New Political / Commentary Winner

After spending a good portion of my afternoon yesterday finally getting the category pages redesigned and promoting each of the winners in the 2011 Blogger's Choice awards, I came to realize that the blog for the crowned champion of the Political / Commentary section was no longer loading. After contacting the owner, I was told that due to her now being employed by Liberal Party of Newfoundland Labrador, that she was ordered ('as standard practice': read more here on Geoff Meeker's blog) to delete her blog entirely. I'm honestly shocked over this and deeply saddened. Not only did we lose a dedicated blogger from our wonderful community here, but all her thoughts and words were also willingly completely purged from the internet. Why would anyone agree to do that? Furthermore, what exactly did the Liberal Party not want anyone to read now that she is employed with them? Morso, why in the heck would it be 'standard practice' for any open honest political party to do this? It looks incredibly terrible in my opinion, not only for the person who agreed to delete her personal thoughts, but mostly to the party who demanded it happen.

Regardless, I'm trying not to speak too politically within this space as I am more saddened about losing this voice from our community over the disturbing politics involved. What I'm mainly here to do today is to announce a new winner in the Politics / Commentary category for the 2011 Blogger's choice Awards. There is no point in promoting a deleted blog after all. What's sad is that I'm not sure how special the runner up is going to feel, now that they are being rewarded due to these circumstances. As much as I can assure the new winner (and any visitor reading this) that the battle in this category was a very close one, there's something a little defeating I would assume about being awarded under this situation. None the less, it is something I feel that should be done, and I hope the new winner feels as special as they should feel in the meantime.

So without further ado, please take the time to visit and congratulate the new winner in the Political / Commentary section... The Rural Lens. All related sections around the site have been updated accordingly. Congrats to the winner! Now get visiting...

And The Winners Are!

Waiting is finally over as the winners of the 2011 Newfoundland and Labrador Blogger's Choice Awards have officially now been announced! To view the winners in each of the 10 categories, head on over to to the Awards Section now!

I'll be posting more about each winner on each of the separate category pages throughout the day and will be announcing winners on Twitter and the Facebook Fan Page as well. Stay tuned!

Before heading out and taking care of all that however, I want to thank everyone for their patience over the past few months. I know it must have been tough waiting and not knowing what was up, but the NL BlogRoll is back on track again now. Much more to come in the coming days and weeks, but right now let's focus on these awesome winners who we all should be visiting and congratulating. Well done everyone. Congratulations!

Now, go check them out: CLICK HERE to visit the awards page or use the menu above.

Winners to be Announced TOMORROW!

The extremely long wait is nearly over my friends. The 10 winners of the 2011 NL Blogger's Choice Awards will be announced tomorrow and we'll be starting the day out in fine fashion. Not only will I be posting all about it here on this site (and all around the social media network this site exists within) but, I've also been invited on CBC Radio as well! That's right folks, tomorrow morning I'll be LIVE on the air for the St. John's Morning Show at around 8:20am where I'll be discussing the site and the winners prior to posting all about it online.

Be sure to tune to CBC radio in the morning to listen to the interview and then check here later in the day for a full announcement on the winners. Just a few short hours to go!

2012 Begins

First of all, welcome to 2012 everyone and I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season to end 2011. The year was certainly a quick and busy one for me on this end, but a mostly joyous one none the less. I'm certainly excited for what the new year will bring, and I wish you all the happiness and success in this 12th year of the new millennium.

Secondly, and most importantly, you should know that this place is not dead. The last quarter of the year was indeed a lost one around these parts, but things are far from dead. I do realize that I left at an intense time without notice, but there was method to the madness (mixed with some uncontrollable events). In the end, waiting for the new year to kick back into gear was what was needed for me personally, and for the site in general.

Lastly, to begin the year, the first order of business will be the long awaited announcement of the 2011 Blogger's Choice Awards. Anxiety has surely come and gone for the nominees since October. Frustration has likely set in, anger perhaps, in anticipation for this announcement on these winners, but the wait is now over; All 10 winners will be announced this week! I promise.

With this announcement coming in January, what I've essentially done is made this initiative an end of year one and I will have more details on how this will progress in future years, plus I will be opening the floor for suggestions and comments on how it can be improved from your perspectives. First though, let me get those winners posted as you've all waited long enough. Please stay tuned throughout the week! It's a-comin'...

