Hugh Hollowell

I like Seth Godin. A Lot. So I was excited when I found an interview with him that I was unaware of, and even more excited when I saw it was not a rehash of his standard fare. There is solid gold here, with him broaching subjects I have never heard him talk about before… his childhood, his passion as a child for Radio, his college career and much more.

I may not always agree with Seth, but he always makes me think; I like thinking.

Go read the interview.

You may also be interested in his free eBook on bootstrapping.

One of the problems with being a self-taught web geek is the gaps that exist in my knowledge. I can do major hacks and tweaks in css, I can hard code html from scratch in a text editor and I do NOT know how do do the nifty screen shots everyone else on the internet knows how to do. Well, I did not, that is, until Bloggrrl taught me how! (It is embarrassing, I know.)

Over on her very politically incorrect site, she gives a nifty little tutorial that shows exactly how to do it. Just for fun, I have been making screen shots all morning!

By the way, she is running a contest called “Cow Pattie Bingo“. Now, I grew up around cows, but we never played this game. Instead, we used the dry ones as frisbies, but that is a story for another day…

Anyway, if you mention this post on your blog, you are entered in the contest. If you mention another favorite article of hers (like the screenshot one above), you get a second entry. The prize? $50.00. I normally refuse to play in contests like this, but the picture of the girl in the cow costume caused me to spew coffee all over my computer screen.

(Thanks to Steve for bringing this blog to my attention).

I was tagged by Roger Anderson with a Thinking Blogger’s Award. The idea is to link to 5 blogs that make us think, and tell why we like them. The hard part is picking only 5, as I am pretty brutal on weeding my RSS feeds weekly, so I tend to only read the cream in my feed reader. Below are my picks.

Pick The Brain: John Wesley’s blog on analytical Self Improvement. John writes detailed posts, has a bright clean blog layout, and has a great writing style. I do not buy much into the self improvement genre, but John is one of the few I will listen to.

Dilbert Blog: Random brain dropping from the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams. Scott has a unique sense of humor and his take on things is never quite how I would side on the issue, but he always makes me think.

Steve Olson: Steve is somewhat well known, but still a required read. He is blatantly honest and transparent about his fears, his life and his dreams. As I read about his choices, it makes me think more about my own. Recently, his posting frequency has dropped, but in typical Steve style, he blogged about it and let us into his life. All around great guy.

Wendy Piersall: I first read about Wendy from Steve (above), wondered why he would be recommending a site geared toward Moms, cruised on over to see for myself, then I was hooked! For a more detailed review of why I love Wendy, check out this review I did a while back.

Alister Cameron: He goes by the title of blogologist, whatever that means, but he is a blogging consultant from Australia (Oz has an inordinate amount of bloggers, for some reason). Not your usual John Chow rip off, he has a nice clean site, good advice, little fluff and a great writing voice. While not a frequent poster, one usually worth listening too.

Well, those are my picks. Thank you Roger, for tagging me and the nice words… anytime you need a guest blogger, just let me know!

Here is the official stuff…

The Rules:

• If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
• Link to the Thinking Blogs Award post so that people can find the origin of the meme,
• Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog)

[tags]Dilbert, Scott Adams, Wendy Piersall, eMom, Steve Olson, Alister Cameron, Pick The Brain, John Wesley, thinking blogger[/tags]

As I mentioned before, several times, actually, Liz has had a call out for blogging metaphors. There is awesome stuff here; you can burn an afternoon with just these links. She awarded 10 lucky bloggers (no, I was not one of them, dammit!) with a copy of Lorelle’s Book on blogging (go get yours now!).

In no particular order, here are all the entries.

