CYBERCELT Is Your New BLOG VILLAGE Admin!

The decision to give "my baby" to someone else did not come easily or quickly, but I came to a point where it was obvious that I needed to pass BLOG VILLAGE on to someone who would take care of our Community and help it develop. I have found that person in Eileen, aka CyberCelt. She has been a very active Villager since June of 2006. Her first entry was Texas RV Travel, and now she has several blogs on the Village.

We have been emailing each other for the last week, taking care of the many small tasks that were required to move the responsibility for BLOG VILLAGE from me to her. There are probably still a few links, etc., that we may have failed to change, so bear with us as we make the transition. Any emails I receive concerning the Village will be forwarded to Eileen.

Knowing that Eileen will care for our Village and work with you to keep BLOG VILLAGE your home in the blogosphere has made this decision a whole lot easier. I hope all of you welcome her and work with her as she works to make BLOG VILLAGE THE FAMILY FRIENDLY TopList!

So, this is the official announcement that Dirty Butter is no longer the Admin of BLOG VILLAGE. Your new admin is now officially CyberCelt.

MUCH ADO about MONEY BLOG VILLAGE Carnival ONLINE NOW!

We know you will enjoy our Family Blog Carnival - MUCH ADO about MONEY. Whether we earn it, spend it, save it, invest it, or even lose it, we all deal with money issues in our daily lives. Here's your chance to read and comment on our Villager's posts.

I've tentatively set up the April BLOG VILLAGE Carnival Host as my own Yesterday's Memories blog, since the Theme of this one will be FAMILY MEMORIES. But if some other Villager would like to host it, instead, please let me know!

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!

I Feel Like Grinch!!

Over the last few days I have deleted a large number of blogs from the Village, for not participating on the TopList. They have been warned repeatedly to click on the voting link on their blogs at least once a month, which takes them to the Gateway page, where the forum, chat and carnival links are displayed. By clicking at the bottom of that page, they see ALL the Villager's blogs. The idea is to visit these Villagers sometime during the month. If they don't care to share in the community, then there is no point in them being on the list.

I am sure that I have deleted some that I probably will regret losing, but they can apply again, if they really want to belong. Most of them are never even going to realize they are no longer a member, as they don't ever go to the TopList page, anyway.

I started to email each of them as I deleted them, but decided I did not have the time, energy, or desire to get into an argument with any of them.

So, for those of you who really participate, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And for those that I am deleting? Bah Humbug!



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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our Stick-to-it-tiveness Award Goes To JOE!

I'd like to honor JOE, author of the Living with Alzhiemers' blog, with a Stick-to-it-iveness Award for his persistance in working on his code until he finally did get the BLOG VILLAGE voting banner to show! This was not an easy task for him, and I am so proud of his dogged determination.

Why not stop by his blog, see what he has to say, and give him a virtual pat on the back, too? And now that his voting link is working, you might want to vote for him, also. I'm sure he would appreciate it.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 245 Villager blogs.

Derek Jones - Our Featured BLOG VILLAGER

Janey Loree: "Who is Derek Jones? Tell us more about Art by Derek Jones!"

DEREK JONES: "I am a professional artist living in the Scottish Borders - though I am English and have only been here for about 22 years so I am still an incomer(!) My main interest is figure drawing and painting using local amateur models. I show my figure work as far apart as Edinburgh and London and in the past in Amsterdam. I live near a working harbour and if not working with models I enjoy doing paintings of boats etc .... the colour and mess of a working harbour appeals to me - probably reminds me of my studio.

I am fascinated by techniques and at the moment am exploring the use of combining a pastel underpainting with acrylic to finish off. I am a traditional printmaker using etching, aquatint and mezzotint whereas with my figure work I am more experimental combining a mix of pastel, charcoal, collage, type, acrylic etc etc."

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

DEREK JONES: "I started blogging because I am a bit of a hermit and it seemed a good way to communicate (though I don't use many words in mine!) and blogs seemed more dynamic than traditional websites."

