Just Installed New Commenting Software

Purple Snail Image by zaQography - Quite Busy via Flickr

From Denny: Thought I'd give it a whirl and try this new commenting software by JS-Kit offered by Lijit search. I've seen other commenting software and I just don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling toward 4 point type. Most people can't read that small a font - and those that can simply don't want to!

For my fellow bloggers out there this version is FREE - my favorite price! :) It does filter for spam and hateful comments the majority of the world finds offensive. Available is an online editor, the ability to add an emoticon and YouTube videos! Quite the upgrade from what Blogger offers...

What I've been looking for is a faster way for people to see their comments and even react in real time with each other as well as me. Hopefully, this will do the trick. Anything is faster than what Blogger offers (see purple snail image) and I just can't see waiting 2 or 3 days to go back and see if my comment went through. You lose the momentum of the conversation in my book.

What I found compelling and downright amusing was they offer the ability for a commentor to leave up to 3,000 words - just like a post! For those of us that get a bit tired of the 140 characters abbreviations from Twitter all day long this might be an intriguing alternative from time to time!

So, let me know what you think! Also, I installed their software for a poll - if you have some ideas for polls you can leave a comment easily now. Let me know what's on your smart minds!

Thank you for your support!

"Home is where the heart is" montage by alicepopkorn @ flickr - this is such a cool photo and she is one of my fav photographers, such an imagination - as if she is creating her photos in concert with my writing simultaneously, that soul collective thing going on. Her new photos suddenly appear right when I need them, cool, huh?! The God within us is always in tune with itself and all we have to do is hitch a ride! :)

From Denny: Just wanted to take the time to thank everyone for subscribing to the feed on this blog and all the others - and following on Blogger and other sites. You are much appreciated!

Blogging is so much more fun when you have company and such good company you all are, thanks! Thank you for your support and hope you are enjoying your time here learning right along with me as I find amazing things for all these blogs!

New Additions to Photo Blog Roll!

From Denny: "Can I tell ya?" Spent hours and hours this past weekend pouring over some awesome photo blogs, amateur and professional alike, sifting through them to place the BEST on my blog roll for you! There are about 70 choices now - around there, I lost count... :)

If you enjoy looking at photos and want to see what is going on in the photo blogosphere then this is a good place to start. My blog roll list is located at my photo blog, Visual Insights.

Talk about a wonderful way to while away a few hours with beautiful and thought-provoking photos! Take a look and enjoy! Go here.

Update: Read the Iranians Twitter Stream on the Latest News!

Image by Salon de Maria via Flickr

Update: BTW, here's Change_for_Iran @ Twitter, written in English, with over 21,000 followers. Twitter was asked by the U.S. gov't not to go down for maintenance as the Iranis are using Twitter to communicate among themselves. This Twitter stream reads like a the military out in the field coordinating efforts! Wow!

Top 100 Blogs List

Photo by foxtongue @ flickr

From Denny: You know how it is as a blogger, post and ping, ping manually because Blogger doesn't allow embedding the automatic to all the web bots. So, of course, I'm over at the very popular and doing well Swedish site, Twingly, to ping them and re-visited this page of top 100 blogs. Thought you might enjoy taking a look too! Just click on the title link to take you to the page. Nope! I'm not listed there ... yet! ;)

New Links Added to The Social Poets Fav Links Page

Image by coincoyote via Flickr

From Denny: To The Social Poets Fav Links blog I hit a gold mine recently! Have added another 19 sites as well as adding 2 more original poem links. Newly created a section of links for all the Libations Friday! posts, complete with descriptions. I'm really starting to get the hang of this blogging organization! :) (Well, eventually...)

First Blogger Award: Most Wonderful FAVORITE! Award

From Denny: Whew! This post took a couple of hours to pull together and a few days to think about which other writers to award. Apologies for getting out today's post so late...

This past week a wonderful guy by the name of Mystic Dave passed on a fellow blogger award to this blog and seven others. Thanks, Dave, as this is my very first blogger award! Coming from a fellow blogger makes it all that more dear to the heart, and, therefore, appreciated.

This award is so much fun that I found it a cool idea to pass it forward to others too. Sunflower Ranch awarded it to Mystic Dave who passed it on to me.

I've included the addresses as well as the links in case the links break over time when this post goes into the archives. You might want to do the same when you give out your awards. When you decide to give this award please include the following text as well.

“These are the rules in accepting this award:

Deliver this award to eight bloggers who then must choose and deliver the award to eight more and include the following text into the award.

"These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

From Denny: Here are my first group of seven favorite blogs and sites you will enjoy. Originally, I had eight bloggers listed here but one declined the award. Beats me as to why - guess they don't want to turn around and recognize and help promote other writers.

Since I don't have time for "professional jealousy or pettiness" I went ahead and removed that blogger as per their request. They were also removed from my favorite blogger links and favorite links pages. (Duh!) I am disappointed that someone would choose to be so small about promoting others but time to move forward to other people who will step up and engage, do something positive for others and grow their own mindset through a charitable attitude. I have another group I’m putting together to award as well.

Below these awarded writers are Mystic Dave’s and Sunflower Ranch’s award choices. After all, it’s good to promote others yet one more time! :)

Nina P’s Thoughts and Musings - Awesome personal poetry and other lovely thoughts. http://ninapthoughts.blogspot.com/

Quantum Learning - Ian Peatey from the UK, lives in Poland and Romania, blog dedicated to teaching nonviolence as a lifestyle. http://www.quantumlearning.pl/

Women As Mentors - “By women for women, share the knowledge of women who wish they had known then what they know now, support for trauma survivors.” http://www.womenasmentors.com/

Gluten Free Girl - How to create more energy and happiness through diet and make it taste good! Compelling personal story. http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com

Poetic Expression - Great resources and personal poetry, comprehensive site for many goodies. http://www.poeticexpression.net/

Crowned with Laurels - Lorenzo is a master of focusing upon the smallest detail to trigger a divine moment, all through his favorite medium: poetry. http://crownedwithlaurels.blogspot.com

The Crusty Curmudgeon – Christoph Reilly is one funny sarcastic guy commenting on today’s pop culture. http://thecrustycurmudgeon.wordpress.com

Congratulations to all the newly awarded blogs and sites above!
Keep up the great work, everybody!



