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Free blog community at Thoughts.com

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I was asked to do a write up of Thoughts.com blogs – a 100% free online blog community.

Thoughts.com was given an appropriate name since it was created as a place for people to share their thoughts. It has since developed into a community of bloggers from all over the world.

As free blog communities go there are a few features that you’ll find on Thoughts.com that you won’t find elsewhere.

Unlike other blogging communities members of Thoughts.com can share videos, photos, music files and podcasts. Registered members can even rate other members videos, podcasts, blog posts and photos. In fact, if a member wanted to be able to make posts in the community blog sections of the site they would need to have been rated by other members and have attained a rating of 4 in order to post. So participation and interaction with other members is obviously encouraged.

I realize that many of the people that read my gardening blog have websites or blogs of their own, but not all of you do. Perhaps Thoughts.com might be a site to explore since you can upload your own photos and videos for others to see. If you were to sign up for a free membership you could use your blog as a journal and make entries about your plants or gardening methods.

The best feature of the site is of course that you can upload so many different types of multimedia all in one site. Other blog related communities or for that matter even personal blogs often need to host their photos, videos and podcasts on a variety of sites and then embed code into their blogs or posts in order to show others what they’ve created. Since you can store all your multimedia files right on thoughts.com I’m sure it’s easier to use photos and videos in your posts or point others to these files without having to leave the site.

Another great feature of Thoughts.com is the fact that they reward their top members with a free trip each year. This year they’ll be taking five of their most active members to Las Vegas. It’s an all expenses paid retreat. You can read all about it on the site but the winners will stay in a 4 star Las Vegas resort, have three free dinners and two free shows awarded to them, as well as having round trip airfare from anywhere in the continental United States.

Now that sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I can’t think of any other blog community that does anything like that. The best part is that all you have to do to win is be one of the most active on the site which is easy enough to do if you are uploading photos and videos, having them rating by members and rating other members items as well.

Check out Thoughts.com if you’d like to start your own free blog and socialize with others. Don’t forget to visit the community forums while you are there.






Top quality espresso and coffee machines

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Do you enjoy coffee? Espresso? I do. Sometimes I think I live on coffee.

Like most people, I think my favorite coffee is the first one of the day. Sometimes, if it’s a nice day, I’ll take my coffee outside and sit at the patio table and admire my garden. Coffee and blooms, a perfect match.

If you enjoy coffee as much as I do you might be interested in visiting the website 1st in coffee.

1st in Coffee specializes in offering top quality espresso machines and coffee makers. There’s a wide selection of top of the line products. I’ve gazed longingly at many of the espresso machines that that are being sold at 1st in Coffee while in department stores. One day I will get get myself a nice espresso machine.

The website itself is very easy to navigate. The main page of the site lists all of the stores Super Specials. Just click on the image of an espresso machine, coffee maker, grinder or coffee product and you’ll be taken to a page that describes the product in detail.

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I’m actually impressed by how much information is listed for most of the espresso machines that I viewed. You’ll find a short summary of the products features, an itemized detailed description of the products features, and information about the products specifications – size, weight, how much power it uses and even warranty information.

All of the products sold by 1st in Coffee have some form of description, although not all contain as much detail as I described above. I did notice that some of the product descriptions even contained videos.

It’s easy to find whatever items for which you might be shopping. On the left side of the page you’ll find a menu that allows you to browse the stores items by product type or by brand name. The lower portion of the menu has listings for four brands of specialized coffee.

At the bottom of each page you’ll find buttons that you can click that will take you to top selling products, favorites and Best under $500. There’s also a button marked “We can Help” which takes you to a page that lists the companies phone number and email address.

1st in Coffee has a price match guarantee, a 30 day guarantee and for all but those in New Jersey there is not sales tax on purchases. In addition to these policies, 1st in Coffee also offers free shipping on all purchases over $50 within the lower 48 contiguous United States.

It’s obvious that the company has taken care to select the best products and to create a website that highlights their quality products nicely. When a company takes this much care in their presentation you know you’re in good hands.

Do you think Live Earth will make a difference?

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There’s an interesting conversation going on about the Live Earth concert at Go Smell the Flowers.

The blog author asks the question:

Live earth is kicking off around the world today with performance in all 7 continents with over 10,000 events promised globally. Will it really help? Are we too late or no need for concern?

There’s been quite a few replies to that post. Some people are being quite pessimistic stating that whatever we do now won’t make a difference and that the message of the concert won’t really get through to many people. Others are more optimistic stating the changes they’ve made in their own lives towards becoming more green and how every little bit will help.

What do you think?

Do you believe global warming exists?

Whether you believe in global warming or not, do you think that if we all made a few changes in our lives it might help the environment or that it might really be a better way to live?

Chris and I aren’t totally green, but we’ve made a lot of changes in our lives over the years toward living green.

Here’s just a few of the things that we do:

  1. Almost all of our lights are energy efficient, as are our appliances.
  2. We turn the heat down in the winter
  3. We live a few blocks from work so we walk to work
  4. Our car is a 4 cyl and because we live so close to work and many small shops we really only use our car once a week or so for short trips to get groceries etc.
  5. We have a few small trees in our yard
  6. Not all of our plants are drought resistant but many are so I don’t have to water a lot
  7. We grow many of our own veggies and fruit
  8. Our garden is organic
  9. What we do purchase in the grocery store is local whenever possible
  10. We don’t eat much meat
  11. We rarely eat processed foods,
  12. We recycle and use recycled products if they are available
  13. We dry many of our clothes on the line instead of using the dryer
  14. We bring our own reusable bags to the grocery store.
  15. We try to use eco-friendly products whenever possible ie no harsh cleaning chemicals etc.

Do you do any of these things? Perhaps you have some more ideas on how to live green for those who read this site?

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