Hoping to Find a New Owner for BLOG VILLAGE

Dear Villagers,

I have reached a point in my life where I cannot give the time to BLOG VILLAGE that this community of friends deserves. Rather than just delete the whole TopList, I am hoping that one of you would like to pick up where I leave off and take over the administration of the Village.

I would hope that whoever might become the "owner" would maintain the Family Friendly status of our group. But I do not expect another person to do things just the way I have done them. I will leave the Village, so that the new owner can proceed as they see fit. Those of you who keep up with my own blogs will still be able to find me.

If you would be interested in taking over this TopList, please email me.

If I cannot find someone willing to take the TopList over, I will delete it at the end of March.

Regretfully,

Rosemary

Our Featured BLOG VILLAGER – Meredith Gould

It's been awhile since we have had a Featured Villager interview, so I was very pleased when the Gatekeeper sent in her interview with one of our newer Villagers, Meredith Gould.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

These days, I characterize myself as a "working writer", because most of my paltry annual income comes from providing editorial services in some form. But since writing is also something I feel deeply called to do, it's as much vocation as occupation. In fact, it was occupation before it was vocation.

My work history includes stints as a graphic production artist, waitress, secretary and bartender after dropping out of college. I dropped back in at age twenty-three and earned a doctorate in Sociology by age thirty. I taught college for a decade, then worked in state government and at an ad agency, before going freelance in 1989. In addition to copy writing and editing, I regularly published essays and features in regional and national magazines. I loved magazine work enough to edit a bi-monthly for a while.

Book writing? Not interested back then. That required piling up way too many words. I certainly never imagined writing books about spiritual and faith formation from a Catholic Christian perspective, especially since I was raised Jewish.

Why did you decide to blog?

My decision to launch More Meredith Gould was the result of several realizations about publishing. First, the print outlets for "inspirational humor" have basically disappeared. I finally realized that most of this writing was happening in e-zines and the blogosphere.

I also developed a low-to-no tolerance for the time lag between writing and publication. I finally realized that the blogosphere would allow me to reach existing readers more quickly and find new ones more quickly, while giving me creative control over content and design. Yes, I'm a creative control freak.

Still, I resisted blogging because of internal blah blah about what I thought I was supposed to be doing at this point in my writing career. I made a slew of snobby assumptions about who was blogging and why. But then, after getting into the habit of reading a couple of blogs, I developed some much-needed humility. Surprise! Surprise! The blogosphere was not, in fact, dominated by hacks and dilettantes. I was reading some terrific, provocative, smart, creative writing. Clearly, other working writers and book authors were blogging. It was time for me to get involved with what everyone is calling the "new media." The definitive shove came from Ruth Harrigan, who blogs at Wheelie Catholic. She persuaded me to futz around with the Blogger templates one night, and I quickly became smitten with the entire enterprise.

Describe what your blog is about.

More Meredith Gould is an extension of my other work, because, as I note in the tag-line, "I always have more to say." I offer quirky observations in posts about the challenges of communicating for and about faith; practical spirituality; Catholic Christian-Jewish interfaith weirdness; and the agonies and ecstasies of writing for a so-called living. I welcome reader questions and anchor my answers in experience and scholarship without being stuffy or boring. I'm very proud of the fact that reviewers have characterized my humor as "gentle" and "surprisingly unprudish."

How many books have you written? Can you pick one of your books, and tell us why it’s your favorite?

I have five published books, and one forthcoming in July 2008. Like every other author, I have a couple of completed manuscripts that will never be published – and the world will be a better place for that.

You want me to choose a favorite among my children?!? I can't do that! Each book has served a special purpose. Each seems to build on the previous one. I love my first book, Tips for Your Home Office (Storey) because it was my first, plus easy and fun to write. Staying Sober: Tips for Working a Twelve Step Program of Recovery (Hazelden) will always occupy a special place in my heart and not just because it earns royalties! That book allowed me to make an edgy, funny contribution to the generally grim recovery literature. Like most middle children, Deliberate Acts of Kindness: Service as a Spiritual Practice (Doubleday) has gotten somewhat lost. The shelving designation ("Social Science") killed it in bricks-n-mortar stores. People who discover it find it useful and inspiring. I sometimes forget I wrote it until readers contact me. I love how The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions (Doubleday) helped me define and develop my voice as a Catholic author. It is purchased a lot as a gift for newlyweds and young families, and by catechists. Come to the Table: A Catholic Passover Seder (Plowshares Publishing), written over a period of seven years, was a labor of love and religious conviction. I'm thrilled that it has been adopted by a number of parishes for their annual Passover seder. I'm still too close to the experience of writing my latest, Our Words Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today (Morehouse), to do anything but whimper about the process.

What's your advice for other writers who are still trying to get into print.

Keep at it, but get real about your goal. If it's to make money, then forget about getting a byline, and go land a copywriting job in either the private or public sector. You'll be writing- you'll get into print - you'll have fun.

If you write for self-expression, don't expect to get either published or paid. But that shouldn't matter, because real writers feel compelled to write, with or without publication. Everything – heart, mind, and spirit – atrophies when we don't write. Garrison Keillor, in a recent edition of the Authors Guild Bulletin (Summer 2007), is quoted as saying, "It's like a major illness having a book in the works. Good days and bad days, but you keep going…" He's right. If you're a real writer, you'll keep at it no matter what. If you're determined to get into print, then as a practical matter, you're going to have to become very savvy about the publishing business. You'll need to pay attention to trends and market demands, because print publishing is a business first and foremost.

Which other blogs do you read?

Regularly, thanks to Google Reader: Anti-Itch Meditation, Ask Sister Mary Martha, A Third Way, Dirty Catholic, Happy Catholic, The Ironic Catholic, Kingdom Come, spiritually delicious!, Sweetness and Light, Wheelie Catholic, and Whispers in the Loggia. In addition to Blog Village, I belong to St. Blog's Parish and subscribe to BlogRush, which I wander through regularly to see what other folks are writing. I'm noticing how visiting blogs and websites has significantly reduced my need to subscribe to a zillion print magazines, so I shouldn't be complaining about the dwindling number of print outlets. Mea maxima culpa.

Please suggest someone else's blog at Blog Village so we can do a feature on them.

Barbara's Tchatzkahs is a very smart, sassy blog, although it takes way too long to load.

DMD Scratchboard Gallery is a visually beautiful blog.

When Meredith first emailed me I could already tell she was quite a wonderful character. She's funny, witty and very gracious. Her blog has been a pleasure to read. Meredith will make you laugh, or at least chuckle, and has a canny way of sprinkling a little bit of wisdom throughout her writing. Visit her at More Meredith Gould (because she always has more to say), check out her books and tell us what you think. Enjoy Meredith's blog . . . I did.

The Gatekeeper

A Hulabaloo Carnival for OOOPS! I Goofed - for EVERYBODY!

Anthony's Jan. 11 Carnival is open to BLOG VILLAGERS ONLY!

NO, I misunderstood Anthony's post. He does this Surfer's Paradise post from time to time where he features certain blogs and links to them in his post. This is very good for the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the blog he links to. SEO determines your Page Rank on the Internet. The higher the number, the closer to the front page of results of an Internet Search your site will be. Obviously, being on the FIRST Page is Fantastic!

Well, it is the Surfer's Paradise recognition for this week that will feature ONLY BLOG VILLAGE BLOGS. His Carnival is open to anyone, Villager or not.
Sorry for the mixup! It was entirely my fault.

But that shouldn't change anything, really.
Let's support Anthony, and have a good turnout of Villagers in the next

Surfer's Paradise Hullabaloo, !

We'll see you over the rainbow... (enter)



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, the Gatekeeper, or Marsha - the members of our Village Interview Team.

