A Potpourri of Fun and Prizes

I write this post with a disclaimer right up front--I am not feeling well. I have been slugging it out with the dreaded late summer allergies that make living in this area of the world, while most of the time a wonderful experience, a sneezing, phlegm-filled, runny nose of a miserable way to exist. Oh, and don't forget the heavy headedness, the askew equilibrium and dizziness...mix them all together in a pot and you have my present condition. So, you have been forewarned! There is a very good chance that what follows is nothing but a jumble of nonsense...and I'm not talking about my regular serving of nonsense--this has the potential of being much more nonsensical. Still with me, brave soldier? Wonderful, carry on...

First off: this blog has been the recipient of more awards! I guess some people like my brand of nonsense.

Karen over at My Funny Dad, Harry and Uncle Che from AZ Blogging both, it appears, love livelife365--and that's a good thing. They have awarded this blog the:


With these awards there are rules, and they are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

But, for now, I'm going to mix things up a bit (this is the potpourri part) and return to this award stuff later...

Now, where was I? Right, blowing my nose and wishing I were on Maui sipping an ice-cold beverage with the surf pounding in my ears.

Dick Cheney in a Dress?


Is it just me who is not that enamoured with Republican Vice President Nominee Sarah Palin's looks?

Every other post or article I read mention her beauty queen looks and how hot she is. Huh? What am I not seeing?
Okay, she IS better looking than the Veep we currently have in office, I'll give her that. But, to me at least, she's not much better looking than Joe Biden.

And, again, for me at least, I'll take Biden's politics over hers any day.

On that note, here is a music video I made a few months ago, when the Dems couldn't decide who to pick--Hillary or Barack.

It's called "Pick One."



Techno...no ping!

Has anyone else not been getting their pings returned from Technorati? Or is this just "pick on Mike week"? Sniff, sniff. I know it's not just me, given the hundreds of other poor souls pleading for resolution of this issue in the Technorati Support Forums.

For those of us interested in blog ranking on these sites, this becomes a major issue if left unresolved. Read a few posts and you get a good idea how upsetting this is. But what can you do, besides post a question and wait? Call them up? Sure, right after I finish speaking to Google and Yahoo. Grin and bear it, I guess. If anyone has any suggestions that can help with this issue, I'm all ears. In the meantime, here's a video that should ease your (my) misery. If you like it, don't forget to vote "Funny."

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Hold on, gotta blow my nose. Wow, did you hear that? Okay, next...oh, wait a minute, gotta...snee...snee...snee...

SNEEZE!

Here, watch this while I go get more Kleenex:



For those of you still with me, thanks--I know that last video was difficult to watch. (told you I wasn't feeling well!)

Lastly, for you Entrecarders out there. I have added my video site, livelife365.com, to Entrecard, but since both this blog and my vid site go by the same name, confusion is bound to rear its ugly head and, well, confuse us. So, to avoid as much of that as possible, here, side by side,

are the two different ads for both sites. The one on the left is the one you've been using to drop on my blog. The new one, on the right, is for the video site. They both share one frightening similarity: mug shots of my face while holding objects of my affection.


That's about it for today. What? Where are the prizes? And the blogs I need to list to go along with the awards? Do I need to sneeze all over this laptop again to remind you all that I'm not well?

Tell you what--I will announce my nominees for the I Love Your Blog awards (unless anyone wants to volunteer, and if you are STILL reading this, I will give you an award...but not a prize) later on this week.

Yes, prizes. I know, the title lured you in with the hope of a prize, and for that, all I can say is...ahhhh...ahhhh...ahhhhh....AAAAHHHHHH....

CHOOOOO!

peace,

Mike

Tags, Awards, and Hit Songs

For the past few weeks, I’ve been busy with family matters, cross-country travel, and the excitement and arduous efforts associated with promoting my funny music video, I Miss My Hair…more on that later.

While I was away, I was tagged twice and nominated for a couple of nice blogging awards. One of the many benefits I get from writing this blog is the wonderful interaction from other bloggers—like getting to know Patricia over at Communication Exchange and Lea at Oceans of Perspectives. I have been double tagged by these two fine bloggers. Here is the list of rules from both tags:

1. List these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules
3. Tell six unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag six bloggers by linking.
5. Leave a comment for each blogger.

