Anthracite Curling Club

Decades ago the Beatles movie "Help!" was regularly shown on TV, including on the local version of the afternoon movie show Dialing For Dollars. This was where I saw the sport of curling for the first time ever, and thought it was some sort of joke that had been made up for the movie. Scrubbing the ice with tiny brooms as a vaguely duck-shaped stone slowly slid across the ice - that surely couldn't be a real thing...could it? It had to be a joke, like the coin-operated car, right?

Subsequent viewings of the Winter Olympics proved that, yes, curling was indeed a real thing, though it seemed as strange and silly in real life as it had in the Beatles' romp. What was the point? What was it all about? And how the heck did someone come up with something like this?

Well, decades later, I still don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know some folks who might.

Anthracite Curling Club
http://anthracitecurling.com/

NEPA is always full of surprises, and the Anthracite Curling Club is another one. Who knew that this region had its own curling club? Well, I did. For years. But I didn't realize that they had a blog! Yes, their official website is actually presented in blog form, the most effective way of communicating news and information to members and the general populace. If you've got any level of interest in curling and don't want to wait for the next Olympics (or for "Help!" to start appearing on TV again) to see it in action, check out their blog - and maybe even consider joining in the fun at their open house at the Toyota SpotsPlex (formerly the Ice Rink at Coal Street Park) in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, March 8, 2014! Grab your tiny brooms and start scrubbing!

Facebook Finds

Today, I figured that I'd share some of the blogs that Harold & I recently discovered through Facebook.  If you didn't already know, we have a group on the social media site where local bloggers mingle, bounce ideas off each other and share posts...we encourage you to join if you haven't already.

"The Life of Kyle"

By: Kyle Magda

http://thelifeofkyle.com/blog.html

Kyle has been at it since October 2012 writing about sports (a lot of NASCAR and running), health and nutrition, life and whatever else crosses his mind.

"Just Amusing Myself"

By:  Susan Keller

http://justamusingmyself.wordpress.com/

Susan introduced herself as an occasional writer in our group, but she was impressed with all of the different voices and topics of blogs in the area.  She's hoping more posts will come as she works the muscle.  Her blog is mostly about life, but life as a mother.  I enjoyed reading her recent posts and look forward to coming back for more!

"Donna's Addiction"

By:  Donna Gard

http://donnasaddiction.blog.com/

From the first post:  My name is Donna and I am a Freelance Photographer/Event Planner and I found a new addiction…Blogging! Since I love planning events and taking pictures, that is what you will find her on my Blog.  Here we will be discussing events that I have had the pleasure of  organizing as well as events that I have attended.  With pictures, crazy yet sometimes deep dialog,  and some quick wit, I am hoping to drag you into my crazy world of Event Blogging!  Now let’s have some fun and stay tuned for my first crazy Blog!



All of these links will be added to our blogroll on the side bar for your reading enjoyment.

...And while we are on the topic of Facebook, I'd like to remind everyone to stop by and "like" our page: https://www.facebook.com/nepablogs

Happy Saturday!

BikeNEPA

 
Dale Culp from "Dale Rides His Bike" started a new blog recently called "bikeNEPA".  As I'm sure you could figure out by the title, the blog is all about biking in Northeast PA.  He's trying to draw more attention to the sport and mode of transportation and wanted us to give it a mention.

From the About:

Biking is for everyone. Biking isn’t just for the rich; it’s not just for the poor, either. It’s not a middle-class thing, it’s not a “white” thing, and you definitely don’t need to be wearing spandex shorts just to do it. Biking is for everyone. It’s a sport, it’s a mode of transportation — it’s a lifestyle.

 Our mission is to make bicycling safer for everyone — safer for cyclists, pedestrians and, yes, car/truck/bus drivers as well. Biking is for everyone, really.

 This is a community site dedicated to biking in NEPA. Whether you do it in the streets or prefer the trails of North-East Pennsylvania, we have you covered.

Biking in NEPA is great, but it carries its share of risks, as well. We always encourage the use of proper safety equipment and strict adherence to the rules of the road and local laws for your municipality. Likewise, we encourage all cyclists in NEPA to contact local lawmakers when it comes to getting better infrastructure — such as segregated bike paths, better lane indicators and increased awareness of cycling in NEPA. Get involved! There are a LOT of us out there, we can make the streets better for everyone!

We’re here to inform and educate, but we’re here to have fun, too. This site will have plenty of information on upcoming cycling events in NEPA. Group rides, charity rides and other events that involve cycling. Just visit the Events page for more information.

Looking for a local bike shop? We have a page dedicated to locating a shop near you. Go local! Support small businesses who need your help and can provide MUCH better service than a big box chain department store. When it comes to things like proper fit, quality parts and service, don’t trust the “*mart” stores to worry too much about your safety. Count on a local mechanic to fix your ride up the right way. Visit the Bike Shops page for more information.

bikeNEPA is here for everyone, and we mean it when we say “everyone” because biking is for everyone.

