Blogging Sueblimely

Chelle from "it might be love" is Spreading Christmas Cheer Online – and Off with a whole host of posts on Christmas Songs, free Christmas Printables and link love

Ching Ya from It’s my Life – It’s Now or Never is really getting into the Christmas spirit with a December of Christmas topics – including Guest Posts, Fun Clips, Music, and Games to play. She is offering to share the fun by doing a post-exchange with her. She says as a rookie blogger she realizes how even the simplest thing you do could mean a lot to another. Her challenge post is aptly titled "Do you hear what I hear?

Jayne is intermingling some old Christmas tips into her Australian History snippets on Our Great Southern Land My favorite " Great Aunt Hepzibah’s Handy Hints – When in-laws arrive unexpectantly (or invite themselves along for a feed on Chrissy Day) prepare them pigs ears; scrape and clean in boiling water, then braise in a pan. Slice into thin strips, smother the lot in sauteed onions and serve with dash of balsamic vinegar."

Jen who is Semantically Driven has joined in the spirit with
Christmas cheer and a facelift and a new red/orange/green theme with a very creative header.

Kelley in her own Magnetoboldtoo inimitable style and Burgh Baby ,who has her own brand of crazy, are challenging us to take some pics of the Christmas insanity that surrounds us and post them on Dec 20th in You want crazy? I will show you mine if you show me yours

Kim of Laketrees has given away a free portrait for Christmas drawn by her own skillful hands – Portrait of Daphne finished…..

Shinade of The Painted Veil who spreads her cheer all year long is displaying a magnificent Christmas blog theme and if I had seen her wreath image on her menu I may have chosen that instead of the bells, although I did have some fun in making my bells ring when you hover.

Trish from My Little Drummer Boys is planning to take part although her blog is on hold until she sorts out a problem with someone stealing her content. Anyway, I am always cheered when visiting her blog when I view the photos of her adorable twin boys.

Suggestions for showing your appreciation

Ching Ya is showing her appreciation of blogging friends by:

• visiting/commenting on their blogs regularly
• link love/brief review on their wonderful posts/blogs
• showing gratitude through social medias. (technorati, digg etc)

More ideas are welcomed. If you want to join in the Challenge please read Blogging Christmas Challenge for details.

Do you hear what I hear? It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and Santa Claus is coming to town. As it’s the "most wonderful time of the year" let’s spread some blogging cheer and, whatever your beliefs, remember the season’s message of goodwill to all men and the spirit of giving.

The reality is that Christmas time can be stressful, lonely and sad for many people so I am laying down a yuletide challenge to you – help make it a wonderful time of year for fellow bloggers and blog readers.

Let’s show our appreciation for those who have provided us with good reads, those who have helped us on our blogging paths, those who take the time to comment and those who have become virtual friends. Even if we do not know a blogger we can make this a time to reach out to them, established bloggers and newcomers alike. We can also show our gratitude to the non-bloggers we know who visit us. Let us spread tidings of comfort and joy in whatever way we are able.

Until Christmas I am going to show my own appreciation for those who join in with this challenge by spreading some link love. I will be posting about your ideas and recognizing those who take part. You could say that I am "making a list, and checking it twice; gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.". I am creating a special blog section for my ‘nice list’ and Christmas topics.

We can help foster the spirit of Christmas in our blogs by adding seasonal design elements. I will also be sharing some tools and resources that you can use if you want to deck your blogs "with boughs of holly" or just want to get yourself or your blog into the spirit of Christmas

The first part of my challenge is:

• Go tell it on the mountain – Pass on details of this challenge to others in whatever way you prefer – a blog post, a tweet, send to friends on Stumbleupon, by email, by posting about it on different sites … Let me know that you are taking part by leaving a comment here and/or subscribing to my updates via RSS or email.
• Let us know your ideas for fostering the spirit of Christmas and spreading Christmas wishes to your blog readers.

Those who do this will be on the top of my Christmas list.

Don’t forget to have yourself a merry little Christmas.

There is evidence that suggests unless the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reduced to below 350 parts per million, major our earth will suffer from irreversible damage. The vision of the 350.org movement is to create a global clean energy economy that is also strong enough to relieve world poverty. To do this they are endeavoring to get millions of people supporting the cause united in a “common call to action”

Blogger’s have a voice can use it to spread the word. Brighter Planet recently put out a challenge. Their aim was to get 350 bloggers displaying the 350 badge on their sites and in return they offered to offset 350 pounds of carbon in the participants names! They have achieved their goal but are carrying on with their campaign.

They liken the offset of 350 pounds of carbon to flicking off 100 lightbulbs for a day or going two weeks without your car. So let us together try to turn off thousands of lightbulbs and display the 350 badge on our sites and add our voices to the growing noise 350.org is making.

