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For this year's inaugural BlogDay, I've scoured my recent memory for five interesting blogs I've come across either randomly or via referral.  And for each, I'll disclose how I've discovered them and how much I've been affected by them.

But enough talk.  Have at ye!

1) Beyond Reproach -- I've discovered this blog randomly via BlogExplosion and I've been onto them since then, not because the authors are witty and sarcastic (and they are, they very are), but moreso because of what I'm afraid of what it would do if it were a person and it had possession of a firecracker, a whip, a blunt object, and a several strippers -- you don't want to know, but you watch anyway.

The haikus with Juan are my favorite.  Funny personalities generates tons of visitors and I, for one, welcome our new irreproachable overlords.

2) HeyChristine -- segueing from funny personalities, I've met Christine Hsu years ago in a website that I frequented.  She didn't have a blog back then, but even back then she was intriguing.  Intriguing + funny = great blog.

Back then she was about to start a business.  Now, Oriented has since blossomed to become THE site for Asian Americans who've recently moved to Asia to connect with other erstwhile stateside Asian Americans, get jobs, find out about social events, and get aquainted within the business constructs in Asiatic countries.  (Ummm, was that overboard?)

Did I mention that she's very funny?  Reading the blog of an entrepreneur, you halfway expect hard-nosed, toeing the line, and process-driven to ensure success early-on.

But it's not.

Her blog is nutty and revealing and, in turn, endearing and very disarming.  And I think that's why people keep coming back.

3) Fight The Bull -- continuing with the business-schmishness theme: during the very brief period of time in which Murphee K dot com experimented with Google Ads, this blog showed up within one of the panels.  Enticed, I clicked on and was afterwards hooked.  Fight the Bull scathingly exposes the rampant usage of bull language in the corporate world by highlighting ad business idiocies, writing a plug-in for Microsoft Office that calculates the level of bull you just written/spewed (spewritten?), and even pitting companies' 2005 Annual Reports into an NCAA-style single elimination tournament vying for the worst (best?) offender of bull.

Their stance is, bull has become so common usage (perhaps too common) in business that we could barely say nor act authentic anymore.  Personally, since I had to learn this language the hard and stupid way, it's very refreshing to know that at least some people are fighting against it, albeit sardonically.  To this day, the word "leverage" makes me cringe.

[A note to Fight the Bull: I hate to be a poop, but your site breaks my Firefox.]

4) gapingvoid -- speaking of fighting the bull, Hugh Macleod is, in a sense, an advocator of such a cause except, instead of bull language, he exemplifies the philosophy to business-customer relations.  In his blog, Hugh dismisses the techniques typically pulled by the "old dinosaurs" such as ad agencies, television, publishers, record companies (!) in selling a product by upholding the Cluetrain-esque "The market for something to believe in is infinite" theme, which in the long run, would result in projecting a more remarkable product and/or service than the outdated models.  A pervasive theme in his blog is advocating the Internet's ability to eliminate the middleman and reach the customer directly at a cheaper cost and significantly less overhead.

I discovered gapingvoid via The Long Tail, which is another story altogether.  To get hooked onto gapingvoid, download his manifesto:  How to be Creative.  It will open your eyes using pliers hidden inside its deep, dark orifices and then stick a grenade in your cranium as to commence the mind-blowing.  His blog serves a dozen or so other purposes, but this manifesto got me glued.

Oh, and he also draws cartoons on the back of business cards.  Very very poignant and highly amusing.

5) Overcompensating -- and while were talking about cartoons, Jeffrey Rowland of Overcompensating is simply one of my favorite webcomics as of late.  It is almost impossible to write a simple synopsis other than to say that it is a blog/comic about the awesomeness that is Jeffrey Rowland and the crazy things that happen to him and the things that go on inside his head amidst the happening crazy things.

Peter introduced me to Wigu and Wigu, like an illegitimate step-child, introduced me to it.  (For starters, view this early comic.)  MPK Adventures is, I admit, highly influenced by it.

There, you have it, five blogs that I find interesting.  I hope you see the connection of these blogs to Murphee K dot com -- they shape me in ways I don't want to share publicly over the interweb.  And if you don't, hey at least we've got next year.

Oh and btw, tag, you're it.

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