Discovering Diamonds! - 1st Edition

Last week, Vidyala of Manalicious issued a challenge to the WoW blogosphere. The challenge itself was twofold:

If you’re a blogger: Find a new blog today that looks promising, that you enjoy. Link to it on your blog. Leave an encouraging comment!

Here’s my second challenge, for non-bloggers. If you have found a blog recently that you enjoy reading, if you appreciate the content there – whether it’s guides, points of view, or just something to make you laugh – leave a comment.

In my response to Vidyala's challenge, I shared some links to blogs I had recently discovered and added to my blogroll and/or feed reader. In an effort to keep both the practice and spirit of the challenge alive, I thought I'd post a list of the blogs I've discovered during the previous week.

The discovery process varies. Sometimes it's due to a tweet or retweet of a post announcement. Sometimes it's a title on a blogroll that catches my eye. Sometimes it's a link from a comment someone left on the blog post I happen to be reading. Some of those discoveries end up on my blogroll and/or in my feed reader. Some don't. But just because a blog's focus or writing style doesn't appeal to me at the time of discovery, doesn't mean it isn't exactly what someone else is looking for (or that I won't end up hunting it down sometime in the future while I curse myself for not clicking the RSS). They won't all be new, but they were new to me and maybe they'll be new to you too. Some are diamonds in the rough, relatively unknown. Some are so polished people have probably been oohing and aahing over them for years.

Without further ado, Pink Pally Productions (TM) proudly presents: Discovering Diamonds!

• Orcish Army Knife by Rades, featuring raid stuffs, DK stuffs and a wicked sense of humor. And if you're at all interested in wowfic, check out Rades' Letters from Northrend.
• Kiss my Alas by Alas, raiding mage and GL of Eff the Ineffable. The first two posts I read weren't even about WoW, but I came back for more. Alas has a great sense of humor and even if you don't play a mage, or raid, you may just find yourself becoming a repeat visitor as well. (Next time I feel the urge to roll an alt server, I'll definitely be stalking the Effers! >.> Though maybe I shouldn't be announcing that....)
• Beer Bacon Brawling by Beerbelly. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my Pink Pally Panties (TM). Beerbelly is a new blogger with only four posts under his belt, but even if I'd wandered there after his post I'd have been hooked. Poop Nuggets. /snicker
• Armaggedon's Coming by Gnomeaggedon is one of those blogs that's been around for years that I can't believe I'm just now discovering. Whether you like or hate Gnomes, whether you play or Mage or not, check it out. And please tell me I'm not the only person on the planet who's been missing out on this....
• She Can't DPS by Aestiah. General WoW musings and wowfic by a fellow Moon Guard blogger. /cheer (even if she is a Hordie. :p) I look forward to digging through Aestiah's archives and I've got to find out who does her artwork!
• Specced for Drama by Ama. The blog title just draws you doesn't it? I haven't had the chance to explore much, but I enjoy Ama's writing style and look forward to poking around her archives.

Have you discovered any good blogs lately?

Post Script: A quick comment on comments.
I'm what is often referred to as a lurker. I could follow a blog, religiously, for years and never leave a comment. Sometimes, I don't know what to say or I don't feel that I have anything worthy to contribute. Now that I'm forging my own path into the blogosphere wilderness, I have a new appreciation for comments. They let the author know that someone is reading and, hopefully, enjoying the blog. This past week I've been more conscientious about leaving comments on the blogs I read, but I've run into some time constraints. I do most of my reading during the weekdays when I'm on my lunch break. I follow quite a few blogs and that lone hour doesn't leave a lot of time for well thought-out, meaningful comments. Which has made me a huge fan of the "like" button and the star rating option so I can at least let the blog author know I read and enjoyed their post when I don't have the time to leave a comment. (Wordpress won't let me "like" since I don't have a WP account so WP bloggers will likely see some short, lame, one-line comments from me.)