New Technology Category at Blogs by Women

Strata of Mobilis in Mobili wrote:

I'd love it if you could add a "Technology" and/or "Geekery" category, and maybe something like "Green" or "Sustainability". This particular blog is a combination of reblog stuff from enGadget, Metaefficient, and similar, with a focus toward sustainability and technological advances. There isn't really a good category for that-- it's not really "Science" and it's not really "Internet & Computers".

So, Strata's blog is the first listed in our Technology category. Let's get that category filled, ladies. I know you female techies are out there.


Technorati Tag: technology

Call for Women Bloggers

Angie has done a great job keeping us aware of great women bloggers in the blogosphere. Thank you very much, Angie! Now that we've been working on BbW since March, I want to move Blogs by Women to a different level.

If there are any bloggers out there who wish to join the BbW team member, please email me. You can highlight a fellow blogger, or blog on any subject you find interesting. Now that the directory seems to have grown in popularity and we've added 70+ blogs (and counting) to the BbW blogroll, we expect to expand our reach extensively within the blogosphere.

I look forward to hearing from you.

--Genia
SistersTalk

Technorati Tag: women bloggers

Featured Cat Bloggers

I see a lot of cat blogging, so I thought I would point BbW readers to women cat bloggers. After reading some of these blogs, I'm thinking I might start cat blogging at SistersTalk, but I don't know if I can commit myself to blogging regularly on cats -- even though I do love my little babies. At one point, I joked that in 30 years I'd be "the old lesbian in the corner house with all the cats." My kids embarass me regularly by telling all new people in my life that I "talk for the cats." I do, but do they have to tell everybody?

Anyway, here are bloggers who love their cats just as much as I do.

Bootstrap Analysis is a regular Friday Cat blogger. Cat Blogged presents great pictures of cute little babies ya just wanna take home and spoil silly. This cat is feeling as sick as a dog. This Cat Blog is full of pictures, too. You might be there awhile; grab some coffee. BamaBlog is a nice cat blog dating back to 2003. It's a Cat's World here; this blog looks like a group thing. And lastly, PsychoKitty is a must-read.

Technorati Tag: cat blogging

Stormwind

Space

The NASA announcement that the shuttles are going to be grounded again after this flight, makes me a little sad. I don't want another disaster, but I surely hope they aren't grounded for long. I believe humankind needs the hope and dreams that space exploration provides.


There are of course, all the indications that private flights into space aren't that far distant into our future.

Technorati Tag: space

360 Degrees of Sky - Life in Rural Zambia

Hotel d'Horreur

Accommodation in Lusaka is a curious thing. There is a place we like to stay at because it's cheap and cheerful. With emphasis on both those things – it costs very little money to stay there and the company is always good. Unfortunately everyone else likes to stay there too, so it's usually booked pretty solid. We did manage to book a room for last weekend however. Or so we thought. But on rocking up, with an hour before the Embassy do started, we got told there was a mixup and now there was no room at the inn. And thus ensued a fraught 2-hour drive around Lusaka desperately trying to find somewhere to stay.


Unless you are a big businessperson on an expense account (we're not) and stay at somewhere plush like the Pamodzi or the Intercontinental Hotels, you are left with a choice of guesthouses which beggar belief. Many are openly brothels. The rest charge exorbitant prices for décor last seen in Auntie Marge's house, after she overdosed on her HRT meds with too many back issues of Gardener's World and Woman's Weekly to hand. As we drove round and round the capital The Husband was getting a bit hysterical at the thought of showing up to the reception late, in case it was a sit-down affair. I was more worried about them running out of booze, but figured that the combination of an Irish reception in Africa would mean the show wouldn't start until at least a couple of hours after the advertised time.

Technorati Tag: zambia

Indian Writing

Celebrate. Grieve.

Everyone has a personal story about where they were on Terrible Tuesday. Even Bipasha Basu.


