Posts

Showing posts from August, 2006

Updates...

About 25 new blogs in the Recent Additions section. But what's more... To all of you who have helped maintain the site by notifying me of outdated links have been updated. You should now experience a slight increase in traffic (especially those of you who found MULTIPLE outdated blogs). Thank you!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/31/2006

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Bag Wine Ruminations This pick comes to us courtesy of Morgen from "It's a Blog Eat Blog World." Interested in being a guest blogger? Click here to find out how! He's weird. He's twisted. He's funny. A guy who loves loose-meat sandwiches, fried Spam , and of course, Wild Irish Rose. He's Matt-man of Bag Wine Ruminations . His humor isn't for everyone, granted. I find him hilarious. He can take a routine thing, like a tour of his town of Springfield, Ohio , and turn it into a funny road trip. He is a Bestest Blogger in the sense that he creates a sense of community and communication on his site -- he loves comments, and loves to comment on your comments! Frequently his wit and puns in his comments are just as funny as his blog articles. His blog also has great reading material in the sidebar -- where most of us have ads, Matt-man has put things like Word Of The Day, This Day In History, a Quotation Of The Day, along with two games: hangman, whi

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/30/2006

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Controlled Chaos Due to a little mix-up, I didn't run a Guest Blogger yesterday, so here it is today instead! This pick comes to us courtesy of Jessie from Hunna's Happenings . Interested in being a guest blogger? Click here to find out how! With great honor I nominate Rob, the talented photographer and author behind Controlled Chaos for Bestest Blog of the Day! Rob describes himself as an average guy living in Michigan but I believe he is above average! Rob’s blog highlights his superb photography and insightful writing skills. His photos add power to the words he writes and allows his readers to enter into his everyday world. Rob has taken the time to create an easy to navigate blog with several different sections for his readers to enjoy. Photos range from everyday shots to views from the Eiffel Tower . Favorite Quotes and Gambling Tips come free of charge for each visitor! Rob even lets readers request photos . I would recommend checking out Quilldancer’s Daisies

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/29/2006

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The Ordinary Advertures of Tomas So, you know how kids create an imaginary friend when they don't have any other friends to play with? Well, what if an imaginary friend didn't have any other friends to play with...well, you'd get Tomas and his ordinary adventures. Ok, that description makes this blog sound kind of childish, but I couldn't think of a better way to write it without giving away too much. Let's just say, it's certainly good for a laugh. But trust me, you'll enjoy yourself more if you check it out and figure it out for yourself...it's a really creative concept! It's kind of like a comic strip, though there are no drawings (damn, I'm really being mysterious here). Anyway, after browsing through them for the past hour or so, I thought I'd post a few of my favorites for you to check out (hopefully you'll look at all these and more!): Doubting Tomas , The Other Side , Doppleganger , and Self Portrait . Sometimes the blogs I f

Bestest Blog of the Month Update...

Hey guys, less than 24 hours of bidding left on my eBay auction for "Bestest Blog of the Month" for September. Currently, the auction is about half of what last month's auction ended at ($41), even though this site has grown by leaps and bounds since then (about 300 new blogs have been linked in August). So either this thing's gonna shoot up in the last couple of hours, or someone's gonna have quite the bargain on their hands. Plus, I've even added some extra incentives to be the winner that weren't offered last month (e.g. Premium Blog tie-in). Check out the eBay listing for full details. Thanks for looking and have a great Sunday!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/28/2006

For today's winner, I thought I'd do something a little different. This idea comes (indirectly) to me from Malinda of "Blah Blah Blog - The Soap Box." What Malinda did when she joined in here was visit the blogs that were directly above and below her in the directory--termed by her, her "blog neighbhors." So, that's the winners for today. If you're reading this, go and check out your blog neighbhors--the blogs directly above and below you in the directory. Stop by, say hello...hey, if they're good enough, offer to exchange links. If you happen to find a blog that hasn't been updated in quite some time, report it here and earn some extra traffic for yourself. If you don't have a blog neighbor, because you haven't joined up at the site here, it's as easy as checking out my link exchange program . No user names, no passwords...just add a link and send a quick email. Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow for our regularl

