It seems as if our family has moved into a rain forest.  Every since we moved to Johns Island, in May of this year, it has rained at least three times per week.  Today at 3 pm the bottom fell out of the sky here on Kiawah Island where I work and once again I got soaked.  Today  I am calling the blog roll up Water World Round Up in honor of all the rain and it appears that some of our bloggers are sharing pictures with water or talking about it.

The City of North Charleston is gearing up to participate in the  26th Annual National Night Out which will be held on August 4th from 6 pm to 9 pm in over 10,000 communities and military bases world wide.

At 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 4th, Mayor Keith Summey, along with Police Chief Jon Zumalt and Housing Authority Executive Director George Saldana, will join residents of the Horizon Village community to kick off a neighborhood cookout and crime prevention walk.

Johnson Hagood shares several portraits from the Tropical Light Blog which include some of the following.

• Waterfront Park, Charleston

Photo Courtesy of: Johnson Hagood of Tropical Light Blog

• Jessica
• Morris Island Lighthouse
• Charley’s
• Figure Study for Radcliffe Street
• Rooftops , Charleston
• Bachmann Seafood in Moonlight

The Newsless Courier gives us the Straight Story on New CCSD Buildings

Probably not everyone is as irritated as I am by paeans of praise to the Charleston County’s newest Taj Majal school buildings in the latest editions of the P & C. Even knowing that the funds for building them and those for daily operations are separate has not assuaged my nagging suspicion that, here in these multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art schools, children will still be left behind in reading skills.

Charleston’s Waterways Recognized by Outside Magazine:

As Charleston’s natural beauty becomes more and more recognized by the rest of the world, it is important for those of us who call this place home to maintain and even elevate our reputation by protecting what we have.  There is no argument against the fact that our waterways play an integral role in defining our charm, greatness and appeal as a city and as a region.  For this reason alone, we must continue to invest a considerable and substantial amount of our time, energy and resources into protecting and preserving our waterways.

Kittens On The Keyboard makes us all envious by sharing her activities on her day off.  Marvelous Monday indeed!!

I’ve taken a random week off from work. I have the worst problem: I have too many paid time off hours accumulated and am in constant danger of capping out so I’m forced to just take time off whenever possible. Horrors.

I’m turning the keyboard keys red because I bought a pound of fresh cherries this morning and now cannot stop eating them.

Nikki and Geoff are stopping off at the Yellowstone National Park and share this with us in the road less traveled:

Photo Courtesy of Nikki

As mentioned in my previous post, I am working my way across the US with my friend Geoff and we are now in Yellowstone National Park. There really are not words to describe how unbelievable every inch of the park is, so I will not even begin to try. Even pictures cannot capture the captivating and often bizarre formations within the borders of this place.  Here is a photo they shared with us on the blog as well.  Very nice indeed.

School starts soon. The sales and signs are popping up all over town. Every school year I had a desire that this would be the year I was organized. Isn’t there something inspirational about a blank notebook and fresh paper? Well, I hate to break it to you and myself, but it has never happened. I can be flighty, but this year I have some accountability. It’s not just an in my head “I’ll do better.” This year it’s public and there are others joining the journey. (If you are on Twitter, you’re welcome to join us. Just do a search for #backontrack to see what we’re up to).

Kimberly Riggs shares with us the “cash only system” at Simple Cents:

So this is what it’s like to abstain from plastic altogether: cluttered, confusing and wow – you should see the stink eye I get in check out lines while counting out my bills…

I know it’s a prudent course of action only to spend what cash one has in hand. My husband and I plan in the future to take on more responsibilities, pay off the house and invest wisely in the pursuit of earlier retirement.

Hello and thanks for visiting the Lowcountry bloggers Roundup for Wednesday July 22, 2009. Let’s get to it shall we?

Dave Moulton’s Bike Blog has an article about the dangers of cell phone usage and how the US quashed reports on how dangerous it is.

Seacoast Church West Campus blogged about the following items

· Response time

· First Wednesday at Folly Beach

· Parents & students meeting

· Middle schools students

· High school students

· Childrens services

· Womens ministry

Mike over at the BlueION blog talks about his daughter going to an Apple Camp.

