Cotton-Pickin’ Days

Barbie lovers are taking offense to my characterization of their dolly in a review I wrote for Play Library about the Fashion Angels.

They quoted me as saying,

…they are well made and perky rather than trashy (Bratz) and not so provocative (Barbie). Their wardrobe is amazing - glitter, sequens, and leopard print trims all sturdily tailored for endless changes of ensemble.

And they continued in response,

What planet is that person living on? Laughing [emoticon] I’ll bet that woman doesn’t allow her child to watch television, and makes her eat granola and tofu! LOL! Laughing [emoticon]

Granola and tofu? YUM!!!

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Local Girl at An Island Life just emailed me with a cryptic message:

Hey, you’ve been nominated for a Share the Love Blog Award. Get all your friends to vote for you . . . you’ve got my vote! Good luck!

Christina Zola had already nominated Play Library in the Happiest Blog category, so that’s what I expected. Sadly, Play Library hadn’t been included (why?!) but Cotton-Pickin’ Days is nominated for Best Site Design!

Cotton-Pickin’ Days started out on the standard WordPress template, Kubrick, and it served me well for almost a year but didn’t have all that I was looking for. Trouble is, I have absolutely no design experience and can barely use Photoshop. (I’ve got grand plans to become Photoshop proficient and even made the banner for Laura at CFS Squared but these simple tasks take me hours.) I entertained the idea of hiring someone to design a template for me but I actually don’t have a lot of demands and paying someone $500+ to come up with a design I’d want to change on an yearly basis seemed a stretch.

So off I went to search through the hundreds of free designs available on WordPress Theme Viewer. It wasn’t easy to find one that fit the theme of cotton-pickin’ and was customizable enough that I could alter the parts I wanted. Luckily, I’ve learned a lot of about the backend of WordPress from working at b5media and I knew that if I had any trouble, I could always ask Christina, who knows all and is incredibly patient with my dumb questions.

I finally settled on Crayon World’s 3-column design, which mirrors b5media’s. I wanted to show off the contents of Genetics and Health, A Hearty Life, and Play Library in one column while having fun personal jibber jabber in another. As you can see from the original screenshot, I have changed it considerably to enhance the functions I find important. I’m glad that others appreciate it enough to nominate me for an award but I must thank Sadish Balasubramanian, creator of Crayon World, for giving me something wonderful to work with.

And now it all comes down to begging for votes. I’m listed in section 4 under Best Site Design - Cotton-Pickin’ Days. Click here to vote. It’s an honor to be nominated. (But even better to win! )

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Over on the far right sidebar underneath the feeds of my b5media blogs, I’ve added two more widgets (because it’s the Year of the Widget and I don’t want to be left out!).

The first is the last three posts I’ve added to my Google Reader link blog. They’re posts I come across which I think are interesting enough to recommend.

I’ve also added a LibraryThing widget that show three random books from the ones I’ve cataloged so far. I still have about 50 more books to go from those that I have with me in London. I have other books kept in Singapore and California that I may try to catalog as well although I may never be able to reunite my entire book collection anytime soon.

Hope you enjoy these time wasters as much as I do!

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Just so you know I follow through on my promises. Here’s Smitha in Malaysia wearing the London t-shirt she won in my three-year blogging anniversary lottery. Looking cute, girl!

Now we must all pester the other winner, Lisa, to share a pic of her wearing the t-shirt I sent her. Pretty please with sugar on top?

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Thank you, Steven at Vaspers the Grate, for your powerful post.

This world is too violent, deceptive, and stupid for anyone to just float through life with smiles and hugs for every rotten soul you meet. To be sane, you have to be angry at many injustices and crimes. Only a mentally deranged imbecile would think it’s good to go along with everything and never criticize or question anybody or anything.

Read his list of 15 Risks of Blogging. I’ve experienced it all, with the exception of only a few.

Photo credit: iskanderbenamor

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To all my friends who scoff at this blogging crap I say, “Look who’s Time Person of the Year!”

Person of the Year: You
Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

W00t! Break out the champagne.

via Problogger

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Darren at ProBlogger.net cracked me up this morning with his list of 8 Signs It Might Be Time to Take a Break from Blogging. His commenters come up with more good ones too. Here’s my list of signs for when it’s time to escape from the shackles of my computer.

1. Every single blog comment or email annoys you.
2. You ask your husband to turn on his Skype even when he’s sitting next to you on the sofa.
3. You fold down the corner on every page of the magazine/newspaper/book you read because there’s something suitable for one of your blogs or a friend’s.
4. You hold off going to the bathroom just to blog one more post.
5. You have more than one stats package installed and check them all multiple times a day.
6. You ask random strangers if you can take a picture of them for your blog.
7. You “talk” to your online friends more than people you see face-to-face on a regular basis.
8. You take pictures of everything and anything (hopefully not when it’s inappropriate!).
9. You do something simply because it’s bloggable and not really because you want to (which can be good if it gets you trying something new).
10. You get obsessed making a list of reasons why you need a break from blogging.

I really needed a mental health break yesterday and got it by taking the morning off for breakfast at a local cafe. I think I’ll make it a weekly thing to go out and do something besides sitting in front of my computer. Next week, I think I’ll head over to the Darwin Centre at the London Natural History Museum. It’ll be quite novel to go there without having to carry a pre-schooler in my arms part of the time.

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Have you noticed the little doodad showing the pics of recent readers towards the bottom of the sidebar? Chances are you are just a silhouette because you haven’t joined MyBlogLog yet. Poo.

I got tired of seeing that shadow whenever I visited The Zero Boss so I joined his community and the next thing I know, I’m signing up all my blogs and really getting into the whole MyBlogLog thing. Kind of reminds me of the fun I had at LiveJournal without the cliquey exclusivity (even though I still love all you LiveJournalers *mwah*). And now I’m really sold because of the great customer service I got from Eric when I hit a snag. He said:

Life is just easier when you work off the assumption that everyone rocks and should be treated accordingly

With a mantra like that, how could you not love them? Join MyBlogLog so I can see your beautiful mug (whether real or not) in my list of recent readers and whenever you leave a comment!

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Welcome, December! Good-bye, November and the first (Inter)National Blog Posting Month. I’m proud to have finished with a post or more every day because although I more or less keep to a daily schedule here, there are usually a couple days each month when I have given too much to my b5media blogs and have nothing left for Cotton-Pickin’ Days.

Looking back on my posts this month, I see more than the average number of silly, short posts. Not much time for deep thoughts when I’m accompanying my mother-in-law window shopping and entertaining guests. I guess it’s good to take a break from overanalyzing everything once in a while. And I got some cute clothes out of it too!

Rashenbo at Writing Aspirations said it beautifully:

Blogging allows us to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and at the same time, gives us the ultimate ability to retain our individuality. A blog is a reflection of what you want to share and you control your own presence.

continue reading

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If I were a betting woman, I would bet that a number of students plagiarize Genetics and Health for their homework. And a few of them are even bold enough to ask for help:

# michael Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 10:28 pm

Inmagine a classroom containig 20 atudents. Describe the positioning and movement o fthe students in this classroom if they were to represrnt the gas, liquid, and solid states of matter. CAN YOU ANSWER THIS IF YOU CAN PLEASE GIVE ME THE CORRECT AND EXCEPTABLE ANSWER PLEASE PLEASE I?M ONLY IN THE 10TH GRADE

My reply:

michael: I?m sorry I can?t help you do your homework. Looks like you might want to work on your typing and spelling too along with science.

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