Check Out the Latest Blog Carnival

The theme for the current blog carnival is embarrassment. This should make for some interesting reading. Did I submit an article? Yes, but I'm embarrassed to say that I was too embarrassed to share my own embarrassing moment so I discussed an embarrassing situation that occurred long ago and involves people who are no longer living. I'm sure that others were more courageous then I was in sharing their embarrassing moments.

The My Favorite Meme Carnival

Mimi Lenox has been busy. I just wrote about her Saturday Comeback Challenge. Now I see that she is hosting the latest blog carnival at her Mimi Writes blog. I encourage you to take a look.

The Saturday Comeback Challenge

Mimi Lenox of Dating Profile of the Day offers a weekly challenge for her readers. It goes something like this. She lists ten funny dating profiles. They often contain bizarre grammatical errors, strange misspellings, and generally humorous attempts to find romance. But wait, it gets better. You are invited to submit your own comical responses. A judging takes place and a winner is announced in a new post that lists the dating profiles along with the reader responses.

If you would like to see how it works, you can view the results for last week. If you feel ready to take the challenge, click here. The deadline for participation is 11:59 PM Monday.

50,000 Profile Views for R2K

Of all the profile pages in this directory, it would appear that the one for R2K may be the most popular. He just passed 50,000 profile views. Congratulations, this is pretty impressive for a profile page!

What's his secret? I don't know, but I suspect that it may have something to do with his five great blogs. I wont tell you what they are. You will have to visit his profile to see the list. Doing so will allow you to play a small role in helping him achieve 100,000 profile views. I wonder how long it will take.

Do You Need Word Verification?

To word verify or not to word verify? That is a question.

Skittles of Skittles' Place has challenged her readers to remove word verification for a week. I'm trying it and have been pleased with the results, so far. Word verification has its place in preventing spam, but it's also inconvenient and can reduce the number of legitimate comments that you receive. Some people need it, but many don't. The only way to tell is to give it a try.

If you try it and like the results, you may want to thank Skittles for the idea. I'd also enjoy hearing how it works for you.

The Bestest Blog Animal Carnival

There's a new blog carnival in town! The theme is animals, so prepare yourself for a zoological display of great articles from around the blogosphere. I think these carnivals are great and I was sure to submit my own entry to be gawked at by hordes of enthusiastic visitors.

While you're there, you may want to thank Morgan of It's a Blog Eat Blog World for hosting this terrific animal carnival. (I wonder if he needs any help cleaning up the mess afterwards.)

The Second List of Firsts

I would like you to think that this list was compiled after exhaustive research. Generally, however, I have merely listed the first blogger to come to my attention in a certain category. Many of the listings resulted from reader comments.

First Canadian blogger, Heather in Beautiful British Columbia
First blogger defined by what she isn't, Not Fearing Change
First 911 dispatcher, Linda
First sketchblogger, Jeanette Langmead
First fractal artist, Robot_Gir
First billionare blogger, Debonaire Billionaire
First blogger to offer exercise in exchange for comments, Sunflower
First bilingual nuclear ornithologist, Dirk_Star
First Bhutanese blogger, Ugyen Dorji
First blogger with an accent ague in her last name, Lexa Roséan
First blogger to correctly identify, in a comment, this mark as an accent ague, Peanut
First blogger to make more than one first list, Peanut (also the first to be listed twice in the same list (see what one comment can do))
First blogger to incorrectly identify, in a comment, that fancy mark above the "e" as a fancy mark above the "e", Dr. Blogstein
First uncle blogger, Uncle Artemis
First blogger name to cause a particular type of confusion, Skeet (See this article for clarification.)
First Mad Scientist blogger
First listing to be shared by two bloggers, Chelle and Chel

I'm not sure yet if there will be another list of firsts, but there's no harm in describing yourself in your comments. You never know what kind of list you might end up on. Even if you don't make a list, you will likely be noticed by other commenters.

See also the first list of firsts.

A Great Idea from the Directory

I never know what I'm going to run across while I'm updating this directory. I came across Debonaire Billionaire's blog and found a link to this site listed under the title "Blogger Buddies".

I had considered placing a small list of profile page links in the sidebar of one of my other blogs. I thought I might call it something like "A List of Profile Page Links", but when I saw the term "Blogger Buddies", I knew that was what I would call it.

I already have a blogroll, but I thought it would be fun to have a link list of some profiles that are particularly interesting or refer to bloggers that I have known for some time or who have a lot of great blogs.

At the bottom is a link for the complete list that takes a person here. I'm hoping that people will click on that and think, "Wow, look at all the blogger buddies this guy has. Maybe, I too can become a blogger buddy."

Well, I'll give it a try. If anyone else wants to try this, I'd be curious to hear how it works out.

Note: I plan on publishing a second list of firsts on Friday, January 12. Click here to see the first list of firsts.

