Friday On My Mind

On blog advertising...

Yawn!

Not sure how the previous throwaway post morphed into me being against people having ads on their own blogs.  As befitting my long-standing philosophy of "live and let live," I really couldn't give a shit what other people do with their own sites. Want to have the Golden Arches pop up while "This is Our Country" blares in the background? Go for it. Far be it from me to snatch food out of a baby's mouth. All I was saying was that it's not for me.  Capiche, kids?  Let's move on.

On swearing...

Occasionally I have heard mention of my site as being inappropriate due to my casual use of profanity. Several readers have even e-mailed me and accused me of contributing to the coarsening of the English language.  To those critics, I would respond that my discourse merely exemplifies the vaunted precedent of valorizing the oral vernacular. I would further add that language is a living tissue, which must occasionally suffer the rupture of subversion in order to convalesce with more structural stability. So to those prurient guardians of the linguistic gates who are offended by my occasional use of the F-bomb?  Well, you know what you can do with yourselves. 

On extreme sports...

I just got invited out to Colorado for a work-related event that would essentially involve hanging out with a bunch of professional extreme athletes for a weekend.  These are guys who make their living flipping backside 540s at the X-Games so naturally I'm a little reluctant to hang out with them.  Extreme sports are fascinating to a man like me, who screams like Fran Drescher in labor whenever I drive over a pothole with an open coffee container between my legs. In my defense, I may not be as adventurous as I used to be, but given the right set of circumstances, I am as hard-core as they fucking come. Like the other day, I'm cooking up a pot of my famous paella when I run out of saffron.  So what do I do?  Just for the sheer adrenaline rush, I decide to double up on the fucking parsley!  Hell yeah!  Balls to the wall, dude!

On flight attendants...

My mom was a stewardess when she graduated college.  It was the perfect job for her.  She spoke 4 languages and wanted to see the world.  She was happy to have the job.  However, these days, something has clearly gone amiss in the world of air travel.  I just got back from a business trip and I couldn't believe how cranky and rude all the flight attendants were.  Look, ladies, I get it. When you were 18-years-old, you made a horrible vocational choice. You sacrificed your entire future for some cheap airfare to Ixtapa. You haven't met Mr. Right.  And right now, you're basically a waitress in a crappy restaurant at 30,000 feet in the air.  But for fuck's sake, please pop some Thorazine and stop taking out your aggressions on young kids and toddlers, ok? 

On the dearth of quality songwriting...

At some godforsaken hour this morning, the Peanut crawled into bed with me and the BossLady.  After forcing me to read several books to her, she climbed on top of the BossLady and said, "Good morning, mommy. I just made a song for you. Want to hear it?"  Curious (but still sleeping,) the BossLady replied in the affirmative. I'm just going from memory here but if I remember correctly, these were the lyrics:

"mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!mommy! mommy! mommy!"

Hopefully, emo really is the music of the future!

On summer blogging...

My buddy Laid-Off Dad always kids me about the sheer number of blogs that I read. I always reply that I'm a speed-reading insomniac whose idea of a fun Friday night is sitting on the couch with an 8-ball of cocaine, an RSS reader, and  bloglines.

Anyway, as I mentioned recently, the blogging world seems to be humming with the ennui of long lazy days unfettered by anything substantive.  Is it me or are things just boring out there?  Maybe we're just all in a collective slump.  Like Ben Affleck, Johnny Damon, and Moby.  Whatever it is, I think I need some new blogs to read.  This is where all of you come in.

Any of you discover a cool new blog lately?  Start a new blog recently?  Find a post somewhere that you thought was amazing?  Go ahead and pimp it out in the comments. Doesn't have to be related to anything. I just need some some new reads.  Pimp away!

Comments

[Patch]

MD,

I've been lurking forever (well 9 months), but my babe is now a week old. I got my daddy-blog rollin' (ad free!), but give it some time to warm up.

http://providenceplaygroundproject.blogspot.com

Yeah parsley!

[sarah cho]

your blog is awesome...fuck what anyone says. http://smileface.typepad.com. my friend sonia's mommy blog.

[metro mama]

Hi MD,

You might find this, um, interesting:

http://mommyblogstoronto.typepad.com/hotandbothered/

[Lily]

http://motherhooduncensored.typepad.com/

Enjoy

[b*babbler]

Ooh.. a potential visitor to my little corner of the world.

http://blithelybabbling.blogspot.com

By the way, congratulations on livening up the interweb this summer. That was quite the shitstorm you managed to unwittingly unleash!

[b*babbler]

Ooh.. a potential visitor to my little corner of the world.

http://blithelybabbling.blogspot.com

By the way, congratulations on livening up the interweb this summer. That was quite the shitstorm you managed to unwittingly unleash!

