You may remember that last year I did a week of recipes to promote “Command of the Grill”. Well I’m getting ready to do it again this year, and I would like to get some others involved too. Last year, the wonderful Kellypea did a delicious version of “Disco’s Hot and Tangy New York Strip Steaks” on her blog, Sass and Veracity.

All this involves on your part is picking a recipe, cooking it, taking a few pictures. Of course, you get to eat the tasty beef as well.

All of the proceeds to the book go to charity, and these are charities which help our troops.

The book itself is a whopping $10, and I don’t get a penny of it. It makes a great gift, and with Christmas coming up, it makes a wonderful present. I bet you know someone who is either a Marine, Loves grilling, or even both.

There are two recipes on the internet already, and I can email others to willing participants. If you want to help, comment here, or email me at Mike AT port16 DOT com. I’m starting on November 4th, and finishing on November 10th, the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

Support your troops, cook a steak.

Semper Fi!

Posted in Charity, Command of the Grill, Grilling, LinkLove 2 Comments »

I’m sure that all of you are familiar with George Orwell, and most of you have probably read his writing. I know that I read “Animal Farm” and “1984” in school, then again later.

Although the classics stick with me, I hadn’t really explored any of his other writings, but looking through the bibliography in the link above, I already see many things that I would like to read.

Britain’s “The Orwell Prize”, an award for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries, in blog format. The Website is The Orwell Diaries.

Besides the fact that it’s a look into the life of a great writer, one interesting aspect is that the diaries start on August 9th, 1938, and the blog was started on August 9th, 2008, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

If you’re interested in reading more about the diaries, read the blog’s about page. I know I’m interested in reading the blog, and seeing what Orwell’s thoughts were. I hope you’ll join me.

Posted in Books, History, Interesting, LinkLove, WebSites No Comments »

I started using Yahoo Widgets a good long time ago, and I’ve been meaning to post about it, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve also been thinking about starting a Wednesday’s Widget over at Two Guys Tech, but you guessed it, I haven’t had a chance to do that either.

Well, here’s a sneak peek. I’ve actually been using a few widgets just to test them out, and I’ll give a quick rundown here.

Calvin and Hobbes Cartoon Fetcher by Neo – I love Calvin and Hobbes. Although I’m a little ashamed to admit it, I stopped reading them when new cartoons weren’t being made anymore. Well never fear! If you’re like me, you probably forgot many or most of the Calvin and Hobbes strips. This Widget lets you fetch them. It can be easily minimized, and you can move to previous strips. The thing I like is that it remembers which one you left off on, so you can just increment forward until you’re all caught up.

Gorgy Clock by Luis Uguina – There can be many reasons why you need a clock on your desktop. If you do need one, check this one out. Not only does this one allow you to set unlimited alarms, and allow you to change the colors, but you can also sync it with an atomic clock. Great clock!

Generic Countdown Timer by Laurent Cozic – I downloaded this Widget so that I could set a timer for how long I was going to work without checking email. It’s great really. You can modify the timer’s colors, and the alarm isn’t too bad, stopping after a few seconds. Great little timer.

Posted in LinkLove, widgets No Comments »

I was looking through my Del.Icio.us bookmarks to find some common topic for today’s link post. There’s a whole slew of links there on far too many topics, but sometimes it’s hard to tie them all in together. This is one place I should implement “Phil’s 3 or more for categories” rule. I do tend to go a little crazy with categories.

Feeling a little inspired by a guest post on Pearl’s blog, “3 Crucial Things That School Never Taught You”, I decided to use Parenting as my theme for today. So, here goes:

- How to raise a Fun and Funny Child – Although the site name, BabyCenter, would make you think that it’s only about babies, they cover topics for children of all ages. This article gives you some insight into why a sense of humor is so important, but also how to help your child develop their own.

- How Not to Talk to Your Kids – This is a New York News and Features Article that’s really interesting. It discusses the difference, and long term implications, of praising your child for being “smart”, vs praising them for “working hard”. Really interesting, and I saw the difference in my own kids.

- OffSprung – This is a terrific blog that covers all sorts of parenting and parent orientated topics, and makes them funny to boot. I’m a big fan of being entertained while I learn, so this is a favorite.

- The DaddyCast – This is a great podcast from a working father. He discussed parenting topics, as well as relating his experiences. I’ve really been able to relate to a lot of his stories, as well as found his recommendations helpful.

- Fatherville – Terrific site for fathers. Advice and discussions about nearly every family situation, this site has some terrific articles, as well as a great forums and a blog.

Posted in LinkLove, Parenting, Recommendations, WebSites No Comments »

If I didn’t include you in this list, please don’t be upset. There are a few of you that I read all the time, and you know who you are, heck, you’re on the blogroll. I just thought I would mention some other blogs that I read as well. So, here goes. Sorry Kelly, I noticed that I hadn’t added yours to my blogroll yet, so I corrected that.

1. Sass and Veracity – Food Blog. Love food? Love cooking? If you answered yes, then you have to check out Sass and Veracity. Kellypea runs the blog, and she does an amazing job. I wish I hadn’t put it on the list first, because now that I’ve seen it, I’m hungry.

2. Simple Help – Great Tech help site. It’s interesting to read what tips Ross is spitting out today. Of course, I’ve got my own site that I guess is competing, but I’ll never be able to post the volume of content that Ross does. Great stuff!

3. Parent Hacks – Lots of ways to make neat stuff, save money, and just do the whole parenting thing better. Like how to make a Port-a-potty for camping, and what valuable lessons can be learned from a “toy jail”.

4. Getting Green – Or is it American Consumer News? Whichever it is, there’s lots of good financial advice. Savings, mortgage, shopping for produce, lot of stuff. I know I’m always looking to stretch the dollar a little more, are you?

What I’ve been trying to do is to theme these link posts, but to  be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to find a theme in my bookmarks. I’m going to have to think of something for next week, after all, I don’t want it to be “6 sites I visited this week”.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Posted in LinkLove 3 Comments »