{Originally published on Writing Roads}

I’m not sure if there is such a thing, but I’ve decided that today is make up a new word day. Honestly, as a writer, every day is make up a new word day. I feel totally fine with bending, twisting and manipulating the English language (and some others as well). My newest word is ’sarcasticate’ and it means: to make something sarcastic. It’s a verb. I like it so much, I’m writing a whole post about it, and here it is.

Sometimes, I wish I could write code or do computer programming. First of all, it would make me smarter and more able. Secondly, it would help me with an issue that I keep running into.

You see, I can make things bold. I can italicize. I can underline. I can even strikethrough. But, I can’t sarcasticate.

Even using those smiley face emotive icons, there isn’t one that means sarcastic. They have sad, mad, kissey, sick - all of those are easily visible states of being. But sarcastic? Not so much.

It seems that sarcastication, while writing on the internet must actually be conveyed through words. There is no help. And, while I do think it’s safe to say that I have the sarcasticating gene, I also think that the reader has to have that gene too…and some brain power. Not to mention the fact that you must have actual reality downpat before you can get the sarcasm. So, conceivably, my sarcastications could be missed by some readers because of their own ineptitude or because I might be having an off day.

Without the sound of my voice, I rely on my written words…because I’m a writer…that’s the point, I get it. And, I’m thrilled that while code and program can’t currently help me sarcasticate, I can mold my meaning with my words (those that are real and those that I’ve composed).

{Originally published at Connect with Your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology}

A new book has come out about Wikipedia, How Wikipedia Works: And how you can be a part of it. I plan to write a review of the book during the coming week, however I thought that in the meantime I would share some important facts about Wikipedia that everyone should know, but might not be aware of.

1. All content in Wikipedia is completely free for anyone to use. There are no copyright restrictions.
2. Not all information is included in Wikipedia. It must be encyclopediac, neutral and verifiable.
3. The mission of Wikipedia is to make the whole world’s information available in all languages.
4. Wikipedia is just one form of a Wiki. The acronym Wiki stands for What I Know Is. A Wiki is a web page that anybody can edit (although passwords are needed in private wikis ).
5. Every page on Wikipedia has its complete history saved of every version from its first edit on.
6. Anybody can edit articles on Wikipedia.
7. As of August 2008, there were over 2,500,000 articles on Wikipedia.
8. There is no censorship on Wikipedia as long as an article meets the guidelines in number 2 above to be encyclopediac, neutral and verifiable. Therefore, there will be articles with language and material not appropriate for all.
9. There are 3 types of hyperlinks used in Wikipedia - a) external-links to pages out of Wikipedia b) internal-links to other articles within Wikipedia c) redlinks-links to articles within Wikipedia that don’t exist yet.
10. Every article has a discussion and talk page for the editors to discuss it.
11. If you see an article in Wikipedia with a yellowbar and a broom chasing dust, that means that this article needs a lot of cleaning up. This is an article ripe for edit.
12. The name for members of the Wikipedia community is Wikipedians.

{Originally published on Bird on a Wire}

This is not a plea for comments for THIS blog. I talk about my chronic commentitis here. I use my blog only as a reference point. Instead, this is a reminder that comments are like chocolate, really good if they’re rich and have some substance to them. And that if you can’t comment, you can still help out the bloggers that you like. A big shout out to Mommie Pie and Bloghernot 2008. I’ll be participating in a big way!

At the time of this blog posting, over 543 people receive this blog in their RSS reader (or via email).
Another 2,000 - 4,000 come to the site directly, depending on the day and the post. Add those up, and let’s say that around 5,000 people come here daily to read my stuff. (Hey, don’t laugh, I’m pretty jazzed about those numbers.)

If 1% of you commented, that’d be 50. (I’m bad at math. Did I do that right?) The average post on here gets a respectable 10 or so comments, but that’s about 1/3 of 1% then, of the folks who get a copy of each post. Ok, enough of the math class stuff.

This got me thinking about the other great blogs that I love.

I read several hundred blog posts a day. I comment on maybe five or six, if there is something I feel compelled to say. So I’m in there with you. I’m not commenting much, either. Does that make us bad ? Not really. If I’m able to leave a decent and thoughtful comment, I know that the other blogger will appreciate it. Sometimes, I even get a nice little email from them saying so. Comment Relish is a great little Word Press plug in that sends an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before.