Spoonfed

20 Must-Read Blogs for Freelance Writers

Because I know you don't have enough to read.

Here's something to occupy your entire weekend, via Freelance Folder.

Check out Blog Nosh

Blog Nosh launched today!

It's an online magazine that finds yummy content on the web and reprints it. I'm going to be the Mompreneur Channel Editor for them.

Call us working moms, mompreneurs, work-at-home-moms, hybrid moms... whatever the label, we think you CAN have it all, with a little ingenuity and a lot of persistence. I think it's all about finding the balance, pushing the tipping point and having a sense of humor about it all.

To be young and wide-eyed

Last night I went to a mixer where moms meet with potential babysitters. A sort of speed dating for babysitters. It was held in a trendy little boutique, and I was one of the first moms to arrive. There were about 15 very young, very cute, very trendy college girls milling around, all dolled up, made up, dressed in their trendiest best, bejeweled and mani-pedi'ed. As if it were sorority rush, and us moms were the cool girls they hoped to be accepted by. (And I couldn't help but think: only a young girl would think she'd improve her chances of getting a babysitting/nanny job by looking like a total hottie...)

Every last one of them was so darn cute and peppy and ambitious and ready to take on the whole wide world -- it really made me feel old and remember those days?

What really got me was one of the girls telling me she was only available at nights, because she'd just gotten a summer internship with an ad agency in Boulder.

Being in the business, I asked: "Which one?"

"Um, Crispin Porter, um..."

"Bogusky?"

"Yes," she said, as though it were the biggest coincidence in the world, "Have you heard of them?"

I only chuckled and congratulated her on landing the bomb of all internships.

"What will you be doing?" I asked.

"I have no idea," she said.

Ah, to be young again.

Sometimes, what a writer needs most is other writers...

Go to the Lighthouse Writer's LitFest in Denver, June 6-21.

Workshops, speakers, you name it, they've got it at locations all over Denver.

Dear Candidates,

Tonight was really something else. I can't remember an election that I cared more about, or felt as strongly about. And yet, I like each and every one of you.

Hillary, for the first time, I thought we really connected. I didn't realize you weren't conceding until I watched CNN criticize you. I thought your congrats to Obama was sincere, and while your speech was kind of all about you, I didn't mind so much tonight. After all, it's not every day the first woman candidate in history for the POTUS loses such a close race. I even cried a little bit. I did. You asked all 18 million people who voted for you to write in, tell you what we think you should do. OK, I didn't vote for you, I wasn't a registered Democrat here in Colorado in time (registered independent, didn't know it would matter until it was too late), and I probably wouldn't have voted for you, but here's what I think: don't push for the VP job. I know Cheney made it seem like an important job, but that's because it was George Bush in the President's seat. It's really not an important job. You should push for a Cabinet position. Secretary of State, girl, Think big. And seeing Bill so darn proud of you, it was really touching.

John McCain, your oratory abilities aren't the greatest, but who cares. You've been around the block, you know what you're talking about. If you're really serious about change, and you really want to prove you're different from Bush, tell us who your Cabinet will be BEFORE the election. Let us know if we're voting the Neo-Cons back into office before November. Now that would be change.

And Barack... really, even Fox News couldn't say anything bad about you tonight, and Karl Rove tried really hard (An army of teachers? Since when does the federal government hire teachers?). You're the man. You make us proud to be Americans. Even my two-year old applauded during your speech, in between ramming his matchbox cars into the coffee table.

Sincerely,
A true fan

There's gotta be a better way

Amazing kid story:

Ontario high school junior Daniel Burd wanted to try to figure out if there was a way to get plastic bags to decompose faster. As it stands, it takes thousands of years for the wasteful objects to disintegrate. But by using bacteria, he figured out how to make it happen in a mere three months.

read more | digg story

The man, the brand

I'm not sure where or how I stumbled upon Peter Shankman, but he is the world's most gifted PR self-promoter. Ever. He's the new Seth Godin.

If you sign up for his "Help a Reporter Out" email, you'll get twice-daily updates on all sorts of stories that reporters need help with.

Like these:

"I'm asking experts and teens/young adults if Millennials -- those born from 1982-2000 -- really are better than Gen X and the Boomers?"

Or:

"I'm looking for a woman who stopped hormone therapy, without
consulting her physician, as soon as she heard the results of one
research study or another."

The only catch is that you must promise, cross-your-hear-hope-to-die, that you will not, under any circumstance, reply unless you are 100% on-topic. If Shankman busts you, you're 86'ed off the list. Also, I just read somewhere else, you cannot repost his emails.... since he already commented here, I think I'm safe taking off the reporter's contact info.... : )

Steal my identity. I dare you.

You know that guy from LifeLock, who prints his social security number everywhere as proof that his identity-theft protection service works? Well, 87 people tried to steal it, and a few succeeded, and now he's being sued for false advertising.

My favorite thing about Skype...

... it tells me "Take a deep breath" when I open it up.

Native speak

Have you seen the Colorado Tourism Office's new campaign -- just in time for the DNC, y'all -- called "Let's Talk Colorado?" Now, I'm a native, born and raised in Colorado, third-generation, both sides of the family, and I don't say things like "She's a peak-bagger" or "I've got a case of the grindies in my drivetrain," nor have I ever heard anyone use those phrases.

And I own a road bike but I've never called my helmet a "Brain bucket," I've never heard of a "rattler cake" (Colorado's version of a crab cake, apparently, made with rattlesnake... that sounds kind of Texas to me), nor have I ever heard anyone utter the words "Hold on to the chicken line." And I met my husband on a white water rafting trip.

I have heard of a singletrack ("Dude! It's a narrow biking trail just wide enough for one cyclist!") back in my college days in Boulder, which was a pretty long time ago. But really, enough with the Rocky Mountain Oysters. The Fort is the only place that serves them.

So I wondered where on earth this Colorado glossary came from, and found out: it's a $19 million campaign conceived by MMG Worldwide, who has a small branch office in Fort Collins, but is headquartered in... Kansas City.

Glad my tax dollars are being spent on this embarrassing campaign.