Another TopList You Might Be Interested In

I ran across this TopList from the forum for the TopList owners, and it looks like one some of you would benefit from joining.

Top Blogs for Crafters

We have the best art, craft, sewing, knitting, needlepoint, designer, woodworking, painting, illustration, story telling, cross-stitch, free craft articles, doll making, folkart, primitive, country, seasonal, mixed media, abstract art, scrapbooking, e-products, crazy quilting, quilting, vintage, victorian, shabby chic, printables, beading, gardening, food, altered art, candle making, Americana, holiday, animal crafts, wool felting, textile, food crafts, applique, basket making, abstract art, contemporary art, creative embroidery, watercolor art, wearable art, ribbon crafts, crewel, decorative painting, crochet, digital art, graphic art, dried floral design, fiber art, weaving, wedding crafts, baby crafts, fragrance crafts, gourd painting, home decor,paper crafts, jewelry making, lamp making, rug making, soap making, stamping, stenciling, tiedying, pottery, handbag making, purse making, totes making, pocketbook making, polymer clay, potpourri, etc. blogs by the best artists and crafters on the web.

We are looking for everyone who loves arts & crafts or hobbies and has a blog to come join us. If you are a crafter, sewer, woodworker, artist, designer, graphic artist, doll maker, painter, scrapbooker, photographer, fabric designer, needleworker, knitter, stamper, or anyone involved with making or selling arts & crafts and you have a blog please come join our toplist.

This TopList has about 300 members. If your blogs fit their niche, you might want to check them out. And for those of us who are not artistic or crafty, you might want to look through their members to see if they have something you would like to buy.

This is not an endorsement in the sense that I know anything about the owner of the list, or the members. It just looked good to me, and I wanted you to have the opportunity to look at it. Please let us know what you think of it, if you check it out.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, the Gatekeeper, or Marsha - the members of our Village Interview Team.

Looking Back on 2007 and Forward to 2008

This email was sent out to all BLOG VILLAGERS. Some of you did not receive it, however, because you have your settings marked not to receive anything but individual emails from the TopList.

This has been a busy year for me, and from the looks of your blogs, it has been for you, too. I've made some changes here that I hope you have found helpful, such as adding the forum and chat, and expanding the Gateway page.

I have also tried to encourage more Villager interaction by requiring at least one HIT IN each month. All you need to do is click the voting link on your blog one time each month to remain an Active member of our community. And you can vote for any Villager's blog you like during the month, so they can stay on the TopList, too.

In an effort to make the list more useful, I have added a Search function to the TopList pages, and I have deleted several hundred bloggers who were not participating.

We have gone Carnival Crazy this year, thanks to several Villagers who are really into this great way of getting to know different bloggers. I'm looking for a Villager now who would like to host the Jan. 28 Carnival on MONEY, who has not hosted one of our BLOG VILLAGE Carnivals before. If you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible. And by all means, send in your post for this carnival. You will find the link to our BLOG VILLAGE sponsored Carnivals in the Blog Carnival widget on the Community News and the Gateway Page.

We haven't had any new Villager Interviews for quite awhile, as our folks have been so busy with other tasks, but if you would like to be interviewed, or like to be the interviewer, please let me know.

I look forward to 2008 and getting to spend time with each of you on your blogs. Now that I don't need to spend as much time being the voting link police, I expect to enjoy reading and commenting a lot more this year, and I encourage each of you to find some Villagers that you can get to know better, too.

May you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's celebration,

Rosemary


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team. And now we have another Villager who has volunteered to join our Interview Team: Marsha!

Freud Plays a Hand

Well, for the second month in a row, I have not deleted the blogs that I had warned I would. Last month, I was really too sick to be dealing with this, and this month, I just let the time get by and the month ended before I thought about it. Nobody's fault but mine. I did think about deleting all of them a couple of days before the end of the month, but I wanted to give everyone as much time as possible to click on their voting links. It really pains me to think of losing close to 200 blogs in one fell swoop. Maybe the whole episode has been a Freudian slip. I don't know.

Anyway, I still have my list of who was warned to vote for themselves or lose membership, so I will be deleting these blogs during this month, without warning, IF they do not have at least one HIT IN.

And, why, do you ask, am I so determined to get rid of these blogs that do not vote for themselves? There are two main reasons. One - it means they are probably not ever looking at the TopList, which means they will not be reading any other Villager's blogs. Two - it means I would have to keep checking on all these blogs each month to see if they still have the BLOG VILLAGE voting link on the site. And that's just too hard to manage with so many people to check on. I'd rather be spending my time READING and COMMENTING on fellow Villager's blogs - not being the "banner police"!!

So, again I remind you that you are required to vote for yourself ONE TIME Each MONTH to keep your membership in our Community. Vote for yourself FROM YOUR BLOG, and then go vote for those Villagers you would hate to see deleted. Seems easy enough to me.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

GONZO "Thank You" Carnival Dec. 10th

I don't know how they have time to have so many Carnivals, but For Your Success has a GONZO Carnival scheduled for Dec. 10th. It should be noted that this is not a "Blog Village Carnival". This is a Gonzo Carnival staged to recognize and express appreciation to Blog Villagers who have supported their series.

I'm doing good to find time to have one once a quarter, and I really don't have to do too much when another Villager hosts it!

But anyway, I know a lot of our Villagers have participated in quite of few of the GONZO Carnivals, so mosey on over to For Your Success, check out the rules, and send in an entry.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Why????

It's the middle of the month, and out of the 384 Villagers who are on the TopList right now, almost 250 of them have not clicked on the voting link banner on their own blog, which registers as a HIT IN. I've asked repeatedly that everyone click on their own, or that you click on the voting link on Villager's blogs that you like, so I do not have to check out all these blogs, hunting for the BLOG VILLAGE link each month.

So, it's looking like our Village is going to be losing well over half its members pretty soon, unless a lot of people get busy. I just don't understand why this has been such a problem.

Bummer!!

Carnivals & BLOG VILLAGE

Sometimes it's hard to anticipate all the situations we find ourselves in. When something unexpected is encountered, a person tries to deal with it in a way that is consistent with their own belief system.

With that in mind, I'd like to lay down some guidelines for Carnivals hosted on BLOG VILLAGE member's blogs. But first, a quick review of the belief system that is the distinctive quality of our Village.

Overall and above all other considerations, our TopList must remain Family Friendly.

As I have said many times before, and will continue to emphasize, I never intended to be a censor of topics or language on anyone's blog. But, I do expect all Villagers to adhere to the policy of no objectionable language in large print, and no sexually explicit or inappropriate photos, unless the reader must intentionally link to it to see it. There should not be anything on any BLOG VILLAGE blog that "hits you in the face" with something you don't want to see when you open a Villager's blog.

So, how does that apply to Carnivals?

If you host anyone's carnival on your blog, please be sure that there is nothing on YOUR blog that would not follow our rules concerning language or photos. You should mark any carnival entries that do not meet the criteria of BLOG VILLAGE membership as Not Family Friendly, so that our Villagers can make an informed choice about viewing that entry.

Hopefully, these guidelines will help you enjoy carnivals that you host, or carnivals that you read, as members of BLOG VILLAGE.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE emails PLEASE HELP

Some time ago, the gotop admin added an option on the member control panel to opt out of receiving mass mailings. Many of you joined so long ago, that you probably didn't even know such an option was available to you. I do understand why the gotop people did this, as they had some TopList admins emailing sales promotions and other such SPAM to their members. I have never used the BLOG VILLAGE email list for my own personal gain, and don't intend to in the future.

I do send out emails from time to time, in an effort to make members aware of what they need to do to maintain membership in our Village, and to announce community activities, such as upcoming Carnivals and the new Forum and Chat. I hope I have not made a pest of myself ;).

