Lines from Linda

Crossing the Finish Line

Whew! It's November 30, and I managed to post each and every day this month during the National Blog Posting Month challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't do as well at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

I changed gears mid-month and decided I wanted to self-syndicate my humor column, Overweight & Underorganized, before the end of the year, so I spent most of my time over the past few weeks polishing columns, designing the Web Site, writing a query letter, designing a logo, letterhead, and developing a database of editors I want to submit to. That's another "whew!" as I'm nearly finished with the prep work. Hopefully the first 100 submission packets will go in the mail Monday.

I've enjoyed this month of blog posts. On the days nothing major was happening in my life, I researched the date to see what sort of happenings had occurred and wrote about them. A ran across a lot of interesting information and picked one thing to post about each day. Of course, during the final days of the month, the Arkansas Razorbacks blessed me with tons of blog material. The head coach resigned, the basketball team emerged as a force to be reckoned with, and rumor has it that a new football coach has been agreed upon and that fans are to expect an announcement over the weekend. Sorry, Auburn!

Guest Blogger

Who's the guest blogger? Actually, it's me! I was invited by Mary Connealy, my fellow ACFWer, to post on "The Seekers," a blog about the road to publication that focuses on "writing, contests, publication and everything in between." They've invited several finalists in the 2007 ACFW Genesis Contest to write guest posts about their experience during the contest. You can read my entry HERE.

Well, the Razorbacks might not have a head football coach at the moment, but new hire John Pelphrey is proving himself as the new basketball Head Hog. Last night, Pel led his talented team to a nail-biting victory over Missouri. Although neither team is currently ranked, both have received votes each week, and if their success continues, they will likely take their place among the Top 25 soon. Go Hogs!

Razorbug Sighting

Well, not in person. I just saw the little beast on someone's blog, so I decided to put his pic on my own blog.

The Razorbug is a recruiting tool of the University of Arkansas. He travels around the country in order to attract qualified students to the school. Neither of my kids attend the U of A, but we're all Razorback fans.

Let the Search Begin…

With the resignation of Houston Nutt as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks football team, speculations are flying around the state as to who will be hired to fill the vacancy. I don't know much about the coaching realm, but I got busy and forgot to blog this morning, so I'm pretty much just posting this to stay on track for NaBloPoMo as I haven't missed any days so far and the month is almost over.

Too bad about my performance at NaNoWriMo...I sort of got side-tracked early on that project.

Head Hog Resigns

Love him or hate him, Houston Nutt has left the building. He announced his resignation in a press conference this evening, and defensive coordinator Reggie Herring has been named as interim head coach and will coach the Hogs at their upcoming bowl game.

No mention of where Nutt plans to go yet, although Baylor and Georgia Tech top the rumor mill. Incoming athletic director Jeff Long has been tasked with heading the search for a new coach.

WordPress Magazine Themes

I've been test driving a few magazine themes for WordPress in hopes of redesigning my main site. I'm currently using a Joomla! template on that site, but I really like WordPress. Since I have a variety of content on that site, I think a magazine-style theme would work well.

I purchased a couple of premium themes, Block Magazine (see screenshot) and Premium News. I also downloaded the free themes Mimbo and WP-Polaroid.

I'm still trying to figure out how they work but I haven't had much time to go through the how-to information. Maybe this week. I have several WordPress sites, so once I figure it out, I may use several of the themes. I'd like to use Block Magazine on this site. I think I like it the best, but so far my thumbnail images are too big, even though I've sized them to the 64X64 pixels required by the theme. Or at least I thought I did. I'm sure I've done something wrong. When you see the theme on this site or my main site change, then you'll know I figured out how to make it work.

The Catch Felt Around the NCAA

College football games are won and lost every week of the season, but few plays will have the league-wide impact of Razorback Matterral Richardson's end zone interception against top-ranked LSU yesterday. The triple overtime 50-48 upset dashed the Tigers' hope of playing for a national championship, placed BCS bowl planners in a tizzy, and sent Heisman ballot holders scrambling to re-compare junior running back Darren McFadden's stats against those of Heisman-hopeful Florida sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow.

November's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) is rounding into the final stretch, and coming up with interesting content day after day has been a challenge. But when Richardson crossed in front of Demetrius Byrd, LSU quarterback Matt Flynn's intended receiver, and picked off the pass, I turned to my kids and said, "I have something to blog about tomorrow."

During the game, McFadden rushed for 206 yards, bringing his single season rushing total to 1,725 yards. This surpassed his self-set school record of 1,647 in 2006, and bypassed Auburn's Bo Jackson (1982-85) on the SEC career rushing list, placing D-Mac in the number three spot. McFadden also stepped into the positions of quarterback and receiver yesterday, displaying his versatility and talent. But the point of his performance wasn't to prove his worth as a Heisman candidate--it was a lesson in enunciation. McFadden had heard LSU Coach Les Miles in a televised press conference repeatedly mispronounce Arkansas as AR-Kansas and said about LSU, "They weren't saying it right so I wanted to let them know it's ARKANSAS."

After yesterday, I think the entire country now knows how to say Arkansas.

Arkansas 50, LSU 48

The Razorbacks beat the number one team in the country today and will bring the boot home to Fayetteville. Darren McFadden gave Heisman Trophy voters something to think about this weekend, and the Hogs will likely get an invitation to the New Year's Day Cotton Bowl.

Go Hogs!

Battle of the Boot

So my "it could happen" scenario didn't play out the way I'd hoped a couple of weeks ago, and the Razorbacks won't be making a return trip to Georgia to play for the SEC championship. This year, it's LSU's turn to represent the Western Division in that game. But today, they host Arkansas, a rivalry that began back in 1901.

For years, the Arkansas/LSU match has taken place the day after Thanksgiving, and today, the "Battle for the Boot" will kickoff at about 1:30 p.m. Central. Each year, the winning team takes home the Golden Boot (pictured at left), a trophy molded from 24K gold that weights over 200 pounds and has an estimated value of over $10,000. If Arkansas wins today, I think it'll be worth more than that since LSU is currently ranked no. 1 in the nation.

Go Hogs!

Happy Thanksgiving!