To get more details and the code for the badge visit 350.brighterplanet. To find out more about the 350 movement and how you can help in other ways visit the 350.org site

I heard about this meme from Colin of Life. He kindly made it available to anyone to pass on. I generally do not participate in memes that require long long lists of links of bloggers I do not know for just for the sake of getting links myself although I happily give link love to blogs and bloggers I do know and value. In this case the list is going to be passed on to friends and friends of friends and there is no requirement to include a huge master list as there is in some link chains.

~~Begin Copy~~

This is the easy way and the fastest way to :

1. Make your Authority Technoraty explode.

2. Increase your Google Page Rank.

3. Get more traffic to your blog.

4. Makes more new friends.

Rules :

1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog.

2. Put your own blog name and link.

3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

1. Picturing of Life 2. Juliana’s Site 3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future 4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space 5. Colin from Life 6. Sue – Blogging Sueblimely 7.Put yourself here

~~End Copy~~

I am tagging the following people but if your name is not listed please feel free to take part in the meme too. Although I am linking to particular blogs so that you get a pingback if you have more than one blog you can choose which one you want to use the meme on. If you do not want to take part I will not mind at all. The image is on Flickr so feel free to use it.

• Captain of the Lifecruiser
• Colin in his cafe
• Renny in his Terella
• Jane and her Three Ringed Circus
• Jayne in her Great Southern Land
• Lightening in her Blogworld
• Pearl and her Interesting Observations
• The Baysidemama Kylie
• The Russian Spy, Natalia
• Anyone who reads this blog.

Words of wisdom from the world’s greatest thinkers are timeless providing advice which is as relevant now as when first spoken. All of these quotes could easily be applied to blogging:

Advice for Bloggers

1. They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carl W. Buechner
2. When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. Dale Carnegie
3. Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. The ability to speak eloquently is not to be confused with having something to say. Michael P. Hart
5. My opponent can compress the most words into the fewest ideas of anyone I’ve ever known. Abraham Lincoln
6. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling
7. You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. Albert Einstein
8. I don’t let my mouth say nothin’ my head can’t stand. Louis Armstrong

Research Tips

9. First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. Epictetus
10. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. Buddha

Writing Tips

11. What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Samuel Johnson
12. Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light. Joseph Pulitzer
13. Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. Ralph Waldo Emerson
14. Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators. Albert Camus
15. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, – happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. Brenda Ueland
16. When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. Enrique Jardiel Poncela

Communication Tips

17. Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating. Joel Barish
18. The art of communication is the language of leadership. James Humes
19. Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man. Benjamin Franklin
20. Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. Ambrose Bierce
21. You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Indira Gandhi.
22. To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. Anthony Robbins
23. We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries. Harry S. Truman
24. Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacyand mutual valuing. Rollo May

Advice on Commentating

25. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
    Mother Teresa
26. To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to achieve in the art of conversation. François de la Rochefoucauld
27. What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Answer: feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication Unknown
28. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. Naguib Mahfouz
29. The greastest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. Henry David Thoreau
30. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity George Orwell.
31. You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Dale Carnegie
32. One kind word can warm three winter months. Japanese Proverb

Advice on linking

33. Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.
    Benjamin Franklin

Community Building

34. A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living. Rudolf Steiner
35. Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers. Howard Thurman
36. it’s almost impossible for people to change alone. We need to join with others who will push us in our thinking and challenge us to do things we didn’t believe ourselves capable of. Frances Moore Lappe
37. The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.” Marshall McLuhan
38. We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race. Cicero
39. The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. Frederick Buechner
40. Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. Rollo May

Bad blogging Advice

41. Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches Ashleigh Brilliant
42. Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true. Charles Dickens
43. Life is far too important a thing ever to talk about. Oscar Wilde.

To Spammers and Plagiarists

44. So far the only successful substitute for brains is silence. Unknown Author
45. Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. George Eliot
46. Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. Plato
47. Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. Samuel Johnson
48. Saying nothing…sometimes says the most. Emily Dickinson
49. Noise proves nothing, Often a hen who has laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. Mark Twain

Inspiration for this post came from Mary Anne of Maryannaville who tagged me as part of a meme started by Lauren of You Can Be A Part of My Life which asks us to choose a quote that speaks from our hearts.

As am passing this on to new bloggers I chose a quote that encourages us to keep trying.

50. What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. Dr. Samuel Johnson

The meme:

“Post a quote that speaks from and to your heart and dedicate it to at least three other bloggers.”

I am passing this on to:

• Mr V at School Spirit
• Duchess at Duchess and the Duke
• Charlichoclateeater at Charlichocolateeater’s Weblog