Judd Exits, But TRB Will Live On

The Rising Blogger was a creation of Mimi Lenox and Bud Weiser in April of 2007. The idea to start this blog was conceived for a couple of reasons. One reason was that Bobby Griffin’s Bestest Blog had shut down. While there a lot of blog reviewers and awards out in the blogosphere, most barely seem to touch on giving the reader a real feel for the blog. The real key in The Rising Blogger’s development was their idea to award posts and not blogs. It worked and the response has been very overwhelming. I was brought in to administrate the blog and to give Bud and Mimi a sense of anonymity.

Mimi Lenox took a little time off to concentrate on her Peace Globe movement. It was at that point we solicited new writers and changed to crediting our authors. We were publishing seven days a week for a long time. The biggest new contributor was Lori Hahn. I could never thank her enough for helping to keep this blog publishing. We would like to thank our other writers as well. Dawn Drover, Epiphany Alone and Crushed By Ingsoc all gave us some great reviews as well. Bud has wanted out of the position of head writer. Not because he still didn’t love the blog and the work, but his own blog WTIT Tape Radio: The Blog is published almost every day. Bud, by the way completed his 200th post this week. As a blog we have had almost 300 winners.

The most interesting aspect of this venture was that our traffic was just about the same when we went from daily publishing to about twice a week. You readers are VERY loyal and we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We would like to thank the writers who recently started writing: Barbara, Mimzie and Masgblog. We had hoped this would keep us going and let Bud depart. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way.

The good news is that The Rising Blogger will continue. It will be without me however. We received a terrific offer from a very well known blogger who will take The Rising Blogger over in the next couple of days. I will not elaborate, just so she can introduce herself and her vision of what this blog will become. I am looking forward to the new Rising Blogger and am quite proud of the work we did here. To turn the blog over however, I will lose my current email address. But you can now reach me at jcorizan@gmail.com. And I will return to the blogosphere, but not in the awards/review arena. Bud and I have discussed a concept that we are very excited about. If you are on our email list, you will receive an update on that when it happens. If you don’t hear anything by September, please email me and I will give you the information.

It is our biggest hope that you will continue to read and support The Rising Blogger. We are thrilled that the work will continue. So thank you, my friends and readers. Keep the faith, fly a Peace Globe and live well. I hope to see you at my new blog in the future!

Farewell-
Judd Corizan

Always Home and Uncool

A recent TRB winner nominated Kevin author of the blog Always Home and Uncool. The post nominated of May 6, 2008 titled You Go, American Girl. Go Now. Kevin is a father of a daughter and a son, but today’s rant of Kevin’s is about his daughter, her future, feminism and Barbie Dolls. Well, God knows how both political incorrect those dolls are and also how they can encourage both bulimia and anorexia.

Kevin describes himself, “I’m a work-at-home, Gen-X dad who has been rockin’ the suburbs my whole life long. The cast includes My Love (the globetrotting, executive goddess), Thing 1 (the Hannah Montana wannabe daughter), Thing 2 (the sweet-or-sour son) and Murphy’s Happy Recap (the faithful canine companion).” But this is all about his daughter and this new line of politically correct dolls call American Girls. He explains, “For those without little girls or good credit lines, American Girl dolls were created by a mid-Western woman who wanted a better line of role models for girls than the bodacious airline hostess Barbie dolls of her day. She succeeded. She succeeded so well, she sold the company in 1998 for $700 million … to Barbie’s maker, Mattel. Now, the woman, Pleasant Rowland, is taking her money and essentially remaking Aurora, N.Y., in her own American Girl image, much to the displeasure of some of the natives.”

The point is well taken. Could they not offer up a doll and its accessory line at a better price and a more consumer friendly attitude? No. Kevin states, “But, being in the Land of the Free Enterprise System, they tie all that wholesomeness into selling you not just the dolls at 90 bucks a pop but also the doll’s accessories (Own the slave girl doll’s bird in a cage for $18! Buy the hippie chick doll’s picnic gear for camping out to watch bald eagles for $48!), life-size clothes for your girls that look like the dolls’ clothes, and more.”

