Wednesday, February 27, 2013

About the header image: February 27, 2013


This week's header image is one of several submitted by Ada Mae Compton, the three-legged blogging dog. It is a specimen of Trillium erectum, also known as Wake-Robin, and was photographed at Jacobs Run near the Tioga State Forest.

Wikipedia has this to say about Trillium:

Trillium (trillium, wakerobin, tri flower, birthroot) is a genus of about 40–50 species of spring ephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia...Picking a trillium seriously injures the plant by preventing the leaf-like bracts from producing food for the next year. A plant takes many years to recover...Some species of trillium are listed as threatened or endangered; picking these species may be illegal.

So not only is Trillium a beautiful sign of Spring, it is also representative of the fragility of our environment, and reminds us of how much damage can be done through thoughtless or careless acts.

Do you have any photos that capture some aspect of Northeastern Pennsylvania? Send them to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll use them as the NEPA Blogs header of the week!


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Chirps from Center Ice



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=320802

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Jason Iacona's Chirps from Center Ice (http://chirpsfromcenterice.com/).

Chirps from Center Ice is Jason Iacona's blog all about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. It's not an official team blog; Jason is a fan, and is writing the blog as a fan of the team, for fans of the team. In it, he presents the latest news and information about the WBS Penguins, as well as links to other blogs that focus on other teams in the AHL. Jason also gives pregame previews and postgame recaps throughout the season, an live-Tweets each game. For fans of the Penguins, and even for people just curious about NEPA's own AHL team, Chirps from Center Ice is a must-read!


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, February 24, 2013

From the Mailbag: Dash of Damsel

One of our main goals at NEPA Blogs is to seek out and list all of the bloggers in Northeast PA in one centralized location.  Our mailbox, nepablogs@gmail.com, is one of the contact points that frequently gets messages from new bloggers that are requesting to add them to our blog roll.  Here is one such message:

Hello,

My name is Alyssa Termini and I live in Clarks Summit, PA. I am a baking and pastry student at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI, and I run a food blog entitled Dash of Damsel. The link is www.dashofdamsel.blogspot.com

I would very much appreciate it and would be incredibly honored and grateful if you could link to my blog at some point. 

Thank you!
Alyssa Termini


Get in contact with us if you'd like your blog featured!  We have a Facebook Group, FB Page, Twitter and of course you can always send an email message.

Happy Sunday!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

About the header image: February 20, 2013


Ah, winter! Is there anything better? The relentless, annoying snow, the cold, the darkness, slush, ice, bad road conditions, school delays and closings... Yeah, I don't know about you, but we're just about ready for it to be over. We have a few more winter-themed headers in reserve, but we thought maybe it would be nice to take a break from winter with an image from summer: Dragon Boats on the Susquehanna, in a photo by Shivaun O'Donnell of Sundays with Shivstopher. Shivaun's blog is currently on hiatus, and Shivaun recently revealed to the Citizens' Voice that she's given up Facebook for Lent. The Dragon Boats themselves are on hiatus - they did not put in an appearance in 2012. Let's hope that we see Shivaun, her blog, Dragon Boats, and warmer temperatures real soon!

Spring is coming! Do you have any photos that capture springtime in NEPA? If you do, let us know at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll use them as our headers in upcoming weeks!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Poor Parking in PA


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=319012


Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Poor Parking in PA (http://poorparkingpa.tumblr.com/), by Rock 107's DJ Prospector!

Proper parking isn't that difficult. There are lines painted on pavement, and you park between them. You don't park on them, or across them, or on those places that indicate NO PARKING. What's so hard about that? But bad park jobs abound in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and Poor Parking in PA has set out to document it! It's a photo blog, and it's full of photos of cars parked across two, three, or four spaces at a time, cars hanging halfway out of parking spaces, cars parked sideways across multiple parking places, cars parked where the lines indicate NO PARKING. The pictures come from all over NEPA. Some are from the Prospector and his friends, and some are reader-submitted. If you see a bad park job, take a picture and send it in! But if you're a bad parker, beware...you just might end up being featured on the pages of Poor Parking in PA!


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, February 18, 2013

Upcoming Blogger Events

There are some interesting upcoming events in the Blogosphere...


