As we end the hustle and bustle of  Christmas and wrap up the 8 crazy nights of Chanukah we are slapped in the face with one more major event, New Years.  It’s hard to believe in just 6 days it will be 2009.  2009 brings with it a lot of personal milestones for me, including my ten year high school reunion and my five year wedding anniversary.  But it will also bring forth my first full year of being fully engulfed in blogging and social media.

Earlier this week I posted 5 blogs you should be reading if you’re not already and asked readers what blog they would recommend to someone who could only read one blog in 2009.  I posted the same question on a number of social networks to see what others thought and have taken the responses and compiled them in an organized list below for your reading pleasure.  I have added my own choices to a few of the categories just to add some variety to the ones that only had one entry.  I hope you find something of interest to ring in 2009 with.

SEO & Internet Marketing

Copyblogger – Recommended by Anna Bourland: “Copyblogger is a great one to read… I can’t think of “only one” but I’d say that has the most “bang for my buck” as a writer.”

The popular copywriting advice blog for bloggers and internet marketers has made waves throughout the blogging and internet marketing communities. Deemed as one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs by The Guardian and authored by Brian Clark who was named the most influential blogger of 2007 by the editors of Performancing, it’s no wonder this blog got a recommendation.

Search Engine Journal – Recommended by Brian Harnish

A long time standard in SEO blogging and search engine news Search Engine Journal brings to life the latest happenings in the search engine world as well as SEO opinion and research.  Considered an authority in Search Marketing it is another blog that makes a number of lists and gets a large amount of recognition in the search marketing community.

Seth Godin’s Blog – Recommended by mrakula: “I’d read Seth Godin’s blog… He writes everyday but usually only one post, maybe two every so often.”

The author of a number of bestselling marketing books and founder of Squidoo, Seth Godin is no stranger to the marketing world. Again a staple in many online marketing lists, Godin regularly updates his blog and discusses various facets of marketing.

Technology

Mashable – Ok I’m plugging my personal choice again here, but I feel that Mashable does an AMAZING job at spreading all things internet related. The site covers practically any news you can think of on the web from social networking, startups, mobile, music, politics and more. I love this site not only because of what they cover, but how they cover it.  Seriously if you’re a internet geek like myself and you’re not reading Mashable, start in 2009!

tuaw.com – Recommended by Stephen Sharon: “I like reading tuaw.com but I don’t know how much it appeals to others since it is entirely mac oriented. I like that just about every post has some humor thrown in.”

Labeled as “The Unofficial Apple Weblog” tuaw.com covers everything Apple from Macs, to apps, to the iPhone.

Music

B-Sides “R” Us – OK Again I have to throw in my two cents for this category simply because this site is incredible.  If you love music like I do you are always looking for something new from your favorite artists.  Thankfully B-Sides “R” Us gives just that.  The purpose of the blog is to post music that can’t be bought elsewhere, such as out of print albums, b-sides, demos, live sets, audio rips of Live DVD’s, acoustics, special edition or re-release bonus tracks, etc.  I have found a number of great tracks from bands like Jimmy Eat World, AFI, A Static Lullaby, and Thrice on this site.

Prefix – Recommended by Stereocache

A daily music news site, Prefix magazine hosts interviews, reviews, mp3’s, video’s and more for a number of music genres.

Sports

Dead Spin – Recommended by teduncan: “If I could only read one, I would have to chose Dead Spin not because I like it but because they seem to cover everything as far as gossip and funny videos in sports.”

Mother Pucker – Friends and family will tell you that one of the few things that is actually “manly” about me is the fact I like hockey.  My father was a long time Los Angeles Kings fan and got me into the game at a young age. I have been following the team and the sport of hockey ever since.  One night after tweeting about a game Mother Pucker started following me on Twitter and the rest is history. Mother Pucker offers some great hockey news and info and is not biased to any specific team. The blogs writer is an avid hockey fan and follows both NHL and international hockey.

