so here’s an artsy post: Flower Power Painting
Stay tuned for a scribbly, fun art post last Saturday night Eastern time.
Elsewhere on the Web
Klara, who runs a Yahoo group for macrobiotics, wrote that the newest member is Jen Hoy, who writes for About.com. If you want some ideas for tantalizing salads, visit her post on summer salads. You don’t have to adopt the whole diet to make one delicious and healthy salad!
…it makes me angry that my living in my home is equated with terrorists killing innocent men, women, and children. Am I really as dangerous as a suicide bomber? I am a suburban mom raising three kids, and have never threatened anyone…
Upcoming in Highland Park: Memorial Day Parade down Raritan Avenue (starts in New Brunswick – Highland Park scouts and teams start at South Adelaide) – See Memorial Day Parade 2008
Elsewhere on the Web
Ilana-Davita is taking the Trep challenge and walking. I’ve been doing gardening as exercise, so Ilana-Davita asks if it hurts my back? Links on digging without backache:
I think the key is I never spend more than ten minutes at a time gardening. I do it in between everything else. Am I holding the spade properly? I have no idea. I just noticed both those links are from the UK; is it because more UK folks are gardeners?
Deep Vein Thrombosis – one of the causes is sitting too long in one spot, like on a plane (I know someone who had similar problems after returning from Israel – get up and walk around on a long plane ride).
Upcoming in Highland Park: library book sale and the annual street fair (see my post from last year of the street fair)
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
Robin of Around the Island is starting a new photo meme called Summer Stock Sunday. First edition will be Sunday, May 31. Get those summer pics ready!
I want to wish my friends recovering from surgery the strength and patience to heal. Ilana-Davita wrote a bit about her experience with recovery in this post. For another friend, who is here in Highland Park, I wish recovery and healing and growth and renewed energy.
A Design, For Fun! (more of this design, coming soon PLUS can you answer the question I asked in that post? Dhaval got the answer.)
Upcoming in Highland Park: bring your used books to the Highland Park Public Library starting on Monday. And in Edison, there’s an upcoming mayoral primary.
What is RT? (I’ll give you the answer now: it’s Re-Tweet! More on Twitter in future posts)
Upcoming in Highland Park: The Highland Park Public Library is once again having a book sale! (and my neighbors put a lot of energy into putting this together, so three cheers for them. You’ve seen their red bud, magnolia and dogwood trees on my blog). It’s the same weekend as the Annual Street Fair, which is on May 17. If you live in Central New Jersey, you can donate books from May 11 to 14.
Some of you get paid to speak; others hope to get paid one day. One thing that we all face as paid speakers is the issue of payment vs. exposure. That is, we will be invited to speak pro bono, or will be offered less than our usual rate, and we’ll have to decide if it’s worth it to take less money in order to get exposure or visibility…only a few of my pro bono speaking engagements have paid off in clients or future speaking engagements. Read the rest.
I had a very busy day on Friday (did work for two clients and I cooked), so I didn’t have time to put up my weekly review. So why not put it up on Saturday night? Enjoy.
On My Blog
Social Media Networking at Central NJ Libraries: I did my first presentation to the Edison Public Library on “Twitter, Blogs and Websites” this past week. As I can say I was very nervous beforehand, afterward I admit I had a wonderful time! Part of it was the supportive group of people with whom I was speaking, and part of it was the great responsive audience.
Upcoming events in Highland Park/Edison: Thursday night I will be speaking at the Highland Park Public Library. On Tuesday night, related to Israel Independence Day, Rick Black will be reading poetry at the Highland Park Public Library. And Wednesday is the annual walk around the block by RPRY in Edison for Yom Ha’atzmaut, so I suspect I will be taking pictures of children wearing blue and white and waving Israeli flags.
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
My thoughts and condolences go out to Melissa of Sunbonnet Cottage who lost her dear sister this past week.
Blogger vs. WordPress.com: A comprehensive look at the two free blogging platforms (the chart is a bit difficult to read, but information is good. I like the factors in the left column; may use some of these for a WordPress vs. Drupal post)
Note: I use a wordpress.org installation on my own website, so that is different than using those free systems that are hosting on someone else’s website
There is a custom called gebrochts, in which some Ashkenazi Jews do not eat soaked matza during Pesach. This means not eating matzo balls on Pesach, for example. Custom stringencies vary; for example, some families do not eat cream cheese on matzah. Mrs. S. posts about eating gebrochts the week after Pesach; sounds like this is her own innovation and a good way to use up the leftover matzah.
Rick Black, a friend, local Highland Park resident and award-winning poet, emailed me that his brother is the creator of the Jewish Writing Project. I guess the creativity gene runs in his family.
The Drupal Experiment
I plan to post more about Drupal in the coming months, and I hope to write about Drupal vs. WordPress. Non-technical readers, I hope you will read these posts, as it is helpful for me to know what you can or cannot understand. Perhaps I will also post about an installed WordPress blog like my own and one hosted on WordPress.com, like that of Ilana-Davita.
Passover is Fun
I especially enjoyed the comments of Melissa (who is celebrating Passover for the first time) and of Mojo (who relates his one Pesach experience).
