Thursday Thirteen Edition #15: Thirteen Random Thoughts for This Thursday

1. Spring

Spring is here! Hurray! As I write this, it is 70 degrees here in beautiful, sunny Northern California. The temperature is headed up this week toward the high 80’s. In my opinion, a sunny day with a temperature of about 85 is just perfect.

2. Water Aerobics

One of the benefits of the perfect weather is that water aerobics classes finally move back to the outdoor pool. Hallelujah! I am so tired of the indoor pool! The outdoor pool is much larger, 12 feet deep, as opposed to five, and, obviously, lacks the ventilation problems that are inherent with any indoor facility. That means that I won’t still smell chlorine hours after leaving the pool, as I do now, because the smell seems to permeate the cells of my body, especially those situated in my nostrils. Not to mention that my bathing suits will last longer. I can’t wait to get in that outdoor pool!

3. Upcoming Concert

Band rehearsals are again in full swing after a short breather when we returned from New York. Next concert is May 17, 2007, for the Stockton Concert Band. The theme is Broadway musicals and we are playing a nice variety of selections including a medley of Richard Rodgers tunes and compilations from “Porgy and Bess” and “Wicked.”

4. Outreach to Young Folks

A number of us in the band volunteered to perform this Saturday for a special audience: Several thousand fifth graders who will be touring the campus, listening to a motivational speaker (a former San Francisco 49’er!), etc. We will perform selections from “The Lion King” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” for them as a way of promoting arts in education and life-long learning. Should be a nice event.

5. Recommended Reading

I understand why Oprah stands in such awe and, when she speaks about him, uses words like humility, integrity, commitment, honor, respect, authenticity.

Instead of firing Don Imus, MSNBC and CBS should have required him to read the book, write a report and post it to his website, and then discuss it for at least a week on his program. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Mr. Poitier would have agreed to appear and discuss his life and writing with Imus? Wow. It could have been so powerful, so educational, so revelational . . . America is benefiting from the current dialogue, but I think it would have been more beneficial to leave his show on the air — with mandated discussions with other influential folks who could keep the discussion going and, like Mr. Poitier, serve as role models for Imus, his staff and the rest of the nation. An opportunity lost.

6. Theme Switcher

Nobody has commented about the Theme Switcher widget I installed several weeks ago! Do you like it? Which color scheme do you like best? I have more coming . . . I can’t decide which I like best, so I’m just going to upload all of them!

7. Pop Culture: Rosie

I, for one, will be sorry to see Rosie O’Donnell leave The View because it became an interesting show when she joined the line-up. I have been recording the morning broadcast and watching in the evenings or on weekends, mostly just to see what outrageous thing she will say next. I didn’t watch it before she signed on and won’t watch it once she leaves.

I know that a lot of people don’t like her because they find her crass and ill-informed about some of the topics she broaches.

While I can’t credibly argue those points, I do believe that she makes people think about important issues. If her presence back on the airwaves, sans the “My Tommy” faux-crush nonsense in which she engaged on her old daytime show, has changed one homophobe’s mind, she has, in my estimation, done a good deed that outweighs her other failings.

8. Pop Culture: The Donald

I stuck with The Apprentice to the bitter end this time around, but my kid abandoned me. We used to watch together, but he didn’t care any longer — nor did I, but I am just too stubborn to quit.

If there is another season, I will skip it unless they bring in a more interesting group of candidates or come up with a better gimmick than humiliating grown up professionals by banishing them to a tent in the backyard of a mansion. That’s all they could come up with? Puhleeez! When they announced that “twist,” I told my kid, “I would have been out of there that night.” My idea of camping is a second-rate hotel. I don’t do tents and I wouldn’t lower myself to sleep in one as part of any “interview,” no matter how much the job paid. It’s not professional, it’s not something that is expected in the real world of business for which those folks are supposedly auditioning, and it sure didn’t heighten the audience’s viewing pleasure.

9. Pop Culture: The Sopranos

The Sopranos are back on the air every Sunday evening. Life is good. These episodes were worth waiting for!

Yes, I know there are only six episodes left. I refuse to think about that. Like Scarlett O’Hara, I will think about that another day.

And no, I don’t want to hear your theory about how the show is going to end. Why? See above. I refuse to believe it is ending. But if Tony Soprano died . . . oh, jeez . . . fuhgetabout it, ok?

By the way, I was kind of surprised that nobody commented on my photo. Did you miss it?

