Category: Blogroll

12 Classics of Pants Theater

We at the Pants Institute are dedicated to education of the public on the many contributions that Pants have made to our culture and society. In our previous monographs, we have been pleased to share with you in-depth discussions of great works of Classic Pants Literature as well as more popular media, such as critical analyses of the genre of Pants Horror Cinema. Our next installation of this ongoing series of Great Seriousness and Importance delves into the pants classics of the stage:

    Pants of a Salesman
    A middle-aged man discovers that his pants are both terribly unflattering and decades out of fashion.

    Waiting for Pants
    A story of time wasted away in the laundromat when the dryer cycle is unbearably slow.

    Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Wear Pants
    Two men hang out at the laundromat playing quarters while waiting for Hamlet to finish his laundry.

    Pants on a Hot Tin Roof
    When a family’s dryer is broken, they consider laying their laundry out on the roof to dry.

    A Raisin in the Pants
    A legal drama about the status of a raisin left in a pocket on laundry day.

    Who’s Afraid of Virginia’s Pants?
    An inebriated couple exchange verbal barbs as they sort through their dirty laundry.

    The Importance of Wearing Pants
    Two young men practice deception by frequently changing their pants.

    Oedipus Pants
    The story of a man’s unholy love for his mother’s pants.

    Barefoot in the Pants
    A newlywed couple find how hard it is to put on pants when you are already wearing shoes.

    A Doll’s Pants
    A marriage falls apart when a woman discovers what a small pants size her husband really wears.

    The Pants of Dorian Gray
    A young man’s pants increasingly show the stains of his escapades.

    The Pants Menagerie
    The story of a blogger who writes obsessively about pants.

—-
Thanks to Painted Maypole, thespian and pantsblogger extraordinaire, whose recent flurry of pants posts has given me the much needed kick in the pants to get back to pantsblogging. Thanks also to John, who suggested the addition of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Wear Pants.

The 2009 Golden Pants Award

I’m ever-so-pleased to announce the winner of this year’s coveted Golden Pants Award:

Painted Maypole is no newcomer to pantsblogging. Her highly acclaimed 2008 post, The New Pants Network, is considered one of the finest pieces of contemporary American pantswriting, and is frequently discussed in upper level college pants seminars.
golden_pants_2009
This year, Painted Maypole has added to her pants repertoire with three stunning new works of pants under her belt this year: Shakespeare’s Pants, More of Willy’s Pants, and undoubtedly her finest pants oeuvre to date, Showtunes in the Key of PANTS. This latest work explores the gamut of pants emotions, from sheer pants exuberance to pants melancholy, and will have you singing in your pants:

When you are PANTS,
You are PANTS all the way
From the first time you’re worn
To your last dyin’ day.

Truer words were never sung.

Congratulations, Pantsed Maypole. You are invited to try these pants on for size.

The historic and highly coveted Golden Pants Award was first awarded in 2008.

validation and renewal

I find myself cranky today, for no good reason. Well, it’s rainy, and I have a lot of work to do. I also need to get myself down to the RMV to get my driver’s license renewed, as it’s only valid for a couple more weeks.

I’ve had the license for 10 years now, which means I have to get a new photo for it, too. So I don’t get to renew online. Aside from the laziness factor, and not wanting to waste my productive hours hauling my cranky ass down to stand in line and deal with potentially cranky RMV employees, I should probably be glad to get a new photo.

I got my first driver’s license in California when I was 17. It was a really good photo. I mean, really good. One of those photos that look better than the live person. I remember at least one occasion when some guy at the CVS counter looked at my license and asked if I was a model. Heh.

I think I may have had that license (or at least the same photo on it, since I had to get my actual license replaced when I was mugged) till we moved to Massachusetts in 1995. I lived in Rhode Island for about 6 years, but didn’t have a car there. I may have had a license there, but I don’t really remember it.

I don’t remember, either, what the photo looked like in that first Massachusetts license. I don’t think it was particularly good, because what I do remember is the determination to get me a good photo for the next license.

I remember the day well that I went for renewal. I made efforts to wear a flattering color, wore make-up (which I almost never do). It was a good hair day, even. And then I stood in line for over an hour in stuffy hallway on a hot day. By the time I got called to get my photo, I was tired, sticky, limp-haired, and just in a hurry to get out of there. My interest in getting a flattering photo was drained out of me. The forced smile under the glare of the glasses has been irking me for 10 whole years.

So now I get to prepare for the next 10-year photo. I haven’t had a haircut in over a year. I’m pretty sure no one will mistake me for a model now, with my glasses and perma-ponytail look. I’m okay with that, as long as I can manage a less downtrodden expression.