Vote Closed - What's Next

The end of September has come and with it the end to voting in the 2011 Blogger's Choice Awards. Here comes the fun (and/or scary) part; counting the votes. With upwards of a 1000 votes cast in the past couple weeks, spread over the 10 categories, I have a bit of work on my hands. If only I made it simple and excluded the points system this would be no sweat but, with the 3 tiered system in place, the nominees are going to have to hang tight while I get this done. What's a voting session without some tension as we wait right? :) Hang in there folks, the winners will be unveiled next week!

In other news, the Blog of the Week initiative will launch again later this month after a several month hiatus. Be sure to stay tuned every Sunday when we do launch, as a new blog each week (of the over 300 listed) will be featured.

Also, to those who have requested to be added to the BlogRoll in the past few weeks, thanks for being patient. You'll all be added not long after the winners of these awards are counted and unveiled. Hang tight!

24 Hours To Go

It's tough to believe that it's almost been two weeks since voting began in the Blogger's Choice Awards, but that is the reality; We're now down to just 24 hours left to vote! The voting threads will be closed end of day tomorrow, so time is short to get those final votes in.

Head over to the voting page while you still can!

Counting The Vote

With now less than a week left to vote in the Awards (again, go vote here) it's quickly dawning on me that I have to count all these things. Perhaps I should be encouraging less votes at this point...

Nah, I only kid of course. Go on and vote. There's only 6 days left to do so! No need to worry about the necessity of the count. I have a plan of attack in place and have enlisted in some help from a good friend and fellow blogger, so I'll be fine.

As a reminder however, there is a three tier voting system wherby anonymous votes are worth one point, logged in voters are worth five points and votes from fellow BlogRoll members being worth ten points. This adds to the complexity of the count, but I'm so up for the challenge. It'll be fun! I like numbers, so lets get the totals up. Get out there and vote!

On Winning the Awards

We're now nearly a week into the two week awards session, and as the votes keep streaming in (if you haven't voted yet, go to the Blogger's Choice Awards page and do so) I figured it was time to discuss again what exactly the winners of these awards actually get (besides bragging rights that is).

While I can't promise grand gifts of any physical kind, what I can do is provide the 10 winners of these awards with as much promotion as I can within this network. The bigger bonus is that the promotion will last for a full year until the next awards session launch in 2012.

What will these promotions entail?

• Individual posts spotlighting each winner will be made a few days after the awards close and the votes are counted.
• Mini clickable images will be placed in this sidebar on this main blog and in the Blogger's Choice Awards section.
• Each winner will be publicized in the applicable category page with a larger clickable image plus RSS feeds for the blog.
• Everyone will also have the option to partake in 'Guest Blogging' features throughout the next year, meaning unique posts made here with links and promos to their blog found within. More on this later!

And this is only the promos within the blog network. All this will feed through Twitter and Empire Avenue and any other social networks I play with.

What I'm trying to say I guess is, all I can give is promotion to blogs, and whatever ways I could come up with to do that will be done! 

One week to go...

Troubles Voting?

It's been reported in a couple of places as of late that some are having issues voting in some of the threads, some of the time. One such heads up came from fellow BlogRoll member Viewpoint who not only posted a comment (in this thread) about the issue, but also conducted some research into it as well. From what has been learned, not much can be done if it is happening to you, so it seems. I am looking into options or tips in the meantime...

I am curious to know how widespread the issue is though. Have many experienced any troubles attempting to post a vote on the voting  page? Please let me know if so!

Getting out the Vote

With candidates hitting the campaign trail in Newfoundland and Labrador, one may think this post would be referring to the upcoming election. Well, it's not. Nope, this post is in reference to the ongoing 2011 NL Blogger's Choice Awards of course. :)

As day 5 fades into the night we currently have nearly 500 votes cast, spread throughout all the categories. The sports and recreation thread is on fire at the moment with over 100 votes to itself. That could be a dog fight to the very end it seems. It will be interesting to see how all the categories turn out in fact, as the days move along here. Remember nominees, shameless self promotion is accepted encouraged.

In getting out the vote I've been reaching out to the usual social media networks. The Facebook page has been notified, the Twitterverse informed and ever the traders within Empire Avenue know about this thing. With the number of votes already cast, it appears to be working and hopefully this number will continue to rise as the week progresses. Stay tuned!

