by Cheryl Mathis on December 3rd, 2008
Almost every morning, I spend a good deal of time on my laptop. I check my email, write something nice to my mom, start plurking, and read all of the updated local blogs on my list. I don’t “twitter” every single blog that updates, but nearly all of them. If you don’t have time to check out all of the links I find for you every day, here’s your alternative. Blogs You Should Know will let you know the best blog posts from the last few days.
Dr Rent thinks the speed trailer on Franklin St is poorly placed.
I have a hard time finding sympathy for people who speed in residential zones, but even I agree with him on the “going uphill” struggle. But again…. Please don’t speed in residential areas. Children make stupid decisions sometimes… like running out between parked cars. Be prepared for the unexpected, and it’s impossible to do that if you are going 40 in a 25.
Jayna Hintz at Woodson Wanderings has lots of little moments of joy in her life at work.
I had joy when I pulled the brownies out of the oven and when my daughter squealed at the Christmas lights. Later on, I had a laughter party with my kids while we were driving to the store. Laughter for the sake of noise, followed by a myriad peal of giggles and guffaws at the silliness of our laughter.
It reminds me of random acts of kindness and the thrill that gives. One year, I felt bad for a bell ringer outside of Fleet Farm on a night when it was near or below zero. I brought him a hot chocolate from McDonalds. I felt like I had won the lottery. So it is when you pull out bits of joy from the tapestry of your day.
Ann Liebmann shares a couple of her fallback recipes.
Once again, I feel stymied by my limited pantry. Someday I’ll have the funds to keep sun-dried tomato pesto in my cupboard. My fallback recipes usually include cream of mushroom soup and noodles. Let’s also not forget the constant “surprise” of scrambled eggs and hashbrowns on my dinner table more than once a week.
Do you have fallback recipes? My mom makes a concoction she calls American spaghetti. Or chipped beef on toast. Or a chicken casserole. Or a beef stew. Some days, it’s as basic as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with our house.
Katie Rosenberg gives a melange of political tales, from a hunting Joe McCarthy to a pithy ad campaign.
The grandma story is my favorite. I think I’d spit out my cranberry sauce if my relative started spouting off memories like those.
It reminds me of some of my favorite college professors who would go on tangents about random events in their lives. All of a sudden they are name-dropping or describing something really spectacular. I’m left stunned and a little depressed at the ordinary-ness of my own life sometimes.
MsMamma transforms an innocent-looking child into a flying monkey.
Adorable… and more than a little creepy. A must-see photo again from this first-class photographer and blogger. Flying monkeys are cute, but come on. That’s scary! I love her photos, though. You should really add MsMamma to your blog reader.
428CJ describes the result of an ethics study of today’s teenagers.
Hmmm. It leads into fuzzy territory. I’m relatively certain I never cheated on a test in high school, but I lied to my parents lots. Stealing is absolutely wrong, cheating is abhorrent. Lying is unfortunate in the best of times.
What are you opinions on these issues? Where do you fall on the ethical fence?
Growing up, my cardinal rule was that I shouldn’t do anything I could get in trouble for. Add hormones and teenage drama to the mix, and that cardinal rule only held in certain academic situations, but it’s still something that comes back to me. The still small voice.
Chris Conley rebuts Mercutio’s diatribe against WSAU’s programming choices.
If you want an alternative to NPR, you listen to conservative talk radio. I personally love Catholic radio. It’s a delicious palate cleanser. I listened to a lot of Rush Limbaugh growing up in my parents’ house, and I still turn him on once in a while. Maybe it’s a matter of knowing what the opposition is talking about.
Keith U thinks that bike booties are the bestest things ever.
They certainly are … um … cute. But whatever works. Those serial-killer full face masks are also ridiculous looking, but so necessary. I enjoyed a lot of winter activities a lot more after I got one in high school. I don’t have one now because I fear it would frighten my children.
Speaking of which, I saw the dear bird girl walking down the street this morning, and she was wearing one of those face masks. See? It’s not just downhill skiers, and there is very little excuse for not walking when it’s cold outside.
by Citizen Wausau on September 9th, 2008
We must be out of the summer doldrums, because we have had a flurry of activity on the CW personal blogs. It is my pleasure to showcase a few, with the understanding that these links are merely a sampling, and that in fact you should be spending lots and lots of time exploring the Citizen Wausau community:
• I really feel it’s necessary to start off this week with a shout-out to the Green Bay Packers News blog, because the football season is upon us.
