My three year old daughter came home from nursery school the other day and said to me: ‘Mummy, you’re brown, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I said, wondering if we were about to have the race discussion a few years earlier than expected.
‘And I’m brown, aren’t I?’ she continued. I said yes again.
‘But Daddy’s not brown, is he?’ ‘No,’ I said.
‘What’s Daddy, then?’ she asked.
Trying to buy some thinking time, I asked her: ‘What do you think Daddy is?’
This is the ninth of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
Misery by Stephen King
Paul Sheldon, a writer, crashes his car and is taken prisoner by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. She reads his latest manuscript and doesn’t like it. So she burns it and forces him to write a new one. For my money, this is one of King’s best books. I was a fan in my teens (Carrie, The Stand, the Shining), fell out of love with the Green Mile series and have recently started reading him again, but Misery is one I’ve gone back to a few times. The relationship between writer and reader and the novel within a novel make this a compelling tale. And now that I’ve become a full-time writer myself, I plan to read it again.
This is the eighth of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson; illustrated by Alex Scheffler
This is a story I discovered recently when it was given to my (then) one-year-old as a birthday present. It is a rhythmical tale of how a small mouse outwits his would-be predators by inventing a monster called the Gruffalo. When the Gruffalo turns up behind him, he gets quite a shock, but soon turns this to his advantage, showing the Gruffalo (who is walking behind him) that all the other creatures are afraid of him. He thus makes it safely back home and scares the Gruffalo away. This is one of my daughter’s books that I can read with her over and over again, without getting tired of it. It’s also such a good book (see my review) that I’ve been giving it to all the children I know as gifts. That’s why it’s on this list.
This is the seventh of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The story of Celie who is abused by her father then married off to an equally abusive husband, Mister, is told through her letters to her lost sister Nettie. Celie recounts her pain at the loss of her children and sister and bewilderment at some of the events of her life. When Mister introduces his new love Shug Avery into the household, Celie’s transformation begins. Shug helps her to find a sense of self. The Black English vernacular takes some getting used to but it is worth persisting because this is a remarkable tale of triumph over severe adversity. Walker’s Possessing The Secret of Joy, the tale of Nettie’s life in Africa is also worth a read, though it’s not for the fainthearted, as it deals with female circumcision.
Following on from my recent post on FaganFinder, I found this article which also mentions it. Enjoy!
Four Fabulous SEO Tools
Written by BJ Novack
So, you’ve just built a website, or had it built by someone, and you want to kick it into high gear with the search engines. How?
Use these four kickass tools and they’ll tell you exactly how to do just that.
Silktide Sitescore offers a fairly comprehensive website critique, which will tell you what you’re doing right . . . and what you’re not doing so well. This rather comprehensive mini report tells you of what’s good and bad in your design, in the accessibility of your website, and in how google sees your site based on your site content. As of right now I’m an 8.9 and climbing, how about you?
Faganfinder Url Info is the best way to not only find out how you’re doing getting linkbacks but can also be used to find out information on your competition so you can see what you’re up against and, if they’re doing better than you, how they’re doing it.
If the search engines can’t find all your pages, then they won’t get indexed and you’ll be missing out on opportunities to bring people in through those pages. How do you get your site indexed properly? AutoMapIt SiteMap Generator will create sitemaps for your site in four different formats including the Google and Yahoo formats. More pages indexed gives you more chances for “backdoors” into your site via the keyphrases that those currently unindexed pages are rich in. Even better, this tool will upload the maps to your site and automatically notify Google of your updated sitemap. A five minute setup and you never have to worry about your sitemaps again.
How do you optimize your keywords so that the search engines notice you for those terms you want to be noticed for? The Abacus Keyword Analyzer will give you great information on keyword and keyphrase density, and is especially handy for fine tuning different webpages within your site so that each one has a better chance of becoming a back door into your site. Again, this tool is just as useful when run on a competitor’s site as it is when run on your own.
Using these tools will give you the information you need to push your site into the search engine limelight.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com
This is the sixth of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
Again, this is a much better book than the film would suggest. Terry McMillan was part of a new breed of African-American writers who wrote contemporary stories rather than focusing on the injustices of the past. This is the story of the lives and loves of four African-American women (shades of Little Women and Pride and Prejudice). I liked this book because the women in it were like women I knew – smart and sassy and able to take control of their lives (sometimes). McMillan’s other books, Mama, Disappearing Acts, How Stella Got her Groove Back, and A Day Late and a Dollar Short are also worth a look.
Just finished a 12 hour marathon converting the Silver Birch Solutions website from HTML to CSS and XHTML. The company specialises in prepaid funeral plans for the UK market. The pages are now one tenth of the size and load mega-fast. Thanks to Real World Style for the original CSS code.
This is the fifth of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Don’t be put off by the recent film – the book is soooo much better than that. The story of Jason Bourne, the spy who has lost his identity, is gripping from start to finish. Jason tries to find out who he is and who he’s working for. Along the way he finds out that he can speak several languages, knows things he doesn’t think he should and can kill very efficiently. He uncovers a web of betrayal, the full extent of which is only revealed at the end of the novel. For me, this is the best of Ludlum’s copious output (which includes two sequels to this novel). Jason Bourne is a strong and likeable character and the book is fast paced. I sat up well into the night to finish it the first time I read it, and even though I now know how it will turn out, it is still a good read.
I’ve been looking for a way to find all of Google’s functions on one page. The Google Accounts login only gives you access to a few (Gmail, Alerts, Froogle and Groups) and I keep having to search for the others (such as Analytics). Now I’ve found a useful page at Tipmonkies. The Ultimate Guide to Google Services is updated regularly and has a list of all the services I’d heard of and then some. Ok, so it’s not perfect – but once you’ve logged in to one of Google’s services you can access the others if you keep the page open. I’d like to see something similar from Google.
This is the fourth of my top ten reads, originally posted as a Dooyoo op.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Unlike the books I’ve listed above, this is a book I’ve read only once (it was a reading group choice earlier this year) but am sure to read again and again. Eddie is a maintenance man at a carnival. He dies at the start of the book and then meets five pivotal people from his past. Through his interaction with them he tries to make sense of his life and to undo any harm he may have done. This is a beautiful concept, even for a non-religious person like me. It was an extremely moving book, with moments of great sadness. I like it because it made heaven a real and interesting place. It’s also a comforting book for anyone who has experienced a loss.
Writing Feed
