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Tash, the blogger at Palos Verdes Daily Photo, has been documenting life on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for about a year as part of the City Daily Photo network.

Tash describes herself as "almost an LA native," moving to Los Angeles from Yugoslavia in 1970 when she was 12. She grew up and became a Boeing engineer and married a man from the hill and moved to Rancho Palos Verdes in 1987. She shares her home with a teenage son, a golden retriever and a couple of cats.

Here's our Q&A with Tash:

When and why did you start the blog?
I started the blog in May of 2008. I found out about blogs from a close friend about a year before that who started a dog picture & haiku blog. At that time, I didn't have anything I wanted to post. In spring of 2008, I searched for information on my home town in Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia) of Tuzla, and found the Tuzla Daily Photo and the City Daily Photo community. After following a few of the City DP sites for a month, I decided to start a PVDP to show off this part of the world in photos.

A photo a day is kind of a big commitment. Do you shoot every day or do
you have archives you pull from?
I shoot every day and take a lot more photos than I could possibly post since the "rules" for CDP posts are one photo a day. Also a lot of the photos are in the snapshot category so they never make it to the blog.  Usually I post the most recent photos but at times I do pull from archives if the subject for that day feels appropriate. Blogging does take a lot of time, from taking the photos, to selecting what to post, and then to looking at other blogs and making comments. I have done it for almost a year now and do find
it very rewarding to connect with people from all over the world.

Do you set out to shoot something specific or do you just carry a
camera and wait for inspiration?
The camera is always by my side since the changing light or an interesting shot can be found at any time. (I get a bit of flak for that from family and friends.) But I do also go
to shoot specific subjects. I've been interested in Palos Verdes historical buildings and those I will go out and shoot specifically. Also, the coastline photos, I will make a special effort to go shoot interesting clouds or sunsets.

Do you have a favorite place to take pictures?
I really enjoy taking photos is at and around Malaga Cove Plaza because of the history
associated with that area. But there are so many other beautiful views on the hill that I enjoy so it's pretty tough to choose just one spot.

What has been your most popular post?
My most popular posts were unusual photographs of sunsets - a more recent one of the a dark road (PV Drive East)  with the full moon in the front and a colorful sunset caught in the side mirror of my car, with a car's headlights heading toward me.

Is there anything you've posted that you later regretted?
I have posted a photo of a wall with interesting colors and shadows that had the name
of a ubiquitous coffeehouse. I immediately got two very negative comments and replaced the post. Blogging is a balance of individual expression and what the blog visitors like to see, so I do shy away from unpopular posts or subjects.

What kind of photo equipment do you use?
For now, I've been very happy with my high end point & shoot Canon PowerShot SX100 IS (8.0 megapixels). I've learned from a couple of really good CityDailyPhoto
photographers (Dusty Lens from Minnesota's Twin Cities area and
Babooshka of Ramsey Daily Photo) and later from reading books such as
The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby to shoot in highest pixel
mode and invest in a large memory card. Maybe next year I will upgrade
to an SLR. The point & shoot cameras are just so handy and easy to
carry around, so it will be a tradeoff between convenience with low
cost and quality with high cost.

Do you have any tips for budding photographers?
To improve one's photography, nothing beats looking at other photographers work. I
mentioned two blogs already, but some other amazing ones are Arona
Every Day, Seattle Daily Photo, and Helsinki Daily Photo. However,
blogging is only one part photo - the other part is the write-up that
goes with the photo. Some of my other favorites are A Yankee in
Belgrade DP, Birmingham, Alabama DP, South Pasadena DP, Pasadena
Adjacent, Altadena Hiker, and two other South Bay blogs: Creative
Vignettes and Taste With the Eyes. My other tip would be to just to take a lot of photos, of the same subject, from slightly different angles or location -- because the best photo may not be the one that
initially seemed to be great, and with digital photography, mistakes are free!

