Are you ready? Here are the last dozen or so tweets I’ve Twittered in the past 48 hours listed from newest to oldest.

Why am I doing this? Because there are a lot of people who aren’t interested in doing the whole Twitter thing but might find what I’ve been documenting to be interesting.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

It’s also a fabulous excuse to post something when I obviously have nothing else to share … at this time. But come on, ya’ll know me, I’ll be back up and chatting your, er, eyes off in no time, so no worries!

It’s her honesty I admire the most. RT @VelveteenMind If only we could all be so honest: http://bit.ly/q3bka @temptingmama gets real. Again.

I know we only have 140 characters, but UGH, the abbreviated “chat room” talk drives me batty. Proper Engrish, please. (yes, on purpose).

RT: @bloggingtips How To Reward Your Blog Commentators http://twurl.nl/cby53s

How Frequently Should I Change My WordPress Theme? (And/or my blog design?) http://bit.ly/f216

Kevin was summoned, but did not have to go, to jury duty. Poor guy, this is like the 505th time he’s been summoned. He’s lucky like that?

It is time to post something to my blog … I both love this time and hate this time because as of now? Brain = empty, gooey ice cream tub.

Psyched – I just discovered a $50 Amazon gift cerfiticate my parents gave to me for Christmas. Oh what to buy …. what to buy ….

Attn Writers: The Creative Carnival is coming up fast. Have you submitted? http://bit.ly/Fmp6F

Trying Sandra Lee’s Spicy Sweet Sticky Chicken wings recipe: http://bit.ly/18sU5S Will be back later with verdict.

28% of Americans interviewed last year said they’ve been spending less time w/ family. Why? Two words: Social Media. http://bit.ly/17jH9F

Let’s work on being patriots every day, not just on July 4th. The 13 folds of the American Flag: http://bit.ly/4WLFA

Dems say something off color, it’s comedy. When Reps say something off color, it’s cold. Either way, it’s insensitive. http://bit.ly/n0U49

First blog-based reality show has begun. Follow tweets @FourthFiction, find out more about program here: http://www.fourthnight.com/

(You can watch the video introduction to this program below)

We had a great night of shooting off fireworks. I sat back and watched the boys light them. Another reason to have children. *G*

VERY cool fireworks video using a variety of interesting materials.

On Twitter!
By TwitterButtons.com

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Do Christians go to heaven after they die?

The short answer? No. They remain in their graves until Christ comes back and resurrects them from the dead. How can Christ resurrect Christians if they are already alive and floating around in heaven?

No. When Christians die, the Bible says they “fall asleep.” Christians are in a state of unconsciousness until Christ returns.

(RSS READERS: I’ve posted a wonderful video that talks more about this subject in detail. Please click over to see the video. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

Where Did the Idea Originate that Believers Would Live Forever in Heaven?

The basic teaching of orthodox Christianity concerning what happens after death is that the “souls” or “spirits” of righteous people go either to “heaven” or to some other blissful place. This teaching is in error. [1] It is impossible to understand such false doctrines without understanding their spiritual causes. From as early as the Garden of Eden, the Devil and his demons have been promoting the idea that people do not really die. After God plainly told Adam that he would “surely die” if he partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Devil lied and said to Eve, “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Ever since that time, the Devil has been actively promoting this same lie wherever and whenever possible. Unfortunately, the idea that people continue living on after they die has found a fertile breeding ground in most religions, including orthodox Christianity.

The vast majority of Christian denominations teach that there is no such thing as death (if “death” is properly defined as “the total absence of life”). Instead, according to their teaching, when the body dies, the “soul,” the “real you,” goes to heaven or hell and keeps right on living either in bliss or torment. Therefore, most Christians do not believe that people actually experience “death” when their body dies. [2] It is common to go to a Christian funeral and hear the minister say, “So and so is now in heaven,” even though his dead body is in the open casket in front of everyone.