It is very inconvenient for me, when I do need to contact a group of members with the same problem, if I have to email each one separately, because they have opted out of mass mailings. Right now there are about 50 members that I cannot reach with a mass mailing.

So, this morning, I sent an individual email to each of those Villagers who had opted out, asking them to please change that option, so they can receive the mass emails. If they decide that they do not want to be bothered with the mass emails at a later date, they can always opt out at that time. I am hoping that the vast majority of those who are currently opting out will understand my situation, and make the change in their preferences.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE Halloween Carnival is Coming HERE!!

Our Fall Fest is ONLINE NOW!!!

Share your Halloween posts about your easiest homemade costumes, funniest Halloween ever, or best homemade treats. Tell us a good spooky story, or a tale of haunted houses --- you name it.

Or maybe you'd rather tell us about what your family does, rather than go trick or treating.

You don't celebrate Halloween?? Not a problem... Just share your favorite thoughts about Autumn ... Fall color, Fall traditions, Fall crafts, family reunions, harvest recipes, handmade gifts, etc.

Come join us at Advertising for Success for a Fantastic Fall Festival.

DEADLINE for Submissions HAS BEEN EXTENDED SUNDAY, Oct. 28th

Submit HERE.

Please include your member ID. As always, our BLOG VILLAGE Carnivals are open to GUESTS, as long as they have a link on their blog to a Villager's blog. So, help us out, and encourage your readers to link to you, by inviting them to enter our Carnival, too.

PS. Some of you have already submitted entries to the MONEY Carnival that was originally planned for this month. I still have your entries, but I have postponed that one until December. If you are interested in hosting it, please email me.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

NEW - The FIRST BLOG VILLAGE WEBRING

Janey Loree has been busy setting up our FIRST BLOG VILLAGE WEBRING! Here's part of her announcement post:

I am pleased to announce that the new BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring is ready for you to join! I need you to follow this link:

http://www.pjscorner.net/BV.equine.webring.htm

and click on the [join] button. If you have any questions just email me.

Tell your equine friends and family about this new service in BLOG VILLAGE! The more the merrier and with a Webring … we don’t have to worry about the pecking order…do we!

There are three different sizes to the Webring banner, and I just added the coding to the BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring homepage for your convenience. The html code for each banner or button is set up to link to the BVEW homepage. And I posted an article about the Webring over at Mustang ‘n’ Cowboys. Once you join the Webring then I will send you a member code that you will need to add to your blog.

There still may be a few bugs to work out, so please bear with me as we get this BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring up and running.

Thanks for your interest in the BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring,

Janey Loree

Congrats, Janey Loree, and Best Wishes for an ACTIVE Webring!


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

An Apology

Ordinarily I wouldn't bring up anything personal on this site, but I feel I need to offer a brief explanation about something, as I don't believe in giving idle threats to people.

I have been warning over a hundred bloggers for the last few months that they were about to be deleted from our TopList, if they did not show the minimum participation of at least voting for themselves once each month. My intention was to delete all but the newer members who did not have at least 1 HIT IN by the end of September.

It didn't work out that way, as I was in the ER yesterday, after a very scary, for me, Parkinson's weekend. They've added some more medicine for now, until I can get in to see my Neurologist, so I'm better. But, it meant I didn't feel like doing anything with the list. So, all of those old members who had been given their "last warning" have a one month reprieve. I will not be contacting them again, but I will wait until October 31 to delete those old members who still don't have a HIT IN.

New members are given a month to get the voting link in place and vote for themselves, and I write each of them, remind them, and offer help if they need it.

Thank you for your understanding,

Rosemary


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Stop Abuse!!

Thousands of bloggers from around the world are joining together this Thursday, September 27th with a single message: Stop Abuse!

We would love for our Villagers to be very vocal on this important issue, whether your personal concern is child abuse, animal abuse, elder abuse, or any other form of abuse that is an issue to you!

On Thursday, September 27th, post about any abuse topic you care about - child abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, political abuse - and let the world know you stand united with thousands of bloggers as part of the Bloggers Unite "Blog Against Abuse" campaign. Depending on your topic, you can even link to local, regional, national, or international organizations that you care about or support. Every post will count!

There are dozens of badges you can add to your post (or make your own):
http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/bloggers-unite/discuss/entry/ badges-for-blogging-against-abuse-place-them-on-your-blog


And there are several places where you are invited to add a link, like here:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/bloggers-unite/discuss/entry/ three-great-places-to-leave-your-post-link

As well as http://www.topix.com/forum/topstories/T4EUFS0AVNJ08ASPT

You can e-mail your link to blogforhope@yahoo.com by Oct. 10 with any results (traffic, comments, etc.) By doing so, you will automatically be be entered in to win $250 for charity (from Copywrite, Ink.) six months of premium services (from BlogCatalog) and gain more recognition for your blog and the topic you post about. (More details can be found at
Copywrite, Ink.)

This is shaping up to be the biggest Bloggers Unite campaign in BlogCatalog history! Please join us on September 27th and blog against abuse. Every post will count!

Thanks, Jackie, for bringing this cause to our attention! I hope we have a lot of BLOG VILLAGERS participating.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

New BLOG VILLAGE Chat Room

At Jackie's suggestion, I've added a simple chat room to the Gateway page. You will need to register there, and the Login is there, as well. Maybe we should try to set a certain day for folks to come by and say "Hi!" What do you think?

A forum would probably be more useful, but this will have to do for now, as I don't think I know enough to set one up, nor have the time to moderate it. If anyone has these skills, and would like to help me set up a forum, I'd love to talk to you.

Added 9/26
I DID it! I found an easy to set up forum for us, so now you can come visit at the Village Fountain any time you please. You'll find the link on the Gateway page, too.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Working on our BLOG VILLAGE Gateway Page

I'm still playing around with the idea of how to make the Gateway page of our TopList more useful, so I decided to try Anthony's suggestion of putting BLOG VILLAGE specific content there, rather than generic content. I can't move the voting button up to the top yet, as I am waiting on the gotop programmers to make that possible. In the meantime, please bear with me as you have to go to the bottom of the page to vote. If you click END on your keyboard, it will take you to the voting button immediately.

Jackie suggested that we start a Chat or Forum, where Villagers can talk about all things related to our blogs, and link to it here, as well. I haven't had time to work on that, but I haven't forgotten about it.

Once I can get the page fully developed, I will probably remove at least some of the extra content, such as carnival banners in between the Villager banners, from the TopList itself, and some of the announcements, too. So, you might want to bookmark the Gateway page, and use it to enter BLOG VILLAGE. That's what I had in mind, anyway.

PS Entering from your bookmarked Gateway page will give you a HIT IN.

Please let me know what you think, as I will consider any suggestions.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

A Sad Ending for Some, but a New Beginning for Us

Today was not a fun day for me, as I just finished deleting over 100 blogs from BLOG VILLAGE. But, we continue to gain new members each day, so our Village is still alive and well. I also emailed all the Villagers who have not voted FROM their blog yet this month, and I wrote to a small number of newer Villagers who have not put the voting link on their blog yet (those blogs are now marked with the asterisk).


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Copy of Email to All Villagers Who Have Been Warned of the Sept. 15 Deadline

Please be sure YOU vote for YOUR blog FROM YOUR BLOG before the end of this month, and each month, which is a requirement of membership.

This is a copy of the email I sent out today to all the blogs that have the asterisk on their name on the TopList, just for your information.

The September 15th DEADLINE is almost here. I have emailed each of you, posted on the Community News, put warnings on the TopList itself, and done everything I could think of to warn you that you are about to be deleted from BLOG VILLAGE. Some of you have dormant blogs, with no new posts in a long time. Most of you have very active blogs, but you are not displaying the BLOG VILLAGE voting link on your blog.

