A few days ago, Hilly, freshly posting blog posts on her new online digs, asked many of us to submit a phrase or wish for her post for Dave’s birthday. Here’s what I said:

• “The only way to complete the ultimate experience of attending a Depeche Mode concert is to have Dave there with you. Happy Birthday, Dave and thanks for making Dave Lake City 3 the best so far.”

Which is totally true. And here’s your proof:

All of us are happy because Dave is there

See, I only speak the truth.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE

* I might be off by a few years

Happy Birthday, Hilly

Good thing she was 21 at Avitable’s party…

Two guest posts in one week? A new record for me.

Check it out over at It’s Me Penelope

I think he looks a lot better since he’s gone on a diet and off the smack

As I’ve posted before, I’m a big Howard Stern fan and have been for about 15 years. For over 7 years now, Artie Lange has been a cast member of the Howard Stern show, in the chair previously filled by Jackie Martling. The stories he tells on the radio are funny and his book is a compilation of the same and other stories. Plus, I like these kinds of books that tell a good story about someone’s life.

Artie Lange’s “Too Fat To Fish” is the book that I am going to read in 30 days [or less].

A Second Book

I’ve read some good books that were recommended by friends

As a bonus, once I’ve finsihed reading Artie’s book, I have taken a suggestion from commenter breakaway9 [known in real life as Kris] and will read “The Bookseller of Kabul” by Asne Seierstad. It sounds like a very good story about a woman who mingled in with the women of Afghanistan, telling how life really is in the Middle East.

In 30 Days

At the end of the first 30 days, I will write up a book report on “Too Fat To Fish” and give my readers a run down of how it was and if it’s worth passing on the suggestion to someone else. Stay tuned.

I’m a person that likes to be challenged. Not in a fight or any physical altercation, but more to expand my mind and keep myself doing creative tasks.

In my reading of the blogs on my feed reader, I came across a post by Nilsa, updating her readers on the progress of her lifestyle challenges. Towards the end of that post, she mentioned that she was going to be reading at least one magazine article or one chapter a day from a book. She also asked her readers to join her in a 30-day challenge of their own.

So I left a comment telling her that I would join her. Not even five minutes after leaving my comment, I got an email from her asking me what my challenge was going to be.

Thinking about this, I decided that I too needed to read more. I have a stack of books that I’ve bought that have either barely been started or haven’t even had the cover cracked on. My 30-day challenge is to complete a book – not just a chapter a day, but read an entire book [preferably something with 30 chapters or less]. And not only will I read a book, I’m going to do a book report [blog post style] on it at the end of the 30 days. It’s been years since I’ve had to do a book report, so this should be a challenge on top of a challenge.

But Wait, There’s More….

Ok, so reading a book is a challenge to me [time wise, smart asses]. Some of you read books all the time. My wife can read one in a single weekend. I can hear some of you saying, “Hey… what about another challenge..” Ok. I’ll do another challenge. But it’s going to require a separate blog post. Early next week, watch for a post detailing my other challenge.

For now, it’s time to pick a book and get ready for some literary enjoyment.

So clever is he that he’s gone and done an entire week of blog posts that are remakes of other bloggers. He’s calling it:

So far, he’s done Kapgar (Kevin), Hellohahanarf (Becky), All of the Becky’s and Rebecca, Down With Pants and yours truly.

If you’ve not gone over to his blog, go check out all of the fun. You might have to do a double take on what blog you are really reading.

Original Blogs

For comparison, here’s the links to the original blogs Shiny had plagiarized so far:

Kapgar

Midnight Cliff (Becky)

Out of my Tree (Bec)

Girl Scout Dropout (Becky)

READING AT A 78TH GRADE LEVEL (Becky)

Down With Pants (Brandon)

How’s that for a slew of shout-outs.

UPDATE

Since the publication of this post, Shiny has plagiarized several more blogs.

Miss Britt (Britt)

Avitable (Adam)

Snackie’s World (Hilly)

Blogography (Dave2)

Whall.org (Wayne)

A Pile Of Dog Bones (NYCWD)

Poppy Cedes (Poppy)

Did I leave any other shout outs off the list above? Shiny did a lot of plagiarizing.