We are not sure that all the problems are solved of young girls attaching their self-image and worth on the skinny models they see on the internet. Or on TV. Or, as this post illustrights the dolls the girls grew up with. But we know as a fact, a lot of these young women’s eating disorders are established in this entire process. A lot of thought here, and a great dialogue is begun here. The Rising Blogger is proud to award Kevin our Post of the Day!

Review written by BUD WEISER.

Moody Blue

We will go for a complete change of pace today. Since Barbara wrote a review of a rather serious subject yesterday (and well done I might add) we thought we’d go for something lighter today. Jodi writes a blog named Moody Blue. It is a light and breezy glimpse into her life, “I am a 36 year old, married, Catholic Jersey girl. I have a great husband & the world’s best cat. My job requires a LONG commute which has caused a coffee & Diet Coke addiction.” We really like her. And we don’t mean “leave the husband she calls he ‘great hubby’” like, but we find her writing very honest. She is another blogger friend that we have met through the Saturday: 9 meme that we both play on the weekend. Jodi is someone you can both relate to and root for. Whether she speaks of her sister’s health issues or simply what she did for her day, she is always interesting.

Today’s winning post is titled I’m Going to Rest My Eyes is a good example of her posts. It includes her two of her three favorites on the planet: Her hubbie and her cat. (Her third favorite is aforementioned coffee or Diet Coke depending on the day.) Jodi writes, “I really went in the bedroom to “rest my eyes”. Next thing I knew, it was midnight. Did you ever wake up and for a minute & not know where you were? It was weird. I think I was dreaming then I suddenly woke up. All the lights were on in the bedroom. I heard this horrendous sound like people fighting that was so loud.” You’ll have to check out the post to find out about the fighting. We will tell you that everyone survived. The Rising Blogger is pleased to award Jodi our Post of the Day!

Review written by BUD WEISER.

A Soldier’s Mother

The Chinese philospher Lao-Tzu once said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

This is what A Soldier’s Mother has done. This blog was started by a mom to follow her son Elie, a young soldier. He began his 3 years of military service in the Israeli army in March 2007 .

As I went through this blog made me realize how little I really know about Israel and their way of life. All that I have seen are what the Western news media reports and it is almost always the most negative aspects that they show. But of course, anyone who is in contact with people of a country can hear different stories! Blogs at their best, can be powerful transmitters of understanding.

This blog is very universal in it’s feeling. All mothers miss their sons when they go off to the armed forces, no matter what country or culture you are from. And yes, deep down, each Mom does battle her own fears. Mother says, “Perhaps, despite the worries, my son is right. This is an adventure, a new road he will take. I should be excited for him. I should be (and I am) very proud of him. In other countries, 19 year old boys are drinking and driving and focusing on girls. It will be years before they grow up while here in Israel, they are given responsibility, life and death decisions.”

Mother shares her world with the good times including the joys of phone calls and of too-short visits, and the bad times that return when the news reports are once again scary. But, more than once, Mother pushes her fears back. In her words she “decided to be a mother who welcomes my son home with happiness, but more importantly, one who keeps the fears and worries from overwhelming him…”

It was eventually one of Mother’s recent posts called Two Rights Don’t Make a Wrong, that I honor with The Rising Blogger’s Post of the Day. I invite everyone to read Mother’s post. This is about about young men and women in the Israeli army, and how her son made his own choice concerning this.

lt is a very thought-provoking post.

Congratulations to A Soldier’s Mother from Barbara at The Rising Blogger!

Review written by BARBARA.

PreWife

PreWife is a blog on a limited life span. And no, not because we know the author or for that matter anything else about this blog than this post which was nominated. The full title: PreWife: You Propose. She said yes. Now What? The “now what” is what this blog’s posts are all about. But once PreWife is this dude’s wife, what then? Change it to PostWife? Nah, sounds like a divorce or a death. This blog is a bit all over the place in the way a “Mommy’s Blog” can be. We mean that every event the author finds note worthy and posts about is not always fascinating. But, when he is amusing he can be very funny.

