A few months ago, K posted a list of simple pleasures, those little things that make you happy. I replied with my own list, which had a lot in common with hers.

One of those things was comments on my blog. I love getting emails announcing a response to the latest post. I don’t even mind the critical and snarky comments all that much.

Of course, I would have no comments without wonderful readers. I think it’s pretty cool that you all find my tales and questions interesting enough to return. I’ve been doing this since 2001 because I like interacting with readers, which also comes from reading your blog (if you have one). I still love writing in notebooks, but it’s not the same. There’s no one there to reassure me that I’m still cool. Hah.

¡Gracias!

I wouldn’t have know about this if not for MsAbcMom, who got the idea from The Other Mother

I love blogging so much I’m contributing my words to other blogs as a guest blogger or regular contributor.

If you don’t already have these blogs on your blogroll or RSS feed reader (I recommend Google Reader), you should add them.

• VivirLatino: my favorite go-to blogs for news on politics, culture and entertainment in the US and throughout Latin America. My first post at VL on undocumented immigrants and death.
• The Unapologetic Mexican: Nezua, the main author at UAM invited several bloggers to post on the weekends. My first post at UAM is about broaching those sticky discussions on race with people who may not be allies.
• LA Eastside: I don’t live on LA’s Eastside. I’m squarely on the Westside. If you’re confused, the Militant Angeleno has a great guide on LA’s regions. However, I’m on the Eastside culturally. It’s where my LA roots lie.

And don’t worry, I’ll still be regularly posting here.

They think you should comment (artifacts at the Natural History Museum)

I missed National Delurking week, which is supposedly the second week of January. I have an excuse. My computer was broken.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a lurker is “a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely participates” (source: wikipedia).

If you’re a lurker*, leave a comment. You can write whatever you want, but if you need a prompt, here’s some ideas: recommend something (a book, film, song/album, website, blog, whatever); tell me about yourself (where are you from? what do you do?); tell me why you love/like/hate Lotería Chicana.

I promise I won’t bite or call you annoying (that was so last week).

*Of course, if you regularly comment you can chime in too.

On Friday, I bought a 13″ black MacBook.

It was weird. I wasn’t just buying a new laptop. I was making the switch from a PC to a Mac. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, and still don’t know why I didn’t buy a MacBook a few years ago when I was in the market for a laptop. That laptop, my trusty LifeBook is currently out of commission. Luckily, I have 99% of my files backed up and my main concern in switching to a Mac is about my iPod.

Oso, my favorite globe trotting blogger, believes owning a MacBook will make me more popular. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get my own fan club.

Photo by Oso (his flickr photostream)