 Ride on.

Spread the word about bikeNEPA community blog and don't forget to follow them on Twitter and Facebook too!

PensFans4Ever

Oh no!  Not another hockey blog!  Indeed, yes.

PensFans4Ever is tagged the "Official Web Site of the WBS Penguin Fans" (and the professional and farm teams associated with the franchise as well).  At the site you can find game recaps, a chat room for Live Game Day chats, and a message board. There's also an Interactive Schedule where you can get up to date information on past games.  WAIT!  That's not all!  The site has a mobile app, an RSS Feed, and much much more!

 http://pensfans4ever.com

From the About:  PensFans4ever was developed by Butch Pettit. It was started to keep the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Fans along with the Pittsburgh Penguin Fans up to date with happenings as far as who is up and who is down.




Thanks to Butch joining the NEPA Bloggers group on Facebook, we learned about a blog that we wouldn't have otherwise known was out there.  Do you know of a blog that we aren't already listing?  Send us an email at nepablogs@gmail.com or join our Facebook Group!

The Grinder

Happy Monday!  We have another sports blog to get your week started on the right foot....er....skate...

The Grinder
http://thehockeygrinder.wordpress.com

"The Grinder" promises to be the single most important hockey blog in the world.  Since this blog is only 4 posts old, we'll have to see how that plays out for them. 

In case you are wondering, this blog is my brother's so I'm allowed to say that and get away with it ;-)

~Michelle

570 Sports Radio

570 Sports Radio is a group blog/podcast that covers all types of sports, more specifically: MMA/UFC, NFL, NCAA Football and Basketball, MLB, NBA and any other newsworthy sports topics that may occur.

http://www.570sportsradio.com

The blog contributors are all locally based right here in Northeast PA!  They are: Rich Davies (no relation), Jordan Pohutsky, Paul Glenn and Doug Miller. Jordan and Rich are the original founding members and Paul and Doug are newcomers to the group.  Rich tells me that they have been blogging for about a year and a half.  I wish we found out about it sooner!

There is no about page on the blog, but in recent talks through Twitter direct message with Rich, he tells me that "all of the contributors are very opinionated and they don't try to keep their favorite teams a secret and they aim to keep their fans up-to-date on sports info, locally and around the globe."

You can follow 570 Sports Radio on Facebook and under the username of @570sportsradio on Twitter.

Happy Sunday!

~Michelle

2 Tumblrs from Ashley Teatum

Ashley Teatum is another journalist in our area that blogs.  Ashley is a sports writer at the Times Tribune in Scranton.  I learned of her two Tumblr blogs through her Twitter account @tee_tuhm.  "writer. lit nerd. sports geek. journalist. feminist."


Blog #1:  
Feminish.
http://feminish.tumblr.com
"Critically Uncovering the Coverage of Women in Sports"



Blog #2:  
Shelvish
http://shelvish.tumblr.com
"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." -oscar wilde
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?” -Ralph Ellison, from Invisible Man"


Ashley is also in the popular "Dancing with the NEPA Stars" competition...and she's made it all the way to the final round!  It costs a dollar to vote online, but all proceeds go to help the Scranton Cultural Center.  You can vote for Ashley online using this link:  http://www.scrantonculturalcenter.org/ashley-teatum


From the voting page: 

Although she is a Staten Island, N.Y., native, Ashley Teatum caught the Scranton bug and stayed after graduating from the University of Scranton in 2009. As a sports reporter for The Times-Tribune, Ashley, 24, covers high school soccer and wrestling. She serves as the vice president of the Alpha Sigma Nu Scranton Alumni Club and also has sung with the University's performance music concert choir as an alum. Ashley lives in West Scranton and is tackling David Foster Wallace's epic novel “Infinite Jest” this summer. She owes her dancing genes to Ms. Mary Saccheri-Spera, her dance teacher in Staten Island who gave Ashley her groove for 13 years. 

Best of Luck, Ashley and welcome to the blog roll!

~Michelle

Runningful

I found out about this blog when the author attended NEPA BlogCon's launch party at the end of June.  As it turns out, I used to work with Alicia in my short time at Solid Cactus many moons ago and we were both in Bernie's Memorial July 4th Run/Walk.  Alicia is an avid running chick and writes about it on her blog called Runningful. 

Hey there, I'm Alicia! I've been running for about three years now and have finished several 5ks and my very first half marathon. Running has been a wonderful experience for me, and hence "Runningful" was born as the place where running+wonderful intersect. Want to share a running story, write a guest post, pitch a product review/giveaway, or just have a comment? Email me at alicia@runningful.com!

http://www.runningful.com
"Running is wonderful"

Runningful covers topics such as proper nutrition for runners, running wisdom, running inspirations and also has product reviews that may be helpful to runners. 