After Sept. 15, I will be taking one last look at your blog. If I do not find current posts AND the BLOG VILLAGE voting banner or link, I will DELETE your blog from membership. You will not hear from me again.

If I do find current posts AND the voting link, I will vote for you myself this time, since any blog that does not have at least one vote FROM YOUR BLOG (HIT IN) by the end of September will also be deleted. You will need to continue to vote for yourself FROM YOUR BLOG each month to maintain Active Status on our Village.

I would love to find that you have decided to be an Active member, with current posts and the voting link displayed. I do, however, understand that some, if not all of you, did not realize that continued BLOG VILLAGE membership involved active participation. I hope we can part with good feelings, if you are one of the blogs I delete.

Regretfully,

Rosemary

http://blogvillage.gotop100.com

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Trying to Find Ways to Make BLOG VILLAGE More Useful to YOU

I'm playing around with some ideas about making the front page of the TopList more like a PORTAL page. So, for the meantime, I've added a NEWS FEED and a WEATHER link. My thinking was that it might help you come up with something to blog about, or just be for your own personal reading pleasure. I'm trying to figure out some way to let each of you have an area where you could add favorite links, too. If someone knows how I could do that with script for HTML or CSS, please let me know.

Also, if you think this might be useful, or a waste of space and time, I'd appreciate your feedback. As I said, I'm just playing, and perfectly willing to delete it all and go back to the way it was. Or, continue to look for new Java scripts and such that will work.

For the time being, I've moved these changes to the Gateway page. That's what you see when you vote for a blog from the link on the blog. If you all like the portal idea, it would be simple enough to bookmark your link page, instead of the main TopList page. Or, I can move it back to the top or bottom of the main page. I'm completely open to suggestions on this one, as I'm just experimenting.

So, let me have it - positive or negative opinions welcomed!!



PS. You may have noticed that some of the Ratings have gone up on the Village. I am in the process of manually deleting ratings given by a certain person, whose IP has now been blocked. If you have one of these 0 or 1 ratings, without a comment to back it up, please let me know, and I will delete it for you.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

All Villagers Are Invited to Enter the Latest Gonzo Carnival

CyberCelt has asked that I remind all Villagers about the latest Gonzo Carnival, which she is hosting on August 29.

Submission DEADLINE is
11:59 PM TOMORROW, on August 27, 2007.

Round up your best post on blogs and blogging:

Some examples for topics:

• Why do you blog?
• What has been your best or worst blogging experience?
• What do you blog about and why?
• Share your 1st blog post?
• Share your 100th, 200th, 500th or 1000th blog post.
• Share your experiences with carnival hosting on your blog.
• . . . anything you want to share about blogging.
  

E-mail submissions NOW (with Gonzo Rodeo in subject line) to:
Rodeo Rules:

• One post per blog.
• Only English language posts will be accepted
• Family-safe content ONLY--no sexual or suggestive pictures, no profanity.

Cut and paste the following into your email for each submission:

Name or Nickname shown on post:
Blog Title:
Blog URL:
Post Title:
Post URL:

Please submit complete URLs and check them to make sure they lead to the post you submit.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Something NEW! - BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring

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In an attempt to connect with bloggers who have the same interests and give blog readers a way to connect to all of the Villagers on their favorite subject, an internal webring sounded like just the ticket! Thanks to our BLOG VILLAGE Host, Rosemary, aka Dirty Butter, the BV Webring Banners will be centralized on the BLOG VILLAGE News page.

Since horses are a huge part of my life, I decided to start with an Equine Webring. I was tickled to find out that we have so many blogs in the VILLAGE that share their knowledge, stories, pictures and interest in horses. So far, with the help of the new search system and Rosemary, I have compiled the following list of “Equine” related blogs:

Brave New World

petArtistWithPeaches

MiKael's Mania - Arabian Horses

On the Shores of Carpenter Creek

Every Rider.com

Pony Tail Club

ClickonCowboy

Equine Spirit

A Laughing Gypsy

Simply Marvelous

S. Nicholas Originals

EQUUS

There Is A Season

Mustang Diaries

Mustang ‘n’ Cowboys


I would appreciate you letting me know if you have an equine related blog or know of a blog that I have inadvertently left off of this list. It goes without saying that these blogs need to be a part of BLOG VILLAGE. As the owner of one of these blogs, please contact me to let me know that you want to be a part of the BLOG VILLAGE Equine Webring.

Janey Loree

Let's Get Creative!!

I will add the banner to the right sidebar, as soon as the Equine Webring is active.

Create a banner, using the BLOG VILLAGE logo, as Janey did, write your invitation post, and email it to me, and I'll do what I can to help any Villager run their own Webring.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!!

Dirty Butter

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

SEARCH Has Been IMPROVED!!!

The owners of the gotop100 service have been very responsive to suggestions I have made over the last year, and they have just installed another one of my ideas!

I feel like celebrating, because now you can search for blogs by the words in their descriptions, as well as by name, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT SHOWING CURRENTLY ON THE LIST! Only blogs with at least one vote IN, from the voting link ON the blog, are showing at this time, while I weed out the inActive members. So, now you can find that favorite blog of yours, even if that person hasn't voted for themselves. Oh, and while you're on their site, how about voting FOR them, so their blog WILL show!?!

Now, here's why I'm so excited about this new feature. If you will take some time to think about what Categories your blog might fit in, you could add some keywords to your description, and more people of similar interests would be able to easily find you.

Here's a start on a list, but please add more via comments, as you think of them.

HEALTH, SPORTS, FAMILY, COMPUTERS, BUSINESS, FOOD .............


I just tried looking for all the blogs about horses, and up they popped!! I'm really excited about this, and I hope you take full advantage of it.

Speaking of horses, Janey Loree is in the process of putting together an Equine Webring for BLOG VILLAGERS, so if you would like to be included, by all means let her know. If someone wants to start a webring for some other group of Villagers, I'll be glad to post your banner and publicize yours, too.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

How to Be an ACTIVE Member of BLOG VILLAGE

I really do appreciate those of you who took the time to vote on the two polls I listed, and particularly those who commented about them. I'm not seeing an overwhelming consensus, so, as administrator, I have decided how I will proceed with our Village.

Just so you will understand where I'm coming from, that word Village was chosen as part of our name for a very important reason. I did NOT want our TopList to become just another blog directory, but rather, a community of bloggers with similar ideas about what is appropriate for a Family Friendly blog, regardless of the topics discussed.

I am NOT going to put a limit of 500 members, but I AM going to set some criteria for continued membership.

I'm going to manually reset the list at the FIRST of AUGUST, so that it will reset at the beginning of each month. For the first week after the reset each month, all the blogs will show. I will give everyone ONE WEEK before I change the settings each month, and then only those blogs with at least 1 vote IN will show on the TopList.(This didn't turn out to be such a good idea, and I now leave all blogs showing, but delete any blogs that have not received at least 1 HIT IN by the end of the month.) If you really want to be part of our community, asking you to vote for your own blog once a month is reasonable. If that's too much trouble for you, then it's time for you to let me know, so I can delete your blog. Any member who does not have at least one HIT IN by the end of the month will be deleted.

I will, however, continue to RANK the list by HITS OUT, as it encourages interaction with the TopList itself. Ranking doesn't really seem to be that important to most of you, but the importance of community is a value that many of you share with me. Please continue to vote for blogs you appreciate and comment on the TopList about the blog, itself, as this is one of the ways you can encourage your fellow Villagers.

