identity crisis

Over in the blogroll are a few newish links.

What She Said bears the tagline "The next time some guy asks you where all the female bloggers are, tell him What She Said!" and is a compliation of progressive women bloggers. I don't technically meet the criteria (my blog is seldom political, and not by any stretch half so), but I'm flattered to be linked.

I've been reading Heather Corinna's journal for a while now, and I love it. She's a sex-educator and erotic photographer from Minneapolis. Check out her work, it's amazing!

If you're not shocked, appalled, or even saddened yet by the atrocities going on daily in Iraq, get over to A Family in Baghdad and start reading.

I've also been linked by Joe Perez, "The Soulful Blogger" whose work is an exploration of spirituality and relationships and just about everything.

The first and last links here have prompted me to think critically about the status of my blog in the blogosphere. Buddha Stew has always been a personal journal, save for a rash of political posts starting last fall and lasting up to maybe the beginning of the summer, when I burned out. I have been known to throw in a few discussions of buddhism and buddhist thought, but for the most part my tagline and journal name are misleading. Therefore, while flattered, I'm a little baffled as to how I got on the blogroll for so many respectable and purely political feminist blogs when most of the time I just post about goofy shit that happened to me in the supermarket.

I'd love to be a blogger with the sort of clout that, say, Feministe has, but to be frank I have neither the drive nor the resources at my disposal that Ms Lauren does. I find I am more comfortable telling stories and keeping people updated on my life- most of my readership being friends wanting to keep a line of communication open with me. In some respects I aspire to the level of enjoyability of Erica, but at the same time I don't want to be a big time blog. I went through a brief period of wanting more readership, to be a blogging powerhouse, but that's foolish- too much pressure. When I list the things I am, the title of blogger is among the top because Buddha Stew is a source of pride for me, and I consider my writing to be, if not fantastic, at least worthwhile. I'm often amused at how little response my favorite posts get, and how others I barely think about seem to be popular. Or just comment-worthy.

I have the time to put into this blog, although not the equipment or the training perhaps, but that's easy to remedy. After going through thoughts of blog-improvement and polishing for a few months, I've decided that I like it simple. I'm a lazy fucker (and a poor one), and if things require just enough effort on my part to make me feel accomplished and more knowledgable than the rest of the population, well then, I'm satisfied.

So, I'm winding myself up to the sort of point you've come to expect from me: a letdown, no decision, anti-climatic thesis that I will not be changing anything really about the way I blog. Every now and again you get the hankering to know what other people think about you, yeah?

So, you'll get a bonus if I start talking about politics or religion; otherwise, I'm sorry- you'll just have to read the Lost Plant Classifieds, and like it.