Roll Out the Blogroll, part II

I got a couple of comments from bloggers whose sites I stuck up yesterday. I think I noted previously that sometimes blogging feels weird, like talking to yourself in a dark room. When you have no sense that anyone is reading what you've written, it seems pointless and self-involved. Getting an occasional comment makes all the difference. Eventually I'll figure out a way to monitor site traffic, but I haven't yet.

So here are today's additions:

Whiskey Fire Mostly Left Blogostan news, politics and opinion. They've got a funny post right now on how those of us who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy perceive the overall story differently from those who have grown up with the second trilogy as their first exposure. The first Star Wars movie came out the summer I graduated from high school; I went and watched that movie once a week for ten weeks. So I got a good chuckle out of this post. I have to admit I don't bother reading Molly Ivors' posts on Maureen Dowd anymore. Generally I find Dowd tedious- a well off NY, youngish-middle-aged semi-attractive woman who has no idea about the lives of the rest of us peons, but enough of a gift for gab to try and fail miserably over and over. But Poor Molly! I picture her with blood pressure so high that blood cells are oozing out her pores. Molly: just quit reading Dowd. Really, you'll be happier and healthier!

A Salute to Some Stuff This is one of those blogs that is not so busy- sometimes days go by between posts. But the quality! Yesterday's post on Alt-advertising is a case in point. There are a number of recurring themes I love such as politics with critters (here's an older post). Enough stories about friends and family to make me feel at home, rather than watching a newscast. Good laughs- I enjoy the "Doodles by Splotchy for Manx." Even though I've seen them dozens of times, they still lift my spirits- e.g. "Alien talking to predator on a rotary phone," and "A night owl punching an early bird."

I Was Just Wondering I commented to a person just a bit ago (and sort of implied two posts ago) that I enjoy puns. I had been reading this blog for months before it dawned on me that the blog's name is a pun: the blogger's name is Jess Wundrun. What a great name! This is another blog that has plenty of news and politics, but manages to convey a real sense of person, and allows the stranger to feel a growing sense of familiarity and friendship, a sense of feeling at home. The mundanities, the joys and, yes, the tragedies of life shine through here, and provide a context and counterpoint for the fury and despair and hope that is politics in the US these days. I learned quite a bit about insurance issues from the posts on the Midwest flooding earlier in June.

I, Splotchy A big favorite. Less on politics, but some- Splotchy developed the "Go Away, Bush" counter that I try to hit at least a couple of times every day. It recently passed 1000, and is now in the mid 1100 range. I'm going to try to figure out how to paste it here eventually, but haven't got to it yet. He's big into music, and just got back from NYC where he saw the Feelies perform. I hadn't heard of the group, but there was an article in the NYT on them, and it sounds like a great band I will track down eventually (actually, their music- live music tends to be too crowded and noisy for me to cope with, and nearly impossible for me to actually enjoy). He regularly posts couplets that are kind of intriguing- like, I know I've never seen these lines before, but they seem familiar. Splotchy is also the creator of the doodles I mentioned under "A Salute to Some Stuff;" you can see bunches of them if you click on the doodles button under his "highlights" list.

A Tiny Revolution More Left Side Stories. As you get accustomed to reading more and more news, politics and opinion, it's interesting to see how a story reverberates- one site will opine on another's opinion. ATR is a big player in this process. I suppose the right sees this just as I see them- self reinforcing, pig-headed, blind adherence to the hive mind. I can't stomach reading righty sites very often. But IMO, left sites argue and disagree with each other, and attempt to better understand a situation thereby- as opposed to the right, which looks to FOX news and Cheney for their cues and then follow. Humor is not all-important to me, but I do tend to remember and follow sites better if they give me an occasional giggle. Check this one out.

So that's my five for today. I want to point out again that the order of putting these up is contingent simply on the order I stuck them in my favorites list, not on which ones are "most favorite."