It’s been far too long since I matched up two bloggers with similar interests and/or who I think would like each other so here we go – Lionel, meet Mr X, whose tagline reads:

The Sad Case Of Mr. X.

Assorted rambling of persons unnamed who somehow managed to miss out on all of the good bits in life.

And can’t spell. Or write, for that matter

Spotted via Harriet‘s comment box).

Go add a comment to Hanan Levin’s Grow A Brain – he’s aiming for 500 on this post and a commenter will be picked at random to win $100. Oh yes indeedy. Think how many plastic ducks that’ll buy! What on earth do you want rubber ducks for Daisy? Ah well, there be points. And what do points make? Prizes!

I’ve 318 rivals to the spondoolies to date but I just know I’m going to win that c-note, duck karma will intervene. Quack, quack.

Wait… let’s be certain that this is a real $100 bill we’re talking about and not a candy bar? Ah well, I could always dig out that dollar bill I have somewhere and try making a shirt.

(more…)

From Ellie: 15 Things You’ll Never Hear me Say and Ten Things You’ll Never Hear Me Say (again):

I’m normally one of those “never say never” kind of people, but there comes a time when the Anvil of Truth lands on your head and your realize some things in life have an exasperation date.

From Karan: the cuteness that is Meez.com. I signed up and started creating but just couldn’t stay “logged in” long enough to produce anything. Probably just as well. I don’t think the world is ready for Meez-Daisy.

From Mary, a gorgeous dog and our quote of the day:

The material is exquisite gold silk, costing $170 per yard – that’s a lot of dough for bug spit.

From Pewari, in See… I AM A Good Mother… Now Go Play…:

I believe that many of us come into the Stay-at-Home arena with the same expectations as the work place. I know I did – desperately trying to instill some order into an unordered world. Made myself goals and lofty “perfect mother” expectations in lieu of performance appraisals, had planned activities, felt guilty if some days I was too exhausted to do anything and just somehow muddled through with the help of a few too many children’s DVDs. Read more…

And from Joan, Don’t be Stealing my Wheels

For all I know the person living in this traditional college party apartment building needs the wheelchair and the bike and the snorkling flippers. I don’t know. I am sorry if he/she does. What I do know is that when I googled “wheelchair theft hospital” 769,000 entries showed up. Aaargh!

And finally

This is silly but rather clever. If you type http://xxx.justgotowned.com/ (substitute the xxx with your name, make it xxx.xxx if it’s two words such as mad.musings) you’ll get a generated flash movie featuring your good self. To whit: daisy just got owned.

My bad, as the young ‘uns say, I’ve been meaning to post this for ages but logging on to Flickr just now reminded me that Gia has set up a Flickr group called “Catching Sunshine:

“…and thought it would be great idea to try and get everyone to start taking pictures of themselves, their friends, their family ‘catching sunshine’ ie a photo of you holding the Sun, kissing the Sun, kicking the Sun, drinking the Sun…”

Go read Gia’s post for some great tips then get snapping!

[Gia’s blog seems to be down at the minute, keep trying, I’m sure it’ll be back up soon.]

Mr D4D, aka Lyle has been busy with a great new site, Where’s-Good.com. Eaten at a good restaurant lately? Found a wonderful new store? Go tell the internet about it. Sign-up is fast and easy and you get the chance to alert or warn others of good/bad service. Methinks Blue Witch should be over there like a shot. All the current reviews are for UK establishments but I’d love to see your tales of fantastic meals in far flug places – let’s see who can post the first non Brit review, eh?

Mr Wibble, aka Ian, is concentrating more on his wonderful photography (hooray!) and has moved to a new Moonfruit home. Linking to individual pictures isn’t possible which is probably just as well else I’d be linking to dozens of my favourites, the portraits especially.

I Dig Mandarin

Thank you for adding your details to the Frappr Blogaday map, there’s room for plenty more, hint, hint. Award for coolest avatar* goes to Graeme, award for actually adding the date of your birthday goes to very few of you. Are you shy? You don’t have to put the year, honest, just the date.

But I think Andew’s right, Frappr’s not perfect for this, we need an ajaxy programming guru to step forward and identify her/himself. Think of the fame! The fortune! Well, maybe not the fortune, us bloggers expect everything to be free but don’t you think it’s a great project that would be hugely popular? Me too.

* Talking of avatars, I’ve been slaving over a hot computer to produce my own – what do you think?

WordPress 2.0.2

In other news, my brother’s here visiting, was due to go back home today but has developed a nasty bout of stomach flu so I’m donning a nurse’s cap to apply cold flannels to his fevered brow. Or not. But I’ve set him up with a domain name, hosting and WordPress 2.0.2 and he has joined the ranks of the shirker blogger community. Now you’d think I’d be linking to him post haste, no? Hmm, until he gets the whole anonymity concept I’m afraid that’s a big fat No. Sorry bruv.

I started the upgrade process to WP 2.0.2 for here but the Fantastico section with my hosting is temporarily borked so I’ll try and find time to do a manual update this week. I’m not sure I like the new Intelligent text formatting and found myself switching to the html popup window to edit links and such.

Geezers United: The Online Presence Of Tom Lunt
I ate how many bratwurst last night?

Sometimes you come across a blog and think “Yeah, I’m really glad that this person is writing”.

Tom Lunt has a tumour. A brain tumor the size of a golf ball. Happily it’s a benign tumor and not life-threatening but he’ll be having surgery in late March to get rid of it.

And he wants you to give the beggar a name. I don’t think you’ll be in a mad rush to claim the prize but fear ye not, I just know that Percy’s gonna win. Hands down…

• Go congratulatee Mr Sevitz.
• It’s a serious subject but Gordon has an excellent tongue-in-cheek response.
• Oh and another one from Gordon, this time on book covers that I think Leah will enjoy.
• Razorhead in a reflective mood in Look how far we’ve come.
• Catch up with David’s adventures in north east China.

I know, it’s well past the 8th of March, International Women’s Day but in my defence I (a) thought yesterday was the 8th and (b) had an unexpected encounter with a lost dog (more later). And besides, there is no time limit on appreciating and celebrating talented bloggers.

On then with part 2 – wordsmiths.

1. Toni at Electric Mist – not only do I love reading her journal, I’m saving up to buy Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? and I can’t wait for the publication of the first (of three!) Bobbie Faye novels next year.
2. There’s wonderful poetry and photography from Sharon at Watermark.
3. I realised with horror that I’d not visited Estella for far too long. One the plus side, that means I’ve oodles of archives to enjoy. On the minus side, that makes me a bad blogger. But she’s still making me laugh out loud. Go enjoy.
4. Oh and if we’re talking about laughing out loud, I don’t need to remind you that Pam will frequently tickle your funny bone?
5. One of these days I’m going to get home to Wales for the weekend and take Daisy-Winifred up on her offer of a cup of tea and a natter in the gloriousness that is the Brecon Beacons. Until then I’ll continue to enjoy her writing and shared soppiness over all things canine.
6. Then there’s Ellie at This is my body, this is my blood and
7. Susan at Spinning.
8. While any woman who has any knowledge of infertility everyone will laugh/cry/wish they could write with just 1% of the talent of Julie at A Little Pregnant.

And now for the bit I seem to have inadvertently deleted before I went swanning off to lunch…

1. I love reading Harriet’s snippets of London life. It doesn’t make me want to live there again though.
2. Mindy at The Mommy Blog. Nuff said.

I’m sure there were a couple more, or maybe I put them into another category. Well look, if you’re on the hunt for great writing from women bloggers, check the list there on the right and over here in a list of great blogs.

[tags]International, Women’s Day, writers[/tags]