The subject and post title is Gift Baskets. It seems this couple is getting married on an island in front of 40 people. They (really meaning PreWife) have the baskets but nothing in them. The Pre-Husband, sp-to-speak explains, ““What the hell are gift baskets?” you are probably asking yourself right about now. I know I did when I first the mere whisper of “gift baskets” drifting into the TV room disturbing my Golf Watching. At first I thought it was for the wedding shower (Shower? Really? ummm…Ok..) but then I realized that these were going to be gift baskets for the 40 or so guests we had invited to our wedding…on an Island…that may or may not have electricity. I mean it is not Like we can stop at the Walmart after we get there and grab a couple boxes of pop-tarts and wicker baskets. I also doubt very much that the basket ingredients would travel very well.”

We know that you will get a kick out of this post. We did. And so it is The Rising Blogger Post of the Day. We are looking forward to the inevitable “ExWife” blog…

Review written by BUD WEISER.

Other Things Amanzi

What would you do if had to save a cold-blooded killer’s life? What if it fell to you, on any given day, to remain impartial, silent, non-judgmental, professional…….stoic? Could you separate your feelings and do your job?

The post is called “Family” and it’s written in the notoriously crime-ridden province of South Africa’s Mpumalanga. Bongi, the writer of this amazing blog, called other things amanzi, is a general surgeon. He was faced with such a choice.

He writes, “they took the old lady into a back room.two things happened then. the man, left alone, had a chance to unlock his safe and get his own gun out. the criminals, meanwhile made the woman kneel down and as a sort of initiation type thing, one of them put a bullet through her. they then came out of the room, assumably to do the same to the old man. imagine their surprise when they walked into a blazing gun.”

What happened next led Bongi down a post-operative path he’d never walked. While this post is undeniably horrific and sad, it is also honestly written and powerful. The Rising Blogger’s Post of the Day is called “Family”. It is from the blog Other Things Amanzi.

It will leave you recalculating – carefully – the meaning of that word.

Review written by MIMI LENOX.

Image: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Sisters of a Different Order

Any woman who has one or more sisters (like me), can instantly relate to Sisters of a Different Order. Through our bloodlines, we share the same family. But, this does not always mean being alike, Personalities, tastes, political or religious orientations and many other factors often make sisters very different from each other.

I jumped right into this blog. Between the ups and downs of each sister’s children, husbands, and each other’s musings, the feeling is fresh and often funny. Never a dull moment !

You have a good feeling for the sister’s ups & downs of life, as with Sister Sassy’s Father’s Day declaration for her wonderful husband ends with “A massage would not only be a great gift for him, but it would help him therapeutically. It would give him the time and relaxation his body and spirit need to continue being a great husband, father and employee. Please consider JimmyEW”.Or Sister Honey Bunch’s new job, and the challenges of fitting in and doing one’s best. As she explains ” I usually walk through life feeling pretty darned OK about myself. And sometimes? Sometimes God decides to be all funny and put me in my place. There is just no other explanation.”

And bravo to you also ladies, for your “Let’s Get Fit 8 Weeks Challenge” for yourselves and your readers. The sisters were determined to kick out bad habits and get into shape. You finished your challenge and I’m sure did yourselves a lot of good. Great idea!

It was ultimately Sister Sassy’s and Sister Honey Bunches’ 100th post (“actually the 101st,” Sister Sassy adds), that got my nod. It is a beautifully written post where each sister celebrates the uniqueness and yes, love for her sister.

Congratulations to you both! Who the Heck Are We? Our 100th Post is The Rising Blogger’s Post of the Day!

Review written by BARBARA.

Ducks of Happiness

Not having time. It’s a problem. Me, not you. You must have more time than me, because here you are reading this post. So, it’s even better for me when someone comes over to check out my blog, which allows me to discover theirs. Ducks of Happiness is written by an anonymous, 30-something, recovering alcoholic who lives on an island somewhere in the South Pacific – no clue here, huh? She’s lived in many states and several countries. She tends to write long posts, but they are extremely worthwhile – even with the wild segues many of her posts take that turn out to be just as good as the main storyline. Her writing is consistent and her stories well-told.