Tuesday, February 19, 2013 7pm - The innaugural meeting of the Northeast PA Wordpress group at The Vintage Theater in Scranton.  For further details and to RSVP visit:  http://www.meetup.com/nepawp


Thursday, February 28, 2013 6-8pm - Cocktails and Coupons Savings Mixer at Bella Faccias in Scranton.  There will be door prizes and favors provided by Good Cook. Jenna Urban, author of Bucktownbargains.com and a Savings.com DealPro, will host end of the month Coupon Workshop, with a short presentation followed by an organized coupon swap.  Sign up using this NEPA Cocktails and Coupons link and share with friends. Must be 21 years old  to attend. 


Thursday, February 28, 2013 6:30pm - Whiskey Bacon's Traveling Circus Food Event at the Ipanema Grille in Scranton.  It's a real meat treat - all you can eat Rodizio with more than 12 combinations of savory cuts of fire-roasted meats presented on skewers and carved table side.

A note about the Traveling Circus events from Leni of the Whiskey Bacon blog: "As part of our goal to change the way people eat and think about food locally, we organize at least 2 meet ups a month at delicious restaurants. It's a good time for anyone who likes food, to connect with other foodies, or just try something new (some of our regulars are fast foodies expanding their palate). Yes you have to pay for your dinner unfortunately, but we try to get the whole table in on any check in or Groupon deals - but we also bring the fun. Events are open to everyone and your human guests. We ask that guests RSVP on the Facebook page so we can warn the restaurant ahead of time. :) A few of the past events we've gotten around to blogging about are here http://whiskeybacon.com/category/stomping-grounds/traveling-circus/ so we do, actually blog about these events (Though as you can see, we're very behind :P)"

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/497251950319082


Saturday, March 16, 2013 12pm - Whiskey Bacon's Traveling Circus Food Event at Canteen 900 in Forty Fort.  Design your own flatbreads, fresh squeezed juice, regular fresh specials and a menu that never disappoints.

RSVP here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/297727653687161/


Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 9pm - Whiskey Bacon's Traveling Circus Food Event at Bernie's Pizza in Dallas.  Great pizza that stands out for flavor and a solid crust out of all the others in the Back Mountain.

RSVP here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/341006746009464/


Saturday, April 13, 2013 12-7pm - Mark Mysterrio's Million Dollar Producers Relay For Life Team announced that they will be hosting a tricky tray at The American Legion located at 201 E.5th Street, East Stroudsburg, PA 18301.  Admission is $5.00 and includes starting tickets, door prize and more..  For more details visit:  http://pennsylvaniabirthdaymagician.com/charity-events/



Friday, April 19, 2013 6pm-??? - Northeastern Pennsylvania Bloggers will be hosting the 7th semi-annual Blogfest at Rooney's Irish Pub, Friday April 19th at Rooney's Irish Pub, 67 S. Main St., Pittston, PA 18704 starting at 6PM. This is an informal gathering of bloggers, candidates for office, elected officials and anyone interested in politics or blogging. There is no charge for admission. For more information please visit http://gort42.blogspot.com/, , http://nepablogs.blogspot.com/ , http://www.pittstonpolitics.com/ or call 570-823-4508.

Since it's inception 3 years ago Blogfest has been described as the best political event of the season. No speeches are allowed and the rule is agree to disagree but don't be disagreeable. Many local and statewide candidates will be attending. 
For more details and to RSVP visit:   https://www.facebook.com/events/423897131028808


Friday, April 26th 2013 6pm-??? - Mark Mysterrio's Million Dollar Producers Relay For Life Team announced that they will be hosting a Vera Bradley Bingo at The American Legion located at 201 E.5th Street, East Stroudsburg, PA 18301. Doors open at 6 pm and Bingo starts at 7p.m. The cost is $25.00 in advance and $30 at the door if there are remaining tickets.  For more details visit:  http://pennsylvaniabirthdaymagician.com/charity-events/


Fall 2013 (date, location TBA) - NEPA BlogCon is returning in the fall of 2013 to help educate Northeast PA about blogging and social media.  To learn more about the conference, please visit:  http://nepablogcon.com/nepa-blogcon-2013-here-we-come/





We hope to see you out there!  If you have an interesting event coming up related to blogging and want us to know about it, send an email to nepablogs@gmail.com.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Northeast PA WordPress

A new group has popped up in Northeast PA dedicated to all things Wordpress!  As you may already know, Wordpress is popular free/open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.  Similar to Blogger, it is completely customizable with plugins and themes (many which are downloadable for free).  Several bloggers from the area (including me) use this platform!


http://www.nepawp.com


From the About: So what is NEPAWP exactly? Well, according to our Meetup page, we are:

A place to talk about WordPress and WordPress-related topics in Northeastern Pennsylvania.


