Conner's Blog

Today’s five includes five local items you should read.  For those of you who don’t know, local means Minnesota.  They are all great pieces that came through my reader this week.

• Art tells the Internet to stop censoring itself.  I look back on my use of $%#ing swear words with shame.
• Sorni posts a map of the US explaining where certain people come from.
• Amber posts what could be the funniest date recap I’ve read in recent history.
• Kaeti contemplates selling her car, and makes a pretty convincing argument that she could survive.
• Doniree posts a excellent post on risk taking and then announces that she is taking a big risk. (go wish her luck)

Happy Friday everyone, remember the workday isn’t far from being over.  Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you back here next week.  (or later today, you never know)

Since I’ve moved my reading list over to a page I decided I should start posting occasional updates in post format when I’ve added a few new blogs.  I’m going to try and update when I have ten or so additions.  So here is the first update, we’ll see what happens.

First I have a few food and beverage related blogs that need to be shared

• Happy Food – A blog about food, if nothing else this recipe for Vegan peanut butter cups should pique your interest.
• Simple, Good, and Tasty - Focusing on local food news, I haven’t been reading very long, but so far I like what I see.
• You Are Where You Eat – Dropping local wisdom about healthy and sustainable eating.  Lots of links, this guide to the local food system was interesting to me.
• The Captains Chair - A blog about beer, and not your uncle’s watered down American lager.  (I apologize if you uncle drinks real beer)
• Stirrings from the Empty Nest – Bob Collin’s personal blog.  I found this via his News Cut blog and haven’t dug in yet.

I have to say, the more I dig into the Twin Cities food blogging scene, the more impressed I get.  It kind of makes my attempt look sad.

Finally a few more multi-purpose sites.

• Mullet Like Me – A normal guy grows a mullet and decides to write about it.  If your wondering…yes it’s humerous.
• Zipbag of Bones – I followed her on Twitter for a long time before I found her blog, she’s just as clever in more than 140 characters.
• synapsecollapse – A smattering of fun content from around the web.  Also someone I’ve followed for quite a while.
• Powderhorn365 – A project documenting the history of the Powderhorn Neighborhood through photos.
• Streets for People – A site promoting the use of streets for humans and not dead steel.
• 50000000 Sparber Fans Can’t Be Wrong – Max Sparber’s personal blog

So there you have it, do you like this format, let me know here and as always, if you want your blog included in my list, leave a comment on the list and I’ll see what I can do.

Update: I’ve turned this post into a page http://connermccall.com/mnreading.  I’ll try and keep the page updated.

My reading list is always expanding, rarely shrinks, and causes me no end of worry whenever I see the unread count head over the 150 range.  I know I could hide the unread counts in Google Reader and save myself the pain, but for some reason I’m resistant.

One thing that has been a constant in my reading list, is that Minnesota based blogs take up most of my time.  Given 200 unread items, I usually have 150 unread items tagged Minnesota.  Here my recent list of Minnesota blogs.   There is no reason for the order, it’s just how the came out of my reader

• East-Lake – A bit about Minneapolis.  Check out his Top Beers page
• Like you give a damn – A wonderful tumblelog about Minnesota
• A Blog About Sarah – Sarah writes about a lot of things and takes great photos
• A Day In The Life – Technology, memes and poo have been recent topics
• A Nod to Nothing – Pretty much as it says, a lot of nothing about nothing
• Aaron Landry – Minnesota’s resident pizza expert
  
• Ambulance Driver – If you’ve ever wondered what an EMT’s day is like, here you are
• An Amber Colored Life – She claims she’s really good and hanging out
• Babbling - The opposite of babbling as it is usually interesting and understandable
  
• Because Emily Says So – Bacon, her cat, and other randomness.
  