Since a major part of the Devil’s agenda was, and still is, to convince people that “you will not surely die,” it is not surprising that most Christians believe that, in some way, “you” go on living even after you die. Whether that “you” is your spirit, your soul, or some other “essence,” the bottom line is always the same—“you” are fully conscious after death and not, in fact, “dead” (i.e., without life). This belief has no basis in Scripture. God designed humans as integrated beings with a body, soul, and spirit that together make a whole individual. Adam’s body was fully formed, but just “dust” until God breathed life into it (Gen. 2:7). Adam’s “life” (whether it be called “soul” or “spirit”) had no consciousness or life of its own apart from his body. The idea that the soul or spirit is like a ghost that can separate from the body and still have consciousness and movement without the body was introduced into Judaism after the Babylonian captivity and came from there and other religions into Christianity. [3] The idea of a disembodied living soul did not come from the text of Scripture. [For further study read Gnosticism - Gnostic ideas have had an influence on Christianity.]

The belief in being alive in some form after death is contrary to the revelation of the Bible. According to the Bible, a person who dies is dead until he or she is raised to life by the Lord Jesus and made to stand at one of the judgments. That is why the Bible speaks of a “day,” or time, of judgment, rather than an ongoing judgment occurring when people die. Revelation 20:4–6 speaks of some of the dead “coming to life” to reign with Christ, while others do not yet come to life. Revelation 20:13 states that the sea and the grave will give up the “dead” who are in them so they can be judged. If people are judged when they die and consigned either to heaven or hell, then there is no reason to get them up from the dead for “a day of judgment.” Why drag someone out of heaven or hell and judge him again if he had already been judged at the time of his death?

Once the religions of the world accepted the idea that the “soul” or “spirit” did not die when the body died, the next step was to determine its post-mortem address, in other words, where does the soul live after the body dies? The answers vary from religion to religion, but there are some similarities. A study of the various religions of the world shows that it was, and still is, very common to believe that “good” people go either to the abode of the gods (sometimes called “heaven”), or to some wonderful place on earth, while evil people go to a place of punishment or torment. These beliefs eventually found their way into both Judaism and Christianity. In The Early History of Heaven, J. Edward Wright addresses the biblical conception of what happens to the dead:

Two verses from the Book of Psalms summarize the biblical conceptions of the afterlife and of humans’ place in the heavenly realm: “Heaven is Yahweh’s heaven, but the earth he has given to humans. The dead do not praise Yahweh, nor all those who go down to silence” (Psalm 115:16–17). These verses pointedly indicate what the biblical tradents thought about humanity’s place in the heavenly realm—they have no place there! [4]

Wright goes on to point out that both Judaism and Christianity adopted ideas of the afterlife from the culture surrounding them:

In the fifth century BCE, belief in a heavenly afterlife developed and spread across the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East [Emphasis added]. Segments in Judaism and Christianity eventually adopted the belief that humans could have a place in the heavenly realm…The emerging Jewish conceptions of the universe and the ideas about what happens to a person after death were not the natural outgrowth of biblical religiosity but were the product of the fruitful interaction of the ancient biblical traditions with new trends in religion and science during the Greco-Roman period. Early Christianity…inherited aspects of both the biblical traditions and the newer Hellenistic expressions of Judaism. [5]

It is noteworthy that belief in a “heavenly” afterlife, as opposed to an “earthly” or “nether-worldly” afterlife, spread after the death of Malachi, the last of the writing prophets. After his death, there were few people left who could oppose the incursion of false doctrine into Judaism. Josephus, a writer and historian who lived in the first century, wrote about the Essenes. They were one of the Jewish sects of his time and the authors of many of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From Josephus’ writing it is clear that they believed, as did the Greeks, that the physical body was not a blessing at all but rather more like a prison and that the soul rejoiced when it was freed by the death of the body. Furthermore, after being freed, the soul went up to heaven.