That seems about right. A while back Phil Erb and I (Joe Casabona, for the record) we lamenting about how there is probably a great untapped WordPress community right here in NEPA. We decided to start a WordPress Meetup to see if that were true. We hope to bring out the WordPress bloggers, designers, developers, enthusiasts, and users here in Scranton and the great NEPA area to have some good discussions about our favorite web-bassed platform. Hopefully we’ll learn a thing or two as well!



NEPA WP's first meetup is this week at the Vintage Theater on Tuesday, February 19th at 7pm!  You can find more details and RSVP at the Meetup event page here:  http://www.meetup.com/nepawp/events/101050522/

Event attendees will be able to purchase Joe's book "Building Wordpress Themes From Scratch" at a 50% discount. 


Do you know of any interesting events happening in the NEPA blogosphere? Send us an email or tweet to let us know!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Facebook Fresh

We've been adding several new subscribers to our Facebook Group over the past few weeks.  With new subscribers, comes fresh blood into the NEPA Blogosphere.  I'm sure I'm leaving out a few, but here are 3 new blogs that we weren't already linked to:


Rants From My Crazy Kitchen

http://rantsfrommycrazykitchen.com

From the AboutHi! Welcome to Rants From My Crazy Kitchen! Here you will find all kinds of recipes, tips, rants on days when recipes I try don’t come out like I wanted and some reviews of recipes from cookbook and restaurants. Me? I’m Bernadette. My husband is Don and  I’m a stay at home mom currently to a beautiful almost 3-year-old girl, Amanda. Amanda doesn’t like to eat at all. I like good food but I know how to eat healthy, even if I don’t always. I hope you enjoy what you find here, and if you have any questions or comments (or complaints) you can contact me at bernadet@ptd.net.

Her Way At Crabtree Gardens

http://crabtreegardens.wordpress.com

From the About: "Hi! My name is Sandi Crabtree, I’m an avid gardener and owner of 2 businesses; Crabtree Gardens, LLC which is a five acre chemical-free naturalized cottage garden and Cottage at Crabtree Gardens Guest House which is my English inspired B&B located next to the gardens. 

I also hold a certificate in Garden and Interior Design from Inchbald School of Design. I’m a garden coach, club speaker, and also develop and teach workshops at Crabtree Gardens. I love the soil, nature, designing gardens and writing about them.

I live in Northeastern PA with my wonderful and supportive husband David. I’ve been gardening for over thirty years and hope to garden for at least 30 more, if my body will allow me too. I’m also finding pleasure in photographing nature in my gardens for my website and this blog."

Danielle Pasternak, Wedding Coordinator Blog

http://dpnak.com/blog/

From the About:  "...When I was a little girl, I would dress up my grandparent’s and have them play ‘wedding’. I remember clipping a white rag to my grandmother’s head, making her a bouquet out of napkins and lining an aisle with stuffed animals. I would make sure every detail was ‘just right’, hit play on my little purple cassette player and direct the entire wedding. Then, I would have them go back and do it all over again. By my count, my grandparents were not only married for more than 50 years, but at least 147 times."


All of these blogs have been added to the blog roll for your reading pleasure.  You should also consider joining our Facebook Group, if you haven't already.  You will be able to connect with several area bloggers in a relaxed online atmosphere!  

Happy Saturday :)

Friday, February 15, 2013

AJazz Networks

When evil geniuses Alex Zarnoski, Kyle Cicilioni, Charles McHale, Mark Dillman, Brianne Beatty, and Jon Lund get together behind a video camera or a microphone, you can be sure that pure magic is about to happen.  This magic has been captured in a series of podcasts, blogs and Internet Shorts (ala SNL) on the AJazz Networks website/blog.


http://www.ajazznetworks.com


Ajazz Networks promises to be originally different, delivering unique show formats that cover topics such as tech news, sports, movie reviews, and other utter randomness to melt your mind.  With the writers' insightful opinion pieces and criticisms, there is a little something for everyone to enjoy.

