I Like These Guys

Regional Blogs Are The Best!

I love people who know what they're doing: pros.

Mark Gisleson's been linking us for about a month: Norwegianity.

Norwegianity's ranking is ...still... ...barely... ...not for long, sucka; October's moving day!... a little higher on Techorati ranking than GNB's ranking. Clearly it's not blog-whoring "Link me. Link to me with your powerful voice and throw me traffic."

*strains myself laughing*

It isn't we don't have traffic. Just...when he started throwing links to us he had (and still does) more traffic than we do. Yet there were his links, every few days.

Eventually I started taking them as a complement to our writing. I know. Shocking.

Open networks. The center of a network is everywhere. Tell truth to power. Yada yada blah blah blah. But he's got a higher ranking than we do. Don't you understand? He's linking to us all the time. What does he want?

This is what growing up in a hierarchical religion-school-gang-home-the-Army does to you. Makes you go arrrrgh! Well, to me anyway.

It can't possibly be someone relatively our peer is linking because he finds us valuable? Because Hubris Sonic posts timely pieces with analysis' of Iraq to knock your socks off...and shoes. That Sara Robinson's pieces are deep and thoughtful and with a heart. That I pour my self in to my work, love all of you with enormous compassion, and it breathes through; it shows. And that all of us. Each of us. We're blessed to have Lower Manhattanite, our Chief, National Affairs Desk and don't you think that title is by design, that LM writes here.

What a gift it is to work with these talented people. Really, you have no idea how lucky, how over-joyed I am, how every night I drive home, my face breaking into a smile knowing I'm about to turn on my computer and crank out the work: I get to go play with them.

So you'd think I wouldn't freak when week after week, two, three times, pow, ka-boom, ker-whamo, there's Norwegianity, showing up in our link logs. Not even the lazy posts (not that we ever have lazy posts); just the good stuff. Or the stuff on point to what he's talking about over there.

I frequently spend time checking out blogs who link us. Sometimes I even comment. Did a whole hour post on some kid's high-school English assignment. Thoughtful, careful, really terrific comment. Little twerp not only never responded in comments -- worse, he stuck with his basic (totally like stupid) premise. High school students will not change their mind about a goddamn thing once it's made up. (No, I'm not talking about my daughters. Why do you ask?)

My point was...is...I check out who's linking to us and often surf their blog. See how lamely they're distorting our posts in pursuit of their totally vapid arguments.

This Norwegianity blog just seemed to like us. I mean, Drifty likes us. But he's been deranged since the accident. (Send him money.) And Sarah's Orcinus, well, she makes Dave put up the link.

Eventually I just got used to it. We're being linked from Norwegianity. Wow.

They seem pretty cool, too, for people who live up in the middle of a State which gets to like, a zillion below all winter. Not only do they have great regional coverage -- blogs with nifty names such as apple juice and After School Snack -- but they give national coverage and comments also.

I like these guys.