The blogosphere sometimes feels like a really popular but kinda cheesy happy hour spot (in San Francisco: think Americano or Circa). Everybody talks and talks about it like it's the best thing since sliced bread, but you often leave wishing you TVO-d last night's The L Word while thinking, yes, people really are that stupid.
Finding useful, well written content in the blogosphere is like shopping for the perfect outfit an hour before the party. When you know what you want and you've got a deadline, you're never going to find it. The blog and shopping Gods just don't work like that.
For example, this past Sunday, I decided I wanted to cook dinner. Cooking dinner means I am not eating cottage cheese while standing in my fridge door or licking big spoonfulls of peanut butter while at my desk. Cooking dinner is a commitment, an activity that requires mental and physical exertion and some serious multitasking. One must study the recipe, turn on ovens and stoves, pull ingredients from cupboards and fridge compartments, use knives, mix things together in different bowels, different pans, under different heats, while setting timers like a mad clock lady, and negotiating verbs like "brown", "broil", and "dice".
Still, cooking is supposedly some leisurely, relaxing activity and I think, "hey... it's a rainy San Francisco afternoon, I'll make a big Sunday meal." It's seems like a very domestic, wife-like thing to do and I am newly married, so I thought I'd give it a go. I mean these are the things that grown up, married people do.
I gaze for a few minutes at the row of cookbooks I accumulated via the "getting married" process and turn automatically to my laptop. "Right," I think, "I'm a tech-savvy gal, I used to work for an internet start up, I don't need any old fashioned cookbooks, the blogs are where it's at."
I knew from working heavily with bloggers at my past job, albeit, persoanl finance bloggers, that the food blogs did in fact exist, and, that they were thriving. I even remembered seeing a few cooking blogs about a year ago and thinking, "damn, those are some nice pictures of chicken".
So, I visited my friendly tour guide, Google, and started searching. My results were thin. I immediately knew the game the blogosphere and I were playing; we were in the "hard to get" phase. I'd find one, scour their front page, check their archives, check their categories, check their blog roll for more links. They'd turn out to be all fluff and I'd keep going and going and going.
Finding good blogs takes time. It's like finding a good boyfriend. Appearances are often deceptive and you never really know if the guy is a jerk, loser, or player, until you've crossed the line from spending time to wasting time.
However, when you do find a good one, it can become like your best friend. Consistent widsom, pithy thoughts, inspiration and useful information flow freely, and, often daily. The following are three blogs that are really working out for me.
Former big shot lawyer Gretchen Rubin, decides that writing is her thing. She writes a few of books on political figures (JFK, Churchill) and then decides to write one about happiness. She describes her book as,
"a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will hit the shelves in late 2009 (HarperCollins)."
I've been following The Happiness Project for the past year and find it extremely motivating. Rubin is thoughtful, very grounded and offers pragmatic advice about how to get more out of your life. The Happiness Project is my go-to website when I am indulging in self pity or need that extra shove to get things done.
I absolutely love the way this woman writes. Her name is Penelope Trunk and she is funny, compelling and gets to the point while handing off some very useful insights about building your career and life. The Brazen Careerist is probably classified as a business blog, but man, I read her stuff when I am procrastinating (and I do not read Forbes for fun). Thank you Penelope for making my procrastination productive.
Her blog is ideal for twenty-somethings like me who are trying to negotiate the big questions in life like, "What do I want out of my career?", "Who am I?" and "Do I want money or do I want fulfillment or both?" in a no nonsense and very helpful way.
She also has an entire section on starting a blog which I've found very helpful and informative. I actually liked her blog so much that I downloaded her book, The Brazen Careerist: The New Rules For Success onto itunes and have been listening to it while walking my dog.
I came across Back In Skinny Jeans almost two years ago when I was working at Wesabe, a great way to manage your money online, for free. I was instantly taken with Steph's warm voice and critical look at the often distorted portrayal of women in the media. I was lucky enough to have a chance to work with her and have since been friends.
Steph's post are filled with great tips and provocative information that you'll find yourself talking to your friends later about. "Did you see that cover with Gisele prancing around, half naked but talking about how she doesn't understand why girls have eating disorders?" or "There is this great place called The Counter that does a healthy hamburger and looks out of this world".
I find myself browsing Back In Skinny Jeans when I am looking for interesting tidbits about health, our distorted media or good exercise tips.
Interestingly, my faithful prowling partner, Google, did not help me find any of these. Nor do I think she would have. It never would have occurred to me to enter into the search field "blogs about happiness", "blogs about business" or "blogs about women's health". Even, if I had, I doubt any of these would have come up. I probably would have gotten more mainstream websites, like, "Women's Fitness" or some corporate blog for Forbes.
My question: how do you find good blogs? And while we're on the topic, recommend any?
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