“This morning my daughter headed off for day two of Apple Camp. I’m a bit jealous, actually. For three days the kids (recommended ages of 8-12) get hands-on lessons on movie production, music mixing, photo essays and multimedia presentations. And it’s free.

A pretty smart program, as she came home from her first session begging for a Apple computer for her birthday. Hooked already”

Robert over at BlueION Blog talks about the new Microsoft search engine BING and trying to compete with Google.

“The interface is a nice balance between Google’s anti-design and Yahoo’s cluttered home page. I like the more visual experience (shot of the day) as well as the tighter presentation of results, especially the format for image results. Bing was also the first engine to index tweets”

Lisa over at The Phillips Quads blog shares her experiences while going to the doctor the other day. They are preparing to bring FOUR children into this world.

The folks over at Shadow of Diogenes writes about “Some Things That Make Me Shake My Head”

Wheatblog writes an article called Way down in the hole about a book they are reading.

The Column Reloaded writes “Facebook turns five; will the child live?”

Janetlee over at Kittens on the Keyboard took a cool picture of Momma Raccoon and the rest of her babies in her yard. They are so adorable….

The OldController shared a video of The Hyper Chihuahua from YouTube.

The Politics of Jamie Sanderson Blog wrote an article “To be a steelworker in Georgetown”

Francis X Archibald writes Leave gun laws to the states

Heather at Home Ec 101 writes about Broccoli Almond Salad.

James Moffit’s usual haunt is James and Katy Moffitt.

Hello  Lowcountry Bloggers !!

In an effort to “give back” to the blogger community that I am a part of I am going to schedule myself to try and do the roundups every other Wednesday for the next month or two and see how it goes.  Doing so exposes me to the blogger community all around me and helps to broaden my horizons and point of view.  I am hopeful that some of you who have not given this a whirl and pitched in to help will be inspired by my pathetic attempts at doing this.  You may read this and go “heck if he can do this then so can I!!”  The truth of the matter is you CAN.  Now that I have your attention and hopefully your curiosity peaked let’s get to it.

Reported in The Workbench , Reloaded:

Being a “propellerhead”  myself I was surprised to see this blog about the announcement from Google.

In a sudden, if not unexpected, announcement this morning, Google said it would release an open-source operating system based on its Chrome browser. The OS will be free, geared (at first) toward netbooks, and focused on “speed, simplicity, and security.”

‘Free’ wants to be big by Xark -  here are some snippets from Xark as he expounds on the future of social media and small content producers.

·       So these are your choices: Invest lots of money in Big and you take a risk for the possibility of getting rich. Invest a little money in Small and you take a risk for the possibility of… well, what, exactly?

Caanan introduces the Lowcountry WordPress Package

I’ve had several people ask me about package pricing lately, so I’ve decided to create some packages. First up is a WordPress package. WordPress organizes your content and applies a consistent theme to all your pages. A big plus is that you’ll be able to edit content without having to know anything about code!

Volunteer Sundae Sunday by Jessica Morrell

Join us for a high-powered, fun filled, outdoor event geared toward elementary kids (kindergarten – 6 grade) and their families, full of the craziest, messiest, wettest games imaginable! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday July 14-16 from 6-8:00 pm at Stono Park Elementary School.  Invite your friends and neighbors. For more information contact Kay Sumner at kaysumner@seacoast.org.

I believe I could have named this Roundup “Seacoast Offerings” but since I did not here are some of the things they are offering and blogged about today.

·        Response time- an opportunity to receive prayer or light a candle during the message as you feel led.

·        Middle school students -  student-led worship in the RED ROOM during Sunday morning services from 10:15 am to 12:00 pm

·        High School Students – Wednesday nights from 7 pm to 8 pm

·        Childrens services -  Sunday morning services at 8:30 am, 10:15 am and 12 noon

·        Womens ministry – join Seacoast Women for a 4 week study on the book Pursuing MORE of Jesus.

