Subscriptions, Followings and Other Things!

It's not my blogging anniversary yet -although it is coming up a few months from now -in September -it will mark four years since I first began this blogging adventure.

Little did I know when I started with my very first post here how much fun this would be -or how much work and time it can take too!

I've been thinking about my blog along with all the others I subscribe to via my reader or follow and how much I enjoy reading others posts. In conjunction with that, I've decided between now and September I'm going to try to point out various blogs I either subscribe to or follow (sometimes I have actually managed to have a blogger on my reader via a subscription and also, have that same blogger listed under the blogs I follow too so some of you folks will show up twice then when you post something new.)

Anyway, trying to figure out who to put in my own little spotlight first or what order to follow to do this, is no easy task.

Why? Well because I have 221 blogs showing on my subscription list and another 171 blogs on the Blogs I Follow list! That's a whole lot of reading there folks! I dread that someday I will open my reader and see that every single blogger whose work I either subscribe to or follow might just have each posted something on the very same day! Boy, I would be forever trying to clean my reader out if that ever happened!

But anyway, I'm going to begin with the first three bloggers I started out reading and try then, in some fair way without offending any of my lovely blogger friends, to spotlight each and every one of you over the next couple of months. Sound fair? Gosh, I hope so cause I'd really like to tell everyone to come read each and every one of these fellow bloggers posts and maybe you'd like to subscribe or follow them too that way -from my introducing you to my friends.

So -to get started, I'm not sure which blogger I "met" first here. It was either Barb at Skittles Place or else it was Paige at Paradise Valley 2.... Hell's Mountain! However, I can say this much with great certainty that Barb is the first -and thus far only -fellow blogger I have talked to on the phone and yes, even met in person too! And from that first meeting almost four years ago, they've stuck by me, posting, commenting and learning about me, my family -the kids and grandkids -and endured a whole lot of ranting over the past 3.5 years from me too!

I've met people from virtually all walks of life and from all corners of the world via blogging. From British Columbia to Ontario to England, Norway, The Phillipines, Australia -just to name a few foreign elements and I've met some really terrific people via those travels in cyberspace too!
(I should maybe someday try to make a survey to see if I follow a blogger from every state of the union too perhaps -just out of sheer curiosity ya know.)

But round about three years back it probably was when I picked up a couple more bloggers who have stayed with me -and I, with them -for this time period. There's Mary Anne -up on an island off British Columbia, known to many other bloggers as Smalltown RN and her blog at A Place I Call Home, Berni who used to be called Vic Grace but can be found at Cariboo Ponderer's Pot of Gold, Debo Blue out in Arizona who blogs at A Blue State of Mind but you won't find riches of the monetary kind at Bernie's nor will you find a blue person in Debo either -just good words, excellent friends, all the way! Then there's this guy -Gene at Turning the Pages of Life and I think Gene was probably the first male blogger I "met" early on, or back in the good old days. Little did I know back then but after getting to know Gene, it sort of became a bit of a family affair when I was introduced to his brother, Jeff and his place -Running With Scissors! Neither Gene nor Jeff is what one would call a prolific blogger but they do, when they post, put out some interesting stuff and quite often they operate via their blogs just the same way that one could expect of two brothers -with a lot of harassment and gentle -or sometimes not so that way -ribbing and teasing. Anyway -I consider it a bit of a bonus that via Gene, I gained Jeff too!

Want a good laugh? Check out these blogs if you will. Sandee at Comedy Plus almost always posts a joke or a cartoon almost every day. If you like humor that is often more than a bit off the wall, sometimes really edgy, raw, but written well and you can't find friendlier bloggers anywhere than from the folks who write these blogs: Jim at Suldog, Jocelyn at O Mighty Crisis , Patois who pens Whee! All The Way Home or maybe you'd enjoy too Magazine Man -a genuine magazine editor of a very well-known publication at that who can be found at Somewhere on the Mast! I honestly can't remember now how or where I found Suldog or Jocelyn or Patois either but Magazine Man -him I found via a recommendation by Suldog and I thank Jim every time I read one of MM's posts!

Then there's a few other friends too who I relish their words -Maggie Mae for example of Nuts in May comes to me from her home in Bristol, England to tell me about her children and grandchildren, shows me beautiful photos around her home and of late, has been receiving lots and lots of prayers for a return to good health after having been diagnosed with cancer last fall and spending the last six-seven months or so dealing with chemotherapy.

Then there's this guy -who travels all over the world it seems, at times, talks a lot about his dogs and cat, makes my mouth water frequently too when he posts about various restaurants and dishes he's had to eat there and I'm always happy to get to see the places where Rick Rockhill -the Palm Springs Savant takes me! If I remember correctly, I think Rick found my blog and began commenting and then, I picked his blog up on my subscription list from there.

Another traveler whose blog never ceases to amaze me -the photos this man posts are absolutely fantastic -and sometimes, after seeing pictures around his area up in Norway I think if I ever had the chance to meet Rune and if he took me around his home area in person, I might even be able to recognize or at least remember having seen these things from his posts at Visual Norway!

Want a little intellectual or political stimulus? Here's a couple others I'd highly recommend too for a bit of this, a lot of that: Jim Burnett -a reporter at the Miami Times Herald and his blog Burnettiquette often promotes some really newsworthy discussions as do Margaret and Helen, a couple of fiesty senior citizens and the blog goes by that name or perhaps you'd like to read the thoughts of Dave -an attorney in Atlanta who puts a lot of interesting stuff in his posts here at Rather Than Working.

The last blogger I'm going to recommend here today is this lady -known to many as Technobabe -and you'll have to go read her blog to learn why she calls herself that at Technobabe's Adventures.

There is one other blogger whose writings I've followed for probably the past three years now too -maybe a bit more, I'm just not sure there -but that would be Terri, Terri who until recently wrote the blog Terri, Terri, Quite Contrary. I'm not going to highlight her url because she recently disbanded posting on that site. She has made some decisions to continue writing but under another name, url, etc., and out of respect for her and her right to a bit of privacy, I don't feel it would be fair for me to point you to her place at this time. I'm just happy that she's still around, still writing away though!

Now- I've given you a whole lot of reading to do and that assignment, should you care to accept it, will no doubt keep you very, very busy!

But I hope too if you go visit these folks -and the other blogger friends of mine that I will be talking about in the months ahead -that you will gain from their knowledge, their thoughts, writings, and just in general, enjoy their overall attitudes too towards the people who stop by to read, say hello and get to know them.

Trust me when I tell you this - I'm quite certain you won't be disappointed -not in the least by what you will find at any of these above mentioned places.

Peace!