For their doctrine is this: that bodies are corruptible and that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the souls are immortal and continue forever; and that they come out of the most subtle air, and are united to their bodies as in prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free from the bonds of flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward. [6]

Historical texts reveal that this type of misinformation about the Hope and everlasting life circulating in the culture of biblical times influenced both the Jews and the early Christians. Historical texts reveal that both the Jews and the early Christians had various ideas about the eternal future. Unfortunately, the biblical texts were often misunderstood and also often ignored as the source of ultimate authority, just as they are today.

Read the rest of the article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here, it’s up to you to accept, or deny, it).

Nanny’s death has opened a door on a subject that I’ve been wanting to talk about for quite some time. It’s something that weighs heavily on my heart and it’s another one of those subjects that I feel compelled to talk about.

It’s a potentially explosive subject because so many people believe a certain way and what I’m about to propose goes against that belief. But hear me out. I’m quite confident I can backup my claims. And I pray the information blesses you in the fact that it helps you understand God and His plan for us a little better. God was never meant to be a mystery – but over time, through misunderstandings and Greek mythology, He has become a mystery to many.

I would also like to say, upfront and quite clearly, that I will not debate this subject with you. I’m not a theologian. However, I am quite confident that I can provide materials that will help you further understand my claims and if you’re willing to learn more about it, will help you become a stronger Christian.

I will leave the comment section open, but I reserve the right to delete any comments that do not make sense or get abusive in any way. As long as you have something relevant and cohesive to add to the discussion, then comment away. Remember, in essence, we’re all in the same belief boat, but there are some very important distinctions that should be brought to attention.

What happens after we die is certainly one of those important distinctions.

Death is an enemy. Death is not to be embraced. Death is not to be celebrated. When you’re dead, you can’t talk to, and/or influence, people to live a Godly life. When you’re dead, you’re dead. The Bible calls it “falling asleep.”

You don’t go to heaven when you die. You don’t go anywhere when you die. Your soul (which is breath life), leaves you. You become an empty shell, just a body. Your spirit (which is the gift from God when you become a Christian) is your ticket to ever lasting life.

When you die, you’re dead. If you’re a Christian, then you have the hope of being raised from the dead when Christ comes back for you. Hence, a big reason why it’s important to become a Christian.

It’s also another reason to fully embrace life and treat it as something precious and special. When you believe that you go to heaven after you die, it somehow cheapens life, makes it secondary, and that’s simply not the truth.

I realize my saying this goes against the common, and fierce, belief that people go to heaven when they die. But that fallacy was started by a Greek myth – the Bible does not say you go to heaven when you die. It makes heavenly references but the only heaven humans will ever see is heaven on earth – or as the Bible calls it, “paradise on earth.”

And that happens when Christ returns and we, as Christian soldiers, defeat evil once and for all.

Before you start arguing with me on this point, please note that this post is not intended to argue the validity of my claim. I will post many, many, MANY articles and videos in the upcoming Sunday teaching sessions from the Truth or Tradition website that will clearly backup what I claim. In fact, stick around, I will be posting excerpts from the first round of Truth or Tradition articles and videos shortly. They can explain this in-depth subject WAAAY better than I ever could.

This post is about the death reference I made in another entry — I feel like it deserves a more in-depth discussion than just a passing sentence or two in a vacation post.

Though we had a great vacation (as I’m sure ya’ll are sick of hearing about at this point), it was definitely peppered with sadness and guilt.

Yes, guilt.

Five people died this past week.

1. We heard about Farrah Fawcett’s death shortly before we left. This announcement was expected as the poor woman had been battling cancer for quite some time. I pitied the woman. Not only because of her cancer, but because she seemingly got more and more wacky over the years. Perhaps her behavioral changes can be blamed on her cancer treatments, I don’t know. But it got to the point where I could barely stomach watching her speak – she just seemed so …. sad, spacey and child like.

