Websites I Love and an Introduction to Our Guest Author, Jennifer Banash

Melissa, Ade, Jeanine, Evan, Kayla, Brandon

First of all, So You Think You Can Dance was outstanding tonight. I voted for my favorites, but I have a feeling from all the Twitter talk that they won't be there very long.:( I am very disappointed that no one voted in the poll that I had at the end of my blog. I'm leaving it there until the show ends. Please go look. It's after all the posts and you have to scroll down. I'm interested in seeing who is your favorite dancer. I thought I had a favorite until tonight when I realized I didn't want anyone to go home.:)

Okay, I've been collecting all of these great websites for a long time and I thought I'd introduce a couple of them to you.

1. rssHugger.com - This website promises to increase your blog's traffic for free. According to their own information it aims to bring websites with common interests together. When you join you are asked either to write an honest review of the website or you can pay $20 to join. For this you will receive your own RSS blog for 10 years. I thought this was a great idea and decided to take the first approach. The registration is easy and all you need to do is give the name of your blog and it is approved instantly if it is not already registered. Also you are given choices of areas of interest for your blog and you can pick which category you are blogging about from a pull down of hundreds of interests. It was formed to be able to send traffic to blogs and also to build back links for search engine optimization.

Besides hooking you up with a lot of blogs that you might be interested in seeing, and bringing other people to see your blog, the website offers you a chance to learn more about internet marketing. The owner seems to be providing a spam free, ad free website where bloggers can feel safe and connect with each other anonymously. It's on the same principle as Google Reader where you can browse through and click on only things that catch your interest. There are lists of blogs in each category.

You are rewarded for gaining more readers and put into the Top 100 if you achieve the most readers each month. I like that you have a chance each month to gain a spot in this Top 100. In return you are sent hundreds of new visitors for your site. "It's a win/win" situation as the owner of the website states. For me it's another way to try to gain more traffic by writing.:) Gee that's hard for me!!:) I'm looking forward to seeing how this works and trying to get into the Top 100. I think anyone who has a blog should at least take a look at this website. I like the honesty of it all. I mean the owner even tells you in his blog that the website has been sold and for how much. He displays the check. It's very refreshing.:) Go take a look and see if you like it.

I have to credit, jobng with his post about the same website. Thank you jobng for pointing me in the right direction.

2. momversation.com - I have to credit Outnumbered for finding this website. These women who are all Moms, have a video in which they each discuss the topic of the day. They are honest and funny and very interesting to see. On Monday of this week they had one of the best topics ever to discuss. How do you tell your child where babies come from? Before that the topic was order of birth. Each of the women has a chance to give an answer to the question and then after the video they urge comments about the topic. Monday's topic's discussion started with the funniest answer to this question I have ever heard. The woman answered her four year old daughter by saying that "magical elves" had placed it inside of her. ROTFL wish I'd thought of that when I had my three and half year old daughter ask me that question.:) If you are a Mom or will become one soon you must go see this website. Even if your children are all grown you will be enjoying this discussion.

The topics change daily and today's topic is date night. I really enjoy the different women talking about their own experiences. For this date night thing I'm reminded of how my husband and I used to subscribe to shows and go to concerts without our kids. Sometimes we just went out to dinner and a movie, but we always spent the time together getting babysitters all the time. It was worth it to find that connection and it helped us throughout our children's growing up time. I don't think a marriage can survive without a date night.:)

That's all I have for today, but more in another post.

Tomorrow if everything goes right we will have Jennifer Banash as my guest author. Recently I finished reading her new book, the last of the Elite series called Simply Irresistible. Jennifer grew up on the upper east side of Manhattan where the story is set. If you want to be prepared for our interview I suggest that you purchase this book. I am going to give a full review later, but I really loved it.

Until the next post, which will be tomorrow I hope, thank you to my readers. I am happy to say that I now have 100 people following me. I'm hoping that everyone is enjoying my posts. I know that I have way too much to say. And I didn't even talk about what happened to me this week. Next post.:)

What is an Homage? Katie Holmes Performs "Get Happy" on "So You Think You Can Dance"

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was a big fan of "So You Think You Can Dance". Actually it's become an obsession lately. This year the dancers are all so incredible that it's hard to decide who to vote for. So we haven't really voted much at all. We didn't vote this week and my family sat there while the results were read on Wednesday night with our fingers crossed. Would my favorites be sent home?

I was thrilled to see that my favorites are also America's favorites.:) But now that there are only three girls and three boys left I'm really torn. I love all of them so much for their individual talents. I wouldn't want to see any of the dancers go home. This is the first year that I feel this way and I don't know what to do. So if you are a fan of "So You Think You Can Dance" maybe you'll help me. I'm going to post the names of the dancers and I'm going to conduct a poll to see which are your favorites. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to vote. It's going to end on Monday, August 2nd. I'll post the winners before the next show on Tuesday night. Let's see if our winners are the ones who stay on Wednesday. :)

My post title is "What is an Homage?" On Wednesday night Katie Holmes did a dance and sang to " Get Happy" done by Judy Garland in the movie "Summer Stock". Katie Holmes did a very good job of singing and dancing and as you can see if you watch the original, the choreography was much more elaborate than the original choreography. Some people spoke out against her for doing this. I'm not sure that they understand what an homage is.

Merrium -Webster's online dictionary defines homage as:
2 a: expression of high regard : respect —often used with pay b: something that shows respect or attests to the worth or influence of another

I think Katie Holmes did that and all of those people who expected a word for word and dance move for dance move copy of the original don't understand what an "homage" is. It's a tribute to the style and the grace of Judy Garland. Was it a little more sexy than the original? Maybe. Did Katie Holmes move herself in a different way? Yes. But this routine compared to the original is so much more complex. They updated the dancing and I think it worked.

I also think that Katie Holmes was very brave to go on a dance show and dance when she would probably not have been picked for the show. I don't really know if she would have, since the moves seemed to be very simple. However, that could just be the talent of the dancer. Many times moves look simple but you cannot do them. It's like what happened when people looked at Fred Astaire and thought, it looks so easy I could definitely do it. But no one dances like he did.

I don't judge dancers, because I'm not a dancer. I love to dance and shake my hips, but I'm not a dancer. I love this show, because these people are dancers and they really put everything on the line for dance. Katie Holmes was on the show to highlight her worthy charity, Dizzy Feet Foundation, and to pay a tribute to Judy Garland. I applaud her and wish that people would stop being critics and start just enjoying entertainment. It's time to enjoy the efforts of other people even if they're not always perfect.

That's all for today. Don't forget to vote in the poll for "So You Think You Can Dance". Then on Tuesday night call in your votes for your favorite dancers. I know I will be doing that.

Next week I will be having as my guest author, Jennifer Barash who has just had the third book in her Elite series, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, published this week. Come back and visit on Thursday for the interview.