Rerun Sunday: 08/27/2006

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The Laughorist As you may have guessed from the title, this blog comes to us from the "Funny Blogs" category. This is a really hilarious blog, one of the first blogs I linked on here. I've been meaning to give Paulie the award for awhile, but I kept forgetting. Sorry Paulie, I blame my ADHD. (But you must know all about this from your post on ADHD , note my use of parentheses). The Laughorist recently hosted the "E Pluribus Unum" Humor Contest , where the goal was to come up with a new, humo u rous slogan for the USA. The winners? Both people who found his site through my site here. Click here to see what they'll be printing on our pennies any day now... In any case, it seems that Paulie's been getting some nice attention even with me forgetting to give him the award. The winners received their choice of prizes from "The Laughorist Store" . This is a Cafepress shop featuring apparel (shirts, shorts, thong underwear, etc.) with funny s

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/26/2006

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Irish's Cartoons Welcome to our 2nd edition of "Premium Saturdays," where we feature one of our Premium Blogs for the day. Click here to find out how to become a Premium Blog! Today, our winner is not only a Premium Blog, but "Bestest Blog of the Month" for August 2006 (as you can see in the top right corner there). And to tell you the truth, this blog is deserving of every honor my site can bestow on it (and probably lots of awards from other sites too!). This blog features the cartoons of Mr. Irish. They are expertly drawn and very funny and witty. "Witty" I think is a great compliment because it implies a level of originality, not that hackneyed garbage you see in lots of comics like "Fred Basset." Mr. Irish's cartoons are "Far Side" style, meaning one single square panel. In fact, "Far Side" isn't a bad comparison for the type of humor either (which is another great compliment, because I do love "Far

Becoming "Bestest Blog of the Month" for September

Yep. It's that time of the month again. The time when the rights to become "Bestest Blog of the Month" are up for bids again. Click here to check out the EBay auction. The bidding starts at only a penny! Also, this month I've added a little extra incentive to be the winning bidder. It involves a tie-in with the new "Premium Blog" feature, as well as our old (but exciting) "Random Blog" button feature. Check out the EBay listing for full details. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment here and I'll answer them for you. And if you haven't gotten the chance yet, check out last month's winner, "Irish's Cartoons" , who will soon be on his way out to make room for what could be your blog!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/25/2006

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I Am Woman, See Me Blog This personal blog comes to us from Lizza who hails from the Philippines. Many (but not all) of her posts shed light on life in the Philippines. She mixes these excellent posts with the perfect blend of posts on other topics. Her posts are always short and to the point, yet still very informative. One things I really find great about her site was a feature she does entitled "Blogworld Saturday." Here she takes a sampling of the blogs she links to and reads regularly and writes up a sentence or two about what kinds of things they wrote about that week. Many of her regular readers were very thankful for the awesome blogs Lizza has exposed them to. You could all learn a thing or two from this idea (and hopefully a few of you adopt it and give Lizza credit)...IF YOU FIND A BLOG YOU LIKE, LINK TO IT AND TELL OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT IT! After all, that's what I do here and that's what Lizza is doing on her blog, in her own unique format. Finally

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/24/2006

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Dr. Blogstein This pick comes to us courtesy of guest blogger Alex from R2K . Interested in being a guest blogger? Click here to find out how! Dr. Blogstein, found in the funny blogs section , is likely almost too funny for the category. Not to take away from any other blog, but it is really just that good. The blogosphere is full of strange and sarcastic pages (mine for example) but few are actually consistently funny and clever. There is a strong feeling of community and many ways that the reader can get involved in the fun. This is one key to a successful blog. You can send Dr. B an email, leave a comment, or even offer him something funny you have found online. The best way to show off this page is with a sample of Dr. B's work: Reader questions: Tammy Nguyen asks: "I think you're very funny and very clever. Do you write your own stuff?" No, Tammy, I have a staff of 35 researchers and 15 writers who work together to struggle to produce 2 or 3 posts a week.

