Bloggiesta - Day Two

Yesterday I had a lot of fun setting up my new layout. Thanks for all of the positive comments so far.

Other things I did yesterday:
Mini-Challenge: Blog Improvement Project. I admit I did the minimum on this. I listed one short term goal and one long term goal. For me that's not enough. I'm going to make note of this item and think about it in the weeks to come.

Mini-Challenge: Set up RSS and Email Subscriptions - I had tons of trouble with this mostly because I didn't understand what I was reading. I didn't know what to do. I finally figured it out and it turned out to be quite easy. I still don't have my head around feeds, so that's something I'm going to have to work out later.

Created a Gravatar. Easy peasy.

Cleaned up a few tags (more to do) and a few links (again, more to do).

Started going through the RSS feed for Bloggiesta and quickly got overwhelmed. I visited a bunch of sites, left some comments on posts, but I mostly concentrated on Bloggiesta posts to see what others were doing and to offer encouragement. This was a dangerous thing for me. Seeing what others were doing gave me many, many, many more ideas on what I could/should do on my blog. I've added them to a list for later.

On deck for today: Reviews!
- write (or start writing) my two outstanding reviews.
- create templates for reviews/future reads
- Take more breaks.
- Review policy - I might get to this today.
- Go through more of the RSS Bloggiesta feed. Make some comments, connect with more bloggers, find some blogs to follow.

Oh, a quick update: Welcome to my new followers. Thanks a lot!

That's about it for now. Have a great day everyone.

New Layout!

It's Bloggiesta time and I'm having a blast! I spent this morning doing a few cleanup tasks and then tackled a new layout.

I lost a little time (about 1/2 hour) because stupid IE and the beautiful new Blogger Template Designer were not cooperating. The preview wouldn't fully load so I couldn't see what my blog would look like with the new layout. Not cool. Anyway, I switched to the MacBook to for a bit and ta-da!

So, what do you think? I'm thrilled with the daisy background, but I'm still tinkering with the text colours, fonts and layout . I'm relieved that I got this far. It wasn't that hard, but a little daunting.

I'm not going to mark this one done just yet, but it's a start.

Olé.

It's Bloggiesta Time!

I'm so excited to be participating in my first Bloggiesta. What's a Bloggiesta you ask? Well, it's a blogging marathon taking place over three days, June 11 - 13. It's hosted by Natasha over at Maw Books Blog. Here's the signup post and all of the details.

My main goal is to connect with other bloggers and to find some new blogs to read and follow. For me a huge added bonus would be to gain some new followers, but I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't. I just want to have fun, meet some new people and catch up on some blogging tasks.

As far as blogging tasks go, here's my list:
- New layout
- Clean out and add my to Google Reader
- Clean up Edwards Magazine links and other links
- Clean up tags
- Write reviews
- Write Review policy page
- Write an About Me page
- Clean up/add to sidebars i.e. GoodReads
- Add to Blogroll
- Create templates for reviews/future reads
- Create a cheat sheet for HTML codes
- Visit the Blogging Tips Group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve my blog
- Participate in some mini-challenges, which might cover some of these items.

And a few maybes:
- Create a Facebook page for my blog
- Create a Favicon and/or Gravatar

Now that I look at the list, I'm not sure how I'm going to get that all done, but we'll see. I'm planning to spend at least 3-4 hours a day on this. I don't want to burnout on my first Bloggiesta.

I'm probably forgetting something but I think I'm ready to go.

Wish me luck!

Photo Friday - Aqua

For more "Aqua" photos, visit the Photo Friday website.
For more of my submissions, please see my PhotoFriday set on my Flickr page.

Something New!

My Wreck This Journal adventure is on hiatus this week in order to give you a sneak preview of my next project: How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum by Keri Smith. In case you missed it, here's my review.





The thing I love the most about this book is that because the book isn't "wrecked" like in Wreck This Journal, I can do the Explorations again and again and again if I want to.

Exploration #9: Case of Curiosities
Collect objects that you do not understand or have meaning for.
Alternate: Miniature Museum Collect only very small things. Store them in a mint tin or small box.

My Results: I chose to do the alternate on this one. I'm still in the process of finding small objects, but I've collected a few as you can see in the photo. The box has a lid and dividers to keep everything nice and neat. I've even included a slip of paper on which the Exploration text is printed.
















Exploration #18:Structure
Document part of a building(s) that most people ignore (examples include the ceilings, bathrooms, corners, closets, and the insides of drawers). Pay attention to the hidden places.
Alternate: Document the corners of your home.

My Results: Our bathroom has outdated and worn facets/fixtures. Once upon a time, I'm sure they were nice and even now they have a certain appeal. I picked these because eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) we are going to have them replaced and I wanted to have photos to remember them by. I've assembled the photos on a scrapbook page.




















That's the preview of my next adventure. Next week I hope to return to my Wreck This Journal adventure. After that I may alternate between the two or do some of one then some of the other. I'm going to play it by ear.

See you next Sunday.
Art

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

In Black Water Rising, Jay Porter is a lawyer with a not-so-promising practice and a chequered past. During an outing with his wife, he rescues a woman from the bayou waters. Instead of becoming a hero, his good deed leads him down a troubled path and puts himself and those he loves in danger. From the front lines of the civil rights movement in the 60s to the upper levels of Houston's politicians and businessmen in the 80s, the story centres on Jay, who can't seem to catch a break and find a safe place to settle down.

I really liked this book. It's intelligent and well written. I loved how the author tied crime, politics, labour disputes, and the civil rights movement all together to tell this story. The tension of the civil rights movement and Jay's past involvement added an entirely different dimension to the story that kept me interested until the very last page.

I had heard great things about the book and was really looking forward to reading it. While I found it to be really good, I'm not sure that it lived up to that hype that I'd heard. The story featured good characters and plenty of action, but I may have been influenced by the really intense thriller I read just prior to this one.

As for characters, I loved Jay. I thought he was a fabulous character, who tried to run from his past but didn't manage to get too far away from it. I was got caught up in his story and was cheering him on from my favourite armchair. I just wanted him to return to his wife safe and sound.

This book was won numerous awards and was nominated for a number of others. Attica Locke is definitely an author to watch.

New word alert:
stevedoring (page 118) = dockworker
sorors (page 270) = sorority sister

Favourite quotes:

...it's only your mind that can't move out of the prison of its past.

Recommended.

Want to read other reviews? Here's one from Heather at Books and Quilts, one another from Deanna at My Tragic Right Hip and another from Carina at Reading Through Life.

For more information about this book, please visit the HarperCollins Canada website.

For more information about the author, please visit Attica Locke's website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at HarperCollins Canada for this review copy.

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke, HarperCollins, ©2009. ISBN 9780061735851(Trade Paperback), 427p.

Photo Friday - Arranged

For more "Arranged" photos, visit the Photo Friday website.
To see more of my submissions, go to the PhotoFriday set on my Flickr page.