The Agora

If you are conservative, I can't help you much. Tacitus and Oxblog might be good places to start. Both sites have lengthy list of links, so you'll find something you'll like. Meanwhile, feel free to leave any comments you like.

If you have no interest in politics at all, with just a little digging you can find blogs about whatever you are interested in. If you find something, send me an e-mail, I'll be happy to poke around and see what I can find.

Either way, think about starting your own blog. Disagree with me? Refute my post on your own site. Like what I post? Then start your own blog and find better stuff. Hate Rush Limbaugh? Start a blog that fact-checks his ass 'till the cows come home. Love Rush? Then start a blog that backs up everything he says with more evidence (yeah, right). Love cheese, Italy, or snowshoeing? Then start a blog about those things. It's easy, it's fast, and if you choose to host with blogger (Radio Userland, Typepad are other possibilities). I'll link to any blog, just let me know about it.

I'll answer any questions you have, or offer advice if you want, just send me an e-mail.
7:05:44 PM    comment []trackback []

Impressively, it ran on the front page. Even more impressively, it opened with my name, and why I started The Hellenophile:

Doug Johnson used to scour the Internet looking for a good site that had updated news and travel information about Greece, but the 36-year-old West Toledo resident couldn't find one that he really liked.

His solution: create his own Web log - commonly called a "blog" - where others with a similar interest can visit to find information about Greece. Now when he finds something online about Greece, he creates a link to it on his blog, called "The Hellenophile," for anyone to check out. Google and other search engines will direct those interested in Greece and its culture to the site.

I was extraordinarily pleased because I had spent the hours after the interview slapping myself because I felt that I hadn't emphasized to the journalist how blogs could be more than just personal diaries or political ravings, that they could be more diverse as the universe of print magazines, that individuals with little time or money could become their own publisher and with luck and native talent go toe-to-toe with "big media". I thought I had missed a fantastic opportunity to evangelize the potential of blogs.

Luckily, the mainstream media is still pretty sharp, and the writer picked the important stuff out of what must have been a series of meandering, incoherent responses from my interview. Karin Kowalski "gets it." And that's high praise from any blogger. [Note to Blade editorial staff: thanks to her I will never again mock The Blade on the web--you should give her a raise.]
1:07:31 PM    comment []trackback []

Was I ready for my local paper to run a story on area blogs? Nope.

In my defense, Gabe was sick most of the weekend, and I had been guilty of some familial neglect last week as I spent many hours cleaning up the appearance of the Agora for the newspaper story I thought would on Sunday. When it didn't, I thought I had at least a few days until it did run, and I took it easy on Sunday.

This morning, Gabe woke up a 4:30, and loudly ran through his entire vocabulary. "Bulldozer! Firetruck! Daddy! Nap! No nap! Downstairs daddy, downstairs! Juice! Juice!"

So, I didn't check the paper, didn't spend any time on the web this morning, and even forgot to grab the paper off of my front porch. It was remarkable that I managed to drive the seven minuets to work without nodding off. The office copy of The Blade had been stolen so it wasn't until 8:30 that I even knew I was prominently mentioned on the front page.

So, I pretty much missed my big day. When the tall, leggy blonde of opportunity knocked on my door, I had spinach in my teeth.
12:38:13 PM    comment []trackback []