Flickr

I could sit in one place all day long and browse Flickr. Being a photgrapher, this site is infinitely entertaining and interesting for me. You can find photos of anything your heart desires. Click on Explore and check out some of the most popular searches. Comment on other's photos. Add some of your own! You can add "tags" to your photos that will enable you to search your own photos easily, and find other's photos too. When you have a Flickr account, it acts as kind of a "photo blog". You life, captured in photos. You can join groups and have others comment on your photos and find people who love the same stuff as you do. For example, I like to take photos of my food. And of my tea. And of my coffee. And of weird things. I found out that lots of other people do too!

There is just something mesmerizing about photos. Capturing the exact moment of an emotion...pure bliss.

And yes, I do have real friends and a life outside my computer.

Blog Crazy

Reading other people's blogs is kind of like sneaking into their room and reading their personal journal. Everyone is curious about other people's lives...hence the popularity of "the blog". I get such enjoyment from all the blogs I read. They offer wisdom, encouragement, camaraderie, laughter. I love to comment on blogs and receive comments too (hint, hint!). If you like reading blogs too, you MUST run to Bloglines and set up an account (thanks Heather!). This saves so much time and is a wonderful service. Basically, you set up one account to "track" all of the blogs you want to read. It will notify you whenever a new blog has been posted by that person. You can even put a little button on your browser that says "Sub to Bloglines" that will let you subscribe quickly to that blog when you are at that page. The blog must have an RSS feed to be included.

I currently subscribe to about 50 blogs...and read about 10 a day as they are updated. Here are some of my favorites:

A Joy-Full Life Two Songbirds on a Wire Dinner at my house...tonight From Under the Laundry Pile Laura's MySpace blog The Shape of a Mother The View from Here Natural Living Des Moines Babycatcher

For the Love of Mail

I love mail. Real paper mail. Cards. Postcards. Packages and such. The problem is...we have lost the fine art of correspondence. Letters used to be the only way to "get word" to someone. Then came the telephone. Then came email. Oh the email. Don't get me wrong...I love email too, but there is just something cold, electronic, and impersonal about it. When I go to my mailbox and see a handwritten note, I am GIDDY with excitement. If that letter is 3 pages long with doodles, quotes, verses, a teabag, and such, I am ECSTATIC. You would think I won the lottery. I I know exactly when my mailman arrives everyday. I loooove having my mailbox right on my house so I can grab it quickly! Ninety percent of the time, I recieve junk mail or business mail, but I am blessed to have a few select friends in my life who appreciate the value of a handmade/handwritten note. I love them for that. Their letters need not contain deep thoughts...I just love to hear about the happenings in their daily lives.

When you send real meal, you are basically saying that the person on the other end is worthy of your time. You are putting your feelings onto paper...a permanent expression of your love for them. I have saved many letters over the years...from my dad, my grandma, my sister, my brother, my husband...and everytime I open that letter again, I am transported back to the first time I read those words.

So my challenge for everyone reading this...is to write ONE letter this week. Brighten someone's day, send photos, send goodies, send your love.

More thoughts on letter writing.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user "Living in Monrovia".