Blog Tryouts Results Show

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look inside the minutiae. 

I'm a big fan of blogroll (Don't know what blogroll click here to find out.) At present, I have 8 different blogrolls on my home page,  and we all know how painful that can be. The most recent one is called Blog Tryouts.  I just started it earlier this year.

Blog Tryouts is exactly what it sounds like. I chose 8 blogs that I was not currently linking anywhere else in my blog and placed them in their own section.  Some of these blogs like The Comics Curmudgeon and We Are That Family have been on my blogrolls before and I have decided to have another look at them.  Others like Chicken Spaghetti and Laws of Gravity are blogs I have recently discovered and placing them on a  blogroll for the first time. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have been enjoying going to these blogs on multiple occasions and have added 3 to some of my more permanent blogrolls.  

Laws of Gravity as I mentioned last month on my Januarying post is a blogger/substitute teacher and I have really enjoyed her tales from the front lines of education.  I have added her blog to my Education and Special Needs Blog blogroll.  Her most recent post is called Oblivious.

Rambling Ever on may well be my favorite of the blogs from blog tryouts. I feel like I have found kindred spirits in the group of writers who contribute to this blog.  They have a very good 5 part series called The Forgotten History of Christian Rock with 5 Spotify playlists to help you not forget.  I really enjoyed their recent post called I Love My Boring Church as our family has been on a church search for some time now and the post served as something of an oasis for me. I wasn't sure which blogroll to place Rambling Ever On, it could certainly go into my Bloggy Blogs category as they spray all to fields, but for now, anyway, I'm including them in the News, Faith, Opinion, and Insight Blogs section.

The Third Blog that earned a place on my blogroll team is Reflections On The Teche. I've seen this blog on several occasions through Poetry Friday.  This week's Poetry Friday is at  My Juicy Little Universe by the way.  Feel free to stop in. I really like the poetry at Reflections On The Teche. I've even signed up to take part in the kiddie-lit progressive poem she's spearheading in  April. One feature she does on her blog is This Photo Wants To Be a Poem. I particularly liked the submission called Sunrise Field. I have placed Reflections On The Teche in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs section.  

I will keep all 8 blogs up in The Blog Tryouts section until the end of March.  In May I plan to link blogs that I discovered or rediscovered during April's A to Z challenge.  

Remembrances of a Lost Friend

 I graduated High School in 1983 at the age of 18.  In 1987 when many of my classmates were completing their undergraduate studies I moved to Macomb, Illinois, and began attending Western Illinois University.  I saw those years as a time to learn but also an opportunity to be involved in ministry.  I came onto campus and became part of the leadership team of the local ragtag chapter of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  

Like most campuses, ours had a new student fair each year.  I helped man the I-V table. I met many people that day and many signed up for more information.  One of those people was an 18-year-old freshman by the name of Frank Charles Rusan the fifth.  I don't remember if I met him at the table or later when I visited him in his dorm room.  Frank didn't introduce himself as Frank Charles Rusan V, I just remember his middle name because it is also my middle name. 

Frank started attending a Bible Study I was leading.  He and I became good friends during his time at WIU.  Before I met Frank I knew very few people who lived in Chicago even though I grew up in the Chicago suburbs.  Frank was the first black person I really got to know.  Frank and I both had a vision of breaking the color barriers of our campus's Christian ministries.  In his freshman and sophomore year, I visited the campus black church with him on many occasions.  The services were much longer and had so many different types of worship than I was used to.  I remember singing songs like Jesus is on The Mainline (Tell Him What You Want.).

I remember one day I was in Frank's room after a bible study and I don't remember exactly what he said but the gist was "Dave,  you love people, you treat them with respect.  You could be black.  He meant it and I took it as a compliment.  It reminds me now of something that happened a few years after that during my first year as a missionary in Russia.  I was in the home of my friend Vladimir.  His dad who was also named Vladimir was sitting with us at a table drinking tea with family.  Vladimir's dad commented something along the line that with me sitting at the table with them enjoying fellowship with them it was like he had another son.  Both those comments reminded me that even though blacks and whites and Russians and Americans have a history of mistrusting each other, true Christian fellowship transcends race and nationality.  

Frank graduated from Western in 1991 and we lost track of each other soon after that.  From time to time over the years I would think about him and our times together and wonder what he was up to.  Every few years I would google him without any success.  

Yesterday, my wife, oldest daughter, and I  were volunteering for Compassion International by handing out sponsorship packets at an event in Rockford, Illinois.  The Event was the 2023 Soar Awards a gospel music awards show.  We were about the only white people in attendance.  

When you volunteer at an event like this, there is a lot of downtime between responsibilities.  During those times I listened to the music emanating from the stage, and started thinking about Frank.  I thought this might be the exact kind of place I could run into him.  Perhaps in an act of symmetry, he would be manning one of the many ministry tables set up inside the atrium of the theatre.  I decided to google Frank and see if I had success locating him this time.  

This beautiful tribute page is what alerted me that Frank had died almost 5 years ago.  Frank is the third (as for as I know) of friends who I met during my first year at WIU who have passed away. I wish I had reconnected with Frank before he died but I don't feel any deep regret.   Reading all the tributes I realized that Frank had continued to be the same type of person he had been in college, faithful, available, teachable, and a person who radiated Christ.  There are many testimonies of him caring for people, praying for them, and being genuinely concerned for others.  This is the Frank I knew and loved and it brings me solace to know he continued to walk in that way for another quarter of a century before passing on to eternity with God in Heaven.

