The Original Musings

Courtesy of The Mad Pigeon

I opened my email the other day to find a note from The Mad Pigeon letting me know he’d given a “Thinking Blogger Award” to The Original Musings. I immediately took myself to the link he’d provided to see what was up. I learned that another blogger (The Violence Worker) had given the award to “Diary of the Mad Pigeon” and that Pigeon was now to bestow the award on five blogs that make him think.

As part of the award, I must bestow the same honor on five other blogs (a real “people’s award,” if you will). I’m at a slight disadvantage, though, since I’m not a regular reader of other blogs–I often find once I find and write on source material I don’t have the time to peruse the rest of the blogosphere. Indeed, that’s why my blogroll is so short.

Strangely — although for the same reason — I have the opposite problem: I have a fairly large set of blogrolls, but there aren’t many that I visit on a regular basis.

That said, another reason’s my blogroll is short because I have to connect with the other writer in some way, and in a world of millions of blogs, the ones under “Fellow Malcontents” are the one’s I’ll read when time affords me the chance.

Exactly! If I don’t feel a connection with the person behind the blog, I don’t visit regularly. Some of my favorite “connections” aren’t what I’d call “thinking” connections, either … I simply enjoy reading what they have to say. Sure, they might make me think from time to time, but I’m not going there looking for deep thought, I’m going there just to keep up with them because I enjoy reading what they have to say. Others make me think, but they don’t blog regularly.

So, I set out to find five blogs that make me think on my blogrolls (and, although it’s not an official requirement, it’s one I wanted to impose — blogs which hadn’t already received the award). I didn’t bother with any of the “big” blogs, like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, etc. Yes, they make me think, but they’re loaded down with awards already.

After a great deal of deliberation — and more elimination than I’d like (turns out this was harder than I’d expected, to narrow it down to only five!) — I’ve come up with the following list (which is in no particular order) of only five blogs to honor with a “Thinking Blogger Award” … I hope you’ll find them each as interesting as I do.

If you’re one of the five I just tagged, here’s The Official Participation Rules™ …

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Thanks, Pigeon. I’m honestly flattered.