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/23/2006

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Dating Profile of the Day This site has a simple idea with hilarious results. Search through actual personal ads and dating website profiles for ones that make you laugh. But don't worry, as Mimi promises, "NAMES AND LOCATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE TERMINALLY SINGLE." This really is a funny site. Plus, I have a new-found respect for anyone who promises daily posts, because from first-hand experience I know how hard it can be some days. I like to categorize the humorous posts into (at least) 3 categories: (1) "Funny Typos" , (2) "Why would they write that?!" , and (3) "Just Flat-out Funny" (click for an example of each). This site is new to my exchange, but I just had to feature it when I saw it. I hope Mimi keeps up the daily posts, because this stuff is hilarious. Go over and check it out at "Dating Profile of the Day" and let Mimi know that Bestest Blog sent ya!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/22/2006

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It's a Blog Eat Blog World The whole guest blogger idea was received so well that I decided to make it twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday (otherwise the line would have taken us into October already!). This pick comes to us courtest of Julie from "Flip This Body." Interested in being a guest blogger? Click here to find out how! Morgen, the self-titled “gay gift shop owner” from Michigan, is the author of the hilarious It’s a Blog Eat Blog World, and I proudly nominate him for Bestest Blog of the Day. First off, Morgen is freakin’ hilarious. Anything that he writes has me chuckling, if not rolling in my cubicle. He is able to take an every day occurrence and turn it into a stand-up comedy routine to rival Jerry Seinfeld. Morgen’s posts vary in content; from the every-day wackiness of his small town shop visitors to the mating rituals of his pet chickens. He sets a weekly schedule of topics in the sidebar, ranging from “Herbal Soap Stud of the Week” (complete with a stud

Finally caught up!

44 new links up in the Recent Additions --be sure to check em all out, lots of quality blogs in there, one in almost EVERY category. More importantly, I am finally caught up to date! So, if you've sent me a link exchange request at any point in time, it should be complete!! Hooray!!

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/21/2006

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Tripping on Words "Who are Claire and Lara and Why Do I Care?" This is the title of the first ever post on this blog. The provided answer: "They are Travel Writers (among other things). They met at Stanford University, where they got degrees and tans (sometimes). They came up with the idea to quit life and start traveling for a year or so. In April of 2006, they started this trip. It will be going on until it ends. Until that time, you can read their blog." Click here to view a map of the places they've already been. It's pretty incredible...and to think they're only in month 5 so far. The more you read this blog, the more amazing things you find. For example, I was just browsing through the posts and discovered that Claire's dad wrote the book about the Barry Bonds steroid scandal . Amazing... Ok, here are some awesome posts I've collected about the various countries they've been to already: Spain , Italy , Greece , India , Turke

Help maintain the site and gain some extra traffic...

So, this site has been fully operational for about 2 months now. We just hit 700 linked blogs and everything is going well. However, with so many blogs, it's hard for me to find if any of them are breaking the rules. This is where I need your help, but of course, I'll give you a little motivation, read on... Blogs that are in violation of the rules meet any of the following criteria: (1) Have not been updated in over a month (unless there's a post explaining not to expect new posts for some period of time due to vacation, illness, etc.) (2) Pornographic or otherwise offensive material (3) Do not host a link back to "Bestest Blog" (4) Sites that no longer exist, or attempt to forward previously existing webpages to new URLs So, part of removing a site from my directory involves removing them from the "Random Blog" rotation. The "Random Blog" rotation is basically a (very) long numbered list of URLs. The computer randomly generates a numb