2. Ed Mcmahon died. Does anyone even know that? Poor Ed had the misfortune to die, of a ripe old age of 86 I might add, right around the same time as another celebrity and has completely been forgotten because of it. Poor Ed. I was saddened to hear of his passing – I remember watching him every night on the Johnny Carson show because yes, I’m THAT old and laughing at his goofy side-kick antics. I’m glad the man had lived a long life.

3. Michael Jackson – We were flipping through TV stations in our cabin one night when we got wind that MJ was gravelly ill and had been taken to the hospital. The next time we heard anything about him, he had passed away. We were shocked, as was the rest of the world. It’s always hard to digest something this sudden and this tragic. And it was certainly sad, but we weren’t devastated like a large portion of the population apparently is.

I’ve largely ignored all of the media hype surrounding MJ’s death. Well, to be perfectly honest, I pretty much ignore all media hype because that’s what it is, hype, a calculated method of getting ratings. It’s disgusting. But that’s neither here nor there. So the fact that MJ’s death is dominating the news right now doesn’t surprise me one bit – it’s popular, it’ll help ratings and it helps distract people from what’s really important – say, what’s going on with our government and our country right now.

In fact, I found a post on Sacred and Profane that sums my feelings up about Michael Jackson’s death perfectly.

It’s sad whenever ANYONE dies. Unfortunately (or fortunately), life goes on.

4. We learned of Billy Mays’ sudden death in the Miami airport. We had purchased an Internet “day” pass and Dude was checking his forums when an announcement about Billy Mays’ death caught his attention. I immediately suggested that it was probably a hoax and we Googled for a more reputable source.

It was indeed true. And yet another shock – so many dying in one week!

5. But the truly shocking part of this week came Thursday night while we were in our cabin. I was positioning the boys in order to take a picture of the latest towel animal (as you can see, they were in high spirits) and Kevin was calling our voice mail to see if there were any messages.

Look past the boys silliness and see Kevin in the background on his phone?

That’s when we found out that Nanny had died.

Nanny is Kevin’s grandmother. She was 86 (?) and her health had been failing her for a number of years. Apparently, she overdosed on her medication – she had been on 30 different types of drugs at the time – and had a stroke.

She lost consciousness and never woke up. She passed away Tuesday, June 23rd. We didn’t know about it until Thursday, June 25th. We were in Mexico at the time and we didn’t quite know what to do. Should we fly back for the funeral which was scheduled for that Saturday? We were on the tiny island of Cozumel and we felt … stuck.

Kevin and I agonized over what to do. In the end, we decided not to do anything. Nanny was gone and she would have wanted us to just stay put.

We feel guilty for missing her funeral. However, I was a bit relieved that we did because we would have had to sit through a “don’t be sad, Edith is in heaven now” sermon and well, she’s not. She’s asleep in her grave awaiting the return of Christ. (More on this later).

We didn’t tell the boys. They were having such a good time we didn’t want to dampen their spirits. Especially since we couldn’t DO anything about it.

The boys found out about Nanny’s death at the Miami airport through a message that Kevin had received from his sister on Facebook.

They were shocked and numb the rest of the trip home.

Even though we were all braced for her death because of her failing health, the fact that she went so suddenly and never woke up was still a shock.

We never had a chance to say goodbye. Even though Kevin had been over to her house the previous week to take her son (who is mentally challenged) to a car show. Only, he had his facts wrong and the car show wasn’t scheduled for that day, so Kevin had a chance to sit and have a chat with his grandmother.

We believe that was God’s way of allowing him to say goodbye to her.

We went to visit her grave the day after we returned (we got into town very late). It wasn’t hard to find her, it was the freshest grave in the area. We were all silent and lost in our own thoughts as we looked down upon her resting spot.

The boys, nor Kevin, ever cried, but they did tear up. Me? I just stared, dry-eyed and a bit shocked by everything. I think I’m still numb. I honestly don’t think it’s hit me yet.

When my mom’s mom passed away, I cried, hard. I cried because I would miss my grandmother, but I cried mostly for my mother. I could see how much she was hurting and my heart broke for her. I’ve never been able to handle seeing my mother in any sort of distress.

