Author Archives: Dan Antion

About Dan Antion

Retired - Husband, father, author of the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. When I’m not writing, I might be in my woodshop, working around the house or walking around with a camera. I might be having a beer with friends. You can find me on my blog at NoFacilities.com and on Amazon.

We Are The World Blogfest

This is a reminder that the “We are the World” Blogfest” takes place this Friday, April 24, 2020. April is one of those funny months where the last Friday falls pretty early, so I think the blogfest snuck up on a few of us – I know it snuck up on me.

The “We are the World” Blogfest”is now in its third year. This blogfest’s goal is to spread the message of light, hope and love in today’s world. We are challenging all participants to share the positive side of humanity. Each month, four or five volunteers co-host the sharing of good news stories that are shared by 50-60 participants. Information about WATWB is shared primarily via Twitter and on Facebook. We understand that that leaves some people out of the flow. So, this month, we’re trying to use this blog as a way of reaching people whose primary social media platform is WordPress. We hope you can join us.

If you want to SIGN UP for WE ARE THE WORLD – Click HERE to be part of the Light. That link will take you to a Linky List.

If you simply want to try your hand at sharing some good news, here’s a thumbnail sketch of the very simple rules:

  • Find a good news story that speaks to you, one that you want to share.
  • Write a short blog post (please try to stay under 500 words) that tells the world why that story is important to you.
  • Mention the WATWB and include our badge in your post. You can copy the badge from No Facilities.

That’s it! That’s pretty easy. In addition, if you think you want to participate more often, you can follow this blog. We will announce the WATWB each month, within the week that the last Friday falls. If you are on Facebook, ask to join the WATWB group. And, if you’re on Twitter, follow their hashtag – #WATWB – and use it when you promote your post on Friday. And, if you can’t get your post out on Friday, you can still join us over the weekend.

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Welcome to the “extended” Cherished Blogfest

Due some administrative errors on my part (Dan) the advertising of the Cherished Blogfest was greatly diminished. Several people who read my entry, suggested that they might have participated, had they known earlier. So, we decided to extend the deadline until next Sunday, October 22nd.

Now, please don’t start procrastinating. Pick an object, did up a memory, share a story and meet new friends.


The official list opened at 12:01 AM (GMT) on Friday, October 13, 2017.

Joining the blogfest is as easy as ever.

Once you’ve written you post, click here to add it to the list.

Enter the Title of your post

Enter the URL of you post

Enter your email and your name (people won’t see your email – we won’t sell your email)

That’s it!

Remember – the list is open until 11:59 PM (PST) on Sunday, October 22, 2017.


The Cherished blogfest is hosted by Damyanti Biswas, Dan AntionCheryl PenningtonPeter NenaSharukh Bamboat, Mary Giese, and Kate PowellPaul Ruddockit is open to anyone who wants to tell the world about something or someone they cherish.

The Cherished Blogfest is fun, the stories we share make us feel good and it’s a great way to make new connections. Participation is easy. The hardest thing you have to do is figure out which one thing you’re going to write about. Then:

  1. Follow this site. All the announcements will be made here, including the URL for the Linky List (above) when the blogfest begins.
  2. Copy the badge and place it on your sidebar – you can do this now.
  3. Help us spread the word on social media. Please use hashtag #CBF17

Welcome to the Cherished Blogfest

The official list opens at 12:01 AM (GMT) on Friday, October 13, 2017.

Joining the blogfest is as easy as ever.

Once you’ve written you post, click here to add it to the list.

Enter the Title of your post

Enter the URL of you post

Enter your email and your name (people won’t see your email – we won’t sell your email)

That’s it!


The Cherished blogfest is hosted by Damyanti Biswas, Dan AntionCheryl PenningtonPeter NenaSharukh Bamboat, Mary Giese, and Kate PowellPaul Ruddockit is open to anyone who wants to tell the world about something or someone they cherish.

The Cherished Blogfest is fun, the stories we share make us feel good and it’s a great way to make new connections. Participation is easy. The hardest thing you have to do is figure out which one thing you’re going to write about. Then:

  1. Follow this site. All the announcements will be made here, including the URL for the Linky List (above) when the blogfest begins.
  2. Copy the badge and place it on your sidebar – you can do this now.
  3. Help us spread the word on social media. Please use hashtag #CBF17

It’s Almost Time!

