I'm going to do a very New Agey thing. I don't do a lot of them.

So about a year ago I began to do something that other bloggers might consider to be most sinful: I started blogging on another site for free. I know! Try to remove your jaw from the floor while I give my reasons for taking up this opportunity because it wasn't the first time and let's face it, it probably won't be the last time.

Short version: Still lame, still not fair, but at least they finally actually went from four to three...Sheesh!

BlogHer Boston kicks off bright and early on October 11, 2008. This is the place to find the liveblogs, which will be posted shortly after the sessions end. Check back often as the links go live! Check out the full agenda with session descriptions here.  * * * * * * *

I don't usually like to post about corporate campaigns, but I liked the idea of this one, so I'll bend the rules. Quaker Snack Bars has created Birthday Party with a Purpose Kits in partnership with Kids Care Clubs. Kids Care Clubs are a program of the HandsOn Network whose mission is to, "develop compassion and to inspire a spirit of volunteering in elementary and middle school age youth."

What does it say when "Peter Peter pumpkin eater" is the only thing that comes to mind when I think about pumpkin poetry? I mean please, can a nursery rhyme be any more offensive than that one? Pumpkin shell indeed. Luckily, there are other pumpkin rhymes and I'm hoping one of them will get stuck in my head soon and rid me of Peter and his patriarchal ways.

Since I’ve spent the past week watching the stock market plummet and looking for a place for me and the boyfriend to move into, I have money on the brain. And it occurred to me that just because we were all worried the banks might fail (what do you think?), that didn’t mean people were going to stop going out, dating, or meeting strangers for coffee—it just meant that there was a greater need for things to do that wouldn’t cost as much money.

The Dow is down, the S&P is tanking and we're all tightening our budgets to cope, right? Well yeah, except when it comes to entertainment. A recent poll by Movietickets.com via Pop Watch Blog asked people "how the economy had changed their movie going habits," 31 percent said it had done so "noticeably," 33 percent said, "drastically," and 36 percent said, "No change."

I wrote at BlogHer a couple of weeks ago about how parents can deal with the issue of teens and tweens who are desiring expensive, designer clothes. A healthy, common-sense discussion ensued, with many parents chiming in with their hopes of teaching their kids about contentment, frugality and reasonable expectations.

In every presidential election year, some swing states stay the same, but new ones seem to crop up, depending on how the whole electoral map plays out. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida are always reliably in the mix. This year there are others, including New Mexico, Nevada and very possibly Virginia.

The other day I was talking to a friend in South Florida, and I mentioned that I honestly think that the fact that I don't smoke pot effects my dating life in Los Angeles. Not that no one smokes pot in South Florida (LOL), but no one in South Florida ever cared if *I* did. In L.A., in the entertainment industry, people seem to care.

There is a difference between feeling depressed, and being clinically depressed. We all feel depressed from time to time. But, how do we know when our feelings of anxiety or sadness, has crossed into something more serious? That's what Depression Screening is all about, and October is Depression Screening Month. Maybe it's you, or someone you know...But, awareness is the first step in recovery.