Beacon of Bloviation and Links

Oh, there’s been lots of chatter on the Internet this week! Where all did our conversations show up? Well, I’ll tell you.

  • Pegged to the release of Jessica Valenti’s new book Why Have Kids, I (somewhat inexplicably!) participated in an NY Daily News Roundtable via Google Hangout, discussing the vagaries of parenthood and career with Jessica, Lenore Skenazy and Karen “Duff” Duffy. You know you’d like to watch my first time interacting with the former VJ, right?
* Over on MetaFilter, [Larry Roberts wrote about Privately-Owned Public Spaces](http://www.metafilter.com/119525/Privately-Owned-Public-Spaces), a topic we just visited [a few months ago](http://dashes.com/anil/2012/03/captive-atria-and-living-in-public.html). I like the breadth of the resources he wrapped up in the discussion. * I was a judge for the Online News Association’s [Online Journalism Awards](http://journalists.org/2012/08/29/2012-online-journalism-awards-finalists-announced/) this year. The slate of entrants was extraordinary, and the selected honorees even more so. Do go check them out. * How the hell did Reddit manage to grow and thrive after being left for dead by the Diggosphere and snapped up by Condé Nast? [David Carr explored that topic](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/reddit-thrives-after-advance-publications-let-it-sink-or-swim.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y) in the New York Times, and naturally I couldn’t shut up about it. * Our beloved animated gifs are a central part of fan culture. (Indeed, where would LiveJournal or Tumblr fanfic be without them?) and [Charles Kenny has the story](http://animationanomaly.com/2012/08/31/the-place-of-gifs-in-the-animated-fandom/#.UEWAZaSOqFd). I read the fanfic for the articles. * We reached our $5000 goal (and then some!) for the [charity: water campaign](http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign/?campaign_id=30080) I launched yesterday. Not only did we top $5000 in a little over 12 hours, we’ve [vaulted to the top of the list](http://www.charitywater.org/september/) of campaigns as ranked by number of donors. Won’t you [give $37](https://mycharitywater.org/p/donate?campaign_id=30080&payment_amt=37#cc1) and become one, too? That’s all for now! Let me know if I’ve missed any of my blabbing elsewhere; I wouldn’t want to deprive you.