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Darth Vader's voice, Yoda and the bar scene with all those crazy alien creatures - that's what I remember from the first Star Wars movie.

Another favorite of mine is that noise Chewbacca makes.

Then there was Jabba the Hutt. I love Jabba the Hutt!

I must admit, I've insulted people who were annoyed me by calling them Jabba the Hutt. No surprise, they no longer speak to me.

The movies that followed have all blended into one long movie in my mind.

The following infographic entitled, "19 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars" provides some interesting info bites that you might not know.

For instance, I don't think I thought very much about whether James Earl Jones was hidden under all those dark robes. Turns out, it took three different actors to portray Darth Vader.

Guess who else auditioned to be Han Solo! Can you imagine Nick Nolte or Al Pacino as Han Solo? Looks like Harrison Ford was the perfect choice.

Unfortunately, there is one burning question that hasn't been answered. BadMoJoe78 - a huge Star Wars fan - wants to know, "Does Star Wars Stink?"

We may never know...

Infographic cheerfully provided by [Source: Online PhD]

Cheryl Ragsdale aka thatgirlisfunny practices martial arts for fun and never misses a UFC event.  Have you visited TGIF Links yet? Come over to submit interesting links, vote on other people's blog post links and to leave chatty comments. Just like Digg only smaller...thatgirlisfunny's social bookmarking site offers you an opportunity to share your post links.

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Hello friends, bloggers, readers and passers by. Today, it is my very great pleasure to publish an interview with Kit Golson--artist, interior designer and author of the blog Chic Provence. Her blog is a showcase for "pragmatic elegance" (which she explains in our interview) and Provencal design. It was also recently chosen as one of San Francisco's Top 5 Design Blogs by San Francisco Magazine (which she'll also talk about in our interview). But rather than steal her thunder by telling you all about Kit and her fabulous blog, let's jump into the interview so she can tell you herself. Also, if after reading the interview and popping over to her blog to see what a Top 5 Design Blog is all about you have any questions for Kit, you can send her a shout on BlogCatalog or contact her via her blog.

In your Blogger profile, you say that you evoke the magic of Provence to create homes of pragmatic elegance? The term pragmatic elegance, could be interchanged with functional elegance, yes? So what do you see as the most important components of a functionally elegant design?

I believe that you should have nothing in your home that you don’t personally believe to be beautiful nor know to be useful. Think about a bedcover: you can have something you pick up at TJ Maxx that might be inexpensive and washable but won’t last long, or you could make the effort to choose a heavy, natural antique French linen that can also be laundered, but will stand the test of time for many generations, and will look good with virtually everything. That’s pragmatic elegance!

Why the draw to draw to French, and in particular Provençal design? What about this style moves you?

When I lived in Provence I was struck by how simply people lived their lives. I love the homes that are designed to last forever and shelter from the searing heat and wintry mistral winds. In Provence, people have always needed to be thrifty and careful with natural resources and use what they had. What I saw there was that they live a life of simplicity but with elegance and beauty...timeworn things handed down over generations, original artwork, lovely soft colors, linens that are carefully cared for. Nothing goes to waste, and nothing is taken for granted. At the same time, the Provencals have historically been drawn to the more refined tastes coming out of Paris, thus the rustic chic interpretation of classic designs such as Empire, Neoclassical, Louis XVI and Gustavian appears all over Provence. I love the way that all comes together with stone walls, tile floors, tadelakdt finishes, shuttered windows and comfort above all.

It seems to me that a cornerstone for many of the designs you share on your blog is simplicity. It would appear that part of the pragmatic elegance we referred to before lies in this simplicity of design. As a designer could you comment on the accuracy of this? Is simplicity an important part of the designs you like and the designs you create?

I think that simplicity endures. I like to think of rooms as a blank canvas; adding those things that are completely necessary such as seating and dining furniture, then filling in with lovely touches of an artistic nature...pillows, rugs, art, sculpture, simple window treatments. Keeping a room design simple makes it ultimately more livable, easier to clean and maintain, which is a goal of simple, chic living. My litmus test I guess is if a happy dog can run through the room chasing a ball without knocking over anything too precious or ruining upholstery, that’s simplicity!