I personally recommend checking out the R. A. N. T. (R.A.N.T. stands for Rambling About Notable Topics) blog first!  Valentine's Day may be over, but today is "Singles Awareness Day".  There's a great post on the blog right now that gives single people advice on how to cope with being alone on Valentine's Day.

Besides the R.A.N.T. blog, here are some of the other podcasts/shows to enjoy:

-The Salinor Show
-AJazz Tech
-Internet Amazings
-Cinema Clash

Ajazz Networks has been added to our blog roll.  Know of any other avid podcasters or video bloggers?  Send us an email at nepablogs@gmail.com so that we can feature them in an upcoming blog post!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

About the header image: February 13, 2013


A week ago we received this message in the NEPA Blogs mailbag:


I have some great photos for your headers; I photograph the Mountain Top/Quality Hill Chief's hockey team and all my photos can be found on the link below.

Let me know if you'd like me to create some headers, or if you'd like to use any of your photos for anything! 

I'm newer to the area, and trying to get my photography out there more.

http://www.facebook.com/KoralDawnPhoto

Many of Koral's photos are close-ups of the hockey players in action, but one image caught my eye for its abstract beauty and screamed out to be turned into a header. Apparently Koral thought the same thing already, as she was using it at the time as the header image on her Facebook page. Koral cropped and resized her image to the NEPA Blog header specs, and even designed and added the title and descriptive text.  Let us know what you think!

Koral is on Instagram, with the handle Kayeravyn. She's also a blogger, and she includes a link to her blog, Unsane Beyond Sanity, in the image's descriptive text. We'll do a full writeup on her blog sometime soon. Everybody please welcome Koral Dawn, and we look forward to using more of her images as headers in the future!

Do you have images you'd like to see used as the NEPA Blogs header? Let us know at nepablogs@gmail.com!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Ally Bishop



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=316722


Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Ally Bishop (http://allybishop.com/).

Ally Bishop is a writer who was born in Florida but is going to school at Wilkes University. She subtitles her blog "Musings of a Former Abject Failure," and she goes into some detail about the twists and turns her life has taken that made her feel that she had earned that status - particularly the "Former" part. She's happier with her life now, but that doesn't mean that her life is free of troubles or hardships. Often, it is those troubles and hardships that form the basis for her posts.

Ally is a writer, one of the many creative people who live in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Her blog provides her with a creative outlet that allows her to practice her skill. Her posts are often quite long, and emotionally wrenching - this isn't a blog you'll just scan through quickly. But if you set aside the time to actually get to know Ally Bishop through her writing, you will find the results extremely rewarding, and know that you have spent your time wisely.


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!

Saturday, February 09, 2013

NEPA Blogfest Spring 2013

The best political mixer ever invented

Blogfest-2013 Spring Edition

Northeastern Pennsylvania Bloggers will be hosting the 7th semi-annual Blogfest at Rooney's Irish Pub, Friday April 19th at Rooney's Irish Pub, 67 S. Main St., Pittston, PA 18704 starting at 6PM. This is an informal gathering of bloggers, candidates for office, elected officials and anyone interested in politics or blogging. There is no charge for admission. For more information please visit http://gort42.blogspot.com/http://nepablogs.blogspot.com/, http://www.pittstonpolitics.com or call 570-823-4508.

Since it's inception 3 years ago Blogfest has been described as the best political event of the season. No speeches are allowed and the rule is agree to disagree but don't be disagreeable. Many local and statewide candidates will be attending.


Post edit by Michelle:  Also check out the Facebook event page to RSVP:  https://www.facebook.com/events/423897131028808/

Welcome to Scranton (the blog)

Here's a blog that I should have known about for a while, but actually came across by accident while looking for information about something else.

Welcome to Scranton (the blog)
http://gphalpin.wordpress.com/

From the "About" page:

Greg Halpin was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He opened gourmet coffee shop Café del Sol in the mid 1990s where some of the scenes take place in his novella Welcome to Scranton.
Halpin now lives in State College, Pennsylvania with his wife Elisha. He works for his alma mater, Penn State University. Halpin hosts a Jazz program each month on WPSU-FM. You can listen online at www.wpsu.org

Greg's posts cover Scranton, Penn State, and topics that interest him, including jazz. There's also news and information about his book, Welcome to Scranton. Check it out!

