Wednesday, October 31, 2012

About the header image: October 31, 2012


As Halloween arrives in NEPA preceded by its new annual tradition of unseasonable weather events (last year a snowfall of several inches, this year a visit from a hurricane wrapped in a Nor'easter), this image from Trish Hartman reminds us of one of the more traditional sights of the season: pumpkins! Whether being turned into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, being turned into soup or pie or delicious roasted seeds, or just being used as decorations, pumpkins are a sign that Summer is over, Fall is here, and soon we will be facing another Winter. Trish captured this image at Roba's Tree Farm in Dalton.

If you have any images you think capture some of the flavor or character of Northeastern Pennsylvania, send them in to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll use them as the NEPA Blogs header some week!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Is THIS Bliss?!


NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on the 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! website: http://pahomepage.com/palive-details?nxd_id=287192

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Is THIS Bliss?! (http://www.isthisbliss.com/).

Lorina, the blogger at Is THIS Bliss?!, certainly doesn't limit herself to blogging about just one thing. To put it as simply as possible, her blog is about finding out who she is right now.

Reading through her posts, much of this finding out is actually an act of creation. Is THIS Bliss?! isn't really a diet blog, and isn't really an exercise blog, but it does cover these topics extensively, with blog posts on subjects like exercise, fitness, health, running, weight loss, and self-esteem. Did you ever think to make your daily run more exciting by imagining, say, that there are zombies coming after you? Lorina has, and it turns out there's even an app for that. Tired of weighing yourself to see how your diet is coming along? Lorina gives (approximately) 101 Reasons to Ditch the Scale.

Is THIS Bliss?! is a fun, engaging read in which Lorina takes you along on a journey of self-discovery - and self-creation. Perhaps reading her posts will inspire you to begin your own journey. Just remember: sometimes the journey is more fun if you imagine you're being chased by zombies!


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!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sandy in NEPA

When disasters strike the region, we often run roundup posts that collect posts from bloggers throughout NEPA presenting the disaster from numerous points of view.  We'll probably be doing that with Sandy, once the storm-within-a-storm has had its way with us. But in the meantime, we'll be using this post as a way of communicating critical information about the storm and its aftermath, and providing links to resources for preparing for the storm and dealing with its consequences.

Before the storm:

http://ready.gov/ - The Federal Emergency Management Agency website for disaster preparedness. Lots of useful information and good advice, and links to plenty of other government sites.

National Hurricane Center page for Sandy - This is one peculiar storm, a hurricane wrapped in a Nor'easter, something never seen before - at least, never seen to hit land. The predicted path of this storm is equally peculiar. The National Hurricane Center page provides twelve different ways of looking at the storm and its effects. You can check it frequently for frequently-updated predictions of the storm's path.

NOAA Storm Central - "Your one-stop source for Sandy news and information. Tracking Sandy? Be prepared: Get the latest forecast, advisories, radar images, fact sheets, links to preparedness resources and more on our comprehensive webpage." Tons of information, links, and resources.

Facebook Groups:

Wyoming Valley PA Alert Network - This was the old Wyoming Valley Flood of 2011 group, reactivated when it became clear that these "once in a lifetime" disasters might be happening on a fairly regular basis. The mission now is a to be "a permanent page to be used year round to share any type of serious community alerts and messages." Resources, news, and first-hand accounts.

NEPA Flood of 2011 - A site with a similar mission and similar name-change issue. Another great source for resources, news, and first-hand accounts.

NEPA Hurricane Sandy Watch - Set up by Penn State Meteorology students to track Sandy as it passes through NEPA. They've already thought about the future by spinning off a NEPA Severe Weather Watch page.

Information:

UGI Outage Center (http://www.ugi.com/portal/page/portal/UGI/Outage_Center)

PPL Consumer Outage Center (https://www.pplelectric.com/my-account/outage-center.aspx)

Susquehanna River Flood Forecasting (http://www.susquehannafloodforecasting.org/)

Susquehanna River Level at Wilkes-Barre (includes predictions for upcoming dates)

More to come...

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

About the header image: October 24, 2012


This week's header image is by me, Harold Jenkins (http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/) and is taken from the rooftop parking lot at Boscov's in Wilkes-Barre.In the foreground are some of the antenna dishes that cover the roof of WBRE next door. In the middle distance is part of downtown Wilkes-Barre, with Movies 14 somewhat farther out. In the background are the broadcast towers on Penobscot Knob. This is one of several photos I took from the Boscov's rooftop parking deck that day.

Do you have any photos that present unique perspectives on everyday views throughout Northeastern PA? We'd love to feature them as our header image for a week. Submit them to us at nepablogs@gmail.com!

(We're also very interested in any photos that showcase the seasons here in NEPA, as well as any holiday-themed images! If you have any of these, send us a copy! Thanks!)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Donation Can


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


Watch this episode on WBRE's PA Live! site:  http://pahomepage.com/palive-details?nxd_id=284852
 

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Donation Can (http://donation-can.com/).