Janey Loree: "When do you do your blog reading?"

DEREK JONES: "I have no set routine - I usually dip into various lists of blogs to see what turns up - but my interest is usually in blogs by visual artists of one kind or another."

Janey Loree: "Where did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?"

DEREK JONES: "I noticed the Blog Village link on several blogs I had looked at and took it from there."

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

DEREK JONES: "I use the blog to keep folks in touch with my current work - if a gallery or individual shows some interest I ask them to have a look at the blog - I belong to some online gallery websites (such as this one which DOES INCLUDE NUDES so if that might offend don't look!)

http://www.untitled-gallery.co.uk/index.php?cPath=24_254 but the blog shows what is going on now."

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

DEREK JONES: "I have only one blog - http://derekjonesart.blogspot.com/. There are lots of blogs of artists showing a new painting everyday and that interested me but I do try to show a new image as they are finished - sometimes daily sometimes every few days."



Janey Loree: Derek Jones may be well known as a figure painter, however his commissioned "Boat" pieces are my favorites. With the six pieces that he shares with us, starting with "small it is !" and working through to his latest "high and dry", Derek has captured the ambience of these little boats located in the local harbours in the Scottish Borders of Great Britain! I invite you to watch Derek's blog for the next painting in a "series of faces" that he will be showing in 2007.

As fellow BLOG VILLAGER red dirt girl has already stated, "…..your work is beautiful! hazy, evocative..like re-living a dream......"

Art by Derek Jones is well worth the visit!


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 249 Villager blogs.

Blog Village - A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere

Not long ago, Kilroy60 decided to celebrate the anniversary of his blog's first year on the Internet by having a Commentathon. His goal was to reach 365 comments within a month's time, and he actually came close, with at least 311 comments.

Many of those commentors were fellow Blog Villagers. This may have a little to do with his latest post, or maybe nothing at all. Who knows with Kilroy?!?!? Anyway, I encourage you to follow the link in the title and read and comment on some of the Villagers whom the big Kilroy has chosen for his Hitchhiker's Guide.

Thanks, Kilroy60, for giving these fine blogs a featured position on your blog. Let's pay back his kindness, folks, by visiting his Guide, choosing a Villager or two, and commenting on their blogs! Kilroy is not going to be upset with you if you leave him a comment, either!!!


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 246 Villager blogs.

Get to Know the GateKeeper - Our Featured Villager

Janey Loree: "Who is The Gatekeeper? Tell us more about Pieces of Me!"

The Gatekeeper: "The Gatekeeper is a fictional character in my unpublished novel: Paragon: Swords of the Watchers. He is the keeper of the holy scrolls - recording the history of all the worlds in the universes of the Almighty One.

Thus (that's how the Gatekeeper speaks) I kept the name Gatekeeper for my blog. After all it's the pieces of my life he is recording. He also handles most of the posts at my church's blog, The Gate. How appropriate, don't you think?

Of course, when I'm not the Gatekeeper, I am known as Debby-a-stay-at-home single mom who's trying to write for a living. Christian fantasy is a hard sell but gaining popularity and I won't give up. In the meantime I'm just writing articles here and there. One story published in a local newspaper, one in the online magazine Dragons, Knights and Angels, and a devotion in The Upper Room, coming out in May, 2007.

By the way, I was born in Hollandia on the very big island known as New Guinea, just above Australia. I am the daughter of two wonderful people who survived a POW camp in WWII. There are many stories to write, and I've been interviewing my parents for a while now.

When I was two years old we were evacuated by the Americans and taken to The Netherlands - something about a war between the Dutch and Indonesians over ownership of New Guinea. If I did my research I would actually know who won that war. It wasn't my family. Time moved on and by the time I was eight I was relocated a third time. Queensland, Australia was our next stop. I almost made it through high school there but Dad was offered a pastoral position in a little church in Southern Cal. So off to the USA we flew. And here I am . . . still . . . thirty years later."