To expand on the subject of simplicity, how hard is it as a designer not to get carried away and try to do to much with a design? Is this ever an issue for you personally or are you able to maintain what I'd call a "creative balance" when approaching a project?

I think it is quite easy to get carried away and we see that all the time. It’s little bit like jewelry; when you think you have enough, take off two pieces...then you will walk out the door elegantly dressed. A room needs to have breathing space and air and room for energy to flow. If it looks too crowded with objects, furnishings, even colors, start taking things out. Live with less. You’ll have less to care for, too! I am always editing rooms and taking out things I might have thought were essential before. Try it!

If you had to choose one person--an artist, designer, architect, etc.--to design your living space, who would it be and why?

Pablo Picasso. His home outside Antibes, La Californie, had wonderful old furniture and books everywhere, and his sculptures and paintings resting where they may. He painted at the dining room table, then moved things aside for dinner. He lived with open doors and windows and dogs and children coming and going all day long. I love that home he created without giving a thought to interior design...he just lived for art and love of family.

I see you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but you also have an apparent love of France and have several cities like Paris, St. Tropez, Cannes, and several others on your list of interests. Just wondering if there is one place, more than all the others, you truly love and that really speaks to you when you're there?

I love where I live..it’s beautiful and inspiring, between the mountains and the sea and near San Francisco. But in France, I love the Var region..we almost bought a bastide between the villages of Saint-Paul-en-Foret and Bagnols-en-Foret; when the seller backed out, I was heartbroken. I could have lived happily in that very house forever!

I read in your blog that your site was selected as one of the top 5 design blog in San Francisco by Diane Dorrans Saeks for San Francisco magazine. Being praised in print publications is a form of recognition that a lot of bloggers hope to get for their blog at some point. Can you tell me a little bit about what this meant to you, especially coming from such a highly experienced individual? Has this recognition had an effect on your blog or business overall?

The honor was a thrilling surprise! I have followed her incredible blog since she began in last year and to be praised by Diane Dorrans Saeks as a top design blog gave me a real boost in readership and interest. She is quite famous for her wonderful design books and her connection to the design industry insiders; she is also an incredible world traveler.

It will help build my platform for my design business but also for my upcoming Design Tours in France, which will be announced soon! I’ll be teaming up with another Francophile who adores shopping in France to take people on the dream design tour: Fabulous world class antiques show, auctions, ateliers and flea markets in Paris; and wonderful flea markets and ateliers in Provence and the Cote d’Azur. And of course, lots of shopping and incredible food as we go along. I think people are getting a little itchy to take a trip like this, and with the euro swinging our way, we are busy getting this together right now!

For more information about Kit Golson, her interior design services, or the amazing trips she is planning, just head over and check out her blog Chic Provence. There you'll be able to see some of the design work she has done, some of the work that inspires her, and a whole slew of pictures of some quite breath-taking designs. There is also a link on her blog to her blogger profile, which has contact details for anyone interested in contacting Kit about her blog or the work she does.

Determination

(Photo of Julie Moss crawling towards finish line of the Iron Man Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, 1982)

On yesterday's edition of Prophets of the Blogosphere TonyB, MacNimble and I had a lengthy discussion about SEO and how bloggers can optimize their sites for search engines. Some of what we discussed was SEO for Google, choosing the right SEO services or SEO consultant, and how ongoing developments in search engine algorithms, devices, and content types make SEO an ever-changing field.

I wanted to share just a few tips that I wrote down during our chat and share them with you. None of this is rocket science and you won't find any secret SEO formulas here, but they are some good solid tips that will help bloggers--especially newbies--get their blogs better optimized for search engines.

