Now that "Woodstock on Ice" is over...

Honestly, that Gail Collins cracks me up.

I need to write a little housekeeping post, kind of "mark your blog calendars" kind of thing....



Tuesday, February 3 is Blogroll Amnesty Day. Old timers know that this holiday has a rather sullen history, but now it is a happy occasion: On February 3, bloggers are invited to post links to five blogs you like, that have smaller traffic than your own. It's a great celebration and a time to discover new blogs and link them and stuff. As I said last year, "not to get all mushy here, but do you know how fucking great it is to be here in the blogosphere? Take a moment. Take it in." Spread some linky love.




Blog against Theocracy is Easter Weekend, April 10-12. Details will follow, it will run pretty much as it did last year, with people sending post links to the main site. There are no guidelines except that we blog about what the separation of church and state means to us. I wouldn't be surprised if many posts this year take on the issue of gay marriage. As always, the website of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State can be a great resource/springboard for posts.




Finally, I want to encourage my fellow lefty bloggers to sign up to host an edition of Carnival of the Liberals. If you have a liberal blog, please do it. No blog is too small to host, and actually, smaller blogs can get some traffic, attention, linky love, and general street cred linking ten blogs of the 23 or so that will be submitted to you. It's not difficult at all.

Here's how:

You sign up for a specific date to run your carnival. Carnivals run every two weeks, usually on Wednesdays but sometimes carnivals are late** due to life interfering with blogging (never happens at MY house but wev).

Starting two weeks before your date you will receive emails with links to posts that people have submitted to the carnival. My understanding is that Leo, the guy coordinating all of this, would like to see more themed or issue oriented carnivals but that is up to you as host. If your blog is about Iraq stuff you could have a peace carnival of the liberals, for instance.

At some point before the date of the carnival you read all these great posts that have been sent to you. The cool part of the carnival is that this carnival thing has a cut and paste post with all the links to all the submissions for you to start with. You have to pick ten posts, and trust me narrowing it down is the hardest part of the whole exercise.

You then cut and paste the post into your post window and customize it, deleting all the links but the ten you selected and prettifying the post, etc. I went whole hog and did a limerick version for COTL 33. I suspect, though I haven't been told, that Carnival of the Liberals is "English Only" so don't try to write it in Messican, we'll put up a wall around you.

I did one in limerick form a while back.

**You actually get bonus points for posting your carnival on time.

Please sign up for a date and do it. And thanks.