A to Z Challenge 2023 Theme Reveal: A Month At The Movies

 I have some good news.  I just saved 15% by switching my insurance to Geico.  No, my news is better than that.  The A to Z Challenge is coming to a blog near you and I am very excited.  The event begins in earnest on April 1st, but on March 12th you can participate in the theme reveal at A to Z challenge.com.

 I love the A to Z challenge. I don't think it's any great stretch to say that I am still blogging in no small part due to the A to Z challenge. From 2012 to 2021 I participated nine times in the challenge.  Over that time I have entered 5 of my blogs in the challenge sometimes as many as 3 in the same year. 

I love almost everything about the challenge.  I love reading other people's blogs and commenting on them. I love how so many of the blogs I currently have on my blogroll have participated at one time or another in the challenge.   I love creating a theme and disciplining myself to post 26 times on that theme. I especially love putting things in alphabetical order.  I think I'll put that last sentence in alphabetical order: "alphabetical, especially I in love order. putting things" (Yes, I put the punctuation marks in alphabetical order as well. Who Wouldn't?)

Every year until they make the big announcement  I get a little concerned that maybe they won't be doing the challenge this year.  I'm a weird dude, 49% optimist, 49% pessimist, and 2% milk in a glass half full. But I have been blogging for a long time and I've seen lots of blogs and blogging events be lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry Clementine over the years.  So when I heard the A to Z challenge was coming back and better than ever I was stoked.  

Since I am so jacked that the Challenge is on, I decided to announce my theme a little early this year. My 2023 Theme is A Month at the Movies.  

2692117 © Laura Domenica Cantisani | Dreamstime.com 

 I have been posting a lot lately about films.  I am spending this year revamping my 100 favorite film list.  I am trying to watch 12 new movies to me this year and post about them here.  I have been thinking about a simple movie theme for the challenge for the past few years.  I say a simple theme because in the past, I have participated in the challenge at more than one blog at a time, and last year I had 3 themes in one challenge: home runs, limericks, and wordle starting guesses.  Compared to those 26 movie reviews will be a walk in the park, but not A Walk to Remember, as my A film will be Arsenic and Old Lace.  

The A to Z Theme for 2023 is resiliency.  With each film I choose, I will incorporate how that film demonstrates resiliency in one way or another. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I am super excited about this year's A to Z challenge.   I'm so excited that I've already thought of my theme for the 2024 challenge.   Since I'm already in full reveal mode, and since my ADHD will probably interfere with remembering it for next year I'll just reveal my 2024 A to Z challenge theme now. The 2024 theme will be Narnian characters and creatures from A to Z.  My working title is Narnia: From Aslan to Zardeenah.  

Before I get too far ahead of myself here are the important dates for this year's challenge.

March 12th - March 18th:             Theme Reveal

April 1st:                                          The Letter A

April3rd -April 8th:                         Letters B-G

April 10th -15th:                               Letters H-M

April 17th -22nd:                              Letters N-S

April 24th-April30th:                       Letters Letters T-Z

May 1st - May 6th:                            A to Z Reflections

May 15th:                                            A to Z Road Trip Begins

 Check out   A to Z challenge.com for more information I may have missed. Click here for more on the Theme Reveal. Click here to see who has signed up so far.

February Stats

 1/6th of the year is in the books.  It's now time again for a look at last month's posting trends.  A look at my blog archive shows I published 10 months last month and 9 in January.  While that is technically true, I actually wrote 11 posts last month and backdated this one as it was supposed to originally appear on January 23rd. The breakdown goes like this 10 posts in February,  A total of 11 posts from December to January, and 7 posts from September to November.  The 10 in February is quite a bit higher than the 6-month monthly average of 4.67 and is 2 more than February '22 and 4 more than February 21.  

At the end of January, I was on pace to get 96 posts this year.  The 19 posts in 2 months have me slated at this pace to get 114 posts by year's end.

The Catered Affair

 

As I mentioned in my Januarying post, I am trying to watch 12 new movies to me this year and review them here on my blog.  I am trying to find movies made at different times, 8 during my lifetime and 4 before I was born.  The Catered Affair fits into the latter designation being made in 1956. The National Board of Review said it was one of the best 10 films of 1956 and awarded Debbie Reynolds Best Supporting Actor. 

TCM

I enjoyed this movie and would give it probably 3 out of 5 stars. The movie features Ernest Borgnine and Bette Davis as a New York City Cab Driver and his wife who are advised at the film's start of the upcoming marriage of their daughter portrayed by Debbie Reynolds.  The film then depicts the changes that take place in the relationships of family and friends in preparation for the marriage.  One theme that is explored in the film is the differing perspectives, challenges, and expectations that are experienced in both weddings and marriages.  This movie is similar in at least 4 ways to one of my top 10 favorite films, Marty.  1) It takes place in New York City in the 1950s and New York itself functions like a character, 2) It stars Ernest Borgnine. 3)  It was written by Paddy Chayefsky and 4) originally aired on television before being adapted for film. 

One thing I like about this movie is that it takes a "warts and all" view of both family and marriage but still remains hopeful about the institutions.  One thing I disliked about the movie was that it was no Marty.  Marty is a film that I can watch again, and again and never grow tired of. This movie lacks the endearing charm and cosmopolitan wit of Marty. This doesn't make it a bad film, just not a top-10 one. I think people who like Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine or Debbie Reynolds will like this movie.  I also feel people who watch this movie will end up liking Davis, Borgnine, and Reynolds as they all do good work here.