Maybe what I need is some validation:

Check out at least the first few minutes, if you don’t have time for the whole movie. Found via BipolarLawyerCook, who is back online with a spankin’ new url, after her old blog disappeared for a couple of months. Glad you’re back, BLC!

So, what about you? Have you ever had a really good ID photo? Or a really bad one?

Canadian blogging conspiracy revealed

Go read Pride and Twitterverse at Under the Mad Hat. Right now. It srsly cracks my shit up:

Darcy:
@biz Why must avatar pictures be so small? #twitterfail

CharlotteL:
@LizzyB Darcy keeps looking at your profile. What’s up with that?

LizzyB:
@CharlotteL I dunno but it’s freaking my shit out. Srsly.

You may have seen someone else’s Austenbook, which was Pride and Prejudice on Facebook, as shared by casa az and raincoaster. It was very funny. But Pride and Twitterverse rocks my world.

You know something else that’s funny and Austenish? The book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which sits unread (or undead?) on my kitchen counter. When I read about it at Celebrating the Absurd, I had to order it.

You know something else that’s funny and Twitterish? The Skwib’s Twitterpocalypse.

And you know what else made me laugh at the Skwib this week?
Ten spurious facts about Queen Victoria:

#3 Victoria was the youngest and first Queen of England who had the ability to fire laser beams from her eyes.

And you know what else made me laugh in reference to Queen Victoria this week? Bon at cribchronicles.com with her educational post on May Two-Four: if we don’t get a holiday.

You know what’s freakin’ me out? All of the bloggers I’ve listed above are Canadian, and their combined brilliance and humor is keeping me from getting work done. I think there must be a conspiracy. Perhaps to get me to start spelling humour with that extra u.

They are also all on Twitter. I fear I may be doomed to go over to the dark side after all. Bite me.

mmmm: on the blogroll

mmmmWhen I come across a blog that is new to me, one of the first things I do is look for a blogroll. It gives me some insight into the person behind the blog: tastes, humor, worldview and whatnot. It’s fun to see if I recognize any blogs on the list, and to see if we share common interests. It reminds me a bit of my tendency to go right to the references section of an article I’m reading when I’m in research mode.

Why I have a blogroll

I see the blogroll as a courtesy feature of a blog. Potential visitors can get insight into who I am by way of who I know. It’s a courtesy to the bloggers on the list, as I am potentially sending them traffic, whether directly through people who like to explore blogrolls, or by adding to their rankings for search engines or Technorati. Foremost, my blogroll acknowledges that I read and enjoy those blogs (and/or that those people read and enjoy my blog). Like a references section in a journal article, it lists the bloggers whose voices have influenced and inspired my own writing.

Who is on my blogroll?

If I list a blog in my blogroll, it means that I regularly read that blog. I may miss a post here and there when my life gets hectic, or may skim over a long post on a topic that is alien to me (such as about a TV show I don’t watch). But if a blog is up there, that means I am a loyal reader.

I admit that there are blogs in my feed reader that I have not put on my blogroll. Usually it’s because I haven’t established a rapport with those bloggers. Sometimes I’ve just forgotten to add a blog.

Some of the blogs there are fairly dormant. This applies especially to a few of my near and dear real life friends who started blogs, but didn’t keep them going for long. (But they should have!)

I’m considering paring down the list, and removing blogs that have not been updated in, say, 6 months. (So post something if this applies to you!)

Removing blogs from the blogroll

It makes me sad to remove blogs from my blogroll, and I’ve done so only a few times. Mostly this has been when a blogger has deleted the blog or made it private. In at least one case I took a blog down after faithfully reading a blog and leaving comments for an extended time, and never getting back any sign of a visit back from that blogger. Another time I noticed that my own blog was removed from a blogroll, so I responded by removing that blog from my own.

Adding to the blogroll

I usually will add to my blogroll if I find my blog on a blogroll, and/or if I get regular comments from the blog author. I used to be fairly stubborn about not adding blogs without these happenings. Now I’m quicker to add if I find a blog I like (and if I happen to be in the mood to add links).

I’ve been rather hesitant to add big, high profile blogs to my blogroll, but I have started to do that more. There are now several big blogs in my sidebar whose authors don’t read my blog, though they have at some point been courteous enough to come by for a visit and leave a comment (or otherwise acknowledge my existence).

to blogroll or not to blogroll

I’m not quite sure why some people don’t have them. (Well, laziness I understand, if that’s the reason.) Some prefer instead to share favorites from their feeds, some prefer to link to blogs in posts. I think these ways of expressing appreciation for other bloggers are great, but for me don’t supplant the blogroll.

