I’ve finished the first book on my required reading list for 2010: What Difference Do It Make? by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent! I read and reviewed Same Kind of Different as Me, the first book by Ron and Denver in 2007, and just before Christmas, their publishers contacted me about receiving a complimentary copy of their new book. My first blogging swag! How cool is that?
I’m under no obligation to review the book; they simply thought I might enjoy it. I did, and as a thanks to Tommy Nelson publishers, here are a few thoughts on it:
What Difference Do It Make? picks up where the previous book leaves off and continues the story of Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Most importantly, it chronicles the aftereffects of Ron’s wife Deborah’s involvement with the homeless in Fort Worth, TX. Nearly a decade after her death, her work still continues at Union Mission Gospel and inspires those who’ve read Hall and Moore’s books to get involved in reaching the homeless across the country.
In addition to reading the stories of other readers and how they were inspired to make a difference in the lives of the homeless, we catch up with Ron and Denver and learn how Ron came to make peace with his father before his father passed away. All of these stories testify to how God can work in the direst of situations and in the most broken of relationships.
I’m once again encouraged by these authors and the stories they tell, and I’m challenged to dig into the lives of those around me, not so I can change their lives but so God can! I think you’ll be encouraged and challenged by this book too! You can find copies at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.
My friends and I have recently become obsessed with fondue, and the impetus for this new fetish is Fedora Social House. Chris and our friend Justin hosted a bachelor party for our friend Barron there this winter, and for weeks, all I heard was how incredible the fondue at Fedora’s was. Ever the Show-Me State girl, I would not be convinced until Chris took me there for dinner, but at the end of the night I was convinced. Here’s the scoop:
We walked into the restaurant around 5:30 and a host promptly escorted us to a previously-reserved table. Unless you arrive early, reservations are encouraged at Fedora; this little place has become quite the night-life spot in downtown Springfield, and the bar and tables fill up early and are full throughout the evening. We were seated in the front of the building, so we had plenty of light, but the farther back into the restaurant you go, the darker it gets. I didn’t get a chance to scope out the decor in detail, but the depths of the restaurant really feel like a classy lounge (from what I could tell to and fro the restroom).
We started with the Siciliano fondue ($12), a blend of mozzarella, Gruyere, and Havarti cheeses, melted with marinara sauce and Tuscan seasoning, served with pita bread and pepperoni. Imagine fondue pizza, and you’ll be right on target. Our server brought our fondue pot and “dippables” straight to our table, lit the fuel, and instructed us to stir every little bit until the cheese melted. She checked on us regularly to make sure the fondue was melting properly. Once we’d eaten through our pita bread and pepperoni, she took away our pot, but promised to come back with our entree soon.
Chris and I chose to split an entree fondue, so we could have dessert, and we chose Shrimp Scampi ($15) cooked in a mix of butter and garlic and dipped in a spicy seafood sauce or a tarragon caper remoulade. Again, our server lit the fondue pot at the table, and we had to wait for the broth to warm up before cooking our shrimp. It took longer than we wanted, for the Siciliano had certainly appetized us, and we were still hungry, but the shrimp was worth the wait. Nothing special about the shrimp, per se, but butter-garlic broth and sauces made the shrimp really yummy.
We still had room in our bellies for some dessert, and our server enticed us with a new fondue that hadn’t made it to the menu yet: Snickers Fondue ($12)! That’s right, chocolate fondue with bits and pieces of Snickers candy bar mixed in. Yum-O! This fondue came with marshmallows, graham crackers, and pretzels, but they weren’t enough! We ate all of them, and there was still chocolate left. I wanted to lick it straight out of the bowl!
Having never “done fondue right,” I was really pleased with Fedora’s range of fondue options and the quality of food we received. I was really pleased with our service, too. Our server was very attentive to us and the table-top fires, making sure that our fondue pots weren’t too hot but that our food was melting correctly and giving us explicit instructions that we were not to blow out the fires on our own. For the bachelor party, the guys brought in a group of 12, and they were well taken care of. (And they continue to rave about the steak fondue.) If you’re looking for a place to take your special someone or if you’re a pyromaniac or if you need to feed a group, you must give Fedora Social House a try. (Just make reservations in advance!)
