Friday is Memeday!

I'm trying to catch up here since snow gave me the opportunity to stay home - and I'm done working from home for today.

First of all, I want to try to address a few backed-up memes and award tags that I've been letting pile up.

Kuanyin asked me if I'd like to pick up a "Never Ending Story" meme that had gotten sidetracked last year. This was similar to the Viral Story started by Splotchy awhile back. Kuanyin credited Kilroy of Fear and Loathing with beginning the story, which has not gotten that far yet. I'll tag a few people to see if we can get it moving for them!

Here's what Kilroy sent Kuanyin:

"The telephone rang. I counted, one...two...three..."

Kuanyin:

"...and let it ring til the answering machine picked up. Would that hot-to-trot sex-crazed druggie ever stop calling?"

Mauigirl's contribution:

"I muttered out loud, 'I swear I'm going to have to get an unlisted phone number if this moron doesn't knock it off.' The phone beeped and I picked it up to check the message, only to hear the sound of a click as the caller hung up. This was unusual; the druggie sex addict usually liked to leave a message, starting with a lot of heavy breathing.

I was alone in the house and a sudden shiver went up my spine."

For this meme, I'd like to tag:

Dr. Zaius of Zaius Nation
Nick of This is It
Phydeaux of Phydeaux Speaks
Fran of FranIAm

Hope at least one of you will pick it up and run with it! Have fun!

OK, one down, more to go.

Back in January, PunditMom very kindly awarded me a "Just Posts" award for December of last year over at Jen's blog, One Plus Two, for my post about New Jersey abolishing the death penalty. I had posted the logo and link to the site on my sidebar but am just getting around to thanking PunditMom for the honor! The "Just Posts" are for posts regarding issues of social justice, and I urge you to visit her blog and read some of the other great posts on various subjects.
Kuanyin also awarded me a "Mentoring" award (which seemed ironic, as I feel she has been more of a mentor to me!). Of course, she did qualify the award in general as being for mentors, inspirations, or people who urged her to continue blogging, or those that are, and I quote, "such characters that I've got zero clue as to what drives them. They're forces of nature on the blogosphere." Now, she did not specify which category I fit into, so you can draw your own conclusions!

I am going to go with the basic spirit of the award and try to pick a few people I feel have been mentors to me in my still-nascent blogging "career." Actually, I could pick almost anyone on my blogroll for this one but I'll have to limit myself to a few in particular as I've included nearly the entire blogroll further down anyway!

So here goes:

Larry of Lydia Cornell's blog has always been a great commenter and has given me lots of good advice on how to expand my blog's reach.

Tomcat of Politics Plus has also been a great help to me and a loyal commenter.

Robert Rouse of Left of Centrist and Blog World Report has also been a real mentor, and has posted my blog posts on his Blog World Report, which always increases my traffic quite noticeably!

I could add many more - suffice it to say that I love all of you and appreciate all of your comments and thoughts!

Last but not least, here is the Technorati meme, if you want to call it a meme.

FranIAm recently posted her entire link list as part of this kind of viral meme that is spreading about the Blogosphere, in order to improve Technorati ratings.

I confess I know nothing much about Technorati although I am listed on the site. I sometimes check to see my ranking and find I do not make it into anywhere near the top of the list so the chart they calculate for me is basically at zero.

Since this little exercise gives a lot of Link Love to everyone's blogs, I thought I'd play along, whether or not it has any effect on Technorati rankings for any of us or not. So below is my full list of personal/political links, please have fun perusing them!

Agitprop
American Politics Journal
American Street
Blog Against Theocracy
Blog World Report
Crooks and Liars
Fire Dog Lake
Huffington Post
Jonestown
Lydia Cornell
Suzie-Q
Talking Points Memo
The Blue Republic
The Cosmic Message
The Daily Kos
The Political Voices of Women
The Smirking Chimp
TPM - Election Central

An Average American Patriot
Axis of Evel Knievel
Blognonymous
Blue Gal
Boxer Rebellion
Chapterhouse
Comrade Kevin
Dashiell
Distributor Cap
FranIAm
Freida Bee
From the Left
I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy
I Was Just Wondering
I, Splotchy
Impeachment and Other Dreams
Informed Voters
It's My Right to be Left of Center
Kelso's Nuts
L'Ennui Melodieux
Last Left Turn Before Hooterville
Left of Centrist
Let's Talk
Liberal Journal
Liberal Values
Little Bang Theory
Little Country Lost
Makanani
Mock, Paper, Scissors
Monkey Muck
Morning Martini
My Saturday Evening Post
Nailing Jello to the Wall
Phydeaux Speaks
Pissed On Politics
Politics After 50
Politics Plus
Politits
Preserve, Protect and Defend
Pundit Mom
Pygalgia
Ragebot
Ramblings
Reconstitution 2.0
Sumo Merriment
Suzi Riot - Rants from the Left
The Devil is in the Details
The Divine Democrat
The Existentialist Cowboy
The Future Was Yesterday
The Gypsy's Caravan
Various Ecstacies
Watergate Summer
Who Hijacked Our Country?
Yikes (BAC)
Zaius Nation

And here are some of the other blogs I enjoy:

Aim for Awesome
Balls and Walnuts
Basket of Puppies
Blog Blond - Blogging Tips
Cats Working
Chirky
Crazy Aunt Purl
Dooce
Figuratively Speaking
finslippy
Flotsam
Fussy
Inside Betty's Head
It's All About the Walls
Jonniker
Jurgen Nation
KGMom Mumblings
Lawyerish
Looky Daddy
m's blog
Marge's Words to the Wise
Martta's World
Mimi Writes
Miss Doxie
O My Word
Ransom Note
Schmutzie's Milkmoney or Not Here I Come
Slouching Past 40
Stop Katie
The Boomer Chronicles
The Constant Whiner
The Needs of the Few
This is it
Who's Yo Mama?
Wonderland

Freefalling Me
In a Dark Time
Laketrees
Me, My Life, My Garden
The Flames of Eden

Bay Area Love Letters
Double Brush - Hawaiian vacation/gifts
Must be that girl!

Addicted to Medblogs
Denver Doc Online
Doc of Ages
Dr. Anonymous

If you want to participate and do the same thing, it is very easy - you highlight your blogroll on the side of the page, copy and then paste it into your post in the "compose" mode. The system will then include the links as well as the description.

That's it! I may have more memes that I've forgotten about and if I remember one, I'll post it. In the meantime, enjoy browsing among all of our blogrolls.