a world outside the sphere

With my valiant effort to get online last night and blog despite missing some sibling-to-be hanging out time I’ve now made it past the halfway hump of NaBloPoMo, where I was left stranded last year.

It’s interesting how this month of writing is shaping up, compared to the first year in 2006. Then I had a whole month of stories plotted out to tell. This year the posts have been more of slowly unspooling chain of thoughts, with each day linking to the previous one (either obviously, or just in its inspiration).

Much like last year, running the event through the Ning network has made it more of a personal challenge than a team effort – even with a social network at its center NaBloPoMo feels impersonal, and lacks the amazing community of 2006. No one seems to be making a point of reading everyone else (as I legendarily accomplished the first year).

In light of that, it’s taken a concerted effort to connect with other participants. Every morning I read a few fresh blogs on the network, and leave comments if I can muster anything to say between tooth-brushing and shirt-choosing. It’s lead me to befriend a few new bloggers, though nowhere near the volume I did in 2006 (who still makes up a healthy chunk of my feed subscriptions).

One blog I’ve become immediately devoted to is Paradise Preoccupied, home to an American expat mother of grown children who has remade her life (and her family) in the island nation of Seychelles. I first tuned in to blogger Sandra when she made a post about the semi-autobiographical novel she was writing based on her time as a band-aid in the 70s. Since then we’ve been keeping up daily – the first new daily read I’ve had in a long while.

Wreke Havoc is devoting each day to a Blatantly Bad 70s song. We’re not talking about mildly terrible 70s songs that you’re slightly nostalgic for and occasionally enjoy listening to in the car. No. These are insidiously terrible, and you will cringe as you listen to every one (all while enjoying the accompanying essays).

Another two I’ve been keeping tabs on: there is no vodka in this kool-aid is a perfect blend of nice and nasty, and Jinx (who shares a moniker with my favorite G.I Joe) is one of the rare few bloggers posting original music online. From her I cribbed Interes.tingness, which syndicates all of Flickr’s most amazing new photos in real time (just like LJ Aqua, but with pictures instead of real-time streams of Russian emoness).

I’ve also picked up two non-BloPoMo linkers: my theatre friend Sharon’s delicious natural cooking blog, and Dragonballyee, the personal blog of half of Messy and Picky, a Philly food blog.

It bears mentioning that some of my 2006 buddies are still around and actively linking to me, including You’re Doing It Wrong (my cross-country OCD blog-soul mate), Debbie Millman (inscrutably cool brand executive who I’m still hoping to grow up to be), Snippy (who I think still plans to make out with me if we ever meet in person?), my dear Mit Moi (who seems to have an anecdotal response to ANYTHING I say or post), and One Blonde’s Ambition (who used to have Augustana’s “Boston” autoplaying on her page for so long that I was eventually forced to buy it when she took it off her layout).

That’s all I’ve got in me this exhausted evening; with the two-plus hour commute by train each way trips to New Jersey completely wind me. I’ll be skipping my typical T-Give journey in an attempt to right my month and get a few more Trios done.

(PS: If you are currently reading/linking me and you assume I know and am just ignoring you, you are quite possibly wrong. I keep an eye on my inbound links and trackbacks, but I’m not as vigilant as I was in the olden days, so please stop by and leave a comment just in case. (Of the above, I had no idea Sharon had a blog, and I had completely lost track of Blonde’s Ambition when she changed urls.))