Movie Trivia from the Directory

If you haven't tried profile page browsing yet, I encourage you to give it a try. It's quite a different experience than browsing blogs. It sometimes seems that profile pages can provide a more personal and immediate glimpse into a blogger's mind than their blog can. If you want to learn more, their blog or blogs are only a click away.

A lot of bloggers list their favorite movies. One movie that I keep seeing in the lists is "A Knight's Tale". This surprised me. I haven't seen the movie, but I remember that it got some pretty poor reviews. I may have to see it. It's funny how a movie can be judged harshly by the critics, but still find a place in the hearts of a lot of fans. I saw some previews and I seem to recall that the music wasn't authentic for the time period. I write an early music blog, so I tend to pick up on subtleties like that.

Another blogger listed "The Deer Hunter" and "Bambi" in the same list as a joke, but I can't remember who. If you find it, maybe you can leave a comment.

I list these example to demonstrate how entertaining and educational profile pages can be. I feel like an archaeologist who is sifting through the foundations of modern culture. I'm looking for insights and discoveries that I can't find any where else.

If you come across anything that is interesting or unusual, please feel free to leave a comment about it.

A New Blog Carnival is Announced

Bobby Griffin has announced a new blog carnival. If you don't know what a blog carnival is or missed the last one you can visit version 1.3 at Dr. Blogstein's blog.

The new theme is animals and the deadline is Wednesday, January 10. A blog carnival is a great way to promote your site and content. Visit The Bestest Blog of All-Time for submission guidelines.

Some Notable Firsts for the Directory

First blogger name to begin with the first letter, Awesomelyplain
First blogger name to begin with the last letter, Zardoz Bachman
First blogger named after a candy, Skittles
First blogger named after a legume, Peanut
First blogger named after a preserved fish product, Pickled Eel
First royal blogger, Empress Bee (of the High See)
First doctor blogger, Dr. Blogstein
First botanist blogger, David Schmoller
First teddy bear blogger, Klu
First beverage listed, Bud Weiser
First nonblogger blogger, Karen Shanley
First foreign language blogger, Muum
First blogger name with a fancy mark above the "e", Billé Reda (What is that little mark called?)

Please leave comments about any profiles that you would like to see recognised, even if it's your own. I love comments.

Note: Due to the unexpected positive response to this first list of firsts, I have begun compiling a second list of firsts. Some of you have made suggestions and most, if not all, of these will be included. Who knows? Maybe some day I will publish a first list of seconds.

Note on the note: I'm a rather busy person. I have two jobs and six blogs. I'm also trying my hand at microtonal composition and preparing some music for release. I plan on frequently recognising bloggers and content, but have to acknowledge that these mentions will always be largely the result of somewhat random processes, and will likely exhibit my personal biases. Please don't be affended if you have an excellent profile or content that isn't mentioned. I have plans for the future that will also allow others to recognise bloggers and content from the directory.

Klu's Profile

I came across a profile that I just had to share with you. The blogger is Klu, a teddy bear. (Altogether now, Ahhhhh. (I mean the Ahhhhh you say when you see something cute, not the Ahhhhh a doctor makes you say.))

The profile kind of reminded of the Winnie the Pooh books. (Regrettably, I was never exposed to the books as a kid. I had to wait until I was an adult to discover them.) Reading this profile gave me an incredible urge to jump into some jammies and make some hot cocoa. If there had been something soft and fluffy nearby, I would have probably grabbed it and given it a squeeze.

It's good to revisit the innocence of youth from time to time. Klu's profile is an excellent place to do just that.

A Small Change of Format

Griffin, Bobby I mean Bobby Griffin suggested that I try listing people's first names first. I thought, but that's not how telephone directories or other alphabetical lists do it. It didn't take long to realise, however, that he was right. It's much better for the search engines if a name is listed in the order it is likely to be typed into a search engine. Besides, most people are submitting some sort of screen name or first name only. The last name first listings were beginning to look a little silly in that context.

If you can't find your listing, it may be that it was just moved to a different location. Try searching for it with the first letter of your first name. I hope this new format will work better for everyone.

A One Week Anniversary

This blog has only been in existence for a week, although the idea for it has been around for a good hour or two longer than that. I can't believe the difference that a week can make. Just look at the sidebar. I've lost count, but there's a pretty respectable number of submissions there. Would you believe that this blog received over a thousand unique visitors yesterday? I don't either. I suspect that my statistics program is guilty of fraud and misrepresentation.

I have a lot of people to thank for this success. The award from The Bestest Blog of All-Time was a tremendous boost. I am also grateful for all the bloggers who have linked to me. I was touched by a review by Tisha. We can all be grateful when people link to or mention this blog. For many people, this will be the only blog linking to their profile, other than their own. When the rating of this blog increases it can help all the profiles that are listed.

I have a lot planned besides the basic directory. I hope you will drop by from time to time and see what's new.