Fedora Social House is located on 300 Park Central East in Springfield and can be found online at www.fedorasocialhouse.com.
I’ve been working on this post all night, and considering that my mind is quite fuzzy from this swell head cold I’ve acquired, it’s a wonder I’ve made the progress that I have. Sans this first sentence, I have a sampling of pictures, a set list, a YouTube video, a link to a fellow blogger, and an embedded photo album all from the Coldplay concert the Fros, Chris, and I went to in November. Yes, I realize this “review” is long overdue, and since a lot of the newness has worn off (and because I feel like crap), this won’t be a traditional review.
This was my and Chris’s third event at the Sprint Center in KC this year. Folks, contrary to popular belief/rumor, we are not loaded, nor are we obsessed with attending concerts; 2008 was just a good year for us.
Lyndsey and me checking out our programs.
We ate dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill in the KC Power & Light District, which was a nice change from the usual restaurant I insist on eating at when we venture to KC. I usually insist at eating at one of four Fiorella’s Jack Stacks because it has been my family’s favorite restaurant since before I was born. I cut my teeth on their gigantic onion rings. No wonder I’m a carnivore.
Anyway, we didn’t eat there. We ate at Ted’s Montana Grill, which was just a block from our parking garage and a block from the Sprint Center. Lyndsey and I really hoped The Band would be eating dinner there, too, but alas, they did not. Gotta say, the restaurant was very good. I had a bison burger, Lyndsey had a veggie burger, Chris had the salmon, and Colby had a steak, and I believe we were all quite satisfied with our choices. I loved that this restaurant is all about sustainability and being responsible consumers; for that reason, our plates were filled with the perfect amount of food so nothing would go to waste. We even drank our beverages with paper straws! And we had room for dessert, which was something with chocolate that I picked out before we even got to the restaurant.
The Fros and the Austins at dinner.
Once at the Sprint Center, we found our seats and purchased our cursory merchandise and waited. Thankfully, we had some pre-concert entertainment from the four drunkards who sat in the row in front of us. The opening acts Sleeper Car and DJ Jon Hopkins were the usual opening acts: Good, perhaps, but paling in comparison to what we were waiting for. And once they were over, we waited some more for the stage to be reset. Once again, there was more entertainment from the fools in front of us, and they were certainly “entertaining” the people around them. By “entertaining,” I mean, they were starting to get on everyone’s nerves, but everyone around them kept there mouths shut because the four were drunk.
The Austin
Concert began. Set list below. I gotta say that before the concert, I thought Chris Martin’s dance moves looked a little weird when I saw the band on shows like SNL. On stage, in a huge arena, though, Chris’s frenetic dancing looks kinda normal. Or less crazy. Something.
Do I have a favorite from the concert? It’s hard to say. I mean, it was all great. I especially liked “Green Eyes” and “Lost” and the segment in the crowd. I included someone’s video of “Green Eyes” from the concert in the media below. It cracks me up because Chris Martin’s voice cracks at the beginning, and he laughs at himself; that and his other running commentary during the concert made me wish I was friends with the band. They just seem like a bunch of cool, laid back guys who play music for a living. Totally unpretentious. Lorraine (a blogging friend of a friend) was closer to the crowd segment than we were and also has a great review of the concert, plus some great pictures of the band that are much better than ours.
What’s curious, and sort of what I hate about attending great concerts, is that afterward I have this great admiration–that occasionally turns into obsession–for the band. Yes, I familiarized myself with Coldplay’s songs before the concert, and I liked the new album just fine, but honestly, I consented to go because Chris really wanted to. After the concert, Lyndsey gave me the idea of making a playlist in iTunes of the concert set list, and I listened to it over and over. I finally committed the titles of all those songs to my memory, and I read everything I could find about the band. In sum, I need to go to another Coldplay concert because now I truly appreciate them. Argh!
