A Time Comes In Every Blogger’s Life. . .

~ Clarissa

. . . when she looks at her blogroll and realizes that it has become boring and predictable. I wanted to take a break from writing and translating and spend a happy, relaxing hour reading the blogs I follow in my Google Reader. However, it felt like I’d seen all these posts a hundred times already.

Romney is cruel and out of touch, Obama should have been canonized already and if he hasn’t been it’s because of racists and religious fanatics, women are conditioned by society to whine about being held down in everything, every academic (except me) is having a super productive summer, everybody who is teaching this summer hates students with a vengeance, the only acceptable way to be a feminist is to produce meaningless mile-long disquisitions about the special nature of women and the nasty brutishness of men, there is nothing good on television which does not prevent people from churning out endless analyses of every episode of these no-good shows, cats cats cats and dogs dogs dogs always looking exactly the same as if every blogger in my thread owned the same cat and dog, Israel persecutes good kind saintly Palestinians, Palestinians persecute good kind saintly Israel, Montreal is as beautiful as ever, an apocalypse is coming unless capitalism / Socialism / greedy bankers / greedy welfare seekers don’t disappear off the face of the Earth.

This is pretty much what my blogroll is like these days. I know, I know, I chose these blogs myself. And it was fun following them. But I feel like I need to add something new and exciting to my existing list of blogs.

So please leave links to your own blog or any blogs you consider worth reading in the comments!

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

65 thoughts on “A Time Comes In Every Blogger’s Life. . .”

      1. It is ironic that you see a reaction of weird and unjustified aggression in the comment but not in the original post. Perhaps I was trying to entertain people with the comment. Try looking at both again and see if you can see them in the same light, whether that be “aggressive” or “entertaining.” Because, I assure you, that’s how they will read to most people.

        Like

        Reply

        1. This is the second unwanted piece of advice you have given me within two minutes. Expressing one’s opinions on one’s own blog that other people can easily choose to ignore cannot possibly be aggressive. This is my space, my diary, I write what I want here.

          Coming to other people’s spaces, however, and telling them what they “should” do, as well as suggesting what they should “try”, is, indeed both aggressive and rude.

          Like

          Reply

  2. Aww, sorry! As an academic who is trying to make it to the end of my year (we end in mid-June), I wouldn’t call this summer yet… (though that is the only category in which my blog remotely fits in your list up there…) I’d like to hope I’ll be more interesting again soon, though. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. I didn’t mean your blog, of course!

      But I did mean the blogs of all those people who seem to submit an article each day. 🙂

      I like to follow academic blogs but I feel like the blogroll has gotten very one-sided.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Aww, hehe – I know you read mine, and I did update recently. (Well, last night), and in direct response to you. (That was a really fun post to write, too!) Incidentally, it’s one of the reasons I don’t feel like I fit in with many of the other young female autistic bloggers – they all blog about the same thing (various topical autism advocacy topics), and while I agree that its important, I feel like the topics have been beaten enough – the horse is dead, so to speak.

        And also, it sounds like you are having an immensely productive (teaching) summer! I’d never have thought online courses would be as successful and intellectual as you’re describing. Makes me think I’d benefit considerably from things like that, as my ability to assimilate and speak in a classroom setting is just about zero…

        Like

        Reply

          1. Thanks! I always feel warm and fuzzy (and super honored) when you like a post I’ve written well enough to put it into the encyclopedia… 🙂 I’m super bitter about libraries right now, because at the end of this month, the largest, most prestegious library in my field (which happens to be at my school) is being shut down due to budget cuts. The international science community is in uproar. The faculty is in uproar. And they’re still taking it away from us. To do what, you ask? To move the administrators into that building, because they don’t like the building they’re currently in. (Also, sorry, I think I totally hijacked your comments thread. Apologies… this would be better placed in a different post’s comments, but alas. time for me to go back to my flash cards)

            Like

            Reply

            1. “To do what, you ask? To move the administrators into that building, because they don’t like the building they’re currently in.”

              – I want to be surprised! But I’m not because I keep seeing such things. Horrible!

              Have fun with the flash cards. 🙂

              Like

              Reply

      1. No, it’s just typical ignorance on his part. His “apology” just made it very clear.
        There was a post about this, right ? Why Americans aren’t exactly loved by the world ? Well, ignorant statements like this are part of the reason “why”.
        At this rate “polish death camps” will become “camps where Polish people killed Jews”.

        Like

        Reply

        1. I didn’t see the apology. I was wondering what he would say to explain this.

          “At this rate “polish death camps” will become “camps where Polish people killed Jews””

          – Very likely.

          Romney is not to be expected to be better on foreign policy, though.

          Like

          Reply

    2. “In referring to `a Polish death camp’ rather than `a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland,’ I inadvertently used a phrase that has caused many Poles anguish over the years and that Poland has rightly campaigned to eliminate from public discourse around the world,” Obama wrote. “I regret the error and agree that this moment is an opportunity to ensure that this and future generations know the truth.”

      It seems we were occupied by mythical creatures living in Nazia, creatures that suddenly disappeared after 1945 and are in no way related to Germans.

