Profound proof in my theory that blogging is more about community interaction than self-indulgent individuality, I was delightfully surprised at the comments thread in my previous post! For that, I have Photoshopped a neat little image here for you all to take with you.

All I did earlier in the week was complain about feeling out of it. It’s a pretty basic human feeling, and I’m sure everyone has those kinds of days. Methinks nothing really need be done about it.

But the rest of my bloggy community would not let me sulk alone, and definitely reminded me that although I wouldn’t feel better right away, that the feeling would pass and I’d be back to cracking silly inside jokes and smartass comments with everyone soon enough.

So as a measure of thanks, I’m going to give some link love back. It’s the right thing to do.

• Oh! How Lovely! – Jamie gets to be first because she instant messaged me to make sure I wasn’t being a huge ball of life-sucking negativity. Good call, Jamie. As always, it’s good to chat with someone who says “dude!” as much as I do. Fly out to California so we can hang out already!
• Deutlich – One of the first bloggers I ever followed religiously, and for a good reason. Very rarely does a blogger have the ability to complain and make you think at the same time — to be able to point out the bad without being whiny — and to talk about all of these things in what is effectively very, very readable prose. A good brain propped up by sass and honesty, and when she’s being funny, she cracks a joke like a bullwhip.
• DShan – A veritable team leader as far as 20SB is concerned, DShan’s got this secret weapon in pontification that is loaded with gunpowder that smells like nostalgia and home cooking. You rarely see it coming even though you know it’s there. And when he delivers, when a post is loaded, he packs a punch.
• freeandflawed – Known to normal civilians as Awesome Face and our one and only living connection to the elusive superhero, The Googler, she now lives in MY town and you ARE jealous. In seriousness, I really hope she likes this city and doesn’t think Angelenos are bat-shit crazy 100% of the time. And Jenn, I will cook you dinner one of these days. And we will invite other bloggers to eat it with us. And it will be rad.
• phampants – If I lived in Chicago and produced video instead of producing music, I might be phampants. Of course, there are differences in our lifestyles. He can run a marathon and I can smoke half a pack of cigarettes, he doesn’t wear pants as much as I do, he’s in a different part of the tech industry than I am, etc. etc. However, over IM conversations, we get stoked about the same things enough that it makes me suspicious of if we might have been part of the same government experiment. Might it have something to do with Asians? Who knows. Time will tell.
• blaez – I hear that geminis get along with other geminis as well, and go figure that blaez and I accidentally started reading each other and that that is all it took for me to subscribe. And never once did I consider unsubscribing. There’s gotta be some truth in that there astrology. Additionally, considering how my sufferings are far less to deal with than what she’s been through, her encouraging me puts something into perspective: pain and suffering are related, but independent of each other. You can choose not to suffer.
• doniree – Why I hadn’t been reading Doni before the 20SB Chicago Meetup is beyond me, but I dare say that I keep up with her more so than some friends I’ve known way longer. That is a testament to loyalty, for sure, but it’s also a testament to her highly addictive and contagious personality. She’s one of the funnest (shut up, that’s a real word…) persons in the series of tubes, especially if your idea of fun is an examination of fundamental metaphysical and sociological ideas without all the histrionic* fluff that comes with formal philosophy. Incidentally, that is totally my idea of fun.
• Angela – Another blogger who was the first in my favorites folder. Her writing style is very distinct to me and epitomizes the “blog ramble” a lot of us think we’re doing but it’s what she successfully pulls off and makes it work oh, so well. Every post is a trip. And since she was one of the first escribitionists I started reading, she was one of the first to inspire me to keep up my own blog. I will even go so far as to say she’s changed the way I talk, because I find myself offering well-wishes to people when I leave them right before they go do something. May she never cease writing – ever.
• eshonkwiler – In a past life known as college, I was a highfalutin English & Comparative Literature major (meaning we also studied translations of stuff). There’s a part of me that still craves the deeper layers under prose, no matter how it’s written. I just need to be reassured that there’s more going on than what I can see with my own eyes. When I found Eric’s blog, I found that he would nearly single-handedly provide me my fix of postmodern writing in the practice of Iceberg Theory — and his actual writing is way different from his blogging voice. It’s like his blog is a stout and his writing is a bourbon. I find that to be pretty badass. Plus, he shares my love of post-rock. Bonus points.
• writetoreach – I’ve always been subscribed to Ashley and really only started paying attention in the past few months or so, and now I have to backtrack to catch up on what I missed. It seems like she too is going through a busy spell currently, so recognizing that, it was really nice to get a note involving what may have become a “running joke” regarding “punctuation.” She was once an English major like me, and she’s now delving further into deeper meanings via theology; that makes me feel like a zombie because I want her brains. (But, uh, not for eating.) Lastly, it’s fun to watch someone go through NaNoWriMo, which she’s doing RIGHT NOW. (If you don’t know what that is, Google it. I’m too lazy to find the link for you.)
• SleepyJane – Most distinctly for me, she lives in Johannesburg in South Africa, so that’s pretty cool to start because it makes her the only buddy I have on that continent currently, let alone that country. I’m actually not sure how I started following her, come to think of it. Maybe she was always in my reader. Definitely a varied escribitionist, perhaps the appeal comes from the idea that there’s a person who is thinking about the same things–about all the different parts of life–from the vantage point of an entirely different hemisphere of the earth–that keeps me reading. Alternatively, maybe it’s not that profound. Maybe we both just love coffee and that’s where the internet-friendship started. :P Oh, did I mention her dachshunds are cute?
• f.B – I used to think I had found most of the quirky smartass bloggers I needed, but I was so effing wrong until I found out about this guy. Just the right balance of earnestness, sarcasm, hyperbole, actual working footnotes, and of course, absurdity — all drizzled in eloquence. The drizzling might make him a sort of popcorn, and you like popcorn, don’t you? Of course you do. Oh, sure, he self-denegrates just like any other self-aware blogger, but chances are, he knows some things you don’t. Go get some smart popcorn.
• Andrea – Andrea, from whence did you get here, and why hadn’t I subscribed to you sooner? I mandate right here and now that we become friends because you are the 3rd ex-English major on this list (anyone correct me if I missed you), we have been dealing with eye doctors at nearly the same time, we both refuse to wear contact lenses, we were both zombies for Halloween, and… oh, dear. Maybe YOU are my doppelganger!

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* okay, that one IS a real word:

histrionic |ˌhistrēˈänik|adjectiveoverly theatrical or melodramatic in character or style