I don't. I was at home, is all. And as I've told you, it hardly rained near our house. Not that much, anyway: just like any other very wet day in a Mumbai monsoon. I had had an eye surgery on Monday for which I was advised a couple of days' rest at home. My husband went to work on Tuesday morning as usual. I went to my doctor's clinic for the post-op checkup. When I returned home, I got a call from a friend. We met for a coffee at the coffeeshop down the road. I dropped him where he needed to be, an hour later, and returned home. At around five, my mother mentioned that we needed bread, vegetables and dahi. I tried ordering from the Nature's Basket down the road, but they regretfully informed me that there was no delivery that day. Raveesons, our neighbourhood grocer, had already shut down and gone home. I should have sensed that something was wrong, but I was still in my post-surgical daze. I rang up the medical store down the road and asked him to send us some atta noodles and juice. They were out of dahi.

There is alot more ... click on over for the rest ...

Technorati Tag: monsoon

Renee Gets Fit

B/c I have to

I've got a lot of clutter in my life. A lot. it seems like an oxymoron b/c on the on hand I'm very OCD, I am very meticulous and detailed in how I approach my fitness, but my car, desk, bedroom, closet all look like tornadoes hit them. And it's so draining. Each week I pump myself up to do something about it and each weekend the thought of it makes me tired or I run away to the movies and then sleep away Sunday to avoid only to wake up drained and distracted by the clutter on Monday. This has gone on far longer than I care to admit and as I was having flashes of tackling something this weekend, I found myself looking to see what time Must Love Dogs will be showing on Saturday.


I've GOT to do something about it already. It's symptomatic of other clutter I have when it comes to moving myself forward and out of miserable situations. So this Saturday & Sunday I will commit to cleaning up at least 3 areas. My car, my hallway closet and the hallway. I can't commit to doing more b/c it's so much but if there is time, I'll work on my desk and work my way around my bedroom each weekend. I have a finance related post to write but before I get to the heart of what I need to do, I need to clear out the junk and get myself organized again.

Technorati Tag: clutter

olla podrida

Why Are We Here?

Why are we here?
It is the most difficult question we've ever asked and the most difficult to answer. Every species has a part to play. Of all the species that share this world, humans are the only ones that can protect every species on earth – including ourselves.


I would very much like to see this entire program so I'll be checking my local PBS station to see if it will be aired. I have to say I don't agree that we have the power to "save" the planet at this point in the game but the questions "why are we here?" and "what is our purpose?" are interesting to ponder, nevertheless.

Technorati Tag: ENVIRONMENT

Evening Star

God Loves Scarleteen

I found this site a little while ago and have poured all over it. Scarleteen is a response to the failing so-called sex education in schools. They believe in facts, not pushing abstainence nor saying go ahead and do it all day long. As a teen mom with a teen mom sister and teen mom friends, this is important to me. I feel teens are generally given a glossed over, simplistic version of sexuality which only serves to confuse or misinform them.

Technorati Tag: sex

The Canuck of London's Tale

Suspicion

Police shoot suspected suicide bomber in London...


Was he? Is our paranoia running unleashed or is this true?


Mr Whitby, told BBC News: "I was sitting on the train reading my paper. "I heard a load of noise, people saying, 'Get out, get down'! "I saw an Asian guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers. "One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him. "I saw the gun being fired five times into the guy - he's dead."


The result? Two London underground lines - Northern and Victoria are reported to have been closed. These are the two lines that run through Stockwell station.


I hear that and then read passengers on the northern line said a man was walking through carriages with a rucksack. The train was held at Kennington on the northern line as there was a report of a suspicious man on a southbound train, a spokesman for British transport police said." Police held a man but he appeared to be innocent of any wrongdoing, he said. What if they would've just shot him...I hope that the man they killed did do something wrong. I wouldn't like to think what's happening to us otherwise.

Technorati Tag: London

Rockstar Mommy

I wonder how many women I have convinced to start taking birth control with this site....

32 weeks pregnant and I have gained 32 pounds. I think I deserve some kind of an award for consecutively gaining 1 pound each week during the entire pregnancy. And I think I also deserve some free Chocolate Lucky Charms for promoting them so much on this site. Free Chocolate Lucky Charms could be my award, seeing as though they're one of the major parts of the weight gaining equation.