You can also follow Alicia's adventures on Twitter under the userid of @runningful.

I wouldn't recommend running in this heat, give yourself a break today and soak up the AC or take a dip in the pool.  Stay cool, NEPA. 

~Michelle

The Mine Shaft

Did you know that the NEPA Miners Football Team have their own blog?

The NEPA Miners Blog (a.k.a. "The Mine Shaft")
http://www.nepaminers.com/blog

The NEPA Miners started their new blog back in May. From the first post:

2011 marks the 5th Anniversary for NEPA Miners Football. We are growing in talent and popularity, still not everyone has heard about us? 2006 started a grassroots effort by Dan LaMagna launching the areas newest minor league sports franchise. The Miners started out fast with two winning seasons making the playoffs each year but needed more support to maintain success long term off the field.

Dan LaMagna was the one that alerted me to their new blog on Twitter. If you want to give the boys in black and gold a follow they can be found @NEPAMINERS. I've added the NEPA Miners blog to the blog roll and also under the NEPA Sports Blogs section on the right hand side.

The name of this blog cracked me up when I first noticed it. It reminded of that song by Jerry Reed "She Got the Goldmine". I'm going to leave out the rest of the song title/lyrics, but you can Google it if you are curious.

Happy Friday NEPA!

~Michelle

This is Getting Old

This is Getting Old is a sports blog which covers the Pittsburgh Penguins, the WBS Penguins, Penn State, the Pirates and the Steelers. Pretty much all sports teams in Pennsylvania, except for those originating from Philadelphia.

I received this submission from @nepablogs Twitter account (which hopefully, you are all following by now). I was unable to locate an about section on this blog to copy and paste in my post as I usually do. I can however, refer you to the the Twitter account from which the posting came from: @laclips / Brad from Scranton, PA.

From hisTwitter profile: ✔ *Burgh Verified* Penguins Hockey, Penn State Football and Pirates Baseball. I also like anything silky.

Enjoy!

CampTheSummit

Submitted via @jasonpercival on Twitter: "You should add @campthesummit http://campthesummit.com to the site. It's written by the most adventurous man in NEPA @patrickgensel"

CampTheSummit is the ultimate one stop shop (so to speak) for outdoor adventure lovers.

From the About Page: CampTheSummit is a Multi-Format Content outlet encompassing the adventure and outdoor recreation world. CampTheSummit.com was launched in September 2009. the site provides content ranging from video podcasts, and written articles, to audio content and more.

The blog was founded by Patrick Gensel, who has his own personal blog located at http://patrickgensel.com/blog/ which is more technology and photography based in nature.

I will be adding both of these blogs to the sidebar for your reading pleasure.

~M

LET'S DO THIS!

LET'S DO THIS! Blog is the official WBS Penguins 2011 Playoff Blog. According to the first blog post, we are to consider this blog "the vault" for all things related to the Penguins playoff run. They are adding new content daily, and invite us to check back often.

I will add this to the side Blogroll under the Sports Blogs section.

Be sure to cheer on our boys tonight (4/30) at 7:05pm when they take on the Charlotte Checkers in Game Two of the East Division Finals. They will be playing at home from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. You can listen/watch live from the WBS Penguins official website here.

~M

Highland Park Hockey

Time for another sports blog! Ok, ok. You got me. Its another hockey blog. Tis the season, heyna?

Highland Park Hockey is a blog that was just created last month which, much like "Chirps from Center Ice" and "Pens Universe", focuses on the Pittsburgh Penguins organization of hockey. The blog is authored by Tony Androck. This blog has been added to the sidebar under the sports section.

I'm wondering if there are any local blogs that focus on the Philadelphia sports organizations? I haven't seen or heard of any. If you have any recommendations, please shoot them over to nepablogs@gmail.com.

~M

Yankees Blog

Baseball season is upon us once again and with the excellent weather that is happening today I can't think of a more fitting blog addition than The Yankees Blog. The blog is run by the Scranton Times-Tribune and is focused on the local WBS Yankees baseball farm team.

From the About Page:

Baseball isn’t limited to box scores and game stories, and neither is baseball news. Stay in the know with insight, breaking news and other Yankees nuggets from Times-Tribune beat writer Chad Jennings. He’ll check in regularly with transactions, game-day information and more than a few opinions.

Play Ball!
~M

Chirps from Center Ice

Who's ready for some playoff hockey? Raise your hands. Ok, the three of you in the back with your hands down can leave the room, as this most recent addition to NEPA Blogs is directly related to the local WBS Penguins. For those of you sticking around, keep on growing out those beards and #LETSDOTHIS.

