I was absolutely delighted to get a note the other day from Nessie, the blogger at Lipstick, Perfume, and Too Many Pills (a sick girl’s quest for normalcy) telling me she’d honored me with the One Lovely Blog Award!
Here it is:
Award and Art by Sara Faghani
Thank you, Nessie! Please visit her site and check out what she says about After Gadget and the other blogs she named.
The award was created in December 2008 by Sara [access note: following link automatically plays music] of Works of Art by Sara.
Here are the rules of the award, according to Sara:
1. Add the logo to your blog.2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog”!
This is a terrific opportunity to point you to some fabulous blogs. I was afraid all my faves would already have been honored, but lo! ‘Tis not so! I am thrilled to be able to give back a bit to these blogs that have given me so much. It’s also been a lot of fun to stray from my usual topic of life with (and without) dogs.
Before I give my list, some brief explanation of how I picked. Most awardees say to pick blogs that haven’t already received the award and that are “recent discoveries.” Since I only started reading blogs around the time Gadget died, all blogs are recent discoveries for me!
I’ve noticed that others who give their picks often tend to pass the award on to other blogs with similar themes, e.g., Sara named other art blogs, and the blogs who led to mine were mostly disability or chronic illness blogs.
While I am not intentionally going out of my way to choose blogs different from mine, I decided to resist the internal pressure I felt to pick, for example, other assistance dog blogs or “non-controversial” blogs. I want to honor the blogs that I think are truly unique and well written, regardless of topic. That’s what I mean by “One Lovely Blog.” Not necessarily “lovely,” as in “beautiful” or “sweet” (though a couple of those are represented), but as in “Damn, I LOVE this blog!” These blogs give something special to the blogosphere that I haven’t found anywhere else. As you can see, my tastes are eclectic!
Accessibility of these blogs varies. Some are what I would consider accessible (such as FWD), and some have obvious access flaws, such as not including a detailed description of graphics, and some I’m really not sure how accessible they are. I was going to try to choose only blogs that I’d consider “more accessible,” but I ran into three problems: 1. The meaning of “accessible” varies greatly depending on the reader’s disability. 2. My own grasp of what’s accessible to others is greatly hindered by my relative computer illiteracy, so I’m often not sure how accessible a given blog is to a given person with a disability. I just don’t grok how the software interfaces with the disability. 3. I haven’t come across that many blogs that I love which are also more-than-usually accessible. (A sad commentary.) However, I encourage you to comment if you go to one of these blogs and find it accessible to your particular disabilities, as this would be good info for all of us. Thank you!
Now, here they are, my picks for the One Lovely Blog Award! Please visit them and enrich your blog-reading experience!
1. FWD/Forward (Feminists with Disabilities for a Way Forward)
This is the only blog that I actually subscribe to, which is saying a lot. I always feel overwhelmed by too much email (who doesn’t?), and yet I read this blog — which sometimes contain multiple posts — every day. FWD is the smartest, most diverse, thoughtful, informative, honest, and ethical blog I’ve come across. There are several bloggers at FWD, and they really work their asses off to provide quality material. FWD has made me rethink what language I use and how I’ve set up my blog for accessibility, and taught me much about politics, the internet, and so many other things I can’t even list them. It often gives me a laugh and much-needed affirmation, too. If you have any interest in feminism or disability rights (and other social justice issues), this is the blog for you. And if you are not that interested in feminism or disability rights, then all the more reason to check it out and learn a little something!
2. VirtuaVet (Online Pet Health Consultations, Coaching and Philosophy)
VirtuaVet is Doc Truli, and she is Truli wonderful. She is a small animal vet, but has worked as an ER and livestock vet, and has had more species of pets than I could imagine! The blog is written beautifully, with great explanations — often with accompanying pictures — for the layperson. Yet, Doc Truli never talks down to her readers. There are quirky posts that cover veterinary issues I’ve not seen anywhere else, such as “Snakes Are People, Too!” and “Fat Dachshund” (the latter of which is one of Doc Truli’s occasional rants against the pet food industry, which is awesome). Not only is VirtuaVet fabulously informative, it also deals with ethical issues. One of my favorite posts starts this way: “I believe your decisions regarding your pets’ care are practical, ethical, moral, and spiritual decisions. Therefore, my advice and approach is unique in veterinary medicine. I love animals to an obsessed, crazy degree. But I do not adore, love, or idolize medicine.” If only more vets (and MDs) felt this way!