Okay, I’ve listed the rules and linked both sites. Now for the hard/fun part—facts about myself. Since I am a playful, funny guy, I will combine the two tags, as well as accurate facts salted with some fun fiction, and let you sort out what’s real or not.

I collect turtles.

I have driven across this great country of ours over a dozen times—from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many times by myself.

I have not tasted alcohol since Father’s Day, 1992.

I once met Stevie Wonder in a men’s room at LAX.

Through proper nutrition, exercise, a high-fiber diet, and supplements I was able to lower my total cholesterol from 276 down to 183—in eighteen months.

I am a huge Boston Red Sox fan.

Livelife365 originally began as a vlog—a video-driven website with over 200 videos featuring the same Health, Personal Development, and Entertainment topics I talk about in this blog.

I once appeared on the game show Let’s Make A Deal and won the Big Deal of the Day.

I used to suffer so badly from stage fright and a fear of public speaking that while attending college I dropped out of a speech class three times before finally sticking with it and passing it.

I have been married three times.

I once performed the Heimlich Maneuver on my mother, successfully freeing up a chunk of partially masticated beef from her choking throat.

Back in the day, I was one of the best baseball players in my high school.

I have a 26-year-old son.

The only thing deterring me from becoming a full-fledged vegan is the fact that I still consume (in small quantities) some cheeses.

While the combination of the two lists should equal thirteen, I listed fourteen for good luck.

I have tagged the following blogs and I am leaving comments alerting them of their great fortune (being tagged by me) as we speak. These are some of the blogs that I visit regularly and enjoy reading:

Steven Video
EZ Great Life
A Junk Foodaholic’s Journey
The Good Life
Creating Wealth and Health
Grow Your Own Vegetables
Wisdom Hypnosis
Ramblings of a Writer
Creative Cafe
The Matthias Chronicles

That’s an even ten excellent blogs—please give them a visit!

Next up: Another Brillante Weblog Premio Award.

Skye at Ramblings of a Writer nominated me—thanks, Skye! And thanks for your patience! Here are the rules for this wonderful award:

(1) Put the logo on your blog
(2) Add a link to the person who awarded you
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
(4) Add links to those blogs on yours
(5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Here, in no particular order, are five great blogs that I enjoy reading just about every day:

Healthnut Wannabee Mom
Paul’s Health Blog
Amy Oops
Crotchety Old Man
Orange Derange

Comments coming up!

Lastly, Polly at Random Ramblings has given me The Smile Award.


If you would like me to consider you for this award (I need to pass it on, and I will, but I am linked/blogged-out right now), please leave a comment. Thanks again Polly!

Whew! While I am deeply flattered and most appreciative for being recognized by these highly respected fellow bloggers, I can’t wait to get back to writing some regular content. Over the next several weeks, I will be featuring the content you have come to expect from livelife365—Health and Fitness tips, Nutritional and Diet articles, Inspirational and Motivational posts, all written with a touch of humor and tongue-in-cheek. And fun stuff, like I Miss My Hair.

Just a few last words about my Hair video. I would like to thank all of you who have watched, laughed, and commented on this vid. The feedback has been more than any artist could hope for. In only a few weeks, the video is pushing 1500 hits on YouTube, surpassing all of my other videos except my green tea vid (Drink Green Tea Every Day). That tea video, by the way, averages close to 100 hits a day, and comes up number one out of over 3700 other tea vids on the YouTube search engine. I can’t explain its popularity, just as I am often flummoxed by why some of my other videos do not do better.

If you have not seen this video, please take a look and let me know what you think. If you have already seen it, why not watch it again—heck, I’ve seen it 100’s of times and still enjoy it.



As always, you can enjoy all of my other videos at my video site, livelife365.com.

peace,
Mike

Stay Tuned...

For those of you who are sick of staring at the same post for these past several days—good news! I have returned from an emergency trip across the country and I am armed and ready and willing to write some new stuff. I appreciate all of the wonderful comments on my last post about my very successful humorous music video, I Miss My Hair. And really appreciate your patience with my keeping that post up while I was away. I did manage to sneak in a few hours here and there to try to keep up with Entrecard drops and other social networking chores, but, for the most part, I was busy with family matters.

Hopefully, in future posts, I will be able to elaborate more on why I was called away, but I can say that it was a paradoxical trip Back East to my hometown—part celebration and part dealing with some of the challenges life hands us. I will say this: I enjoyed my time spent with my family and was inspired, thankful, and thrilled to be a part of my brother’s wedding.