My stomach is seemingly defying the laws of gravity. I had no idea that one's stomach could expand so far, but I am living proof that yes, it really can. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I always joked that I was carrying her in my ass because my belly stayed relatively small while my hips and ass expanded to the point where I needed to turn sideways to walk through doors. (This is just barely an exaggeration.) But, this time it's completely opposite. Yes, my hips and ass have expanded and my thighs are jiggly and my arms are squishy, but my stomach - my GOD - the stomach is enormous. I would post some pictures to show you, but I have bludgeoned to death anyone who has pointed a camera in my direction in the past month or so, so there are none.

Technorati Tag: pregnancy

Brutal Women

Thoughts on Roe

If they have the balls to do it, it might go something like this:


1) The legality of abortion will get kicked back to the states, so blue states will have the procedure, some of the bigger red and mostly southern states won't, and I'll be smuggling in terrified pregnant teenagers from Indiana into Illinois and fending off further homegrown terrorists bombing health clinics. We'll have our own underground railroad. How charming.


2) Abortion is totally illegal, and we get 1.9 million more unwanted children every year. This will likely go the way of Prohibition, so we'll have ten years of women dying on tables and in back alleys and trying to self-perform abortions. Ten or twenty thousand dead women a year should do it; get a million real, live women who are now dead and talk about *their* deaths in front of a higher court, and we'll go back to allowing legal abortion. Of course, a lot of women, maybe you, your sister, your wife, your girlfriend, will have to die to get that to happen, but hey, that's politics.

Technorati Tag: abortion

Women's Autonomy and Sexual Sovereignty Movements

Calling all Bloggers, Readers, Citizens - We have to get together!

If you're like me, you're feeling overwhelmed. Between the Lies, the Iraq War, the Cover-up, the Smear Campaign against Joe Wilson, the Leak of a covert CIA Operative's Identity, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby (at least) being TRAITORS, a reactionary tool being nominated to the Supreme Court, Torture in Gitmo and Abu Graib and the constant assault on science and human rights being waged by the Religious Right, and let's never forget the STOLEN ELECTIONS and the greed and corruption of this Administration -- well, it's a lot to take in.


WE ARE AT WAR with the NeoCon Death Cult. That's the only way to describe it. They're going to drag us back to a Colonial Monarchy complete with our own King George if we don't get united.

Technorati Tag: politics

Welcome to my Pity Party

I can't take this any more

WHAT THE ... ?? I thought things were getting better. Today was unreal. I wish it had been a dream. I haven't been able to cry because I've been so busy taking care of things - and other people - around here. I've been just zoning out instead, playing games on the computer or watching tv late at night. It's like I just detach or something. What, am I just being pushed until I crack? I know I'm silly to compare my problems to Job's, but seriously I want to say to God, what are you making bets with the devil again, only over me this time? Sometimes all I want to do is just drive my car off a cliff, or maybe lock myself in my room and have a nervous breakdown and refuse to deal with any of this. But I don't, I keep on going, because I have a husband and daughter who need me. But it feels like this mean joke God is playing on me, making we want to just give up on life altogether, yet putting my family there to prevent me from doing it.


I know: bad, bad theology. I'll discuss my wacked-out theology another time. I need some time to think about it more.

Although I'm an atheist, even I have had times I had wanted to just scream, "WHY ME?!?!?"

Technorati Tag: stress

Voyage to Nowhere

Illustration Friday - Heroes

I would have preferred "heroic" because it just seems less specific and "heroes" sorta left me at a loss. But what the hey.


I've chosen to present Medusa because she has always been one of my favorite goddesses. She represents female strength and mystery, among other things, as well possessing the symbolism of the snake with its power of renewal and change. Also, I may identify with her a tad because I have been accused on more than one occasion of having the evil eye...(hee hee, I say)

In addition to her Art Journal, she has a Personal Journal. Both of which can be accessed thru the main page here.

Technorati Tag: heroes

this woman's work

Blog neglect

I've been busy scouring this site for census information about Columbus-area neighborhoods. And the Great Schools site for more specific demographics.