It seems that some people find blogrolls quaint and outdated. Well, call me quaint and outdated. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Still others prefer to keep their reading lists to themselves.

Where I stick it

My blogroll has gotten a bit unwieldy, but I still like having it on my front page. In fact, I like having a theme that keeps the sidebar showing for all pages. Some people think a gigantic blogroll clutters the page, and detracts. But I like giving it the extra exposure. Call me cluttered. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Blogrolling by numbers
And to demonstrate my compulsive tendencies, I actually counted up the blogs currently on my blogroll, and tallied up how many had blogrolls. I made a spreadsheet. Call me a dork. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

    blogs on my blogroll: 78
    blogs on my blogroll with blogrolls: 58
    blogs on my blogroll with blogrolls with my blog: 47

Blogroll me, baby!
In case you haven’t guessed it, I like being listed on blogrolls. It feels like support and validation. Also that acknowledgment of existence, which I seem so partial to.

So, what are your thought on blogrolls?

This was the first post of the metablogging series I threatened to write as part of my self-declared Merry Merry Month of Metablogging.

we can dance (if we want to)

Today is May Day¹, a holiday which many celebrate by dancing around the maypole. I don’t have a maypole, but I may dance around the living room with Phoebe. Perhaps while listening to Safety Dance³.

As Painted Maypole pointed out last year, the video for Safety Dance features a maypole. (Also Morris Dancing. I probably won’t attempt to Morris dance with Phoebe.)


(You can see slightly better quality video at the MTV site here).

Painted Maypole, who has adopted May Day as her blog’s official holiday, offers a whole host of other May Day activities and photos of her own festivities.
monmiss2-1

She also entreated us to compose a May Day poem or song for this week’s Monday Mission. I struggled with this assignment, but
inspiration finally struck, and happily without causing serious injury.⁴ Here is my May Day tanka⁵:

    the maypole beckons
    revelers frolicking ’round
    bright ribbons entwined
    you can dance if you want to
    you can leave your friends behind
Dancing 'round the maypole in the video for Safety Dance by Men Without Pants. I mean Hats.
Dancing 'round the maypole in the video for Safety Dance by Men Without Pants. I mean Hats.

¹ Today is also No Pants Day, an event I can’t really get behind with all of its dangerously anti-pants propaganda.²

² We can (wear) pants if we want to!

³ Safety Dance is one of Phoebe’s favorite songs, and will sometimes ask to hear it over and over again. She requested it at the wedding we went to in March, and cried when she learned we’d only get to hear it the one time.

⁴ I wasn’t sure where to fit this in, but I learned that May Day, as a distress call, is actually based on m’aider from the French phrase venez m’aider, meaning “come rescue my sorry ass.”

⁵ I was introduced to the Tanka form by girlgriot, who stunningly wrote a tanka a day for the entire month of April.

still off my feed

I mentioned before that my feed reader¹ has gone all wonky. I use Safari to bookmark my RSS feeds, for blogs and news. I even added my Facebook friends’ status updates. It showed all my unread counts on the bookmark bar of my browser window, organized into folders according to my own nefarious purposes. I could even access the feeds offline.

It was working really well for a long time, maybe even 2 years. Until last month or so when I was travelling. I don’t know if I just overtaxed things with the accumulation of unread items or what. (There seems to be something going on with an application called “PubSubAgent,” which keeps hogging all my CPU.)

Anyhow, largely because of this, I haven’t gotten back in the swing of reading. I’ve been trying to visit people who leave comments, and trying to work my way around the blogroll listed in my sidebar, but my blogroll is actually a bit out of date. Plus I haven’t been doing a good job of keeping track of which blogs I’ve visited recently.

Clearly, I need to update my system (as well as my blogroll²).

Before I go transferring all my 150+ feeds over somewhere else, I’d love to hear how other people go about reading blogs. Do you use a feed reader? If so, which one? Do you like it? I have the impression that Google Reader is the most popular these days. I’ve tried Bloglines, but it didn’t thrill me.

So, here’s a poll:

Beyond that, are there any systems you have tried and hated? Want to try? For that matter, how many blogs do you read regularly?

—————

¹ In case you don’t know what a feed reader is, it’s a way of consolidating articles and posts so you can read without going directly to the sites that publish them. They have the advantage of helping you keep tabs on which sites have new content.

² If you are not on my blogroll, and would like to be, let me know!³

³ If you are on my blogroll, and would like not to be…bite me. Or, um, let me know, too.

It's RSS, baby!
It's RSS, baby!

awards, activism and all that

The Just PostsThe Just Posts are up today, the monthly roundtable of posts about issues of social justice and activism rounded up from around the blogosphere. Mad, Jen and Su have put together a wonderful list, as always. Please go have a look at their posts, and some of the great links they have served up.

