May 27, 2007

Postie Carnival!

Welcome to the Postie Carnival! Our theme is “Neighborhood Happenings.” Visit your blogging neighbors and get to know their little corners of the world.

Themed entries

Corrin shares the biggest and best news in her neighborhood in We got hitched! posted at CorrinRenee’s Xanga. Congratulations Corrin and Mike!

Karen tolerates a bad neighbor in Darn Bagworms posted at Clutzy’s Cliutzes.

Kat has no tolerance for her bad neighbor in Different neighbors, more drama. posted at My Single Mom Life.

Lisa is a little miffed at a local politician in Todd Stroger Vs. The Media posted at My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings.

Cecile Pryor is worried about political fallout in Town Council posted at Work At Home Musings.

Cynthia Blue wants us to know that her part of Utah can be pretty laid back in In My Neighborhood posted at Luna Tail.

Suni and her son will be up in the air In my Neighborhood: The Millville Airshow posted at Bucket O’ Bulletz.

Amy compares then and now in The Neighborhood posted at Whatever I Feel Like.

Martin is all wet but missed his chance to hang out with the rich and famous in The President Swam Here? posted at TotalDismay.com.

Pelf thinks we should get all wet (among other things) in Come and visit Malaysia! posted at pelf-ism is contagious.

InvestorBlogger has business on his mind and tasty food in hand in Markets in Taiwan: Home of many small businesses posted at InvestorBlogger.

Skeet (that’s me!) shows how locals relax in Weekend in Maili here at Skeet’s Stuff.

Off-topic:

Stephanie shows her creative side in Not Your Average Flower Pot posted at Stop the Ride!.

Anco offers practical advice in Tipskey - Unlock Practicality No School Is Teaching posted at Tipskey - Unlock Practicality.

Beno Varghese presents Get paid to review posts on this site! posted at Beno Varghese dot-com.

The Israeli Speculator presents The Most Bang For The Buck Technique With Options posted at Israeli Speculator

Zenofeller presents The hundred dollar idea. posted at zenofeller.com

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of postie carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

[tags]blog carnival, neighborhood events, neighborhoods, Postie Casrnival[/tags]

Weekend in Maili

Maili Beach Park underwent a transformation on Friday. Park maintenance crews mowed and groomed the almost-empty green stretch early in the day. Around pau hana time* trucks began to arrive and were unloaded. Party tents were assembled. Tables, chairs, decorations and drink coolers were soon set in order. It was time to relax and begin the weekend.

Horseshoes and kites are the order of the day ……

…. and getting wet is always an agreeable option.

Someone has to feed the masses, and someone must keep them safe, so a few folks have to work while others play.

There are always a few who have nothing at all to do ….

… but doing nothing is a pretty important part of local life. The work week will return soon enough. The park will probably be more crowded tomorrow for Memorial Day. After dark the tents and supplies will be packed away and the wide green lawns will seem to spread out once more … until next weekend.

These photos were taken over the course of the weekend. The crew setting up the tent in the top photos were preparing to celebrate a graduation. In a display of local hospitality they invited me to attend the festivities even though we had just met. I had to decline, but I’ll share a luau with you one of these days.

*pau (pronounced “pow”) = finished, done, over with; hana = work, labor. You trudge through Friday thinking “TGIF.” We celebrate and try to gett off early because it’s “pau hana Friday!”

Self Portrait Sunday for May 27, 2007

All day long I’ve been feeling like I was forgetting something. I was getting ready to go to the beach park to take some picture, then made a quick run to the store when I remembered. It’s Self-Portrait Sunday! So I grabbed my camera and went ahead with what I was doing. Here you have it! If you want to see who else got prettied up today you’ll have to go over to Digi-Cass to find out.

[tags]self portrait, Self Portrait Sunday, photos[/tags]

Posted by skeet @ 3:03 pm • Photos, Meme • 5 comments  

Hidden garden

Join

One of the nicest aspects of what I do is that I get to go to different sites every workday. You would think that after twelve years I’d have seen everything there is to see on this relatively small island, but that’s just not so. I found this wonderful little jungle/garden sitting, like its own small green island, in between the parking lots for a condo complex and a restaurant.

