Where have all the HVs and Comments gone?  I write good reviews on a regular basis, read and rate other reviews every day, and as of late, I'm lucky if I get just one rate and/or comment.

I must be on a writing groove today. Not only did I do a review here today, but I also wrote an article for Associated Content!

For those who may be interested, here's the URL:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2316952/five_terrific_gift_ideas_that_wont.html?cat=46

Yowza! I broke the 75K View Barrier! Hopefully I'll get to 100K review reads way before September of 2010!

300 reviews! I finally did my 300th! Of course this was more, shall we say, relevant in the pre-VIP days when Viewpoints had the Publisher's Circle award for 400 reviews. Now it's probably less impressive.....But I got to 300. That makes me somewhat happy.

I've updated my review of Band of Brothers to reflect my recent purchase of the Blu-ray edition of that awesome HBO miniseries.  The basic content of the Blu-ray set is essentially the same as the DVD edition, but HBO Home Video has addressed some of the issues I had with the DVDs (pricing and lack of English-language subtitles) plus added a few new features exclusive to the Blu-rays!

Today there's some improvement as far as my cold is concerned; I still get a few coughing fits now and then but its mostly dry coughs now, and my nose no longer runs. My throat is still a tad sore and I have a bit of a headache, but I was able to get some online work done and a review written....... I want to thank my Viewpoints friends for all their kind comments and good wishes; they raised my spirits and quite possibly speeded up my getting-over-the-worst-part-of-the-cold stage! Thanks a billion, gang!

Funny (peculiar, not ha-ha) bit of data: Writing and colds don't mix well, at least not for me. Even if I don't have a headache (because the DayQuil has it under control), my nose tends to run when I'm trying to concentrate. Not exactly fun, since I can't sit still and NOT write!

Ugh. I have a nasty, nasty cold.  I managed to write something for today - barely - and now I feel as though I ran the marathon.

Wow! I like the new badges and titles! I know there's still room for improvement in some things, but all in all, I like the new VIP program.

Got my 280th Review in, too!

Happy Independence Day since it'll be July 4th by the time most of my VP friends read this!

Did my 250th Viewpoints review today. 250th! Who'd have "thunk" it?!?!

Check out my recently published content on AC:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1620547/obamas_first_100_days_the_trouble_with.html">Obama's First 100 Days: the Trouble with Hugo, or Re-Engaging a Leftist-Leaning Latin Americ

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments regarding my reaching the Writer 4 rank; I really appreciate it.  Hopefully it won't take me 15 months to get to the next level. (Maybe we ought to have Writer 5 ranks to make the climb up a bit more tolerable?)

It's warm and muggy in Miami right now, but that's going to change starting tonight; there's a cold front coming and it will be 49 degrees tomorrow morning!

 In case some of you haven't been to my reviewsnthoughts blog, here's a sample of today's entry:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.... - Charles Dickens 

 

In August of 2009 I will observe - with mixed feelings - the 10th anniversary of my "becoming connected" to the Internet and the beginning of a long chain of friendships and other relationships that shaped my life during the past decade.

I say "with mixed feelings" because, as with any endeavor where socializing and even romantic atteaction are involved, my online existence has had its share of good times as well as incredibly bad times.    

From my reviewsnthoughts blog:

 Tale of Two Bizarre Moms

 

On the West Coast we have Nadya Suleman, the 33-year-old single mom who, in addition to already having six children, recently gave birth to octuplets at the Kaiser Permamente Hospital  in Bellflower, Calfornia,. Meanwhile, in an Orlando jail cell another mom, Casey Anthony, sat alone, thinking who-knows-what even as her murdered daughter, Caylee Marie was given a public funeral.