3. GenderBitch (musings of a trans chick)
I discovered GenderBitch at questioningtransphobia, where she is a guest blogger. As GB’s name suggests, this is an angry, funny blog that deals with gender. To be more specific, it mostly deals with transgender issues and transgender oppression, with a lot of overlap with other issues, such as ableism, sexism, polyamory, etc. What I love about GB is how completely unapologetic it is. It is also raw, witty, raging, well written, sarcastic, intelligent, hilarious, geeky, and courageous. Two of my all-time favorite posts — ever — were written by Genderbitch, so I’m also including the links to these two posts: “But I Was Just Curious!” The Fail of Invasive Questions and Intent! It’s Fucking Magic! If you have an interest in queer and/or trans stuff, this is a great site to learn more, get worked up, feel shocked and saddened, or practically pee your pants laughing. If you are not familiar with trans issues, you can learn a lot from Genderbitch, including some terminology (e.g., the prefix “cis,” which essentially means “not trans”) which has not yet made it into “mainstream” vocabularies. But if I, with my cognitive impairment, can figure out, for example, what “cissexism” means, you can, too. Soooo worth it.
Author, behaviorist, trainer, and farmer Patricia McConnell writes a visually beautiful; emotionally open, honest, and lovely; and intellectually engaging blog about life on her farm, and particularly, her dogs. She describes her blog as “an ongoing inquiry about the behavior of people and dogs. I would like this to be a forum for people who are both intellectually and emotionally fascinated by the behavior of the animals at both ends of the leash. My hope is that it will become a place for an informed and thoughtful consideration of the amazing relationship between people and dogs.” She reaches her goal, and so much more. The pictures of the flora and fauna on her farm are delightful, and she always has something personal, yet universal (to dog owner/handlers), to discuss. I don’t read it that often, but every time I do, I think, “Wow, this is totally relevant to what Barnum and I are going through! I must come back here more often!”
5. The Canary Report: Sounding the Alarm about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Susie Collins’s The Canary Report is a very active blog of multiple contributors, forums, news articles, creative calls to action, and personal stories, all relating to the environment, health, or MCS. Susie always has a welcoming “Aloha!” for all commenters, and her humor, energy, and nonstop ideas keep the blog vibrant and fluid. Activism, advocacy, and education play a central role here, but there is also fellowship and personal connection. I recommend it to other canaries (people with MCS), as well as to people outside our world who want to learn how they can help protect themselves, their families, animals, and the planet from the harms of pollution, be it small-scale (chemicals in personal care products) or large-scale (the BP oil leak crisis in the Gulf).
I’ve had a soft spot for Susie since — as a co-founder of, and columnist for, On Our Backs, a groundbreaking women’s sex magazine — she helped me discover my sexuality in the late 1980s. A decade later, I was thrilled to have my fiction published in OOB (under different management) and then by Susie, herself, in two anthologies. But none of this is why I’m listing her blog here! Quite simply, Susie’s blog is terrific reading! The writing is crisp, clear, and well-researched. She is funny and thought-provoking. You can learn anything about sex and how it intersects with politics, culture, art, history, and more, fascinatingly and articulately spelled out by Susie Bright. She is most to blame for me spending way too many hours lost in obscure lesbian film history or her own tales of wild adventures with famous folks, simply because I clicked on one of her tweets.
7. Lymenaide (living in harmony with Lyme)
Ashley van Tol’s blog about living with Lyme and other tick-borne diseases is the most comprehensive personal Lyme site I’ve found. She has it all — musings on life with Lyme, recipes for those on restricted diets, a store to raise funds for Lyme awareness, calls to action, legislative news, and more. Where Ashley really shines and has made a name for herself in the Lyme community is her activism to raise awareness about Lyme prevention and treatment, and the need to treat Lymies with respect and understanding. She was the force behind four professional TV public service announcements (featuring well-known actors) for Lyme Awareness Month. Ashley manages to write a blog that is celebratory and joyful without distorting the realities of living with Lyme. It’s a site anyone can appreciate, whether they have Lyme or not.
8. Brilliant Mind Broken Body (living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome)
Last, but certainly not least, a blog from a fellow assistance-dog partner! Kali writes clear, fluid prose, designed to be understood by both those with disabilities and those who want to know a bit more about what it’s like to live with disability, and specifically, her disability of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. (On a personal note, I was surprised and pleased to find BMBB because I had a friend with EDS, and nobody had ever heard of it.) Kali’s posts range from “a typical day in the life of a service dog partner” (my favorite post of hers to date); to social justice issues — such as how -isms like fat oppression, ableism, and sexism interconnect; to silly stories about her quirky SD, Hudson. BMBB is also hosting the next Disability Blog Carnival — keep an eye out!
Please visit these worthy blogs, and give them some love.
As always, your comments are more than welcome.
Peace,
Sharon, Barnum (taking a break from being a blog topic this week), and the Muse of Gadget (missed more sharply in these summer months)
After Gadget 