Now aware of all Internet traditions

More than two weeks ago (time flies when you're middle-aged) in honor of Blog Amnesty Day, Tom Levenson gave me a typically generous shout-out from his most excellent blog, The Inverse Square. As an inveterate procrastinator, I've taken my time and then some in shouting back to him and outward to other blogs.

This has turned out to be a good thing, since BlogNetNews has rated my (non-)humble blog the most influential political blog in Massachusetts this week. So everyone I link to can tout that fact in screaming headlines. No, I don't believe it either. I've seen my readership numbers. But, hey, I could use a little hype, too.

Tom has a new web venture going at So Simple a Beginning, where he and others are blogging The Origin of Species. Check it out, learn something, feel educated again along with me. Already, I'm hungry for more.

By the way, when Tom says that I have confidential information about him, it's true. But let's just say that we have deterrence against disclosure via mutually assured destruction.

Another of my college roommates mashes up and derives views from geographic data from many sources into Hey, What's That? It's brilliant and quirky, just as he is.

I've never met truth so far as I know, even though she lives one town away from me and I'm sure at least that we have friends in common. Her town actually has a Main St., where mine hardly even has curbs. During the 2008 election season, she was a stalwart, unswerving blogger who was never fooled by the king's weavers. Plus she loves basketball, and so do I.

Beth Cravens, also known as Badger, lives in the flat farmland where I come from four generations back before the Civil War. She pens big-eyed, expressive drawings, apparently on any sheet of paper that comes to hand.

I found Badger through her membership in a community that includes Newscoma, who edits the local paper. 'Coma's real name is Trace Sharp, which she uses in her new and provocative journalism critique and self-help kit, NewsTechZilla, co-authored by sadcox/Scott Adcox. (I'd have to quit my job to have a second daily blog. Where do all these people find the time and energy?)

Badger also showed me Crack Skull Bob, another artist who can't seem to help himself getting down the essence of people around him. I'm sure that this guy, Sparky Donatello, could really do those 30-second gesture drawings that I failed so utterly at second semester senior year.

OK, these people are mostly in my blogroll, and some of them already have real audiences. There are also some real gems among the people who follow my blog:

• Madre de Ezekiel is only 21, but already she's living an examined life and writing about it with insight and deftness at Randomnimity.
• Edmond Zola at From the Desk of Z proves conclusively that Canada is indeed a separate culture from the U.S. This is no doubt not news in Canada.

The others are often great, too, and some of them were a harsh slap in the face but have self-censored (Sasha). But I really, really have to get some sleep before my alarm goes off at 7:15, so I'm going no further tonight.