The three neighborhoods we are considering all have less racial diversity than the neighborhood we live in now. This is troubling. However in at least one of the neighborhoods, we would still have quick access to this one (the same grocery store, for example). In the other two, depending on where we live, we would have some access but would need to make more effort. Also one of the neighborhoods apparently has a lot of movement from African American students outside the area. In Columbus you can choose your school and there are three schools fed by this mostly white district that are considered very good by Columbus standards. Just outside this area is a neighborhood that is primarily African American and that -- shocking, I know -- has schools that are on Academic Emergency. Some of the students there must have parents who are exercising their right to school choice.

Technorati Tag: moving

Instructions to the Double

Sorry to Disappoint You

If you have come to this little blog today looking for prurient details of a "nanny gone wild" and another "nanny diary" detailing the sordid life of a family she works for, I am very sorry to disappoint you. Contrary to an essay published in the Style section of the NYTIMES, I am not a pill popping alcoholic who has promiscuous sex and cares nothing for the children for whom she works with. Nope. If you look carefully through my archives, instead you will find a young woman in her mid-twenties who decided to work as a nanny for a year while she prepared to enter the next phase of her professional life; namely the life of an academic pursuing a PhD in English Literature specifically focusing on the Late Victorian novel. But for those of you who dont want to comb through the archives, I will offer a refutation of the salacious, malicious, and really quite silly essay written by Ms. Olen.

Thought since this was the talk of the blogtopia (term coined by skippy) we might as well use the opportunity to blog it here as well.

Technorati Tag: betrayal

NEW Blogs by Women Blogroll

Maybe it's time for a blogroll, eh?

When I started BlogsbyWomen (BbW), I tried having a blogroll, but I was using a 500 link blogroll created by another blogger. I decided I wouldn't use it because it would offer very little incentive for those bloggers to head over to the directory and add their blog. I wanted to wait until after I built the directory and offered only those who are listed in the directory an opportunity to be listed on the blogroll.

RULES

1. Everyone who joins the blogroll will be expected to add the BbW blogroll code to their blog. This way, we promote each other.

2. The blogroll will be capped at 250 blogs + 1. The extra blog will be the Blogs by Women blog. If you want to be listed, let us know as soon as possible. Email me if you want your blog added to the blogroll.

Links will be checked periodically and dead blogs will be removed from the blogroll. In addition, if you do not update your blog regularly, your blog will be removed.

UPDATE August 20, 2005: Grab the code here. You MUST add the code before you send a request to join the blogroll. Your blog must be listed in the directory also.

UPDATE August 22, 2005:

DO NOT send your blog information to me if you want it added to the directory. You can Submit Your Blog to the directory yourself. Many women are emailing me to have their blog added to the directory without even visiting the directory first. Two submission links are placed prominently at the top of the directory page. Ya can't miss it.



Technorati Tag: blogging

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Viki wants to know what the UPS man did with her copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:

Dear UPS Man,



Where is my fucking copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince?



Do you realize that if I knew now what I didn't know yesterday afternoon, when you delivered that gigantic package for my husband, and that is that my book was probably on your truck right at that moment, that I probably would have slept with you if you had given me my book early? Damn you, UPS man. Where the hell are you? It is 9:47 a.m. and if my daughter opens the front door, letting out the air conditioning and letting in the humid, stale, nasty hot July Chicago air one more time and slams it shut, moaning in grief because my, I mean her, book isn't sitting on the stoop, I'm going to get in the car and come looking for you.

Technorati Tag: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

One Ping Only

It's a Summer of Secrets!

I feel so guilty. Ever since the end of the last Amazing Race (a.k.a. the start of my sabbatical), I have neglected one of my favorite sites, TVgasm.


I don't watch any of the shows they were still covering after that point and, like so many blogs that I haven't been visiting like I used to, I let them fall a bit by the wayside.


