Mulligan Season...

Over at History Is Elementary I’ve declared this spring to be the season of the mulligan – see my explanation here.

Basically, it means I will be re-posting past articles here at Georgia on My Mind as well as History Is Elementary and Got Bible?. I’m doing this so I can concentrate on a book project with a looming deadline.

Don’t worry though….I’ll be checking in often, and I do have a few new Georgia blogs to add to the blogroll for your reading pleasure.

I also plan to get the Georgia Carnival up and running again in April….so look for the announcement and call for submissions soon.

Your continued attention to my meager efforts here is greatly appreciated….

….and I want you to keep Georgia on your mind because our great state is the jewel of the south, and it is always on MY mind.

I Need a Favor...

This post will remain at the top for a few days. If you have seen it please scroll down for new content.

UPDATE: Apparently you can vote via a PollMonkey widget at a separate post that was created after the link I give below. You are allowed to vote once per day between now and May 26th from what I could gather at the site. Once you use the PollMonkey widget it deactivates it for your computer and shows you a tally of votes until 24 hours passes. Then you can vote again. Here’s the link:

Click here to vote for History Is Elementary for best education blog.

It’s a little confusing because the original posting said you could vote by leaving a comment. At any rate I’m very grateful for the folks who have taken the time to vote for me at Best of Blogs. Thank you!
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I’ll admit other than asking for a submission or two for the carnival I don’t ask much from my fellow Georgia bloggers, but I’m going to this time.

The Best of Blogs has named History Is Elementary (that “other” place where I blog) as one of their nominated best blogs in the category of Education and Homeschooling.

Could you take a moment and think about voting for me? Of course, if you haven’t ever been over to History Is Elementary I would encourage you to check me out before voting…..there are nine other blogs nominated in the same category. :)

If you would like to vote for me you can visit the announcement page here. I believe all that is required to vote is to leave a comment stating that in the category of education and homeschooling you vote for History Is Elementary. Other categories including travel are listed on the post as well, so don’t let that throw you.

Thanks for helping me.

In other news the most recent Ga. Carnival can be read here, and I added a few more blogs to the blogroll here.

Carnivals for Many Interests

Georgia blogger and fellow educator, Terrell, over at Alone on a Limb maintains the Carnival of Environmental Education. Like our own Georgia carnival it travels around to other sites every now and then. The February edition is being hosted here and Terrell advises the March edition will be returning to his blog next month. Check out all the different ways educators are using the great outdoors to engage students.

Interested in improving education? Interested in education policy? Then the education carnival is for you hosted at The Colossus of Rhodey. It’s not just lesson plans and theory. If education is your thing you can also check out the A Teacher's Life blog carnival and don’t forget the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Lots of interesting postings regarding various history topics can be found at Historia i Media. This blog is written in Polish, but a large majority of the submissions are written in English so just click through the submission links and be surprised at what you discover if you don’t have a translator program.

Finally, don't forget the last edition of the Georgia Canrival which can be found here.

The 10-20-30 Virus

Pastor Bill over at Provocative Church tagged me with the 10-20-30 virus. If I have to have a virus this is the kind I’d want. The whole point is to write about where you were in your life 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and 30 years ago.

30 years ago: The year was 1977. I was a tenth grader making the change from public school….Lakeshore High School in College Park to private school….Woodward Academy. I loved my old school, but loved my new one even more. Friday and Saturday nights found me making the ever slow trek up and down Old National Highway where all the high school kids on the southside hung out to see and be seen. The Krystal and Steak and Shake parking lots were particular hot spots for some reason. This was also the year I finally gave in to join my church (First Baptist Church of Red Oak) and be baptized. “Gave in” is the right phrase because I had been ready for years, but simply wouldn’t submit to that walk down to the preacher. Rev. Larry Stewart was so relieved when I finally made that walk. He said his list had finally gotten shorter. It was also the year that I first laid eyes on my husband. He worked for my father and though it took him some time to realize I was “the one” I knew it in an instant. We have been married 23 years.