Rerun Sunday: 08/20/2006

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Life is falling to pieces: an illustrated journal Edit: Serena is now up to her 49th entry , so if you haven't stopped by in awhile, there's plenty of new stuff to see. When blogs first started out, before everyone realized the versatility they offered, they were mostly journals. The length of my "Personal Blogs" category shows that there is still a strong portion of journals out there. The main problem with a blog as opposed to a traditional pad and pencil journal is the loss of the personal touch. Serena, however, has found a way to recapture the personal touch in her blog. Instead of typing out her daily thoughts, she jots them down on a piece of paper, complete with some impressive sketches, some personalized type-setting, and of course a mistake here and there. Then, she scans the paper and uploads it as an image onto her blog. GENIUS! At the time of publication, she was already up to Entry #38 and posting new ones almost daily. If you'd like to start

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/19/2006

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More Cowbell Alright, back to our regularly schedule program... Welcome to our first edition of "Premium Saturdays." It's just like the rest of my daily picks, except only "Premium Blogs" are eligible. Today's winning blogger is Justin, a medical student at THE Ohio State University. First of all, you lot could learn a bit from Justin. I'm not talking about medical tidbits, no no no...I'm talking about the fact that if you reference a classic SNL skit in your blog's title, you've already got my attention! Justin preaches that his blog is designed for those people out there clicking the "Next Blog" button (or in the case of this site, the "Random Blog" button). This is because he posts about a wide-range of topics such as business , politics , and entertainment . One thing all his posts do have in common though is they're well-written and informative...not just a bunch of hastily thrown together nonsense like I

No blog pick today...let me tell you why (longest post ever, but please read)

Well, yesterday my wife got a call saying that a delivery man was on their way to our apartment with our lost piece of luggage (if you haven't been keeping up with this story, this luggage contained both our digital camera and camcorder, as well as all the pictures and videos from our trip). So, this is great news, right? Wrong! The bag gets here, we open it up, take out the camera bag and it's empty! Someone stole our cameras and all our memories! And there's no doubt it was stolen...to get to these cameras someone would have opened a latch, undid a zipper, taken the camera bag out of the larger bag, undid the velcro, undid ANOTHER zipper, and taken out the cameras. Now, the value of these electronics is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700. They were my Christmas present to my wife, and my wife's birthday present to me. Both were bought full knowing that we were going on this trip, and wanting to be able to remember it forever. But what's more than that,

Guest Bloggers

I thought I'd try a fun, new idea...one that will help me maintain the ever-growing amount of work needed to keep this site going (it's a lot for one person to handle!)! Every Tuesday and Thursday, I will be featuring a "Guest Blogger" who will make the pick of the day and write up a short article. And just so you don't think I'm trying to pawn off my work to you guys with no reward, here's your motivation: (1) Recognizing a great blog you've found in my directory that maybe I've been ignoring (sorry, you can't pick your own, or your best friend's) (2) A little extra exposure for your blog. At the top of the pick for that day I'll be sure to include something like "Today's pick comes to us from 'So and So' at 'Link to So and So's Blog' " (3) A $1.00 Premium Blog credit Anyway, I don't know if this idea is a good one or not. If I don't find any Guest Bloggers, I will still make the pick mysel

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/17/2006

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Meathead Diaries I love funny blogs, I love blogs with an original concept...ergo I love this blog. Guy Ernest is the best, he's cocky, he's a bad boy, he's competitive. He also runs this blog which features funny stand-up comedy audio clips (which you need Quicktime to run). I think Guy probably considers himself the best comic in the world (me, I'm on the fence). His audio clips demonstrate how he is a master at multiple different forms of comedy: Alternative Comedy , Improv Comedy , HBO Television . Guy may be cocky, but he's not selfish. He's willing to teach you how to be as funny as he is (well, no one is as funny as he is, but he'll teach you how to get as close as you can). He offers lessons in comedic topics such as: Observational Comedy , Song Parodies , Dennis Miller-ish Super Smart Comedy , and How to Deliver your Material . If you've read this far and haven't already figured it out, Guy Ernest is not a real person, but a funny ch

Linking Update...