Thursday, February 07, 2013

The Vintage blog

The Vintage in Scranton (formerly known as The Vintage Theater) has a blog! Located at 326 Spruce Street in Scranton, The Vintage has been home to many events in which NEPA bloggers have participated, including the recent Pecha Kucha Night, and is the home base for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers Collective!

The Vintage blog
http://scrantonsvintagetheater.com/blog/

From the site's main page:

The Vintage is dedicated to cultivating and exhibiting the various talents of this region in the literary, performing and visual arts fields. Since January of 2009, The Vintage has served as a versatile venue and hosted countless artists, performers, writers, film makers and all others who strive to enhance themselves and the greater community through the power of the arts. Located at 326 Spruce Street in Downtown Scranton, The Vintage strives to present entertaining as well as engaging programming for patrons of all ages.

Check out the blog for The Vintage and see what they have to offer! And be sure to check out The Vintage itself!

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

About the header image: February 6 2013


For this week's header image, Nicole Carr (of http://whenareyoustartingablog.blogspot.com/) sent in a trio of Instagram photos she had taken on January 21, 2013 capturing various aspects of Winter. She's wondering if there are other Instagram users in NEPA. If there are, her Instagram handle is Mossville.

Spring is coming, but Winter is still here! What images do you have that reflect some aspect of life here in Northeastern Pennsylvania? Send them to us at nepablogs@gmail.com and we'll be sure to use them as the NEPA Blogs header!

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

PA Live! Blog of the Week: Tort Talk


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=314352

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is Tort Talk (http://www.torttalk.com/) by Daniel E. Cummins.

Tort Talk advertises itself as "Updates, Trends, and Thoughts regarding Pennsylvania Civil Litigation Law." It's by Northeastern Pennsylvania Insurance Defense Attorney Daniel E. Cummins. To a casual reader who isn't in the legal profession, this may all sound pretty dull - until you read over some of the entries and realize just how much these decisions affect you.

Personal injury resulting from negligence,  product liability,  medical malpractice -  these are all things that could potentially affect all of us, and should be of some interest to everyone. But what about legal precedents allowing employers, people who are bringing civil suits against you, and others access to your Facebook account? You'd like to think that you have some expectation of privacy in the electronic versions of your constitutionally-protected "papers and effects," but so far the courts have said otherwise. Several decisions have been handed down requiring individuals to turn over their Facebook login information to a third party, who would then have unlimited access to their posts, their friends lists, their - everything. Still think this sounds dull, and isn't relevant to you?

Daniel E. Cummins does an excellent job sifting through legal cases and posting the decisions that are of greatest relevance to his audience. It would be well worth your while to take advantage of this information, and read over some of the things Tort Talk has to say. You'll be glad you did!


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!

Saturday, February 02, 2013

Wyoming Valley Wordsmiths

Another NEPA writing group blog, this one coming to us through the email and prompted by a spot on PA Live!

One of the members of our group told me to watch the feature on TV about writing groups in the area. It brought your blog to my attention. We've started up a blog for our writing critique group. We'd love it if you would list this on your page. There's more information about the Wyoming Valley Wordsmiths on the blog. 

Wyoming Valley Wordsmiths
http://wyomingvalleywordsmiths.blogspot.com/

From their introductory post:


Wyoming Valley Wordsmiths is a critique group of writers from the Wilkes-Barre area of northeast Pennsylvania. Our interests are diverse as are our writing styles. We welcome all genres but concentrate on fiction. 

We come from many backgrounds and include professional journalists, published authors, educators, and students. All of us are interested in making our writing better. We've seen a tremendous amount of success in the few years we've been organized. We've completed manuscripts and published articles, stories, and books. 

We welcome new members. Our meetings are held on the first and third Thursdays of each month at the Barnes and Noble Wilkes-Kings in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Our meetings begin at 7:00 p.m.

Feel free to contact us through this email address for questions and to be added to our mailing list: susandenney@gmail.com

Check out their blog - and if their meeting times fit your schedule, stop by and see what they're about!