With a large membership, it will take me about 3 months to comfortably take a look at each blog. I will warn any member who has not posted in the last 3 months or who does not have the BLOG VILLAGE Banner or link prominently displayed. If the problem is not corrected within two weeks, I will delete that blog.

As always, if you see a post on any Villager's blog that you find objectionable, please email me as soon as possible, so I can deal with the situation as I see fit.

With your active participation, I am confident that we can maintain the community ethic no matter what size our VILLAGE is!

Looking forward to visiting each of you over the next few months.




Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE'S First Annual RECREATION Carnival

Whether your idea of recreation is to sweat or meditate, travel or read, this carnival is bound to be one you have already posted about at some point, or one you could easily write just to enter our newest carnival.

Our own BLOG VILLAGER, Texas RV Travel Blog, is going to host this one on Monday, July 30th, so how about taking a little time to find that suitable post for this event. You must submit your entry to BlogCarnival by Midnight, Friday, July 27.

Help us promote the Carnival by using the banner on your own blog, if you like.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Meet LYNDA - Our Newest FEATURED VILLAGER

It’s about time I introduced you to another BLOG VILLAGER.

Her name is Lynda, and she teaches Pilates & Reiki as an American Ex-pat in the Turks & Caicos Islands. In her July 10, 2007 post on her blog, Pilates in Paradise, you will see that she enjoys blogging and is setting up several more blogs! She has a pet peeve concerning people that are unduly licensed to teach Pilates & Reiki and has made a couple of You Tube Videos available on her blog that explain Pilates & Reiki. To start off the interview I asked her to tell us who Lynda is and to share something about herself that she hasn't posted in her blog!

Lynda replied: “As a child & teen I was very interested in mysticism and spirituality. I studied Tarot, meditation, Ouija boards, astral travel, energy healing, etc. Then I went to college and got into western philosophy and went straight into a PhD program.

In traditional western philosophy the soul and anything mystical is completely frowned upon. Nobody believes in god, religion is silly and in a different department, and something like Reiki energy healing would be laughable. So I taught Pilates part time and just closed off my spiritual side.

When I left academia to open my first Pilates studio in 1995, I was suddenly inundated with alternative people, practices, ideas. And within a few years I was back to practicing Judaism, meditating, and exploring energy healing.

Now I've realized that contradiction is OK. As Schopenhauer explained many moons ago, faith is a leap we take knowing full well that we cannot logically explain everything. Sometimes when I teach Reiki I am struck by how silly some of it still sounds to me; yet it works and I cannot fault what works!”

To my question “What prompted you to start blogging in the first place?”, Lynda exclaimed, “I love to write and wanted to share some of my stories and knowledge with the entire world. Once I realized how easy it is to blog, it became a habit. Now I have readers from all over and my blog produces some income from advertising. I have considered splitting my blog into Pilates specific, Reiki specific, and expat specific sites, but people have told me that they like the variety in my posts so for now I am going to leave it as is.”

The next question should have been “When do you find time to blog?”, however I asked, “When do you find time to read other blogs?"

Lynda stated, “Not often enough! That's why I love places like Blog Village or Blog Her where there is a group of blogs that I like to read. I read other blogs throughout my day/week. Some don't update regularly so it's a quick pass through.

I find that Google alerts help. I receive blog alerts daily for Pilates, Reiki, Turks & Caicos and that connects me with blogs I never would see otherwise.”

When asked, “Where or through whom did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?”, Lynda’s answer was, “One of the blogs I visited through a Google alert was Rosemary's (Day By Day with PD & PN), and I clicked through to join."

To continue the interview I wanted to know, “Why do you blog? Is your blog personal, business, therapeutic, or just plain fun?”

“All of the above! I have received writing & teaching offers from my blog. Advertisers like my blog. My clients read the blog, and I have gained clients from having a blog. Plus, I get to write and have fun, not knowing who will be reading!” was Lynda’s enthusiastic reply.

I was glad to hear that Lynda sometimes explores BLOG VILLAGE when I asked, “How many BLOG VILLAGE blogs do you read?”, because she said, “There are about 8 that I cycle through regularly. But sometimes I go in and just click different ones to see what's out there.”

The last question helps me with the answer to “Who do I pick for the next interview?” Lynda would like to recommend Eric of Erixgraphy, so he will be added to my list of BLOG VILLAGERS to get to know a little bit more!

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

HITS OUT for Ranking - Like It of Not???

Since the HITS OUT score indicates how many times, since the last reset, someone has gone to read your blog FROM our TopList, and almost every Villager has at least one Hit Out, I thought it might be interesting to use that number for ranking our members.

I'll leave it this way for awhile, but I'd really appreciate your feedback about this way of ranking. Do you like it or not??

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Hits IN ---- Hits OUT

If I find this confusing, I'm sure there are others who do, too. So I decided to do a search on the gotop100 forum for administrators, and I found this very simple explanation:

Incoming hits are how many visitors a site has sent to your top list using their link code. Outgoing hits are how many visitors your top list has sent to the site.

I've been rather discouraged that I haven't been able to interest our Villagers in voting for each other, but I must admit that finally understanding HITS OUT makes me feel a little bit better about BLOG VILLAGE and my goals for our Village. I checked to see just what our statistics are at the moment, and I'm feeling better.

Out of the 364 members who are currently showing on the blog, only 98 have a vote, since the reset on May 9. That's very discouraging, as I thought for sure that putting all the blogs back on with the new SEARCH box would encourage more participation.

But then I got to wondering about how many blogs were being clicked on from our toplist, whether they got votes or not, and that made me feel a WHOLE lot better! Out of those same 364 members, there are 320 that have been viewed by someone who found them on BLOG VILLAGE!!! That's what the Hits Out number means, and that's impressive. People may not be taking the time to vote, but they are taking the time to read, and that's what really counts, isn't it??

May 23 will be our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. In that time, we have had a total of 512 Villagers, many of whom I have deleted for not keeping the BLOG VILLAGE voting banner on their blogs. Only a handful have been asked to take the banner off, because of their unwillingness to edit posts or pictures that were not appropriate for our community.

We have actually grown to be one of the larger toplists on gotop100, which speaks well of all of you, as other bloggers are constantly asking to join. In fact, I have 6 blogs waiting for me to look at them right now. So, I guess I'd better quit rambling and get busy checking them out, right??

I've met a lot of interesting people, become good blog friends with some of you, and enjoyed reading about a lot of places and lives that I would never have know about otherwise. All in all, I think it's been a good year, and the number of Hits Out makes me feel like my efforts have born some good fruit. I hope you feel the same way.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Join Us at the Village for Our First Annual HEALTH Carnival

The THEME for this Quarter's BLOG VILLAGE Carnival is

"All about HEALTH"

Are you a Care Giver? Do you have health problems you deal with on a regular basis? Just felt puny and blogged about it? Have the kids been sick? Maybe you blog about a more healthy life style, controversial issues like abortion, or the latest health news. Whether your post is to inform, vent, whine, poke fun, or whatever, if it has to do with Health, we're looking forward to reading what you have to say!!

You can click either banner to ENTER. Feel free to copy for your blog!

.

DEADLINE April 26 midnight
Will be online here on BLOG VILLAGE News on April 30th.
RULES:

1. Blog MUST belong EITHER to a BLOG VILLAGE member OR link directly TO a BLOG VILLAGE Blog.

2. Only 1 entry per blog.

3. Only English language posts will be accepted.

4. No posts with titles, or with pictures, containing profanity, or of a sexual or suggestive nature, will be accepted.

5. Choose MEMBER or GUEST from the Categories, and put the required information in the REMARKS.

GUESTS of Villagers must submit the URL of the BLOG VILLAGE blog they are linked TO for your entry to be eligible for consideration.

VILLAGERS need to enter their MEMBER NUMBER in the REMARKS.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Confused???

