Postcards from the Funny Farm

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Since blogs are read daily and posts from yesterday are rarely read, I thought I’d post all the entries to my contest, even though it’s before the 1st (2 days away to be exact).

Anyway, I’m researching an idea for a series and don’t have anything better to post today (Sunday) so here’s a recap of the contest guidelines and prizes and links to all the entries so far. I hope you all enjoy reading them! There are technically two days left to enter. I will announce the winners on the 1st and link them all again. So far the hippie in me has been inspired! I’m about ready to find a bus for sale and head out on the road. See what they do for you!

THE CONTEST:

There will be 2 big winners and 3 honorable mentions. The 2 will get box ads to their blogs for a month free of charge along with optional custom-made 125×125 glass buttons courtesy of our design company, Create and Innovate Designs. Each will also receive a thoughtful writeup about their blog linked back from here in a post.

The 3 honorable mentions will also get a customized glass button to use as they wish along with a free review here and Google-juice linkback of their blog.

HERE’S THE AMAZING VISIONS SO FAR:

The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone - How In The World D... posted at Shattered Paradigm.

Privilege to Be with a Loved One at the Time of De... posted at Andy, saying, “My dad was one of my greatest heroes. This is my tribute to his legacy.”

The Silva Mind Control Method posted at Effortless Wealth and Abundance.

How to become what you want to become, in about tw... posted at I Will Not Die.

What is there to Know About Diet Pills?? posted at HealthyBitz.

Amazing Vision - Mahatma Gandhi posted at Growing Happiness.

Amazing Things - Inspiration in life, blogging, writing, work, love, living posted at Postcards from the Funny Farm.

How I Got Started with Blogging and Freelance Writ... posted at Beyond the Rhetoric.

It Might Be Love » Blog Archive » Mother Teresa ... posted at It Might Be Love.

Amazing Vision Writing Contest posted at Barbara`s Travels…at home in the world!!!!!.

One-Man Peacekeeping Force posted at Our Evolution.

She?s Inspiration - Amazing Visions Contest posted at Katelynjane’s Notebook.

Nick’s Entry on Randy Pausch posted at Romandock

Amazing Visions is a contest I have opened to the blogosphere for which bloggers write about an inspiring person and link here. It can be about your high school teacher or even just the guy who gave you an amazing auto insurance quote. Yes, it’s that simple! You too can be a part of it. The deadline is July 1st, 2008.

Interested? Go here.

This being my first contest at the Funny Farm, I have learned a lot about how to run one. I would have asked for the permalinks in a comment or email from the beginning since I have learned that pingbacks can sometimes get overlooked in the mix.

But it’s allllll good! I’ve spoken to almost everyone who has entered so far but I need to make sure I have everyone’s link before I start the judging and … yes … giving out the links and prizes!

Wait until you read these posts! Prepare to be inspired big time!

If I already emailed you then you are good, no worries. I also have received the following entries I wish to confirm receipt of entry:

romandock.com/an-entry-to-the-amazing-visions-writ...

btr.michaelkwan.com/2008/06/14/how-i-got-started-w...

http://www.itmightbelove.com/2008/05/28/mother-teresa-on-love/

torristravels.blogspot.com/ (entry pending)

If you are not listed, or I have not emailed you with a confirmation receipt, please leave a comment with the permalink to your story so as to make sure it is in the competition prior to July 1st. Thanks and good luck!

-Damien Riley
Founder, Postcards from the Funny Farm

This is the biggest news this month at the Farm!
Here’s a last reach-out to readers at the Funny Farm. The Amazing Visions Writing contest deadline has been extended to late June! Get your blog post up in the next few days and link it here to win the great linkage and graphics prizes = MORE TRAFFIC FOR YOU!!! Read all the prize details here. I’m so looking forward to reading your entries! Those who have entered already, thank you … I will be linking a bunch to your posts very soon.

By the way, if you have a friend who loves to write on their blog, you can email them this post and get them in post haste. Use the “Send to a friend” link at the footer of this post or simply click here. The prize may not be an xbox 360, but with the links you get you’ll be able to afford 10 of them!

The following Blogs are especially encouraged to enter (but not limited to!):

• Be Playful
• Beyond the Rhetoric
• Change Therapy
• Confident Writing
• Courts Internet Marketing School
• Damien at the Speed of Life
• Derek Semmler dot com
• Dynamite Lesson Plan
• Growing Happiness
• It Might Be Love
• katelynjane.wordpress.com
• Life is RANTastic!
• Lives Less Ordinary
• Lorelle on WordPress
• MS.CAESI
• My Interesting Files
• Neurophilosophy
• Niche Marketing - Andy Beard
• Pop Culture Dish, Presented by Malcolm
• The Man Page
• The Outboard Brain Of A Geek
• This Eclectic Life
• Tumbled Words
• Tyler Ingram Dot Com
• WebGrrrl.net

Best!

-Damien ;)

Just a reminder to the blogosphere that this week is the last opp for you to write a post for my contest. You could get some cool custom artwork and some traffic from my blog if you place. I have a few really cool entries so far but there is lots of room for more. I hope you will consider writing a post and letting me know for this contest.

All the info is here.

