Some interesting blogs or feeds to follow

 

I track blogs that I read in feedly.  A lot of blogs have a Facebook page but I don't trust the algoritm to show me each post when I want it and when I'm on facebook I often don't have the time to properly read the posts that I want to read.  So I gather all of them with a subscription in Feedly.  

If you have a blog that I follow, you'll notice I continuously run behind a few weeks in reading the posts. I must rush to read them within 28 days or they disappear from the feed.  There's about a 100 different subscriptions listed although not all blogs are active anymore but I rather keep the link to get the news as soon as there would be a new post again. 

I've seen other bloggers pick this theme in the challenge and list their favourite blogs and there weren't too many surprises I must say. All the usual suspects were there.  The belgian blogosphere is a little universe where most names seem to circle around.  I'm not in the center of that universe but more of an outsider, I know. 

For that reason I'll try to list some feeds that I enjoy but that are probably unknown to you at all: 

Category: the probably unknowns for you

1) The Farside 

My daily smile.  Gary Larson was hugely popular when I lived in Canada in the mid-nineties.  The Far Side calendars by Gary Larson were all over the place and I adored his unique absurd style of comics. Unfortunately he retired in 1995 and although in the first years I still received some calendars as gifts, the Far Side products seemed to have disappeared. 

But now he published a website and there is are daily 3-5 old cartoons republished. I get them in my feedly feed (but they magically disappear after 14 days so I must keep up to date reading them) and they are my big daily nostalgic smile.  

Seriously if you enjoy some fun cartoons, add this to your feed reader. 

2) Terrible real estate photos com

Another smile, a feed that does not need much attention or concentration.  But it collects the most horrible real estate photo's with a fun caption. Sometimes you can't believe what you see. It's too wild how people advertise their property or how people live.   

3) Kottke.org

I have no clue how I discovered Kottke.org but I must have added it in my feedreader about a year ago...maybe already amidst the outbreak of the pandemic. 

Apparently Jason Kottke has started this blog in 1998 already.  I just recently realized that it has been featured in the New York Times and has been named among the most influential blogs by The Guardian in 2008 already, so I came rather late to the party.

Kottke publishes 4-5 posts a day on random topics from his home in Vermont, US...way too much to read in detail I must admit. I usually scroll through, read diagonally and cherry-pick now and then something that I read in more detail. Yet I find the input very inspirational.  He has a gift to collect video's, in depth articles , links to science reports, interviews etc on current topics such as black lives matter, racism, the USA elections, the COVID-19 epidemic, climate change, etc... but also art or science or technology developments or anything he finds worthwhile sharing.  He finds interesting YouTube (fortunately summarized in a little paragraph) and articles that give me feed for thought and broaden my mind.  

He's a great editor in finding information and resharing it. 

4) Information is beautiful
 

This blog ended in oct 2020 after a one-year project to share good news each day.  For all of us who feel the news is often gloomy and focused on bad news, this feed was very refreshing. There is so much good news in the world that is simply not "newsworthy" but therefore sometimes unknown. 
The site is specialized in data visualization so often showed nicely coloured graphs (and that's how the site continues to exist with info and workshops on data visualization).  

But that's not what it was between Oct 2019 - Oct 2020 and I recommend scrolling through its blog history.   It's refreshing to read how some countries and regions succeed in decreasing CO2 or how some infection diseases have been successfully eradicated in the world in the last decades or how girl's illiterate rate in the world has been on a strong steady decline, how the number of countries where the death penalty is applied is in decline,  how freedom of speech globally has grown, how a record amount of oceans now have a protected nature status,  etc... 

Thanks to this blog (and some YouTube by prof Hans Rossling) I realize that I've grown up eg with the images of famine children in Ethiopia but that after such disasters we never get updates on the emancipation of some regions and therefore we get a very distorted image of the world.   So just for your information : there is a lot of good news out there as well! 


5) letters from omi

My longtime blog friend Carol Snider  has inherited all her father's documents, scripts, books etc after his passing a few years ago.  

Her family history is very interesting since her father survived nazi Germany as youngster thanks/despite his mixed German/Jewish roots.  While he survived labour camp, he lost his father (Carol's grandfather) in bombings. His father was an art collector and some of the collection got saved and has been given and featured back in Chemnitz Germany where Carol's family were VIP guests in a very reconciling meeting.

Her father Thomas Heumann consciously lived through the rising of Nazism hundred years ago and  WWII after which he emigrated to the US.  He has felt in recent years political developments in the US (and rest of world) that reminded him of that period. He was very anxious about Trump's presidential campaign before and predicted a lot of the outcome we've seen  (yet her father has not lived through his presidency anymore much to her relief).

Her father had started to write books and essay's and passed on his legacy to her for Carol to publish.  After reading and structuring the mass of information, she has just launched this new blog a few weeks    ago.   Knowing her and heaving read some of his letters already on her blog, I am very curious to read her legacy now. I have not started yet in all honesty as I know I want to read this with ample attention. 



Category : Belgian blogs that I enjoy (and that are probably not on most hyped lists)


6) Kruimel
I take Kruimel as an example of blogs that I enjoy and that are not in any way commercial or following big hypes etc... Posts are rather rare,  pictures are scarce...but the thoughts and texts are so well chosen and reflective and empathic that they warm my day. 


7) Yab
Yab is also a dinasaur in the blogosphere,  continuing in her own way, blogging similarly like me on whatever crosses her path: small posts about her job challenges,  lengthy travel posts,  food descriptions or a Youtube that crossed her attention.

Most of all Yab has become a good friend in the recent years who happens to live in the neighbourhood so we try to meet up regularly.  This friendship is sure one of the great things that has happened to me thanks to my blog.

8) Le petit requin

I like Haaike's diversity in posts but I also love the interactivity in the comments. When I comment, I usually get another reply and like that there's multiple little conversations that start to live in which I have the feeling I get to know Haaike a bit more and that's fun. 

9) Satur9's World

I have not been following Anne's blog for that many years yet, but I've also built up a lot of interactivity with her. It's fun to comment and to comment back and  then continue conversations on social media.  

10) mother blogs: Ditjes & Datjes / miekids / moederschip / ...

I also enjoy other down to earth stories from other moms that are recognizable and who do not pretend to know it all.