Blogs to Explore - Random Choices

Happy New Year!!
Did you start off your new year with Black-eyed peas for good luck?
My best friend invited me to celebrate the first day of the new year with her family - an amazing group of people that can really cook and every one carries a lovely soul.
(Sigh). I had a nice afternoon, meal, evening.

I scared myself the other day when I took a look at the Blogs to Explore folder.
("Ack...there's how many!?!?")
So, I'm going to try and look at a couple of the blogs stashed there.

The One Minute Writer - truly an excellent premise.
The visitor is given a topic/question and a timer and asked to respond in 60 seconds.
Hence - a writer in 1 minute. Spiffy.
My initial issue being, I don't login at home everyday. Work PC time is for work. I excel at the guilt thing (i.e. have an amazing work ethic), so I don't surf the net or play around at work.
So...60 seconds a day is challenging when you don't login daily.
I'm being picky about the daily thing, huh? It doesn't say I have to do it daily...it says I can.

However...the premise is REALLY good.
There's a push-button timer to get the adrenaline going...there's a subject to wax rhapsodic upon. I like the questions posed although I doubt I could answer some in 60 seconds...I tend to be verbose (bet you hadn't noticed (wry grin)).
And it looks like a "winner" is selected of the One Minute Writers. More spiffy-ness.
I wonder if it cuts you off at 60 seconds or if it's an honor thing and you have to stop typing.
Yep, I need to go participate. Hang on, I'll be back in 60 seconds!
Ok - it took me longer than 60 seconds ('cause I was being "blond").
I expected some 60 second magic, intervention, or... something.
It's a blog.
I needed to add a comment to the blog like I would any other. ("duh" on my part).
AND...I was clumsy in starting the timer and getting a comment window open. (wry grin)
Otherwise it went pretty well. I do type rather quickly so I finished (near as I can tell, being timer-challenged) in about 70 seconds. I restrained myself from going further. Yep, it's an honor-bound 60 seconds.
Mine was an "OK" answer to today's question as to if I view the world a better place now or when I was a child. (and, no, I wasn't awarded best comment that day.)
I don't know that I'll "follow" this blog, but I think it would be spiffy to visit on occasion!

Ok, pause to suggest you go look see. It's not a blog to follow but it's lovely to see!
One of Blogger's Blogs of Note referenced it (Things to Look at).
This person does amazing stuff with paper (quilling, drawing...all sorts of nifty stuff - she(?) obviously is quite talented.): Yulia Brodskaya - go look. Quite spiffy!!

Next Blog Exploration: This doesn't bode well for me. It may just be that I'm too tired to explore blogs tonight.
Here's the deal...the link/address is "The Lucky Nest" but the header on the page says "ellie quent." Blog name change? Something I'm not clever enough to comprehend?
Dunno. On to the reading of the blog...
Hmmm - seems I've arrived just after a re-design of the blog. She seems to have many blog talents and is available for hire. Blog Templates. Interesting.
She has a nice way with words. Hmmm - an extremely nice way with words.
She's supporting a sick friend with WAY clever top-ten lists....go read the one she posted on the blog. There's a lot of clever stuff she finds and pulls into her blog and a lot she creates herself. She was quite involved with Election ponderings - and seems to have gotten even more political junk mail than I did, poor woman. The right guy won and her sanity appears to be intact.

Well, I jumped back to pre-election times...and she's still clever.
I'm intrigued, but not addicted. Could be I'm not clever enough to keep up. Distinct possibility with my current sleep shortage and excess of work-involvement.
For now...I'm not going to become an ellie quent daily follower. I expect I'll go back to visit.
As previously noted, I'm intrigued. Well see how I do on a later visit.

Here's a third for me to peer at: The Yarn Yard.
Good name. And a Ravelry Member too. And the first blog entry I'm finding evidence of common sense (!), an interest in books/reading (excellent), she appears to be very fibre talented.
Well, yeah, I'm going to read more than 1 entry...give me a bit, I'll be back.
Ok, "Fibre talented" appears to be an understatement - she's professional. From Scotland! (I seem to wander international...) This is the blog for a shop that hand dyes fiber, yarn and roving/spinning stuff. I'm trying not to drool.

Well, she posts some lovely photos on her blog. Towers of roving to "Spin a Sweater" from (woof) in gorgeous colors, finished products, amaryllis plants...but I'm not getting hooked on it. Again...I'm doing the blog exploring when I should be sleeping so I'm probably not doing it justice. Spiffy - she has a list of her top 10 books - "Plain and Simple" by Sue Bender is listed! I'm actually re-reading that one just now. Her comment that it's a "gentle book" is an excellent description.
But I'm not feeling like I need to come back to see what happens next...I feel like I should be asleep. Rude of me. I'm also going to chalk this one up for a re-explore later. Talented woman with commendable taste in books (although she doesn't care for Sci-Fi/Fantasy...Tsk).
And I'm for bed.