Psst - I encourage you to vote in the actual election too. :)

After Two Days of Voting

We are now on Day 3 of the 2011 NL Blogger's Choice Awards! So far nearly 300 votes have been cast spread over the 10 voting threads, which to me is impressive. The hot categories at the moment are the Entertainment / Media and Science / Technology ones, both of which have nearly 50 votes. The other threads aren't far behind and I'm sure as the days go by, things will pick up even more.

As a friendly reminder, you can vote once per day, per category. If you're a fellow NL BlogRol member, your vote counts a heck of a lot with the 10 points it's granted. Head on over the Voting Page now and have your say!

2011 Choice Awards Launched!

Voting for the 2011 NL Bloggers Choice Awards has been launched! 10 threads have been posted in the Blogger's Choice Awards section, each listing 3 nominees to vote on. To cast your vote, simple reply to the thread with you choice and that's it. Note that you can do so in all the categories and please remember, only one vote per day per category. Voting closes at the end of September.

To those who have been nominated, feel free to shamelessly promote your nomination. :)

Have fun!

Regarding the Nominees

Just in case frequent visitors missed this post from a while back (or new visitors are jumping in for the first time), I wanted to remind everyone of some of the criteria I used in selecting nominees for this years awards session. They are listed below in no particular order:

• Longevity - As this is the first year for these style awards, long standing members have been given a certain amount more consideration. There will be a much larger pool for selection next year.
• Frequency of posting - Those who post more were considered more. Makes sense to me anyway. :)
• Design - This was totally based on my opinion and believe me when I say that all were awesome, so this was moot really.

Having said that, I mainly just wanted to reiterate how difficult it was to select the final 30 to be put up for vote. You have no idea, trust me. The content of this collection (as I'm sure any browser already knows) is vastly diverse and all enveloped in awesomeness, so choosing only 30 out of over 300 was tough... and next year will only be more difficult. I think I'll have to put a nomination period in place or something... hmmm...

Anyway, let's stick to this year. 3 days!

Blogger's Choice Awards Set to Launch Sept 15th

We're finally ready to launch the 2011 NL Blogger's Choice awards! As noted on this recent post in the Awards section, things will kick off very soon; this coming Thursday, September 15th!

Here's a run down of how things will work:

• NOMINEES: Each category listed to the right has 3 blogs carefully selected based on many elements; design, content, frequency of posting and longevity on the list to name a few. The decision was solely at the discretion of the organizer of this list (for this first year anyway).
• Early that day 10 posts will be made in the Blogger's Choice section, each listing the 3 nominees per category and will remain active for 2 weeks (well, 15 days) until the end of September. All one will have to do to vote is reply to the thread with their choice and that's it. 

• TO VOTE: All one must do is reply to the voting thread listing their choice(s). It'll be as simple as that. There is one slight addition however; certain value is applied to the type of blogger who replies:
• NOTE: We are limiting the amount anyone can vote for any blog to be daily.
• Anonymous voters will be worth 1 point. They can't be ignored, but shouldn't be overvalued (and flood control will be applied just for good measure).
• Logged / linked in voters will be worth 5 points, as to me the non-anonymity of these votes are worth more.
• Votes from fellow NL Blogger's currently listed on the roll will be worth 10 grand points. These are our true peers after all and adding this interactivity will only be a bonus in the end.
• WINNER: The winner of each category will gain a tonne of free promotion, for a full year, within this site and the network it extends into. From promotional posts and badges on each category page, I have plenty of ideas up my sleeve for over the next year. I wish I could announce grand prizes of extreme extravagance, but these gifts of free promotion should not be undervalued I suppose. That's what any blogger wants right; traffic?  

And with that, all that remains to do now is wait. Just a short wait however; 5 days. Just 5 days...

Biggest Blog Influx Ever

Many new blogs have collected during the past couple of months and I figured it was about time I got them added. A lot of these are actual requests to be added, not just ones that I found in my travels around the web. I just wanted to say thank you all for being patient with me in getting you on the list.

With that, I'm going to shut up. There are over 60 new blogs added today (yes 60!), which means you all have a tonne of visiting to do. I will say that these new additions bring our total list to over 325 blogs, which is amazing. Simply amazing.

To all the newbies listed below, welcome aboard!

