AOL Journals: Magic Smoke

3:30:09 PM EDT

Hi Everyone!

I'm Beth, and I'm very excited and honored to be this week's Guest Editor. A big thank you to Vish and Magic Smoke for giving me such a great opportunity!  

My journal is called Nutwood Junction, which is what my husband Ken and I call our place. (Ken was recently a guest editor pick, but at the risk of nepotism, I'm going to sneak in his link!) In the early 1900's, the land was part of a tiny little town called Nutwood, and railroad tracks ran through our property...thus, Nutwood Junction! We have 11 acres, and we've found our dream home here. We enjoy our yard, woods, and wetlands, as well as the various critters we encounter. You'll see lots of pictures and read many adventures concerning Nutwood at my journal, and you just might read a few of my opinions about everything from football to politics. (For those of you who already read me...STOP LAUGHING!) After almost 25 years of working as a Medical Technologist, most of the time as a Microbiologist, I recently retired, and I'm loving it! I love watching birds, and since our place has such different types of habitat, we see a wide variety of species.

We have one critter of the indoor variety, our cat, Sheeba. He doesn't have a journal yet, but as soon as he learns to type, watch out J-Land! That whole lack of opposable thumbs is a bit of a hindrance to him.

There are a lot of journals that I enjoy, but I've tried to narrow it down to a handful--not an easy task! I haven't listed any private journals, and I've tried not to include any that have been chosen more than once before, although since I've only been blogging for about a year and a half, there may be some that I missed from before. So here we go.

After a long absence, The Wildcat's Lair has returned. Huzzah! I stumbled across this one day and spent the next two hours or so reading and viewing the adventures of Wildcat (Bill) and his cat, Frank. Bill took a hiatus to work on his book as well as a book he's writing with his wife, so wish them luck in finding a publisher! Wildcat and Frank have returned for twice-weekly episodes, and I'm as happy as a little girl. I'm certain that if all cats could talk, they would sound a lot like the sarcastic and smart-alecky Frank.

While she doesn't post on My Thoughts as often as I wish, Myra has insightful and thought-provoking entries. Her beautiful entry on Earth Day reinforced my feeling that we are all in this together, and that we all owe our planet much more respect than we've given it lately. And when it's dark and cold here in Indiana, her entries about living in Arizona give me a little vicarious warmth.

If you've read me in the past, you know that I'm partial to Dr. Will Miller, who is an unlikely combination of psychologist, minister, motivational speaker, and stand-up comedian. In addition to his usual blog (not an AOL journal), he also has his Refrigerator Rights blog, focusing on his book of the same name. As I have recently joined the ranks of the retired, his message of connecting with friends and family really speaks to me. How many people have unspoken rights to reach into our fridge for a cool beverage without asking permission? How many people do we feel that same level of comfort with? Dr. Will is the main contributor, but various colleagues provide additional viewpoints, and it always gives me something to think about, and is a nice reminder of the importance of human connections.

If I'm not mistaken, Sheria and her journal On My Mind have been listed before, but it really is one of my favorites to read, so I wanted to include her again. Her wonderfully intelligent entries are at turns introspective and knee-slappingly hilarious. It's a rare thing to find someone with whom you feel an almost immediate connection, but that's how I feel about Sheria. (Indigo was the one who told me I might enjoy Sheria's journal, so that should give you and idea of how good it is. Did you notice how I snuck in another link there?) Sheria doesn't live in Georgia, but she's still a peach!  

One I've started reading fairly recently is Pat's Roses Rambling. She intersperses her poetry with entries about her family and her experiences. These entries are beautifully written, and they never fail to touch me, sometimes because of their sweetness and other times because of their humor. Be sure to read her entry about her encounter with Vincent Price. It is...well, priceless!

Finally, there's another non-AOL blog that I read, but this one is not for the faint of heart. In the interest of self-censorship, I'm not providing the link here. If you want to read a completely uncensored view of Las Vegas, drop me an email and I'll send you the link--as well as my mini-review of the blog.

Happy reading!

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10:51:24 AM EDT

Spring is here & so is the color!!!  So Our Challenge this week is easy.....
LANDSCAPES in COLOR!  FOLLOW GUIDELINES & you must leave permalinks.  Post your NEW entry now till Friday May 16th for Judging.  If you have any questions e-mail me or Vicki. Leave your entry links on our Challenge blog.
Pick the category you would like to enter in.  If you are new, we suggest the Fun category.


What is a Landscape.????......
From AOL dictionary;
1 a : a picture representing a view of natural inland scenery b : the art of depicting such scenery

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9:22:39 AM EDT

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9:37:33 AM EDT

Hi, Val here =).  It's time for a new picture for "What's the Caption? Wednesday"!  The game was so much fun last week and we had a ball reading your Captions!!  Congratulations again to last week's winner Dawn of Carpe Diem - Seize the Day!!   As always, we will help you along with entries, so keep Magic Smoke on alerts!!  The picture will follow the rules.  Have fun!!  Val and Krissy =)              

                          

  * Krissy and I (Val) will place a picture around 9AM EST in
     Magic Smoke each Wednesday morning.

  * After the picture is posted, place a Caption you feel is
     appropriate for the picture in the Comments Section.  Please
     DO NOT email your submission or put it under any other
     Comment Sections.  We will not hunt down your submission. 
     Only submissions placed in the Comment Section under the
     picture will be eligible for judging.  If you do this as an
     entry in your blog, please return to Magic Smoke and put
     your submission in the Comments Section.

  * Only submit one Caption so others can play!! 

  * Submissions are due by Saturday 4PM EST.  Those submitted
     after this time will not be eligible for judging.