I'm sorry that my change on the way your blog shows on BLOG VILLAGE has been so confusing to so many of you. I'll try to explain what's happening, so maybe I can put your mind at ease.

When I reset everyone to zero Saturday night, no one showed on the list until they had a vote from their own blog banner or text link.

The gotop100 servers cycle through all the members for all the toplists they have, and that takes some time. That means that you will not instantly see your vote "count." Until the server recycles, which is usually every 30 minutes, even though you or someone else voted for your blog, IT WILL NOT SHOW ON THE LIST. Once you have ONE VOTE showing, your blog will show on the list until the monthly reset. Then the list will go blank again, until someone votes.

If you vote for yourself, and your blog is still not showing on BLOG VILLAGE after waiting an hour, by all means email me, as something is wrong, and hopefully, I can fix it or tell you how to fix it.

The fact that so many of you are writing me, asking for help understanding why your blog isn't showing, is a good thing (although frustrating for both of us). It means you CARE!!!

I'm trying this new method because so many of our almost 300 members aren't keeping their blogs active or with a good voting link. There have been way too many blogs whose only vote all month long was MINE, when I've been doing the monthly check in! And, there have been as many as 25 or so each month that I end up emailing repeatedly, trying to get them to put the voting link back up after template changes, etc.

Please be patient while we all get used to this different way of displaying your TopList entry each month. In the long run, I hope it makes for a smaller, but more active and useful list, with fewer "dud" blogs to wade through to find the "good stuff!"

Doing my best,

Rosemary



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

NOTICE!! **********NEW Reset Procedure STARTS TONIGHT!!

As you probably already know, our BLOG VILLAGE TopList is set to change all votes back to zero once a month. This allows every Villager the opportunity to be on the front page of the list, depending on how many votes your blog gets. It has been my habit each month to go through and vote for each blog, as a way to reacquaint myself with blogs I've lost touch with, as well as check for dormant blogs, or those that no longer have the voting link displayed.

We are very close to a membership of 300 now, and real life has cut into my time for blogging considerably lately. I have decided to change the way our TopList is set up, so that only those members who have at least 1 vote will show up at all. That means each month you will need to assure yourself a place on the list by voting for yourself from the link on your own blog. The gotop100 server cycles through the votes in about 30 minutes, so you may not see your blog appear in the list immediately. If you vote, and your votes does not show up within an hour, it may mean that there is something wrong with your link, or it may be a server problem I have no control over. Please email me if you cannot get your link to work, and I'll see if I can figure out what the problem is.

I have my blogs listed with some directories, etc., that I have never visited again, once I had them set up. BLOG VILLAGE was never intended to be that kind of place. I chose the name very carefully, to convey the feeling of friendship and caring for each other that I have tried to make a part of our community. So it seems reasonable that the Villagers who are interested enough in our Community to vote for themselves once a month should be the Villagers whose blogs are listed. Of course, we hope you get lots of votes from lots of other visitors, as well! But to get your banner or name on the list, you will now need to vote once for yourself.

This change in procedure will have several positive results, I think, and no negative ones that I'm aware of. It will free my blogging time to more productive tasks, such as reading and commenting, instead of "policing." It will cut the size of the TopList, so that the active blogs will be those people see. And it should encourage new members to add the voting link quicker, cutting down on the number of emails I have to write to individual members.

I am always open to suggestions about the way BLOG VILLAGE is run, but ultimately, the decision is up to me as to how to proceed. I will evaluate this change to the reset system for awhile and will let you know if I decide to make further changes.

Hoping this change will be a positive step forward for all our Villagers,

Rosemary


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Meet MARION - Our Featured BLOG VILLAGER

After sending Marion the same questions I ask of all my BLOG VILLAGE interviewees, she answered them in a way that does not need to be broken up! Please read on to find out about your fellow BLOG VILLAGER, Marion, over at The Herbal Connection:

I am a soon-to-be 56 year old woman who has had many life experiences, and who wants to share what I’ve learned as a result of these life-changing events.

I am twice-divorced; now living with my life-partner, Graham. Two dogs, Lucky and Nate, own us. I have lost a daughter; I am a recovering Alcoholic, still dry for many years. I am a mother and a grandmother, soon to welcome my second grandchild into the world.

As I learn, once more, to adapt to a different way of life, I use the Shamanistic and Reiki skills I have learned on a constant basis. I will always be amazed at how much easier life becomes, how well I can figure myself out, using these tools.

Graham is a Karuna Reiki Master Teacher and I hold Level 2 certification. I absorb the energies that fly around me so intensely, both negative and positive, that I had to learn how to protect myself. That is when I met Shaman Maggie Wahls, who opened the doors to an intensely spiritual time.

My awareness of ordinary, everyday occurrences became so acute; I wanted to write specifically about it. My life has become an amazing journey of miracles. It seemed right to share it.

And I wanted to be a storyteller. I have written all my life, primarily for myself…writing words that described the events of my life, horrible, sad words. It was the right time, suddenly, to turn those despairing words around to a more positive tone, to dissect and learn.

I wanted to reach people, to share hope in the everyday. Although I have sent some essays, etc. to various magazines, I have not seriously pursued this avenue. I treasure the rejection letters; seems they all, in handwritten words, love my writing…but what could they do with it? It doesn’t seem to fit in well, for magazine formats. LOL

Blogging seemed the natural choice for me. I am very at home on the Internet, having taken various different courses and having a natural bent towards research. I also wanted to learn to write consistently, with discipline. And I wanted to explore the world of photography.

My blog reading is done mainly in the morning, with some afternoon surfing. I try and find new blogs (to me) with the same interests I have, and try and extend my audience that way, as well as contacting and getting to know some wonderful people! And, no matter how busy life gets, I try and keep up with the great friends I have already made, just by blogging. I have huge gratitude for their support.

When I first started blogging, I knew nothing about it. Nothing. It took awhile to even understand how to publish, how to load photos, how to…the list goes on. I didn’t know about comments, etc., I didn’t know there were groups you could join. And then, one day, I heard Blog Village mentioned... I think it may even have been the Google help group, lol, a group I have had many occasions to visit!

My blog is a personal one. After all those rejections from editors, after all their suggestions to change my writing to more acceptable topics, I decided I was going to write what the muse wanted to. And so I did.

I only maintain one blog. I have others; they are still in the starting phases, where they will probably remain. I admire the people who have more than one blog; I just do not have time.

I usually try to post two or three times a week; it is a release and an outlet for my creativity. My writing is not for everyone; I wouldn’t expect it to be. But I try and project peace and serenity, I try and work out the happenings around me. I try and share any wisdom I may have learned, or am learning.

The sites on Blog Village are always entertaining. In my opinion, it is a great collection of different viewpoints; my site feels at home here. I enjoy it every day.

Now I get to pick another Blog Villager ... ta daaaa! I would love to hear about Tea, from Tea and Margaritas in my Garden!

All you need to do is read one of Marion posts to see her passion for life, to see how deeply she feels about the world around her. She has a unique way of writing and expressing life as she sees it. Read her Valentine’s Day post “Fury” to see what I mean and stop by to wish her a Happy Birthday. Her birthday is in February sometime! ~ Janey Loree


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

STEVE (Just Your Average Revolutionary), Our FEATURED VILLAGER

Janey Loree: Who is Steve Bremner? Tell us more about Just your average revolutionary!