But, oh, baby, they're back and better than ever! Yes, Big Brother has begun its sixth incarnation and the 'gasm recaps are hitting their stride. For Big Brother 6, CBS has abandoned any pretense of including "regular" people, like any who are older, or freakish, or who don't look killer in a swimsuit. (Don't believe me? Click on that last link and check out the cast photos at the top. Then wait for just a minute as the main photos rotate through 'til you get to the one with the huge title "How We Love Howie," and I think you'll see what we're dealing with this time around.) This year's theme is "Summer of Secrets" and you can bet they're going to beat that one into the ground. There are secret alliances, secret rooms, secret safes, secret videosscreens and (no doubt) Secret deodorant as a potential sponsor of a secret sweepstakes.

Technorati Tag: television

Marian's Blog

The G8, BBC, and "Scotland's Black History"- Ask BBC for CD and Transcripts

Wow; it's been a busy week up North in Scotland. First G8 protesters all over Princess Street in Edinburgh, then the motley group of European, African and Asian MEN in their meetings over at Gleneagles golfing club. It was so apparent women's presence "was not required." The absence of women was a wasted opportunity, particularly when considering who is going to get the real work done. Matter of fact, I never even saw a Black woman's face at the G8 until the end when 2 journalists were allowed to ask questions at the closing news conference. And - of course - no Diaspora Blacks from, say, Pakistan or Mexico, Haiti or Brazil, or the USA -- or even right there in Edinburgh or LONDON(!).

Technorati Tag: women

PractiGal

Life at 16 months

To my dear son,


Friends and family are always asking what you're doing at the various stages of development. I decided I should post about that now and then, so that you'll have something to look back on, and so they'll know too...


Every day is an adventure. You wake up around 7 each morning and are ready to dive into the day. We often hear you chatting in your crib first thing in the morning - it makes us smile! You're a very expressive chatterer. You usually greet us with a cheery smile and "Hi! hi! hi!" though lately it's been "Baw! baw! baw," referring to the little playground balls I bought for you. You're very attached to those balls and want to see them right away when you get up. Daddy wants to write NBA on them, just to plant a little seed -- no pressure, of course!

Technorati Tag: children

feministing

The Unhealthy State of Women's Healthcare

On Thursday the Kaiser Family Foundation released the results of its latest survey on women and healthcare, and the results aren't pretty.


Kaiser found that among those women who do not have health insurance, two-thirds could not afford *any* medical care last year.


And even those *with* insurance aren't fairing that well. One-fourth of young & middle-aged women in the US decided to forego medical treatment or prescriptions because it was too expensive. In the past year, one in five women report that they did not fill a prescription because of the cost.


Alina Salganicoff, vice president and director of women's health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation explained that: "The growth in health care costs has become a central women's health issue. A sizable share of women are falling through the cracks, either because they don't have insurance or even with insurance can't afford to pay for medical care or prescription drugs." (sigh).

Technorati Tag: health

red statement

A Relevant Repeat

Sunday, July 03, 2005 At 11:09pm:


The War In Iraq Costs $173,073,057,160


Instead, we could have paid for 22,923,583 children to attend a year of Head Start.


According to the 2000 census, 71,843,425 children were living in the United States. Of these children, 23,026,593 were under the age of 6. If it weren't for the Head Start daycare down the street from us- either my partner or I would have to stop working. We still have to pay tuition- but it is nowhere near the thousands of dollars a month at other centers. According to Head Start's own records they serve a little over a million kids a year


Can you image what would happen, if instead of the Iraq War, we were building child care centers?

Technorati Tag: childcare

Womenfolk

The song blog dedicated to women in music

Womenfolk's purpose is to promote music. Naturally, if you enjoy what you hear from the site, I strongly encourage you to support the artist and buy their respective album or compilation.

Technorati Tag: music

Mom with Attitude

We're Home- I Hurt- T is leaving- Joe Can Flip You Off Now.

We came home two days early- weren’t supposed to be back until Tuesday morning. (for those who didn’t know we were leaving, we went to Charleston for the 4th of July weekend and to take T to the beach before he leaves)


I broke my foot in two places. I would tell you how this happened but then I would have to kill you. It’s too mortifying to share but let’s just say that it involved a pair of heels, a bottle of wine and an eager husband.

