Presenting Lenore ~ The Kool-Aid Flavor of the Week

I’ve been thinking about doing an award of some kind for a while, and just not known what I wanted to do.  I’ve also been wanting to do a “featured link” post every week and share the blogs that I’ve found recently.  So I thought, why not combine the two?

And so I give you:

Presenting Lenore

What’s given me the push to start this now is Lenore of Presenting Lenore’s new The International Book Blogger Mentor Program 2010.  I blogged about her initial announcement last week, and am excited to add that she’s now taking application for Mentors and Authors to share books and experience, as well as for Mentees who are outside the mailing lines to which publishers are willing to send. 

To be a mentor:

You must have an active blog that has existed as a book blog for a minimum of one year. You agree to send 2-3 books that were published with a traditional publisher in 2009 or 2010 to an overseas address (if you yourself are located overseas, you may elect to be matched up with someone from your own country, if available). Additionally you agree to look over the recipients reviews of the books and give them advice.

I can tell you that oversees postage is a little more than to send a card to your momma, but, for the most part, it’s not a bank-breaking expense.  About six or so months ago, I changed my Bookmooch preference to “will send everywhere” and was a little nervous at first, but what I’ve learned is that generally, the postage is about twice that the average domestic rate of $2.80 per book by media mail.  This means it usually costs between $5-$8 for one book and would be around $20 for a one-time shipment of 3 books that I’ve enjoyed to someone who might never be able to get their hands on a copy.  It’s an amazing chance to do something good and to make our great, big world a smaller, friendlier neighborhood.  I can’t wait to see who I’m matched with!

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Bloggiesta progress update #2

I’m still trying to figure out how to use the Google Reader sharing thinger, and if I make comments there, do they show up on the original post?  IDK… I’m trying to find a more effective way to use the blogroll without it taking up 29 inches long of blogspace.  Meghan at Medieval Bookworm has a nice little widget, why can’t I get one for mine?  *whine whine whine*

Other things I’ve done:

I updated all the links on my I Want More Kool-Aid! page.  Apparently, the BookMooch link there took you to a member’s only page, and was therefore sorta broke.  I also added my Goodreads profile, so if you want to add me on goodreads, now ya can 😉  And my facebook link is on there, too.

I removed the Giveaways page.  I’ve really been bad about keeping up with that thing anyway.  There was only ONE giveaway listed, and it was for my giveaway of Something Beyond Greatness, which was HOW LONG AGO?

***** ADD break – Since the kids came home and noticed RIGHT AWAY that I was busy and took IMMEDIATELY to fighting like cats and dogs, I put on my MP3 player and cranked it up…. Currently playing:  Mere Saath Chalte Chalte (from the Humko Deewana Kar Gaye soundtrack)

 The girls in this video are all so beautiful, and I just love this movie!  AND… It’s hard to listen to Hindi music without dancing!  Okay, back to work 🙂 ******

Okay, I cut the ARC-alanche list and pasted it over the Mt. TBR Inventory, deleting all the previous mess.  Then I added the link to my LT catalogue, and renamed the new page It’s an ARC-alanche!!  I had went through and updated the list in anticipation of focusing entirely on these books this year, and STILL I had a book that had escaped the pile… lol.  I think it’s complete now.  As I review books, I’ll add the links and strike off the completed titles.  1 down, 66 to go

And now I’ve got my challenge page updated, including the books I plan to read for each challenge so I can strike them out and link the reviews as I finish them.  I’ve retitled the page Reading is Challenging!

Yay!!  Getting soooo much done!

Okay, so one thing I need to do is to go through and check all my images to make sure they have alt titles, as MawBooks pointed out that the ALT title helps the search engines find the images, and by that, my blog 🙂

Then I’m good to go on checking out the mini-challenges, I think 😀

Emoti-CATZ and Other Silly Pet Pics

First off, I want to thank everyone for their well-wishing and concern for me while I battled the belly bugs. I am much recovered and am almost back to 100% normal again… though, still a little nervous over any bubbles or sounds my stomach makes for fear of a recurrance. I walked to the grocery store yesterday and had steak, brussel sprouts, baked potato, garlic dinner rolls and yogurt for my first real meal in nearly five days… it was delicious! :-p Invigorated by the great dinner, I went exploring for some funny pics to use on my LibraryThing Profile, and had to share some of them!