SEO for Blogs

1. Get quality backlinks. Links to your blog from other websites is possibly the best way to improve you organic ranking in Google. What bloggers can do for their own sites is to make sure that they are adding links to their blog from networks where they are active. For instance, make sure you are including a link to your blog from your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. This is the easiest way to get incoming links, but getting other websites to link to you is huge. And remember, the quality of the site linking to you does matter. You want high quality sites linking to you because they will have the biggest positive effect on your ranking.
2. Use the keyword tool. One question that a lot of new bloggers ask when they join us in BlogCatalog is, "How do I drive more traffic to my site?" There are a lot of ways to answer this question, but my favorite is: write about topics people are searching for. This isn't to say a health blogger should start writing about Lindsay Lohan's incarceration just because it's a hot topic, but bloggers can do a search to see what terms are being searched for most within their niche. So, how do you get your hands on this information? It's easy. Just go to the Google Keyword tool and plug in a search term that is related for your topic. For instance, if your write about yoga, then plug in the term yoga, or yoga mats, or yoga stretches. Then, do a search and you will get a list of results showing you what related terms people are searching for most across the web.Now you have the keyword information. What do you do with it? Well, you can write posts based on the terms people are searching for and improve your chances of your posts coming up in search results. You can also use these keywords in your post title, title tags, meta description, meta tags, headlines and links. Using popular keywords in these place can help search engines identify what your post is about and pull it up in searches.
3. Post regularly. It's true that posting regularly to a blog is one of the biggest challenges bloggers face. If you want to be successful and you want to drive traffic to your site, however, you need to post regularly. There are a couple of reasons this is important. First, readers who are interested in what you're writing will probably stop coming by if there is nothing new to read. Second, Google and other search engines will reward sites that have regularly updated content.
4. Run an analytics program on your site. The most commonly used is Google analytics. If you're serious about driving traffic to your site, then having a grasp of how people are finding you now, where they are coming from and what they are looking for will make it much easier to determine the best strategy for getting more people to find you and visit your site. Websites like Pear Analytics can also be very helpful. Pear Analytics allows you to plug your site's URL into a search field and in 30 seconds it gives you a full report on everything you're doing right and wrong on your site when it comes to SEO factors.
5. Have an XML sitemap. Some of you may be asking "What is an XML sitemap?" Well it is basically an index of all the pages on your website that tells search engines like Google what pages are present, which ones have recently changed and which ones the search engine should crawl. It simply makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. (*For those of you who are a bit more technical and want to go a step further, you could upload a robots.txt file to your site too.)

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Used to be, back in the olden days of yore, not too many people knew what a blog was. There are still some of them left, but for the most part people are aware of blogs. Companies use blogs regularly as part of their communication and branding strategies. Individuals use blogs for these very same reasons--in addition to sharing creative projects, journaling events, sharing photos, or...well just about anything you can think of. Because blogs have become such an easy and versatile way to share content online, the number of blogs out there has dramatically increased and more are being created every day.

There are a lot of benefits to the expansion of the blogosphere. Here are a few off the top of my head:

• It's easier to find information on niche subjects from niche experts.
• It's easier for us to learn about and connect with people from other cultures.
• More blogs means more independent reporting on world events.
• More blogs means more creative content for me to consume.
• More blogs means more discussion, and that is always a good thing in my book.

I'm sure if you gathered bloggers in a room, we could come up with hundreds of benefits to an expansion of the blogosphere. I am sure, however, that we could also come up with a list of negatives that arise from this expansion too. Let me throw out a couple of those for your consideration:

• More spam sites (splogs).
• More content theft.
• More competition among niche sites.
• Harder and harder to get noticed, get traffic, get readers.

It is this last point that, in my opinion, concerns bloggers (especially newer bloggers) the most. Creating a loyal online following has never been touted as easy, at least not by any credible slurce. And, with an ever expanding list of blogs for content consumers to choose from, it becomes harder and harder to get your blog noticed among the masses.

Here's where we come in!

It's no secret that submitting a blog to sites like BlogCatalog can be a good way to get traffic coming to a newer blog. Whether you submit your blog to a site like ours simply for some link juice or because you're looking for a place to connect with other bloggers and readers interested in what you're writing about, BlogCatalog and other similar sites can give new bloggers that boost they need to get rolling. Yet, nowadays successful blogging directories and blogging networks can have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of members. So, while back in the days when our servers were running on steam power, it used to be that simply joining a network was enough to give your site a boost, now bloggers have to ask themselves "how do I make my blog stand out within the network itself?"