Should we all just use our imagination on this one?

Technorati Tag: mommyblog

Dervish: diary of a Muslim feminist

Husband of the Millenium

Not long ago I posted a short snippit about how I'd found a bookseller in the US who stocked Muhammad 'Abduh (and Rashid Rida's) Tafsir al-Manar. I had joked to my husband that my gift to humanity would be translating the twelve-volume tafsir into English, which of course would take me the rest of my life. Cost and postage looked prohibitively expensive so I forgot about it.


For those who don't know, Muhammad 'Abduh was one of the most influential modernist reformers ever, and Rashid Rida was his student who carried on his work. Muhammad Asad's translation of the Qur'an carries material from the 'Abduh tafsir in its commentaries, but there isn't an English translation available. (Sort of the case with so many of the gems that lie hidden in the Arabic world).


When I first wanted to learn Arabic as part of my University course, I had to get permission. I remember sitting in the office of the head of Arabic & Islamic studies while Dr. Saeed typed up a letter of permission. Back then he only had a pokey little office but its walls were crammed with books. I looked lovingly around at all the beautiful sets of commentaries with gorgeous spine decorations thinking, "one day I'll have a set like that on my bookshelf". They sort of symbolised my burning desire to dive into the Arabic and Islamic oceans of knowledge of which I was only beginning to become aware.

Technorati Tag: muslim

Blogs by Women Directory Update

Thanks to Angie for doing such a good job with the blog. I am very grateful. Thank you very much to my little helper, too.

The Blogs by Women (BbW) Directory now has 413 blogs listed. Our official launch date was March 8, 2005. We're proud of the work we've done! There are a lot of nice blogs listed in the directory. Please go look around and read a few blogs. Tell them Blogs by Women sent ya.

Don't forget to check out BbW's sister site TheNewJane -- the first blog advertising network for women. Another interesting women's project is Celebrating Women. Head over and take a look.

Thomasburg Walks, Grumpiest Girl, Fetch the Paper . . .

A few new additions to the directory:

Thomasburg Walks, a blog about birds, mammals, reptiles and plants in the fields and woods around Thomasburg, a hamlet in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Grumpiest Girl, being in the world is hard at times. That's why it's important to shape your life, eat cake, and write it all down.

Wondering why your blog isn't in the directory? Read the rules.

Heart Crossings, Technology, pop culture, single motherhood, love, relationships and the IT industry.

Fetch the Paper: Digital Dog Edition, Happy pets, happy people--that's the mantra of FETCH the Paper.

Slivovitz for breakfast, it's a sort of "italienglish" diary and another -useful?- point of view written by a 24italian girl.

Menstruating She Devils

1,000 Women

Will the world sigh, "ho-hum," or will the world, startled, sit up and listen when the Nobel Peace Prize is announced in October?


Innovation might win the prize.


One Thousand Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 seeks to recognize women as peacemakers. And like the roles they play, the number 1,000 reflects the small but sustaining efforts of women. The names were announced just days ago.


In January, the official nomination letter was signed. Three women represent the 1,000, to conform with the rules of the Nobel Prize Committee, but all 1,000 names are listed.

Click to read more ...

Technorati Tag: Nobel Peace Prize

Bedroom Thoughts

Teaching our boys

After my recent posts and the following comments I have realised that I have an 11 year old son with whom I have not talked with about the finer details of life. He is still a young sort but I am incredibly proud of him because of the way he is so self-assured whilst retaining a sensitivity and best of all he has a great attitude to girls. He can be a boy's boy and then easily be a best friend for girls and stands up for them when boys go "Ewwww, it's girls, yuck".


I remember when I talked over periods and stuff with my daughter it was not easy. She is nearly 16 now and we seemed to have coped. With my son being the carefree sort I am afraid that I have been coy over the years, especially when the sanitary towel adverts came on the TV. He'd asked "what's that for" and I'd say something along along the lines of it being a type of tissues. I fudged it quite frankly.

Technorati Tag: education