April 10th, 2008 — Uncategorized
The Gardener has been in exile from the garden. In fact, the Garden has been for sale for several months and, although a number of people have expressed interest, the right buyer has not yet come along. If and when the right person shows an interest in carrying on, there will be a sale.
Why?
The answer is very simple: The Garden participates in the October breast cancer awareness program, as described in the post below.
There have been more visitors to this site in relationship to that post than ever before in this site’s history.
That post generated more comments than any other post. Many folks took the time to leave a comment in support of the campaign to raise money for the American Cancer Society. In fact, comments are still being posted expressing support.
And yet . . . not a single person participated in the campaign. Not one. Not a single penny was raised.
Why? Well, I have lots of theories, none of which really matter.
The fact that so many people feigned interest and support, but completely failed to follow through, disappointed and discouraged me to the point that I decided to sell the site and quit blogging. In fact, it has taken me many months to muster the strength to sign on and write this post expressing my feelings.
We are by nature flawed and imperfect beings. But that not a single poster stepped up and put his/her money where his/her comment was by actually making a donation was too much for me. Just. too. much.
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October 6th, 2007 — Articles Trackposted to the Garden, Pink for October
Pink for October is in full swing. We did not need to transform the Garden, but wanted to participate, so we wracked our brains to come up with a unique way in which to get involved in helping fight cancer in all forms. And we have come up with a spectacular idea!
From time to time, we receive requests from bloggers and webmasters asking us to spotlight their site, most of which we have, until now, respectfully declined.
Now, however, we are encouraging you to ask that your site be in the spotlight.
Is there a catch? Of sorts.
You’ve see those cute little logos on many sites announcing that a review published there costs a specific dollar amount. For instance, John Chow charges a whopping $400 for a review and other sites fall in line behind him in terms of cost.
Now the Garden will put your site in its spotlight for a fee: $35.00 or more for a full post all about your blog and why our readers should pay your site a visit. For $25.00, we will include a discussion about your site in a recap post encouraging our readers to visit your site, along with no more than four other sites. (In other words, recaps or summary entries will discuss no more than five blogs per post. We will publish as many entries as necessary in order to include all participating sites.)
For $10.00, we will include your site, along with those of the folks who pay the amounts listed above, to a linked wall of sites that have participated in this promotion that will be mounted in the sidebar and remain there until the 2008 Pink for October campaign kicks off.
Before you begin hunting for a PayPal link, however, please note: The fees are not to be paid to the Garden.
You see, the Magical Rose Garden is offering something that, as far as we can tell, has never been done in the blogging world before:
Blog Spotlight Posts for the American Cancer Society.
That’s right. We are offering blog “reviews” for charity. A novel, unique and, we believe, revolutionary concept.
So from now until 11:59 p.m. (PDT) October 31, 2007, if you make a donation to the American Cancer Society in one of the amounts set forth above and then e-mail proof of your donation to thegardener@magicalrosegarden.com, you will not only be able to spend your money on a very worthy and tax-deductible cause, you will also earn some recognition for and, hopefully, traffic to your site via the Garden.
Simply click on this link to make your donation. You may place “no restriction” on your donation or target it to “cancer research” in general or, more specifically, breast, prostate, colorectal or lung cancer. You may make your donation in honor or memory of a loved one and the American Cancer Society will notify the individual(s) you specify of your generosity.
After you have made your donation, notify the Gardener in one of two ways: 1) Send a screenshot of the page displayed on the American Cancer Society’s site confirming your donation; or 2) forward the e-mail you receive from the American Cancer Society confirming your donation to the Gardener.
Upon receipt of confirmation of your donation, made any time between now and 11:59 p.m. (PST) October 31, 2007, the Gardener will then visit your site and publish a post spotlighting your site in conjunction with this fund-raising campaign.
Spread the word! Make a donation and submit your site!
The Gardener stands ready to visit blogs and write posts day and night between now and the end of October in order to help fund a cure for and prevention of cancer in all of its various forms.
If the members of the blogging community unite, we can make life a bit more like a beautiful Garden in which we can linger among friends. Thank you in advance for your participation in Pink for October and, more particularly, this fundraiser.
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September 23rd, 2007 — Articles Trackposted to the Garden, Pink for October
Well, here’s an announcement about a party that the Garden is already prepared for!
The Pink for October program asks websites to “go pink” for the month in order to encourage and support breast cancer awareness. In honor of the campaign, Natalie Joost has designed two free WordPress themes to make it easy for bloggers to transform their sites. Both are great-looking layouts and can be downloaded here. If you don’t want to change your theme but do want to adopt a pink color scheme, she is offering several choices.
Obviously, donations to the American Cancer Society and other charitable organizations working to prevent and cure breast cancer are encouraged.
But you can help in other ways and you don’t have to wait until October 1. Show your support now! Grab the pink ribbon displayed here or the badge in the sidebar. Download one of the many other badges and display it on your site now to help spread the word so that other folks can be ready to transform their sites at the stroke of midnight on October 1.
Matthew Oliphant is responsible for this great promotion. He explains that he got the idea from an “offhand” remark by a coworker. Read his kick-off post detailing several ways that you can get involved and contact him or his fellow organizers if you have ideas about other things you can do to help make this year’s campaign a huge success.
