Wednesday, November 27, 2013

About the header image: November 27, 2013


Sunset after one of the first snowfalls of December 2005 Kunkletown, Monroe County Photo by Harold Jenkins, anothermonkey.blogspot.com.

If you have a photo you'd like us to use as the NEPA Blogs header, send it to us at nepablogs@gmail.com.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon


NOTE: Due to a scheduling conflict, the Blog of the Week segment did not run this week on PA Live! Fingers crossed that Trish's blog runs next Tuesday!

NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.


Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Trish Hartman's  The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
(http://dishranawaywiththespoon.com/.)

Many folks in Northeastern Pennsylvania will recognize Trish Hartman from her time with television station WNEP. She left the airwaves of Northeastern Pennsylvania some time ago because, as some will recall, she got married and moved out of the area. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon started out in February 2012 as a blog about her preparations for her upcoming marriage - not just the ceremony itself, but all about making the transition to married life, and the program of diet and exercise (running!) that Trish had put herself on to get into fighting shape for her wedding.

And then, all of a sudden, the big day came...and went. And Trish was left with a blog about preparing for a wedding that had already happened. What to do?

What Trish did was make The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon into her personal blog, detailing aspects of her daily life and things she would like to share. Diet and exercise are still there, as are book clubs, recipes, Trish's ongoing involvement in the world of journalism, adventures in sewing, and all the other bits and pieces of her private life that she chooses to put on public display. Life goes on, and so far, Trish has had no shortage of material for her blog! Follow her continuing adventures on The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon!


If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

About the header image: November 20, 2013


Angel of the Broken Step. Photo by Harold Jenkins, anothermonkey.blogspot.com.


Have a photo you'd like to see as the NEPA Blogs header? Send it to us at nepablogs@gmail.com.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Wren Cottage Live!


NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.


You can watch this episode on the PA Live! homepage at http://www.pahomepage.com/story/d/story/blog-of-the-week-wren-cottage-live-november-19th-2/41215/vureu3dB1E6aqg-iMuaG8A.

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is  Melissa Whalen Haertsch's Wren Cottage Live! (http://wrencottagelive.blogspot.com/).

Over the years that I've been blogging and co-administering NEPA Blogs, I've gotten to know a lot of people through their blogs, and have eventually met many of them in person at blogging events (or, occasionally, completely at random in shopping center parking lots.) Wren Cottage Live! is unusual in that I have known Melissa Whalen Haertsch for many years. In college she was one of the best writers I knew, and the fact that the shelves of bookstores are not filled with her works is one of the many major failures of the publishing industry in recent years. We lost touch over the years, occasionally meeting at friends' weddings, or funerals, or at college reunions. So I was glad to come across her blog some time ago, because it gave me the opportunity to once again read her writing - and to see where life has taken her.

The Melissa I knew was equally at home in the country and in the city, having spent time living in each. In her current incarnation she writes from her home base in Dimock, PA, an idyllic region of rolling farmland which has been the epicenter of the natural gas industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and all the controversy that surrounds it. Since July 2009 she has blogged at Wren Cottage Live! about the experience of making a home in such a place, with all its joys and sorrows, hard work and great pleasure. Dealing with troublesome geese, making bread in a hand-made oven, taking her dog for his final walk on the farm - all this from someone of tremendous literary prowess, with skills to make pens go limp in the hands of lesser writers.

Very few of us have had lives that compare closely to the full scope of the life of Melissa Whalen Haertsch. But her facility with words allows us to get a glimpse of a life that is not our own, that is totally foreign to the lives many of us lead - all through her blog, Wren Cottage Live!


If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Agent Palmer

Secret identities are hard to maintain on the Internet. We leave so many footprints and fingerprints online, it usually doesn't take much effort to find out the real name behind the nom de blog. Still, here's one where the blogger is trying to maintain a secret identity - successfully, so far.

Agent Palmer
http://agentpalmer.com/

"Of All Things Geek I Am..."

A fun and informative blog letting you indulge your inner geek as Agent Palmer indulges his. Films, animation, comedy, comic books, technology - Agent Palmer covers it all, and then some.

From the "About" page:

I don’t shy away from the term “geek.” I never have. I take it as a compliment. The same goes for “nerd” “dork” “dweeb” and “freak”. I wear them all as badges of honor. 

 This blog is an amalgamation of all the things that make me a geek and my opinions of them.