[TAG]

Thanks so much for posing this question. I've been looking for new blogs too and have enjoyed reading your comments.
My husband writes on our photoblog sometimes. Here's one of his posts:
http://tagadventures.blogspot.com/2007/07/two-seemingly-unrelated-apologies.html
I write at www.TeaWorthy.blogspot.com

[HDC]

I don't have anything to suggest that isn't already in your queue. All I want to say is where is The Zero Boss already? He's just up and disappeared. Just hoping he's okay is all.

[MommmyKnows]

Of course I am liking my own blog: http://mommyknow.com (I give away FREE stuff nearly every day).

And I like: http://crabmommy.blogspot.com/ (funny stuff).

*heart* your blog, it's fairly new to me ... always makes me laugh.

MommyKnows funny!

[kmkat]

Mostly my blog is boring trivial stuff about our family and my knitting, but you might find this interesting.
http://kmkat.typepad.com/kmkat_and_her_kneedles/2007/06/a-love-story.html

[Scoob]

Ok fine - I'll pile on. truthsandhalftruths.typepad.com

also, ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com.

Guaranteed tickle funny boners along the way.

[Bethany]

I always dread the "Stalkers, show thyselves!" post. If I do... er, pimp myself, I no longer qualify as a proper stalker, but if I lay low, then I start to creep even myself out. So hello, good to meet you, you're welcome at my newest blog (http://cappuccinosophy.blogspot.com), and curse you for reawakening Fran Drescher's voice in my head.

[panthergirl]

OK, here we go:

Read my cousin Mary's blog. She's a "pissah", as we say in Brooklyn:
http://mebcoll.blogspot.com/

Then go read my new advice blog, "The Hand-Me-Down Shrink", and ask me a question:

http://handmedownshrink.blogspot.com

[halfmama]

I love the irony of everyone self-advertising in your comments. See? You should be getting paid for this. You could be the Simon Cowell of blogs.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/
I think you should offer an Urban Dictionary Word of the Day for the d-bags who complain to you. Go forth and rupture.

http://alyssa.mlblogs.com/
Did you know Alyssa Milano has a baseball blog? Baseball. Alyssa Milano.

That's all I got.

[Eric]

There is still plenty of great songwriting out there even within the genre of emo. I know because I write about it at www.canyouseethesunset.com

[Mocha]

I'm in Sarah, Good Squad Sarah's feeder. I'm sure of it.

But you're right, it's deadening in the blogospher and I'm looking for something new. So. Hello, you.

[Mark K]

Of course, I like to think I talk about some good stuff on occasion :). I alos love reading Wil Wheaton's blog at http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/ and the Wired culture feed at http://feeds.wired.com/wired/culture

[de-lurked lurker]

A great blog about writing by two women writers. Even better - no ads!

mamascribes.blogspot.com

[Snoskred]

Ok, I have a couple of posts on my blog which I'd like to point out as possibly interesting..

Snoskred made 5 million dollars online this year - If you like it, please help out by letting other people know about this important and overlooked topic, I give a list of ways you can help.

And yes, you probably have had enough of reading about advertising right now, but this post I wrote about Blogrolling and Commercial Promotion might be interesting anyway.

Anyway, I like your blog. I'll be back ;)

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/

[Phil]

I'll throw my hat in. I'm a frequent visitor here.

[6th Floor Blogger]

6th Floor Blog

Just about a couple of us and our lives in Manhattan. Interesting, or not. Who knows?

I usually just follow links in blogs I read to blogs they read, to blogs THEY read when i'm bored. sometimes works.

[Katy]

so funny
http://www.lookydaddy.com/

[Rach]

well, I really like this one:

http://yarnharlot.ca/blog

It's a knitting blog, but she talks about raising her daughters a bunch.

[Chessgirl]

Here's a few (including mine because I get lonely):
www.xanga.com/chessgirl
www.xanga.com/daffodilious
www.thereinters.net
www.neilgaiman.com
www.dooce.com
www.thedreamproject.org
www.chaosdigest.com
www.tomsaaristo.com

Have fun!

[pnuts mama]

here are a few that i love, all women with little ones that i can relate to in different ways:
my missing twin in d-town amyinmotown writes at http://blissfullybitchy.blogspot.com/

a great food blog about cooking and whole food and eating well and recipes: http://cleanerplateclub.wordpress.com/

and i found this blog through sweet/salty kate (http://ingliseast.typepad.com/ingliseast/): bon at http://www.cribchronicles.com/

[Amy]

Have you ever heard the Replacements song: "Waitress in the Sky"? Pretty much sums it up.

[Mark D]

Well, if you're asking for blogwhoring, blogwhoring I can do. (note: Link takes you to probably the best post I've ever written, and all I had to do was transcribe The Boy.)

Oh, and nice, subtle reference to Dennis Miller's rant about airline attendants (or whatever we're supposed to call them). And to think he was at least mildly funny at one point in his life ...

[Lisa]

There's this mommy blog out there that seems to be quite popular. I think it's called Dooce?

