I’m happy to see that a favorite post of mine from this blog was included in the We’re Not Kids Anymore blog carnival. The blog carnival is about health, diet, fitness and nutrition. The post is about the need for patients to advocate for themselves. I really think that this is important so I’m glad that the thought is being spread around through the carnival.

The post is in good company with a lot of other great articles on health topics. Some of those topics were:

• Tips for working out at work
• Pregnancy nutrition tips
• Neuroplatsicity
• Foods for weight loss
• Being vegetarian
• Solutions for panic attacks
• Side effects of fish oil
• Various psych tests
• Issues around control
• Exercise for kids
• The costs of exercise and health care
• General weight loss tips
• Interesting and easy exercise tips

And for even more happy reading, you can check out the links on the posts about 50 top weight loss blogs and the top 50 surgeon bloggers. If you’re moer of a visual person, check out the movie trailer for Food Inc.

Tags: blog carnival, diary of a smart chick, health, patient safety

It’s been awhile since I participated in a blog carnival but I saw a good one that I wanted to be a part of. It’s the Social Networking Tips and Tricks blog carnival. The post I included was a post on how to streamline social networking to increase productivity in the office which I wrote for the productivity blog over at Cyclope Series.

Other posts of interest in this carnival were on related topics including:

• Small business social media questions
• Twitter stuff like getting targeted followers
• Bum marketing (an interesting topic)
• Making online beats
• Dumb businesses that did well

Lots of good social media information there. Happy reading!

Tags: blog carnival, blogging, blogs, links, Social Networking

It’s been awhile since I contributed one of my blog posts to a blog carnival. I love blog carnivals but sometimes it’s hard to make the time to submit posts to them since there are so many other things to be done in terms of web writing work and writing promotion.

However, a post of mine is finally featured in a new blog carnival. My thoughts here on how to be a smart shopper were included recently in the Fabulous Festival which is all about fashion, beauty and shopping. My post was in the shopping category. Other posts in this category were about vintage shopping and buying socks for men. There were also several posts on dresses in this category including wedding dresses, prom dresses and celebrity dresses.

Posts that fell specifically into the fashion category were on a wide range of topics. These topics included military jackets, vintage lingerie, bustiers, pajamas, hats, mending your own clothes and making clothing donations. There were also book reviews and interviews. In the personal style and beauty categories are posts on jumpsuits, recycled fashion, acrylic nails, shoes, spring fashions, big hair, mineral makeup, skin care (including wrinkle prevention) and the man purse.

Happy reading!

Tags: arts, blog carnival, blogs, fabulous festival, Fashion, kathryn vercillo, style

One of the posts that I wrote about in the not too distant past on this blog was about serving drinks as a career. There are a lot of pros and cons to being a bartender but it’s definitely one job choice for a lot of people. Employment is a big issues for a lot of people right now and it’s discussed intelligently through the many different articles submitted to the Career and Internships blog carnival where my own post was featured.

The other articles that were included in this carnival were on different jobs, careers and job issues. These topics included job interview tricks and tips, looking for and finding a new job using today’s technology, working after retirement, working for love vs. money and the issue of boring employment. All quite important topics for the working world today I think.

What other topics do you wish would have been covered here? It seems that we’re talking a lot about how to get or keep jobs in today’s recession but are there other employment issues that are also pressing which aren’t being covered by your favorite blogs? Tell me, I’d love to know!

Tags: best blogs, blog carnival, blog roundup, blogging, blogs, Careers, diary of a smart chick, education, employment, information, kathryn vercillo, work

I write a lot about blog carnivals here because I participate in them regularly and also because I think that they are a great way to easily find links to new blogs on topics that are of interest to you. Usually I don’t write about my contributions to freelance writing blog carnivals on this blog because I post that information on my blog about writing, Real Words, instead.

However, I’m choosing to include one of those here because the blog carnival is a smart blog carnival called Cerebral Barbed Wire which covers a wide range of different topics like I do here on Diary of a Smart Chick. one of those topics is freelance writing which is where my post on 10 places to look for freelance writing jobs was included. The other post in this section was on Digg Tools.

The other topics covered in this blog carnival were:

• Business and Personal Finance (particularly on penny stocks and remarkability)
• The technology of solar power
• Food
• Health and wellness – including overcoming fear

Interesting range of topics here!

Tags: best blogs, blog carnival, blogs, business, freelance, freelance writing, kathryn vercillo, real words, writing

Anyone who is interested in yoga, meditation and general wellness should make it a point to check out the many different articles that were recently submitted to the Roundup of Yoga, Meditation and Personal Development blog carnival. There was a lot of useful information provided there!