Since my return I have added 52 new blogs, which can be seen in the Recent Additions. I am all caught up on blogs who left a comment requesting a link exchange. If you sent me an email directly requesting one, I'm sorry that I haven't gotten to yours yet, thanks for your patience. I'll have it up very soon! By the way, have you checked out the Premium Blogs in the sidebar or by clicking here yet?

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/16/2006

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A Dog A Day One of the things I missed most while I was gone on vacation (only than running this blog for all you lovely readers out there) was playing with our two Cairn Terriers, Bella and Beverly. Luckily, we had some leftover photos on our digital camera of them that we were able to look at whenever we needed to (before the airport lost it of course). I was never a dog person until I met my wife and now I can't imagine life without them. This is similar to a quote on this blog: "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." (click the link to see the cute picture that accompanies the quote). Basically this blog is all about 2 beagles named Nugget and Stewy (and sometimes about their canine pal Bruno , who, if I had to guess, I would see is a Maltese). Each day the operator of this blog (referred to only as Nuggy's Mum as far as I can tell) posts an adorable picture of their dogs, as well as a cute little story or sometimes an inspirational q

Bestest Blog of the Day: 08/15/2006

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Digital Traveler I thought I'd feature a "Travel Blog" today since I just got through travelling. And this was a perfect choice. My wife and I took a ton of amazing digital pictures on our trip, but they made us check the bag with the camera in it (normally I would have carried it on) due to heightened security and conveniently they "lost it." They didn't lose the suitcase filled with dirty laundry, oh no no no. Furthermore, Matt has written a "For Dummies" book on Digital Photography . This is coincidental because my wife and I used "For Dummies" travel guides to make our trip go smoothly. It's like this choice was fate. Fate aside, Matt is definitely an expert in digital photography and there are a lot of amazing pictures on his blog, taken as he travelled around the world. If you'd like to read two chapters for free of his book, you can click here . He even teaches an online class in photography if anyone is intereste

The new setup is up!

Ok, separating all the categories into separate pages is all done. Unfortunately it took longer than expected and I am way behind on my linking, but things are coming along. Also, the first 5 Premium Blogs can be found in the sidebar and by clicking here . Donations are now also being accepted via mail (not just paypal). To find out more about "Premium Blogs," click here . Remember, the minimum is only 1 dollar (and that's forever!). Let me know what you guys think and if there are any problems with the new style.

Clarifying a bit about "Premium Blogs"

This is for the people who may feel like this whole "Premium Blogs" thing is just a way for me to "cash in." I just want to say that I work really hard researching blogs and adding links and I am just looking to give anyone who wants to say "thanks" a little motivation to do so. Many blogs out there have a place for people who want to donate, but not many of them offer anything more than gratitude in return. Plus, I am not asking for an arm and a leg, I'm asking for 1 dollar. Not a dollar a month, not a dollar a year...a dollar (forever!). If you don't feel I've brought you enough enjoyment for you to give me that dollar, than by all means keep it. You'll notice that throughout the explanation of "Premium Blogs" I referred to the payments as "donations" and never "fees." That's because I want to continually stress the fact that they are optional and won't change your experience if you don't

I have returned (safe and sound)!

Hi everyone, I'm back! I know you didn't know to worry about me, because I didn't say where I was going, but I was actually over in Europe and my flight home was through London. So, in light of what's happened in the news recently we had a very tough time getting home and a very frightening plane ride back. I guess you could say I am a stronger person for having made it through, but all I know for sure is that I won't be flying again any time soon. "Bestest Blogs of the Day" will start up again tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and continue without interruption far past the foreseeable future. If you've requested a link while I was gone, please be patient as there were a lot of you. I'd like to say I'll have them all done today, but I honestly don't know how many there were to say if this is an accruate claim. As for the referral contest, I have no idea what happened to that post. I had my sister look over my blog while I was gone, and perh