Introducing "Chirps from Center Ice" a fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins authored by Jason Iacona of Pittston.

From the About Me page:

Started a blog about a year later to go more in detail with the Twitter updates and add more. Never thought it would get as detailed as it is with AHL Previews at the beginning of the year for every team, Pregame “Gameday” reports, “Postgamer” writeups in addition to live tweeting the game in between.

This blog is jam packed with tons of stuff from the WBS Pens universe - sidenote: DON'T DARE CALL THEM THE BABY PENS on Jason's watch.

Also, of interest (but not technically qualifying as a "NEPA" blog per se) for Penguins hockey fans is the Pens Universe Hockey Blog. The Pens Universe hockey blog follows more of the goings on of the NHL (whereas Jason's blog covers mainly the AHL).

Both links will be added under the sports section of the sidebar on the right.

LETS GO PENS!
~M

More, more, more

I finally sat down and added all - well, most - of the blogs Gort and I have been collecting since the last sidebar update and added them to the sidebar! I also removed dead - which I defined as "not functioning," not simply "not updating" - and cybersquatted blogs to a section at the bottom of the sidebar called "City of the Dead."

Some blogs I didn't add because they appear to have gone dead since Gort or I first mentioned them in a post. One blog, which appears to have been updated quite recently, I didn't add because every time I went there, I was inundated with pop-ups (blocked, of course) to the point that I had to Ctrl-Alt-Delete my way out. This isn't the only blog that hit me with pop-ups, but it's the only one that has affected me so strongly. Maybe I can get a message to the blogger and we can see if there's anything they can do to fix this.

(If I missed your blog and forgot to add it to the sidebar, please let me know.)

I just ran through the Sitemeter to see how people are getting to the site, and I followed a few of their searches back to look for any NEPA Blogs I've managed to miss. Here are a few:

NEPA Miners Football & Entertainment
One for the NEPA Sports Blogs section.

The Borys Blog
From the Scranton Times-Tribune site.
From the first entry: Don't expect a lot of overt opinion or taking sides here. The ground rules remain the same as for the stories I write for the newspapers. Fairness, accuracy, objectivity as much as possible. But there could be a little more of what journalists call, "Fair comment."

Northeastern PA Mortgages Blog by John Topa
I'm always a little uneasy about linking blogs like this. This link does not in any way imply endorsement, any more than links to any of the other blogs on this site imply endorsement of their content. Still, it's written by someone from NEPA, so it fits the NEPA Blogs criteria.

Northeastern PA Sports from Pennlive.com
Well, it hasn't been updated since October 29, 2007, but still... Another one for the Sports section.

JasonGaylord.com
A personal network of sites by an application developer from NEPA. Includes a blog.

PA on the Go Weblog
A weblog connected to the PA on the Go website, which is linked in the Sites About NEPA section.

GayNEPA.com
The old site NEPA Rainbow Alliance blog appears to be dead, but this one is very much alive.


Phew. Now I have to add all of these to the sidebar. If anybody has any others, please let us know!

The Nittany Blog

This arrived via a comment. OK, it was a comment made nearly a month ago, but better late than never!

The Nittany Blog said...

Hey this is Alex from The Nittany Notebook. I've decided to resume writing my old blog as well. Could you guys add the new link as well as keep the one to The Nittany Notebook? Thanks!

The Nittany Blog- http://nittanyblog.blogspot.com/

If you are a blogger who lives in Northeatern Pennsylvania, or used to live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, or who blogs about Northeastern Pennsylvania, please leave a comment and we'll list your blog just as soon as we can!

Adding a whole big pile of blogs

I'm back, after having dedicated most of my blogging energy to reporting on my visit to Ireland and London on my own blog, Another Monkey. There are many blogs to be added to NEPA Blogs that have accumulated since I left, so let's get started!

First off, The Lady Speaks has a new address. I think I'll also retain the old location until it no longer functions.

Electric City Renaissance is a blogsite focusing on things in and around Scranton.

Kermit the Blog is actually already linked from this site under the name of its author, Dave Caolo. Dave is the "Scranton Insider" for the site "Life in The Office".

The Nittany Notebook is a blog about Penn State's Nittany Lions written by Alex Grier, formerly of Scranton.

Shadow's Reach and History's Shadow are two blogs written by Scranton blogger Shadowspun.

Things At King's is written by Father Tom Carten of King's College. I've met Father Tom through my sister, who used to be a D.J. at WRKC. You may know Father Tom from the Radio Home Visitor, the WRKC radio program where he reads selected bits of the newspaper as a service for the blind. You may also know him by the secret identity he uses to write a weekly column for the Citizen's Voice!

Still haven't gotten around to posting the NEPA Blogs notices...but I've got some ideas there.