Lacey, the author of Donation Can, is originally from Tamaqua. After serving in the Air Force she has moved back to State College.Her plan was to serve a single four-year tour in the Air Force, but she realized near the end of it that she would have to re-enlist to deal with the growing debts facing her. She and her husband made a decision to pay off their debts and never be a slave to a lender again.  With a lot of hard work and careful planning, they did it!

Lacey created Donation Can to serve as a way for her to talk about the lessons she learned about money. Money, as she notes, is often treated as a taboo subject. Her goal is to get people talking about money.

Money is tight for everyone these days, and many of us find ourselves facing mounting debt. Can we benefit from the lessons Lacey learned from her experience? It's worth taking a look at Donation Can to find out what she has to say!


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, October 17, 2012

About the header image: October 17, 2012


This week's header image is by Stephanie Force (http://itsanorganizedmess.blogspot.com) and is of this past weekend's Chalk Festival at the Wilkes-Barre River Commons. This is a crop of a larger image, one of two that Stephanie submitted in the wee hours of this morning. I liked it so much that I immediately turned it into a blog header and then submitted it to Michelle, asking if we could swap it in for the image originally scheduled to run this week. (I think that one may run sometime in the Winter, when it will be greatly appreciated.)

When cropping images to turn them into headers, I wield the scissors viciously: What is this about? What is essential? What can be cut? Different crops can create different images, different moods, but in many cases the stuff that got cut had a story all its own. Here's a resized version of the 3888 pixel x 2592 pixel original:


This image makes the Wilkes-Barre River Commons look even more majestic, and presents the architecture of the courthouse fantastically. And here's a detail from near the center of the image, showing the children and their chalk creations:


It turns out this isn't the first time we've featured a Chalk Festival image as the blog header. The first time we used one, I didn't realize that's what it was - though Michelle did! That was this image by Shivaun O'Donnell which we used back in June, just ahead of Riverfest.


Do you have any images of Northeastern Pennsylvania that you'd like to see featured as the header on NEPA Blogs? Send them to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and maybe you'll see it being used within twenty-four hours!



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Erica's Blog




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

Watch this episode on WBRE's PA Live! site:  http://pahomepage.com/palive-details?nxd_id=283042

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Erica's Blog (http://ericalovespotatoes.blogspot.com/).

Now, let's make one thing perfectly clear: Erica loves potatoes. While this may not be obvious from her blog's title, a careful examination of her blog address (as well as her blogger profile) reveals this to be true. Erica doesn't post to her blog as often as some would wish, but when she posts, she makes it count.  She reveals intimate details of her life, such as the fact that without TV, she is nothing, or her two-part plan to move into Sam's Club, or the tragic story of why she didn't get to go to Ireland and ride horses and eat potatoes. (It involves driving a car into a garage door, and then managing to damage the wiring of a second garage door while trying to fix the first. Hasn't this happened to everyone?)

Erica is an excellent writer, and Erica's Blog is one of the funniest I have read. I wish she would write posts for it more often. But if you're just hearing about it for the first time, there are plenty of past posts on her blog for you to check out. Be sure to read them all!

If you have a funny take on life and the world, why not put your thoughts in a blog? It's a great way to reach out to broad audiences, both locally and around the world. If you decide to start a blog, contact us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll add it to the ever-growing list at NEPA Blogs!

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, October 14, 2012

Wilkestype

I learned about this blog through a Leadership Wilkes-Barre classmate on Facebook.  Lisa Reynolds alerted me to a very cool blog called "Wilkestype", a typography blog by students at Wilkes.  

http://wilkestype.wordpress.com 

This blog is an exercise for the students of Cross-Media Typography at Wilkes University. In it, you’ll find samples of type that we’ve found a deemed awesome. So browse through, and feel free to agree or disagree with our opinions!

You may have never thought about it before, but typography is an art form.  I know that I haven't.  It's one of those things that we may see every day and not give second thought to.

Typography is defined as (from the Greek words τύπος (typos) = form and γραφή (graphe) = writing) is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).  Source = Wikipedia


We hope that you enjoy the word art that Wilkes has to offer.
Happy Sunday!

~Michelle

Friday, October 12, 2012

NEPA|Homepage

We picked up a new follower on Twitter this week by the name of NEPA|Homepage.  I was intrigued, so I checked out the bio and they had a blog listed.  Yes, despite the name of "homepage" it is actually a Blogger blog.  The name of this blog and the URL are eerily similar to WBRE's pahomepage.com.

http://pahomepage.blogspot.com/
We are dedicated to giving our opinion on what goes on here in NEPA. We are the Social Engineers!


The blog is written anonymously under the name of "The Social Engineer".  Even though the blog just started in October, I find the posts interesting.  The author writes opinionated posts on recent news stories.  From the first post:

I will be giving my take on the stories the news media won't.  I am an opinionated person and figured why not just put it all out there in my very own blog.  Feel free to post comments and leave your opinion about not only the news but things you would like my opinion on.  I hope that I can create a blog that is entertaining and worthy of loyal readership.

