Who has the best blog?  What makes a good blog?  Why do we blog?  After the blather, I'm posting four tBLOG sites that have caught my attention over the course of the last week.

As mentioned in my previous article about team work, I have spent a lot of my usual blog-venting time working together with other tBLOG cohorts on a single project, the Building a "Build a Blog" Blog Project.

That project involves not only learning to get along with other ornery, unscrupulous men, not only learning what technology it takes to build a blog, but also learning about some of the aesthetic basics that, when balanced correctly, produce both a visually pleasing and intellectually stimulating blog.

The other Stone Blog members have more of an aptitude for web development than I do; on the other hand, I dig my heels when it comes to rhetoric, while those Andie MacDowell-lovers wouldn't know style or (especially) wit if Bill Murray said to them, "some people like blood sausage, too, you know."

My Stone Blogs assignment is to produce a research article for Stone Blogs about the relationship between (rhetorical) writing, subject material, and successful blog practices.  In the meantime, I thought I would peruse some of tBLOG's own stars.  I make the rounds on a small handful of local blog products, but perhaps there might be other kernals worth excavating for the chaff.

So here's my short list (my cohorts excluded, so no huffing and puffing, tenderhearted fatheads) presented in no significant order:

1. Jesus Reporting is Surrogate's work, a diligent, enduring blog top-filled with rational, intelligent work presented in unique, thoughtful ways.  The blog title refers to Surrogate's original format presentation, where each article began with the ironic "Jesus reporting here" and proceded to provide a thinker's perspective on many topics--often religion.
2. My Massive Thighs, a ThunderThighs production, is a sensory collage of font, photo, and larger-than-life article posts.  Her blog title wins the gold metal, co-opting a lot of slur and suggestive stereotype, while throwing wit back in your face for laughing.  She keeps her posts brief, inevitably funny, and (perhaps most impressive of all) uniquely interesting every time.
3. Justin's Tech Blog took me by surprise yesterday, when the stranger JustinB posted some responses at our Blog Forum.  I went to investigate for Stone Blogs, and discovered a very attractive blog page solution to the sudden removal of tBLOG's custom HTML access.  JustinB cleverly manipulated the basic template to produce an exceptional, professional appearance.  And his articles are packed with valuable research.  Useful research--separating his type of blogging from, say, my type of blogging.
   
4. A Reading Journal, written by Autumn Snow, is a blog I stumbled across by accident.  Looking for generic "praise-up" articles to rant about, a slip of the mouse clicker took me to her site.  Without any arrogant rhetoric (which sticks like drying snot to the walls of my blog), any judgmental declarations, any tBLOG fanfare at all, Autumn Snow has been writing soul-searching, thoughtful articles about books and movies, while generously offering her own considerations and feelings as they rise to the surface of her thoughts.  If you've missed her blog, do yourself a favor and correct the problem now.

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