8 Things I Learned This Week #94 (Blog Frog, impact, winner, publishing, book, Swift, dogs)

Blog Frog

I finally learned the best (and easiest) way to make use of Blog Frog. First, I finally put the widget to my "neighborhood" on all three of my blogspot blogs and discovered that if I sign in to Blog Frog before I go visiting other blogs, then whenever I see questions on others widgets that I want to answer, all I have to do is click on the question and it takes me right there! Much easier than trying to find my way around on Blog Frog.  How about joining my neighborhood and either starting a discussion or answering some questions?  I'd love to get this going but need your help!

Make An Impact

I was very surprised when I went through my Facebook messages last Saturday to discover Ryan M. considers me to be one of six people other than his family who "significantly impacted the course" of his life. WOW! What a great feeling to hear this! Read more about it at One Simple Act Made A Big Impact that I posted here on Monday night.

Two-Faced Pumpkin

I saw my first ever two-faced Halloween pumpkin this week over at Show Me Mama. I like the boy one better.

Spooktacular Giveaway

Christine Senter, a wife, mom and writer, has to be the biggest book lover in the blogosphere! She entered my giveaway and posted about it at Christine Senter's Blog so I went to see. It turns out she actually posted about all the giveaways she entered and she entered 87 out of 88! She is one of our winners chose by Spunky Doodle. I posted a video of our pets announcing our Stephen King Spooktacular winners. (They want me to let you know!)

Free Publishing

I got an email Tuesday from Carol Denbow: " I have opened up my publishing company, Plain & Simple Books, to outside writers seeking a wonderful publishing option never before available. Please visit my Website at http://www.plainandsimplebooks.webs.com to learn how you can publish your book for free!"  (No up front cost to authors.)

Canine Cancer Awareness Month

One in three dogs is expected to get Cancer. The National Canine Cancer Foundation is having a Dogwash to Cure Cancer. For a $5 donation, donors receive a little kit to wash their dog at home.  To make a donation, click www.nationaldogwash.com  I found out about this playing Freekibble on Wednesday. 

Taylor Swift

According to Wednesday's USA TODAY this week, Taylor Swift has sold 1,000,046 copies of her new CD, "Speak Now" in just one week! That is amazing! I haven't even sold 100 copies of my book in 3 years! She is an excellent performer and a good person too!

Some Shocking Statistics

In reading If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser, I learned these shocking things, just to name a few:

There are three times more black men in jail cells than college dorms. p. 216
Young, unemployed black men murder one another at nine times the rate of white youths. p. 155
In 1965, 24% of black males were born to single mothers . . . by 2005, it jumped up to just under 70%. p.155

I liked the story because it was packed with bizarre situations I would never encounter myself but that many people face every day. It is a great commentary on gang life and poverty, revealing the hopelessness people live with even in the United States of America. Click the link to read my full review.

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