Mystic Dave’s eight award choices:

1. The Social Poets – http://thesocialpoets.blogspot.com

2. Deep Thoughts - http://mojoey.blogspot.com/

3. Fear and Loathing: The Gonzo Papers - http://kilroythegonzopapers.blogspot.com/

4. Chris Stonecipher and Friends - http://christonecipher-friends.blogspot.com/

5. A Slice Of Life - http://a-mus-ing.blogspot.com/

6. My Magick Basket - http://mymagickbasket.blogspot.com/

7. Izzy's Gumbo of Poems - http://izzysgumbo.blogspot.com/

8. Untold Dreams - http://suryakana.blogspot.com/



Sunflower Ranch’s seventeen award choices:

“They deserve your attention and a closer look. I hope you'll find them as interesting and intriguing as I do. These bloggers reflect all sorts of view points and interests. I love to read all of them! I've enjoyed their creativity and talent -- every opinion and comment is delivered with passionate sincerity. The writing is outstanding! That's what draws me to them. I hope you will enjoy them, too! You're invited and encouraged to follow all the blogs linked in this post. You can't go wrong!

In no particular order, but all equally deserving of further attention, I proudly pass this award on to the following bloggers:”

1. 52 Books in 52 Weeks http://read52booksin52weeks.blogspot.com/

2. Izzy's Gumbo of Poems http://izzysgumbo.blogspot.com/

3. Double P in the Place to Be http://doublepintheplacetobe.blogspot.com/

4. The Orientalist Gallery http://theorientalistgallery.blogspot.com/

5. Raising Eden http://raisingeden.blogspot.com/

6. Before I am Famous http://beforeiamfamous.com/

7. Joy Magnetism http://www.joymagnetism.com/

8. ...This Time Tomorrow... http://www.woodstocklily.com/

9. Superganny's Musings http://supergrannysmusings.blogspot.com/

10. Grouchow's Weblog http://grouchow.wordpress.com/

11. Hey, I'm Trying to Write Here http://noveliststhoughts.blogspot.com/

12. The Holdfast Seeker http://holdfastseeker.blogspot.com/

13. Mystical Poetry, Prose, and Political Viewpoints (Mystic Dave) http://www.mysticalpoetryandpolitics.com/
14. Fleapirate's Plunder http://fleapiratesplunder.blogspot.com/

15. Patty Dooley Independent Shaklee Distributor http://pattyindependentshakleedistributor.blogspot.com/

16. Off The Record with Debbie & Tony http://www.delovesto.com/

17. A Well Timed Rant http://welltimedrant.blogspot.com/

From Denny: Feel free to pass this award on to someone you think is deserving, enjoy, and keep the circle of life going! Take some time and recognize fellow writers!

4 Science Articles You Might Enjoy

From Denny: Since I have too many interests I've parked them on other blogs in addition to this one. Apparently, most people start a blog, lose interest, abandon the first one to start another blog. Not me. I just keep expanding to ADD more blogs! (totally crazy, I suppose - but hey! I'm happy...)

Anyway, articles about how the brain works, astronomy, psychology, some math and physics on basic levels is what I park over at the blog The Soul Calendar. It keeps climbing in the traffic rankings quite nicely and I happily write about whatever catches my interest for the week! Life is good!

I'm still poking around the web for children's resources for parents and science projects readers might find interesting. If you know of any sites or projects, speak up and shoot me an email at warriorspearl@gmail.com, much appreciated!

Here are a few posts you might find an interesting read:

Is My Brain Making Me Buy Things I Don't Need?

Double Amputees Shed Light on Brain's Flexibility

Robolegs Help People Walk

Hurricane-Killing, Space-Based Power Plants

NASA Photo by Image Editor @ flickr

Passed 100th post milestone!

From Denny: Well, I hear we blogger types are supposed to jump up and brag about reaching the 100th post milestone. ;) You can tell I'm really "great" about some anniversaries as I've already passed that milestone with now 189 posts. Oh, well, so much for showing off!

Funny Friday the 13th!

Photo by nao-cha @ flickr of dog Cocoa

From friends over at Twitter:

"Very funny page for Friday the 13th, both versions - peterdrew@keithbaxter It's Friday the 13th! Beware...
http://snipr.com/dp10t DUDE!! not nice scaring me like that :=)"

From Denny: Just click on the title as the address is linked. Enjoy!

Feedburner Glitch

Now I know why my feed counts have been going up and down wildly. Turns out Feedburner keeps deactivating them: on all 7 blogs! So, apologies, if you have found this maddening; join the club. Guess it's taking Google and Feedburner longer to merge and work out the gremlins than they are telling the public, oh, well... Meanwhile, rest assured I will be now manually monitoring these feeds twice a day to keep them activiated. Thank you for your patience everyone!

Don't you just love this photo of an ass? Such a good fit when things go wrong because that's how you feel and look to others! Might as well have some fun with screw-ups, right! ;)

Thanks go to the folks over at flickr who place their photos in the Creative Commons area for online writers and bloggers like me, much appreciated! They can be so funny.


Photo by gidibao @ flickr