Sadly, they have also announced that they are unable to continue to host the Just Posts in the future, for various personal reasons. This is their last Just Post host hurrah.

However, the Just Posts will go on. I am honored that Jen and Mad are willing to pass the torch to me along with partner in crime activism Holly of Cold Spaghetti. Starting in February, we will be hosting the Just Post at our blogs.

In other news, Holly very flatteringly nominated this blog for a Weblog Award (“The 2009 Bloggies”), in the categories of “best-kept secret” and “most humorous.”

I have gone and repaid her the compliment by nominating her as well. And while I was at it, I may have gone and nominated a few other blogs that are near and dear to me. (By the way, the nominations close today/Monday at 10 p.m., so if you also want to nominate someone, you’d better run!)

2009bloggies

Anyhow, without further ado, here are my nominees.

best-kept secret weblog “The best underrepresented weblogs” (I wish I could have nominated 20 or more for this category!)

lifetime achievement “Webloggers who have been blogging since at least January 1, 2004.” Here, I’m happy to be able to nominate two bloggers who have been very influential in my own blogging:

weblog of the year “The category for the best weblog overall.”

best canadian weblog

most humorous weblog

best writing of a weblog

best new weblog “Weblogs that began during the year 2008.”

best australian or new zealand weblog

best asian weblog

best european weblog (Okay, so I picked some US and Canadian expats living in Eruope.)

best photography of a weblog

best art, craft, or design weblog

best weblog about music

  • wreke havoc (for her “guilty pleasures monday” series)

best entertainment weblog “Weblogs about movies, television, and/or theater.”

best weblog about politics

best computer or technology weblog

  • Disparate (because of his writings on social networking media)

best topical weblog “Weblogs with a distinct topic other than the ones in the categories above.” (Okay, so I sneaked a few personal blogs in the back door with this one, but they are ones with somewhat more focused topics.)

best group weblog “Weblogs written by an exclusive group.”

best community weblog: “Weblogs where everyone is invited to post.”

best web application for weblogs

That’s quite a bundle, but I actually feel bad for leaving so many great blogs off. I don’t like the categories for these awards. Most of the blogs I read don’t fit in easily. I managed to squeeze in a few by region and other criteria, but I had to leave out quite a few of my favorite blogs, which for the most part are personal blogs by Americans or Canadians. Guys, I owe you!

(I wish I had time to write more, but quite honestly, it’s taken me over 24 hours to get the nominations and the draft of this post together. Theo has been sick with a cold, feverish, and possibly also teething, and I have barely found more than 10 minutes in a row to type with both hands. )

better for me than a scone and decaf soymilk latte

After a glorious two years of partnership, Jen and Mad have announced that they are retiring from their work putting together and hosting the Just Posts. Their final Just Post hurrah will be on Monday, and for those asking what sort of retirement gift they’d like, they’ve put in a special request: to make a financial contribution to a charitable organization of our choosing, and to write about it. (If you haven’t seen their posts on this, in which they lay bare some of their behind-the-scenes discussion and debate, go have a look.)

I confess that I have never been great with donations. I’m inconsistent. I have a few organizations that I support, typically once a year. When they ask. And not even a great amount. If friends publicize a cause, or request sponsorship for a charity-based activity, I gladly contribute. But I haven’t made giving a regular part of my life.

So, I have taken a plunge that I haven’t taken before: I have signed up to give a regular monthly gift to the International Rescue Committee, which will be billed to my credit card.

The IRC just celebrated its 75th year of humanitarian relief and assistance to refugees.

Founded in 1933, the IRC is a global leader in emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights, post-conflict development, resettlement services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by violent conflict and oppression.

This is the same group I volunteered with back in 2001, when I was an ESL tutor working with refugees who recently resettled in the US. The office out of which I worked closed, sadly, due to post-September-11th reductions in refugees admitted to the US, but they organization is still active resettling refugees in many other cities around the country. They are also active around the world giving humanitarian relief, and campaigning to protect populations that are at risk due to war and other political upheaval in countries including the Sudan, Congo and Iraq. They are among the organizations working to get humanitarian relief to civilians in Gaza, where the crisis has been much on my mind these past couple weeks.

The monthly amount I’ve chosen is not huge for me, especially if I think of it in terms of a weekly amount. I’ve easily spent more than that on an afternoon snack and beverage. In those terms, I feel downright stingy. But it’s a solid start. And it makes me feel a bit warmer, knowing that I am contributing to an organization whose work I find so important, and in a way that will make it easier for them to do that work.