• Blogging Metaphors: Bridge-Building
  at Middle Zone Musings
• Blogging Metaphor: Blogging is like Exercise
  at Virtual Impax
• Blogging Metaphors, or, What I am doing here
  at A Politically Incorrect Entrepreneur
• Blogging Metaphor: Why blogging is like a Mommy
  at Moments of Clarity
• My Blogging Metaphor
  at Carpe Factum
• What’s Your Blogging Metaphor? Teaching by Bits (and Bytes) at ModernMagellans-Maps to Improve Your Business, Leadership, and Life
• A Blog is Your Bullhorn to the World
  at Blawg IT
• An Image Is Worth A Thousand Words! Huh?
  at Smart Wealthy Rich
• Blogging Metaphor – The “Party Line”
  at Insight Advertising-Marketing Communications
• Singing the “blogging song” around the campfire
  at Live the GREAT life you desire
• Blogging is Like Baseball
  at Rush Nigut: Rush on Business
• Raise your sails and blog on!
  at dsmBUZZ
• One BIG small town
  at Runners Lounge
• What metaphor do you use to explain blogging?
  at Ian’s Messy Desk
• Blogging Metaphor–The Salad Bar Blog
  at Word Sell
• My blog is a smorgasbord, come and eat…
  at Juggling Frogs
• Feeding on Plankton
  at krooz
• My Preferred Metaphor for Business Blogging
  at Business and Blogging
• 10 reasons why blogging is like dating”
  at Romance Tracker
• Equestrian Ecstasy – Portal to another Reality
  at INNside Innkeeping in Montana
• Metaphorically speaking, this is what I do
  at Passing It On
• Kayaking as a Metaphor for Blogging
  at Loosely Speaking
• A hug, metaphorically speaking
  at MamaBlogga
• Blogging is like dancing on top of an iceberg, and other Metaphors
  at J.T’s Productivity Blog
• 20 Blogging Metaphors – Rock Throwing and the Universal Monkey
  at marketing neophyte
• Blogging metaphors
  at Roberta Ferguson
• Blogging Metaphors
  at Lena M Holmberg
• Blogging Metaphor (s)
  at Transition Capital Management
• The Blogosphere is a Virtual Time Capsule : Another Viral Meme
  at Orbit Now!
• Dexter’s Memetic Laboratory
  at Spooky Action ·
• Really? Why? What’s a blog?
  at Art Dinkin’s Moment on Money
• 10 Basic Tips for Starting a Blog Using Gardening as Metaphor
  at Circular Communication
• Behold, A Blogging Sower Went Forth To Sow Links
  at The Frugal Law Student
• For Whom the Blog Tolls
  at Idea Dude
• All the Blog’s a Stage
  at Just Thinkin’
• Blogging Metaphor: Blogging Is a Large City with Hundreds of Small Neighborhoods
  at A Writer’s Word, An Editor’s Eye
• What’s your blogging metaphor?
  at The Junky’s Wife
• Blogging is a Tapestry
  at Grow Your Writing Business
• Blogging Metaphors
  at The Gift Idea Help Blog
• 7 Ways That Blogging is Like Opera
  at Randa Clay Design
• Blogging Metaphor: Blogging Is Like Catching Dreams and Setting Them Free
  at Online Public Relations
• Blogging Metaphor
  at Better Business Blogging
• I’m Baking a Blogging Cake …
  at Writing Thoughts
• Why Blogging is Like Fishing
  at Freelancing Journey
• The Metaphor Project
  at The Marketing Whore
• My Blogging Metaphor: BNI
  at Kiss2
• Why Conversational Blogging Is Like A LineConga
  at dawudmiracle
• Blog 101 and the New Cocktail Party
  at What Would Dad Say
• Bloggers, Brains and Metaphors
  at BrainBasedBusiness
• Blogging is like a box of chocolates…
  at Small Business Marketing Ideas

Liz has thrown the third batch of blogging metaphors up, and the quality keeps getting better and better.

She has also extended the deadline to 10pm Chicago time (GMT-6hrs.) June 11th (that is a Monday), so there is still time for you to write up your best blog metaphor and email a link to Liz.

Here is some link love to this round of participants.

• 20 Blogging Metaphors – Rock Throwing and the Universal Monkey at marketing neophyte
• Blogging metaphors at Roberta Ferguson
• Blogging Metaphors at Lena M Holmberg
• Blogging Metaphor (s) at Transition Capital Management
• Kayaking as a Metaphor for Blogging at Loosely Speaking—A VA’s Blog
• A hug, metaphorically speaking at MamaBlogga
• Blogging is like dancing on top of an iceberg, and other Metaphors at J.T’s Productivity Blog
• The Blogosphere is a Virtual Time Capsule : Another Viral Meme at Orbit Now!
• Dexter’s Memetic Laboratory at Spooky Action

What are you waiting for? Go get your entry in now!

