posts of note

From around the blogosphere, posts that made me smile, think, pause or consider:

Warm Stone's Bing wrote about the less than admirable habits and behavior of some famous bloggers. I think that a blogger crosses the line when he/she begins to believe their own hype and loses that crucial humility. On the democratic world of the web, we are all equal, and celebrity bloggers shouldn't be treated, as well, celebrities, as if their opinions were gold. It's okay to have a strong opinion, but to bruise people with it is another matter (at least online, haha). We need to respect each other's personhood, even if we are not all professionals, millionaires or such. Another pet peeve: linking only to influential/popular blogs, as if to give yourself the semblance of "Popular Blogger and me? We're super-close!" Gah, I feel a tirade beginning so I'll stop right here.

Zarah, the Coffee Goddess, does two interesting things: she explains what a reading stance is, and explains why she found Neil Gaiman's American Gods less than readable. I agree, loathing the book myself (just because you like an author doesn't mean that you will like every word that flows out of his pen - be critical, even with your favorites).

I'm enjoying looking around Tito Rolly's Blog. His most recent post about education begins with a list of the top universities in the Philippines, and made me reflect about the ugliness of my own "university snobbery", coming from UP Diliman (thank goodness I "enlightened up" a few years back, to borrow a phrase from Buddha). Another of his earlier posts resonates with my own stand on letting people be what makes them happy and productive - read it here. Tito Rolly sounds like my kind of teacher, and one day we'll have a smoke together.

Rei had me simultaneously laughing and aching with sympathy as she recounts her current bout with a third eye.

Leigh writes olfactory descriptions like I never could. It's amazing. And her writing tone for everything else is enjoyable as well. Her blog is called "My Life as a Verb", which means that Vin's blog, "My Life as a Bed", is no longer lonely.

Sean raises good points about writing fan fiction, but it's still not for me. Sorry to those who like reading and writing them, but apart from the writing exercise rationale, I feel it is a waste of time. Really. Far better to write and create something new, that is yours, than to play around with someone else's toys (unless, again, you're doing it as an exercise, but even then, there are many other ways toe exercise your writerly muscles). Now if, say, the Star Wars people or someone like that commissioned a novel set in their universe, and gave an advance in dollars, that's a different matter - I'd do it for the money ;)

And finally,Jonas over at The Blurb gets special props for quoting Melanie Marquez. More, more.