As a child, summertime meant playing with my friends all day.  Outside.

We have reached the last weekend of summer.  That can only mean one thing in this house.  We have reached the last minute panic as I inventory closets and drawers to see if I really do have to make that journey to the mall for the yearly Back-To-School shopping torture experience.  After two hours and 5 stores, I left the mall with a teenage son who bought a new pair of shoes, some socks and one shirt.  My tween?  He had one pair of jeans and one shirt.  That's all. So much for getting prepared ahead of time this year!

The talk of mom bloggers as a community is not new.  In fact, I have written more than once about the "community" and how often it supports those who are a part of it.  However, what exactly defines it as a community?  I have my own answers to that one, but in order to get a feel for what other people think, I asked the question on Twitter to discover the thoughts of other bloggers.  I was not surprised by the answers.  I was surprised by the amount of private emails and messages that came my way.  Why is this a topic to being discussed in back channels?

After nearly six years of blogging--yes as a mommyblogger-- I have seen bloggers come and go, phases of what is hot and what is not, jealously between bloggers become ugly and shifts in who the "A-list" bloggers are. One question that came up in 2005 and is still being asked in 2008 is this: "Is mommyblogging a radical act?" Some say yes. Some say no. If it is a radical act, what makes it a radical act? I suppose the first thing you need to do in order to answer that question is define radical. What does radical mean to you?

Gamer. For most people that conjures up an image of a geeky teenage boy sitting in his room in his parents' house talking on a headset to other geek friends who have no lives. I am here to tell you: That is so 1990! Today gamers are teenagers, men and, yes, women. In fact, women who game are quickly becoming more mainstream. We have slammed open the doors to the gaming world and we are storming the gates. (Or in gamer speak: When you get pwned, there is a good chance it was a woman who pwned you.)