.I play Magic the Gathering as well as other CCGs and, if time and circumstances would allow, I’d play D & D. I enjoy reading books and comics. All classic geek things to do. But I don’t just fit into one mold. I enjoy playing my guitar and bass. I enjoy sports (both fantasy and real). I play video games, although my favorites are classics that I grew up with: Duke Nukem, Warcraft II, Civilization; and The Tales series, Zelda, Dragon Quest and Skies of Arcadia.

Technology is a hobby as much as an interest. I enjoy coding websites. But most of all I enjoy knowledge, the search, research and understanding of topics both big and small, topical and historic.

Pssst...here's some secret insider information on Agent Palmer, passed on from him during an exchange of messages some time ago:

I took my name from my hero Agent Harry Palmer, Michael Caine's character in a series of spy films starting with the IPCRESS File. And I am currently in the middle of a Rotospective to Ralph Bakshi thusly named because of the rotoscoping technique he used. I'm doing in depth reviews/commentary on all of his films.

Secret information ends.

Agent Palmer has an online presence that goes beyond this blog. Check out his About page for a list of links, or find out more by contacting him through his Contact page. Or just visit Agent Palmer and see what you can learn!



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

About the header image: November 13, 2013


In the earliest years of the 19th century Jesse Fell developed a practical way of using a raised grate to burn anthracite coal to generate heat, opening up the development and exploitation of anthracite coal resources throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania - and paving the way for the Industrial Revolution. The Fell House and Tavern stood in Wilkes-Barre until relatively recently, when it was torn down to make way for a lovely parking lot. The historical nature of this parking lot is commemorated in signs such as the one above. Photo is courtesy of Don Williams, the Susquehanna River Sentinel (www.srs444.blogspot.com).


Have a photo you'd like to see as the NEPA Blogs header? Send it to us at nepablogs@gmail.com.


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: The Forwardian Arts Society


NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.


Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Paul Smeltz's The Forwardian Arts Society (http://forwardianartssociety.blogspot.com/).

On the outskirts of Northeastern Pennsylvania, bordering New York and the Lehigh Valley, is the arts mecca of Stroudsburg. You can't throw a rock in Stroudsburg without hitting an artist or musician, though such behavior is frowned upon. Since June 2006 Paul Smeltz has taken it upon himself to report on the artistic goings-on in and around Stroudsburg. With words and pictures, Paul tirelessly posts about arts news and events in the Stroudsburg area on his blog, The Forwardian Arts Society.

Northeastern Pennsylvania is seen by some as a thing of the past, a place where things used to happen, good only for nostalgia and dreams of better days. But there is so much in Northeastern Pennsylvania that is vibrant and dynamic. The biggest problem is that people simply don't know about it! Blogs like The Forwardian Arts Society keep us aware that this area is full of good and exciting things, just waiting for us to notice them!


If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

About the header image: November 6, 2013


On the morning of Sunday, November 3, we turned our clocks back to Standard Time, allowing an extra hour of sleep. Like a chump, I decided to wake up at 5:00 AM to be ready to greet the sunrise from the Nanticoke-West Nanticoke bridge in hopes of seeing the partial solar eclipse as it rose. Unfortunately, the clouds had other plans, and the sun was completely obscured - until I walked away. Then the sun came out, and I was able to grab the photo above - well after the eclipse was over.

I know Northeastern Pennsylvania is full of great photographers, and maybe people who don't consider themselves great but have a camera and aren't afraid to use it. We need your photos! Send them to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll use them as the NEPA Blogs header of the week!

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Iron Reels Review


NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.


Watch this episode on the PA Live! site: http://www.pahomepage.com/story/blog-of-the-week-november-5th-2013/d/story/mrS7O9c3hUi-l8vAQPx9DQ

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is the Iron Reels Review by Kevin Vogrin and Kyle Rebar (http://ironreelsreview.wordpress.com/.)

There are plenty of movie review sites around, in NEPA and elsewhere. The Iron Reels Review isn't like any of the other ones. Since its founding in April 2013, its focus has been on experimental films, especially those made in the Scranton area. But the reviews aren't limited to films made in any specific genre or region.

By their nature, many of these films are not ones that you will encounter in everyday life. For the most part they are well outside of the mainstream. With the Iron Reels Review Kevin and Kyle bring information about those films to those of us who live outside of the world of experimental art.

Filmmaking is a labor of love, an enormous amount of effort that may be going into something only a few will see. Kevin Vogrin and Kyle Rebar's Iron Reels Review makes sure that at least a few of those films come to the attention of a few people who might otherwise have never heard of them. Check it out!


If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!