Sometimes I wonder at my reaction to death. I’m sad, of course, but it’s like I distance myself from it. It doesn’t seem quite …… real to me. I honestly can’t explain it any better than that. I KNOW my loved ones are gone, but still, it just doesn’t seem real.

It’s the oddest feeling.

I honestly think that’s the biggest reason I haven’t allowed myself to get too close to my family – because I’m unconsciously shielding my heart for the day they pass away. I think it’s a survival mechanism and though on the surface that sounds fine, it bothers me. I think it somehow makes me … less human. Definitely cold-hearted.

And it proves something I’ve suspected for a long time – I really do think I’m a hard-hearted person and that realization bothers me on so many levels.

We will always remember Edith for her kindness and willingness to care for children. She was amazing with kids. I’ll never forget how she stepped up and offered to watch Dude when he was a baby so I could continue working. She was so good with him. Dude came home on a monitor (he was a preemie and had sleep apnea, a condition quite common to premature babies) and though others were nervous having to deal with his special needs, she never batted an eye. In fact, she always had a full report for me whenever I picked him up.

Fed him at 10:10, 1:30 and 4:20.
Pooped three times – all normal stools.
Slept three hours
Monitor went off once, false alarm.

And so on.

I used to get a little annoyed at her efficiency, but I always appreciated her efforts and it made me feel like I hadn’t missed so much of his day and it eased my guilt of being away from him just a bit more.

I ended up quitting my job when Dude was about nine months old because Edith’s health wasn’t the greatest and putting my son into daycare simply wasn’t an option.

As a result of Edith watching Dude, they developed a special bond and she always had a soft spot for Dude from that point on. In addition, Edith and I would have long talks whenever I picked Dude up from work and I felt like we had also developed a special relationship.

She was a great woman.

Rest in peace, beautiful Nanny. We will see you soon.

Happy birthday, America! God bless America! America, bless God! (I thought the teacup graphic was appropriate at this time. )

Lost? You can catch up here with the precursor, part one and part two.

****

I like animals … at a distance. I’ve never been one to invite a cuddle or even interaction because well, I don’t really know why. They’re cute and fun to watch but actually having one underfoot or to care for one … uh, no thanks.

Not my thing.

So when we stumbled across a shore excursion that would bring us up close and personal with exotic birds and monkeys, well, we hesitated.

But when we weighed our excursion options, it seemed like the most attractive alternative, so, we scheduled a time to see exotic birds and monkeys.

The Carnival cruise director strongly suggested we sign up for a shore excursion. Isla Roatan, Honduras is a rather volatile, and unstable country so we were cautioned to not leave the gates beyond the pier unless we had an excursion planned. We were also cautioned not to buy anything from anyone outside the gates as it was likely illegal contraband and it would not be allowed back on the boat.

These warnings were enough to make us uneasy.

However, we met our party on the pier and loaded an air-conditioned van to drive into the bowels of the island to see Gumbalimba Park.

Once we arrived at the park, we were instructed to leave our bags on a table in a pavilion. We had to do this because the monkeys associated bags with food and would likely run off with them. Since none of us wanted to chase a monkey around the jungle to retrieve our precious belongings, we all gladly obliged.

We were also told we were not allowed to use flash when we took pictures. The flash would confuse and irritate the monkeys and put them in defensive attack mode.

Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, my camera defaults into flash mode whenever it’s turned off and then turned back on again. So, I took a picture and the flash went off. Our guide was not happy. In fact, everyone in our group was not happy, though most of them didn’t know where the flash came from and to prevent getting lynched, I also pretended not to know where the flash came from.

When the flash went off, the monkey froze, its eyes grew large and it stiffened. Actually, we all stiffened and waited with bated breath to see what would happen. Thankfully, it wasn’t currently sitting on someone’s head but on a vine, which might have made a difference to its reaction.

But after several long seconds, it simply went back to being … a monkey. And we all went back to being … skittish tourists.

