Blogging is not just about personal journals and random rants. It’s become a viable commercial venture, as well – whether the purists like it or not. I get a lot of great information from commercial blogs and bloggish web sites. Now there’s an awards program to recognize business blog, and you can nominate your favorites now:

Welcome to the 2005 Business Blogging Awards, presented by InsideBlogging! As business blogging has taken off in 2004, and looks to explode in 2005, we figured it was time to inaugurate some fun awards to reward all those hard-working business bloggers. After all, we can’t have the online diarists have all the fun, can we?

Here’s how the awards will work:

• We’re accepting nominations until January 24. Anyone can nominate any blogger in any category
• Additionally, feel free to suggest new categories if there’s one you’d like to see
• To nominate a blogger, simply place a comment in the nominations thread. Feel free to nominate as many blogs as you’d like (including your own) for as many categories as you’d like
• A panel of judges will whittle the nominee list for each category down to a minimum of three and a maximum of six nominees
• Voting will open at 12:00pm PST on January 26. You’ll be able to vote once per day per category
• Voting will continue until 12:00pm PST on February 9
• Winners will be announced on February 10. Winners will be contacted by email

(via ensight)

Woke up this morning, fashionably late of course, jumped in the shower, got out, looked outside, and WOW – huge snowflakes filling the air! Size of half-dollars, I swear.

(Yes, I did get dressed before I went outside to take these pictures. Even out here in the middle of nowhere we have decency limits, ya know?)

So – now there’s Big-Ass-Honkin’ Snow to cover my Big-Ass-Honkin’ Truck, which I just realized I have not posted any pictures of, despite my promises to many. Here you go, all wide-angle-lens-style:

Of course, it’s pretty much melted now. But this might just be a sign of things to come. Maybe it will be like last year?? Oy…

Are you maybe a little reluctant to give money to the tsunami relief effort because you’re afraid it won’t be used wisely, or because the place you give to might turn out to be illegitimate? We all know that when terrible things happen, there are leaches who will do anything try to get your money fraudulently in the name of a good cause, and for some it makes it very difficult to know if you’re contributing to help people in need, or filling the pockets of some scam artist.

Fear no more:

Read the list of charities already researched as legitimate (not at all inclusive list, but a very good one to work from) at charitynavigator.org, and you’ll find a large number of places you can give that have been vetted and proven to be legitimate by that organization.

One very trusted organization that happens to be headquartered where I live (Portland, Oregon) is Mercy Corps, and you can donate through them online. You can even specify that your money be used for Tsunami relief.

Nick Finck has just released a more finalized set of Visio Stencils for Information Architects. He says anyone can feel free to download use and tweak to their heart's content. He’ll be making updates to the files over time so check back every so often to see if there is a newer version out.

They work in Microsoft Office Visio 2003. Not older versions.

His IA stencils are in broken down into three types/files:

• Wireframe Stencil
• Sitemap Stencil
• Process Flow Stencil

Nice stuff – will be useful to have for work. Thanks Nick.

I used to go to practically every new movie that came out, when it was in the theaters, often on opening day. For some reason that just doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. At any rate, what this means is that there are lots of movies coming out on DVD right now that I have not seen.

So, this weekend, I have no less than six movies to distract me while I work on revising documents on the computer for work and generally trying to catch up. I have this cool home theater room that has also been neglected of late, and I need to put it back to good use, as long as I’m stuck at home healing.

• Dawn of the Dead (“Unrated” version – heard it was “awesome.” Of course, it was a bunch of 20–year-olds who told me that, but they’re usually right, and I remember previewing the original version way back in the 80’s at a pre-release screening in Denver. That version was gory and cool, albeit without the final soundtrack and stuff. Such is the way of pre-release market screening. Saw the Rocky movie with the Russian guy that day, too pre-release. It pretty much sucked.)
• Anchorman (heard it was pretty darn funny)
• Day After Tomorrow (heard it was pretty darn stupid (premise-wise), but the special effects look like they might be really 1337)
• Dodgeball (which I hear is freakin' hilarious)
• Spiderman 2 (I saw this one in the theaters, but it’s worth re-watching. Plus, see the LegoFilms version here)
• I-Robot (Wil Smith is cool, and this film isn’t, like, great – but it is pretty damn good and fun)

Don’t let questions over how much is the right amount to give stop you from donating what you can. For people who are uncomfortable knowing how much is the right amount to give and could use some help.

India Together has posted a web page that helps you decide how much to give based on your annual income (regardless of where you live or what currency you are paid in).

It’s really a good approach. Of course, if you can’t afford what they suggest, give $5 or $10 – even that is a great help.

See IndiaTogether.org if you are trying to decide how much to give. If you need a fast and safe place to donate, look no further than Amazon.com – fast, secure, easy and a great place to help. Or read the list of charities already researched as legitimate (not at all inclusive list but a good one to work from) at charitynavigator.org.