Blogs

So, as I have stated in a previous post - I have been looking for blogs to read. Especially ones with pictures. I don't know what it is - but pictures really make or break a blog for me. There really is only so much reading I want to do. (In other words I am to f'ing lazy to read that much. I will will not be hurt if you don't even finish reading this post) . Pictures really bring to life the post for me. As cliche as it sounds, a picture really is worth a 1,000 words. :)

What really got me into blogs was Xiaxue. There is this forum that I happen to nose around in and there was a thread about Xiaxue. The thread was a collection of pictures and a question of would the readers get with her or not. Curious, I put her name in Google and found her blog. So I checked it out what was what and I was hooked from the first page. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!

I loved it. Especially the picture of the moment piece of the blog. A delicious look into her every day life. That and twitter, but pictures are so much more interesting and fun. In fact I was so impressed with the picture of the moment that I started taking more pictures with my phone and posting them into facebook to keep my friends up to date on my shinanagins rather than a status update with words.

Although there is only so much Xiaxue that can be read/viewed. As she does not update her blog every day, which left something to be desired. Xiaxue's blog was a wonderful introduction into the blogging world and brought me to the next step of looking for more blogs to read.

In search for more blogs to read I started with Google and a general search of blogs. Which got me crap. Everyone and their mom has a blog as well as the fact that a great deal of the blogs found had not been updated in quite a long time.

I was was stuck. :( At least for a few days until I happened to note the side bar of Xiaxue's blog where she had listed what awards she had won for her blog. Well, what better way to find good blogs then to search the blog award sites? GENIUS!

So I went into Google and typed in 2009 blog awards and got http://2009.bloggies.com/. It was fantastic - not only did it list the best of the best blogs it also listed them in categories! I was given a choice of not only cream of the crop blogs but also listed the blogs in categories. And here is what I found:

seaofshoes.com

Words cannot express how much I adore this blog. Jane is a wonderful blogger and she has so many pictures, it is heaven! ^_^ All the shoes and fashion that I myself am too poor and uncool to wear all right here at my finger tips. Reminds me of my friend Natalia who would show up to work in the most amazing outfits that were so unique that it left me in a constant state of envy. Anytime I tried to pull of something fashionable I looked more like a fashion victim and expected to see myself posted on gofugyourself.com.

There were a few blogs that were interesting from the blog awards, but nothing that kept my attention for more than a few pages of their archives. Xiaxue and Sea of Shoes were the only two blogs that I was consistent in checking every day.

The next two blogs were discovered through Xiaxue's blog and twitter: http://fourfeetnine.com/ and http://monicatang.com/.

Monica Tang as you know I found through twitter and posted about all the drama associated with that blog.

I enjoy reading her blog a great deal, however I have to use Google Translator because I do not read Norwegian. LOL. I even tried to follow her on twitter but it became a little tedious to translate it.

Four Feet Nine I absolutely ADORE. The blog was a link on Xiaxue's site in connection to a trip she took with some bloggers to Disney Land in Hong Kong.

Fourfeetnine.com is stupid fresh!

That is how freaking awesome it is. Am I partial to it because the author is the same hight I am? Maaaayyybe. LOL. Still, the pictures alone rock and the fact that I actually enjoy reading her posts is an amazing feat into itself, because I usually am only interested the pictures. All the "wtf" and "fml" are total lolz and I even doing it a little bit myself when I write on facebook and twitter. Although I think I would do more MLIA. LOL.

Reading these blogs makes me wish to be a better blogger myself. However, I am not as open with my life as these bloggers are. Perhaps there is a blogger niche that I can fit myself into. It crossed my mind to focus my blog on other blogs. Kind of like how the blog The Comic Curmudgeon (http://joshreads.com/) critiques comics. As I do enjoy reading them and I am sure my boyfriend would love for me to have an outlet about said blogs other than him. ^_^

It is an idea - just like my whole kitty viral videos. Which has yet to take off since I have no Flip and no idea how to edit video taken with my camera. Which is horrific at taking videos anyway. And lets not forget I am not very good at consistency when it comes to blog posts. You never know though. ^_^

On the road and guest blogging

I am on the road for work so this will be brief since I am to give a presentation in about an hour and a half.

As you may know I am headed out for a weeks vacation starting Aug 11th, and since all of my bloggy friends are some of the most creative, funny and good story tellers I know, I was wondering if any of you would be interested in guest blogging? Drop me a line and let me know if you are interested. I am looking for 5 bloggers for Mon-Fri. Or if you want the whole week or a few days that will work too!

Ok, back to work, keep your fingers crossed I don't fall on my face or screw up while giving my speech!!

Blog site counters and visitors

So I have a site counter if you will on my blog a pretty cool tool that allows me to see when, where and how I am getting traffic to my little blog. So for example if you type in the words dump cake in google my URL should come up. Itchy clothes what you are looking for? I will come up. My full name...guess what up pops my blog!!! Click on the URL listed in your google search and bam you are at my simple little blog page. So that being said I fully expect the occasionally person who drops by and then suddenly realizes that this is not at all where they want to be, hopefully for the 5 seconds it to them to figure that our they had fun viewing my humble page.

However I have found there is a whole different type of person or persons that come to your page everyday to read what you have to say but never leave a comment. Were it not for the site counter gizmo I would never know if they had been here or not.

So my plea is this please leave a comment good bad or indifferent if you stop by and take the time to read the blog especially if you do it on a regular basis. Show bloggers out there some love! I think to some extent we are all driven to write more on our blogs if we feel people are really reading them and not just passing by.