I’m well and truly daunted by the prospect of trying to dig up all the links that I’ve been sharing in other more immediate spaces and not here for OH SO LONG (like since last year…) I still want to do this, but I’m not sure yet the best way to approach it. I’m being gentle and sneaking up on it.

That’s why I’m doing this blog post first! It’s a Link Salad! It’s a special kind of Link Salad where I thought I’d share a bunch of the blogs that I’m reading. I read A LARGE number of blogs pretty faithfully I read everything from cooking and environmental and picture blogs, lifestyle and self devleopment blogs, plus a large number of feminist and social justice blogs.

Somehow I am not stressed at being 1000+ entries behind in my reading, it becomes something of a marathon challenge to work through. I enjoy getting lost in the spaces between what other people write and publish online. I’m getting closer to being in a space where I am also writing and contributing to the space with insightful and lovely things to say. (I hope.)

I will point out that I almost never read comment streams. Sometimes that’s out of laziness, but in a large number of cases, I find the comment streams a little (or a lot) toxic and I’m just not interested in *that* level of engagement. So before I go into the list, a couple of warnings…

Trigger Warning – comment streams have not been vetted in most of these cases. I’ll state specifically if there are comment streams I’ve found valuable rather than the other way around. If you find comment spaces difficult, you may wish to be aware that I’ve not vetted most of these ahead of time. 

Sexual Content Warning – some of the links I want to share with you are overtly sexual in nature, I’ll post those in a spaced out paragraph on their own, but if you’re not interested in those kinds of blog spaces just be aware there will be a section in the post for this stuff. There is only a couple, and they should be easy to skip but I’ll flag it clearly for those uninterested. 

 

And now… onto the Link Salad!

First, one of my most favourite blogs in the world… Havi’s Fluent Self blog. This is one of the spaces that I’m most behind on because I read it carefully and intentionally. I don’t skim or rush it. I often mark posts to go back to and revisit after thinking about them (or forgetting about them). This is one of the few blog spaces where I enjoy the comment stream. I don’t always read it, but whenever I have, there’s never been a whisper of ick. Instead there’s an awesome coming together of people all working on their own stuff and sharing accord)ingly. I’ve learned so very much from the blog and Havi, but also from the community of people who comment as well.

Havi writes about her business, about being a Pirate Queen, about her community and the different ways in which she works with herself and others around biggifying and destuckification, negotiating with our inner monsters, about finding playful ways that work and not having to run her business in a traditional way. I cannot emphasise just how much I love this blog.

 

Next, the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) blog. It’s just an image, but it’s never *just* an image. I have a deep and abiding fascination with space and the universe. Once upon a time I wanted to be an astronomer (until someone scared me with all the maths involved, which now makes me a little sad). There is an amazing array of images displayed, some more artistic, some more scientific, some telescopic photographs, some Earthscape photographs… but all amazing in their way. Getting to look at all these images reminds me of the love and the wonder I see in how everything connects in some way. I’m reminded of a Carl Sagan quote: “Within us is a little universe”. 

 

This won’t surprise anyone, but I love the XKCD webcomic! A great number of my friends also love this webcomic (not really a blog, but I follow it as faithfully!) I fell in love with this comic when I was linked to this particular offering titled ‘Grownups‘. Since then I’ve followed it’s array of geektastic, romantic, sarcastic, linguistic and scientific with delight.

 

I found Chally’s blog ‘Zero at the Bone‘ {archived} through reading a number of other blogs I read. In particular her posts resonate with me, make me think, make me consider the world and people around me differently. Chally’s blog is one of my favourites overall for a social justice perspective, she’s not afraid to have conversations or ask questions that many other people either don’t notice or don’t have time for. In particular I value Chally’s recurring theme on identity, not so much the way we choose to form identity, but the invisible ways in which the dominant culture around us forms our identity – it also informs us how to judge others’ identities.

There’s a lot of interesting and insightful reading to be had from this blog, and it’s worth a look – though be aware it’s not discussing social justice from a 101 perspective and is instead tackling greyer and more thorny approaches to the goings on in the world.

 

There is a treasure trove of geeky suggestions and ‘hacks’ via Lifehacker Australia to have your life run better, everything from tech choices, plans for your tech (broadband, mobiles etc), office setup, wellness and work, work life balance, travel and even home and DIY tips. There’s a lot of recommendation and discussion on software particularly of the open source kind and if I want a program that does ‘x’ I’ll hit their archives first to find out what they’ve had to say about the subject. I love it, but it also tends to be completely unaware of it’s pivilege and sometimes that shows, but overall it’s not terrible. The interesting suggestions and advice I’ve gotten from the site make it well worthwhile. Also, I often find comments here to be helpful, (although there are also some trolls).