• Our own politicalactorvist, now a freshman at UW-Eau Claire, has a close call where he temporarily thinks an old friend died in a car crash. They didn’t, but the kid who did really, really did not have to.
• With his movie premiere completed, the soon-to-be-Baltimorean Erik takes a moment to consider the work that went into it, and to write a bit about what it feels like to have a chance to step back and watch it as an audience member.
• Tom Neal gears up for a radio show of protest songs with some thoughts on the form and a call for requests for his Thursday-night show.
• And dcvoterboy considers the state of parking and policy in downtown Wausau.
by Citizen Wausau on September 3rd, 2008
All right everyone, now is the time to get serious. Enough of the fun and frivolity. It is time for LINKS:
• The wonderful and talented Andy Laub – actor, designer, coding monkey, singer, player of Rock Band – has solved a problem that has dogged CW for some time, which is the preponderance of fake-people who want to start fake-blogs dedicated to spamming you and everyone around you. Current real-person bloggers are unaffected, and future real-person bloggers need only undergo a short validation period and then will be set loose into the wide world, where you want to be. (more…)
by Citizen Wausau on August 12th, 2008
Your Voice took a week off last week but we are back in the groove again, and really it is easy because there is so much good stuff being posted in the CW personal blogs:
• Cheryl Mathis has a playground workout that probably lots of us could benefit from. I think she should put out a line of videos.
• Welcome to the new blogger Stephenie and her blog “Adventures of a Midwest Sound Girl.” I’d expect a Midwest sound girl to have some pretty interesting adventures, so it will be fun to hear updates on bands she sees and other aspects of the Audio Life. For instance, I have a question, why are bands always asking for more vocals in the monitor? The vocal levels are fine, just chill out already with the asking for more vocals in the monitor, okay?
• Soundtrack news on Erik’s movie.
• Less word-posts, more pictures of puppydogs. That is what this place needs.
• Our own politicalactorvist has been to the United States Student Association’s Summer Congress and even drafted a resolution of some sort.
• And Billie of the “A Stable Personality” blog reflects rather poetically on the physical aftermath of all that hay-stacking.
by Citizen Wausau on July 29th, 2008
I am having a hard time coming up with a good intro. But there is a lot of very interesting reading for one and all in CW’s personal blogs this week:
• Working with hay bales is hard work, man, if you have done it you know it is no joke. On the “A Stable Personality” blog, Billie tells a nice, warm story about stacking hay bales with friends, and about stacking hay bales as a random act of kindness.
• christopher thinks about technology and connectedness, and ponders severing the cord.
• The first-ever Green Bay Packers News podcast! The man is a natural.
• A near-crash, followed by a real crash, a pursuit, and a breathalyzer test. Stephenie writes about the consequences of underage drinking and driving, and about how police choose to apply punishment.
• And an update from politicalactorvist, who tells us that he is switching from the “actor” side to the political for a little while.
by Citizen Wausau on July 14th, 2008
You want personal blog content? We’ve got your personal blog content right here, pal. You might think that everyone would have been too busy over the past week getting ready for Chalkfest and Ribfest and sweating the Brett Favre saga to post in their blogs, but you would be so wrong if you thought that. Here is this week’s dose of the delightful, the debonair, the devilish and destructive and delicious CW personal blogs section:
• The Green Bay Packers News blog considers the “Hottest Chicks in Sports.” Personally I am much too high-minded to enjoy such a thing and would never, ever click on a link like that. Consider its inclusion here a test of your character. Whatever you do don’t click the link.
• Dino is wearing cool sunglasses again, and other milestones.
• Tom Neal has songs about rain. I would add Missy Elliott’s incredibly good breakout hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to his playlist.
• Alex Tallitsch is wondering about many things in a reflective post that I believe we can all relate to. Except for the one about wondering whether he likes cats anymore. What’s not to like? Cats are the best.
• And new blogger Chris Mathis – welcome Chris! – encountered a driver who does not understand the concept of sharing and really, really could use a refresher on some basic rules of the road. This exciting post includes an obscene gesture!
by Citizen Wausau on July 7th, 2008
Welcome, one and all. We hope everyone had a fun, safe, relaxing, exciting, rejuvenating, sexy, delicious, productive, mind-expanding holiday weekend. As you may or may not know, Citizen Wausau’s many dedicated bloggers neither vacation nor take a day or even an hour off, so singular is their focus on providing the best possible blogs for you, the internet citizen and CW reader. The following links are a mere sampling of the wonders contained herein:
• Cheryl links to a truly delightful video that will restore your faith in humanity, as it does hers and her husband’s. In the most far-flung international settings imaginable, a guy does a funny dance for the camera, and he invites others who gather to do a funny dance for the camera, too. It is a beautiful thing.