The Cherished Blogfest starts in 20 days!

I know, I should have given you some additional warning. But, if I ad, you would just be agonizing over which thing/person/moment/memory is the thing you cherish that you want to share with us this year. See, I did this for you.

Seriously, beginning October 13th, we will begin sharing blog posts, of around 500 words that tell the world about something in our life that we cherish. You can post anytime from 12:00 am Eastern Time on Friday until 11:59 pm Pacific Time on Sunday

The Cherished Blogfest is fun, the stories we share make us feel good and it’s a great way to make new connections. Participation is easy. The hardest thing you have to do is figure out which one thing you’re going to write about. Then:

  1. Follow this site. All the announcements will be made here, including the URL for the Linky List when the blogfest begins.
  2. Copy the badge and place it on your sidebar – you can do this now.
  3. Help us spread the word on social media. Please use hashtag #CBF17

I look forward to meeting new participants, reconnecting with old friends and reading about the thing the people I follow on a regular basis, care about most.

 

Cherished Blogfest 2017

Cherished Badge17If you’re wondering when we are going to open the sign-up list for the Cherished Blogfest, you’re not alone. Several people have been asking. The good news is that we are preparing for this popular blogging event, but we are going to change the date. The 2017 edition of the Cherished Blogfest will take place in mid-October. The list will be active from Friday, October 13th through Sunday, October 15th.

There are two important reasons for changing to the date: First, a lot of people who wanted to participate last year, told us that they were away on vacation the last week of July. Second, several of the blogfest organizers are also co-hosting the “We Are the World” blogfest (WATWB, and since WATWB runs on the last Friday of every month, there would be a potential conflict, as well as a possible co-host-overload situation.

Beginning next week, we will be re-blogging some previous Cherished Blogfest entries. This will continue through early October, when we will publish the information about the 2017 blogfest.

By the way, if you’re interested in spreading a good story, I urge you to consider joining the WATWB. It’s easy, it’s fun and I think it’s important. If you want more information, take a look here.

The Cherished Blogfest is Underway

The official list opens at 12:01 AM (GMT) on Friday, July 29, 2016.

We promised it would be easy:

Once you’ve written you post, click here to add it to the list.

Enter the Title of your post

Enter the URL of you post

Enter your email and your name (people won’t see your email)

That’s it!

Sign and Sign (up) Again?

The Cherished Blogfest kicks off in two weeks. Perhaps you’re thinking of joining us. Perhaps, you’ve already signed-up. And, perhaps, you’re wondering why we’re going to ask you to sign-up again in two weeks.Well, we learned a few lessons when we ran this blogfest last year, and there are a few good reasons for getting you to sign-up now, and a bunch of good reasons to have you sign-up again.

The first list is the people who are participating, and the blog on which they reside. This is important for several reasons:

We want to visit your blog in advance. Yes, partly to see if you are a greedy spam-bot, but also to help us better understand the nature of the group

We want to be able to highlight the bloggers who participated “last year” when next year’s blogfest comes around.

We want to be able to send you a reminder or two prior to the 29th.

OK, that makes sense, but why the second list?

The Cherished Blogfest proved to be more popular than we expected last year. This year is showing a similar level of interest (there are over 50 people signed-up already) and we want to be able to read and share the cherished posts. We also realize that some of you will post more than one cherished item.

For example, a friend of mine is writing one for herself, one for one of her cats, and one for one of her fictional characters (pretty cool, wouldn’t you say?) Last year, I published one for me, and I published one written by my brother, who doesn’t (yet) have a blog.

In addition, some of you normally publish more than once during any given 3-day period. So if we don’t get around to reading your post on the day you publish it, we might not see the right post. We will poke around, of course, but we want to be able to send people to your cherished post, from the Linky List.

When you do post your cherished story, you can expect a visit from at least one and likely a few of the co-hosts. Last year, each of the co-hosts visited almost every post. Entering each post on that second list will ensure that we (and the other participants) see your post(s).

The goal of the Cherished Blogfest is to share our stories, feelings and emotions about the things that are special to us. The goal of the co-hosts is to make this as easy as possible and to help introduce people to your blog, through your posts. If you’ve already signed-up, welcome aboard. If you’re still thinking about it, we hope you will join us (you can follow the link below). If you’re still trying to figure out what to write about (welcome to my world) you still have two weeks.
Sign-up List – Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and see who is participating…

Confessions of the Cherished Blogfest Experience

Do you believe in miracles? Well, I’m not talking about the miracles that we read in religious books, but some unexpected events that completely change the course of your life. My name is Sharukh Bamboat and I’m one of the co-hosts of the Cherished Blogfest 2016. This will be the second time I’ll be co-hosting this blogfest along with Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas, Mary Giese, Peter Nena, Cheryl Pennington and Kate Powell.

As many of you already know, I usually write on India Destinations where I showcase some of the destinations, food, and festivals in India. However, before I started writing my travel blog, I was a professional content writer and I still earn my living as a freelance content writer. I usually get very little time to write for myself which is why I usually don’t write 3-4 times a week like most bloggers do and I have no regrets because I don’t want to write just for the sake of writing.

Last year when the concept of co-hosting the blogfest was mentioned to me, I was excited, nervous and skeptical. It was a new ground for me. I’m not a very social person. I am shy, reserved and usually invisible online. However, I liked the idea and I readily jumped in to support my co-hosts. While we were still in the preparation mode, we were surprised at the positive response that we received and more than 100 bloggers joined in to participate in the blogfest. For me, it was nothing less than hosting a movie award night. I was paranoid and super excited because I usually don’t interact with so many people and now I had to do it because I was one of the co-hosts.

I wrote my Cherished Blogfest post and got busy reading what others had written. It was a great experience because everybody was sharing about moments and things that have stayed in their minds and hearts forever. Some posts were good, some were highly emotional and touching and some were straight to the point, but every blog post had something unique about it. As a writer, it was a great experience to know and understand how human beings are attached to things, incidents and memories.

However, more than reading the blog posts, it was the social experience that I enjoyed the most. If you are a reserved and shy person like me, this is the perfect opportunity for you to open your heart and meet people who are just like you. For me, the Cherished Blogfest was a giant leap forward into the world of social interaction. I made blog friends who have stayed with me till date and I got the opportunity to share my thoughts and views and in exchange learn new things from them and understand their perspective of life. It was a fruitful and enriching experience that certainly changed the way I blog now, it has also impacted me as a human being because I now interact with more bloggers who have their own knowledgebase and experiences to share.

If you missed out being the part of the Cherished Blogfest last year you can become a part of it this year. All you need to do is sign up and place the Cherished Blogfest badge on your blog’s sidebar and help us spread the word on the social media. You may use the hashtag #CBF16.

Join us on the 29th, 30th and 31st of July, 2016 and write your 500-word story of one of your cherished objects on your blog. If you want more information about the blogfest, click on the “Cherished Blogfest” menu option. If you want to sign-up now, Click the link below.

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view the participant list…

Cherished Blogfest 2016

Welcome to the Cherished Blogfest. We – Dan Antion, Sharukh BamboatDamyanti Biswas, Mary Giese, Peter NenaCheryl Pennington and Kate Powell – invite you to share the story of one of your cherished objects. Tell us what it is, post a picture of it if you like, and tell us why you cherish it.

Keep your post to 500 words, and join us on the 29th, 30th or 31st of July 2016 in sharing memories, emotions, and information.

cherished-badge16Save (right-click, save image) the badge and place it on your sidebar, and help us spread the word on social media. You can link to this page, and use hashtag #CBF16

Above all, join us in making new connections, and renewing old ones. Sign up in the Cherished Linky List, which will open in a new window.

Also, you can follow this blog to be notified of a few updates along the way.

Note: Signing up today indicates that you want to participate in the blogfest. We will be pointing to this page as we promote the blogfest. When the blogfest actually goes live on the 29th, you will be asked to enter the information about your entry into a second Linky List. That list will be preserved here so that your post will continue to be associated with the Cherished Blogfest and people will always be able to find your post from this site.

Sign-up List – Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and see who is participating…