• Beer Musings of Minneapolis-St. Paul – The title says “Beer”  Click Now!
• Bekiyrah - Photography, journalism, social science and law
• Lazy Lightning – A great place for south metro news and food reviews
• Bleat - Our own world famous blogger, Lileks could make my blog funny
• Secrets of the City – I subscribe to a few of the feeds here, a great place for local news and entertainment
• Blogging at FL250 – Written by a Minnesota based pilot.
• Brain Popcorn – If the title doesn’t capture your attention, the content will
• buildcontext - Musings on the web from Ben Hedrington
• Bus Tales – If you’ve never ridden a Metro Transit bus, here is a taste of the experience
• Camacho Watcho – If you like food and food photography, Katie has you covered
• Chocolate Mussolini – Jenni says “i have dedicated my life to the pursuit of awesome.”
• Cinna.mn – 32 flavors of Minnesota (and then some)
• Coincidence is Not Fate – “Inane ramblings of someone who thinks he knows more than he actually does. Or something.”
• Completely Inappropriate – Because sometimes inappropriate is just appropriate
• Doniree - She’s awesome becuase she uses Premium bottles to make fresh tortillas
• doodledee - Another interesting yet random blog
• Doug Hamlin’s Blog – Doug doesn’t post often, but when he does it’s worth the wait
• Drewko - For the trip of life
• Easier being Green – Great advice on how to live greener
• Embrace your age cause you livin’! – The title alone is inspiring
• The Empty Envelope - Artist, poet, wife, mother…
• Eye, me, my – Marissa writes about fashion, design, and other things
• Eyeteeth - A journal of incisive ideas
• Fresh.mn – Fresh info from Minnesota
• Ginger Sorvari – I started following Ginger during the Best Buy layoffs.  Her perspective has been very interesting..
• Girl Friday – Confessions of a Minneapolis Concierge
• The Punsultancy – Servicing all your pun needs
• Hilarity Ensues – She claims she can’t write funny captions, I don’t believe her
• The Hot Dog Blog – People eating hot dogs and writing about it = awesome
• How Does She Do It – She loves bacon so of course she’s cool
• How Many Licks, Mr. Owl? – Defining products that defy explanation
• I was told there would be bacon – “I’m a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a vest soaked with booze.”
• Jason’s DeBlog – Jason Derusha’s online home, tune in for Good Questions
• Just a Cool Cat – Music and links, what more do you need
• Kristofer D. Layon – Web Design & Online Collaboration
• Les Petites Images - Photos and other things, but I love her photos
• l’etoile magazine blog – Lots of good stuff, but their Weekend what’s what is wonderful
• Letters to Bob – I just discovered this site, drunken musings = great fun
• Live from Minnesota – A lot of interesting things
• Meg’s Single Step – blogger, social butterfly, and librarienne
• Minneapolis & St. Paul Restaurant Critics – Your where to eat guide to the Twin Cities.
• Minneapolis Metblogs – Our local Metbloggers rock
• Minnesota Microphone - Minnesota spoken word news and events
  
• Minnesota Pictures – “Photos that define Minnesota”
• Braublog - News about local media from MinnPost
• Minnesota Blog Cabin – I’m unsure if this is still going, but it is a column about the MN blogosphere
• Mmmmmm, Dinner – The title pretty much covers it
• MN Headhunter/Nerd Search – A great blog for any job seekers out there
• Monkey Disaster – “Pop culture and some news put through a filter of optimistic cynicism”
• More Cowbell - A great source for info on the local music scene
• News Cut – MPR’s Bob Collins keeps you informed
• No Smoking in the Metrodome - Short and sweet Minnesota Twins news and trivia
• Overheard in Minnespolis – Funny, funny, and even more funny
• Paleo-Future Blog – A interesting look at how the past looked toward the future
• Polymer Studios – A blog about web consulting
• Rachel’s ThinkSpot - Musings from Rachel
• Random Stuff From Sheldon – Basically, anything I feel like sending out to the blog world
• Singlespeed - A biker with a keyboard
• South 12th – Another interesting tumbleblog from the Twin Cities
• Stuff about Minneapolis - Paul is the curator of this wonderful site
• SugarFang.com – Brianne Pitt’s blog, full of interesting tidbits
• Swirlspice - Erica write about  interesting things
• The Deets – Ed Kohler takes on toilet paper, the yellow pages, and other stuff
  
• The Heavy Table – A great new addition to Twin Cities food blogging
• The Product - “obey the rules. often enter. organize your material”
• The Same Rowdy Crowd – A great blog about communication
• The Waiting Line – “Do you believe in what you see?”
• This is why I love Minneapolis – Great info about Minneapolis
  
• Twin Cities Tour Guide – “Hop on the blog and enjoy the Twin Cities!”
• Twin Cities Photoblog – Great photos from Minnesota and beyond
• Twin City Sidewalks – A blog about sidewalks that is more interesting than you think
• Uptown Mpls Blog – A photoblog centered in Uptown
• Uptown, Minneapolis – “Musings about the Uptown area of Minneapolis”
• We Got Served – Minneapolis and St. Paul restaurant reviews
• We Have Mixed Feelings About Sven Svengaard – “being cheap and watching bad TV in Minnesota”
• I’ll Tell you What it Shwas - Interesting things from Suzi
• Whiskeymarie - A little bit of crazy for your reading list
  
• YAYBIA! – A great blog about advertising
• Your Dress Would Look Better On Me – One last interesting blog about a lot of different things

That’s all I have for you today, of course there are many more Minnesota based blogs.  One things I’ve discovered since I started trying to keep much of my internet browsing local, is Minnesota has many talented writers.  If you want to add your blog to the list or link to your favorite Minnesota blog please do so in the comments.