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

The Gatekeeper: "Blogging for me seemed an easy and creative way to keep in touch with family, since we are pretty much all over the planet - Indonesia, Holland, Australia, Washington, Northern Cal, Southern Cal etc. So I built it, but nobody came. My brother left a comment once. Then I thought of journaling my daily life which seemed interesting enough to me. After all, I'm a stay-at-home-single mom (now there's a story of grace) with a daughter attending Biola University and a 14-year-old son (who I home-school) making a living in Hollywood."

Janey Loree: "When do you do your blog reading?"

The Gatekeeper: "My son is on the computer for most of the day so I read blogs in the evening. Sometimes I get carried away and read some good posts till two in the morning. There are some great writers out there with interesting lives."

Janey Loree: "Where did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?"

The Gatekeeper: "You know, to be honest, I don't really remember how I heard about Blog Village. It must have been while surfing other blogs and probably clicked on someone's banner. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it."

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

The Gatekeeper: "My blog is very personal. Sometimes I write about my kids, sometimes I write about writing. I like to do book reviews, Christian movie reviews and translate Bible stories the way the Gatekeeper would tell it . . . maybe . . . if he was funny. However, I've had to revert to writing ads so I could make a few extra dollars to pay the rent - we're trying not to spend the money my son is making."

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

The Gatekeeper: "I try to post every day to keep the content fresh and hopefully interesting. The ads seem to fit in with the rest of the posts. Usually it's hard to spot when I'm posting an advertisement, but sometimes it's kind of obvious. Sometimes it's just hard to miss. Nonetheless, I've promised to keep the integrity of the blog which was meant to be a positive influence on the web.

One of my writing buddies from my writer's critique group helps me out once in a while. She likes to write devotions and also records the minutes of our meetings. She gets very creative. My main blog is Pieces of Me , but I am also the "Keeper" of my church's blog, The Gate. If you visit us there don't let anyone know my real identity. Just kidding, of course."

Janey Loree: "Which BLOG VILLAGER would you recommend for the next interview?"

The Gatekeeper: "How about we hear from the Canadian missionary in Holland, Just Your Average Revolutionary, - sounds too interesting to pass up. I never thought of Holland needing missionaries. What was I thinking?"

Janey Loree: Stop by to see how The Gatekeeper organizes the chaotic and unorganized events in her life. The Gatekeeper has a unique way of writing that, if you don't watch out, will draw you into each post! Read The Gatekeeper's book and movie reviews, share what you think about her posts, and remember to vote for her in BLOG VILLAGE. Encourage her to share her parents enduring story, and catch The Gatekeeper's view on age old Bible stories.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 239 Villager blogs.

RED DIRT GIRL - Our Featured Villager

Janey Loree: Who is Red Dirt Girl? Tell us more about you and Red Dirt Poetry!

RDG: Well, the name "Red Dirt Girl" comes from a song title of the same by Emmylou Harris. It's a story about two best friends growing up in the red dirt hills of Alabama. I grew up in the red dirt hills of Georgia about 45 minutes from the Alabama state line.......I fell in love with the song and the name the first time I heard it. I've been calling myself "Red Dirt Girl" ever since.

I'm a 42 year old soccer mom of 3 and step-mom to 1, who probably should spend more time doing the laundry than blogging! Red Dirt Poetry is an off-shoot of my original blog, Red Dirt Girl. My initial intent was to do a 'fantasy' blog of high heel shoes that I'd love to own and wear intermixed with 'noteworthy words' such as quotes, my poetry etc. In putting that blog together, I realized I had written enough poems in the last 8 months that I could give them their "own space." So, Red Dirt Poetry was born!

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

RDG: My first introduction to blogging came from a former boss of mine. I worked for a non-profit ministry part-time. One of the ways he kept in touch with missionaries from around the world was through blogs and blogging. He was the one who showed me how to set a blog up. At first I had thoughts such as: who would want to read my ramblings? what is the purpose of doing this? will it be too time consuming? But I went ahead and started a blog. I found that the blog became a creative outlet for me and actually encouraged me to sit down and write each day or so. What I love about Red Dirt Poetry is creatively combining artwork with the poems. I hunt the internet looking for just the 'right' image to convey some aspect of the poem written.