What is your favorite thing about the Palos Verdes Peninsula?Location, location, location and the natural beauty of the place. I really do20
feel very fortunate to be able to live here. I think that it's a
wonderful community to live in.

What drives you crazy about living here?
I really don't like all the development that seems unchecked that is going on, especially the non-residential development since we have a lot of empty retail space already. I am grateful for the Land Conservancy Organization that's preserving at least some of the original landscape of the peninsula.

Do you sell your photos?I am very much an amateur photographer so I'm not sure anyone would want to buy the photos. But if there is anyone, I'll be happy to sell them.

Name three blogs or Web sites you love.
City Daily Photo (a portal of all 800+ daily photo bloggers), Big
Orange Landmarks, who is
"exploring the landmarks of Los Angeles, one monument at a time" and
Astronomy Picture of the Day. But
there are so many more blogs that I think are noteworthy and these can
be found under My Profile - Blogs I Follow.

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The St. Petersburg Times reports:

Two of the biggest news stories about the Department of Veterans Affairs in recent months didn't come from the newsrooms of The New York Times or The Washington Post. Or from any newsroom.

They came from Larry Scott's cluttered living room in Vancouver, Wash., where the Army veteran and former radio newscaster pursues a part-time vocation, a blog called VAWatchdog.org.

In an age of shrinking news organizations with ever-dwindling numbers of reporters covering the VA, Scott's 5-year-old blog is filling a role that once fell exclusively to traditional media.

He's breaking national stories -- stories with an impact.

Late last year, Scott broke the news that VA employees were shredding veteran-claims documents, an embarrassing revelation that ultimately led the agency to change its policy on how documents are handled.

Then last month, VAWatchdog was the first to report a VA computer bug that caused incorrect patient information to be displayed on computers.

At times, it seems as if the VA doesn't know exactly what to do with Scott, 62. He said the VA often ignores his calls.

"They do not look at me as part of the legitimate media," Scott said. "I work very hard to maintain the integrity of the Web site. I don't deal with fiction or rumors. The VA hasn't figured that out yet."

For the VA, it is getting more difficult to ignore Scott, especially when the staff of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs chairman, Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, reads VAWatchdog.

In fact, after the blog broke the shredding story, Filner sent an e-mail to Scott promising to investigate -- another Scott scoop.

VA officials did not return calls to comment on VAWatchdog.

VAWatchdog does what many blogs do. Scott includes the VA news of the day from a variety of media outlets. He offers occasional commentary. Once in a while, he even praises the VA.
Scott said he provides accurate information to help veterans "connect the dots" and understand their benefits.

"No black helicopters here," Scott said. "This is not a 'hate the VA' Web site. I think the VA provides the best health care in the United States. We point out the VA's weaknesses and hopefully stir things up enough to get people involved in the system."

After four years in the Army in the post-Vietnam era, Scott spent a career working as a radio newscaster, including a stint at WNBC in New York City. He now operates a photo-restoration business with his wife, Marie.

Scott said his Web site gets 1.2 million page views per month. He sells ads and merchandise to pay expenses. Jim Wright, 62, an Army and Navy veteran in New Port Richey, Fla., said he reads Scott's blog every day.

"The thing you've got to like about it is that he's not anti-VA," Wright said. "Some veterans are bitter and have nothing good to say about the VA. He isn't one of them. But he doesn't sugarcoat things. He holds them accountable."

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said amateur blogs are capable of excellent reporting.

"The danger with blogs is that there are no rules," said Rosenstiel, who is unfamiliar with VAWatchdog. "A blog that one day may do work that is very journalistic in nature the next day may have a slanderous post about someone's child being ugly."

Scott, himself a VA patient, said he recognizes that danger and works hard to get things right.
"Right now, I guess I'm an outsider," Scott said. "That's fine with me."

He was 16 when he left Marina del Rey on June 14 on a quest to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo by yacht. He's 17 now and despite numerous adventures that have included a broken tiller and a broken boom, a pirate scare, storms and a communication loss that had his parents on the verge of calling for a search party, Zac Sunderland is on track to complete his mission before he turns 18.