First off, the whole emoticons thing can be confusing for me. Smiley :-), Big Grin :-D, Surprise 8-O, Angry D-:, Frustrated :-S, tongue (or tasty) :-p, sick :-x, and frowny 😦 are the ones I use most often. I also have a page bookmarked with an expanded list. (Oh, I also use for meh).

As actual face-to-face conversations have been replaced or exceeded by electronic communications, we’ve lost the facial expressions and body language received from conversations in person, and even the tone of voice clues from phone chats. If I were to say, “Wow, I just love my job” you wouldn’t know if I were being genuine or sarcastic, and thus emoticons were born.

Behold! My new emoticon reference chart!

Lol…. I forgot, I 😉 a lot, too…

Some other funny pics I came across….

And since I’m The Kool-Aid Mom, a couple Kool-Aid pics…

How do you feel about emoticons? Which do you use most often?

How Weird Is That?

I am a big fan of words.  I love to read,  I love to write, and I love discovering where words and phrases come from how different people in different places use different words to describe the same thing.

This post was inspired by a question in my Friday Fill-In.  If I were a condiment, what would I be… I knew a lot of people would say ketchup or salt or pepper, so I reached back inside my brain to think of the weirdest, most off-the-wall thing I could answer and got “cheese doodle”.  What’s cheese doodle?  It’s that canned cheese people buy to spray on their crackers.

Now, I’m probably the only person to call it “cheese doodle”.  I googled “cheese doodle” and the majority of people seem to think this is a “cheese doodle”.   But I call that a cheesy poof, as in “Eric, you want some CHEESY POOFS?

But that got me thinking, what other words to I use to call things that are completely weird and different?

I’m very unusual were I live in that I call this soda. Most people around here call it “coke” or “pop”. Only 13% of the people in Indiana call it “soda. Click here to see what people call it where you live (US).

Also, I have several terms that were part of my family-language such as:
cat shit , and must turd which I always put on my weener , and for breakfast I like to eat dog nuts .

Sometimes I like to eat baloney, or boney for short, and sometimes I eat buh-log-nah, but all three taste the same. And if I really want to get fancy, I eat baloney salad. Marsh deli calls it “Sandwich Spread”.

Some oddities of language I picked up from friends, such as Ponda-gross-a and Taco Hell .

 

Moving to a small town, what I once called “Wal-mart”, has suddenly become THE Wal-mart, like it is the pinnacle of the retail world. Others around here call it Wally World, as if shopping there is a day of fun and adventure. I’m sorry, but navigating a wobbly cart through too-narrow aisles to pick over picked-over stuff, getting my heal ran over by some unruly brat whose mom can only say one phrase, “No! Stop that!” and getting stuck behind some 105 year old with a posture that causes question marks to turn green with envy is not my idea of FUN! and ADVENTURE! God forbid you go in on the 3rd of the month! That’s when the crazy money comes from the Social Security and the group homes and the looney bin have their field trips to Wally World. Oh! what FUN! what ADVENTURE! those days are.

Other quirks of language people often chuckle about are:
If something honks me off, I’ll say, “That just burns my biscuits!” I’m forever “lawning my mow”, cooking soup in a bucket , and my computer is on my table (not my actual computer table) My kids get an extra chuckle out of my “bucket” and “table” mistakes.

 

Being a Hoosier and being naturally weird anyway, there’s lots more bizarre phraseology in my repertoire, but it’s late and I’m tired. I think I’ll hit the hay, but before I do I’m gonna go get a glass of Kool-Aid.

 
By the way, this is my Kool-Aid: