20SB: The Blog

2000 Members!

2008-07-24T20:06:00.002-04:00

Holy smokes! We've reached 2000 members!

Let's feature our 2000th member for a second here. Miss Tiff describes her self as follows: "I am your girly girl type. A bit of a geek also. I am strong headed. I know what I want and what I don't. I love spending time with the fam and friends. My heart is taken and has been for awhile now! :) Likes: Reading, scrapbooking, writing, taking pictures, strawberry chapstick, texting, scary movies, music that i can dance and/or sing to, flip flops, handbags, shoes, all things pink, vintage, knitting, volunteering, and much more! Dislikes: Fake people, lies (liars), hypocrites, snakes, bugs, wasps, road construction, being late places, stealing, and a few other things."

Welcome to 20sb, and congrats on being the 2000th member!

Header Contest

2008-07-06T22:48:00.004-04:00

If you've been looking for a way to contribute to 20sb, then this is it!

We need a new header. The current green and black one is a ning default and since we're over a year old, it's time for us to grow.

Admin will narrow entries down to the top 3, and then open the polls to the members. Entries should be posted in the 20sb Header Contest Flickr Group. Final date for submissions: August 3rd.

The winner will get something... I'm not sure what. What do you think the winner should get? (Note: we have no money)

Submission details fine print:

Headers must be 955x200 px. Each 20sb member can submit up to 5 entries. Email me (Lisa) with any other questions.

Featured Blogger: Maxie

2008-07-04T15:30:00.002-04:00

The current featured blogger is Maxie from i hate so much...

About Her:
I'm 22, live in a small town far away from everything and I find humor in the most unusual places. I love funny movies, wild dancing, and cracking myself up.

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben
Deutlich
Free and Flawed
Jess (Du Wax Loolu)
J-Money
So@24

Blog Carnival 4: Good causes

2008-07-01T22:20:00.002-04:00

Read more here.

Angela from Wickedly Scarlett

A Disease Close To Every Girl's Heart

A long time ago, in a lifetime that seems far, far away, I received a phone call. It wasn't a particularly long phone call. It wasn't from anyone out of the ordinary, and I even remember being pleasantly surprised when I saw my father's name on the caller id. However, that phone call changed my life and it changed my family forever.

Featured Blogger: So@24

2008-06-19T00:27:00.000-04:00

The current featured blogger is So@24 from Starting Over at 24!

About him:
After 6 years of dating only one girl, I find myself single at 24 and tackling the dating scene for my first time. These are my adventures, my mishaps, and stories of triumph... Lordy it's rough.

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben
Deutlich
Free and Flawed
Jess (Du Wax Loolu)
J-Money

20SB Members featured on alltop

2008-06-18T19:42:00.002-04:00

Check it! Alltop has a new category called twentysomethings, and it mostly features 20SB members. Holy smokes! It's nice to see that the members of 20SB are definitely dominating the niche.

Congrats to everybody that is featured!

Casting Call

2008-05-26T15:59:00.002-04:00

Current TV is casting bloggers!

Current TV is casting a show for young people (20s-30s) about love, sex, and relationships. An important element of the show will be webcam-style video blogs by a diverse group of people, talking about what’s going on in their lives. The show will provide a platform for talented young bloggers, artists, and performers to tell their stories in their own voices. Other elements of the show will include advice and feedback from well known experts, documentary segments on related topics, and more. Video bloggers will be compensated monthly for their regular contributions and will be able to hype their own blog/show/book/whatever before a wide audience.

Current TV is a cable news and culture channel in 50+ million homes across the US, UK, Ireland and Italy. All our programming is available on current.com/tv. Current was founded with the goal of democratizing TV for young people— over a third of our content is created by viewers around the world. For more information please contact Kasia at kcieplak (at) currentmedia (dot) com. Check out Current TV at www.current.com.

[Ed Note: How do you feel about announcements like this being made on this blog?]

Featured Blogger: J-Money

2008-05-23T19:29:00.000-04:00

The current featured blogger is J-Money from The Typing Makes Me Sound Busy

She's more fun than being set on fire. Unless you're one of those people I saw on National Geographic's "Taboo" who's actually into that sort of thing. In that case, she can't help you.

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben
Deutlich
Free and Flawed
Jess (Du Wax Loolu)

Featured Blogger: Jess

2008-05-14T17:53:00.000-04:00

The current featured blogger is Jess from Du Wax Loolu!

About her:
Living in DC, working for a public health nonprofit, engaged to a German man so trying to plan a wedding and simultaneously learn German, taking way too many photos and coveting a DSLR and a macro lens, and getting way too angry whenever I read the news.

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben
Deutlich
Free and Flawed

Carnival Edition 3: Tests

2008-05-05T18:36:00.001-04:00

Letter to the World by Amber

Whether it was prompted by a chalkboard full of quotations to memorize or a chunky piece of Hemingway to digest, you have all asked, “Miss Flindt, why do we have to learn this?”
“It’ll be on the test,” I respond automatically.
You believe me. You trust that there will indeed be a test that measures all the bites of knowledge I have forced down your throats. With full bellies, you await that one opportunity to regurgitate everything into perfect ABCD bubbles, carefully darkened in by your number two pencils.

Read the rest here.

Testing Testing 1 2 3 by Ashley

I rock at tests.

I do.

All I’m saying is; tests don’t scare me. At the risk of being obnoxious and having you guys toss glares in my direction (especially those of you currently studying for finals), I have to tell you – I am so competitive that I see tests as another way to excel.

Read the rest here.

Excommunicated by Ben

"I'm up for a scholarship that'll pay for me study abroad for four months."

It was a lie. A big lie. Maybe one of the biggest I've ever told. I used to lie a lot - a childish habit commonly associated with daydreamers.

When you move around as a kid, you have the opportunity to rewrite your own history time and time again. The temptation was more than I could handle. My lies were always modest, based-on-a-true-story type lies. Nothing as extreme as this one.

Read more here.

Love Is Not A Game by Chickbug

When your heart breaks, you lose apart of yourself. Life continues and you stand in the middle of the swirl, trying to make sense of it. why me? How did this happen? What do i do? How do i go on?

Life is forever changed. Your reality is altered. And everyone around you wants to give you structure. They give you rules. "Don't do this." "Focus on that." "This is unhealthy." "That will help."

Read the rest here.

Jobless and Urine-less by Jalynn

I walked into a room that looked to be just a little bigger than a prison cell. I glanced around acknowledging my surroundings. A small desk occupied the left corner with a man seated at it. To the right was a single couch, chair, and tiny television set. He hadn’t seen me, or at least pretended not to.

“Hi I’m [ Jaylynn ] I’m here to take a drug test” I said half telling but half asking at the same time.

Read more here.

Failing by Sequins and Glitter

I was in a long-distance relationship for almost a year in college. The boy I'd come to love when I lived abroad in Germany lived across the country from me, and when our program ended in the Summer we decided that we were stronger than 2500 miles.

Read more here.

I Don't Like Tests by Tara

I, in fact, hate taking tests. They are stressful and not always fair, some people just learn differently. In grade school tests were hard and confusing, they were all “What’s your phone number? Where does your mom work? How do you spell your name?” Sure those questions are easy enough, when your last name is Smith and your mom works at McDonalds. You try being a five year old has a last name like Panatsushynnmani or having a mom who works at Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America.

Read the rest here.

What Can I Get by Lauren

Right after I graduated college and before I found full-time work, there was a six-month period where I did everything from delivering packages to running a kids' after school program. Somewhere in there I also responded to an ad for teaching SAT prep; my reasoning was that hey, I did pretty well on those, and plus, don't they charge parents obscene amounts of money for the courses? The teachers must be making bank.

Read the rest here.

Patience or Lack Thereof by Elle

I have a slight problem.

It's called a lack of patience.

Some people were born with the ability to solve problems calmly and efficiently. Some people can, when faced with something that's gone wrong, maintain the ability to keep trying until it's all back to normal. Basically, some people are able to fix things without flying into a rage, peppered with every cuss-word in existence.

Read the rest here.

Destined to Succeed by Polynesian Princess

My breathing becomes irregular and my heart beats rapidly in my chest. I blow out a breath of air and try to concentrate. I must be concentrating too hard because everything in my mind goes blank. I start to break out into a cold sweat, it’s harder to breathe and I’m afraid my heart is going to pound out of my chest. Too many people staring at me, watching me, expecting excellence from me. Instead I completely fail with only 3 more steps to go.

Read the rest here.

Current Featured Blogger: Jenn!

2008-05-02T23:37:00.000-04:00

The current featured blogger is Jenn from You are flawed if you are not free!

People who like irrational, neurotic, over-sensitive, emotional, quirky girls who think shaving their cats body but leaving hair on their head and legs will give them character will love her blog!

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben
Deutlich

Plans for one year blogoversary

2008-04-24T16:17:00.002-04:00

In less than 2 months (June 21) is 20sb's one year blogoversary!

I know that's still quite a ways away... but if we wanted to do something SUPER awesome for it, we'd want to have enough time to plan, am I right?

Who has any good celebration ideas?

New members by approval only!

2008-04-23T15:25:00.002-04:00

Due to the super feedback on the last post, I've changed our network settings so that new members have to be approved to join.

I outlined the reasons in the previous post, but mainly: no more spammers!

Let's see how big of a job this is. If it gets overwhelming, it looks like I have PLENTY of helpful hands to share the duty. (You guys are all the best!)

Sketchy new members?

2008-04-22T09:17:00.002-04:00

What should our new member policy be?

Current state: anybody can join as long as they have a blog and are between 20-29

Problems with current state: If nobody is checking up on new profiles, people can just enter any url (yahoo.com, for example, has been used) and be accepted. This is a problem because we've had people join purely to abuse other members (our omnipotent pal Anonymous knows no ends!), and because we've had marketers join our group to try to learn more about this ever savvy 20-something age group (flattering and yet annoying)

Option 1: Stick with current state, rely on members to report abuse to me so I can ban stupid people from the network.

Option 2: All new members must be approved. Anybody can apply for membership, but they might have to wait a couple of hours or even a few days for admin to approve them. Reliable, but more work for admin

Option 3: You cannot join without an invite. It would make 20sb pretty exclusive (obvious pros and cons to that), and keep out abusers. Though about 99% of our members join from referrals, most referrals are from blog badges, not invites. We'd grow a lot slower, and potentially lose out on some new members who don't have an in.

I'm leaning towards option 2. What do you guys think?

Featured Blogger: Deutlich

2008-04-15T20:07:00.000-04:00

The current featured blogger is Deutlich from Speak On It!

Deut·lich [doyt·lich] striking and well-marked; easy to see, hear or understand; stated full and clearly. I'm German & black American (being bi-lingual and having dual citizenship is the shit). I curse. A lot. A LOT. I dislike almost anything that is "stereotypically female" in large part due to a traditionalist mother that let my brother get away with everything. Fuck the system, bring on some anarchy. . . or something. I do love shopping, shoes and dresses though. I also love contradicting myself. Obviously.

Previous Winners
Elysa
Joanne
Devin
Distracted Spunk
The Lisa Show
Princess Pointful
Michelle & The City
Bespectacled Brunette
Miss A
Brandy
Tiffany
James The Ink
d-blogged
Elisabeth
Ben

New Carnival Editor!

2008-04-06T16:33:00.001-04:00

Stephanie from A[tipp]ical Thoughts has been selected as the editor for the 20sb carnival!

Remember, the deadline for the next edition is April 30th, and the theme is tests!

Submit here.

Admin Position Open: Carnival Editor

2008-03-30T22:17:00.001-04:00

Alright crew,

There are over 1000 of us now, which is pretty insane. I'm sure you'll believe that there is a TONNE of background admin going on, but would you believe that it is being done by a mere trio?

I'm looking for somebody to take over as official editor of the 20SB Carnival. Every future edition will still be published on the 20SB blog.

Job duties include:
- encouraging submissions
- making sure all submissions are written by 20sb members
- being a point of contact for anybody with carnival questions
- choosing the best submissions for each carnival edition
- organising excerpts, and formatting each edition
- posting each edition!

Sort of sounds like a lot, but it each cycle takes a month.

Rewards:
- everybody's gratitude (right guys?)
- virtual high fives

Interested?
Email me (Lisa, at lfarblogatgmaildotcom) answering the following questions:
1. Why do you want to be the editor?
2. Why do you think you'd be the best editor ever?

Everybody is welcome to apply!

Carnival Volume II: Firsts

2008-03-30T20:54:00.009-04:00

A round up of the best submissions on the theme "firsts":

Kristen writes about her first diagnosis,

Ever wanted to know what it feels like to be treated like a leper? Get a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and you will come really close. Doctors, therapists and other people see those three little letters and they run like hell. BPD automatically gives you the reputation of someone who is a master manipulator, only cares about themselves and views the world though a black and white perspective with nothing lying in between.

Tin Ma'am writes about her first broken heart,

I experienced a devastating, gutt-wrenching pain that I thought would leave me shattered forever! It was John Grady Cole losing Alejandra (All the Pretty Horses) or Gatsby losing Daisy (The Great Gatsby) or Ishmael losing Hatsue (Snow Falling on Cedars).

DS writes about her first time having sex,

Partially bored, partially curious, and partially spiteful, I agreed to shower with him after having made out with him, the newest Scott Bakula Star Trek playing in the background (his interest, not mine.) There was no great passion with him - just mild curiosity.

