Congrats to Paula for being named in "Counting Down the Top 10 Most Inspirational Triond Authors of 2008". Paula has been writing a number of articles on Triond, Helium and Bukisa recently and it is nice to see her recognized.

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Recently there have been several conversations going on about Triond. Initially, there were a few random emails and a lot of us are just catching bits and pieces on the edge of the conversations. As a result, I think a lot of Triond writers were rather baffled by the whole thing. With several Triond writers at our house, we had various levels of confusion and I found that one of us would get a message about something and the others would not. It has been rather chaotic.

To try to get everyone together, someone opened a chat room at Chatzy (http://www.chatzy.com/328797960464). Unfortunately chat rooms work best when you have several people there at once, and with people from around the world writing for Triond, it is often difficult for people to find a time to log in and find people on-line to talk to. The other problem with chat rooms is that they do not organize the messages very well.

The solution seems to be a forum, so I have created new public forum for Triond at “http://www.writerforums.thebentleys.ca/forum/triond”. This forum is not officially linked to Triond in any way and they are in no way responsible for it (or visa versa). This forum will provide a place for authors to discuss issues related to writing for Triond including help, concerns and even a place to talk about ways to improve Triond. Please keep in mind that since this is not a Triond site, they may or may not listen to suggestions (but it would also be in their best interests to listen).

The only rules are of course the standard ones:

 

Funny Hospital Signs Hospitals generally try to be professional, useful, and sometimes informative. When this fails, they sometimes end up being funny or just plain creepy. Here are a few amusing examples.

Not Your Traditional Christmas Trees: 15 Trees That Will Make You Scratch Your Head Not everyone has or wants the traditional tree that the term Christmas tree brings to mind. Check out some of these alternatives to the regular standard trees. They don't all scream Christmas to me but they're definitely different!

Adventurous Eating: Weird Menus From Around the World No one wants to eat meat loaf every single night for dinner, but some of these restaurant menus take adventurous to a whole new level. Check out some of the strange and wacky menu items listed here.

Vintage Ads Show How Not to Raise Kids Oh, the good old days. When nursing moms were supposed to drink beer, television was good for kids, smoking wasn't bad, and cocaine was legal. What the heck were they thinking?

The Wonderfully Wacky World of Personal Ads Take 2
Back by popular demand. People all over looking for love in all the wrong places in different ways.

Everyday Art: Dramatic Doors That Beg to Be Walked Through

Sometimes it seems like we're walking through life in a daze. Even ordinary objects can liven things up a bit with creativity. Doors are a metaphor for chance, opportunity, and change. They are both the first and last things that a visitor sees. They can be boring or, with some work, they can be beautiful.

That Crazy Claus: 13 Wacky Santas You Don't Want Coming Down Your Chimney

We all grow up loving Santa Claus, but sometimes, the season brings out some of the odder things in life. Here are a few of the odder Santa Claus pictures that I have come across.

Strange Comments From the Weird World of Online Writing
The more articles I put out there, the more I realize how much I like getting comments on my work. It lets you know what people are thinking, good or bad. They can offer inspiration or criticism to help you improve your work. But lately, I've been getting an awful lot of very weird comments. I hope this article doesn't encourage certain commenters. I just had to get this article idea off of my mind.