Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Remember to play nice


Wasn't that the last thing your mother always told you as you ran out the back door to play with friends? It's what my mother always told me. She darn well expected me to do it, and I darn well knew the consequences if I didn't.

The Playfriends appointed me "Playground Monitor" so I could keep folks in line. Uh, I think it has to do with the fact I'm old enough to be their mother.

Occasionally I put on the "Mommy Hat" with the Playfriends but it's usually about something like making sure you get your mammogram or having a will to protect yourselves and your children. I haven't had to do any monitoring since the Writing Playground's inception. Everyone, including all our wonderful commenters, have played real nice.

I wish I could say the same for certain folks in celebrity-dom. Between the fight for a certain blonde's embalmed body, the head-shaving antics and revolving-door rehab attendance of a not-so-hot-anymore pop star and the recent naughty photos of an American Idol contestant, there's been an awful lot of not-so-nice playing going on. People are being hurt as a result. Parents are embarrassed. Children are affected. The public is disillusioned. Simon's going to be devastated and somebody's going to be in Randy's dawg house.

There seems to be a lot of Too Stupid To Live Syndrome going around. Haven't these folks learned that America soon tires of their antics and the courts don't like frivolous lawsuits? Did no one learn anything from the Miss America who lost her crown over photos taken years before? Hello!

I also see posts on websites and blogs that come back to bite the poster in the backside. When we began the Playground, I wrote some authors I knew and asked for suggestions on blogging. The one piece of stand-out advice I received was this: "If you wouldn't want it to be on the front page of the New York Times, don't put it on your blog."


The blogosphere is bigger than the New York Times. It is out there for the world to see.

THE WHOLE WORLD.

They don't call it the world wide web for nothing.




And the whole world, well almost, has visited the Playground.

Look at all the places our visitors live. They're all over North America. The dot that obliterates Hawaii is from one of our RWA chapter's newest members who moved alllllllllllll the way from the Aloha state to Alabama. We've had visitors from Central and South America, there's nice representation from Europe, a few dots in Africa and the Middle East, folks in India, the Orient and Down Under. And way up there in the north-central part of Eurasia is a dot that may or may not be Kazakhstan. Borat maybe?

We thank you all for visiting and hope you'll visit again and often. We love having a full playground. We also like having toys on the playground, and look at our new toy!

Because my mother also told me to share my toys, one lucky commenter today will receive one of these spiffy Writing Playground ballpoint pens.

Tell us a little bit about your part of the world.

9 comments:

Katherine Bone said...

Today, the world within is a mighty frightening place.

Kathy

Meljprincess said...

There are no pens in my world. *g*

I live in Newport, RI. Mansions and snobby rich people.

Kira Sinclair - AKA Instigator said...

The pens look great!

My world is a bit chaotic at the moment. But it's going to get wonderful very soon when we leave for the beach in about 2 weeks. I just hope it's warmer there than it's been here.

Instigator

robynl said...

In my world young kids are being destructive to others' property, adults(?) are gossiping and rumors are running rampid as usual. The weather is dull today and chilly with a few snowflakes once in awhile.

Angel said...

I got vomited on for the second time in a row in my world. Fun, fun! Is it ever going to end?!?!

At least the Internet is finally working. I haven't had email or internet all day.

Playground Monitor said...

Oh Angel. Not a fun world you're in.

I got to sort of re-visit a part of the world where we used to live. From 1976 to 1980 we lived in Frankfurt, Germany and my husband worked with the American Consulate there. I L-O-V-E German food. On Tuesdays and Wednesday the Officers' Club on the Army base has what they call the Soldatenstube, which literally translates to "Soldier Parlor." But it's the days when they serve German food in the restaurant. So today I met the DH for lunch and we had Wiener Schnitzel, red cabbage and panfried potatoes. Mmmmm, mmmmm, good!

PM

Kira Sinclair - AKA Instigator said...

Well, it's actually our board of director's meeting, it just happens to be at the beach. And since we're a family owned company everyone there just happens to be family. :-)

Instigator

Andrea Laurence AKA Smarty Pants said...

My day is going verrrrryyyy slllooowwwlllyy. I'm never going home at this rate...

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog from a link on Romancingtheblog. Cool blog and website!

My part of the world is beginning to warm up a little and I sure hope spring is around the corner. I'm tired of cold weather and dreary days.

Neat pen too!

Ashli