He's been on a stopover for repairs and rest in Durban, South Africa, and his latest blog entry tells us he planned to leave Saturday morning for the next leg of his journey, a relatively short but hazardous 250 miles around the Cape of Good Hope. "I have made some good friends in Durban which makes it hard to leave," Zac says.

In addition to his blog, Zac's Web site offers photos of his adventures, FAQs about his journey and his yacht, Intrepid, and YouTube videos of his life at sea.

Noah Galuten spent the past three months eating his way around the world -- all within a day's drive of his Santa Monica apartment.

The Associated Press reports:

The 25-year-old playwright was broke and unemployed when he decided to eat cuisine from a different country every day and write about it on his "Man Bites World" Web site.

Galuten figured he could stomach 60 traditional dishes from a different country on consecutive days until he ran out of options and was sated. But the project took him further than he ever imagined, stamping his culinary passport with food from 102 cultures by his final bite of Slovakian poppy seed cake more than three months later.

That he could cross so many borders so close to home is both a testament to Los Angeles' cultural melting pot and the help he got from strangers who invited him into their homes to share traditional meals. "If there's anywhere you should be more inclusive, it's eating," he said.

The final feast -- plum brandy, roasted chestnuts, sheep milk feta with paprika and caraway, homemade gnocchi, and a traditional Christmas soup -- was home-cooked by Peter Simon, a Slovakian immigrant who offered his homeland's best.

The end tasted bitter and sweet: The adventure was over, but he was relieved because it was exhausting -- and expensive.

The international noshing left Galuten with $4,000 in credit card debt, which he hopes to erase by writing a book about his experiences. His girlfriend, Jackie Honikman, 25, a Web designer who covered his rent and other costs, gained about 15 pounds.

When the experiment came to a close this month after he failed to find Somalian food, he returned to his own roots, where he was comforted by a childhood treat -- turkey Bolognese cooked by his mom.

• The San Francisco Chronicle reported on this paper alternative:

The eco-friendly company Fwrap, maker of fabric book covers and gift wrap, has a new line of packaging for the holidays, the Petals collection.

Fwrap uses remnants and scraps of fabric in ways that will make the giver want an equally well-wrapped gift in return. In fact, true friends will use their newly acquired Fwraps on gifts for the person who gave them.

The Petals collection contains irises and tulips.

The Fwraps range from $8 to $13.

• If you're looking to save some green while being green, consider recycling old calendars as wrapping paper or plucking decorations for your packages from your yard. Get six more eco-friendly wrapping options at the Office Supplies blog.

• If you choose to stick with more traditional gift wrap, here's one more tip, from the Eco Chick blog: "Avoid wrapping paper with foil accents. Metallic and foil papers usually can't be recycled, and in some recycling facilities, if they end up in the mix with other paper, they can ruin a whole batch, making it totally unusable."

How does Erin Pettingill, a wife and mother, handle her new-found fame as a maven of scrimping and saving?

Find out through her blog, I Am Frugal. Pettingill, of Provo, Utah, is now a national name thanks to a recent story by The Associated Press.

On I Am Frugal, Pettingill tips off her readers about coupon deals, sales and specials at supermarkets and drugstores, and other assorted freebies and promotions.

If these baleful economic times — or the passion to procure people-pleasing presents — have you pinching pennies and wringing dollars for all their worth, consult I Am Frugal's frequently asked questions page as a primer to find possible savings.

Do you have a confession to make about a purchase you shouldn't have made?

Whether it's the $600 treadmill you bought on a credit card, then used as a really expensive clothes hanger, or that collection of pricey handbags you just had to have, Spendster.org is the place to bare your frivolous soul.

A new site from the National Endowment for Financial Education, a nonprofit that aims to help people learn about handling money, Spendster.org is intended to give people a place where they can admit poor spending habits as a way to develop better ones.