While I was away I was tagged twice and nominated for two blogging awards. I have not forgotten these wonderful honors. I will respond to all four in my next post…which will be forthcoming very soon.

Until then, it is good to be back. The photo I chose for this post represents my mood; happy, but still in a bit of a fog.

peace,
Mike

Enjoy Your Trip? Now Get back to Work!

Greetings!

After a short jaunt across the Coastal Mountains to visit the ocean (the seaside community of Fort Bragg), I am back. Can’t say I’m thrilled to be sitting here in my living room, the suburban sounds of lawn mowers, delivery trucks, and screaming children replacing the serenity and seductive purr of the Pacific. I look out my window at my neighborhood—a nice place, don’t get me wrong—neatly stacked with row after row of similar looking houses and sun-swallowed foliage and feel a longing for the fresh, cool air and sandy scenery of the beach. A far (gull’s) cry from the spectacular views of whitecaps cresting multi-hued water that I espied from my hotel room window. Oh, well, life is not a vacation but a journey of understanding, searching for purpose and fulfillment, with most of what we get out of it dependant upon what we put into it.

But it was fun while it lasted. My lovely wife and I crammed a lot of life into a few days at the coast. Besides soaking in the stunning seascapes, we enjoyed leisurely long walks along the steep cliffs that separated us from the ocean below, strolled the quaint downtown shops and restaurants, and survived the twisty, rocky mountain pass that brought us to the foot of one of the tallest and oldest living things on this earth—the giant redwood Chandelier Tree. This colossus is 315 feet tall and 21 feet in diameter—so wide you can drive a car through it. In fact, we did just that, since someone was kind enough to hew a six-foot wide tunnel through this baby’s middle. These magnificent trees are thousands of years old! If you’re ever in this neck of the woods (pun intended), do yourself a favor and take the drive; it’s well worth it.

When I returned from my brief respite, I was not only greeted with mid-90 degree heat (the average summer high temperature in Fort Bragg is mid-60’s!), but over 1000 emails! I have managed to make a huge dent in the massive pile and, along with jumping back into those social networking chores, should be back to semi-normal soon. I appreciate your patience and interesting comments on my last post about blockages, especially writer’s block. The irony was not lost to me, having not posted in a week right after writing a post about how to avoid writer’s block. No, I have not been blocked (in any area, thank you!), just away.

While I was away, I was nominated for a Brillante Weblog Premio 2008 Award by Rebecca at Creating Wealth and Health. If you have not visited this site, I highly recommend you do. Rebecca offers many of the same healthy, positive methods that I advocate at livelife365.

Now, I don’t know much about this cool award, except that it is a wonderful honor to have anyone think my blog is worthy of any recognition—so, thanks, Rebecca. With this award there are some rules, and here they are:

l. The award may be displayed on a winner’s blog.
2. Add a link to the person who you received the award from.
3. Nominate up to seven other blogs.
4. Then add their links to your blog.
5. Add a message to each person that you have passed the award on to in the comments section of their blog.

Here are a few great blogs, from the hundreds that I visit every week, that I would like to nominate for a Brillante Weblog Premio 2008 Award:

The Junk Drawer

This is one of my favorite blogs to read. Kathy writes about ”anything that amuses me, confuses me, or makes me blow a gasket.”

Communication Exchange

This is one of the better written blogs you will find, exploring any topic worth discussing.

Monkey Fables and Tales

This blog makes me laugh just about every time I read it—and I read it all the time!

Daisy the Curly Cat

To be honest with you, I never in a million years thought that I would love reading a blog from a cat’s point of view, but this is one cool cat—and one good blog.

Confessions of a Fitness Diva

You know how I love healthy living and fitness—this is one healthy and fit diva! A blog worth reading!

Ruminations of a Small Town Mountain Boy

Eric is one of the nicest bloggers around, and his two blogs are great reads(visit his other blog, Chihuatude). Where else can you find the word “ruminations” in a blog title?

Miz Fit Online

Excellent fitness blog, told in a unique voice. Lots of videos and useful, informative posts.

Wow, seven already? I could easily add seven more—dozens more. It makes me wish that I win more awards so I can give kudos to all the other great blogs out there worthy of recognition.

Until next time…

peace,

Mike