You will never have to pay to be listed as a top neighbor. Period. That important detail clarified, let's discuss how we arrive at two "top neighbors" for a given region:
Localism is a bustling collection of hyper-local communities, and the top neighbors should reflect those members who are most active. When ranking users in a given region, several factors are considered. To get your foot in the proverbial door, you need to have posted at least one "Localism" article or photo for the region.
The very best way to quickly rise to #1 is to post high-quality local content. Keeping a steady strem of incoming posts and photos will massively tilt the scales in your favor.
What doesn't count toward the top neighbor ranking? ActiveRain points and community sponsorships. The top neighbor spots will always go to the most active members in a region. We want to create a level playing field that encourages the growth of communities — talent and dedication are required to win the day.
Halloween and the Creepy Crawly Festival at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
If you have so much fun with Halloween that you would like to prolong it a couple of weeks, you need to check out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Creepy Crawly Festival.
Not only will you find the typical Halloween decorations done to the extreme — spiders and spiderwebs, ghosts, goblins, ghouls — but on weekends through November 13, you'll enjoy things that you never thought you'd enjoy, such as
lady bug releases — who can resist the cuteness of little ladybugs?
a cockroach petting zoo — uh, okay.
a bug show and demonstrations on the proper techniques of bug feeding — you mean we're not supposed to just squash them?
a bird show and the proper techniques of feeding them — birds I can handle.
a special walkway covered in spider webs and featuring exhibits of scorpions and spiders, including those big spiders, the tarantulas — at least they are not going to demonstrate how to feed them properly!
If you'd like to see me at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, don't look for me at the Creepy Crawly Festival. I'll be over relaxing with the gorillas.
Calling all cats. Calling all cats. — Please put a picture of your cats in this post. We're trying to get as many cat pictures as possible by the end of 2010.
This is one of a series titled Out & About San Diego with Jim Frimmer, your Mission Valley Realtor. Read others in this series right here.
♪♫♫☺♫♫♪
About 45 miles north northeast of downtown San Diego is the Wild Animal Park.
The Wild Animal Park is part of the Zoological Society of San Diego, which also operates the San Diego Zoo, but at 1,800 acres, the Wild Animal Park is about 18 times larger than the San Diego Zoo.
Many people don't realize that in addition to being world-class zoos, both facilities are also internationally recognized botanical gardens. Together they have over one million plants on about 1,900 acres.
One of the best collections at the Wild Animal Park is the Epiphyllum House.
All of the plants in the Epiphyllum House have been donated by the San Diego Epiphyllum Society, which also maintains them.
Epiphyllums are native to Central America and are part of the cactus family, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a thorn on these plants. Beautiful, fragrant flowers are not all that epiphyllums have to offer, though, since the fruits are edible.
The Epiphyllum House is closed except when the plants are blooming, which usually begins around April and runs for several months. That, of course, means that mid-May — right now! — is prime viewing time. The common name for epiphyllums is orchid cactus, and you'll understand why when you watch the slide show below.
Support your starving ActiveRain artist! Try RusselRayPhotos.com for inexpensive photos.
♫♪♫♫♪♫
Recent blog posts:
Calling all cats. Calling all cats. - Please put a picture of your cats in this post. We're trying to get as many cat pictures as possible by the end of 2010.
ActiveRain Corp. is not responsible for the accuracy of the site's content (which is written by members of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network) and does not endorse the views of the real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and others listed here.
If you have so much fun with Halloween that you would like to prolong it a couple of weeks, you need to check out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Creepy Crawly Festival.
lady bug releases — who can resist the cuteness of little ladybugs?
