Guest Editor Picks 5-9-08

Hi
Everyone!

I'm Beth,
and I'm very excited and honored to be this week's Guest
Editor. A big thank you to Vish and Magic Smoke for giving me such a
great opportunity!  

My
journal is called Nutwood
Junction, which is what my husband Ken and
I call our place. (Ken was recently a guest editor pick, but at the
risk of nepotism, I'm going to sneak in his link!) In the early
1900's, the land was part of a tiny little town
called Nutwood, and railroad tracks ran through our property...thus,
Nutwood Junction! We have 11 acres, and we've found our dream home
here. We enjoy our yard, woods, and wetlands, as well as the various
critters we encounter. You'll see lots of pictures and read many
adventures concerning Nutwood at my journal, and you just might read a
few of my opinions about everything from football to politics. (For
those of you who already read me...STOP LAUGHING!) After almost 25
years of working as a Medical Technologist, most of the time
as a Microbiologist, I recently retired, and I'm loving it! I
love watching birds, and since our place has such different types of
habitat, we see a wide variety of
species.

We have
one critter of the indoor variety, our cat, Sheeba. He doesn't have a
journal yet, but as soon as he learns to type, watch out J-Land! That
whole lack of opposable thumbs is a bit of a hindrance to him.

There are
a lot of journals that I enjoy, but I've tried to narrow it down to a
handful--not an easy task! I haven't listed any private journals, and
I've tried not to include any that have been chosen more than once
before, although since I've only been blogging for about a year and a
half, there may be some that I missed from before. So here we
go.

After a
long absence, The
Wildcat's Lair has returned. Huzzah! I stumbled across this
one day and spent the next two hours or so reading and viewing the
adventures of Wildcat (Bill) and his cat, Frank. Bill took a hiatus to
work on his book as well as a book he's writing with his wife, so wish
them luck in finding a publisher! Wildcat and Frank have returned
for twice-weekly episodes, and I'm as happy as a
little girl. I'm certain that if all cats could talk, they would sound
a lot like the sarcastic and smart-alecky Frank.

While she
doesn't post on My
Thoughts as often as I wish, Myra has insightful and
thought-provoking entries. Her beautiful entry on Earth Day reinforced
my feeling that we are all in this together, and that we all owe our
planet much more respect than we've given it lately. And when
it's dark and cold here in Indiana, her entries about living in Arizona
give me a little vicarious warmth.

If you've
read me in the past, you know that I'm partial to Dr. Will Miller, who
is an unlikely combination of psychologist, minister, motivational
speaker, and stand-up comedian. In addition to his usual blog (not an
AOL journal), he also has his Refrigerator
Rights blog, focusing on his book of the same name. As I have
recently joined the ranks of the retired, his message of
connecting with friends and family really speaks to me. How
many people have unspoken rights to reach into our fridge for
a cool beverage without asking permission? How many people do
we feel that same level of comfort with? Dr. Will is the main
contributor, but various colleagues provide additional viewpoints, and
it always gives me something to think about, and is a nice
reminder of the importance of human connections.

If I'm
not mistaken, Sheria and her journal On My
Mind have been listed before, but it really is one of my
favorites to read, so I wanted to include her again. Her wonderfully
intelligent entries are at turns introspective and
knee-slappingly hilarious. It's a rare thing to find someone
with whom you feel an almost immediate connection, but that's how I
feel about Sheria. (Indigo was
the one who told me I might enjoy Sheria's journal, so that should give
you and idea of how good it is. Did you notice how I snuck in another
link there?) Sheria doesn't live in Georgia, but
she's still a peach!  

One I've
started reading fairly recently is Pat's Roses
Rambling. She intersperses her poetry with entries about her
family and her experiences. These entries are beautifully written, and
they never fail to touch me, sometimes because of their sweetness and
other times because of their humor. Be sure to read her entry about her
encounter with Vincent Price. It is...well,
priceless!

Finally,
there's another non-AOL blog that I read, but this
one is not for the faint of heart. In the interest of
self-censorship, I'm not providing the link here. If you want
to read a completely uncensored
view of Las Vegas, drop me an email and I'll send you the link--as well
as my mini-review of the blog.

Happy
reading!