      Like

      Reply

      1. “It seems we were occupied by mythical creatures living in Nazia, creatures that suddenly disappeared after 1945 and are in no way related to Germans.”

        – It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. I understand why people feel outraged about this.

        Like

        Reply

    1. Ah, this is a hint to stop reading blogs and start reading good books instead? 🙂 A point well-taken. Especially, since I just got a delivery of books I urgently need to read.

      Like

      Reply

      1. It’s a tv series based on a series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin. While supposedly well-done, I’ve heard the books are misogynist and have lots of racefail (the women are all treated like shit — though mind you, this is an anti-Tolkien grimdark fantasy setting where everyone treats everyone like shit), and there is a race of rather dark-skinned somewhat-based-on-Mongols tribe who come to be ruled by a queen from the Europe analog race in the books. However, I have not read these books myself — I paged through the first one but wasn’t really interested, in general grimdark fantasy isn’t my cup of tea — only read about them. The tv series is, I’ve heard, rather well-done for this sort of thing. I think it airs on HBO.

        Like

        Reply

      2. The internet is great for one of my favorite activities: talking about pop culture items without actually having to watch or read them because I can find out what they are all about by just looking them up. Pre-internet I used to do this with movies by reading reviews of them. I don’t really like actually having to watch an entire movie, be cause I have no attention span for things like sitting still and staring at a screen, but I still wanted to know about them, so I’d read the reviews in newspapers and magazines and also collections of film criticism. So now I know all about movies like Last Tango in Paris and ET: The Extraterrestrial without actually having watched either movie.

        Like

        Reply

        1. ” I don’t really like actually having to watch an entire movie, be cause I have no attention span for things like sitting still and staring at a screen, but I still wanted to know about them, so I’d read the reviews in newspapers and magazines and also collections of film criticism.”

          – I do that, too!! And for exactly the same reasons!

          I was forced to watch 3 movies in a row on my long flight from Europe (the Kindle’s battery died), and that was torture. One of them was The Devil Wears Prada, so you can understand my desperation.

          Like

          Reply

      3. On a five-hour flight from Miami to Los Angeles, the movie was Titanic. I refused to buy the headphones, but the screen was right in front of my seat and the movies scenes were so simplistic and telegraphed that I could figure out what was going on anyway. And I couldn’t close my eyes and ignored it because *car crash can’t stop looking*. It was an awful movie though whatsername looked good in her various Edwardian togs.

        Like

        Reply

      4. @Twisted

        Actually not all the women are treated like shit. But considering the timeperiod(even though its fantasy) certain women do tend to take the backseat. Though there are two female warriors who really kicks ass and a couple of Queens who are quite the powerhouses themselves.

        Like

        Reply

  20. Those are all kinds of different blogs I stumbled upon and put in FAV, so check every one if it’s for your taste. 1 is not like the other here!

    http://prairiemary.blogspot.co.il/
    Found recently and loved her writing.

    http://speculum-de-lis.blogspot.co.il/
    Stopped writing in 2011, only 4 posts, but I loved them. Look at the 1st 2 ones about her grandmother.

    http://phoenixandolivebranch.wordpress.com/
    Similar to “Love Joy Feminism” blog you recently liked.

    http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/
    A discussion about geopolitics, broadly defined, from an American’s perspective – about ways to reignite the spirit of a nation grown cold.

    http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/
    Even if you don’t like the term “islamism” he uses, meaning a specific *political* direction, he makes many valid points. And, from what I understood, unlike US news, isn’t completely optimistic about democratic peaceful future.

    http://feministfashionbloggers.blogspot.co.il/
    Feminist Fashion Bloggers (FFB) is a network for fashion bloggers interested in feminism and feminist bloggers interested in fashion. The aim is to meet like minded bloggers, encourage dialogue and discussion both within and between the two blog niches and to explore the intersections and links between the two topics. And to have fun in doing so!

    http://thefatalfeminist.com/
    A talented young woman writes about: “This blog will discuss gender equality, social justice, the lives and leaderships of the women before us who were closest to the Prophet (P) and have since been forgotten, and the importance of sound interpretation and of respecting fundamental human rights–both in terms of Islamic feminism and in Islam and feminism separately.”

    http://ferretbrain.com/
    Snarky, easy going site about pop culture: “Ferretbrain is an easy-going, irreverent e-zine about stuff – we publish reviews, essays, opinion pieces, podcasts and whatever else we thought was cool at the time.”

    http://blog.seattlepi.com/civicfeminism/
    “The Woman Citizen: Speaking to men and women as citizens, co-equal in responsibility for our country and the various messes our government has gotten us into.”
    About Erin Solaro
    “I’ve been publishing on and off in the _Seattle Post-Intelligencer_ since early 2004; in the summer of that year I went to Iraq and then, in early 2005 of that year, Afghanistan for them. My book, _Women in the Line of Fire_ (Seal Press, 2006), grew out of those experiences, plus stacks and stacks of academic research and interviews here in America. And now I write this reader blog, always from the perspective of a woman and a citizen, which is to say, a feminist. “