I nearly fainted from relief. How embarrassing would it have been to be involved in a gruesome monkey attack that I carelessly started?! I endured several dirty looks, but, thankfully, everyone’s attention soon turned back to the monkeys.

Whew.

To coax the monkey to climb on people, the guide placed a sunflower seed on top of the person’s head. The monkey would then scurry up the person’s body, or jump onto the person’s head, and forage around in his/her hair until it found the seed. This allowed us an opportunity to take close-up pictures of the animals, hence the reason you see several strangers with a monkey on their heads in the slideshow.

None of us volunteered our head – we were just content to watch, but I have to say this, they were awfully cute to watch. Their jerky movements and their sheer innocence was fascinating. They also had a two-month old baby, which you can see clinging to its mother’s back in a few slides and we all kept a respective distance from the momma.

We mothers KNOW about that protective instinct.

But it was really cool because apparently, that was the first time they had had a baby born in the park, so the tiny monkey was a big deal.

Even though I never had a monkey on my head (as opposed to my back – haha), I had one monkey scurry through my legs and I felt it’s silky soft fur against my skin.

That was close enough, thank you very much.

The brightly-colored parrots nonchalantly walked among us. They were intent on picking at the fallen sunflower seed shells that the monkeys dropped so they completely ignored us humans.

At various intervals during the excursion, we would hear this zipping/rope sound. When we looked up, we saw tourists from another excursion riding a zip line over the jungle trees. I thought that particular excursion sounded fun, but I couldn’t get the guys interested in it.

After the monkeys, we walked through an area that contained several large cages of macaws. There’s a picture of Kevin allowing one to sit on his shoulder. I refused because I had seen another bird on another man’s shoulder poop on him and I wasn’t particularly excited about spending the rest of the day with warm poop on MY shoulder.

After we finished with the animals, we waited our turn to walk across this rope bridge. Actually, it was quite safe, it was held with strong cable, but it crossed over a lake and it swayed from side-to-side enough that it was enough to freak me out. I was even more freaked out when Kevin, who was ahead of me and Dude, turned around to take pictures and nearly tossed himself into the lake below. Even though our guide told us that they had yet to rescue a tourist from the water, that didn’t mean there couldn’t be a first time.

I seriously sprouted three more gray hairs from that experience alone.

When our tour was over and we were deposited at the pier, we noticed several armed soldiers patrolling the gates. Kevin was stupid brave enough to venture closer and a few of the soldiers tensed.

That was enough to send us scurrying back to the boat.

Coincidentally, the day after our visit, the Honduran President was kidnapped by their military.

We look pretty rough in the following pictures. It was h..h..hot over there – it was close to 100 and 98% humidity. Since we were in the jungle, there wasn’t a breeze, so the air was heavy and sticky.

Please excuse my sopping self.

You can see a larger version of this slideshow here.

(RSS Readers: I had to insert the slide shows using Vodpod. As a result, the slide shows won’t show up in your readers. Please click over to view. Sorry about that!)

ø There’s a picture of jungle foliage – if you look closely, you can see that rope bridge I talked about in the background.

ø The next picture is a group of people bent over a plant. I don’t remember the name of the plant, but once you touched it, it wilted in your fingers and died instantly. There’s a picture of Kevin bent over and touching the plant,too.

ø Our tour guide was awesome. So nice and funny. There’s a picture of him with small dark pink flowers in his hand. He gave those flowers to all the ladies and if you look closely, you can see mine in a lot of the pictures.

ø The thorny tree bark – it was called “Monkeys Don’t Climb” trees because monkeys don’t like the thorny texture and stay far away from those types of trees.

ø We did end the tour walking through a man-made cave. There they told the story of one of their more infamous pirates discovering the island and a few tall tales of his adventures.

Overall, our tour was a bit disappointing, at least to Kevin. It was all manufactured – the monkeys had been brought over and then the man-made cave. But it was still a fun excursion because it took us places we never would have seen otherwise.