Posted videos range from walks with a shaky handheld camera through an apartment loaded with unused appliances and sporting equipment to a slickly produced visit with a woman whose penchant for buying new shoes threatens her dream trip to Italy.

It's subtitled, "The sad tale of a girl who traded what she wanted most for what she wanted at the moment."

The videos have many similar punchlines. "Everything was on sale," says one woman at the end of a film of her shopping her heart out. "I went over my budget, but it was all on sale."

Another features a woman who admits her habit of buying large cups of Diet Coke each day at a convenience store, which she calculates equals about $90 a month, or $1,080 per year, or $10,800 over 10 years. "Gee, that's a lot of money down the drain," she concludes.

Beyond the entertainment of sharing in other people's spending mistakes, the site offers users a chance to calculate how much they spent on things they didn't need. It also shows them how much it would have cost if they put it on a credit card, versus how much they could have earned if the money was invested or put in a savings account. There's a page that offers advice for shoppers before they head out to the store and a space to enter comments about personal revelations regarding wasteful spending.

As the site's advice page, "More Stuff," notes, "Sometimes, after you've thought about it more, you realize you really don't want to spend that money."

Twitter, which dared to ask the world "What are you doing?", is now asking the multitudes to give on-the-ground reports of today's votes.

Twitter Vote Report, http://twittervotereport.com, gives up-to-the-minute reports of the 2008 election at the voting precincts.

Specifically, it asks users to submit information about how ballot locations are running.

Cell-phone-wielding Tweeters can text in reports of how long lines are and whether there are problems with machines or registration rolls.

To see how to enter information to the report, the codes and instruction videos are available at http://twittervotereport.com/how-to-help/.

If worse comes to worst, instructions on how to get help from the Election Protection Coalition are available at www.866ourvote.org.

The nonpartisan group gathers and provides information on voting irregularities and has election rules on its Web site.

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After dozens of best-selling novels, Danielle Steel still has words to spare: She's starting a blog.

"It's like a letter to a friend, and fun to be able share something and say, 'Gee I did this,' " says Steel, 61, whose run of hits includes three this year alone: "Honor Thyself," "Rogue" and "A Good Woman."

"I've remained very remote and very private, partly because of all my kids (nine). They're bigger now and I would like to communicate with my readers in a more informal way, not just through the list of my accomplishments on my publisher's Web site.

In a recent interview from her home in San Francisco, Steel launched her blog Wednesday. She expects to post entries once a week, or more often "if I get excited about something."

An acknowledged technophobe who writes on a 1946 typewriter, Steel says her children dragged her into the computer age, inspiring her to take a closer look at what is written on the Internet.

She is not always impressed. "Some are very interesting, but some are so inane -- unknown people telling you what they do every day, which is even more boring than what I do every day."

But she will play nice on her blog.

"I want it to be friendly and positive," she says. "I have seen some of the blogs being highly critical about people and highly nasty. I don't like that in life; it's just not necessary. Life is hard enough without being sour on top of it."

And so far she's true to her word. On Friday she blogged about her "extremely silly sense of humor," which she says her children inherited:

April Fool('s Day) is a nightmare at our house. Every year, at least two of the unmarried ones call to tell me that they're pregnant, and three to say they're in jail. And I always fall for the first three calls until I realize what day it is.

Mervyns, a venerable name in retailing, announced it is writing the final chapter on its legacy as a department store — Chapter 7. The chain's owners announced that all of its 149 stores will be liquidated by the holidays, including three local stores in Redondo Beach, Torrance and Westchester. See the Daily Breeze article and South Bay Biz Waves item.

Once Mervyns departs, most of its stores will leave behind what retail enthusiasts — there is such a subculture, we kid you not — call a "labelscar," a faded marking of the logo once the sign has been removed.

Labelscar, is also the name of a blog about the history of retailers. The impending demise of Mervyn's is dominating the chatter among the retail enthusiasts.

Labelscar also tracks the whereabouts of past and present retailers and publishes reviews of malls throughout the country, including a write-up of the South Bay Galleria.