Are You Checked Out On the Blogosphere?

Last week I mentioned the companion blog for this column, which can be accessed at onmouseclick.blogspot.com. I started the blog last season as an example for a seminar I was preparing on Travel Blogs for RVers. When I left TR for the season, I had the intention of updating the blog during the off-season, but you all know what happens to good intentions. This season, I will reprint my columns in the blog, provide links to web sites mentioned in the column, and sometimes, offer additional information than what was presented in the print column. Last February 24, I wrote a column on blogs and blogging titled “Blogging 101.” If you want to learn more about what blogging is, the column is posted on the OnMouseClick blog.

Blogs are generally more laid back in style than traditional journalism, and many are, at times, irreverent in tone. Last spring the Wall Street Journal published an article on blogs dealing with spring-cleaning, featuring blogs on the topic of house cleaning and organization. The three blogs mention in the article offer many worthwhile tips that can be very helpful for us “space challenged” motor home and trailer owners.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOUR STUFF, at getorganized.blogs.com, is written by a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. If you do visit IT’S NOT ABOUT YOUR STUFF be aware that the author, a true blogger, also writes about a variety of other topics — some having nothing to do with organization.

A more lighthearted, a perhaps useful blog, is THE HAPPY SLOB’S GUIDE TO HOUSECLEANING at happyslob.blogspot.com. To quote the Wall Street Journal, “…this site offers punch posts and frugal shortcuts that can cut cleaning cost—in time and money.” Some recent posts include “Natural Air Freshener Recipe,” Cleaner, Sparking Glasses – How to Clean them Right,” and “A Funny Way to End Procrastination.”

Also featured in the same article is LIFEHACKER at lifehacker.com/software/cleaning. Each post offers a helpful tip on managing and cleaning your home. Some of the tips are a bit far out, like the one from November 30 titled “Turn a radio-controlled car into a dust mop,” and the September 27 tip on poaching salmon in your dishwasher. Other posts are more informative and offer tips that are both time savers and cost effective.

I want to share one more blog on a totally different topic. The New York Times publishes a number of excellent blogs, most by Times writers and columnists. However, they sometimes publish the blogs of American servicemen and women in one of the war zones. Just before Thanksgiving, MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN (http://missionafghanistan.blogs.nytimes.com) was launched. Two Navy enlisted men, an Army officer, and an Afghan translator working for the Army write about their lives in Afghanistan. If you want to feel a connection to our troops serving in the Middle East, it is an interesting, and often poignant read

Instead of linking this column to other blogs I find interesting, I decided you would enjoying finding blogs that interest you. You can search for blogs on specific topics at blogsearch.google.com.