Write Back Weekend "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
I realize that these weekend entries are blurring the edges more and more as it becomes harder and harder to finish a decent post by the time the actual weekend rolls around. I swear, the summertime should, in theory, give you more time. I think the problem is that in the summer, I start to throw all budgeting of my actual time out the window, just because I can. As a result, you get last minute responses like these. What doesn't help matters is that my connection is suuuuper slow when I'm at home.
In short, I'm sorry.
Yet, somehow the time I've taken to respond to this post connects to the post itself. Last week I asked my loyal readers to introduce me to a few new blogging friends. I did this for multiple reasons. For one thing, I find that it is harder and harder to make connections in the blogging world. I think this is in part due to the large amount of blogs out there that one can choose to read. Suddenly it's very hard to stand out. If I can make any sort of analogy, blogs are like reality TV; very few of them are actually worth reading and even then it's very hard to hold your attention if you have any shred of ADD.
The other reason is because fewer people have a vested interest in this blog, I have found I have less of an interest lately in it myself. I never knew this about myself, but I enjoy writing for others. I mean I started writing with no one reading it and that was cool, but back then there were still the anticipation of new people finding the site and liking it, which they did and they...did. But then it becomes a game of living up to the hype, and to the quality of your last post and the post before that. This is another way blogging is like reality TV. In one moment you are today's sensation, but just as easily you become yesterday's news, even if your talent only ever bordered on the mediocre. If you don't believe me, just ask the Man Band.
That being said, I have taken the time to visit some of the blogs suggested to me although the suggestion process itself confused some. What follows is a list of blogs that I have visited, mostly as I type this post. Very few are going to show up on the actual blogroll yet as I need to see if we survive the courtship period, so to speak. Some are blogs I've been to before that I just added to my blogroll, others are blogs that were suggested to me for the first time this week. At any rate, since I'm visiting them now, I figured we could conduct a bit of an experiment to see just how many of them are as as entertaining AND as friendly as their blogging friends have made them out to be. Maybe you'll even find a few new blogs to check out too, via my suggestions or the ones who have done the suggesting. No pressure or anything, really.
Mia from Mom's At It Again made a few interesting suggestions. Technically Mia might seem like a new addition, but she's not really, she just changed digs. If you browse my blog roll, she also might be new to you so check her out too while you're at it.
But back to her suggestions.
The first blog she recommends is entitled, Temporarily Me. My first impression is that I really like this blog's design. It's simple, yet chic. I am a bit worried that she might not readily welcome me into the fold as she seems to be a mommy blogger. I have nothing against mommy bloggers, au contraire, but sometimes bloggers of a feather tend to flock together and all that jazz. I decided to comment on a post that dictates Matthew McConaughey is hot while Fabio is so not. This statement alone made me realize we really might not be so different after all.
Her second suggestion was a blog entitled, Space Your Face. I'm taken in by this blog instantly, mainly because it's a blog after my own heart, even using the first ever template I used when I started blogging (ahh, the good old days!) In the post I encountered, she's ranting about how lame men can be, especially when they are at bars. Discuss. (Since writing this part of the post, this blogger has already been to visit. Yeah! Only she linked to yet another blog of hers so it looks like she's moving already. Will the real space face please stand up?!:))
Moving on now to Becky from Searching For Oz's suggestions. First of all let me say that while I love Becky, she had to go and make it hard for me by including names of blogs she recommended, but no actual links. This required the extra step of going back to her blog and hunting them down on her blogroll for myself. Had to make me "search for oz", didn't you Becky?:)
First up here, Sizzle Says. I had a hard time finding this blog at first because it looks like Becky's link is wrong so heads up to her. After finding the blog, however, I'm having blogger's deja vu as I'm sure I've been here before in some blogging life or another. In her top post she simply links to a video by The Weepies for a song called "The World Spins Madly On". I love this song. I loved it before I ever visited Sizzle. So with Sizzle, you get two recommendations, a new blog and possibly a new song. So there.