Humor

Oddee – Recommended by Audrey Seiberling

A site made up of a number of funny finds and oddities from around the world.  Some of the most recent posts include The World’s Most Extreme Piercings, 12 Funniest Billboards, and 15 Most Bizarre Bears and Mustaches.

Fuck You, Penguin – Recommended by jonceramic: “NSFW, but the funniest thing I’ve read for a long time.”

Slated as “A blog where I tell cute animals what’s what.” Fuck You, Penguin does just that.  If you ever wondered what it was like for someone to rip on an animal this is the site for you.  It’s really something beyond explanation that you just need to experience first hand.

Personal

dooce – Recommended by Gaby R: “Heather Armstrong’s “dooce” blog. She’s a mom with a kick. I read every single post and am never bored. I love it.”

Dooce chronicles the life of Heather Armstrong from a time when she was a wealthy Los Angeles web designer to her current life as a stay at home mom.

Chickens in the Road – Recommended by Misty Wilton

Chickens in the Road chronicles the life of  Suzanne McMinn who gave up city life for the life of a farmer in the country outside of a tiny town in the Appalachian foothills.  She posts a daily farmhouse journal chronicling her photography, stories, recipes, crafts, and sentimental thoughts on the history, people, life, and beauty of rural Appalachia.

Misc

Boing Boing – Recommended by Russell Spica : “I’d have to go with Boing Boing. I’m always finding interesting things to read about on there.”

Honestly a potpourri of content here with no one way to define what the site offers, but they label themselves as “A Directory of Wonderful Things”

PostSecret – Recommended by Kristina Sanchez

Making the number 10 spot among college females in Youth Trends’ February 2008 “Top Ten List Report”, PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project in which people mail their secrets anonymously and if they’re lucky get them posted on the website.  The site’s creator has also published 4 books composed of the many secrets he has received over the years.

In preparation for a blog post I threw a question up on a number of social networks last night asking friends and followers to name a blog they would recommend someone read if they could only read one blog for all of 2009.   I have already gotten a number of responses from a number of sources and I’m getting really excited about the post.

Following that I thought to myself, what blogs could I recommend to my readers that may interest them?  What are some of the blogs that aren’t already on all of the lists out there that I read? Alas, this post was born.  I read a number of blogs on a number of subjects; from SEO to Social Media and Parenting to Design.  From my list of over 190 blog subscriptions I have compiled a list of my top 5 that I find the most influential or useful.  There are a TON of great reads in my reader, but these ones stand out time and time again.

The Fire Horse Trail: David Harry’s SEO Blog -  David Harry does an outstanding job at covering news and info on search and internet marketing, but what I like about his blog is that unlike a number of  SEM blogs out there he doesn’t just regurgitate a bunch of information.  Most of the time he is exploring facets of search that most search bloggers aren’t paying attention to or talking about; from personalized search to search patents, David has offered a wealth of information and ideas that don’t fall within the norm of search marketing blog topics.

Mashable – OK this is probably one of the bigger ones and I’m sure it’s probably been on some lists, but I know there are still a number of people out there who don’t read it or know about it.  Mashable is the one blog I have to keep up with every day.  If I only read one blog in my reader before selecting ‘Mark all as read’ it’s Mashable.  Why you ask?  Because there is a wealth of information and resources presented on Mashable.  I also love that they like lists, I’m a list person so if you can give me a list of  100+ More Ways To Organize Your Life you’re ok in my book.  Not to mention their news covers search, social media, gadgets, startups and more.  There’s a little bit of something for everyone on Mashable.

TwiTip – A sideblog of Problogger Darren Rowse, TwiTip shares some tips on how to get the most out of Twitter.  A newer blog which only started in October of this year it has offered some really interesting ideas on ways to better your twitter relationships and generate stronger traffic to your blog or website with twitter. Some tips have included use of Twitter landing pages and What To Do When You Lose Twitter Followers.