Here’s a short video Kevin took on the pier.

Isla Roatan was certainly different and we’ll likely never choose to go back there, but I’m glad we had the opportunity to see this small, and volatile, part of the world.

Next up — seeing a third world country, up close and very personal.

Seven Quick Takes Friday is hosted at Conversion Diary.

Let’s get started …

I just read about a new widget the WordPress.com team put together called “Social Vibe.” In essence, here is how it works:

From the WordPress.com blog: You spend a lot of time creating great content and attracting an audience for your blog. What if you could use that influence to make a positive social impact? Now you can.

We’ve teamed up with SocialVibe, and now by adding the SocialVibe widget to your blog, you are able to earn donations for the charity of your choice by getting sponsored by a brand that appeals to you.

Each time someone visits your blog and engages with your brand (by rating a video, for example), you’re making a difference. That impact is immediately visible on your badge, i..e., ‘My blog has provided 63 cups of clean water for people in need.’

I’m not exactly sure how this works yet, I’m still researching it, but I like the overall concept. Personally, I really dig blogging for charities – blogging is such a self-indulgent activity that it’s nice to be able to give a little of myself, of my life experiences, back to the community in some small way.

However, when I looked over the list of charities that are currently participating in Social Vibe, I was disturbed to see that PETA currently has WAY more donations than say, charities geared toward children.

(Sorry this is so pixelated).

The fact that people put way more thought, energy and effort into saving animals – that were created and put on this earth for man, I might add – instead of investing in our future, which is our children for the confused, really says a lot about our sad and twisted society as a whole.

Placing more value on animals instead of on children angers and disgusts me on so many levels.

Speaking of blogging for charity …

The 2009 Blog-a-thon begins July 25th!

The blog-a-thon, in a nutshell, is blogging 24 straight hours for a charity. Bloggers provide both entertainment and information in articles posted every 30 minutes for 24 hours to try and entice readers to donate money and/or time to their showcased charity.

I’ve participated in the blog-a-thon for the past two years – in ‘07 I was part of the Write Anything (back then it was called Write Stuff) ‘thon and last year, I did the ‘thon all on my own because the blog-a-thon site wasn’t participating last year.

I plan on continuing the tradition year after year, with or without the official blog-a-thon website because I think it’s important to bring attention to, and remind people, that giving back to the community is important. We all get so wrapped up in our lives and stingy with our time, that I think it’s crucial to stop the craziness and donate our time and talents to those that truly need it.

I’m also pretty passionate about donating time and attention to local charities – both in our communities and in our country, in general. Sure, it’s great to go overseas and help those in third world countries and it’s honorable to financially give to these worthy charities, but I think it’s EQUALLY important to turn our attention to those in need on our own soil, too.

Participating in the blog-a-thon is also a great way to distract you from the fact that you didn’t go to BlogHer.

If you’re participating in the ‘thon, please leave a comment so we can keep each other awake! I can use all the support I can get. I haven’t decided on which charity to support yet – I’m seriously thinking of doing something a little different (I know, big shocker there) and actually talk about ALL of the charities in my community just to raise awareness.

Speaking of BlogHer …

Let the blog wars commence.

*sigh* Seriously. Why do we feel compelled to put each other down, or step on each other in order to try and make ourselves more important in this self-imposed blog-o-sphere hierarchy? I honestly don’t understand the b*tchy posts that have cropped up in the last week or so.

It’s a blogging conference, folks. It’s not the academy awards. No one is going to remember, or care, when this thing is over. You might be a celebrity for a day. You’ll still have to go back to your regular life after it’s over and guess what? The sphere is a vast and dare I say empty place to live. It’s big enough for all of us. We all have different and unique voices. We all have different reasons for doing what we’re doing. We have different ways of doing what we’re doing.

Get over it.

The trick is to find those bloggers we care to be around. If you don’t like someone, or like what someone is doing, place your index finger over your mouse button and *gasp* click away.

It really IS that easy.

