Kate in Berlin: Kate is on the Internets!

Are there other Tens in Berlin, such that it would be offensive/inaccurate for me to refer to Kate as TBTL's Berliner ambassador? I know it would be inaccurate use of the word "Berliner," but other than that?

Kate writes a blog called Kate is on the Internets!, which I guess is either meta or self-evident, or both. Or maybe a tautology?

I'm Kate, a Fulbright Scholar and Northwestern University graduate, origionally from Texas but currently living in Berlin, Germany. This is a blog about living the TBTL lifestyle abroad, sneaking into things like Berlin Fashion Week, teaching little Germans English, and getting myself into a fair ammount of trouble of the nerdtastic yet fun kind.

(I need to start using the word "nerdtastic" more.)

Jaime in NYC: Surplus & Cheap Healthy Good (and the TBTL Metablog?)

Well isn't this meta. I figured it's time to tell y'all about my own blogs. (I've been going through the blogs in order received, and although we can consider mine technically the first submitted, I didn't want to start off self-promotionally.) One of my blogs, I suppose, is the TBTL Metablog, but that would just be too meta, so let's move on.

I also hope everyone's okay with me not doing this in the normal style, third-person, pretending I'm not talking about myself and my own blogs.

So. Moving on.

The main blog in my life is called Surplus. I started it a few years ago as a place for extra thoughts and musings that would otherwise be rambled to my friends, to the point that they might start hating me. But I think the internet is more forgiving, or more interested. Or won't tell me to my face that it's not. I write about theatre and books, because those are things I love, but also whatever else is on my mind. Recently: the Higgs boson, a 3-months-late roundup of the best theatre and books of 2008, a play I really loved. I went through a lolcats phase, and wrote a tribute to my now-ex-roommate with those when we moved into solo apartments. I sometimes write open letters. I like science and the farmers market and baseball. To steal from Ali: the classic narcissistic blog style.

I also write a column for a fantastic website called Cheap Healthy Good. (I can call it fantastic because so much of it has nothing to do with me.) My column is called City Kitchen Chronicles (which is silly, because all three writers live in NYC, but the other columnist had already taken vegetarian eating as her theme). The whole site is full of recipes and ideas about eating healthily and really cheaply. My lentil soup costs about 80 cents a serving. We are ready for Thunderdome.

And if you're not sick of me yet, I also twitter.

xoxo
Gossip Girl

Lisa in NYC: Dear Scott Peterson

The concept for Lisa's blog, as she put it in her email, sounds pretty straightforward, if awesomely dark and maybe a little effed up (in a really cool way): My blog, Dear Scott Peterson, is written by a fictional female who believes convicted murderer, Scott Peterson, is her soul mate and writes him love letters in prison.

And yet it's kind of even awesomer than that. Let's just look at the current most-recent post:

Dear Scott.
OMG! I just took the bus from Ohio to audition for America's Next Top Model, and check-out what happened to me while waiting in line! I'm the hottie wearing the pink tube top who is running for her life!

That is totally awesome. Lisa's a writer in NYC, and the blog is self-contained in its story - it doesn't give away its fictional nature. (So we Tens are in on a hot secret.) Rawr.

Rachel in Vienna: Views from Vienna

TBTL is big in Vienna, damn. I know of at least two Tens, and I don't even think they're married to each other. (Rachel and/or Steve, feel free to correct me.) Never mind - Steve lives in Zurich. Which is in Switzerland. Which is entirely different. And yet until going and checking Steve's twitter page just now, I think I half-thought he lived in Vienna. NEVER MIND!

But still! Rachel lives in Vienna, a lovely city where I once had a totally awesome waffle with some chocolate sauce that did not F around! But while I have 36 hours of experience of Vienna, Rachel actually lives there, so let's listen to her:

I'm a TBTL time bandit living in Vienna, Austria. I moved here from Seattle almost two years ago, but TBTL helps me feel like I'm still connected to the city that I may always consider home. In the meantime, living "abroad" is a constant adventure. My husband and I are trying to see as much of Europe as we can, and I try to blog about our travels after major trips. My blog is Views from Vienna. It's been awhile since I did a post, but I've got some trips coming up (to London and Berlin), so there should be more travel adventure stories soon.

Some of the most recent posts Rachel's got up include a trip to Barcelona (jealous!) and Preparing for Thunderdome. Totally Rawr.

Ali in NYC: el amor y la lechegua

Things to know about Ali from NYC:

-She coined the very awesome term "something weird" on TBTL, as in: "My something weird and I were at a movie last weekend, and we ran into his college roommate and he had no idea what to introduce me as."
-Her blog, despite all titular appearances, is not in Spanish. To wit:

My blog is el amor y la lechuga which is a reference to an episode of the Nickelodeon show "The Brothers Garcia." One of my fave kid shows, just below "Pete & Pete." [I just realized that this boy I have a crush on looks like a lost third Pete. Maybe just because he's redheaded, but still. Look at Ali's blog, bringing me to deep realizations before I've even started reading it. -Ed.] This is the second attempt I've ever made at blogging. It's mostly in the classic narcissistic blog style that many a whiny college kid would write but I try to post cool things like stuff I'm working on for class, little short films I've done, cool music videos and really boss recipes that are both easy to cook and can be easily adapted for veg heads. I also spend a lot of time talking about my nerdy love of tbtl like most of us I think. I personally think it's nifty but ya never know. I really started it up so friends could keep up with me and my personal insanity. Hope you guys might find it semi-cool.

