Two interesting sites and the Watcher’s Council submissions

Some people do spring cleaning.  I do fall cleaning.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve cleaned out drawers, closets, and cupboards.  That was the easy part.

For the past couple of days, I’ve been cleaning out my Quicken program.  I am not a natural born accountant, and I’ve managed to make quite a mess of things.  Actually, the blame isn’t all mine.  Some of the mess started years ago, when I didn’t have primary responsibility for the accounting, but I worsened the mess, because I wasn’t paying attention to things outside my direct frame of reference.  All of which is to say that I’ve spent the last few days going through hundreds of financial documents dating back five years, and spent a lot of time on the phone with the banks.

There is some good news:  I haven’t lost any money.  I’ve just managed to assign it to the wrong places in Quicken.  The other good news is that my financial nose is clean:  there’s nothing hinky here that should worry me or my accountant.  It’s just not as tidy as it should be.  In retrospect, I would have done better to skip Elizabeth Warren’s law class and taken a basic bookkeeping class.  My life would have been easier.

So, that’s why I’m not blogging.  However, I came across two interesting sites that I wanted to share with you.  After that, I’ll introduce you to this week’s Watcher’s Council submissions.

Site 1 is a listing site called “Shared List.”  The internet and lists just seem to go together.  After all, computers make compiling and updating lists fairly easy.  I’ve been thinking about lists a lot, because I can get paid real money if I can create posts built around lists.  The only problem for me is that I’m not a natural list-maker.  I tend to have a more free form approach to ideas.  If I have a thesis, I can present it in organized, linear fashion, but I’m just not someone who goes around thinking “top five reasons for X” or “top ten best things about Y.”  A site that encourages list making fascinates me, because I might be able to hone my skills there, or at least get ideas about what kinds of things interest people.

Site 2 is a new site called “PlaceGuides.”  The theory behind place guides is that traditional maps are quite limiting.  They show geography, street names, and things of general and generic interest to all people.  Thus, a map will designate the site of a theater, park, university, restaurant, etc.  What a map won’t do is show that this is the park where you kissed your first boyfriend, or that here is the theater where the Tubes first performed.  PlaceGuides allows individuals to take a map template one that shows geography and street names, and to layer over it their memories, or their interests.  For example, if you’re a Chinese food aficionado, you could create a PlaceGuide listing all of your favorite Chinese restaurants in the Sunset district.  More than that, you could include pictures, music, videos, and your own personal reviews.  I tried it out and, while I was initially a little leery of it, I really got into the act, and had a wonderful time strolling down memory lane.  Then, once you’ve got your PlaceGuide set up, you can share it with friends, fellow hobbyists, students, etc.  It’s pretty cool.  Right now, PlaceGuides is beta, so it’s only got San Francisco neighborhoods, but you might want to keep an eye on it.

And now, the Watcher’s Council’s submissions for this week:

Council Submissions

• Joshuapundit–Shoot The Messenger – US State Dept Blasts CNN For Revealing Its Misrepresentations On Libya Attack
• The Noisy Room – Obama’s Hidden Bread Lines
• Simply Jews – Lying again, Ms Clinton?
• The Political Commentator – Obama: Wartime is the wrong time to be led by a metrosexual President!
• The Independent Sentinel – Obama’s Tax Plan From the Depths of Hell Will Impoverish the Middle Class
• The Mellow Jihadi – Kurds, Kurdish, and Kurdistan
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Boss Obama’s alternate reality
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Test of Governance
• The Glittering Eye –Curve Fitting
• Bookworm Room – Proof that Obama has lost his love for the little country of Israel
• VA Right! – Normalized Polls Show Romney up by 7 Points!
• Rhymes With Right – Where Obama Got It Wrong At The UN
• The Razor – The Obama You Don’t Know
• The Right Planet – Keep It Classy … Top State Department Official Emails Reporter to Tell Him to ‘F**k Off’
• Gay Patriot – Legacy media attempting to demoralize Republican voters?

Honorable Mentions

• Right Truth – Why does this keep happening to us?
• Ask Marion – Calling All Concerned Americans to Stand-Up
• The Pirates Cove – Obama Speaks At UN, Whines About Video And Stuff
• Against All Enemies – George Washington’s Farewell Address and Where We Are Today

Non-Council Submissions

• Mark Steyn – Bowing To The Mob submitted by Joshuapundit
• Sultan Knish –Muslim Multiculturalism and Western Post-Nationalism submitted by The Noisy Room
• The Texas Scribbler – Obama: the architect of American decline submitted by Simply Jews
• Boker Tov, Boulder –Ew, Jew Noise submitted by The Political Commentator
• Yid With Lid – Obama Calls Israeli Concern Over Iran “Noise” to Be Ignored Ahmadinejad Agrees submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Gunmart Blog –Remember those “Racist” Stand Your Ground Laws? submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Truth Before Dishonor – Binyamin Netanyahu: ‘Do you want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Pruden And Politics – Why the media spin on Nov. 6 is wrong submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Noahpinion – EconoTrolls: An Illustrated Bestiary submitted by The Glittering Eye
• National Review–A Woman of Parts submitted by Bookworm Room
• Breitbart.Com – Tech; Meet the New Left, Same As The Old Left submitted by VA Right!
• Big Lizards – Story Wars, Chapter Two submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Michael Totten –Terrorist Veto submitted by The Razor
• Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – Of films, riots and hatred I: Benedict XVI in Lebanon submitted by The Watcher (h/t, Dave at The Glittering Eye)
• Commentary – Peace Means Justice for Jewish Refugees submitted by The Watcher