blogroll fattening to commence

I've got a list of ten blogs I'm planning to blogroll, but I need to ask a question before I slap the blogs up:

Stafford, why the hell do you want to be blogrolled so badly?

For those of you who don't know, Stafford has been needling me in his blog posts, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. My blog simply doesn't get much traffic, so it's not as though my blogrolling of someone is going to boost their numbers in any significant way.

At one point, Stafford wrote this:

You'd think with all the references I make to Kevin's fine prose he would make me a cool picture for his sidebar...hint hint.

And then he wrote this:

On to other things. Do you think Kevin will give me a link in his sidebar if I plug his book?

I've never heard of a blogger who actually wanted to be blogrolled by me. It's a bit like wanting George W. Bush's autograph at this point in his presidency.

Stafford has been a good counselor over the past year or so, frequently popping in by email to offer computer advice and the like. He has also, as he says, been linking to my blog rather frequently.

So I relent. J'abandonne. I can put it off no longer. Stafford-- in a few days' time, you'll have your wish. A sidebar icon featuring your blog, The Chosun Bimbo, will be brought up from the depths of hell and placed on my sidebar. You HAPPY? YOU HAPPY, YOU FOCKIN' KIWI WANKA'?? (Of course, with the Kiwi accent, "wanker" sounds like "weng-kah" to me! Haw haw!)

The other nine blogs are:

Thoughts of a Goat: This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away-- to the future, to the horizon! Never his mind on where-- he-- was! Hm? What-- he-- was doing! The Goat says he and his missus will be leaving for Canada around the end of 2008, so at some point I'll have to shift his icon to another part of the sidebar. In the meantime, take a look at his shit story. "Shart," indeed.

EFL Geek: I know, I know-- fuckin' FINALLY. This blog is definitely the go-to site for EFL/ESL information. Given how much of the Korean expat population is here teaching in some capacity or other, I highly recommend that you visit this site and pick up some tricks.

ROK Drop: Run by GI Korea, this is one of the most impressive Korea-milblogs out there. GI Korea is also one of the most tenacious when it comes to certain issues, such as the No Gun Ri "massacre."

Hunjang-ûi Karûch'im: Antti Leppänen-- a stinkin' Finn!-- runs a very scholarly/personal blog I've been meaning to blogroll for, oh, several years now. Antti is a guy, in case you're wondering. (Sorry, dude; the name's not that common in the States, as you know. I keep wanting to call you Auntie Leppänen.) Antti is fluent in Korean and is a doctoral student in cultural anthropology in Helsinki. Thank God he blogs in English and not Finnish.

The Iceberg: A blog by someone on the run from the law. Currently managing a basketball betting pool. He also killed several kittens the other day. He likes chewing on their fresh pituitary glands.

Pretentious Musings: Quite possibly the only movie review site I'll ever need, ever again. Kevin Koehler is known in the Koreablogosphere as the brother of Robert Koehler, a.k.a. The Marmot. I bet Kevin gets a kick out of people referring to his big bro as The Marmot. I can imagine the ribbing: "Hung like a marmot, eh? Show me yer hole!" Kevin reviews old and new movies. While there's a nasty whiff of grad-school postmodernism coming off his text, his reviews are nevertheless well written, insightful, and downright enjoyable.

Conscious Entities: The illustrious Malcolm Pollack is the gent who clued me in to this blog. CE is devoted to issues in the philosophy of mind, which has become a major interest of mine over the past two years. Yes: Conscience and Titties.

Blog d'Elisson: Well written and lively, Elisson's blog (burn in hell, Jew bastard! when the end comes, Jesus is gonna eat EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU HEATHENS!) describes itself as "Another Monumental Exercise in Self-Aggrandizement and Time-Wastage." That's pretty much what blogging is. I tend to reduce it all to narcissism, but "self-aggrandizement and time-wastage" covers all the bases. Elisson is, as I once noted, an example of those "six degrees of separation," an expression of the ways in which apparently unconnected people are connected. Elisson knows (or he "e-knows") both Rory and Skippy.

Addofio: A tough lady with a tender, thoughtful, eloquently written blog. Obnoxious commenter lately (har har), but that's not going to stop me from blogrolling her. I was especially fond of a recent post she'd written about teaching being an act of faith. Yes-- that it is.

The sidebar icons won't be ready this weekend, even though I had hoped to do them by Sunday evening. But they'll be going up over the next week or so, so keep watching my sidebar for new pics in the art gallery.


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