It’s a Twitter Party! You Had Me at Row80 and Dancing

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Barbara McDowell

On Wednesday, October 5, the Twitterverse is gonna rock.  Writers from near and far will descend with one goal in mind: To “Rock the Row” for the ROW80 celebration of round 3, kick-off party for round 4 and get down groovy time for all supporters.  Don’t be shy.  Anyone can participate in this Twitter party whether it is just popping by to say hello or being the last one typing at 11:59 pm.  And you can bring brownies, bourbon or barbecue.  🙂   

What is Row80 you ask?  The keys to the mystery are here.

How do you join?  Join us here.  Bwahahaha.

Just wanna get the party started?  Okay, we’ll get to the guidelines in a sec, but first meet the party co-hosts Jenny Hansen and Nicole Basaraba.  They have guaranteed dancing via Jenny’s extensive playlist and Nicole letting us rock LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” on repeat.  Now for Jenny’s guidelines:

  • Theme: “Rock the Row” – However you want to work that in is great. I leave it to your outrageously creative imagination!
  • Date: October 5th, 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM ET in the U.S.  This also happens to be the first day of check-in so there should be a ton of ROW80 fun happening around the blogosphere.
  • Party will be held at the #ROW80 hashtag.  Fire up your Tweet Deck or HootSuite and let’s get jiggy with it.
  • Photo Competition: You can start now…we won’t tell. Start digging for or taking photos that reflect the theme. We’ll do our best to gather them and decide on the best to spotlight in a post at the ROW80 blog. Once the readers vote, the 1st place winner gets a copy of Kait Nolan’s latest book, Red, in e-book format!! (And maybe some others–updates coming)
  • Friendly Blog Competition We will also post a mash-up of favorite ROCK THE ROW posts at the Row80 blog.

So now that you know the when, where and how, please plan to join in the merriment.  I LOVE to dance (see #10 here) and back in the day used to close out many clubs with disco, house and top 40 theme nights.  At this party, I’ll be the one hoisting myself up on the table and dropping it like it’s hot.  Now I’m off to do some moves to get limber.

Getting the legs limber

 
 

Some serious ab work here...

 
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Who We Can Be in the World: Embracing Random Acts of Kindness

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Barbara McDowell

I’ve been inspired by Amber West’s post A Special Friday Inspiration – Giving Back.  The fantastic ideas she shared is to have bloggers join together to give up something in their lives to help out someone in need.  For the next month, we figure out what we will give up and then blog/tweet about it to share with others. 

Simple right?  Well no, not when you face down something you know you could obviously give up, but are fighting.  What is mine?  Daily gourmet lattes.  I even commented on her site:

Amber, I’ve been noodling on this and struggling with what I had extra that I could cut. My workday latte treat serves as both meds for my migraines (the caffeine) and happiness for a non-morning person…so at first I held tight to it (and screamed no). But I could pre-plan the night before to brew coffee at home two of those days and use that.

My life would churn on just fine having the home-brewed, flavored coffee I enjoy on the weekends those few extra days.  It is a simple change that the blind habit of my actions blocked. 

Having that final breakthrough got me thinking about other simple changes and courtesies we have lost to the rush of it all.  It made me reflect on the daily occurrences of road rage, short tempers, vengeful e-mails and miscommunications I see in part of my world.  It made me think of what else I can give in terms of my time or abilities.  It made me think of how else I can be a more positive force in the world.

“If you aren’t helping someone else, you are doing a huge disservice to the universe.” Anonymous

So here are some happy, smiling, giving-of-self folks with signs reminding us of the basics.  Be kind.  Lead by example.  Inspire someone.  Show compassion.  May we all find that in our own lives and be able to give and receive.

What will be your random act of kindness each day?

What do you do to give back?

Share stories of an unexpected kindness you’ve received.

[Oct. 1 Update: Forgot to mention I’m donating to RAINN -the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, which is the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization.  I know too many people affected by this and also wanted an organization that would help women, men, children, teens, all races and all religions. RAINN is great because 92 cents of every dollar goes directly to their work.  There are multiple ways to give to them.]
 

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