Cogs keep on turning

Kakariki has very kindly included me in her Thinking Blogger Award list. Thanks K!



It now falls upon me to nominate five Thinking Bloggers in turn.

My first nomination is Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn who consistently finds the stuff I'm interested in, writes about it in a way that frequently inspires me to think, often drives me to comment, and even sometimes compels me to write here too. The quality and the quantity are high, and I take my hat off to Idsy every chance I get.

My second nomination is Make Tea Not War who blogs at her eponymous blog and also at What We Said. Reading her posts is like looking through a magical window showing how my life might turn out if my past had gone but a little differently. This is a Good Thing and often MTNW prods me to think about something from an angle I hadn't considered.

My third nomination is Joe Hendren. I've known Joe pre-blog, and he's a smart guy, with the killer combination of knowledge and the ability to communicate it clearly. He reads the policy stuff and the company reports, and all that trouble that I can't stand, and then he puts it into these great posts that make sense to me.

My fourth nomination is Apathy Jack at Brainstab. As with Joe, I've known Jack a long time, well before I started up this little shin dig. Jack has been the thorn in my side, he's kept me honest more often than I care to reflect on, and he has a prodigious memory which is a nasty weapon to turn on someone who is trying to fool themselves (i.e. me). He makes me squirm uncomfortably from time to time, but his stories, his posts, and his real life interactions with me, are treasures*.

My fifth nomination is Jordan Carter at Just Left. I thought a lot about this one. Jordan I've known almost as long as I've known Jack and he definitely makes me think, although I'll be honest and say that often those thoughts are not smiley noddy thoughts. I disagree with Jordan more than readers might have assumed, and sometimes I comment or post on those disagreements. More often I wade into Just Left's comment sections and try to wrestle with the trolls (or non-trolls who fall into troll ways of communicating) who just seem to have one setting (Attack! Attack!) and bore me rigid so I give up after a while. I don't mean this nomination to be critical of Jordan - his posts stimulate me and that's great, even if I frequently disagree with his line of thought or method of communicating it. Long may he blog.

I also wanted to nominate Maia, or jarrod, or jo, or lots of other people, but the Rules stipulate you can't nominate anyone who has already received a Thinking Blogger Award.

And I must say even if you aren't on the above list it's likely if you have a blog or you comment here that you have made me think at some point. And that is definitely one of the primary reasons I have this blog - to prompt and keep lively my own cogitative processes.

To find out more about the Thinking Blogger Awards you can click here. The general premise is as follows:

• If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with 5 blogs that make you think;
• Link to this post so that people can find the exact origin of the meme;
• Optional: Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” with a link to the post that you wrote (there is a silver version or the gold one I've used);
• Your chosen blogs cannot have been previously awarded.

* I was going to write taonga but I think he'd hit me next time I saw him.