Blue ginger looking shy and delicate, though it’s really quite hardy.

I need to learn more about the lobster-claw-looking heliconia. Don’t they look as if they must surely come from another planet?

The centerpiece of this little jungle is the magnificent banyan. I knew I wanted to use this garden for a GTS post when I took the pictures, but the banyan is so marvelous I had to share it the day I found it. I think it’s worthy of more than one post.

I wouldn’t oridinarily mentiton a sponsored post to my GTS visitors, but take a peek below. I put the Home Depot Garden Club right there because I think a lot of you will be interested. There’s a very nice gardening encyclopedia and plant care guide in addition to the features I mentioned in the post. It’s free to join. US-centric, but still a nice reference for any gardener.

[tags]gardening, jungle, Hawaii, tropical garden, photos[/tags]

May 26, 2007

Home Depot Garden Club

I love my Home Depot. Most of the materials and fixtures for my remodel came from there. It’s their garden shop that I love the most, though. I bought the sod for my lawn there last week while my son was in town and could help me put it in. The plants in my yard that didn’t come from cuttings and neighbor’s gardens all came from Home Depot. The personnel there are always able to answer my questions and I love that they stock more native Hawaiian plants than any of the other graden shops on the island. You can imagine, then, how pleased I was to find out that they now have a free Garden Club. I’ve just signed on today and am looking forward to getting my first newsletter and some special offers.

Online benefits include an interactive map for your own region and a lot of other helpful features, plus access to the Garden Club Community which contains:

Message Boards
Ask an Expert
Question and Answer Library
Events Calendar
Regional Gardening Reports
Refer A Friend
E-Cards
Wallpaper

You don’t have to have a Home Depot right up the road like I do to take avantage of the free Home Depot Garden Club, so click the link above sign up today. You garden will thank you!

[tags]gardening, Home Depot Garden Club, online newsletters[/tags]

Bloggerwave redux

New chapters seem to be developing daily in the Bloggerwave saga. I was one of many bloggers who posted a warning in recent days that the company appeared to be in trouble and might even be perpetrating a scam on bloggers. I still don’t know what is going on with Bloggerwave, but, having devoted space to airing their problems, I think it’s only fair to post what’s known of their side of the story. Yesterday I finally received payment for the post I did for them on April 8th. Other bloggers also report being paid in the last twenty-four hours. This morning I discovered that they had posted a comment in answer to my more recent post concerning the possibility of fraud. Others got a similar message, and Ulrik Thomsen, CEO of Bloggerwave, posted a more explanatory comment on Daryl Lau’s blog, which had posted several warnings. They are now attempting to explain themselves and communicate to the blogging community.

When Bloggerwave was first introduced, many of us noted that their website and their presentations to bloggers and advertisers were taken almost word for word from the Payperpost website. We had been getting teasers from PPP that “something big is coming” and some of us leapt to the conclusion that Bloggerwave would be announced as the European arm of PPP. Those conclusions were laid to rest when Ted Murphy, CEO of Payperpost, answered our questions at a townhall meeting. Ted stated definitively that Bloggerwave was not associated with Payperpost and that his represntatives were researching whether there was legal cause to pursue Bloggerwave for unauthorized use of their materials. I was one of the many bloggers who decided at that point not to continue an association with Bloggerwave. Whether of not PPP has cause for legal recourse, the fact that Bloggerwave had appropriated someone else’s creative material was enough for me. I have no desire to work for someone who would take another’s creative work, nor would I trust them to deal fairly with me.