Jaylynn writes about the first time she started a fire,

Five minutes later I caught a whiff of something funky. I sniffed the air contemplating the stench. Smells like burning rubber maybe? Has the bleach had it’s way with my nose? What if all that inhaling of harsh bleach chemicals was now adversely effecting my smelling capabilities? Okay so maybe I have hypochondriac tendencies but something smelled undeniably foul. I began sniffing and walking as if I was a stray dog on the hunt for dinner. Sniff sniff, hmm getting closer. Walk more, sniff more, look around, sniff once again, and open doors to laundry room. …HOLY HELL SMOKE coming out of the back of the dryer! I walked closer to see if this could be easily remedied by pulling the plug. With the step forward came SPARKS! lots and lots of SPARKS! It was a fireworks show in my laundry room.

Lisa writes about her first triathlon,

This title of triathlete comes not without trials and tribulation. It was just a super sprint distance, which means 375m swim, 10k bike, 2.5 k run. I knew I could finish that distance. Plus, it goes in order from my worst event to my best event (that is, swim-bike-run) so I wasn't feeling too, too bad. However, yesterday's travels put me in what can hardly be called good pre-race condition. We had to get up really early, too. So tired, and with a cold, we arrive at the race site.

Princess Pointful writes about her first kiss,

As we're sloshing through the creek, he turns to me and says "I like you". He then pauses, and says "Like girl-boy like."

I hesitate. "I like you, too."

He then spits out the kicker: "I want to kiss you."

Just Jinny writes about the first time she was pregnant,

And then, in July, I took a pregnancy test because I was a week late. And for the first time EVER I saw two pink lines. My husband held me in his arms while I cried with joy. Finally, finally, we would be a family. For one weekend I was the happiest I have ever been, glowing with the knowledge that I would be giving my husband a child..that I would be a mother.

Kayleigh writes about the first time she got drunk,

I was going to be a junior in high school, hadn't even taken driver's ed despite the fact that I was already 16, and never ever drank or did drugs. I was on the straight and narrow. [...] I was definitely an impressionable young lady who was pretty insecure and ready to fit in.

Stylish Handwriting writes about the first boy to ask her to prom,

However, senior prom was my only invite to a dance during that time period. And I’m kind of pleased that it’s the only one because the story is PERFECT. The awkwardness that surrounds it makes me smile, even though it made me cringe back then.

Tiff writes about her first crush,

We both wore glasses, even at our tender ages. He was meant for me; we were of like kind. And even at this moment I can remember with what force that I adored him.

And that's the end of Volume II!

Big news on blog carnival coming up, so keep your eyes peeled!

Offline Meetup Chatter: take it to the polls!

2008-03-28T10:45:00.003-04:00

We've been thinking over the idea of organizing some sort of offline meetup lately on the forums.

Let's get some numbers:

Opinion Polls & Market Research

1000 Members!

2008-03-27T09:18:00.002-04:00

20SB got its THOUSANDTH member yesterday!

Hi, that's crazy! We're only about 10 months old!

When do you think we will get our 2000th member? (Answer in the comments)

New Menu Tabs

2008-03-23T16:15:00.003-04:00

So you'll see at the top menu... a new tab called "Awards"

Ning has this beta feature that allows you to add new tabs, but it's incredibly restricting. Each new tab can only be a list of announcements, basically. Or like, a blog. A useless blog. It's... stupid.

But is it stupid? I hope not; I've spent quite a while figuring it all out, so hopefully it's at least slightly useful.

The only use I could think of would be a really nice place to organize all the stuff that's goes on with awards. We made our own sub-site for that because it was getting too messy. Maybe for the next awards, this little tab can help us keep it together!

Next awards? Yes, it's time to start thinking about thinking about them. In the interest of transparency, I'll post an awards time line. Soonish, I promise.

Questions.
1. Awards tab...
a) useless?
b) useless now, helpful during awards season?
c) always a great idea?

2. Tabs in general...
a) could be great! My suggested use of a new tab would be:
b) seem silly. Cease, please. (<-- those words to not rhyme)

Welcome to the official 20sb blog

2008-03-21T18:04:00.001-04:00

Alright! Let's do this!

As if we don't have a blog. It only makes sense that we'd prefer to communicate via blog... so add us* to your reader!

Expect lots of big announcements soon!

*"us"... I don't know, what do you think? That's the proper pronoun. I mean, it's just one writer and I don't want to all "refer to me in the plural, please", but "me" seems overly exclusive.