I think it sounds beyond semi-cool, Ali. Rawr indeed.

Three for the Price of One, Not Counting the Tripled Wait Time

Hello Tens of Seattle and the diaspora. I'm back, only a few days after I said I would be. I'm very sorry to have introduced you to the concept of Jaime Time, and so early into things. It's like Burbank Standard Time, except instead of infuriating sailors it infuriates anyone I'm supposed to be meeting at a set time.

ANYWAY, in a probably ineffective attempt to make up for lost time (and because I have a bajillion of these in my email), I'm going to profile a few blogs here at once. Readysetgo!

Lawrence in Tenver titled his email to me "MY DUMB BLOG," which I loved. He writes:

My blog is called Race of Truth, and can be found at http://lawrencepelo.blogspot.com/. Race of Truth is a schizophrenic blog that combines daily gripes titled "WHAT I HATE TODAY: Your daily dose of negative energy" with daily posts about my quest to break the world record for the 24-hour inline skating time trial.

Rawr! Next up, Calvin in Eastlake won points with me by ending his email with this post-script: Sorry it didn't work out with the cute guy with the kitty! Amen, brother! So, Calvin, tell us about yourself and your blog, Stranger in a Strange Land, if you please.

I'm a database developer working Microsoft, live on Eastlake in Seattle. I specialize in "metadata" driven coding, so I share your fascinations with all things meta. My blog is about science, nature, politics, arts, culture, 4chan, memes, and religion, particularly fundamentalism.

My love of science, culture, and the internet needs no explanation, as I'm a 10. But I also share Luke's evangelical background, and although I lost my faith ages ago I've continued to learn more about Christianity. So that explains the fascination with religion. And while I'm not really a /b/tard I do lurk moar and write silly blogs about 4chan lulz.

I don't know what "4chan lulz" are, but as an avid reading of xkcd, I feel like I probably should.

And now, because things are nice when they come in threes, let's hear from Brandon in Edmonds. Brandon is another member of my 'TBTL is like a blog but on the radio' faction...

Down With Pants! is a worldwide movement against....oh who am I kidding? It's a personal blog that I've been writing for coming up on five years. I'm a stay-at-home dad (AKA unemployed) from Edmonds, Washington and my blog serves as an adult outlet for me during a day that typically is spent lost in kiddieland. I write about a lot of the same things that TBTL talks about, in fact, I think that's why I like TBTL so much. I like to think that TBTL is very much what Down With Pants! would sound like if it were somehow in a radio format.

Brandon also twitters.

And that's it for now. Unless someone can answer these pressing questions:

• Who recorded the "Guest Producer Doug Schrecengost" drop? Surely not the man himself?
• Has there been ANY explanation of Intern Robin's disappearance? I assume she's just not interning any more, but I don't like this secrecy! It's like when... um... the kid... on some sitcom... just went upstairs and NEVER RETURNED. And NO ONE TALKED ABOUT IT. Unless there was an explanation re: Robin, and I just missed it.

(I'm seriously asking.)

PEACE!

Metametablogging

Hey folks. Just a quick note that work's been eating my brain (and time) the last couple of days, but I'll be back with many updates to the blogroll and a new post here tomorrow. [I'm brain-eaten enough that I can't even think of an appropriate TBTL reference to put here! Come on!]

Kurt in Factoria: Baine's Oscar Tracker

I really love how Kurt describes his blog, Baine's Oscar Tracker, so let's just get to that:

I have had a movie blog for about almost a year or so. It's basis of the next years Academy Awards, predictions and such things for the acting categories, directors and the films themselves. Movies and performances to look for. But I also toss in the odd news story that is actor or movie related as well. It's strictly a information/opinionated based movie blog. I don't do any bells or whistles and fancy stuff because I don't have the time and there are hundreds of movie sites out there. This is for content base only. People that just want serious movie information only.

I never thought a blog could sound so damn reasonable and practical, but it sells the thing well. I also love "Factoria," just as a word. It's no Snohomish, but then we can't all be Snohomishes, can we? Kurt's blog is really fantastic, I've got to say. (I'd call it the Snohomish of movie blogs, but Snohomish is a very bells and whistles sort of word.)

xoxo,
Gossip Girl

Trucker Mark: On the Road (again)

I think most TBTL listeners are familiar with Trucker Mark. If I recall, back in the days of my early tendom he was interviewed in a (now-defunct?) series about people with cool/weird/interesting jobs. (I'm sure someone remembers this better than I do - please fill us amnesiacs in in the comments.) Mark blogs about, well, I'll let him tell you:

my blog is updated maybe once or twice a week and details my life as a trucker,

the absurdity, the banality, the mind numbing bliss. you know...

The absurdity, banality, and mind numbing bliss can be found at On the Road (again). Mark also twitters from all over the country, and take some fine photographs:


(Hands on the wheel, dude.)