Becky went on to recommend two other blogs, Logtar and Inn of the Last Home. Logtar's first post seems to be geek oriented literature of the tech guy variety. Me thinks he'd get along better with my fiance than with me. However, if you keep scrolling down, it looks like Logtar fancies himself a good meme from time to time. If that's the case, maybe we will have a future TITMT participator in our midst. At Inn of the Last Home I discovered a home cooked meal waiting, how appropo. also discovered another meme maker and a lover of baseball. Oh well, as Meatloaf once said, two out of three ain't bad.
Anyone who has been visiting AOGB for sometime now is familiar with MCF and maybe even the contributions of Rey. More interesting is that not one, but both of them decided to recommend B13's photoblog to me. They say a picture says a thousand words and from a quick glance at his blog, it looks like B13 has a lot to say. I already added him to the blogroll as we've already interacted a bit and he comes approved by two out of two bloggers and really how can you ignore a recommendation like that?
Edwin McCain lover Monica suggested two new blogs as well. First up, My So-Called Strife whose title reminds me of the late, great My So-Called Life as does anything so-called by the way. I also was instantly taken in by the blog's warning label: This blog contains concentrated doses of sarcasm, pop culture references and bitter, caustic realities. Viewer discretion is advised. Sarcasm? Pop culture? Bitter realities? Stop right there. I wanna know right now, will you love me forever?
Monica's second recommendation is Okay Seriously, yet another blog that uses ye olde template. As I started to read the post at the top entitled, "Put It In Your Bay" I thought wait, maybe this IS me, as she apologized for long posts...and then proceeded to write a long post anyway. So far this Sarah chick seems like good folk to me.
Then there is The Write Jerry who, in Abe Vigoda fashion, reminded me neither he nor his blog are dead. He also went on to tell me about two new blogs that he has since started, Bent Sense and HairyU. Bent Sense has a cool format and once you get past the Alice In Wonderland post style, you realize this blog has all the great content without the lame layout. HairyU, on the other hand, actually scares the hell out of me. I'm sorry Jerry, I ain't hating, I'm just not gonna lie. In his own words, this site is, ..."My social network experiment centered on people showing off their hair styles (anything goes except hair on the privates, so beards and weird body hair are welcome) and sharing hair tips." All I can say here is seeing my friends, is believing.
Sometimes perception is everything. Apple took my blog post and put an interesting spin on it. She used it on her blog as suggested each week, but she actually put her recommendations for ME up THERE. I thought this was a great way to have the bloggers she recommended know that she pointed them in my direction. In that respect she's paying homage to both them and me. Pretty clever that Apple is!
Her suggestions included House of Lime, Hillbilly Mansion, The Educational Tour Marm and Walking the Berkshires.
House of Lime was first up on my tour where there seems to be a little something for everybody. In her most recent post she's talking about attending an ice cream party at a farm. Who doesn't love at least one of these things? I can tell you at least 42 people love lime (give or take a few) as she had quite a few comments on this post alone. I learned in one little post that she has great taste, and has great friends as well.
Apple included Hillbilly Mansion because she is a teacher who likes to be sarcastic. Sold! In her first post she's talking about laundry and back to school, two things I am quite fluent in. Now we're off to visit The Educational Tour Marm. Once again, Apple tried to appeal to the sense of the teacher in me. This site really does look like a virtual brochure for field trips galore. It's all the fun without the huge budget and pain in the ass busing! Finally we have Walking the Berkshires which is another personal blog routed in history and culture. I completely admire blogs like these, but I am always at a loss for what to say. After all, I have a degree in POP culture which is a whole other ball game entirely.
Rounding out the mix are what I refer to as the confused souls. These people didn't really link to anyone, but they are all relatively new here, so I figured I'd take a moment or two to point them out, too. First there's Sue of The Torn Pages who didn't really link to anyone, but lamented that she too hates when bloggers disappear so I figured her kindred spirit might make her a welcome addition here.
Then there was Mr. B-G's English Blog who also seemed to link with reckless abandon. He is a teacher though who has already blogrolled me so I found him to be a welcome addition as I always love to find new teachers, especially at the beginning of a school year since it's like a new slate for teachers so all stories can be followed from the beginning, as it was meant to be.
Finally we close with Kerri Anne who also has been here before and I've been there. I know she was confused about the format, but she was very apologetic about her confusion which was refreshing to say the least. We all make mistakes, it takes a big blogger to poke fun at them. I love her site too. She writes about the mundane in a non mundane way, if that makes any sense at all.