Last year, about 1,500 blogs went pink in October and the organizers would be thrilled if 15 times that number went pink this year.
So how about you? Are you going to make your site Pink for October? If so, make sure that you sign up!
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Nuke’s News & Views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, Stageleft, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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September 4th, 2007 — Articles Trackposted to the Garden, The Rising Blogger
The Rising Blogger is, like the Magical Rose Garden, a blog that spotlights other blogs. But its approach is different.
Instead of featuring blogs as a whole, the Rising Blogger focuses on a single post from each site that it features. And its proprietor, Judd Corizan, bestows upon the author a Rising Blogger Award that can be proudly displayed on his/her site. Judd offers readers the opportunity to nominate posts. And after a blogger has received the award, he asks them to “pay it forward” by nominating another writer for the honor. 
What impressed us about Judd’s efforts is the fact that genuinely appreciates good writing. He actively seeks out posts that contribute to the conversations taking place here in cyberspace each day by sharing a unique perspective, remembrance or experience that we can all relate to, learn from or enjoy a chuckle over.
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September 3rd, 2007 — Articles Trackposted to the Garden, Especially Heather
Heather, like WhyMommy, has cancer. Heather is blogging about it, too.
Fear not, ye who are cynical readers. The Garden is not going to be spotlighting only blogs maintained by folks with cancer.
However, after stumbling upon Heather’s blog, we felt it definitely deserved to be in the spotlight even though it follows our focus on WhyMommy’s battle.
Heather explains that she was diagnosed in April 2007 with a brain tumor: Anaplastic Oligoastrocytoma (mixed tumor. Surgeons removed 99.9% of the growth and she is presently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Two surgeons told her that the tumor was inoperable. But in testament yet again to the power of the Internet and the communities established in cyberspace, her readers raised more than $14,000 so that she could travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where a top neurosurgeon not only provided a different response, but operated immediately.
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July 28th, 2007 — Articles Trackposted to the Garden, Don't Take the Repeats, Team Whymommy, Toddler Planet, Whymommy
The Gardener has returned from a nice, long, relaxing vacation! Are you ready to read about some fabulous blogs and bloggers? The Gardener is ready to get back to work and bring them to you here in the Garden.
This morning, while surfing here and there, we discovered a post at Whirlwind entitled “It Could Save Your Life” with the tag line “Keep it going.”
Reading closer, we realized that the words there were actually written by WhyMommy who describes herself as a “scientist turned stay-at-home-mom, always looking for something fun and exciting to do with the kids.” Photos of her children grace the sidebar: “Widget was born August 2004; Little Bear in January 2007. Dad and the dog round out our busy house of boys. We laugh, we play, we build, and we learn.”
The day after learning that her mother-in-law had breast cancer, WhyMommy shared that after giving birth to her youngest this past January, she was unable to nurse on the right side.
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June 29th, 2007 — Fruit of the Spirit Friday, Heart of Wisdom Blog, Super Simple Spiritual Sunday
It’s a pretty unassuming site in terms of layout, colors and use of graphics. It certainly 
does not “scream at you” as the page loads.
However, the photo of the site owner, Robin, in the upper right corner caught our eye. She looks like she could be your next door neighbor — a pretty woman with a lovely smile and lively eyes. The photo appears to be a candid shot, not a retouched studio portrait (there are many of those on these types of sites) and there is something in that unassuming picture — perhaps her sparkling blue eyes? — that grabs you and makes you want to read a bit more. It is as though she is saying, “C’mon, read some posts. You know you want to.”
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June 7th, 2007 — Sting My Heart
Today is Thursday, so it is the perfect time to spotlight “Sting My Heart.”
Iris was born and raised in Germany, but lives in 
Arizona, which she describes as having two seasons: “Hot and hotter.” Her blog design is curious: An alien-looking creature is depicted as an animate pincushion. The title, “Sting My Heart,” apparently relates to the New Testament book of Ephesians 2:8-10, an excerpt from which, “saved by grace — through faith,” serves as her blog’s description. Make no mistake: Iris writes from a Christian viewpoint. Individual pages are devoted to describing what she believes and virtually all of the links displayed relate in one way or another to Christian topics.
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June 3rd, 2007 — Let's Change the World
With a title like that, how could we help but be intrigued by “The Woman Behind the Thoughts” and her little corner of the blogosphere?
Desiree began her blog in December 2006, with the stated purpose of “inspir[ing] ideas within each other that can lead to each of us helping to change the world and make this a better world.” She declares that she has no desire to “tell others how to live,” but, rather, seeks to “spread good will, hope and inspiration to whatever small part of the world I can manage to captivate as my audience.”
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May 14th, 2007 — Defining Spiritual Presence, Greenwoman
Since it is Monday, it is the perfect time to spotlight Defining Spiritual Presence , “[t]hat certain charisma that’s rooted in living out loud in the moment . . . or that growing sense that you might be leafing out in sunshine.”
We like to think of our beautiful rose garden as a calm, peaceful oasis where you can relax, unwind and collect your thoughts. If our garden provides that experience during the daytime, Greenwoman’s site is definitely where you want to head when the sun goes down.
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