The Dublin Dog Foundation

The Dublin Dog Foundation is preparing to raffle off a bike to raise money to provide a service dog to an individual with special needs. It’s not just any bike.  After 120 hours of finger-smashin’, spark-flyin’, grease-slingin’ labor, this one-of-a-kind bike and sidecar is yours for the winning! That’s right, one lucky guy or gal and their special sidekick will soon own this bike!

Josh at the Young & Free Blog wrote about the following topics

Aaaaanyway, our new poll is about exercise! How many days in a week do you actually go out for a jog, or hit the gym, or go swimming, or whatever it is you do for athletic stimulation? I’ve been doing a pretty crazy workout regimen myself for the past couple of weeks.

South Carolina Federal Credit Union’s Chief Operations Officer, Troy Hall, has actually already answered this question brilliantly with a blog post of his own on South Carolina Federal’s corporate blog, www.simplecentsblog.org! Just click the link to find out more about the debit vs. credit or “Pin vs. Pen” debate.

Closed Fire Engine’s Create Massive Life Safety Issues

In the course of protecting a city, fire department’s develop a plan to meet the “MINIMUM” standards on fire protection. Engines and ladders are placed strategically based on their capabilities and response areas. A reduction creates a domino effect across the entire system.

Jared W. Smith invites us to the next SMC Charleston meeting July 14th at 6:30 pm

Hot on the heels of the first Social Media Club Charleston event, which was a smashing success (footage still to follow; progress slowed by a problem with my primary computer) comes our next meeting, a networking event at the downtown Taco Boy location (another appropriate location given that tacos are emerging as the next memefood on Twitter) next Tuesday, July 14 at 6:30. (RSVP on Facebook for the event.) Come ready to introduce yourself, network with other professionals, and get to know more of your fellow social media compatriots and share your hopes and goals for what you want out of your social media presence. The Facebook RSVPs are very promising for a good turnout. Hope to see you there.

Elizabeth: Outta My Way is an article by Davidfarrow’s Weblog which talks about carriage ride companies in the city of Charleston and some of the pros and cons of them being here and available to tourists .

Geoff is on the road again

It felt good to hit the road again on Monday after a little downtime in Charleston over the weekend. Unfortunately I’m still using my somewhat-crappy backup video camera, but at least I now have a new companion to operate it! Hello J.J. who’s joined me for this week through until we get to New Orleans, and so we recorded some stuff of what we’ve been up to.

The quality is not the best, and I’m not entirely happy with the production, but given the circumstance I’m just glad to be able to put something out.

Matrix size, image resolution and count density

One of the things I do with the radiology residents is do some practical labs with them, where they get to see some of the things they’ve been learning about in the classes we give them before they take the first part of their board certification exams.

A few months ago, it was a demonstration on the gamma cameras in nuclear medicine, where I attempted to show them how changing the image matrix size affects the image.

Blueyes  says “ I Think I Got Beat Up”

Monday I took an all core class at the Y which was essentially a butt kicking ab work out. Last night I did a chisel class which had some abs in it as well on top of what I did on Monday. No big deal really except my back was hurting a little bit like it always does because of my lower lumbar issues. Well, last night I bit the bullet and washed the doggies because I just could not let them stand itching another minute as it was driving me insane.

Compost In My Shoe -  writes a story about “Little Reminders”.  It is so short I do not want to give you a teaser, you will need to go read it for yourself.  Just click on the link.  J

The Franko Blog - How effective is the lock on your front door? Well, this is scary, you might not want to watch this video…

Murphy24p – Tells us about a book his boss wrote called “wasabi gospel”

What I appreciate most is Shawn’s view of things that we all deal with; he goes right at the topics without sugar-coating anything. If you are looking to examine your own faith from a very realistic point of view, this is a book you should read.

Heather says – “It’s peach season in the south”

Wes and Mary Margaret

We did get a quick weekend trip to Charleston in recently (Wes was in a golf tourney – and we met him there). This was MM and Charlottes first trip back since October! We were able to finally meet some of the babies that were born since we left. Charlotte’s godparents, Liz and Barton recently had a beautiful little girl, Eliza, whom we got to love and hug on all weekend. Charlotte loved it and was so sweet with her. I think has sparked her recent love of baby-dolls!

