Lots of exciting things have been happening around in the great big blogosphere for Run DMT.  First, my Noggin Workout was featured on Riding with No Hands-Weekend Roundup.

Then, Run DMT was featured in the Week in Review-Round Up at

Five Minutes for Special Needs.

All this love is a great ego boost, but I am surely going to get a big head and everyone knows a big head will slow down my pace!  Plus, I don’t think my running hat will fit anymore.  Note to self: Invest in a clip on visor for swelled head.

But wait!  There’s more!  While twittering the other day, I stumbled upon an interesting little twit bit.  Run DMT is listed as #66 on the Top 100 Healthy Mom Blogs!  Check it out!  This just validates what I’ve thought all along: Reading Run DMT is good for your health. So, keep reading, my friends.

And finally, Vicki from Secret Mom Thoughts gave me an Extraordinary and Awesome Award, which is another validation affirming my already highly overrated opinion of myself. 

Now with this award, I am instructed to pass it along to five other extraordinary and awesome bloggers.  So, here they are in no particular order:

Momisodes

A Daily Dose of Toni

Living the Dream

Running with a Bottle of Wine

More than an Electrician

Thanks for all the blogger love and giving me a big head!

xoxoxox

I’ve been pretty absent from the blogosphere for a few weeks. You may have noticed, since I know you are all desperately waiting for updates from Politicoholic all the time, and are so thrilled every time you see POLITICOHOLIC pop up in your reader. I know, I know! So now you have a post! Except not a real political one because this post is actually…all about me. Oops.

Anyways, as you may have gleaned from the title of this post, I have a few updates. First, I am now (finally) the proud possessor of a Bachelor’s degree. 

Also: I’m no longer going to Cambodia. But don’t be sad, because it was the best decision for me. And the reason for this is because…

I’m moving to Washington, DC next month. I got an offer to work with New Media Strategies, a great company that I’m really excited about. Plus, my job title has the word “online” in it and that’s already a fairly good indicator that I’m going to love my job. I start in mid-June, so I’ll be moving mid-June to Washington. 

The Cambodia situation got, for a number of reasons, too complicated to be logistically possible, to the point where I wasn’t feeling as excited about it but just stressed about it, which shouldn’t have been happening since it really was a great opportunity. So I knew then that it probably wasn’t the best thing for me anymore (in retrospect, such a good decision to get a refundable ticket). But now, I am moving to DC instead, which I am all excited about and not at all stressed about. Except when I think about apartment hunting, which is already turning out to be a pain in the ass.

(I AM, however, thrilled that I can finally be a REAL east-coast yuppie liberal tree-hugging hippie, instead of just sort of pretending in the Midwest.) 

So, if you live in DC (or New York, where I’ll also be spending some time briefly this month) let me know because I’m going to be there pretty soon. Yep, after living my whole life in Illinois I finally get to move to a new city!

Also, I’ve picked up a gig to do some freelance blogging for AOL. I’ll be blogging on their women’s-interest site, Lemondrop.com. They don’t have a ton of political content (yet), but that’s what I’m for. My first post there should be up soon. I will probably include links to any future Lemondrop posts here at Politicoholic as well.

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Anyways, I didn’t mean this post to be all self-promotional, but I want to add one note, because Akhila asked if I would write on how I got a job in this tough economy where the news is claiming something like 19% of  graduating seniors have found jobs.

First, I don’t believe that statistic, and you shouldn’t either, because it will do nothing except discourage you. 

Second, I got both the NMS job and the AOL blogging gig in part because of….wait for it…more blogging. I know for the majority of readers I am sort of preaching to the choir here, because a ton of the people that even read this blog are also bloggers. But really, it’s so valuable in helping you get where you want in your career, and it is unfortunate that my words are still totally lost on most college kids and recent grads who still turn their noses up at blogs.

Also, even more valuable are the people you meet. I wouldn’t have gotten a job if it weren’t for great people like Jen and Meg who helped me get my foot in the door at NMS, so thanks again, Jen and Meg. And I know Meg through Brazen Careerist, so thanks to Brazen for helping to connect people and creating a great network. See, someone I met through Brazen helped me get a job. That’s where the true value of that community lies — in the types of relationships it can help you build. (And I should note Meg was far from the only one who helped me in my job hunt…so thanks also to everyone else who helped me whether providing advice or insight or job leads or whatever else).