  * A panel of a few Jland judges (3 or 4) will look over the
     Captions and choose what they feel are the best 3 or 4.
     These will be posted on Sunday 9 AM EST (or when we
     can do it - sometime Sunday morning EARLY) by poll.

  * Here comes the fun part!  Where you get to participate!  You
     will be voting for your favorite Caption by poll from Sunday
     9 AM EST (or as soon as we get it posted) through Midnight
     Monday EST!!  At midnight we will check the poll and see who
     the winner is!!  Any voting after midnight will be ignored.

  * We will announce the winner on Tuesday morning with an Award
     for his/her sidebar!!

  * A new picture will appear the next morning (Wednesday) and we
     will have fun all over again!!

  *  "What's the Caption? Wednesday" is run by Krissy from
      Sometimes I Think and Valerie from There is a Season.

     
          

Tags: What's the Caption? Wednesday, caption game, word game, word games, blogplugs

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11:44:24 AM EDT
Hi, Val here.  It's time to announce the winner of "What's the Caption? Wednesday" #5!  It was another close race!  Krissy and I extend CONGRATULATIONS to Dawn of Carpe Diem - Seize the Day!!  congrats, Dawn!!  Stop by and pay her a visit and congratulate her if you are able.

We would also like to congratulate runners-up Hadonfield (hadonfield78), Paul (plittle), and Randy (woodsrnd694)!  great job, guys!!

Dawn's winning submission with this week's photo is below:

                                   
                            Boy George, The Senior Years

Here is your Award, Dawn!  Right click and save as j.peg.:

                                     

Krissy and I want to thank everyone who submitted a Caption!!   I will be posting another picture tomorrow morning for your submissions.  Congratulations again Dawn!!  Have a great day everyone!  See you tomorrow morning!  Val and Krissy =)


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10:36:21 PM EDT I've written about embedding slideshows into your blog and shown 4 different examples from other sites.

Which one do you like best out of the 4 shown? Answer the poll below, and feel free to add a comment.




Bluestring and Photoshow examples are here.

Rockyou and Slide examples are here.

--Will @ willspeaking.com


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5:10:59 PM EDT Here is the second update on adding photo slideshows to your blog.

Rockyou.com and Slide.com examples are below.   They are very similar types of slideshow creation sites - allowing you to create slideshows with lots and lots of different styles, music, themes.  For example, Rockyou has over 20 different slideshow styles.

Rockyou allows you to select Music from the list of genres, though I couldn't find one I liked.     Slide.com has a similar option, though I could not find it.   

-Will @ willspeaking.com

 

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11:37:33 AM EDT
This Challenge is a "Tribute to Mothers"  ALL mothers, one mother....any mother...Ü
Could be your sister, if she's a mother....could be your own mother, could be a portrait of yourself as a mother.
ANYTHING GOES, be creative, use whatever you want....quotes, poems.....things your mother always said.....  Stories of your mother, childhood memories....
Only one category this week, "FUN"
You have now till  THURSDAY, May 9th 7PM EST to post your tribute to your mom. Or any mom......  I will post them on Friday.
Leave your link on Our Challenge Blog.
Or copy & paste this link
http://journals.aol.com/mariebm56/aol-community-photo-challenge/entries/2008/05/04/extra-creative-challenge-tribute-to-mothers/676

PLEASE FOLLOW GUIDELINES  Ü
USE PERMALINKS!


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10:38:22 AM EDT

                  

**"What's the Caption? Wednesday" game is run by Valerie of There is a Season and Krissy of Sometimes I Think

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10:32:08 PM EDT

Hello everyone,

It's blogplugs time on a beautiful spring day. Aplologies for not posting last week (was busy with an unexpected project). Anyway, let's see what we got..

* Pam celebrated her mom's birthday by writing a poem and getting her gifts.

* Ken and Beth have discovered the joy of recycling and have made a list of "green" things to do. You can add to that list by visiting his journal.

* Krissy's husband John is feeling much better and she is making progress with OT on her shoulder. She responds to people who ask her why she does not go for surgery on her shoulder.

* Betty reminds us that the price of stamps is going up on May 12 in the US but we can stock up on the "forever" stamps which are still valid after the price hike. She is also a little overwhelmed by the upcoming move. Here is her M.O.M Monday entry about her mother's life.

* Sherry writes about her garden, insurance problems and of course her kids! She puts out her views on life and more weight loss tips.

* Christopher is on the watch for “trolls” because of some unpleasant people he met in NY.

* Gifdude is in Oklahoma on a business trip and promises to post some pics.

* Donna has taken some nice pictures of bees and birds on a bright spring day.

* Marie has some equally nice pictures of monkeys at the Bronx zoo.

* Aimer posts that the past informs our present and we must remember the sacrifices of the people before us.

* Indigo has found a solution to rehabilitate the 2 kitten litters and their mothers.

* Marie urges you to take off your shoes, even metaphorically, feel the life around you, meditate, pray, listen and know that the Spirit is in our lives.

* Robin had an Oops! moment when she visited the ladies room at a Target store. She wanted to share this video of a flock of birds flying and diving over their balcony trying to get a piece of the ducks food.

* Penlady writes a poem about Cat vs Bird, the interaction of eternal opposites.


Contests & Trivia!

* Weekly sentence with Val. This week's letters are SPLATS. The entries are here.


Lights, Camera and Action!

* Krissy's JLand Photo Shoot entries for the subject "Spring".

* Marie's AOL Community Photo Challenge, entries for the subject "Landscapes in Black & White", judged and fun.

* Krissy shares some photography tips and tricks from Kodak.

--

Thanks again for the blogplugs this week. Don't forget to tag your best entries with "blogplugs". If you want to be a Guest Editor or have some interesting (or useful) blogplugs, send your submissions to JournalsEditor@aol.com and we'll review them.

~Vish


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