Steve: Steve Bremner is a 25 year old missionary to the Netherlands. I was saved around the age of 15, and grew up in a brethren church. I then went on to a charismatic Bible school, originally located in Pensacola, FL, which had been birthed out of the Brownsville Revival. Some time after graduating I made my way over to the Netherlands as a missionary. My heritage in the Plymouth Brethren background, coupled with my charismatic experience in my early twenties and to date, really make an interesting mix, I believe. Click here for my three part testimony

Steve Bremner is someone who hates traditional "church" as we know it, and someone who wants to see God's kingdom invade this earth and shake everything that can be shaken--including and specifically the Church. And, specifically, to see restored to the Body of Christ the things God's word tells us are ours, that are sadly lacking, such as the supernatural and miraculous.

I'm a revolutionary because the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and I'm a disciple of King Jesus, who rules a kingdom out of this world and in authority above this earthly realm's kingdom. I'm average just like anybody else in that this is not my own identity, but His. He takes the weak things of this world, and the unwise things of this world, and makes something big with them and uses people like you and me to do it. He's in the habit of using average revolutionaries like us. That and I've been too uncreative and lazy to come up with a new title for the blog, and I think it has a nice ring to it the way it is.

Janey Loree: What prompted you to start blogging in the first place?

Steve: I heard about blogging from two different people independently of each other. One was a missionary in Germany, the other was someone on my MSN chat list, and when I clicked on hers, I found an online journal, and immediately decided to start my own. I felt like I had things to say and ideas to share that other people aren't necessarily preaching about or sharing in theirs.

I feel one of my giftings is that of a teacher, and I'm studying the Word a lot, and feel like I'm constantly finding awesome nuggets of truth that I need to share with somebody, somewhere! So for me my blog was the perfect outlet for such expression, but I didn't know what "image" or "personality" I wanted to give my blog at first, and upon deciding to start one, I had no idea how to get it rolling.

In the summer of 2004, the Lord dramatically healed my mom of fibromyalgia, and I posted the testimony in an e-mail and sent it to my entire e-address book, and then decided to copy and paste it as my first written entry. Given the fact that most of my circle of Christian influence in Peterborough (the city in Canada where I'm from) was from a conservative evangelical or brethren background at that time, in all likelihood many of them would read or visit my blog if given the link. I know I have the respect of a good number of the people from my church upbringing, but who are closed to the things of the Holy Spirit, so I decided I'd use this blog as a place to study and teach on subjects strongly lacking in the non-charismatic circles of Christians, and that many of my friends might not otherwise learn or come across, if not for someone "from their midst" teaching on it and not being weird.

Janey Loree: When do you do your blog reading?

Steve: Randomly. I have a list of blogs, either that I've discovered or that belong to friends of mine, and maybe in the course of my day, I'll go through my bookmarks and catch up on them, and if few people have written much, then I can read all the blogs I frequent in a day. However, it probably takes me an average of one week to read all the blogs I bookmark.

Janey Loree: Where did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?

Steve: I'm not sure how long ago it was, but I was getting comments on my blog from someone using the sign-in name "Dirty Butter", always encouraging me, and always leaving positive comments about how something I wrote challenged her or blessed her. It was either in email or in a comment that she asked me to join Blog Village, and explained the purpose of the site, and I'm all for joining sites if it might introduce me to people who may enjoy or benefit from anything I have to write. And the rest is history, and here I am filling out questions like this for it!

Janey Loree: Why do you blog? Is your blog personal, business, etc?

Steve: My blog serves as a perpetual newsletter for those wanting to stay in touch with me, and as I began to say earlier, I find blogging to be an outlet--a FREE one at that--that I can share my thoughts and post what I burn for, knowing that the only people who will read it are the people who want to be impacted by it. I find it also can be an extension of my ministry and my monthly newsletters, in that while I'm not physically in Holland, I can still teach and write things that will impact the Dutch people I am involved with who will read it while I'm away. Same with Canadians and Americans while I'm in Holland--just the concept that I can impact lives without being present is awesome! My blog writings can go places that I can't. So in a nutshell, I blog to motivate and encourage as well as challenge others, especially saying a thing or two about lots of dumb things Christians believe. I don't want to blog just to write, but to invite change in those who read it and come across it.

It also helps for keeping people caught up with me, since I view blogs as "voluntary bulk mail". I hardly ever send forwards or junk mail to people, instead I'll post it in my blogs (sometimes, very rarely), but people can read them when they have time or the desire.

Blogs are neat little resources!

Janey Loree: How often do you post and how many blogs do you maintain?

Steve: Sometimes I'm bursting at the seams with things to post, whether they be other peoples' articles or my own studies. However, I don't write when NOT inspired to. I go through dry seasons, and I go through insanely wet seasons. But on average, I update a minimum of once a week. Given that most people have the attention span of a gust of wind, I try not to go nuts in posting too often, because I don't post anything that I don't want people to read. So if I have a lot of drafts saved up or on the go at any given moment, then I post them one or two days apart instead of all at once. I also post articles that say things better than I could.

The only blog I consistently maintain, is Just Your Average Revolutionary. When I first started this blog, one day I wrote a big fat humorous lie. I made up this story about being a missionary to the deserts of Yukon in Northern Canada. How was I supposed to know the fact it's colder the further north you go would not be obvious to everybody reading? So I had an anonymous comment from someone, puking on me for joking around on a serious blog. Even though it's my own blog to do what I want with, I did see how joking around too much could hinder peoples' ability to take me seriously when I am sharing from the Word, so I started Canadian Bacon, but it doesn't get nearly the attention from me as Just Your Average Revolutionary, but it's an outlet for other forms of creativity, especially ones lacking seriousness.

My blogging habits are that I take a lot of notes and journal things on my laptop when listening to podcasts or mp3 preachings, and sometimes I re-write the notes so as to make a blog entry of them. Also, if I am studying something in Scripture, I find I usually will post it on my blog, so I practice the habit of writing something I'd like to share with others, and of course I use the Blogger Add-on for Word. Then, next time I'm in a hotspot or something, I save it to my drafts, a few days go by and I check it again and see if I'm happy with it, and then post it, correct grammar, etc... And post it online. Other times, I post updates rather spontaneously to keep my friends up to date on the latest with me.

Another blog that originally started out of a desire to see people united from various areas of the world and denominational stances, was a Prayer Requests and Testimonies blog. The idea was having as many people as would like to, contributors to this blog, and they can go in there and post prayer requests, and share this link with other people as well who will pray for needs. Then, those involved theoretically subscribe to the feed and pray for every need requested as they show up in your subscriptions. I like the mechanism of it all, later on people could post testimonies and how those prayers were answered.

Anyone that would like to be a contributor and/or administrator of this prayer blog, and who will pray for others' requests, feel free to let me know and I'll shoot you an invitation to it. I think this is a brilliant way to get the kingdom of God impacting each other's lives, as well as making use of a tool such as blogging.

Thank you for the questions and for featuring me.

Steve

Janey Loree: Well, it looks like Steve headed back to Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, NL on Friday, January 19. In his Wednesday, January 17 post, he let his blog readers know that he will not have internet access in the apartment where he will be staying. He's continued to post, though, so he must have found a friend with internet access. Not to take away from Steve’s blog content, but if you want to know how to write January through December and the days of the week in Dutch, check out Steve’s blog!

Are You Missing a Past Villager???

You may have noticed that the number of Villagers has been fluctuating quite a bit lately. That's because I have put a number of blogs on InActive Status, because those blogs had not been updated in several months. Also, some of our past Villagers have not added the voting link back to their blogs after template changes, even though I've given them ample time to fix it. On the positive side, we had a large number of new blogs joining during our Carnival.

At one time or another, since we started back last May, we've had a total of 350 blogs on BLOG VILLAGE!!!! That's hard to believe, isn't it?

So, if you miss seeing a blog that used to be here, how about letting them know that you want them back Active on BLOG VILLAGE!

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 255 Active Villager blogs.

Our First BLOG VILLAGE Family Blog Carnival is HERE!