First it is important to realize that each network or community is a different beast all together. What may be successful on BlogCatalog may not be successful on NetworkedBlogs or BlogLovin. So, it's important to spend some time in the communities you join, talk to other (successful) members and see what has worked for them, find out where the most action takes place on the site and spend time there. Basically, get to know the community and how to get the most out of the time you spend there. That being said here are a few tips for maximizing your time on BlogCatalog:

• Do: Stop by the discussion forum and introduce yourself to the community. A lot of loyal visitors are active in the discussions and will take time to stop by your blog if you offer up a discussion topic related to your content.
• Do NOT: Spam the discussions or our shoutboxes with links, link exchange offers, click fraud messages, etc. This is the thing we get the most complaints about and will automatically turn people off to your blog.
• Do: Visit other member's profiles and blogs, and leave insightful comments for them. Most of the time they will reciprocate.
• Do: Consider upgrading your blog to a sponsored listing so it will appear above other blogs in the directory.
• Do: Consider exposing your blog to get added exposure.

Now, let me explain two things. First of all BlogCatalog is currently undergoing an overhaul, and the look and functionality of the site will be changing (for the better...or should I say the best) in August 2010. So, these tips will have to be revised in a few weeks after we see how the changes affect the way the community interacts. I am sharing what works as of now. Also, the last 2 tips do involve spending small amounts of money. I am not trying to sell you on products we offer, but these are ways that bloggers are able to get their blog noticed--especially if it is new and isn't as highly ranked as some of the older blogs. So, they're at least worth considering.

The Expose Yourself option is a brand new feature that was just added to BlogCatalog this week and has been successful so far. The process is simple:

• Sign up and pay $5.00
• Your blog is then immediately featured as one of the 8 Noteworthy blogs on the BlogCatalog homepage. Your blog will remain in the list until 8 more people sign up and bump you off. Thus, the amount of time you get on the homepage depends on how many other members are signing up after you.
  
  
• Your blog is placed prominently on the top of the side bar on a category page. (Right now it would be the category in which your blog is listed. In a few days, when new functionality is added, you will be able to select the category where your blog will appear. Since category listings will also get bumped off as new bloggers sign up, choosing your category will allow you to choose any category you want. This means you can choose the one that best matches your content or, if there seems to be high turnover in your category, you can choose another category where you can get longer exposure time.)
  
• Randomly selected bloggers will "hit the jackpot" and have a mass shout sent to all BlogCatalog members from an admin account asking them to visit your blog.

Here are a few more shots of the new Expose Yourself designs that Steven has designed and that will be rolled out in the next few days. In addition to choosing the category page on which your blog is listed, you will also be able to upload a custom image for the listing, modify the blog title and the byline. You can see these options below on the Dress It page.

So, that's how the new expose yourself feature works. It's an easy way to get some additional exposure for your blog in an increasingly competitive space and we think that offering affordable solutions like this one will help bloggers to expose their blogs to new readers. The BlogCatalog team would like to hear what you have to say about it. Have you or would you use this type of feature? Have you tried anything similar on another site? If you have tried this or another promotion tool, what were your results?

We want to hear what you think. Comment away!

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Unless you have someone doing your grocery shopping for you, here are a few tips to get your next trip done precisely and have you out of the store and on your way back home. Remember to shop the perimeter of the store as this is where most of the freshest food groups can be located. Make a bee-line for the fruits and vegetables and start choosing the most colorful ones you can put your hands on. Next thing to remember is to wear earplugs. Earplugs you say? Yes, in order to drown out the lull-you-into-a-state-of-dawdling, while you look at all of the attractive packaging there is on every shelf, corner and special display. Recall these words "The longer you stay, the more you'll pay".

Try to stay our of the middle aisles and don't go near a store hungry or without making a shopping list. Take along a pencil or pen and cross off items as you find what you want. Stay focused and on track. Stay away from the processed foods, and if the list of ingredients has words you cannot pronounce, or if it is so long that you have to yawn as your eyes glaze over, put it back! You don't want to put all of those chemicals into your system. The grocery chains are counting on you not to look, but I say you must look. Plus, be certain the expiration dates are far enough in advance that your items do not spoil. I bet you have something in your pantry or fridge or freezer right this very minute, that is long-gone. Go ahead and check right now and I'll wait till you come back. See, you did have something that you could have eaten had I not made you do inventory.

