Thinking Bloggers

I'm a little behind on catching on to blog memes and tagging and I don't know if this has a name, but Lara recently awarded me a Thinking Blogger Award. I'm surprised people actually read my blog, especially people who are writers. Reading the other blogs that she hilighted made me aware that there are some very good writers out there, not only thinking-wise but stylistically. I know I think a lot, but my writing style is more like *splat*.

I think I'm supposed to nominate five of my own selections. However, I don't think I'm even reading five blogs regularly right now.

Life: The Ongoing Education
I'm nominating Lara back. She and I both started having some tough times at around the same time, and also spent a week in the hospital. While mine seems to be a physical illness, and hers a psychological struggle, we've found that there is considerable overlap. She writes openly and honestly about difficult topics such as cutting, and makes me care about it too. Although I've danced in the same room with her weekly for the past couple of years, I don't think we would have had these "conversations" if it weren't for blogging. And as strange as it might sound, sometimes reading her blog was almost the only thing I could do.

monoceros blogs
The first stranger's blog that I was impressed enough by to keep reading. I came across her blog on a search of "Vienna Teng", found some wonderful poems (by others), beautiful writing, and deep thoughts and feelings about life. The poems that she selects to share are accessible even to non-English majors like me. One of the first poems I read made it easier for me to imagine what it's like for the many friends I met in graduate school and at work, who live between two countries. Reading her blog was also one of the first times I was aware of appreciating the way it was written, the use of language, sentence structure, etc. (in that Singaporean sort of way).

Vienna Teng's scrapbook
I mentioned her above. If you don't already know, she's a singer and songwriter, also a former computer science geek and Stanford graduate. My sister mentioned that not only does she make wonderful music, but she's also wise and makes people think, as can be seen by what she says she values most in life.

To Be Determined
As I said, I'm not reading enough blogs to have five selections.

Poems
So I'll cheat and share with you, not a blog, but some of my best friend's published poetry. She's been making me think for about seventeen years.
Three Poems
Is torn alike. I sometimes touched my aim,