Metacognitizing the Interwebs (Or Sumthin’ Like That)

A long, long time ago (but not in a galaxy far, far away), NeoWayland honored this place by choosing it for a Thinking Blogger award. Being both an award and a meme, the baton was passed to me to choose five bloggers upon whom to bestow the award.

And so I started thinking about that. And it didn’t take very long for me to conclude that this was much too similar to choosing favorites for me to be able to select five bloggers quickly. I think that became a convenient excuse to avoid choosing. That said, though, the folks listed to the right are largely there because I regularly find thoughtful content at those sites. That’s why I read blogs—to be stimulated, challenged ... to have my ideas critiqued and checked, and improved, I hope.

But I didn’t stop thinking about it as I visited the many sites I try to frequent, and so, at long last, I have compiled my list.

I suppose I should also say that I only considered sites that are currently on my blogroll—which unfortunately leaves out many very good blogs that I often slither to from others’ blogrolls. And, although I was tempted to nominate a couple of Conspirators for the award, that struck me as a little incestuous, and also arrogant on my part, since NeoWayland nominated this entire blog, not just my ramblings. So—back to the subject at hand at long last—my list ...

lewlew’s Yak Attack: Lewlew is a fellow rare bird – a pro-freedom mother – and thus she often writes on subjects that I’m pondering, in a context that is very similar to my own. But wait, there’s more! She yaks about art, and gardening, and occasionally shares penetrating insights too. She’s a very busy person, so posting is sometimes sporadic, but for me her posts are invariably worth waiting for.

Vache Folle at St. George Blog: Vache is sort of at the other end of the spectrum from me, in a sense: he has no children, he has as much as admitted that he thinks positive thinking is overrated, and he’s a Christian. It is his commentary on those subjects (and others) that often serve as a good check on my own ideas. I like the personal stuff he shares too, because it is often thought-provoking for me as well.

Dr. Lenny at The Zone: A scientist who shares his ideas via chemistry metaphor and poetry alike (as well as other ways). Sometimes our brainwaves seem to align and grokking is easy; other times I think I’m in over my head. But his content is always stimulating and colorful.

Michael Jarrell’s Uncivil Defence: While I do appreciate the occasional bits of news and analysis he provides, what I like even better is his metaphorical content, for example the series (unintended? I don’t know) he did last year on gardening. Always thoughtful, never hyperbolic, and a perspective informed by worldwide traveling. Good stuff.

Ian at Ianism! The Sequel: I could probably get away with simply quoting his blog header by way of explanation: “Student of all, disciple of none”. He consistently pokes beneath the veneer of ideas and issues, almost always coming up with something different or interesting. Although it’s sometimes hard to follow, I also like that his posts are usually informally structured and seem to follow his train of thought.

So, now I get to hand off the baton to each of you. Here’s the procedure:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to five blogs that make you think;
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme; and
3. Optional: Display the “Thinking Blogger Award” with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

If anyone else would like to participate by pointing to thought-provoking blogs (or web sites in general) in the comments, please do. Hotlinks are limited to three per post (anti-spam measure), and apparently if you preface text links with “http://www”, they will count toward that total as well.

Thanks, NeoWayland, for choosing this site as one of your winners, and for providing me an interesting (if somewhat painful) exercise!