Inventory ... there is a great word that we need to include in our kitchen repertoire. Figure out what you have before you leave to go on your shopping trip. You may think I have gone off-track, but I have not done, because I am getting you thinking about what to do before you ever leave home. Inventory, checking expiration dates, deciding what you should buy versus what you might want to buy, shopping the edges of the store and leaving the processed boxes, jars and bags out of your shopping cart. Now, back to the store.

You will want to smell your seafood purchases, check the sell-by date of the meats, fish, poultry and if you do not intend to use it right away, to freeze it properly. Ask your butcher's advice about proper handling of perishables and cooking temperatures, especially if you are an inexperienced shopper or cook. They are always glad to be asked for their expertise, plus if you make a friend they will look out for you next time you shop. The next section is the dairy, for juices, bacon, butter, milk , creams and most importantly, eggs. Here is a quick lesson. Pick out the absolute latest use by date. Now for eggs, it really doesnt matter about the use by date, because it is only a suggestion. A suggestion you ask? Yes. they suggest you use eggs by a certain date and this really needs to be closely monitored.

Look at the end of your egg carton: There is P1234 = the farm number (where the eggs were laid), the suggested use-by date, and the Julian Date. The what? The Julian Date, which equates to the day of the year the eggs were actually laid. 001 = January 1st. 031 = January 31st. Today is July 20th and it is the 201st day of the year. Want to see something rather frightening? Figure out what the Julian Date is before you shop and then look at how old the eggs are ... and they are selling them as fresh eggs. Fresh is when the hen laid these ten minutes ago. At best you will find almost week-old eggs to be the freshest, unless you attend a farmer's market. Next action is that you place them into your refrigerator and you monitor their goodness by that suggested use-by date. UGH! Fresh can only be fresh when you buy the ones printed with the date laid (by law they have to record the correct date), and the farm number must also be correct. The rest is up to you. I personally only use eggs within 14 days of their being laid. I really try to use them at one week old and then I wish I had my own hens. Enough for the lessons.

Your final spot to shop will be the frozen section. Now go get in line. Checkout lanes that are long allow our food choices to age in the ten to fifteen minutes it takes to go through checkout, then into the car and home. Instead of shopping at a leisurely pace, we need to be smart, efficient and fast. Protect your hard-earned investment and remember to invest in the freshest and most colorful foods to feel great and look good, too.

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I fully admit to tearing out this page from my Living magazine because I love the colors and I love this Chef! I am a faithful watcher of "Hell's Kitchen", and finding out Gordon Ramsey will have a brand new show on FOX, starting Tuesday, July 27th, just floats my boat. His current "Hell's Kitchen" should be winding up soon and I cannot get enough of it or him. When you think about it, in this competition he is riding the contestants because he is searching for someone worthy to handle the day-to-day grind of the posh, professional kitchen. Not just any kitchen, but one that has his name all over it. His reputation.

So "Hell's Kitchen" is going to be rough and if you ask me, I don't know how some of these contestants got to be on the show to begin with. If you have seen it, you can tell that too many of them are out of their league or they just out-and-out lie about their experience. Your skin had best be thick to take the abusive and disgusted remarks that spew from this man's mouth. Harsh? Not really. He even tries to cajole the contestants into being better and working as a team. Most of the time they have only themselves to blame for their downfall. Like the day the Blue Team won the challenge and they went to wine tasting with Chef Ramsey. Oh boy. Didn't they see it coming? Well you might say in their defense that they were supposed to taste the wines. But I say, taste and then spit. You won't become drunk.

Do they sit around and determine what will make them work better together? Some of them have tried on a number of occasions, but for the most part, they fall into the disastrous trap of tearing one another down. They need to come off their high horses, get smart, and apply themselves a whole lot more. They need to think. They need to organize, but most important ... they need to communicate in a professional manner and treat each other with respect. You say this is a competition and they are supposed to undermine the other players, and to plot against one or two cooks. They are in it to win. I ask you, at whose expense? After the winner is chosen and they look back at their performance, deportment and conduct, they have to live with the reality that many of them acted very foolishly. They were mean, condescending and rude. Nothing professional about that. The play-back will be their legacy and very few will actually remember with pride their part in the show. I know who I believe will win and I hope she does.