Mostly Waiting	Divinity Pet Service's
Camel's Courtyard Blog	SCRIBBLER
The ICH Blog	Drowningmandrake
John Somerton	Embraceware
Whereismypet.net	Twisted Sister's Boutik
My Mortgage Mentor	Living on The Rock
Paul Tucker	The Republic of Me
Jacquelines Jabberings	Labradore
Me on things	Junk Bake
Andrew Mercer's Blog	Momster Tales
a MESS of commentary	Michelle's Scrap bits
Carla, Baxter & Hunter	Paynes Brain
St John's Toddler	Oh That Girl
Satly Ink	One Busy Mom
BRISCOPHOTO	Concussion Talk
Heritage Row Reno	Newfoundland Direct
Short Thoughts. Big Ideas	The Shallow Minded
Jon Duke's Blog	A LA TARTE!
Baby Gear to Share	Aimless Photography
Protelo	The Balance Project
Virginia Middleton	hOOkwOrM
Vatch	Barry Langdon
Philip Norman Robbins	Gone Gallivanting
AETHER PUNCH	WeLa Photography
epistolae	BATSHITE
Sleepless Wonder	Nancy and Shawn Power
The Colorful Canary	Ottawa Mommy Project
Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides -NL
Beyond The Overpass Theatre Festival
Trouty Brook Kitchen Sessions
Everything Newfoundland and Labrador
Conversations From Land's Edge
The Kitchen at Caribou Hill
My Stampin' Scraps

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week on Vacation

While I attempt to dedicate as much free time as possible into launching the Bloggers Choice Awards, I should note that the Blog of the Week initiative will now be on a temporary vacation (well, extending it's vacation; haven't had time to select one in a while as it is) until after the awards are through. Much of the posting in the coming days and weeks will be dedicated to these award,s so the weekly choices would only get lost anyway. Don't worry though, they'll be back in the fall!

In the meantime, stay tuned for a little later on this evening. I have a fairly large update coming, but not about the Awards nor the Blog of the Week...

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Social Media in NL Politics

Mike Connors of NTV fame contacted me a couple weeks ago to have a sit down for a piece he was working on. He was interested in hearing my thoughts on the affect of social media in the coming provincial election and of course I jumped at the opportunity to have a gab. I just wanted to take a second to thank Mike for that opportunity. It was a great piece he put together and I suggest everyone check it out, which you can do by going here.

What's best is that not only did I get to sit down and have a great chit-chat with Mike, but we also received a nod to the NL BlogRoll in the process. You gotta love that. Thanks again Mike and NTV!

July 22nd edit : 
There's a 2nd part to this story which aired two nights later. You can watch that part by going here.

Unexpected Hiatus

In my world (like most others I would assume), when offline life becomes busy, the online world tends to suffer. This is exactly the case for my absence as of late. I shocked myself into posting this update this evening when I realized that I haven't posted anything in nearly a month now, not even the Blog of the Week. And here I was doing so well this year too, having missed only one Sunday since 2011 began. That has to be a record since I started the initiative so I should be happy about that I s'pose...

Anyway, while summer is normally a more active time for me regardless, it turns out that this summer happens to be a very busy period at work as well. It's good times when work is busy don't get me wrong but, I am kind of bummed that I haven't been able to keep up things around these parts. There's just not enough time in the day, and the time we have certainly does fly by in a hurry. To be honest, I'm not sure where the last few weeks have gone.

So, when I noticed the date of the last post, I felt I should let any frequent visitors know that everything I've been discussing over the past few months is still being worked on whenever I possibly can: The awards will come, the Blog of Week's will continue and many new blogs will be added (and I do have many not added yet). Just bare with me, I'll get there.

In the meantime, you all be sure to unplug now and then as well. Go take some time to enjoy any sun you're lucky enough to get!

Blog of the Week : 06/26 - 07/02 2011

The Blog of the Week for June 26th to July 2nd, 2011 is 'Hypergraffiti' and in fact, I'm going to do something I haven't done before and give shout outs to two blogs this time around. I'll get to the second blog in a second but this first one is a personal one from Trudy Morgan-Cole and is one which has been listed on the roll since 2006, pretty much since this whole thing began. The blogs content is evident from her about me section:

I'm Trudy J. Morgan-Cole. I'm a published writer, but never as published as I'd like to be. I'm married to the one of the funniest men I know, and I'm the hardworking, frustrated, delighted mom of two bright and beautiful kids. I'm an adult-ed teacher who thinks my students are the bravest people on earth. I'm a Newfoundlander first and a Canadian second.