Food. Baseball. Teaching. Driving Gloves (!) Sailing Ships (No sealing wax, nor cabbages nor Kings, but we are not through yet!). The metaphors for blogging continue over at Liz’s blog metaphor writing project.

Here is a little link love to the participants in this round.

• Blogging Metaphors, or, What I am doing here at A Politically Incorrect Entrepreneur
• Blogging Metaphor: Why blogging is like a Mommy at Moments of Clarity
• My Blogging Metaphor at Carpe Factum
• Singing the “blogging song” around the campfire at Live the GREAT life you desire
• Blogging is Like Baseball at Rush Nigut: Rush on Business
• Raise your sails and blog on! at dsm BUZZ
• One BIG small town at Runners Lounge
• Metaphorically speaking, this is what I do at Passing It On
• Bloggers, Brains and Metaphors at BrainBasedBusiness – Using your Brain to succeed in Business ·
• Blogging is like a box of chocolates… at Small Business Marketing Ideas – Marketing Idea Blog
• What’s Your Blogging Metaphor? Teaching by Bits (and Bytes) at ModernMagellans – Maps to Improve Your Business, Leadership, and Life
• A Blog is Your Bullhorn to the World at Blawg IT
• An Image Is Worth A Thousand Words! Huh? at Smart Wealthy Rich
• Blogging Metaphor – The “Party Line” at Insight Advertising-Marketing Communications

Here are this week’s speedlinks, a recap of some of the best things I came across this week on the interweb.

• I updated my award winning (well, not yet but it will!) wordpress plugin page. Plugin #12 is one that has had a dramatic impact upon my RSS subscriber rate, plus it keeps me from ticking off my readers. A true Win-Win.
• Joshua reveals The Top 77 Mistakes New Bloggers Make. An incredibley comprehensive list. He also talks about the incredible number of blogs about nothing. All those John Chow want-to-bes should read this one.
• Blogging Evangalism from Guy Kawasaki (via Douglas Karr)
• John Chow tells you how he made an e-Book.
• 27 Lessons Learned on the Way to 3000 Visits a Day and 2200 RSS Subscribers. A ton of good stuff here.

With yesterday’s post on blogging metaphors, I thought I would see what others are saying.

Liz has the first round of entries up, and man am I outclassed.

Some seem fixated on food…

• Blogging Metaphor–The Salad Bar Blog at Word Sell
• My blog is a smorgasbord, come and eat… at Juggling Frogs
• Feeding on Plankton at krooz

Some like to party…

• My Blogging Metaphor: BNI at Kiss2
• Why Conversational Blogging Is Like A LineConga at dawudmiracle
• Blog 101 and the New Cocktail Party at What Would Dad Say
• 10 reasons why blogging is like dating at Romance Tracker

This one makes me feel like a slacker…

• Blogging Metaphor: Blogging is like Exercise at Virtual Impax

And the rest are just extremely well written.

• What metaphor do you use to explain blogging? at Ian’s Messy Desk
• My Preferred Metaphor for Business Blogging at Business and Blogging
  
• Equestrian Ecstasy – Portal to another Reality at INNside Innkeeping in Montana
• Blogging Metaphors: Bridge-Building at Middle Zone Musings

I can’t wait to read the rest. ( I am sooo outclassed)

I like simple. Here are 5 ways (plus a bonus!) I came across to live a wonderful life.

Debra Moorehead talks about overcoming negative resistance in your life.

Dawud hits another out of the park with the story of the Fisher King. If you do not tear up just a little bit, I worry about you. I probably would have all out wept if I were not such a manly bastard.

How important is your anchor text when you link? Jenn has some thoughts.

Are you a blogger, an agent of change or a writer? What do you call yourself?

What happened to personal responsibility? Steve Olson wants to know.

Lillie explains Journaling.

Wendy (and lots of the rest of us) pool our resources for our to-do-lists.

Nate talks about the pressure of blogging consistently.