My own post was on the many benefits of yoga was included in this carnival. Of course it was in the yoga section along with posts on bikram yoga, face yoga, yoga for beginners and the internal strength built by yoga. Also in the yoga section were two chakra-based posts on the root chakra and the heart chakra.

Another topic covered very well in this blog carnival is the topic of meditation and spiritual growth. This includes posts on the zen of clearing your mind, the law of attraction, consciousness and mysticism.

Additional posts in this blog carnival ran the gamut of topics including happiness, hypnosis, making the most of life through gratitude, forgiveness and optimism, making good eating choices (like papaya), your subconscious mind, having children, addictive drugs, anorexia, creativity and life goals.

Which of these posts made you feel most at peace?

Tags: best blogs, blog carnival, blogs, health, kathryn vercillo, personal development, spirituality, wellness, yoga

I love blog carnivals of all kinds but, being a SmartChick and all, the ones that I love the most are the ones that are all about smart topics. That’s why I was really happy to contribute to the Brain Blogging blog carnival recently.

The post that I contributed was an article on Eidetic Memory. Also known as photographic memory, this is something that most people know only the basics about and most people don’t realize that it’s actually a pretty controversial topic. Some say that it doesn’t exist at all while others hold those said to have a photographic memory up on a bit of a pedestal. It’s an interesting topic idea.

Mine wasn’t the only interesting article here, though, not by far. The other posts in this blog carnival were on the topics of empathy, moral turpitude, learning, the brains of killers, antidepressants, teen cutting, ADHD, self-esteem, humor, sleepwalking through life and increasing your brain power.

Happy smart reading!

Tags: blog carnival, blogs, brains, eidetic memory, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, photographic memory, smart

San Francisco was represented in a couple of different posts in the most recent edition of the Carnival of Cities blog carnival. One of those posts was my post on the city’s creative scene and the other was more of a general travel post about San Francisco. One of our neighbors to the south, San Diego, was also represented with a post about the Balboa Park museums there which I can say from experience are very cool indeed.

There were several other posts related to different spots throughout the United States this time around although those were the only ones from California. The others came from New York (both Queens and Manhattan), Baltimore, Austin and Pensacola.

There weren’t too many non-US posts this time around which is kind of rare and sad to see. The ones that are there are worth checking out though. They’re on Melbourne, Goa and India. It’ll be interesting to see what’s in the carnival next month, won’t it?

Tags: blog carnival, carnival of cities, kathryn vercillo, San Francisco, Travel, travel blogs, travel writing

One of the funnest blog carnivals that I’ve been a part of recently was a blog carnival called Make It From Scratch which, as the name suggests, consists entirely of posts about things that you can make yourself. A number of these posts were recipes for things that you can cook, including my recipe for vegetarian bigos.

Other recipes that can be found through the links at this blog carnival include recipes for almond milk, peanut butter balls, pasta carbonara, fruit tarts, tiramisu, pizza, pecan tassies, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and even sauteed gourds and Irish potato candies. In addition to these recipes there were some other food and kitchen tips on things like dicing onions and canning.

Food isn’t all that you can make from scratch though. Other cool posts in this carnival were about kitty litter, fabric softener, paper flowers, cork mud mats, recycled Easter baskets and even how to make a chicken waterer. Don’t they all just make you want to go and make something?! That’s what I’m about to go do …

Tags: bigos, blog carnival recipe, cooking, diy, hub pages, kathryn vercillo, make it from scratch

My health and diet post about yoga being so much more than just a physical thing has been included in the stress subject section of the Total Mind and Body Fitness blog carnival. Other articles on stress that were included were about rush hour traffic stress, destressing at work and finding satisfaction in life.

This blog carnival isn’t just about stress relief, though. It’s about all aspects of fitness and wellness. Other posts included:

• Posts on the brain including those related to memory, positive thoughts and brain plasticity.
• Tips, warnings and hints for dating online as well as offline and dealing with issues like cheating
• Exercise posts on yoga, the body (especially abs) and using ellipticals
• Beauty posts on cosmetic fillers and hair oil
• Food and nutrition posts on alcohol, pizza, health shakes, cholesterol and tea
• Financial wellness information on online banking, business and volunteerism
• Some seemingly random posts on Montana, PhotoLab, gold investing and remarkability

Wellness is a really important topic to read about so hopefully you’ll find some helpful information from the other articles that were included in this blog carnival!

Tags: blog carnival, blogcarnival, exercise, fitness, health, kathryn vercillo, life, stress, yoga