I was originally going to select her reading/book review blog ('Compulsive Overreader') this week in reference to 'things to do in rainy weather', but realized there was a better story here; that being the longevity of her blogs being listed. Both of these blogs are wonderful additions to our community and have been for a while. It's about time I have them featured in this initiative and with that, it's time for me to shut up and for you to get visiting. There's two to check out this week after all. Have fun!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 06/19 - 06/25 2011

The Blog of the Week for June 19th to the 25th, 2011 is 'Flatout Buddy'. I figured with summer approaching (though you couldn't tell by the bad weather) it was a good idea to select a recreational related site to feature this week, and this blog from Jim out of St. John's fits the bill perfectly. Jim's space is all about 'Balancing Life and a Love for all things Swimming Cycling, and Running' and is filled with a multitude of posts related to his journey into triathlon; everything from his training routine to nutrition and all things in between. It's a wonderful and informative site for anyone with similar interests and perhaps one that can inspire those who want to get into such activities but haven't yet. Either way, it's a great addition to our community here and one well worth visiting... which you should go ahead and do now. Get going! 

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

NL BlogRoll Makes The Telegram

A couple of weeks ago I sat down with the awesome Colin MacLean of The Telegram to discuss our wonderful community here and I'm ecstatic to announce that today his article was printed in the weekend version of our provincial paper. How incredible is that?!

What's even more exciting than the fantastic article itself, is how heavily featured it was. Not once did I think so much coverage would have been given to our community here, but when I opened the paper this morning to see my mug plastered over the front page of the Province section, accompanied by a great article spanning two pages, I became very excited to say the least.

As I mentioned in the article, this whole thing is about promoting our Province and the Blogger's from here, and this article will do wonders in helping me achieve that. I want to take this time to thank the folks at The Telegram for printing the article and more so to Colin for writing it. He truly was a great guy and the hour I spent with him was quite fun. I wish him all the best in his career and I for one will follow his articles along the way. Best wishes to him and all the folks at The Telegram. Again, I can't say this enough; on behalf of the entire community here, I thank you.

Now go read the article!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Category Pages Launched

I've been teasing everyone with this development for quite a while now and it's about time I can finally announce the newest addition to our beloved hub here: Category Pages! That's right, the addition of categories this year didn't stop with the inclusion of those mini rolls found on this page, but also includes a new section where each category can easily be browsed and has a full list of applicable blogs found within.

The task took quite a while to sort out and get ready, but I'm happy to say that things are finally at a point where this announcement post can be made. I've been working feverishly in getting it done as I wanted them ready for the upcoming Bloggers Choice Awards. As I mentioned in this recent post, each of these pages will be used to help promote the winners in each category with each page having links and RSS feeds of the winners and they will stay that way for a year!

OH and to all the current members of the NL BlogRoll: If you feel your blog is better suited for a category different than what it's currently found in, please reply to this post (or email me) with your suggested category and I'll be sure to move it!

Now, all I have to do is finalize the prep work for the awards initiative and all I'll be well on the way to getting my task list for the year completed! As always, stay tuned for future developments on that and more.

Blog of the Week : 06/12 - 06/18 2011

The Blog of the Week for June 12th to the 18th, 2011 is 'lowercase studio'; another delightful photography focused blog out of St. John's from the mind of a man who I could not describe better than he does himself:

By day i am a mild mannered designer and art director at a small marketing house. By night i play in traffic, i skulk with camera in hand and steal souls

If you haven't already gone to visit based on that, you may also like to learn that if you read 'The Scope' you're likely already familiar with some of his work, as he does contribute. As a member of the BlogRoll for going on 2 years now, he has also already contributed much to our community here, and with that the blog of the week is well deserved. Go check out some of the amazing shots!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 06/05 - 06/11 2011

The Blog of the Week for June 6th to the 11th, 2011 is 'Conversations'. This space is from the mind of Jon Reid out of Corner Brook, which focuses mainly on Tech, Literature and Business but is essentially a true example of a 'Mixed Bag' blog. While Jon does indeed post quite a bit on the 3 main topics listed, there are posts found throughout on just about anything that he feels worthy discussing, each one as informative and interesting as the one before. From local issues and observations, to photography, to entertainment related topics, to anything and everything in between Jon definitely has a lot to say and all if it is well worth the read. At this point, instead of wasting any more time reading about the blog, go visit for yourself. There's a lot to take in, so get started! Click the pic.

