Creek Running North

http://robeandbowl.blogspot.com/

Do you read Soen Joon Sunim?  She blogs from a Zen Nunnery in Korea, where she’s recently received ordination—eloquent & smart as a whip.  She walks the walk.  And I have a sneaking suspicion she’ll be back in America someday rocking the political boat.

I like this young lady: Pesky Apostrophe http://www.peskyapostrophe.com/

She writes about knitting sometimes, and while I’m not interested in that, it’s neat to see the stuff she’s making from scratch.

But usually she writes about politics, life, funny stuff that happens at her job, all in an open, slightly cutting, tone. She describes her cubicle at work as a “veal pen,” for instance, and one of her coworkers who habitually wears overly revealing clothing is Wet Panties Girl. Her husband is Mr. Fish, and one of the departments at work is the I Can Kill Puppies Too division.

Oh, yargh, also while you have all this free-from-favorite-blog time, you might consider READING AT LEAST ONE OF THE SAMPLE CHAPTERS I’VE SENT YOU.

Nudge, nudge.

Or you could feed my trolls.

I go to http://girlsarepretty.com every day and am told what to do.

You do read Cosmic Variance do you not???? If not do so please and add your commentary to the conversations.  One of their bloggers lives across the Bay (and south) of you, running the linear collider at Stanford. 
Visit CosmicVariance!

Rob Rummel-Hudson’s journal-now-blog is among my favorites. A little over 2 years ago, he and his wife discovered that their daughter has Congenital Bilateral Perisylvian Syndrome, a brain malformation that will prevent her from ever being able to speak. He writes about parenting a child with a disorder that no one knows much about, online support phenomena, life in Texas, writing, photography, and a host of other things.

His journal, which covers the last several years up to about mid-March 2006 is at:
http://www.darn-tootin.com

And more recently, he’s been blogging at:
http://belovedmonsterandme.blogspot.com/

And, since he himself was recently diagnosed with diabetes:
http://www.diabetesnotes.com/

You could read mine, if you like. I just found yours, and I like it immensely. I promise nothing in the way of genres or concrete topics or systematic musings. The only words that might unite the meanderings of my blog are: mind, me, and philosophy-of-me. I’m on a quest - and quests are messy - but I don’t mind lookers-on.

http://praxical.blogsome.com.

The only words that might unite the meanderings of my blog are: mind, me, and philosophy-of-me.

So you’ve taken my blog mission and added “mind” to it, eh? Interesting.

Huh. I’d forgotten until I read CMD’s comment above that it was her who’d turned me on to RHH’s stuff. Thanks, CMD!

(apologies if this appears twice: for some reason when I submitted it, the comment vanished).

Anyway, two blogs I think deserve wider attention are Larry’s botanizing and Debbie’s Spots_of_Time.  I find both to be erudite, thoughtful, and very well written.

State of Grace

Octopus’ Garden. I only found it today but I recommend it anyway.

And it’s only four months. You’ll be okay.

You couldn’t do better than Barista.

Laputan Logic is also a joy. (Check out this wonderful post starting with the famous refusal of british scientists to accept that the platypus was real, and segueing into little-known facts about mermaids)

Sternezine is a personal/political blog which makes me shake jellylike with laughter.

I don’t have any particular suggestion to add, but I do want to thank you for turning me on to Kat’s blog, because it’s great.  I’m bummed that she’s taking a break, and I just found her!  At least I can peruse the archives while she’s at the monastery.

Open Brackets

It’s a nice gesture, to invite people to share their work, and I am enjoying UP! I enjoy affirming work but will pimp my angry blog anyway, which I wrote during an angry at the world period. The Austin Chronicle reviewed it and came away with the impression “one dram could dissolve the gates of hell.” So it’s not for everyone, but
those who endure seem significantly impacted.

http://www.troublewaits.com

If i could find the blogroll i would not have suggested Cosmic Variance, since it was on there.  Another of my favorites is Preemptive Karma, a more local Portland and Oregon blog but hosts at least one voice from Alabama.  Find them at:  http://preemptivekarma.com/

and if they are on your blogroll already too, well then i retire in appreciation of your good tastes.

Since Cosmic Variance is already on the blogroll, I’ll plump for Cocktail Party Physics and inkycircus:

http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/

http://www.inkycircus.com/jargon/

One Word and Simply Wait - two accomplished writers who have a light touch and take the blog form seriously.

http://punkassblog.com/

Okay, I believe this is really going to be out in left field for you, but remember, you did openly encourage that:

Yarn Harlot

As far as I can tell, this has absolutely nothing to do with any of your interests whatsoever.  However, I adore this blog even though I don’t knit or spin.  It’s the writing, and the love.  The love is very strong here. 

It’s also frequently very funny.  Stephanie writes very engagingly about her mania, her family and friends, and, from time to time (like right now), what it’s like for a Canadian knitting guru to go on a book tour through the U.S.

It has nothing, as far as I can tell, to do with anything you typically spend much time thinking about, except in perhaps the most general sense, but I hope you enjoy a visit there sometime anyway, just for kicks, just to break out of the everyday.

Another totally left field submission:

Somewhere on the Masthead

This is a journal by a guy who works as an editor for some big magazine (not named).  The posts are deliciously lengthy and often connected.  He is shockingly accident-and-illness prone, but has managed to build a loving life for himself anyway, about which he writes with great charm.  He is often hilarious. 

Whereas I usually see you writing on a scale of grandeur (the desert, the culture, the planet), I more frequently see this gentleman writing on a scale of one to one.  I recommend it to you anyway, again in that category of things I suspect you otherwise would never read.

I second the recommendation of Simply Wait, though I haven’t visited in a long time (distractions).  Patry Francis is the real deal, a wonderful writer, and I also adore her poetry site Waitress Poems, though it looks like she hasn’t updated it in awhile, a fact for which I chastise no one, ever.  Another awesome poet I’ve lost touch with (my fault) is MB over at Find Me a Bluebird.  This blog is like an open workbook where you can watch this lovely writer who seems originally to have been trained to criticize herself into silence develop instead into a poet of power.

Through MB, I found another poet I like, Patrick Tracy of Salt Lake City who writes at Hawk Circle. 

The last one I would recommend at this time (because even though I have a wicked head cold, I still have to do something else with my day besides write about other people’s blogs) is How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons, which has short, sweet entries nearly every day tying the life experiences abroad of American magazine editor Francis Strand and his Swedish husband with some word from the Swedish language.  Again, it’s the love.  It just shines, and it is gorgeous.

And how in blazes is a body supposed to read all this good writing?