You Could Win $25 at Best Buy!

Not here...you have to check out Erika Jean's blog and her contest. She is running a contest to celebrate having nearly 700 posts on her blog. This post is my entry for her contest -- although I've had her listed on my often read blogroll (see my sidebar) for ages.

I'm not 100% sure how I stumbled on her blog -- I think I was looking for local Cincinnati blogs on the MyBlogLog site. Erika grew up in the area and she recently graduated from UC and is now in Arizona. She has lots of posts about the Cincinnati area. But her blog has interesting life stories, lots of art work (she has some amazing doodles) and photos, and just crazy stuff she finds on the web.

However, my favorite set of her posts has to be her Friday Flashbacks series. Each week she writes a post about some past memory. It's a great idea for a blog post. You have to check out her flashback post this week about Castle Skateland. The results of her Google search are hilarious.

Erika also has photos on Flickr here -- she is in the middle of doing a self-portrait a day. Oh, and I should mention she has been a past guest contributor to our Songs In Haiku blog. That is an honor (?) that hasn't been given to very many folks.

Quite the creative gal and a very interesting blog. If you haven't already been to her site, check it out!

Capture Cincinnati Photo Contest

I'm not too proud to beg.

CiN Weekly is once again running the Capture Cincinnati photo contest. Just like last year's contest, the end product of the contest is a book that will include a DVD with it. The book will have the top photos from each chapter/topic (people, nature, everyday life, sports, etc.) based on votes, comments, and hearts that indicate people who "loved" your photo. You're guaranteed at least one photo on the DVD (last year I had several), but not necessarily something in the book.

That's where you come in. I have entered many of the photos you've seen here on my blog in the contest and I'd appreciate your votes, comments, and hearts to move some photos up the ranking. You must register on the site to vote, but it doesn't take long. Then click through to my photos and vote for any that catch your eye.

Right now my top vote getter is the Chilo globe shaped panorama I described here. It's a nice, unique photo but I'm a bit surprised that's my top photo so far without any promotion. The next in line is the night photo taken after our blizzard earlier this year.

You can click on either of the photos below to take you to the voting or click on any photo in the sidebar to the right. Thanks for any votes and comments! If you have photos taken around the greater Cincinnati area, upload your own photos and leave a comment to let me know what your name is.