Here’s a link to my Picasa album of all our “good” pictures (with some contributions from the Fros). Photographing a concert is hard with all the fluctuating light levels, so here is the best of what we took.
Coincidentally, I went to high school with a Chris Martin. Not the Chris Martin, but I think it’s funny.
OK. So maybe this did turn out like a normal review. Guess I got caught up with writing about it long enough to forget that my nose won’t stop running. Anyway, the moral of this story is: if you have a chance to see Coldplay, TAKE IT!
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog review (it’s hardly been weekly, as I promised), but it’s time to get back on the horse. This week, I’m reviewing BloggingFingers.com, a blog with “ideas, tips, creativity, and money-making strategies for blogs.” Bueno. That’s exactly what we need! BF is owned and authored by Matt Jones of Cambridge, England, (coincidently, not the Matt Jones with whom I went to high school). Let’s look a little closer:
Posting Frequency
About once a week
# of Subscribers
382
Emphasis
BloggingFingers is mostly focused on tools and techniques for making money with a blog; however, several posts are directed to beginner bloggers or are about social networking and increasing traffic.
My Thoughts
Weird name. Maybe it’s a British thing, but I don’t get how fingers and blogging relate. Because I’m a bit finicky about my grammar, a handful of grammatical and mechanical errors distracted me from the content, but those can be overlooked. I’m not at all crazy about the design—there’s too much happening in the sidebars, and there are too many forms that request information from the reader.
All that said, blogging is ultimately about content, and for this reason, I’ll keep subscribing to it. The information BF presents is useful and practical, and the author has plenty of experience to draw from, which keeps the content fresh.
Have you checked out BloggingFingers.com? I want to know what you think about this up-and-coming blog!
This is the inaugural post for my new weekly series Blogs for Bloggers! I am always on the prowl for new blogging blogs, and once I find one I like, I want to share the wealth, so this BloggersGuide.net “column” will review a different blogging-related blog every Wednesday.
Blogsessive.com is this week’s blog for bloggers, and it’s the first international (i.e. non-American) blog up for review. It’s owner is Alex Cristache, who has worked nearly a decade in Romanian web development and who is obsessed with blogging; hence, Blogsessive.
Been Around Since March 2008
Posting Frequency About once a day (during the work week)
# of Subscribers 120
Emphasis Blogsessive is primarily focused around blogging tips and tools and places lots of emphasis on maximizing WordPress as a blogging platform. This blog has also sponsored a handful of contests and has an ongoing series about domain names for bloggers.
My Thoughts
Blogsessive certainly has potential. Alex writes well, and the topics are consistently helpful, though they’re a bit shallow. Not shallow in a valley girl kind of way, shallow in that they just hit the surface of the topic. Alex could beef up his posts with more examples and more detail, and this would make the content even more valuable to the blogging community.
The design at Blogsessive has potential, too. Actually, it’s pretty decent, but a few small things concern me. For me, there’s too little letter spacing between characters in the headings; either adding extra spacing or normalizing the font weight could lighten the design. I’m also concerned with the material above the fold. Upon initially loading the page, there’s very little content until I scroll down to the next screen. Alex could stand to cut all that header material in half (or even by 3/4), and that would really tighten up the page. Additionally, Alex has a lot of material in the sidebar, including many links to his favorite web sites and blogs; instead of all those links, I would encourage Alex to have a page dedicated to all those links.
Have you checked out Blogsessive.com? I want to know what you think about this up-and-coming blog!
I’ve finished the first book on my required reading list for 2010: What Difference Do It Make? by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent! I read and reviewed Same Kind of Different as Me, the first book by Ron and Denver in 2007, and just before Christmas, their publishers contacted me about receiving a complimentary copy of their new book. My first blogging swag! How cool is that?
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