[Little Bird]

On flying, I avoid it now if I can. I take the train instead. You can read the most recent post at www.pettiteavis.blogspot.com and maybe it'll explain why. Not that I say a whole hell of a lot on my blog. That is to say, not a whole hell of a lot that is of particular interest. I'm still new to the whole "I have a blog" thing

[Mama Nabi]

Ah, ya f'ing lingo-phile... there you go again with them big words, scaring off the haters... I barely get time to read the few I have on my blogroll (while others are sluggish due to summer fun, my blogging time is limited due to work projects... how sad am I?) and here you are INVITING people to pimp more blogs for you to read... Hm, maybe if you do find something noteworthy but obscure, you'll post?

[Jaime]

"exemplifies the vaunted precedent of valorizing the oral vernacular. ...rupture of subversion in order to convalesce with more structural stability," come on now, I don't have time to look up all those words. : )

[Roger Hur]

Visit our blog if you want to see some cute baby/dog pics. I put up pics and comments through the perspective of our Havanese dog. I know it's corny, but the grandparents get a kick out of it and the relatives in Seoul like to see all the updated pics too.

[BOSSY]

Lohan updates, prostitution rings, photoshop tutorials, high-heels, and al Qaeda: i am bossy is one-stop shopping for this and more.

http://iambossy.typepad.com/

[stef]

MD-

not sure if you are into cooking/food blogs but I know you like food/cooking! I've been pimping this one to everyone I know. (And this post is also hilarious)

http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com/2007/07/chespeake-bay-soft-shell-crab-sandwich.html

[Emmie]

Hi MD! Here are some other blogs (that I don't think have already been mentioned) that I check out on a regular basis (aside from yours, of course):

http://www.bestweekever.tv/

http://thisfish.ivillage.com/love/

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

http://smittenkitchen.com/

http://www.painintheenglish.com/

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/

http://www.angryasianman.com/angry.html

http://ahyesmedschool.blogspot.com/

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

But by far, yours is the funniest, smartest and sweetest! Thanks for many hours of entertainment!

[crazymumma]

come over chez moi. I swear like a trucker and this post made me laugh.

refreshing.

[tys]

From a long suffering dad to another, pay a visit to my lonely corner of the blogsphere.Its all about a life in progress (or is it degress?).Who the fuck cares as long as one lives it well?

www.tysonice.blogspot.com

[Megan]

I'm hopelessly whoring out my website, but only because you asked for it. www.crazybananas.com for a little insight on an extremely dorky former space camp attendee turned equally dorking young working mom.

[Zellmer]

I love your blog because I moved from NY over a year ago and Gawd how I miss it. Check my blog out if you like.

Also for kicks, check out truemomconfessions.com and trueofficeconfessions.com. Riveting stuff.

[Lucas]

You were the inspiration.

[stella]

thanks for stopping by.

i'm wanting to call you...

ME-DIDDY. you know...like Metro-diddy. But without the TRO?

does this work for you?

i especially enjoyed your fran dresher comment...that was perfect...and i could imagine you for a moment.

and 'balls to the wall' is the only way to go sometimes. really.

[wc]

if ever in the mood to roll your eyes or vomit in your mouth, hit this (though be forewarned, the summer crop is also on the dry side lately):

www.thereluctantgrownup.blogspot.com

[Family Man]

MD, you probably already know about her, but Terrible Mother, http://www.offsprung.com/terriblemother, often is a good read. The Poop, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/parenting/index?blogid=29, the SF Chronicle's parenting blog, is a slightly edgy and funny parenting blog.

[B]

Come a read, but it's not substantive in any way.

[Alice]

I recently started this blog - there's not much there yet - but I'm starting a new chapter in my life, and want to share my journey as a woman who is about to move in with a man that she has been dating, who happens to be 12.5 years older than her (who also happens to have an ex-wife and 3 kids). It's going to be one hell of a ride.

[Diesel]

"Coarsening the language." That's funny, considering the f-word has been in the English language several hundred years longer than "blog" or "email."

[Mademoiselle M]

Well MD, I HEART your blog. I would love to offer you some good readings but sadly I don't think there are too many posts on my blog that will interest you - nor on many of my daily readings. We are mostly crazy/silly 20 somethings taking in the real world one day at a time. If you like to read I do talk about my latest books every once and a while.

Oh but you may be interested in Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. I don't read it everyday but she is a fabulous mom, wife, and cook - not to mention she is absolutely hilarious! And she takes beautiful pics as well.

check it out: http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

peace

[stella]

i second http://www.pioneerwoman.com

and BOSSY is well, delicious.

http://www.iambossy.typepad.com

you can't go wrong.

[fidget]

Fran Dre... bwhahahahhahaha

Really I have nothing witty to say. Ive just watched a sailor moon movie 3 times in a row...

[fhcl]

Hopefully newbies are allowed to suggest their blogs?

http://dinosaurfloss.com