I Never Sat on the Senior Lawn

I've been thinking about this entry for a few days. I explore a lot of weblogs throughout the day. In fact, one of my favorite things to do when my health nails me to my chair is to "follow my nose" through Blogsville. I'll go to one of my favorite blogs and make my way through their blogroll. Sometimes I'll wind up several blogs away exploring neighborhoods I never knew existed. When I find a blog I really like, I put it on my own blogroll. I also like wending my way through Blog Catalog, a kind of guided tour of the blogging universe.

I don't build my blogroll to act as a popularity meter. It's my working atlas through blogs that I read each and every day and as such I keep it tidy. Here is a small list that I hope will explain things:

• Mine is not necessarily a reciprocol blogroll. Sorry.
  
• If I like your blog well enough to check it out every morning, it will be linked.
• If you do not update your blog within a couple of months, it will be deleted.
• If you are on hiatus your blog will be deleted, but I will bookmark your feed so that I'll know when you return. I will then link to you again.
• If I comment on your blog a number of times and you do not respond to my comments, but do respond to the comments of others, you will be deleted. It's kind of like being shunned at a party.
• If your blog isn't exactly my cup of tea, but there is a rapport between us and you've blogrolled me, I will gladly reciprocate.

That's it, I think. I'm not into the popularity thing, I prefer a small collection of blogs that I really enjoy reading over a sidebar full of meaningless links. I see it kind of like this: just because I overhear a conversation at the store, I don't go adding that person to my address book. That requires an introduction, some conversation and the possibility of further sharing. When I find a blog that I like it's like meeting someone I'd like to get to know better. If it happens, groovy. If not, no big deal.

All this having been said, I'd like to introduce you to 4 new (to me) blogs that I think are worth checking out:

Down With Pants: Brian lives in my old town of Ventura. That alone would be good enough, but his observations about life there are spot-on and funny. His blog lessens the miles between Oklahoma and the Land of the Lotus Eaters.

Eavesdrop Writer: What a great idea! Vienne hears snips of conversation around her and retells them in a way that always encourages thought and introspection. Her writing style is sensitive and she never tells the reader what to think.

Merisi's Vienna For Beginners: Merisi doesn't consider herself a photographer, but I beg to differ. Her photos reveal the real Vienna -- not the Vienna of tourism -- the Vienna of everyday life in the most beautiful city in the world.

Miss Meliss - Escribition: Miss Meliss is a working writer who writes about writing. Always informative, always thought-provoking, always on the precipice of being snarky, but never quite flipping into pithy cynicism. Interesting writing challenges, too.

I am currently building a page of the links that do not appear on my Blogroll.

That's all, folks!