When I was in high school, I ran track and field. My coach would always tell us that runners with commitment were more important than those with talent. For example, I recall one runner who for four years constantly took first place. He was valuable, but he was a flake and his senior year he started doing drugs and the coaches decided they were really disillusioned with the guy. It’s a shame when talent gets sacrificed at the altar of laziness.

I can relate with the idea of talent with laziness, that’s something I try to avoid. I had talent on the guitar at an early age. My dad was a teacher so he taught me all he knew and some other men in my family played and they showed me what they knew as well. By the time I was in 4th grade I was singing Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the County” for the fourth grade talent show. It was a fun childhood holding a guitar and I got a lot of attention, but I look back often wishing I would have been more serious about my lessons. I quit them earlier and was self taught ever since. This applies to many aspects of my life and yours. There may have been something in your life that you took for granted like I did guitar. Like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race -or- committment takes it all.

I’ve seen amazing talent in the keeping life simple. It’s a good idea to try just one thing at a time. Make that your commitment. making money online. Your enjoyment can enhance the art/product/whatever it is.

As I get closer to my 40’s I see the wisdom of my high school coach. The great people I have known throughout my life have always been striving and creating the next thing. They never rest on their haunches, like Walt Disney said they always “keep moving forward.”

There is nothing worse than a talent gone complacent like old rotten teak furniture. Are you parked in some area of your life? Break away from your comfort zone and keep moving forward. Go the extra mile … life is short. The result of your reaching out of the comfort zone will be: innovation and creativity like you never imagined.

One of my favorite bloggers is Amy Palko. I forgot to put in the title that she’s an incredible writer as well (and lives in Scotland!). Glad to have her on my blogroll! She was a finalist in the recent contest I judged and so as promised, here is my interview with Amy! Enjoy her words, I sure do!

Hello there! You were one of the 3 finalists in Shelly’s recent writing contest: Scared Silly. How did you get the inspiration to write Scared Silly by the Faeries ?

It’s actually a post from a wee while ago, and relates back to a trip my husband and I took 11 years ago. We visited a truly magical place during the day, and decided to return under the cover of darkness, only to be scared silly by something I’ve never been able to explain. I think it’s one of those few times in life when the mystery is so complete, that there are no answers, only questions. A wonderful antidote to the absolute reality our 21st century lives are grounded in.

Tell us about your blog: How long has it been around and what is it about?

Lives Less Ordinary has been around for 7 months now. To celebrate its 6 month blogiversary, I ran a prize draw for Scottish/Lives Less Ordinary goodies, which was a lot of fun! As for what the blog is about - I wrote in a post recently that ‘If there’s one thing that you can take away… from Lives Less Ordinary in general, it’s that everyone - and that includes you! - is a special, unique individual with the potential to create, to engage and to inspire.’ It’s a personal blog which aspires to encourage others to appreciate that their life is one less ordinary.

So what do you do for a living, will we find any of your life in your blog?

Life outside the blog for me consists of a juggling act of home educating my three kids, writing up my phd research and teaching English literature for my university. I don’t necessarily engage directly with any of these, but they’re all a part of my life and consequently they colour my perspective. Many of my trips with the kids to historical sites, museums, and nature trails become photo stories. The writing ... on my own blog, but also in the 2 guest posts that I’ve written for Confident Writing and Write To Done). My teaching of literature is present through my sharing of my favourite poetry, and the occasional mention of some of my favourite authors.

What is your philosophy on blogging?

For me, blogging is all about conversation. It’s about sharing, engagement and communication. I am not writing a blog to shout my views at you. I am writing to share my experience of life, and to give a space for you to share yours in response. I like to view my blog as a meeting place; a talking circle where everyone’s views are valid, equal and welcomed.

Well thank you for talking to us today, is there anything else you’d like to add?

I suppose I’d just like to say thank you to Shelly for running the contest, and to yourself for acting as judge, and for choosing my post as a finalist. I’d like to end with one of my favourite quotes from literature, which prefaced a recent post of mine on the power of blogs to provide connections, as I strongly believe that it is contests like Shelley’s, and your much appreciated efforts to promote other blogs, that brings bloggers together - that help us to connect.

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”
- E.M. Forster

My esteemed writing colleague, fellow blogger and friend Shelly Tucker (photo at left) is hosting a writing contest on her vastly read and very popular blog, This Eclectic Life. She has very kindly asked me to be the judge and I accepted. There are some clear details listed on her site, but the general theme is called “Scared Silly.”

I am eager to hunker down and read some scary stories this month! I want to encourage my readers to go over there and get the details and then write a post for this. If you enter you get a backlink or two from both her and I, which as you recall I have been writing lately about the...! And if you win you’ll get some cash, which is always nice. Whatever happens, you’ll have a cool scary story post on your blog. And we all know your readers will love that! Also, as an added bonus, I will be posting an interview with the first prize winner here on my blog. So, until then I’ll be cuddling up with my biggest comforter sets and reading all this scary stuff!! eek.

Tiny Url: rurl.org/kpm

You may use the button to promote the contest in your neck of the woods. Thanks for your interest, once you go and read the details I hope to start reading your scary stories soon!

-Damien