• Erik is ramblin’ on:
I’m leaving you Wausau, it’s not you, it’s me.
In all seriousness it’s a bit of both. I want something Wausau can’t give me: a career in narrative film. While I had a lot of great support from the community to make Microcosm, my landlord just doesn’t take great support to pay the bills. Sadly, I have to go to where the jobs are, where the connections can be made and where I can get paid to get creative rather than spray video. That’s not to say that I haven’t had plenty of opportunities to be creative as a photojournalist. But the jump from photojournalist to filmmaker is nigh impossible, especially in an area in which there are no commercial film or television productions.
• I believe country bridges are a metaphor in this post by christopher.
• Billie of “A Stable Personality” writes about learning to ride a motorcycle on a purple crotch-rocket.
• Something about some former quarterback whose name I can’t remember is occupying the discussion over at the “Green Bay Packers News” blog.
by Citizen Wausau on June 30th, 2008
This week’s installment of links to the great stuff going on in CW’s personal blogs section:
• A beautiful girl, some sort of love-triangle, someone getting out of a car wearing what appears to be a fish suit, someone getting punched in the face – all this and more in the completed trailer for forthcoming film Microcosm, courtesy of Erik’s “El Video de Wausau” blog.
• On an intense post called “Invitation to a Sexual Predator,” Alex Tallitsch tries to make contact with someone from his past. Follow-up post here.
• Billie from the “A Stable Personality” blog checks in with some updates, plus the tidbit of information that she has an Amish neighbor who picks her asparagus for her. Exploitation of the Amish? You decide…
• Jill Knetter has a song of the week, and it is…click here to find out.
• Everyone, Ben. Ben, everyone. Weeks ago he promised us “more productive” posts, but he totally hasn’t delivered. We would happily take for utterly non-productive content, if that is the stumbling block here.
by Citizen Wausau on June 23rd, 2008
This week’s installment of links to the great stuff going on in CW’s personal blogs section:
• Jill Knetter of the “View from the Stage” still loves the children’s book “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.” And who can blame her? And she is also a fan of other childish pursuits:
“I think that once in a while it’s nice to go back to things you used to enjoy. The other day I got out some sidewalk chalk and drew all over my front walk with my cousin. And you know what? It’s still fun. I drew a crappy picture of a purple cat, and I proudly (and poorly) signed my name under it. There’s nothing like leaving colorful dust all over the front of your clothes when you brush your hands off. It was like being a kid again.”
• Dino Corvino – you know Dino? – offers instructions on some very Eastern-sounding breathing methods.
• Alex Tallitsch has a helpful prompt for those who suffer from writer’s block.
• Cheryl Mathis on beating cancer.
• And the Green Bay Packers News blog is still at it with more posts that you Packers obsessives truly do seem to enjoy. What is it that you people like so much about football, when baseball is clearly the superior sport, and besides that it is summer?
by Citizen Wausau on June 16th, 2008
A lot of the action at Citizen Wausau happens on the personal blogs. Links to recent posts show up on the sidebar here on the front page, but we also wanted to call attention to the individual blogs by offering a handful of links to posts that caught our eye. This is something we hope to do weekly. So here are a few — and only a few– highlights of what Citizen Wausau users have been blogging about lately.
A few – and only a few – highlights from Citizen Wausau user blogs in the past week or so. CW rolls deep.
The Green Bay Packers News blog has been doing great obsessive off-season coverage and YouTube-pulling for the past month or so. His latest post includes some spirited ESPN-bashing and a passel of videos.
Alex Tallitsch of “The Search for Redemption” blog posted some lyrics to a rap song that were sort of personal and introspective, but then he took that post down for some reason. However, you can still read his first-person account of a fictional African safari:
As a journalist I had been assigned to cover this growing trend for the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, and one would expect that I would have been eager to document the almighty safari, a luxury usually reserved for those with considerably more wealth than me. However, having viewed any kind of hunting as nothing more than savagery, I felt my disinclination justified at the time and had remained skeptical and equally diffident right up until my ship had docked at its Kenyan port.
The “Things I Have Thought of Carefully” blog considers the manners of Wisconsinites and finds them seriously wanting.
What should Wausau be? Jane Neal offers up some thoughts on local politics and the future.
Cheryl Mathis has some personal reflections on life with children, life’s purpose, and living life with grace and kindness.