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Twitter Tips for NL Bloggers

Twitter has been invaluable to our community as of late and I'm not only talking about the wealth of new blogs I've discovered either. The ability to spread the word about our beloved blogroll to a whole new group of socially connected people has been very worthwhile. Not only have I met a tonne of new and awesome folks, many new visitors are checking out this blog as well and thus, everyone else's blogs. Most of all though, twitter has been fun and if you're a user yourself and an NL Blogger, you're going to want to read up.

Twitter Lists
I've created a bunch of Newfoundland and Labrador related twitter lists (NL Newsies, NL Arts, NL People and Newfoundlandia), some of them displayed on the sidebar, but the main one we have to chit chat about is the one dedicated to this BlogRoll community: NL Bloggers. It currently sits at 136 followed, all bloggers from the province also using twitter. If you're not listed there yet, let me know and I'll rectify that problem (@seliharris).

NL Blogger's Daily
A related initiative comes from a free service (Paper.li) which collects links from tweets into one online 'Newspaper'. I've created one for us (NL Blogger's Daily) which will collect posts found in the NL Bloggers Twitter list daily. Every 24 hours a new paper will be created and with that, a new tweet of the top stories selected from these posts sent out to the twitter-verse. Lovely no?

Twitter Feed
Speaking of sending posts into the twitter-verse, I strongly recommend any blogger n' twitter user sign up for TwitterFeed. It's again another free service which automatically tweets whenever you post a new entry to your blog. It creates a short url of your post and includes it in the tweet, along with the title. It also lets you add a prefix and suffix (any text you want) to the tweet as well. For mine, I decided to have 'NL Blog Post' before the link and title followed by a couple hashtags: #Newfoundland #Blogs. It can be anything you want though. Have fun with it. I think it's a great tool to easily help promote your blog posts. Check it out.


As you can see, I've been busy trying all kinds of new way to help promote all of us here. Twitter has provided me an opportunity to network with a boatload of new people and with that an ability to talk about this beloved community we have here. That to me is worth all the time I spend there.

Of course, I'm slightly twit-dicted, so that helps too...

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 05/29 - 06/04 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of May 29th to June 4th, 2011 is 'Librarian Mom'; a personal blog from the mind of Lisa who writes mostly about being a new mom. I've always been impressed with personal bloggers who are freely able to share themselves to the world. It takes a certain something in a person to be able to let themselves be open like that and I fully respect it.What's best is what you can learn from such people as they share their experiences with us. In Lisa's case, she posts tales of being a new mother and there can't ever be enough information and advice on such a thing. Better still is the fact that Lisa's background is in research and within her blog she also responds to news and updates related to her new journey. It really is a delightful corner of the web and like every blog featured in this community, it's well worth the visit. At this point, you probably know what I'm going to say: go visit. :)

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Choice Awards Prep

In preparation for the 2011 Newfoundland Labrador Blogger's Choice Awards, I am attempting to achieve many things, and with time winding down before my intended (unannounced) start date for the awards quickly approaching, the pressure to keep working is intensifying. Of course, it's more excitement than stress I should point out. I'm just ecstatic to get this thing on the go! In the meantime, I should cool my jets for a moment and take a break from the tinkering to fill you in on what I've been working on.

Shortlisted

As posted in the Bloggers Choice Awards section, 50 blogs  have now been shortlisted. I will be finalizing the list of 30 (3 per category) as soon as possible. There are still some promotional and information items I'll have to take care of when the finalists are selected and time is running out. The thing is, it's rather difficult finalizing the list with so many awesome blogs to choose from.

Categorical Update

The most work I have to take care of before the dust settles within the awards, is finishing off the category pages that I've been working on. For those who don't know, I've been developing stand alone pages for the 10 categories we have within the BlogRoll here, each with a dedicated list of all the blogs found in that category. The intention is for a better browsing experience.

And just because I'm excited; if you'd like a sneak peak of what these pages are going to look like, check out a rough version of the Politics / Commentary one I've started. Keep in mind that this is not anywhere final, but it will give you an idea of where I'm going.

What's best about these stand alone pages is that it provides an opportunity to further promote the choice bloggers this year and beyond. Each category's page will have promotional items (badges, rss feeds, etc) for winner's blog for the entire year... and who knows where each page will go from there. With each category essentially now having it's own 'blog', the possibilities are endless really... 

