Surfin' USA

I like looking around and seeing what other people are doing with their blogs, so all those viral marketing services work well for me -- I'm going to be looking at sites anyhow, why not have some traffic directed back in my direction.

My favorite is still Blog Explosion -- they just seem to not only have the most sites but their site is set up in a way where I can easily assign my credits with no guess work or confusion. It's my first choice for reliability, ease of use, and variety of blogs. The only advanatages the other sites have is a shorter browsing time.

is okay too, but I cannot figure out how to blogmark -- it's probably something obvious. There seems to be a good variety of sites. I plan on continuing to use this one, but it's not as intuitive as BE.

Then there is BlogXchange which is about equal to BlogClicker: Worth it, but not up to the level of BE. I do think this one has potential.

Blogsoldiers. This one just started and the jury is still out. Because it's new there are not a lot of sites yet, and there is something really hinky about assigning credits where I'm really not sure if I'm doing it right. I think it has potential, but at this point the pickings are poor enough that I surf it just to get my own blog out there, rather than real joy. I consider it a good investment because there are so few sites it makes mine more prominent.

There was another one I considered with Lemming in the title. When I went to sign up they wanted a ridiculous amount of information. Will not do that one, because, well it just seems skeezy! There are too many of these things out there!

This services have directed me to a good many of my favorite blogs -- the ones listed to the right of course, and also others like: Last Girl on Earth with my favorite entry showing the episode of Ambush Makeover she was in. (And for the record, Ambushing is NEVER a good thing, and harrassing people on the street -- as if they should wear formal wear to Chucky Cheese -- is Just Crass! I'll pay someone to ambush some of the faux experts who do the show, okay, not really...unless I win the lottery.)

I believe BE also introduced me to Do They Have Salsa In China? -- which is done by a couple who are planning on adopting a little Chinese girl. I so want to do that someday. At the shelter we had a woman who'd adoped a Chinese girl, and she was just a beautiful child -- her mother actually told people not to always be telling her how gorgeous she was, because she thought the child hearing it constantly had to be a not good thing. It just makes me sad to think how little girls are undervalued in some parts of the world. (Don't they know that boys have cooties?!?!)

I don't know where I found Longmire Does Romance Covers, but it always makes me laugh. It reminds me of another site which votes on the worst romance covers (it's fun to go through the archives to see all the worsts 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999) Even non-romance readers would get a good chuckle. If you tell me this "worst" does not look like Star Jones-Reynolds, you are a DAMNED liar:

For the record, and because I have not ruled out writing a romance novel, most covers are really, really "purty." And you can't judge a book by it's -- well, you know! Ahem. See, purty:

And how could you not love Squareslant? Just for the saucy pictures (images?!) alone! I keep on meaning to tell my friend Arch to check out this blog -- but since he reads my blog, I suppose I just did!

Last, but not lea...oh, you know, is Coroner Stories for the true crime/CSI minded folk! I worked with a guy who used to be a coroner's assistant, and he would tell me about worms poking their heads out during autopsies. And that is why they make Colon Blow.

I'll just leave you with that thought.