Jon Swanson’s Levite Chronicles – What I love about Levite Chronicles and Jon Swanson’s writing is that it makes me think.  It always throws some sort of different perspective at me that I rarely consider.  It’s one of those blogs that make you stop and reflect after you read some of the posts.  In a world that moves at the speed of light and we are surrounded by information overload, this is one blog that actually slows it all down for a moment and helps you refocus.

PluginID – Another blog to come out of 2008 and another sideblog, this of ViperChill blogger Glen Allsopp, PluginID has one purpose; to help people plugin to their identity and aid in their personal development.  Again a very inspirational blog, which has caught my attention a number of times and made me reflect on who I am and how I live my life.  If you’re still trying to find yourself or make yourself, or simply just need a reminder as to who you are at the core this is the blog for you.

I hope you each find some value in at least one of these blogs and that you are able to add it to your reader for 2009.  For now I will leave you with the same question I opened the post with, if someone could read only one blog for the duration of 2009 what blog would it be and why?  I’d love to hear your responses and the list of entries will be posted in Friday’s blog.

I recently finished archiving a number of journal posts from my old LiveJournal account here on Musings For A Darkened Room.  Before I began seriously blogging I updated friends and family using the free services of LiveJournal.  At the time my blogging efforts were nothing more than journaling my daily life.  I would typically post about the ins and outs of my daily routine and only on the slight occasion did I post anything outside of that.  HOWEVER, I came across a few of those occasional posts which I wanted to share with some of my newer readers.  Most of them still hold some social value, or I just really enjoyed writing.

Understand obviously that many of these posts were written 3-4 years ago and my writing skills were not nearly at the level they are now, though I’m not saying they are exactly up to par just yet.  Hopefully these entries will pique your interest and bring back some life into these old forgotten posts. Enjoy!

Write It Just Like That, But Not Really – A post about school censorship and how we are striking down creativity and self exploration at a critical time in adolescent lives.  How can teens discover who they are if they aren’t allowed to be themselves?  Especially in this case where a student is told to write an assignment in a certain style and then gets severely punished for doing just that.

For My Fellow Pagan Bloggers – Have You Found Jesus? – A funny story that I shared from a Yahoo! Group that I belonged to at the time.  It tells of a woman who had been preached to by multiple people about religion in a single day and how she calmly, but comically responded to the last person.

God’s Politics – My response to a change made to the Kevin & Bean morning show which airs weekday mornings on Los Angeles based radio station 106.7 KROQ.  The changes which stemmed from a strongly right wing political environment were in my opinion unwarranted and ultimately show how the Christian values of politics and society have struck fear into corporations and the media.

The Story of Father Time – A funny anecdote about an experience I had with an elderly gentleman in a Carl’s Jr. restaurant who was convinced that only his Timex had the correct time.

Christianity, Striking Fear Into the Naive and Gullible For Centuries… – I repost a ridiculous list of warning signs that a church by the name of St. Mary’s Catholic Church provided parents with as an aid in determining if their teen was turning goth.  Sadly a large portion of the things listed are pretty normal behavior for a teenager.  A couple of my favorites are, “Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult.” and “Watches cable television or any other corrupted media sources.”

Wedding Invitations & Save the Date Cards – The last and only truly personal post in the group.  This post showed scans of both the Save the Date Card and Wedding Invitations that Misty and I hand made for our wedding using scrapbooking materials.  It was perhaps the most tedious task of my life, but it made our wedding related mailers one of a kind.

I have added a significant number of older posts dating all the way back to August of 2003.  Most of them again are just personal journals that I kept, many of which were related to my early days of dating Misty up until the point in which we were married.  I doubt there is anything of real interest outside of what I provided above unless you want to get a glimpse into my life a few years back.

I moved nearly everything that was hosted on LiveJournal over, however the account still exists and there are still a number of posts with either surveys and tests or just posts that I felt were too general and irrelevant to bring over to Musings.  If you’re interested you can still read the rest at A Day In the Dark