20 years ago: The year was 1987. I had been married for three years and was busy being the mother of an even more busy two year old boy. I was working as a paralegal for a lawfirm in Marietta, and hubby and I had just bought a new home west of Atlanta. We are still there. This was also the year I had to face what many children do in the United States though they are often at much younger ages. At the age of 25 I found myself a child of divorce. It’s never easy no matter how old you are.

10 years ago: The year was 1997. I was a busy mom of a twelve year old boy and a four year old girl. I was a work-from-home mom, a room mother, and PTA queen. I also travelled around to local courthouses doing freelance background checks and title exams for various clients by day, and by night I was immersed in the teacher candidate program for middle grades education at Mercer University. I finally started teaching during the 98-99 school year.

In order to get the virus totally out of my system I have to tag five other people, and I have decided to stick to Georgia folks. I’m interested in learning more about Chicken Fat, The Aging Hipster, Button Gwinnett over at Liberal Lucidity, Doug over at Considerettes, and SpaceyG at The Spacey Gracey Review.

I have emailed these folks with notification they have been infected. :)

Sweet Georgia Blue Asked So...

Sometime before the last Georgia Carnival Sweet Georgia Blue
tagged me for the 8 things meme. I had posted a list along with some pictures over at History Is Elementary, however, I thought I would post a bit more with more Georgia-ness added in my random facts……

1. I was born at Piedmont Hospital on Mother’s Day. The story goes my sister named me for a friend of hers….I’m glad. I was usually the only Lisa in my grade level all through school with a three year exception.

2. I grew up in the middle of a lumber yard---anyone remember the old West Lumber Company in Red Oak? My father was the manager of that store and a couple of others. Last summer I went on a visit to Red Oak to find my old house. I’m still looking.

3. I graduated from Woodward Academy, but I also attended Lakeshore High School and Eastern Elementary. I loved going to Woodward. It was difficult, but my first two years of college were a breeze because I was so well prepared.

4. My favorite mall is Lenox, of course. My favorite lunch is at the Swan Coach House. My mother used to take my sister and I for years. It was always a big deal. We’d have lunch---the frozen fruit with chicken salad is wonderful---and then hit Lenox. I’ve carried on the tradition with my daughter. My favorite department store is Rich’s….I refuse to call it Macy’s to the amusement of the nice folks who work there.

5. My favorite high school activity was riding up and down Old National Highway with hundreds of kids each Friday and Saturday night. Teens from Lakeshore, M.D. Collins, Woodward, Arlington, North Clayton, Headland, College Park, Russell…..and on and on would converge on a strip of road probably less than three miles long and inch along in the traffic from point A----the movie theatre near Service Merchandise down to point B---the Steak and Shake parking lot. Along the way you might turn in McDonalds and check out their parking lot and take a turn around the lot at Krystal. What can I say? We didn’t have music videos yet…and the Internet was still a few years away. Sadly many places along “the strip” are abandoned today.

6. Before I began teaching……I was a junior clerk for the State and Superior Courts of Cherokee County. I recorded deeds, helped people look up their titles, and collected traffic fines. Later I obtained a position with a law firm in Marietta where I learned the art of collection law. When I married and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia I worked for a lawfirm there as well before becoming a stay at home mom with my first born. Once I was back in Georgia I returned to my old law firm for awhile and then I operated my own legal research firm doing background checks, running titles, and collecting debts for various small businesses.

When I grow up I’d like to write full time and teach at the college level. I believe I’m almost to the point that I’m grown up.

7. I hold an Associates Degree in Law from Reinhardt College, a Bachelors degree in Middle Grades Education with a major concentration in Social Studies and a minor in Language Arts from Mercer University, and I’m extremely close to holding in my hand a Masters degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Someday when I have a few minutes I’d like to take the two or three classes I need to complete a Bachelors degree in History. I might stop then…..maybe.