The payment date for my post for Bloggerwave came and went with no money received. A couple of bloggers did receive payment. Many didn’t. Some wrote to them reqesting their money, while others chose to watch and wait. I decided that I would not actively pursue further contact with the compqany but would accept payment if it was forthcoming. Distrust and anger had already reached a boiling point when, last week, PayPal rescinded some payments that had been sent out. Their communications to bloggers seemed to indicate that Paypal suspected Bloggerwave was involved in fraudulent activities. PayPal’s actions motivated many of us to post warnings to other bloggers. Having posted Bloggerwave’s recruitment announcements, we felt an obligation to advise our readers that working for the company might not be a good investment of one’s time.

Now that Bloggerwave has finally broken their silence, we all await the newsletter promised by Ulrik Thomsen. What can he possibly say or do that will repair the damage done? Assuming that the rescinded payments were a PayPal mistake and not fraud by Bloggerwave, is there a way to salvage the company’s reputation and set them back on their feet? There are things I believe they need to do in order to rescue themselves.

1. Bloggerwave needs to scrap their entire website and start over. They want to sell advertising. Effectiveness in the advertising marketplace is built on originality and creative input. They’ve shown none.

2. They need to “make things right” with Payperpost. Whether their intent was theft or imitation, there is no denying that Bloggerwave used materials that do not belong to them. They need to apologize and promise to play nice in the future.

3. They need to establish clear lines of communcation with their bloggers. Many of the bloggers involved sent numerous emails requesting payments for the work they performed for Bloggerwave. None that I am aware of ever received an answer. A single explanatory email sent out to their entire blogging force could have quelled the rising tide of discontent. The reaction to their silence can be found by doing a Google search for “Bloggerwave scam” or “Bloggerwave fraud.” Lack of communication may have been their costliest mistake and may have sounded their death knell.

4. They need to get the money right. Whatever their method of payment, it must be tested and verified before they contract for a single future post. There are tens of thousands of hungry bloggers who want to blog for pay. Many will quickly dismiss past history if the money is forthcoming.

This story is far from over. The ball is in Bloggerwave’s court. Their next move will determine whether or not the game continues.

Edit: Brett has published some new infromation about the Bloggerwave/PayPal situation.

[tags]blog advertising, Bloggerwave, blogging, blogging scandal, paid blogging[/tags]

Spider story continues

My spider continues to keep house outside the lanai. I’ve learned a little more about her since I first posted her picture a few days ago. Apparently she is Argiope appensa, which was introduced to Hawaii, probably from Guam. The brown tree snake has decimated the bird population on Guam and numerous insect and arachnoid populations have grown explosively due to the lack of avian predation. Despite vigorous enforcement of quarantine protocols, unwanted aliens manage to slip into Hawaii via ships, planes and containers. My visitor is still safe with me, but I may have to ship her off to a vacation home Orlando if she finds a mate. She can produce many thousands of eggs. One is okay, but I’m not interested in playing hostess to a mob. Their bite can be very painful, though their venom is relatively harmless to humans.

A. appensa, by the way, was the stand-in for the Medusa spider that paralyzed Nikki and Paulo in the Expose’ episode of Lost. Latrodectus, the genus referred to in that episode, does indeed carry a venomous neurotoxin. That genus includes the widow spiders. For some reason it was decided not to use the real Latrodectus in filming the program. The stabilimenta, those denser sections of the web, serve an unknown function for at least seventy-eight known species of spiders. Apparently the stabilimenta are at the center of raging controversy among arachnologists, many of whom have a pet theory as to their function. If I ever stumble across a definitive answer I’ll be sure to share it with you.

[tags]Argiope appensa, Hawaii, Hawaii spiders, photos, spider[/tags]

May 25, 2007

The Symposium

I told you yesterday that the nice Lady Joana and I didn’t have much in common. I also mentioned that I was only just getting to know her, and I’m glad I’ve continued to do that. I’ve learned through exploring The Symposium that we have more in common than I knew. We both seem to have an insatiable thirst to read, and will read rubbish if good books aren’t available. I think Joana also shares my unfortunate inability to put a book down unfinished, even when it’s deplorably written, as she’s managed to write some scathing reviews of books that she found poorly written and without merit.

