lowcountryblogs

I am the grim reaper of blogging

Dan here, whacking URLs from The Big Blogroll like a maniac pruning an azalea...

First, transparency. Heather and I have worked out something called "The Three-Month Rule." It states: "If a blogger hasn't blogged in three months, the blog comes off The Big Blogroll." Well, here are some new rules:

2. The Three-Month Rule may be modified by a member of the Lowcountry Blogs admin staff if that staff member is unlikely to come back and cull anytime soon.

For instance, there were several bloggers who were one to two weeks shy of being three-months inactive. Not being one to stand on technicalities, I moved them over to the Inactive blogroll. So you could say that I turned the Three-Month Rule into the Two-Month Rule.

Why am I so trigger happy all the sudden? Because I can always move a blog back to the active list if the blogger comes back and starts writing again. After a year of doing this, I can tell you this is kinda rare. People who slow down and eventually go a month or two between posts are unlikely to suddenly start back up again. However, and this is important, you can always come back. Just send us an e-mail or leave us a comment so we'll know to go look at your blog again.

3a. If your blog isn't really a blog anymore, it's gone.

This one relates to Charlestonpoets.com, which was bloggy once but has since changed its format. Nice site. Not a blog.

3b. If your site is about blogs, or performs a bloggy function, or just seems useful to bloggers/blog readers, then none of those other things matter. Forget all those things I said. I was drinking at the time or something.

Lowcountry Blogroll isn't a blog. The Charleston City Paper's new staff blog aggregator isn't either. So what? Both belong here, so far as I'm concerned.

4. Blogs that aren't intended to be 12-months-a-year blogs won't be removed simply because of inactivity. Hence Storm Watch stays on the list.

Just because. It's also why I'm keeping Vera's fantasy football league blog on the list, whether it's active all the way through the off-season or not.

5. If you say you're taking a hiatus, I'm taking you at your word. We hope you'll come back, but if I'm culling and I see a recent post that says you're going on an indeterminate hiatus, I'm not waiting around for three months to take you off TBB.

Have a great week folks.

Culled blogs: Bill Hawkins; Charlestonpoets.com; Flipside; How To Live In America; Peninsula Media; Pluff Mud Love; POPVIEW; School Movement; The Armstrongs; The Triumverate; Today's Special, Unlimited Mulligans.

Afternoon bites

Chad Norman shares the first of a series on his experience with Mt. Pleasant's Relay for Life.

New Wars Mike: Carolinians for Life

Babbie has a list of questions she feels should have been answered by the Post and Courier's article on Nancy McGinley:

1. Apart from receiving a job offer here, why did you want to come to the Charleston area?
2. Now that you have resided in the Lowcountry for a few years, how have your perceptions of it changed?
3. Is it too personal to ask if you have ever been married, had children, etc.?
4. What is your opinion of the relationship that exists between the city (in particular, the mayor of Charleston) and county government and CCSD?
5. How do you intend to respond to parental and community discontent over the handling of the principal for Fraser Elementary and of the lottery for Buist Academy kindergarten slots?
6. Are you concerned that District 20 schools are de facto segregated?
7. What are your ideas about the proposed downtown charter high school and its use of the Rivers building?
8. What do you see as differences between your leadership style and that of Maria Goodloe-Johnson?

American Entropy shares comments by Zbig on the phrase "War on Terror"

Heather and Charles from Ashcan Rantings volunteered at Friday's Town Hall meeting with Barack Obama.

Do you know any military families expecting children?  Check out Operation Ultrasound and spread the word.

To market to market

Local bloggers spent time at Saturday's Farmer's Market and other produce venues. 

Al Forno captured the trip with pictures.

Syd:

I started off by going to the downtown market and walking around there. It was a happy time with a lot of flowers, produce, arts and crafts, and dogs walking around. I saw some people that I haven't seen in a while which was also good. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the warm weather and listening to music that was being played by an acoustic guitar player.

Lisa:

The produce was beautiful. The tomatoes are from Florida...it's still a little early for local ones to be out yet.....but they are real tomatoes if ya know what I mean. I was wary initially and only selected two tomatoes along with cucumber, mixed salad greens & vidalia onions. Obviously, I made a salad for lunch. It was heaven! Papa Bear liked the tomato so much that he talked Mom out of one of hers.

(Photo Credit Al Forno)

Monday, Monday, Monday

Good morning. 

You can find this shot over at Charleston Live Journal.

Jeane took some time to introduce everyone she met last Sunday at the Lowcountry Blogger meet up.

J Dub is headed back to the desert:

He yelled something at me that I couldn't understand. As I rolled down the window, I realized he wasn't selling me a paper but thanking me. He had seen me in my flight suit. He said, "Y'all are doing a great job. A great job. Tell everyone that the paper guy at the corner of Ashley Phosphate and Dorchester thinks y'all are doing a hell of a job." I couldn't do anything but thank him. I almost felt like I should buy a paper, just out of appreciation, but I didn't want to cheapen it.