I personally have no interest in turning my blog into anything other than it is – a place to dump my boring, mundane thoughts. I’m not interested in SEO rankings. I’m not into placing ads in my sidebar. I could care less about accepting products to review. This is what I feel and who I am.

Because of this, I will never attend a blogging conference like BlogHer because it doesn’t offer anything that I want. If there is ever any sort of organization where the sole purpose is to get together and meet each other, without all of this added pressure of trying to make more money or be better in Google rankings than my blogging peers, then I’ll be the first one to sign up.

But as it stands now? No thanks.

If you go, great. I hope your expectations are met. If you don’t, then leave the ones who choose to go alone. We’re all supposed to be adults here, let’s act like adults.

And for those going to BlogHer? Have fun! We’ll see you when you get back.

If you’re a creative writer, then you’ll appreciate this next part:

I’d like to take a moment to share this awesome button that Dale made over at Write Anything.

Cool, right??

Please feel free to steal this button and put it on your blog/website. Please link the button to this URL: http://writeanything.wordpress.com.

Oh, and if you’re looking to stretch your creative writing muscles, then check out today’s [Fiction] Friday prompt.

Here’s a cool badge you can put on your [Fiction] Friday article, if you want:

There’s quite a community going on over there. Check it out when you have a few minutes!

One of my Twitter friends, @oliveshoot, pointed this nifty tool out the other day:

It’s called “Print Friendly” and in essence, it turns your blog posts into a PDF file. What’s cool about this is that you can delete any portions of the post you want to before printing so you don’t end up with a page full of ads or anything else cluttering up the content.

You can see an example of how it works by clicking on the green “print friendly” button at the end of this post and then typing in http://writefromkaren.com in the URL space.

Pretty cool tool. I don’t know when you would ever WANT to print off a blog post, but I’ve had some people say that they wanted to print off a few of my articles before so … you never know. The point is, it’s AN OPTION – it’s there if you ever need it.

Speaking of Twitter links …

Another Twitter friend, @brianspaeth, tweeted about a new Flickr Twitter app that allows you to post a picture you’ve posted to Flickr onto Twitter. It’s called “Twitter Your Flickr.”

You access it by clicking on the “Blog This” feature in Flickr. If you’re not a Flickr user, then that probably doesn’t make sense to you, but I’ve set it up and tested it and it works great.

Here’s an example of how it works:

I like to pretend I know what I’m doing. http://flic.kr/p/6AQ6DY

And by the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: http://twitter.com/writefromkaren. I’m ALWAYS on and ALWAYS updating so follow me and let’s chat!

And lastly …

Every Wednesday, Nicki, from Birthplace of the Process of Illogical Logic, posts Humpday Hilarities. She passes on jokes she’s received from friends and family and they never fail to make me laugh.

Here are few that really tickled my funny bone this week:

First Degree

A married couple were asleep when the phone rang at 2 in the morning. The wife (undoubtedly blonde) picked up the phone, listened a moment and said, ‘How should I know, that’s 200 miles from here!’ and hung up.

The husband said, ‘Who was that?’ The wife said, ‘I don’t know, some woman wanting to know if the coast is clear.’

Get it? Read it again, it’ll come to you.

And this one:

DaVinci Code

Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols:

It was considered a unique find and the writings were said to be at least three thousand years old!

The piece of stone was removed, brought to the museum, and archaeologists from around the world came to study the ancient symbols. They held a huge meeting after months of conferences to discuss the meaning of the markings.

The president of the society pointed to first drawing and said: “This is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them.”

“Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the earth and food didn’t grow, they seek food from the sea. The last symbol appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews.”

The audience applauded enthusiastically.

Then a little old Jewish man stood up in the back of the room and said, “Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left. It says: Holy Mackerel, Dig the Ass on that Chick.”

ROFL!! Love this one! It’s a prime example of how we take everything soooo seriously.

Anyway, I hope your Friday is going well. More vacation pictures will be posted tomorrow!