    Like

    Reply

  21. Now several blogs in Russian:

    http://scholar-vit.livejournal.com/

    http://u-troitskaya.livejournal.com/
    … страны Ближнего Востока, особенно так называемые страны Шам – Сирия, Ливан, Иордания, Палестина, с тысячелетней историей, древними традициями, корнями, многослойной культурой вполне заслуживают право упоминаться не только в связи с каким-то взрывом или желанием мировых держав развязать там очередные войны.
    В свое время, когда я в первый раз собиралась ехать в Сирию в качестве туриста и искала в Москве хоть какой-нибудь путеводитель по этой стране, на одном из книжных развалов в ответ на мой вопрос о путеводителе меня изумленно спросили, а что разве кто-то ездит в такие страны, там же терроризм. Если бы они знали, сколько наших соотечественников, а вернее соотечественниц, не только ездят сюда на короткое время, но и живут здесь постоянно вполне достойной и спокойной жизнью, зная о пресловутом терроризме и даже о бытовой преступности, в отличие от обитателей РФ, лишь понаслышке.
    В общем, в своем блоге я беру на себя задачу опровергателя мифов и стереотипов, которые сложились в нашем обществе из-за определенной политической ситуации, а, может, и по причине какого-то политического заказа. Надеюсь, из этого выйдет что-то путное.

    http://freetrinity.livejournal.com/
    Russian living in US.
    “Здесь пишу возникающие в результате размышления и наблюдения, а также переводы статей и интересных материалов про образование, домашнее обучение, усыновление, вопросы психологии, паранормальные явления и прочие маргинальные темы.”

    http://americanlegends.livejournal.com/
    Легенды Америки – страшные, смешные, невероятные истории, основанные на реальных когда-то событиях.

    http://b-a-n-s-h-e-e.livejournal.com/
    статьи и подборки картин, посвященные длинному 19му веку (1789- 1914).

    Like

    Reply

  22. My 2 long comments with many links are awaiting moderation. If you like something, please, tell what, so that I’ll better understand your taste. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. I rescued them from the span, thank you! I will now need some time to sort through them. Thank you for so many recommendations! I’m excited to see so many new blogs.

      Like

      Reply

  24. http://wrongquestions.blogspot.co.il/
    Read her “About me” section, if you’re interested. An excerpt:
    I’ve been a voracious reader since childhood and fan of science fiction and fantasy for nearly as long. … I write about anything that interests me: mostly my reading (you can get a sense of my tastes from my Amazon wish list), TV, and film, in and out of genre in all cases. I also sometimes write about reviewing and genre fandom, religion, politics (rarely) and myself (very rarely).

    I was interested in her recent post about the double standards in filming industry RE underage actors and animals & RE different attitudes towards horses’ treatment in American racetracks and former popular HBO show. The 1 struck me as sadly ironic and the 2nd seems somehow … like, I have a feeling that there should be some socially agreed upon standard and that the current situation is kind of ridiculous.
    http://wrongquestions.blogspot.co.il/2012/05/women-and-horses.html

    Her most recent book reviews post:
    http://wrongquestions.blogspot.co.il/2012/04/recent-reading-roundup-31.html

    http://twowomenblogging.blogspot.co.il/
    I love Jay’s writing. She writes about her job as a doctor and about openly adopting a daughter.

    http://margaretandhelen.com/
    It’s very unusual to see 2 very old women write a blog. Lots of humor and politics.

    http://jonswift.blogspot.co.il/
    This talented journalist died in 2009 and, unfortunately, I discovered him just before his death. Nevertheless, he wrote about US politics with a great deal of humor and may be you would enjoy it.

    Like

    Reply

    1. The Wrong Questions blog is a little too pop culture for me. I don’t even watch television any more. 🙂

      I like Two women blogging, though. And Margaret and Helen is a great blog, too.

      I know Jonswift and I’m also sorry that the blogger has died. 😦

      Like

      Reply

      1. Do you know of somebody similar to Jonswift in style? Somebody not only moaning “We’re going to hell in America” (what such pessimist would write were s/he living in Israel?), but able to laugh in delightfully snarky way.

        Btw, may be you would want to write a new post of English blog recommendations? Pity that I can’t see your list, or can I somehow?

        Like

        Reply

  26. 2 things from today’s Israeli paper that caught my attention:

    1) A new book “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power” by David E. Sanger tells of a secret virus war against Iranian atom. I even found 1 review:
    http://frogenyozurt.com/2012/06/confront-and-conceal-obamas-secret-wars-and-surprising-use-of-american-power-by-david-e-sanger/

    2) The article titles:
    “Because of Tymoshenko: boycott of Europian football league”.
    President of France: “It isn’t the right time to visit Ukraine”.
    You, unlike me, follow Ukrainian news. Is it something interesting that you want, may be, to write about? Usually Ukraine, unlike Russia, isn’t in newspapers.

    Like

    Reply

  27. I recommend Jenny Davidson’s blog, Light Reading ( http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/ ). She is an English Prof at Columbia specializing in the 18th century and a published novelist. A voracious reader, she updates daily with links and short notes about what she’s reading or working on.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to David Gendron Cancel reply