 

Some other social justice blog links now, first up Blue Milk who discusses motherhood in relation to feminism and social justice. Blue Milk’s posts are insightful and draw not only from her own experience of the world but from academic and other blog spaces. She makes astute comments regarding motherhood and feminism, the difficulties in both these spaces and how they interconnect. This is another blog that I picked up from carnivals and other cross linking like I did Chally’s.

I believe that Hoyden About Town was the first specifically feminist blog I read, and it is still a favourite. I belive that it was through HAT that I discovered both Chally and Blue Milk’s blogs. I love their broad social justice perspective – I do actually seek out blogs that have a broader view of injustice, oppession and the seeking of equality. HAT certainly has that, I’ve learned immense amounts from this blog with it’s cohort of regular bloggers and occasional guest bloggers.

One thing I value about Blue Milk, Hoyden About Town and Zero at the Bone is that they’re all largely Australian/New Zealand in perspective – they all cover material outside of Australia and New Zealand, but I really value that they’re talking about their experiences and that they’re relevant in a local way. I appreciate other blogs that are mostly USA-centric, but the balance provided by these (and other Australian/New Zealand blogs) is very welcome.

 

I’ve been following the Geek Feminism blog almost since it’s inception. I love it’s focus on things that are geeky and that the interpretation of what constitutes ‘geeky’ is broad and inclusive. There is as like to be posts about knitting as there is about tech conferences. This blog is valuable in that it interrogates and discusses a particular focus of feminism that I’ve felt at times was missing from the other blogs I was reading. Other feminism blogs do cover the high notes of what is discussed by Geek Feminism, but this blog drills down and takes on those deeper conversations about geekdom, feminism and the interplay of privilege within.

Equality is a huge cultural soup and no one side of any conversation can hope to make headway toward that goal without the involvement of the other parties. I value these blogs as part of a movement of people dedicated to moving forward with equality in all areas, committed to learning and exploring the issues, to sharing and having the conversations and to offer critique.

 

On a food related note… I have been dearly enjoying The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader blog posting not only cafe reviews (from around Perth) but also cooking adventures. I find the reviews insightful and I’ve found them to be useful on more than one occasion. (I still really, really want to get to Toast for example).

And now the picture blogs! These are general blogs that are generally speaking safe for work (your milage may vary on that though).

Zoo Borns! Baby animals! The unbelievable cuteness! Perfect for crappy days when I need a pick-me-up. Also, baby animals! ‘Nuff said 😀 

Cute Boys With Cats! Kitties, and boy-identifying people with kitties! How can this not be awesome?

Pansexual Pride is not just a picture tumblr but it does have a lot of awesome images. It’s a very genderqueer friendly space (to my eye at least) and there’s lots of people being out and proud about their sexuality and feeling comfortable about it. I love being part of that kind of space. The positivity and the way people express themselves with pride is just delightful. I love that there’s lot of different relationship and people shapes and experiences and backgrounds. The diversity is so heartening.

 

 

This is the space bubble for the links relating to sexual content, if you’re uninterested you you can finish right here, if you’ve got some particularly awesome blogs that you recommend I take a look out – feel free to share them in the comments. I hope you liked some of the links to blogs that I mentioned. These are a selection of some 75 ish blogs that I follow (not including my livejournal/dreamwidth).

 

If you’re interested in some of the more solidly sexuality based links see below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bubble bubble bubble and this is the beginning of the bubble. Sexual content follows.

 

Just two links, first off Sex Is Not the Enemy. I love this blog – one of the top tags is for ‘smiley happy people’ – how brilliant is that? There are plenty of people for whom sex is fraught with worry, pressure and other less than positive feelings. There are also plenty of people who are uninterested in sex all or most of the time and that’s fine too.

There are also people who are just comfortable and who delight in their sexuality and it is this latter space that this blog seeks to capture. For those of us who are interested in, invested in and who pursue sexual partnerships with people, I think a blog like this is invaluable. I love the variety of people, relationships, shapes, of acts – the diversity here is brilliant, I love that it’s candid, it usually comes across moreso stylistic as opposed to pornish – though that’s a personal view and others may find that very different.

 

The second link is more overtly pornish – at least that’s my experience of it. Frigging is just brilliant. It’s a tumblr blog from the perspective of a pansexual cis-gendered woman, it’s just stuff that takes her fancy, but it’s just so much of the awesome. There’s a lot of different images here, some are about beauty, some are attractive for attractiveness sake, some is fashion or photography and yes, pornish stuff. It’s delicious. There’s again, lots of different shapes, people, depictions from a diverse space… I just can’t get enough of such positive imagery.

 

Bubble bubble bubble… this be the end of the bubble 🙂

 

Also, it’s the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed the links and again, if you’ve got some particularly awesome blogs that you recommend I take a look out – feel free to share them in the comments.