Just when we start to get to know him, Kit announces a cross country move.

The City of Charleston Prohibits Motorcycle Parking in City Garages.

Patrick's friend found a t-shirt many of us can relate to.

Chuck shares more of his recent New Orleans adventure.

Tigers, self-portraits, Creatures from the Black Lagoon

Capsized!

Rev. BigDumbChimp shares an excerpt of an  interview with Bill Mahar on religion.

Pam continues her Front Door Light Moth series

(Photo credit Richard, Pam)

Friday Finals

Dan's posted this week's Friday 5.  Mr. Fun also has last week's winners and a new word find and caption contest.

Eugene wants us to check out the Charleston Wiki.

Oblivious or obstinate?

Nerd poetry.

95sx spotlights The Fire Apes.

See you Monday.

Lunchtime look

Consuela posts her semi-annual breastfeeding rant:

I reject that the cult of breastfeeding. I reject the notion that I should breastfeed because doctors say it's best. Doctors once said giving a woman a hysterectomy would make her adapt better to her role as wife and mother. Doctors once said homosexuality is a disease. Doctors let my 16-year-old mother labor alone in a maternity ward for hours because "those women just pop them out like puppies." Excuse me if take what doctors say with a grain of salt.

I also reject the notion that feeding my child from my body is my duty and makes me a good mother. The greatest benefit of formula feeding, besides allowing me to hang on to my sanity and maintain some semblance of my life apart from my children, was that it allowed my husband and our friends the opportunity to bond with my daughters in a really fundamental way.

Watch out for incoming cold fronts.

Kelly Love nurtures her inner teen. While JJ disagrees with her taste in television.

Ad asks: Are we looking at each other?

Alison questions the wisdom of repugnance:

Repugnance is a very poor marker for what we ought to do culturally. You know what a lot of men in my classes find unbelievably repugnant? So repugnant that they can almost not bear to hear it spoken of? Menstrual blood. Mention menstruation, and most of the men in the room get a little sickish looking and don’t know where to put their eyes.

GMLc is worried for the future.

Taylor rates the debate and wants to know "Who's Your Horse?"

Rev. BigDumbChimp: Daryl Hunt - My Young Ignorance

Friday Fun

Good morning, it looks as though we will have a gorgeous weekend.  Too bad it's exam season or Jared might have a chance to lose his "epic pastiness."

Geoff checks in to say "iDid!"  Congratulations Geoff and Leigh! I'm sure you'll be forgiven for the lack of webcam, eventually.

Chuck posts about his recent visit to New Orleans.

Chris nearly has a minor heart attack over website issues, but concludes with a review of The Fray's recent concert.

Vera stumbled on a fun little toy, a celebrity name generator.

What does a priest's blog look like?  Earl Capps points to his priest's Byzantine Ramblings.

I should not be allowed to read A Foodie in the Lowcountry before breakfast.  She and her husband are building a better burger.

Mike's gone Mac.

JET seems to be quite the target, both in real life and online.

Eugene points to The Dog Food Project.

More later.

(photo credits Chuck, Lowcountry Foodie)

Thursday politics

New Wars Mike: Consequences of Retreat

Saphyre Rose on drug reform:

The FDA stops the package at customs and says they can't vouch for the efficacy of the meds. Ah, who the hell asked them to?

There is no record in the US that drugs from say, Canada, have caused death or prolonged a persons suffering. This is just how tightly mounted the government is with the Pharmaceutical companies. A hose couldn't separate those coupling of Government and Lobbyists.

Babbie tackles yesterday's P&C article on the new superintendent:

Today's lead editorial in the Post and Courier, "School Board Too Quick to Act, But Give New Leader Support," separates easily into three topics: (1) the CCSD school board's willful violation of the Freedom of Information act; (2) its unseemly rush to name Nancy McGinley superintendent; and (3) the P & C's desire to lionize new member Toya Hampton Green's take on the results.

Thursday sunrise

Uncle Z ventured into his garden and took a plethora of pictures. If you are a fan of roses, pay him a visit.

Pam is hoping to inspire a new national holiday.

Some have stopped to smell the roses, but the Mustang stops to smell country stores:

The smell of the country store is not chemically defined nor is it from a single element on any shelf. It is an admixture of so many little things which live in the atmosphere of such places. As we roll down the long roads we like to stop and smell the country stores along the way.

Dave Moulton is looking for Mike Melton.

Wendy has blogger's block.

Missing: one tree

Heartless Gamer has hit a big milestone, 100,000 unique visitors.

Margo is stepping into my niche and offering some handy household advice.

(Photo Credit Uncle Z)

Quote of the day

Never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut. -- Syd