Additions to the Blogroll

I'm trying to shake things up a bit.  I went for a long period of time not reading many blogs and not commenting very often. I've deleted some of the blogs I haven't read in quite some time, or blogs that became inactive. Over the next few days I'm going to add a few more blogs to the blogroll.  I'm adding two today:

Exploring Our Matrix....interesting mix of religion and sci-fi. Plus, he watches Lost!

Confessing Evangelical...Thoughtful British guy who tends to be both sensible and genuine in his faith.

I'm open to suggestions and discovering some new blogs, so drop me a comment if you have a favorite blog you think I should check out.

Interesting Graph: Wealth and Religiosity

Apparently, as nations become more wealthy, they tend to become less religious. The US, however, doesn't fall as neatly into the graph and is noticeably out of line according to its wealth.

I think that's interesting on many levels.

The comments about the graph are interesting to read through...although they do start to get a bit technical at some points.

Too Funny!

Surfing blogs can lead to some interesting finds. Usually the "next blog" button leads to psychotic, mundane, or pornography-laden blogs. Every once in a while I come across something that amuses me.

I came across miriam's ideas through random surfing and followed a link to ScrappleFace.

Too funny. I love it!

A New Blog To Read and My Worst Nightmare

Sometimes, I surf through the "next blog" button on Blogger's navbar just checking out what other bloggers are up to. Usually, I get a bunch of nothing, but I happened across Jake's Life, a marine's blog about his current time serving in Iraq. I know several military families, but none who are serving in Iraq right now, so it was interesting to read through his blog and get a flavor for what the average soldier is going through.

Now comes the worst nightmare part. Apparently, there is something called a camel spider that lives in Middle Eastern deserts. Can I just say that I would rather be in downtown Baghdad, carrying a "Down With Mohammed" sign, than be anywhere near this.

My heart would burst from sheer panic if I saw this scurrying towards me.

First Day With No Blogs...

Yesterday, I declared my intention to stop reading and commenting on other blogs for the forty days of Lent. Without even realizing, I almost messed up my first day at it. I sat at my computer, checking e-mail, bank accounts, and other miscellaneous things and almost unconsciously slipped into my favorites folder to browse some of the blogs I read. Luckily, I realized what I was doing and caught myself. It's funny how even little things can become such ingrained habits.

So, hello to all of you out there! I would come visit you if I could; but, I can't. See you after Lent.

Rant Against The Powers That Be.....

Dear Blogger,

Please, tell me why you hate me so?

Have I not been a good little blogger? Haven't I commented, linked, blogged about the miscellaneous thoughts within my head, and faithfully used your site?

So, why do you torment me when I try to comment? You make me retype all those word verifications repeatedly before accepting my comments. When I do comment, I have no power to edit my miscellaneous slip-ups. People will forever think that I am a bad speller and even worse grammarian. How will they be able to tell that I won all my elementary school spelling bees?

When I try to surf through miscellaneous blogs, you dump me repeatedly into "lookuplive"-a search engine in which I have no interest. Next, you mock me by sending me to "the bestestblog" whereupon my browser gets stuck in its nether world, refusing to let me go forward. When I finally get back to surfing, "Hot Bikini Girls" seem to repeatedly show up.

To add to my pain and suffering, when switching us all over to the "new" Blogger, you've replaced our template code with stuff that I really don't understand; widgets, b-stuff, etc. Now, I feel helpless and useless. The small amount of html, that I thought I knew, seems weak and puny to me now.

Also, you frequently screw up my formatting when I post pictures. You give us options when we're uploading, but they are really just a cruel joke. Even when I carefully format my text, you randomly jam it all together into some big block of stream-of-consciousness writing like Ulysses. I am not James Joyce. Please keep my paragraphs where I put them, and don't randomly space some of my text as 1.0 spacing and other portions as 1.5 spacing.

I hope you are satisfied with yourself. You've broken my heart. I think that we need to see other people.

Yours truly,

Frustrated Blogger

Surfing The Blogosphere

Surfing through blogs has become an addicting preoccupation with me lately.

I enjoy sifting through various sites in the same way that I would lose myself going through dusty, cardboard boxes in the attic when I was younger. Usually, the contents were junk or misplaced Christmas lights, but, every once in a while; interesting tools; faded, well-worn clothes; letters, yellowed from age; and other artifacts would be laid bare. I would read each faded letter and try on the musty clothing, imagining each object's adventurous life.

The Blogosphere is chock full of "bloggy" goodness.

Half of the blogs I surf through are immediately disqualified because they are in foreign languages. While I can read Spanish and French, I am not fluent enough with slang or the cultural references needed to get their humor. So, unless it's a great visual blog, I move on.

A third of what's left are usually "teen/college" blogs which consist mostly of things like "wow...I was SOOOOO wasted last week!"...or....."He's SO HOT!...I wonder if he knows I'm alive?." I already lived through my own teenage angst and college wanderings; so, I don't linger on those shores very long .

Then you have your standard political blogs which, usually, are as follows...
"George Bush is a big DooDoo Head."

"No, he's not! The Democratic Party is a bunch of DooDoo Heads!"

"No, they aren't! You are just an extremist idiot!"

"No, you're an extremist idiot!"

"well....I'm rubber, you're glue!"

"well...You and Clinton, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G"

You get the point. There's not much sense in reading that sort of drivel for very long.

After that about 10% of the remaining blogs consist of ranting and raving against the world/co-workers/neighbors/life...etc. The writers are usually Angry-Man-Who-Hates-The-Hypocrisy-of-Society or, his mate, Angry-Woman-Who-Thinks-All-Men-Are-Idiots. OK, maybe I surf through that last one occasionally; but, really, I know that not ALL men are idiots! :-)

Every once in a while I come across a blog that is appealing, because it is a genuine look into the life of the blogger. There might be cute photos, family stories, occasional opinion pieces, and a bit of humor sprinkled here and there. Those are the blogs that I most enjoy. Peeking into someone's world, laughing with them or realizing that someone thinks the same way about an issue gives a sense of gratification that doesn't have to come at someone else's expense. I hope that my blog is usually like that, but, who knows? Maybe someone halfway across the world reads my words and laughs along...maybe they don't. Either way, it passes the time.