I’m a fan of well-written vampire and supernatural creature books and Joana has reviewed a few with enough skill to let me know that I need to look them up. I’m especially fond of series books within that genre, and take great enjoyment in watching characters develop and mature as events unfold in their ongoing stories. I’ll be looking out for the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison, with which I’ve not previously been acquainted. Joana has found these books to be populated with intriguing characters having complex relationships that draw the readers into their lives. I especially appreciated the comparison to Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series because I, too, have been annoyed at Hamilton’s habit of not tying up loose ends in succeeding stories. Joana and I both understand and appreciate that even books based entirely on fantasy need realism and continuity to hold their readers. I expect to find that in Harrison’s books. Mahalo, Joana, for steering me towards them.

There’s some amazingly good children’s and young adult literature being produced these days. I’m a little sad for readers who fail to recognize this and deprive themselves of some really great reading experiences. I discovered Cornelia Funke a couple of years ago and was enthralled with her Inkheart and The Thief Lord. I’m therefore inclined to want to be skeptical of Joana’s less-than-stellar impression of Dragon Rider, but only because I want Ms. Funke to have continued with the exemplary writing she exhibited in earlier works. Joana’s reviews seem to be well-balanced and content-based rather than swaying to personal expectations, so I’ll try to follow her example and keep an open mind with this one.

I’ve only spent an hour or so nibbling at the delectables offered at The Symposium. I’m liking what I’ve found so far and highly recommend that discerning readers take a look at what Joana has to say. She’s an astute pragmatist when it comes to dissecting and rating the books she’s delved into and I think you’ll respect her views and come away with a few new titles scribbled on your wish list.

[tags]books and literature, book reviews, book blogs[/tags]

Fresh food from Florida

Hee hee! My friend TW is going to love this. She works at UF and does webby things with their agricultural newsletters and technical papers. She always shares new stuff with me, because she knows that the pest control industry plays an integral role in protecting our agricultural development and food supply. (I’m a pest control operator, if any of you don’t know that yet.) She and I are both kind of geeky about things like that, so I know she’ll appreciate this video as much as I do!

I have another interest in what goes on with fresh foods from Florida, too. I like to buy fresh produce from our little local growers, but Hawaii is a very small state with a large and hungry population. Most of our food is shipped in because it’s just not possible to grow enough here in the islands. When you come visit me (you are coming for a visit, aren’t you?) you’ll find fresh food from Florida in my fridge and on my table. I’m glad they grow so much that they can share so generously, and glad to acknowledge their contribution through this sponsored post. Not so crazy about the noisy race cars (that’s the old, crotchety part of me emerging,) but fresh food from Florida is worth celebrating, so just this once let’s Rev It Up with Fresh from Florida Racing!

[tags]Florida agriculture, Florida food crops, Florida racing, YouTube[/tags]

Postie Carnival is coming!

I’m so excited that I’ll be hosting the next Postie Carnival! Submissions are due by 6:00 p.m. Sunday so I can pull it all together for publication. Try for earlier if you can, please. Postie’s are such great writers and have so much diversity to offer, so I’m looking forward to a lot of good reading!

The theme is neighborhood events. You define your own neighborhood, be it a single block or a whole city. You define “events.” Whatever is going on that is important to you or makes a good story, share it with us, please! After you make your post, go to the Blog Carnival submissions page and click on the orange button to make your submission. I’ll take it from there. All you have left to do is to make sure you check back here on Monday so you can see who entered and what they have to say!

What’s that you say? What’s a Postie? Posties are the smart bloggers who get paid to post about the things they love at Payperpost. We’d love to have you join us. You can do that right now by clicking on the purple badge right over there on my right sidebar. That will take you to a spot where you can register with Payperpost. Then you’ll be a postie too, and I’ll give you star billing in the Postie Carnival when it runs right here on skeet’s stuff on Monday, May 28th! Hope to see you there!

[tags]blog carnivals, blogs, carnivals, payperpost, posties, Postie Carnival[/tags]