Nisha Chittal is a writer and journalist who currently serves as Associate Editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com and is a political columnist for UniversityChic.com. Her personal blog is Politicoholic, where she offers commentary on a range of topics, including but not limited to politics, technology, and the changing role of women and Generation Y in politics today.

I’m exhausted. I worked eleven hours today. And it wasn’t the work, but the emotional excitement and fatigue that comes with ideas and the wherewithal to execute on them.

I’m exhausted from putting myself out there and taking risks and worrying too much that I’m not doing the right things. I’m exhausted from working the entire weekend. I’m exhausted from missing my friends.

The last thing I want to do is write a blog post. But I made a promise to a fellow blogger. I made a promise to Dan Schawbel, author of Personal Branding Blog, and one of my first friends in the blogosphere. It’s appropriate that I made this promise to Dan because he is one of the hardest workers I know. And what I’ve been pushing myself to do the last few months, he has been doing much longer.

I met Dan in person when I was in Boston late last year, and he is a character. This doesn’t always come through in his blog, much to my dismay, because he is a great character. But Dan is masterful at crafting and presenting his own personal brand – a testament to his expertise on writing a blog on the same topic.

When you are done reading this post, Dan’s book will be out on Amazon. It’s called Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. And you should go buy it.

It’s the type of book I wish I had in college – I would have devoured every word. It’s the kind of book I wanted when I graduated and was lost and confused. It’s the kind of book I read now and still learn from.

But you should also buy it because Dan has been the type of person to say hi to me on gchat for no reason. He is the type of person to be ever-so-complimentary, even when he disagrees with me. He’s the type of person who will help without asking, who is innocent to drama, who believes in what he does more than the majority of people I know.

He is the type of person that – after so much work and dedication – deserves to succeed.

Here’s to your success, Dan. I hope everyone buys your book.

I love my blog for two reasons – 1) It’s my space to do whatever I want in, and 2) I get to share that space with an amazing community. I’d like to start 2009 with turning the spotlight on to that community.

This isn’t a list of my favorite Gen Y bloggers, or the most established, or the best or even the most under-appreciated. And I haven’t included a lot of people I really like. A lot. But looking into the Gen Y crystal ball, I see these fellow bloggers making waves in 2009. Here we go (in no particular order):

1. Politicoholic
Nisha Chittal is becoming rapidly well-known in the Gen Y blogging world. As an extremely talented writer, she easily won the Brazen Careerist blogging contest with this post.

2. Employee Evolution
Speaking of Brazen Careerist, the guys at Employee Evolution have had a tough time maintaining their blog since co-founding the company. But in 2009 that will change. Look for Ryan Paugh to split off and start his own blog here, and for Ryan Healy to re-commit to Employee Evolution with renewed energy.

3. The Schiff Report
Jaclyn Schiff illuminates Gen Y by discovering and commenting on interesting press clips, and more importantly, consistently providing a thought-provoking point of view.

4. WorkLoveLife
It would be hard not to include Holly Hoffman on this list. And it would be hard to imagine the Gen Y blogosphere without her snappy and sensational writing on oh-so-many revealing topics.

5. FeverBee
Richard Millington talks about ideas for building online communities. I discovered him through Chuck Westbrook’s “Under-Appreciated Blogs” series. Look for Millington to become the Seth Godin of our generation. Seriously.

6. Personal Branding
The real power of Dan Schawbel comes not from his blog, but his incredible passion which makes him one of the hardest-working Gen Y bloggers around. Watch for his book Me 2.0 to come out in early April of this year.

7. I Hate HR
Both witty and wise, Rachel Robbins’ posts are a short and cohesive snapshot of the HR world, something that I could care less about, but that she manages to make interesting.

8. The Office Newb
I love that Jacqui Tom challenges my opinions and forces me to synthesize my ideas. No, really, literally. And while I don’t always agree with her, she makes appealing arguments as a clever writer.

9. Girl Meets Business
It’s been easy to overlook Angela Marino’s consistently practical and solid advice, but with the launch of her fun and innovative 2009 YP Rockstar series, I know she will gain well-deserved attention.

Wait, one more…
10. Modite
I’m totally cheating. I know. Putting my own blog on my own list is completely self-involved. But I hear you when you say you want me to post more. And I will.

And finally a note about…
The Almost Royal
Sometimes people do things I don’t understand and should stay out of. Like when Sarah Pare deleted her blog. But I want her to come back. She was a favorite. Come back, Pare, we need you.

Who will you be watching in 2009?