Flashes of Scenery

I just noticed this story linked to my post Ten Ways To Spot A Scam. The story begins here. It's laugh out loud funny, and I can just imagine how much work it must have taken to pull together. And that's not counting time spent setting up all those links. It's also an interesting lesson in finding ideas anywhere.

That may be why I enjoy wandering the blogosphere as much as I do. I have a long list of blogs I want to spend further time reading, as well as those I plan to link to. For a writer, there are so many things to learn, and so many routes to new ideas. I have to discipline myself so I don't spend all my time just absorbing all the glimpses into other lives.

This need for discipline explains the new organisation of the links in my sidebar. I intended to sort them out alphabetically as soon as I could find the time, and when I did so, I removed a few links to 'dead' blogs. I also decided to sort them into two lists; those blogs I couldn't keep from reading every day, and those I found interesting but was able to limit my visits to.

No insult is intended; the division is purely a matter of various factors. Some of the blogs are ones that don't seem to be frequently updated, so there is little sense in visiting them daily. Others are ones I discovered once I already had a long list of favourites, and I simply had to keep that list as short as possible.

It was only after I had finished editing my template that it occurred to me some bloggers might feel slighted. I fear some of my readers may misunderstand my intent, so I am thinking about reorganising my links again soon. I haven't done so already because I am saving my efforts for writing at the moment, and I want to decide on a method of organisation I will be happy with before I go to all the trouble of moving links around again.

In truth, moving the links probably requires less than half the time it takes me to write some of my posts, but it feels longer. Time speeds by when I'm writing. I enjoy what I'm doing, and I don't begrudge the time I spend on writing. Moving links, however, is just another boring but necessary task.

I think much of life is like that; our reactions depend less on the actual time and effort required than on our own opinion of what is involved. I have several ideas for new posts; I've found several postings on other blogs I can't resist commenting on. I had hoped to begin today, but I've had a nasty bug the past few days, and I was still feeling too wobbly to tackle too much serious writing. And as soon as I'm feeling better, I'll need to tackle some of those boring but necessary tasks.

In spite of how I felt, I did manage to take part in Brandon's challenge, over at Tales of the Bearded Toad. Thinking of a way to continue the story, without taking too much opportunity away from those who will follow me, was an interesting experience. In fact, I may just use the paragraph I wrote as the germ of a larger idea.

However, I had enough fun with that challenge I am considering doing something similar. Suggestions are welcome; I haven't yet decided the exact form my challenge should take, although I do have a few ideas in mind. If enough of my readers are interested, I will try to post more about that in a few days.