Thanks to all of you who entered our first Blog Carnival, and a HUGE THANK YOU to KILROY for suggesting it, and doing all the hard work on this one. PLEASE take time to visit Kilroy's The Gonzo Papers and let him know how much you appreciate all the time and effort he's put into this to make it such a great Carnival!!

For Your Success presents


It's all about Family!

Family photograph courtesy of The Family, McCune {Machione}
November, 1928

Welcome Guests!

Dirty Butter - YESTERDAY'S MEMORIES of a Bygone Time - Determine Not To Have An Only Child

Kilroy_60 - Fear And Loathing - The Gonzo Papers - A Father's Day Thought

Eric - Eric Has Issues - Mondays True Story IV

Janey Loree - Heartfelt Notes - Up With The Top Or I'm Not Going...

Barb - Skittles Place - Why I Have Gray Hair

Heather - Beautiful British Columbia - Does Your Family Smore?

Chara - Zero To Gourmet - here's to staying blue-jean ready

Red Dirt Girl - Red Dirt Girl - My Childhood Family

Sparksfley - Sparks And Butterflies - Mom

Ruth - Me, My Life, My Garden - FAMILY - A Blogvillage Goes Gonzo Post

Chelle & Chel - She Says It's Pretty Dumb - Mother-Daughter Communication

John Holland - altjiranga mitjina - Thursday Thirteen #8: Christmas Pictures

Random Encounters - Random Encounters of We - On Broadway in New York City

SweetSwede - In His Steps - Family of God

LJP - Save Save Save - AVIS Messes With Family Catch Up

Kim Banks - Blog Fabulous - Is Cooking The Secret of a Good Marriage?

CyberCelt - Texas RV Travel Blog - Do It For The Family

sarala - blogaway - Did you like your kid today?

Oh, The Joys - Oh, The Joys - Little Brother

Anthony - The Lives and Times... of Anthony McCune - Welcome Blog Villagers...to Post Number 99

Emma Noelle - Wiping Up Snot - Grandparents' Rights To The Family

jillbeth - The Broken Cup: Christian Poetry - A Child's Plea

Sue and Matthew - One Big Green Bus - The Whole Story {By Request!}

Joseph Potocny - Living With Alzheimers - What A Past 24 Hours

Eli - Almost Here - Jewels

Zorak163 - Grasshopper Ramblings - Create A Family

KBaggott - Babylune - Parenthood Can Be Danerous

Thomas Karkalas - MODUS VIDENDI - we are of the opinion that...

Crystal - Two Moms In A Blog - 13 Things I Have Learned As A Parent/Wife

Gtargirl - If Mom Had A Blog In 1942 - War Comes Home


JHSEsq. - Colloquium - Thirteen Reasons Why I Wish You Could Have Known My Father


Naomi - Diary from England - BRITISH FAMILY LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Michelle - Scribbit - Shark or Squid?

Linda - Are We There Yet? - "Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tonya - There Is A Season - Selflessness

Carla - Self Esteem Awareness Blog - Emotional Abuse and low self-esteem

Edith OSB - Monastic Musings - The Media-A Third Parent?

Maggie - Ramblings of Maggie - Dear Aunt Irma

JBruno - The Voltage Gate - The Mystery of the Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens

Jan - The Poodle And Dog Blog - Police Dog Mothers Tiger Cubs

Kerry - West Coast Women - Second Guessing Ourselves

Marsha - Family Adentures - Baby Elephant

Old Lady - Eclectic Tales - Grandmama's Muumuus

James - Points of Light - Convergence

Sheila - Alabama Kitchen Sink - Today Is A New Day

JAM - Least Significant Bits - Starting School

Dr. Richard P. Mungo - Teeth Care, Healthy Food and Dental Tourism - Saving Childhood Oral Health



Thank You to all who participated.

Registration is open now for our next event.

A Strategic Alliance invites you to join our new link exchange program; it's all about mutual benefit. We're posting and adding new links tomorrow.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 259 Villager blogs.

THURSDAY is DEADLINE for BLOG VILLAGE Family Blog Carnival Entries!!

Just a quick reminder that time is almost up to enter our BLOG VILLAGE Family Blog Carnival!


Carnival entries may be submitted NOW.

DEADLINE for entries

THIS THURSDAY, Jan. 25th, at 11:59PM EST.

For complete details


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 258 Villager blogs.

Don't Panic! It's Time to Reset the Votes to Zero!!

If you're new to BLOG VILLAGE, or to TopLists in general, you may be surprised when you take a look at our TopList tonight. Except for the Villagers who have votes since 5:01PM, all of the Villagers are back to zero. This happens each month. If you want to know when it will happen for next month, take a look at the very bottom of one of the BV pages. (You'll see the date and time of the next re-set is on Feb. 14th at 5:01PM PST.)

You will also find a link to this News blog at the bottom, and there's always a link to the newest Featured Villager after the #10 blog.


If you are interested in being Featured, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 252 Villager blogs.

We Reached 250 Villagers on our TopList Today!!

We've been hovering close to this "magic" number for some time now, as blogs were added and others were put on InActive Status or Deleted for not having the banner on their sites. But today we actually did reach the total of 250 Active members!

Those of you who have displayed your voting banner or link prominently on your blogs are, for the most part, the ones to thank for our tremendous growth since May, 2006, when we opened BLOG VILLAGE. The other reason we have been able to attract so many quality blogs is the wonderful way many of you have joined in the community feel of our TopList and showed, through your continuing comments on each other's blogs, that you really are interested in each other.

I hope that this year sees an increase in publicity for BLOG VILLAGE and for each of your blogs. I also would like to see even more participation among our Villagers as far as supporting each other's blogs. You show your support for your fellow Villagers when you comment on their posts, and when you vote for their blogs. You also contribute to the quality of BLOG VILLAGE when you post regularly on your own blog.

If you will make an effort to work toward more participation, the ultimate result will be that you will have more quality links to your blog, your traffic will increase, your readership will increase, and your Search Engine Rank will increase, too.

So, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all you Villagers who have done your part to make this one of the best blog TopLists on the Internet, and I look forward to our continued growth!!

As always, if there is anything I can do to help you achieve these goals, don't hesitate to ask. And if you have any suggestions or ideas that will help all our Villagers, please email me.

Happy Blogging to You All,

Rosemary

This is a copy of the email I sent all our BLOG VILLAGERS today.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 250 Active Villager blogs.

You Are Invited to Join BLOG VILLAGE - Our Brand New Family Friendly Blog TopList

One of the ways we have found to promote our blogs and increase traffic and readers has been through joining TopLists, where readers vote for our blogs daily to help move our banners up to the top of the list of sites.

The problem for us with these TopLists has always been that most of the blogs that get most of the votes are sites that feature a lot of skin, or use profanity or crudity in their blog titles. We tried to find a TopList we felt comfortable joining and couldn't find one, so we made one ourselves!

That's how BLOG VILLAGE was born.

Our goal is to have a full mix of all kinds of blogs - political, personal, business, hobby, all religions, all viewpoints, you name it.

Here's the only Rule:

There will be no blog titles or post titles containing profanity, or pictures of a sexual or suggestive nature.

This should make any blog on BLOG VILLAGE family friendly, so that you would not have to be concerned about anything that would pop up on the screen when clicking on any blog from our TopList.

We know there are many blogs that would qualify for our TopList, and we'd like to invite you to join us, and make our list THE place to go to find a family friendly place to surf for quality blogs. Please wait until you have been blogging for more than one month, with at least 10 posts or so, before applying.

We have added some policies about being an ACTIVE Villager, and maintaining your membership in BLOG VILLAGE. Before you apply, please read this post. If this sounds like the community you can support, then by all means, apply!


Apply HERE