Now for this brand new show "Master Chef", ready to commence just about the time the present show is ending. There must be thousands of applicants for this show, as it is a search for a home cook who is an extraordinary cook. A person who has to cook for their prize and have a palate extraordinaire. If it doesn't have the flavor, texture, melt-in-your-mouth awesomeness ... if it doesn't wow the judges, then you're out! I am so pleased to direct my player to record Chef Ramsey's new show. He is a quality man with real quality entertainment. Sit back, watch and learn. "Master Chef" will be a thrill to anyone who loves to cook and dream.

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If this were a normal NBA free agency period I could talk about the ridiculous signings of Drew Gooden and Amir Johnson.  I could mock the Minnesota Timberwolves’ ineptitude at building a team or debate the pros and cons of drafting a foreign player and letting him develop overseas.  But this is not a normal NBA off season; this is the off season to end all off seasons.  To borrow a line from ESPN’s Bill Simmons, it’s the LeBronacolypse.

I had trouble talking with friends about the free agency fiasco while the whole thing was going on.  I hardly had an opinion, I was simply in awe.  We all knew it was coming for a few years, but did we expect it to be this big?  There were, and still are, so many angles to look at this story from.  A Google search will bring up results that stretch from the state of the NBA, to the economic downfall of Cleveland, to Rev. Jesse Jackson and slavery.

For me to post a 1,000 word article breaking down and analyzing the events of the last week would be overkill.  So I ask you this question, do you respect LeBron James more or less than you did six months ago?  Many who used to be amazed by his talent and thought he could do no wrong are now starting to turn against him.  His narcissistic approach to the free agency process has not only led to an angry backlash, but actually turned the King into a punch line.

Certainly people will argue that he had a genius marketing strategy and raised his brand profile.  But that’s like saying celebrities who do crazy stuff are smart for staying in the news and getting people to talk about them.  It doesn’t take a mastermind to realize that if you are famous, people will watch anything you do.  If Screech from Saved by the Bell can figure that out, I have no doubt King James can as well.

So naturally LeBron is facing some of the biggest criticism in his career, and it’s not even for his performance on the court.  The irony is he chose Miami to escape criticism.  He wants to have other star players around him not to share in the glory in winning, but to share some of the blame in losing.

Other thoughts on the NBA off season:

• ESPN is trying hard to make the term “South Beach Super Team” a household catchphrase.  Sadly, it might work.

• I like my term better, The “Instead of Having Epic Rivalries With Each Other That Would Benefit the Sport We Chose to Act Like the Annoying, Selfish Kids in the Schoolyard and Only Play With Each Other Trio."  I hope it catches on.

• I think NBA players have seen The Godfather and Scarface too much.  They think they are power brokers.

• Chris Bosh: Zero playoff series wins, one Second Team All-NBA.  Hardly a superstar.

• What happened to Chicago being in the lead to land LeBron?  Did they run out of gas at the end?

• As of right now the Heat are the third best team in the East.

• Is there a city less deserving of a powerhouse team than Miami?

• A year from now we will be saying Steve Blake was the key to the Lakers third straight title.

• Do the irrational, big dollar signings of mediocre players guarantee a lock out next year?

• Will the trend of teams tanking and dumping salary in order to have cap space for big free agents end?

• Minnesota GM David Kahn is the NBA’s version of Ed Wade.

• And lastly, will the Heat now have five different types of jerseys in order to boost sales?

As many of you hopefully already know, BlogCatalog and BloggersUnite are hosting an online event on July 24th, 2010 to raise awareness about how we can each help empower people with disabilities. The event is called People First: Empowering People With Disabilities, and so far, we have 222 bloggers signed up to participate! Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far!

Today, I want to tell you about Morgan's Wonderland, a non-profit theme park here in San Antonio, TX that provides a place where individuals with disabilities can go with their family and friends to enjoy a day of ultra-accessible fun. Jennifer Coker, the park's social media representative, has been helping us promote our online awareness event and Bob McCullough, the Communications Director at the park, was kind enough to write us a short post about the Morgan's Wonderland mission, the how the Hartman Foundation brought the vision of an ultra-accessible theme park to life and how you can become part of the fun.

