MNPost Short Shorts Contest

Showcase your writing skills with a 'short-short'
By Marge Barrett | Published Mon, Nov 8 2010 9:56 am

Short-shorts is back -- with a shorter-short contest.
Submit your 200-word story by November 22, 2010.
Contest guidelines: Only Minnesota writers can submit. Only one short-short by an individual will be accepted. Your short-short must be under 200 words. Please put your last name and short-short contest in the subject line of the email. Include your name, address, telephone number, email address, word count and a brief biography (up to 150 words). Send your entry -- in the body of the email, or as an attachment -- to mbarrett [at] minnpost [dot] com. The file must be saved in Word.

I, who have never entered a writing competition of submitted my writing to anyone but my elementary, high school and college teachers am entering. You should too!

Finally Somebody Gets Libraries Right

We had a full house again today, busy all day long and it wasn't kids out of school. Adults packed the computers, study rooms and study tables. We see more and more of this trend. There just aren't any "quiet" periods of the year anymore.

Yet we, like all government agencies face budget cuts that will make it more difficult to take care of our customers.

I have seen so many articles over the past few years saying the Library is Dead, blah blah, nobody uses the outmoded library, blah blah.

Not so at all, as Roberta Stevens from the Washington Post so eloquently points out in her article: Commentary: Technological and economic shifts have only made libraries more valuable
.

And..a little something for my own son...

Talk about someone who is his own man... my son has been an afficianado of Comedy Central for at least ten years and one of his favorite comedians, to my surprise, is George Carlin.

I always think of George and his words you can't say list.

Here he is with another list of words, all current, all hip, all technology all the time. I can't imagine how many times he had to rehearse this to be able to rattle it off without a pause.

He manages without seeming effort to show a snapshot of who and what we are, just by tossing out the jargon we use. What a wise and talented man he was.

Here's a Heartbreaker

On the Nerdy Apple Bottom blog is one of the most touching stories I've ever read about love and mindless hate and the inability of some people to let people shine however they want to shine.

Nerdy's five year old son, a huge Scooby Doo fan wanted to be Daphne for Halloween. He'd already been Scooby, and this year a brightly colored, absolutely silly and wonderful Daphne costume caught his eye in a catalog.



Read the full post, because here is a Mom of Moms who lets her child choose what costume he wants to wear, who he wants to pretend to be on a day that is all about fun and imagination.

In a time when bullying is rampant, and all of our gains for tolerance and loving our fellows seems lost, step back and think of where this starts and stop, just stop.

10 Librarian Blogs to read in 2011: Time to Suggest Your Favorites

The LIS News site does an annual list of top ten librarian blogs to read each year. You can make suggestions now for them to consider.

Just write in your suggestion in the comments section here.

Things on a Stick News Volume 1 #10

Day four of NaBloPoMo and I'm still writing! I did not register this particular blog since I have failed to complete with it two years running and thought luck might be with another blog. So far so good writing daily on both.

One of the things you might do to keep writing regularly is to feature information and ideas from other blogs and sites so you can share the wealth and keep your site active. I like to put my own spin and comments in so that I'm not just a little ticker tape.

As I'm trying to work through National Blog Posting Month, I inevitably go back to my 23 Things roots. Just in the nick, here is the latest post from the new version of the 23 Things on a Stick blog featuring a new type of aggregator called Alltop that lets you get the latest news from both blogs and websites that will help inspire you to write.

Thing 67. Alltop

WordPress Tip: What to do when your Login Prompt Disappears

I use WordPress for another blog and recently changed to a new template. To my consternation my login prompt was gone. The only sidebar items were links to other sites. There I am, thinking how on earth am I going to update that dang blog if I can't log in?

I did a little research and the solutions not only looked complex, they had red margined warnings to Back Up Your Settings.

One thing I did pick up from these tipsters was that I needed to type in the actual web address of the site. I'm sure I wrote this down when I created the blog, but where did I put that? I just use the link on my favorites bar to get to the sitre, which wasn't helping me now.

My twisty mind then thought, when you sign up for a blog, they tell you your site address. So I just need to find that original email and get my address and...

In the original email there were four "handy links". Handy indeed! As soon as I clicked on one I got my beloved login prompt, and in I went to change the template to something login friendly.

Sigh of relief...

Frederik Pohl's The Way the Future Blogs: Drawing for new Gateways Anthology (Non-USA folk only)

One of my favorite blogs is written by science fiction writer Frederik Pohl. On his blog, he writes and reminisces about 70 years in the science fiction community, and dispenses wisdom for today.

He has a new anthology that was compiled by his wife Elizabeth A. Hull for his 90th birthday. It features short stories by other prominent science fictions authors writing in his Gateway Universe.

Until November 15th, if you live outside the United States--the US version of the giveaway was done by Tor Books and is done, alas, you can enter via e-mail in a drawing for a copy of this book. The book will be autographed by Frederik Pohl, Elizabeth A. Hull and Gene Wolfe (who will pick the winner).

Visit The Way the Future Blogs to enter the drawing.

Finding Election Information and background for Local Candidates

We're finding out today how hard it is to find background information on local candidates. State and Federal information is everywhere, so it seems, but the local races can be a challenge.

Tip 1: Look up the community paper for your area online and see if they have an election guide. Many do!

Tip 2: Use the sample ballot on the Secretary of State Pollfinder site (after typing in your address info), write down your local candidates and then look for web pages for the city and county candidates.

http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us

Laughing Squid: Yahoo's Y! Mash

Scott Beale of the Laughing Squid introduces Yahoo's new social network (a person can never have too many of those)

Y! Mash lets you edit your friends profiles in a wiki style so your buds can tell everyone all there is to know about you. Ideal!

Scott links to his Mash Profile to show what it looks like, but oops!

The person you have searched for either does not exist or has chosen to hide his profile.

Learn more about the profile on Yahoo!

Crouching Scott, Hidden Scott!

He does ask you to send him an email if you'd like to join him so maybe that is the answer to this puzzle!



Puzzle pic of Scott made with Dumpr