I should perhaps remain focused on the awards though. I have to remember that time is short and I am easily distracted... and with that, back at it!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 05/22 - 05/28 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of May 22nd to the 28th, 2011 is 'Colin Peddle Photography'. If there's one thing we have an abundance of here within our community, it's Photography blogs and each one is filled with a wealth of delighful images to paruse. Colin's space is no different. With his self professed desire to get 'the shots that stand up to the test of time' Colin is well equipped from his location in Torbay, Newfoundland to deliver some beautiful images, and deliver he has. As I scroll through the posts filled with wedding pictures, portaits and pics from a variety of events, what I personally notice most is Colin's ability to wonderfully capture the moments he has set his sights on. There's no doubt there's talent there and with that, there's really nothing else I can say. After all, pictures are mean't to be seen... so go see. :)

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Just a teaser...

In just a few short weeks, 30 carefully selected blogs from our beloved Newfoundland Labrador BlogRoll (of nearly 300 blogs) will be unveiled and for two weeks following, the people (visitors to this site) will vote on their favorites.

Voting will be simple. Each of the 10 categories will have a post with it's 3 selections displayed. All one will have to do is post a reply to that thread with their choice. It's as simple as that AND I am allowing one vote PER DAY. The way I see it, if someone is dedicated enough to vote more than once, I have to give kudos for that.

You may be wondering what is to gain from all this (besides you know, the fun of it all). Well, the winner of each category will gain a tonne of free promotion, for a full year, within this site and the network it extends into. I wish I could announce grand prizes of extreme extravagance, but these gifts of free promotion should not be undervalued I suppose. That's what any blogger wants right; traffic?

Well, hopefully the winners will enjoy what I have in store for them... but yeah, you'll have to wait on that. :)

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 05/15 - 05/21 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of May 15th to the 21st, 2011 is 'Desktop Gourmet'; a foodie blog from Karen who professes that she isn't a chef but instead 'just a girl who loves to eat and experiment with ingredients'. I don't know if it was because I was hungry this morning when checking for blogs, but this one really jumped out at me. It could have been the delicious pictures I was seeing or perhaps the delightful little articles posted with them, but either way this blog is definitely worth checking out. I mean, who doesn't like food right? Well if you do, especially experimenting with it, then do check out Karen's blog... but perhaps not when hungry because it'll just be a tease. Go check it out!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Most New Blogs Ever!

Not since the initial stages of this Blogroll 5 years ago, have I added so many blogs in one update. It was rather exciting for me to come to the realization today that I had collected so many. Most of these newbies are coming from my recent hardcore dive into Twitter, and it wasn't until I started adding them that I discovered I had come across such a large number. It truly is a lovely thing to realize.

With that, I think you all have some visiting to do! Tell them the NL BlogRoll sent ya. :)

Blood and Cupcakes	NL Stuff
Just a Foodie	Sin John's
Etching Postcards	atlantic whispers
Murray Premises Hotel	Remix 86
VeroZero Zone	Root Cellers Rock
Never Eat a Dinosaur	Daily Hundred
Displaced Townie Girl	Dreams in Code
oh lauren marie.	My Tech Cloud
East Coast Foodie	this is ordinary
the little world	Wicks on Flicks
Scratching the Surface	Hello Geri
Academicist	The Adam Walsh World
Just 2 Crafty	ShelCor
Below the Spruce	Catt's Craftiness
I grew up near Empire Avenue
On The Rock Photography

See, that's a lot of new blogs!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 05/08 - 05/14 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of May 8th to the 14th, 2011 is 'Readily A Parent'. This personal space from the mind of Dara Squires provides a delightful insight into being a mother, a parent (and really just a person), from her point of view. It's perhaps no coincidence that I chose this blog today considering it's Mother's Day but, don't get me wrong, it's one that's been on my list to feature for a while now. The blog  has been around for quite some time and anyone who has followed it, followed her on her journey as she grew as a parent. From the look of the network of friends proudly displayed on her site, many have joined her on that journey. Perhaps it's about time you did too? Get visitin'! Click the pic.

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll

Blog of the Week : 05/01 - 05/07 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of May 1st to the 7th, 2011 is 'Rock Solid Politics'. In keeping with the political motif as of late (as my way of reminding everyone to go vote tomorrow) this blog from Brad Cabana fits the bill nicely. Brad is a Political Scientist (and a retired captain I'd like to mention) living in Newfoundland and his blog is a reflection of that position in life with his frequent and informative posts. The blog has been listed within our community here for over a year now, and from his list of followers it seems to be a favorite beyond just me. It truly is 'Rock Solid' and well worth the visit... so get goin'!

Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll