The crazy-busy days before the Democratic National Convention! How you can keep up with the information (when I can't!)

Obama "wall of hope" at the Midtown Campaign for Change office in Anchorage, Alaska

Right now, I'm experiencing what I like to call the "shame spiral" leading up to leaving for the Convention on the Friday morning red-eye flight. I'm trying to wrap- up some projects while putting some on hold, getting my daughter ready to go back to school tomorrow and meeting with her teacher (which has turned out to be difficult) to get the work she'll miss, constantly reading/answering/RSVPing email that has more-than-exploded over the last few days (150-200 a day), giving interviews (keep your eyes on the New York Times), helping with the "Meet the Delegates" party this Thursday (6:30 - 9:30 PM at Club Soroya), etc...etc...

The "shame" part (it's a Catholic thing) comes from the fact that this frenetic activity is keeping me AWAY from the reason FOR all of this...the blog.

Add to it the myriad of press releases coming from multiple sources with information of every kind...speakers, more "green" activities, parties, etc...there is just so much communication I feel like my head is going to explode.

(It makes me look forward to switching over to the new blog platform when I get back so that folks can write diaries about their interests and I can include them...a real community effort! But I digress...)

In musing on all of this, I suddenly realized that I've never discussed the Rootswire aggregator...the widget to the right of my blog and what it means. Granted, it wasn't working properly for a short while but now it seems to be doing just fine. Blogger Steve Hanson ("Uppity Wisconsin") put his considerable energy and expertise into this project, which pulls from the feed of participating Convention bloggers as well as the DNCC Blog and the Democratic Host Committee. The aggregator also grabs stories about candidates and all things Obama/McCain.

In Steve's own words:

Many of you may have noticed the widget that has been displaying around this site for the last few weeks from RootsWire.org. RootsWire is an exciting project that we've been working on in conjunction with many of the bloggers who are covering the Democratic Convention. We are pulling together content from many of the best bloggers in the country in a single site, covering the convention from many angles, both in different parts of the planet and from different political viewpoints. This has been a great experience, and we're thrilled that so many well-known bloggers from around the world are participating.

So, when you check my blog throughout the Convention for the "Alaska view," make sure you click on the widget as well and see what bloggers from all over the country are experiencing. I think that collectively, we'll have the most comprehensive coverage ever seen!