10. Technorati Favorites Exchange

Click on the link in the lower right sidebar to add “Colloquium” to your favorites! I will reciprocate!

11. “Do Follow” Comments

“Do follow” is the new blogroll over at Tricia’s Musings. If, like me, you have removed the “no follow” code from your Blogger template (you can read how to do that here) or installed the Do Follow WordPress plugin, the comments left on your blog will count as backlinks for search engine ranking purposes. So leave a comment for Tricia, telling her that you are part of the “Do Follow” movement and add the blogroll to your site.

Simultaneously, there’s another campaign that I discovered at Randa Clay Design and a couple of other blogs. She has this cool graphic there that you can display in your sidebar. Nobody tagged me . . . I just decided to participate. I grabbed these instructions from another site:

***Begin to copy here***

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post introducing the program and including a link back to the blog that added your blog to the list. This is mandatory, not optional, because we are all doing this to benefit each other. Not only does it help eliminate so much duplicate content being posted all over the blogosphere, it is only fair: That blogger added your blog to the list, so the least you can do is give them credit via that link back.

2. Copy the list of original blogs set forth below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog, change it when you publish your post. That keyword should not disturb the linking system.

3. Move the blogs listed as “adds” in the original post where you picked up these instructions (that would be here) and add them to the list of “Originals.”

4. Add at least one new blog that you KNOW is using the Do Follow plugin (WordPress) or has removed the “nofollow” attribute from its template (Blogger) to the list entitled “Blogs Added.” (Add no more than five!) Then inform those bloggers that you have added their blogs to the list, so that they can, in turn, keep the list going.

5. Leave relevant comments on the blogs listed and get a link back to your site from each thanks to “Do Follow”!

Blogs Added:

YOURS!

“Tag . . . you’re it!”

And just to make it more enticing, the first five of you who 1) leave a comment here saying that you have joined the “Do Follow” brigade and 2) add “Colloquium” to your Technorati favorites will get the top left corner of “Colloquium” for one full week without even having to rent it through Blog Explosion since they have apparently been having major problems with their new servers. (I have given up rentals until those issues are resolved. Several folks tried to rent “Colloquium” and I tried to rent space on several blogs with no success . . . just an annoying error message.)

You’ll get the same benefit: I will create and install a screenshot of your front page with a link to your blog and introduction!

Now that’s a pretty great offer, don’t you think?

Original List:

GeekySpeaky
Simple Kind Of Life
3DayMom
BuyMeBlog
The Hockey Dad
Midlife Musings
Utterly Geek
Whatever I Feel Like
My Dandelion Patch
Surviving NJ
BizMark Tech
Two Dog Zoo
TDZ Travel
Body, Mind & Solar
MidLifeMusings
HomeBizBlogger
Confessions of a Housewife
Andy Beard
Randa Clay Design
Solo Technology
Fuzzy FutureThe Blog of Frucomerci.com
On the Horizon
Angel Food Cake Isn’t A Candle
The Magical Rose Garden
I’m Not Just a Mom . . . I’m a Home Mom
Sophistishe

12. “Interview Me” — C’mon, you know you want to!

There’s a new meme that’s catching on called “Interview Me.” Did you read my first foray into this new venture?

It couldn’t be simpler. All you have to do is leave a comment saying “Interview Me!” I will then visit your blog so that I can spend some time reading your work and getting to know you. Then I will e-mail five questions to you. You post your answers, along with a link back to “Colloquium.”

Additionally, you must add “Colloquium” to your Technorati favorites. I’m throwing this requirement in. Why? Because I spend a significant period of time reviewing your blog and formulating questions that I hope you will find thoughtful and thought-provoking and inspire you to write interesting and insightful responses for your readers’ edification. So I think a mutual link exchange is fair.

13. One Day Blog Silence

Last but not least, don’t forget that this Monday, April 30, 2007, will be the One Day Blog Silence to honor and pay tribute to the VTech victims and all victims of senseless violence, including those murdered at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton (15 miles from here) in 1989.

Ironically, among the selections The Delta Winds performed at Carnegie Hall was “An American Elegy,” written by Frank Ticheli in tribute to the Columbine victims. Turn up the volume, close your eyes, and take a couple minutes to listen using the small ipod in the upper left corner. While you’re doing that, say a prayer to the deity, Higher Power or god of your personal belief system and send good vibrations out to those who remain behind to mourn. Ask that this be the last such tragedy. Ever.

Thanks for visiting “Colloquium.” Have a peaceful and productive Thursday!

Thursday Thirteen