Her self-description says it all: “I’m not a mommy-blogger, a sex-blogger, and I don’t claim to be a writer. So I’m not sure if I’ll have a particularly high readership. Most blogs I’ve read are prefaced with ‘This blog is for me and my family’. Which then ends up being a mommy-blog, a sex-blog, or a writer’s showcase.

In my case, it is for and about me. (But isn’t everything)? This is my personal forum to share the experiences I’m dying to tell other people about but can’t because of time zones. Like when there’s a mullet sighting and no one is around. Or when someone brings a goat to a 12-step meeting and I think ‘I have to tell someone about this! The world must know!’ So see? See why I need a blog? I have many, many things to tell people.”

Ducks finds herself heading with some friends to watch drug court. Good times. Her observations about the experience sound a lot more like an episode of “Night Court” than “Cops.” She also reads the police logs, which starts her down her first side alley. And, “South Pacific” names can be fun, can’t they? Ducks especially enjoyed a couple of names that showed up on the blotter, which sends her down yet another alley to a time when she would call applicants in for interviews in her role in HR. Now, put this all together and what do you get? A skilled storyteller who deftly puts all the tangential pieces together for your reading pleasure. It’s hysterically funny. Today The Rising Blogger Post of the Day is titled About Names…And Prisons.

Review written by LORI HAHN.

Beelzebebe

Imagine, if you would, the cutest baby you have ever seen in your life. Now, imagine if that baby could talk – or at least blog. No, I’m not talking about Stewie from ‘Family Guy’ I’m talking about the child and the blog named Beelzebebe. Written by her mother, Mayjah, Beelzebebe lets us into her formative years and I for one can’t get enough. Whether she’s reorganizing her mother’s kitchen cabinets (pictures included) or whether she’s just sitting around giggling at nothing in particular (video included) you will be hooked immediately.

The Rising Blogger Post of the Day is called Christmas Card Rejects. Explaining that she didn’t want to be a part of a boring Christmas card picture, Beelzebebe went on to make suggestions for better cards. For instance:

“Dear Jesus, please give mommy dignity and shirts that touch her pants for Christmas. Amen.”

Or

“Lay off the eggnog and try to keep your skirt on this holiday season. That means you Aunt Sally!”

Imagine these fun filled cards with a cute little baby’s face attached and then tell me you won’t be running out to your local Hallmark store begging them to stock these cards in their store. I would gladly send these out every year!

Beelzebebe’s writing is sharp and flooded with sarcasm. And for a baby, she has quite the mouth on her – which makes it that much funnier! Beelzebebe’s rather new to the blogging world but I think she will find an audience with no problem at all. Beelzebebe can currently be found under her crib with her mother’s laptop. . .blogging away!

Review written by MIMZIE BEAUMONT.

(Judd’s note: Today Mimzie Beaumont from Mimzie’s Musings joins our TRB reviewing staff. Please feel free to welcome her!)

Shearyadi’s World

The Great White Whale. The Orangutan Crisis. Greenpeace. StopWhaling.org. Giant Chinese Sturgeon. Activisim. Corruption.

The guy has a passion.

The World According To Shearyadi is full of magnificent animal pics and purpose-filled posts about saving not just his world – but our world. Wanna talk about environmental issues? Climate changes? Political bantering about global warming and the Alaska Polar Bear? It’s all here.

The Rising Blogger Post of the Day is called The Talks on Climate Change and Animals Extinction. Ho hum. Right?

Here’s the first sentence, “This is totally insane and immature state of behaviour by some people when dealing with such important issues like global warming and animals extinction.” Come on, mister. Tell me more…..

So I read on. To find out why Shearyadi thinks people are totally insane and immature. By the end of the post I was nodding in agreement and seeing things in a different light. He has statistics, well-placed photos and a stunning video to share. It’s heady stuff written from a human’s passionate point of view. The blog is named Shearyadi’s World. What is the source of his anger in this post? What human greedy hobby pushed him over the proverbial iceberg’s edge?

You’ll have to read and find out. I won’t spoil it.

Congratulations, Shearyadi. You have written The Rising Blogger’s Post of the Day!

Review written by MIMI LENOX.

Image: public domain U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service