So on behalf of our team, I want to say thank you to Bob McCullough for writing the following guest post for us, thank you to Jennifer Coker for all of your support., and thank you to the Hartman Foundation and the entire Morgan's Wonderland staff for providing this amazing park for all of our friends who are living with disabilities. We at BlogCatalog and BloggersUnite are so thankful and proud that this park is part of our community.

Unique Morgan’s Wonderland Park in San Antonio Welcoming Special-Needs Guests

The fun has begun at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, the world’s first ultra-accessible family fun park specifically designed with special-needs individuals in mind.

Morgan’s Wonderland is a special place where anyone can have fun, but it was created with special-needs individuals in mind.  An abandoned rock quarry in Northeast San Antonio has been transformed into an outdoor recreation oasis for those with cognitive and physical challenges.

The inspiration for the park came from philanthropist Gordon Hartman’s 16-year-old daughter Morgan.  Her soaring spirit despite personal challenges sparked within Hartman a deep desire to create a haven not only for those with special needs but also for their families, caregivers and invited friends.  Inclusion is the overarching objective for Morgan’s Wonderland.

Morgan’s Wonderland, which is completely wheelchair-accessible, features more than 25 elements and attractions including rides, playgrounds, gardens, an eight-acre fishing lake, 18,000-square-foot special-events center, 575-seat amphitheater, picnic area and rest areas throughout the park.

Signature elements include rides that can accommodate wheelchair-bound guests; the Sensory Village™, a cluster of themed spaces such as an auto fix-it shop, grocery store and TV station that offer sensory stimulation through colors, lights, sounds and textures; and the Sand Circle™ play area, where even kids and adults in wheelchairs can scoop up sand and be part of the fun.  In contrast, the nearby Garden Sanctuary offers a quiet retreat in the heart of the park, and its semicircular Memorial Wall will be engraved with names of loved ones with special needs who have passed away.

Other park features include Braille signage, a 3-D park model, 18 ADA-compliant restrooms, a first-aid station, vending machines and seven acres of free parking.  The special- events center as well as pavilions and picnic areas can be reserved for birthday parties, family gatherings, fundraisers and other special events.

In 2007, The Gordon Hartman Family Foundation was instrumental in the creation of SOAR (Sports Outdoor And Recreation), a non-profit organization to raise funds for building Morgan’s Wonderland.  Construction on the $32 million park began in spring 2009.

Morgan’s Wonderland is part of a larger 106-acre sports venue to encourage inclusive recreation whereby individuals of all abilities can play side-by-side.  The nearby STAR (South Texas Area Regional) Soccer Complex offers 14 lighted soccer fields for tournaments, instructional clinics and special events.  Proceeds from STAR go to support the operation and maintenance of Morgan’s Wonderland.

Morgan’s Wonderland is located in Northeast San Antonio just off IH 35 at the intersection of Wurzbach Parkway and Thousand Oaks Drive. For more information, visit www.MorgansWonderland.com, or call either (210) 495-5888 or toll-free (877) 495-5888.

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15 Things You Didn't Know About Michael Jackson (Infographic)

It's been a year already since Michael Jackson's been gone. I'm still pretending he's alive, quietly blending in somewhere.

It could happen! Prince just reappeared and started making proclamations about the internet being dead to stir people up and get some attention. See Jason Teitelman's recent post on BlogCatalog Community Blog.

Apparently, Prince (or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named") has woken up from his deep slumber and is sharing his point of view on the demise of the internet.  Now, people are talking about Prince.

Enough said about that, here's an infographic illustrating "15 Things You Didn't Know about Michael Jackson".

I didn't know that Michael Jackson used special shoes to enable him to lean so far forward when he was dancing. Lol!

Maybe one day he'll turn up and say, "haha! Just kidding!"

First, I'd be mad. Then, I'd be glad.

Infographic cheerfully provided by: Online MBA Programs

Via: Online MBA Programs

Cheryl Ragsdale aka thatgirlisfunny practices martial arts for fun and never misses a UFC event.  Have you visited TGIF Links yet? Come over to submit interesting links, vote on other people's blog post links and to leave chatty comments. Just like Digg only smaller...thatgirlisfunny's social bookmarking site offers you an opportunity to share your post links.

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