So there you have it. The list of blogs you and I should both be reading according to, YOU. Join me on my journey as I find out which ones are finders keepers and which (if any) are loser's weepers.
In short, I'm sorry.
Yet, somehow the time I've taken to respond to this post connects to the post itself. Last week I asked my loyal readers to introduce me to a few new blogging friends. I did this for multiple reasons. For one thing, I find that it is harder and harder to make connections in the blogging world. I think this is in part due to the large amount of blogs out there that one can choose to read. Suddenly it's very hard to stand out. If I can make any sort of analogy, blogs are like reality TV; very few of them are actually worth reading and even then it's very hard to hold your attention if you have any shred of ADD.
The other reason is because fewer people have a vested interest in this blog, I have found I have less of an interest lately in it myself. I never knew this about myself, but I enjoy writing for others. I mean I started writing with no one reading it and that was cool, but back then there were still the anticipation of new people finding the site and liking it, which they did and they...did. But then it becomes a game of living up to the hype, and to the quality of your last post and the post before that. This is another way blogging is like reality TV. In one moment you are today's sensation, but just as easily you become yesterday's news, even if your talent only ever bordered on the mediocre. If you don't believe me, just ask the Man Band.
That being said, I have taken the time to visit some of the blogs suggested to me although the suggestion process itself confused some. What follows is a list of blogs that I have visited, mostly as I type this post. Very few are going to show up on the actual blogroll yet as I need to see if we survive the courtship period, so to speak. Some are blogs I've been to before that I just added to my blogroll, others are blogs that were suggested to me for the first time this week. At any rate, since I'm visiting them now, I figured we could conduct a bit of an experiment to see just how many of them are as as entertaining AND as friendly as their blogging friends have made them out to be. Maybe you'll even find a few new blogs to check out too, via my suggestions or the ones who have done the suggesting. No pressure or anything, really.
Mia from Mom's At It Again made a few interesting suggestions. Technically Mia might seem like a new addition, but she's not really, she just changed digs. If you browse my blog roll, she also might be new to you so check her out too while you're at it.
But back to her suggestions.
The first blog she recommends is entitled, Temporarily Me. My first impression is that I really like this blog's design. It's simple, yet chic. I am a bit worried that she might not readily welcome me into the fold as she seems to be a mommy blogger. I have nothing against mommy bloggers, au contraire, but sometimes bloggers of a feather tend to flock together and all that jazz. I decided to comment on a post that dictates Matthew McConaughey is hot while Fabio is so not. This statement alone made me realize we really might not be so different after all.
Her second suggestion was a blog entitled, Space Your Face. I'm taken in by this blog instantly, mainly because it's a blog after my own heart, even using the first ever template I used when I started blogging (ahh, the good old days!) In the post I encountered, she's ranting about how lame men can be, especially when they are at bars. Discuss. (Since writing this part of the post, this blogger has already been to visit. Yeah! Only she linked to yet another blog of hers so it looks like she's moving already. Will the real space face please stand up?!:))
Moving on now to Becky from Searching For Oz's suggestions. First of all let me say that while I love Becky, she had to go and make it hard for me by including names of blogs she recommended, but no actual links. This required the extra step of going back to her blog and hunting them down on her blogroll for myself. Had to make me "search for oz", didn't you Becky?:)
First up here, Sizzle Says. I had a hard time finding this blog at first because it looks like Becky's link is wrong so heads up to her. After finding the blog, however, I'm having blogger's deja vu as I'm sure I've been here before in some blogging life or another. In her top post she simply links to a video by The Weepies for a song called "The World Spins Madly On". I love this song. I loved it before I ever visited Sizzle. So with Sizzle, you get two recommendations, a new blog and possibly a new song. So there.
Becky went on to recommend two other blogs, Logtar and Inn of the Last Home. Logtar's first post seems to be geek oriented literature of the tech guy variety. Me thinks he'd get along better with my fiance than with me. However, if you keep scrolling down, it looks like Logtar fancies himself a good meme from time to time. If that's the case, maybe we will have a future TITMT participator in our midst. At Inn of the Last Home I discovered a home cooked meal waiting, how appropo. also discovered another meme maker and a lover of baseball. Oh well, as Meatloaf once said, two out of three ain't bad.