Janey Loree: When do you do your blog reading?

RDG: I have no 'set' time that I sit down to read. However, generally, I blog in the early mornings (with my morning cup of 'joe') right after the kids have been sent off to school. If I am around, I will read and/or post during the early afternoon until the kids are home. After that I have no time for blogging - my family and its activities take priority. I don't blog in the evenings nor on weekends!

Janey Loree: Where did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?

RDG: I saw the Blog Village banner on a couple of blogs that I had visited. I got curious one day and clicked on it. That's how I found Blog Village. I liked the concept a lot. It feels more like a community of friends here rather than a bunch of anonymous bloggers trying to get links.

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

RDG: My blogs are definitely personal. I blogged, originally, because it gave my creativity an outlet and was a place to 'store' all my personal thoughts and feelings. As my blogs evolved and changed, I have to say that blogging is now also about having fun. I enjoy 'meeting' new people from all over the world through them. So, now, blogging is as much about making friends and maintaining a community as it is about being creative for me.

My poetry blog has introduced me to a number of other poets, writers and artists in the 'blogosphere.' Their work has definitely enriched mine, expanded my horizons and continues to inspire me each day. My poetry is becoming better and better as a result. Having a blog dedicated solely to poetry also helps to 'keep me on track.' I am forced to sit down and work with a poem or two each day, or at least jot notes down for future work. Part of the 'business' of writing is just sitting down and actually 'doing it.' Blogging helps to create the 'structure' and 'discipline' I need to write.

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

RDG: Currently, I am maintaining two blogs: Red Dirt Girl, and Red Dirt Poetry. I had two other blogs before these that were much more along the lines of personal essays, thoughts, feelings, and faith based discussions. However, because of their personal nature, my husband felt our lives were a little too exposed to an 'unknown' audience. So, I shut them down and started up these two blogs.

On Red Dirt Girl, I post 5 times a week. I never post on weekends. Three of those days are fantasy shoesdays, where I post a pair of shoes. The other two days I reserve for a quote that has grabbed my attention recently - sometimes related to shoes, most times not. It's a quirky, eclectic blog and meant to be pure fun. In part, it's very funny because I am quite tall and do not wear high heel shoes!!

On Red Dirt Poetry, I post a new poem 2 to 3 times per week and occasionally a critical essay or quote on poetry from an outside source. During the week of Thanksgiving, for instance, I ran a week long series of my favorite poems from other poets. This blog is definitely more personal and intimate. I work with subject matter from my own experiences and life, including the fact that I have bipolar disorder. All of this becomes 'material' for poems. I select art that I love for one reason or another to help illustrate my thoughts and ideas. You really would have to spend some time at this blog to get a 'sense' of who I am and what I am about.

Currently, I am on a holiday 'hiatus' from blogging and will not begin posting new material again until January. So stop by Red Dirt Poetry when you have an extra minute or two and look through the site. I hope there will be a poem or two there that will 'speak' to you and your experiences of life!

Janey Loree: Which BLOG VILLAGER would you recommend for the next interview?

I would be very interested in reading about Derek Jones and His Art . I find his work to be dreamy, evocative - quite lovely. I've had contact with him regarding using some of his images to illustrate my poetry. And he has been quite kind and receptive to the idea. ~ Red Dirt Girl



For an e-clectic wandering through free verse, lyrical imagery and fantasy shoesday, Red Dirt Girl’s blogs not only include her poetry, but poems from her favorite authors, including a special poem written by her 11 year old daughter, a.k.a. “Mini Dirt Girl”. Stop by encourage our fellow VILLAGER, who posts “non-posts” while she is supposed to be on a sabbatical until January! – Janey Loree


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE?

Start HERE.

BLOG VILLAGE was established on May 23, 2006, currently with a membership of 235 Villager blogs.