Murphy24p

From the moment my daughter was born, I knew that this time would come… now that the moment is upon me, I’m dealing with so many emotions. I’m sure that this will be the first of several posts that will mostly be me waxing emotional about this chapter change in my family

Cfada’s Blog

The Sylvan Gallery presents “Dan McCaw Visiting Artist”  for a one weeks opening with Palette and Palate Stroll produced by the Charleston Fine Art Dealers’ Association on July 17 from 5:30 to 7:30. Tickets are available for $30 online at www.cfada.com by calling 843-819-8006.

The dog days of summer are upon us and both the heat and number of weddings has increased.

Leigh Webber Photography

If there were ever a bride who was proud of her bling, it was Jamie! I got to know Jamie and her mom a couple of months back when I took her bridal portrait here at the studio at 10 Storehouse Row. They could not be more fun and genuine people to work with.

Apparently Becky and is a dog lover and so are wel….

Wedding Bliss

Tootsie: the new dog that John and Brandy found by the side of the road a few weeks ago. Toots is well behaved, but was just spayed 3 days prior, which means she is still a little on edge as far as temperament goes since she is probably still a bit sore. She licked off the glue they use the first day out of the hospital, so she has to have one of those cone things on her head whenever she is alone so that she doesn’t do it again

Elizabeth at Davidfarrow’s Weblog

The point is, the word ‘stimulus’ evokes an image of pushing something along at a fairly rapid pace. What if we all (including ‘the powers that be’) stuck with the original title of the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?” Now I know it doesn’t sound as sexy as a “Stimulus Plan,” but let’s be honest here; this Act is not something that anyone told us would happen at any sort of rapid pace

I never thought about it but I like “digital mob” by Xark…

Why I joined the Digital Mob by Xark

To me, though, my intention made the ethics simple. I wasn’t opening a dialog or expressing a thought. I was throwing a rock. And no matter how evolved we become, it’s important to remember that a rock through a window remains an effective way of communicating to the people inside that the people outside are displeased.

Having two teenagers at home and four children all together this one hits home for me.

Youthinthecorner.com - Praying for the team

I am lifting up my volunteers right now.  Tonight is a big night.  Not because there is any special event planned but because there will be hundreds of teenagers here needing to hear the Gospel and before they get to the program to hear about Jesus, they will hear about Jesus from the actions of our volunteers.  Over a game of pool, basketball or just hanging around.  They will hear about Jesus from how we treat them, by our smiles, by our actions and reactions.

I have always wondered where my mind wandered off to. Now I know where it is, off renting a room. J

Celestial Tomato – Fridaville “Where my imagination rents a room”

On the way to my car this morning, I picked one of my new homegrown tomatoes and put it on the seat next to me. When I got to work, I decided to let it ripen a bit more on the dashboard, but when I locked the car I noticed the sky was reflected in the car window and the tomato seemed to be floating in midair

Kristin shares her thoughts about her top ten Blog pet peeves

ChasRunner

Thank you so much for everyone’s thoughts these past few weeks. I think last Thursday’s post was the most commented one I have had so far. It was really interesting to see what everyone was annoyed with by blogs. Here is the rundown:

• Bloggers who don’t share the love & only communicate with their cliques
• Blogs with a ton of grammatical errors
• Blogs with weird font and backgrounds that make it hard to read
• Blogs that you have to be a member of to comment
• Shortened Reader feeds (such as in Google Reader) where the post is only a tease and you have to click through to read the rest
• Bloggers who refuse to follow anyone on Twitter
• Blogs that are only about giveaways
• Confirmation words on comment boxes
• Long posts and wordy posts with no pictures (hmm, maybe I should add a pic here, this one is getting long…Ok, that’s better

JonathanPearson.net - Passionately pursuing God and His call

Over the last few days, it’s safe to say that I have faced some spiritual battles. Couple those spiritual battles with the fact that I have been literally worn out, and it’s made for a long couple of days.Through this short little time, God has given me a new idea of living in and appreciating His love. See, it’s one thing to know that God loves us, it’s another thing to live in that love day in.

“How fast is your propeller turning?” Visit us at Chiefpropellerhead or Light Our World or James & Katy Moffitt