Anyone who has been visiting AOGB for sometime now is familiar with MCF and maybe even the contributions of Rey. More interesting is that not one, but both of them decided to recommend B13's photoblog to me. They say a picture says a thousand words and from a quick glance at his blog, it looks like B13 has a lot to say. I already added him to the blogroll as we've already interacted a bit and he comes approved by two out of two bloggers and really how can you ignore a recommendation like that?
Edwin McCain lover Monica suggested two new blogs as well. First up, My So-Called Strife whose title reminds me of the late, great My So-Called Life as does anything so-called by the way. I also was instantly taken in by the blog's warning label: This blog contains concentrated doses of sarcasm, pop culture references and bitter, caustic realities. Viewer discretion is advised. Sarcasm? Pop culture? Bitter realities? Stop right there. I wanna know right now, will you love me forever?
Monica's second recommendation is Okay Seriously, yet another blog that uses ye olde template. As I started to read the post at the top entitled, "Put It In Your Bay" I thought wait, maybe this IS me, as she apologized for long posts...and then proceeded to write a long post anyway. So far this Sarah chick seems like good folk to me.
Then there is The Write Jerry who, in Abe Vigoda fashion, reminded me neither he nor his blog are dead. He also went on to tell me about two new blogs that he has since started, Bent Sense and HairyU. Bent Sense has a cool format and once you get past the Alice In Wonderland post style, you realize this blog has all the great content without the lame layout. HairyU, on the other hand, actually scares the hell out of me. I'm sorry Jerry, I ain't hating, I'm just not gonna lie. In his own words, this site is, ..."My social network experiment centered on people showing off their hair styles (anything goes except hair on the privates, so beards and weird body hair are welcome) and sharing hair tips." All I can say here is seeing my friends, is believing.
Sometimes perception is everything. Apple took my blog post and put an interesting spin on it. She used it on her blog as suggested each week, but she actually put her recommendations for ME up THERE. I thought this was a great way to have the bloggers she recommended know that she pointed them in my direction. In that respect she's paying homage to both them and me. Pretty clever that Apple is!
Her suggestions included House of Lime, Hillbilly Mansion, The Educational Tour Marm and Walking the Berkshires.
House of Lime was first up on my tour where there seems to be a little something for everybody. In her most recent post she's talking about attending an ice cream party at a farm. Who doesn't love at least one of these things? I can tell you at least 42 people love lime (give or take a few) as she had quite a few comments on this post alone. I learned in one little post that she has great taste, and has great friends as well.
Apple included Hillbilly Mansion because she is a teacher who likes to be sarcastic. Sold! In her first post she's talking about laundry and back to school, two things I am quite fluent in. Now we're off to visit The Educational Tour Marm. Once again, Apple tried to appeal to the sense of the teacher in me. This site really does look like a virtual brochure for field trips galore. It's all the fun without the huge budget and pain in the ass busing! Finally we have Walking the Berkshires which is another personal blog routed in history and culture. I completely admire blogs like these, but I am always at a loss for what to say. After all, I have a degree in POP culture which is a whole other ball game entirely.
Rounding out the mix are what I refer to as the confused souls. These people didn't really link to anyone, but they are all relatively new here, so I figured I'd take a moment or two to point them out, too. First there's Sue of The Torn Pages who didn't really link to anyone, but lamented that she too hates when bloggers disappear so I figured her kindred spirit might make her a welcome addition here.
Then there was Mr. B-G's English Blog who also seemed to link with reckless abandon. He is a teacher though who has already blogrolled me so I found him to be a welcome addition as I always love to find new teachers, especially at the beginning of a school year since it's like a new slate for teachers so all stories can be followed from the beginning, as it was meant to be.
Finally we close with Kerri Anne who also has been here before and I've been there. I know she was confused about the format, but she was very apologetic about her confusion which was refreshing to say the least. We all make mistakes, it takes a big blogger to poke fun at them. I love her site too. She writes about the mundane in a non mundane way, if that makes any sense at all.
So there you have it. The list of blogs you and I should both be reading according to, YOU. Join me on my journey as I find out which ones are finders keepers and which (if any) are loser's weepers.
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