8. My maternal and paternal families have been in Georgia for sometime. I wrote about my Dad’s family a few days ago. It’s amazing how DNA research is now helping people who research their family trees.

The rules for this meme were

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 3 other people and notify them when they have been tagged.

When I did this before, I tagged several people. If you are reading this second edition consider yourself tagged and if you would like to post eight random facts about yourself please do so. You can refer to me as your tagger. :)

Atlanta Bloggers--Who Matters? and....A Few Additions to the Blogroll

Recently Andishen Nouraee of Creative Loafing published Bright Lights in the Blogosphere: Five Local Bloggers Who Matter. The article is an interesting overview of the state of blogging in the Atlanta area.

Nouraee states:

“Instead of displacing the traditional news media, challenging the mainstream news and entertainment media’s backside—or foisting great-but-previously-undiscovered talents on the city—blogging in Atlanta is, by and large, a medium for self-expression.”

Basically it would seem Nouraee boils local blogs down to two kinds……personal self-expressive blogs or “bloggers who attempt to reach beyond their circles of acquaintances, either by doing something completely unique, or doing something better than just about anyone else.”

I guess he’s right about that…..some blogs stand out when lined up against others including that large, large category of day-to-day journal type blogs. Personally I think both types of blogs have their purpose and are beneficial to the writers and to their readers. I find many journal type blogs very interesting and many have very unique styles.

I think the whole thing just becomes a matter of preference.

Nouraee’s criteria for his short list was to name blogs that reach out and that are unique…..I think he did a great job meeting his criteria. Two of the blogs are already on the Georgia blogroll: Peach Pundit and Peachtree Screed. The other three are: I Saw It on Ponce, Cable and Tweed, and Inside the Oversexed Mind of Gloria Brame (Shhhhhh…..she’s a sex therapist).

Click on the link I gave at the beginning and read the interviews with these fine Atlanta bloggers. The comments…all fifty plus are interesting and downright Jerry Springer-ish in some places. As with ANY blogging list some are upset and have said their piece. It would seem there is a “history” with some of these folks and I…..lowly teacher that I am I am not part of Atlanta’s “social media”. I don’t know why Nouraee’s list has ruffled so many feathers. In the education blogosphere we have list after list after list. Some you make…..some you don’t.

The blogging world, including Atlanta’s small corner of it, is vast in its variety.

Those that are only into media type blogs won’t enjoy my history posts here at Georgia On My Mind or my posts over at History Is Elementary, you might not enjoy the wonderful convicting posts of Pastor Bill, the amazing drawings and stories at Idle Minutes, or the book reviews of Otter, but I assure you there is something for everyone IF they take the time to look.

I believe Creative Loafing now understands there are quite a bit more bloggers out and about than they realized at first, AND there are entirely too many niche blogs to make one list. I liked the suggestions concerning allowing people to link to their sites in the comments much like the AJC. I also think the Atlanta…..the Georgia blogosphere… could have been looked at a bit more critically before posting the initial story. Maybe they could begin a feature titled “blog of the week” or some such….just a thought.

Regarding the Georgia blogroll I’m a bit behind in adding some folks who recently were featured in the ninth and tenth editions of the Georgia Carnival. Here they are:
Life of a Resident Alien
Sweet Georgia Blue
Brick Cheney
No Credit Needed
Augusta Observer
Three Sticks
Thanks to Nouraee’s article I found these sites as well…….I hope they don’t mind being included on the Georgia blogroll and their participation in the next Georgia Carnival would be welcome.
Going Through the Motions
Atlanta Malcontent
Chamblee 54
Ben Prisk-----make sure you scroll down to his “Links” to click through to his Squidbillies site
What a Concept!

Finally…………Creative Loafing’s question of the week states “What’s on your blogroll?” Click through HERE and let them know about all the little gems you hold near and dear to your heart.