social media madness: sucked deeper into the blogosphere

I guess forcing myself to blog does have it's upside. I'm finding myself sucked into the "scene" as it were. I suppose I always do have something to say and if my real friends are sick of listening to me, at least I can write it all out.

At any rate, three very cool things happened today:

1. I got a comment in response to my Daily Inspiration post from yesterday about the Gitmo lawyer and Fr. John Dear. It was from an employee of Loyola Press offering me a copy of Fr. Dear's autobiography A Persistent Peace. I am very excited to read this book and report back via this blog. It was also great to correspond with a woman who has similar views on social justice as I do. She also sent me a link to Fr. Dear's advent homily, which emphasizes simplifying your life this holiday season and not getting sucked into consumerism.
   
   
2. I received a shoutout from a local blogger who I highly respect, James Rowen of The Political Environment. I was happy to post the props regarding the United Way/Stuff the Bus successes. There's always so much negative about this town, we really need to celebrate the positives. Incidentally, Mr. Rowen posts a lot of fantastic in-depth stories on the issues of transit and planning the greater Milwaukee-area (as does Urban Milwaukee). Unfortunately I do have to keep my opinions checked on some of those. I love my day job way too much to risk it by running my mouth in the blogosphere.
   
   
3. After ready the story that inspired today's Daily Inspiration post about the holiday dinner, I emailed another one of my favorite bloggers, Melissa at Operation NICE. She agreed that it would be a perfect tale for her blog and hopefully it will be up there soon to spread to her wide audience. I found that blog through the Broadway Paper blog earlier this year and it's one of those links I've been glad to have. For those who know me (and I'm sure those who read this blog somewhat often), I am a fairly cynical person, but Operation NICE really chips away at the heart of stone. Almost as much as baby animals.

I know the shoutout drove a lot of solid traffic to this blog. As always I really appreciate your feedback in the comments section. Either start a dialogue or let me know what Wisconsin stuff you'd like to hear my opinion on.