As I mentioned above, you can follow NEPA|Homepage on Twitter under the username of @nepahomepage.

Good stuff.  If you have recently started a blog, we'd love to hear from you.  Send us an email to nepablogs@gmail.com so we can mention your blog!

~Michelle

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

About the header image: October 10, 2012


This week's header image is another in a series of images of the interior of the Hotel Sterling in Wilkes-Barre taken by Cheri Sundra. The latest word is that the Hotel Sterling will be torn down, sooner rather than later. Soon all that will remain are the memories - and images like this.

Do you have images that have captured some historical location in Northeastern Pennsylvania that is soon to pass away? Send it to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll use it as the NEPA Blogs header for a week!

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

PA Live! Blog of the Week: NEPA Pizza Review


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


Watch this episode on WBRE's PA Live! site: http://pahomepage.com/palive-details?nxd_id=281172

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is NEPA Pizza Review (http://www.nepapizzareview.com/).

Here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we love our pizza. Thin crust, thick crust, Old Forge style, Sicilian,  all sorts of pizzas. We have a vast array of pizza places to choose from. And while, as the saying goes, bad pizza is better than no pizza, how do you know whether or not you'll like pizza from a place you've never tried before? That's where the NEPA Pizza Review comes into play. The anonymous blogger behind the site - who describes himself as "lifelong NEPA resident, longtime pizza maker, and avid lover of all types of pizza" - has made it his goal to deliver "a minimum of 1 pizza review per week and build a library of reviews of pizza places throughout NEPA."

The NEPA Pizza Review is keeping up the pace. In its first three months it had covered nineteen pizza places throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. They're listed by name, but are also indexed by several different descriptions of type, as well as by location. He also solicits recommendations from readers, provides tips for improving your homemade pizza, and  provides an interactive map showing all the places he's reviewed.

We're all going to eat pizza sooner or later. Why not go into your pizza-eating experience with as much knowledge as possible? Thanks to the NEPA Pizza Review, you might just know which pizza will be disappointing, and which will be delicious!

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!

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Rebuilding Sean

A few Saturday mornings ago, Andy Palumbo recommended that I add one of his friend's blogs to NEPA Blogs.  Sean Gowden started his blog back in August.  It will chronicle his adventure of getting back into shape.

From the first post:



God...I've let myself go.  Time to change.  All new, rebuild...from the ground up.


3 goals:


Sean minus 50 pounds of blubber.

Sean finally builds the winemaking and beermaking apps for iOS
Sean does this while being a better husband and dad. (and that's not saying I'm not already a good husband and dad.)


...

This blog is for me.  If you gain some insight, inspiration or entertainment value, then good for you.   I'm here to rebuild myself, be the guy I want to be; not the guy I currently am.


You can follow Sean's journey to achieving his goals at http://rebuildingsean.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

About the header image: October 3, 2012


This week's header image was sent in by Nicole Karr of the Springhouse Woodshop blog (http://www.springhousewoodshop.com/blog) and shows the Bloomsburg Fair from the Skyride.  We would have ran with this photo for last week's #NewHeaderWednesday selection, but we received it too late!

The Bloomsburg Fair ran from Friday, September 21st through Saturday, September 29th.  This was the 157th year for the Fair.  It touted successful numbers despite taking a year off to clean-up and recover from the devastating September 2011 floods.  I would recommend watching the Mike Stevens' video learn more about the recovery.

One of the new additions to the fair this year was the Skyride that Nicole rode on.  According to WNEP, the ride is 12 minutes long per direction.  It costs $3 dollars to get from the main entrance to the rides and a round trip ride costs $5 dollars.  

You can learn more about the Bloomsburg Fair by visiting their website:  http://www.bloomsburgfair.com/

If you've taken a fascinating image that you think we should use as our header, drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com.  We will use it in an upcoming week!

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Three Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea




NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on the 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://pahomepage.com/palive-details?nxd_id=279362

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Shannon Mizikoski's Three Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea (http://3littlefishies.blogspot.com/).

Shannon Mizikoski is a first-time stay-at-home mom from Carbondale who blogs about the experience of motherhood. Three Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea is an example of a "mommy blog": blogs by mothers about the experience of motherhood and raising children. Mommy bloggers have some universal experiences, and these blogs allow mothers to share hints and tips with each other. But at the same time, each individual's experience is unique and highly personal, and it is through these experiences that mommy bloggers can relate to a broader audience.

Shannon doesn't just write about her experiences as a mother. Wondering what the deal is with that popular book series that everyone is talking about? Not to worry: Shannon summarizes Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels in just five sentences! (Six if you count "The end.") Have you ever wondered what it's like to have your gallbladder taken out? Shannon explains it all!

If you're a mom, a blog is a great way to share your experiences with the world, and mommy blogs are wonderful ways to learn from the experiences of other mothers. Shannon Mizikoski's Three Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea is the perfect place to see a mommy blog by a mom from Northeastern Pennsylvania!


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!