Congratulations, you won a

This message was waiting for me a couple of days ago. thelmasmith tagged me with this honor (started by designer Ilker Yoldas who, despite the avatar of the beautiful woman in his banner, is indeed a man, "shy," he says). And, just as these games are meant to do, I've had fun this weekend chasing the links back through some wonderfully thoughtful and thought-provoking blogs. I really don't spend that much time reading blogs (ha), and rarely have time to surf around to read new ones -- that activity lives in the category of guilty pleasures, somewhat akin to reading really trashy romance novels or supermarket scandal sheets. So, greatful for a legitimate ticket-to-read, there I went surfing about the ether.

Then I realized that I needed to find five who HADN"T been tagged so that I could pass along the honor. And all the eerie doubts that go with that. Some of the most thoughtful bloggers I read have already been tagged, (Serena Fenton's Layers of Meaning, ) some don't actually fit the definition of blog (June Underwood's collective Ragged Cloth Cafe, for example), And some that I read regularly I don't read so much for "thinking" as for "doing" and keeping up and staying in touch, and while thoughtful, they don't seem to really fit the bill of goods. And, finally, some bloggers seem so, I don't know, "famous." Like I'd be embarrassed to tag them (Gaping Voidis just one of those I follow). Like maybe they were already tagged, surely, but declined to mention it? Like, maybe I am in the equivalent of the crash of some multilevel marketing scheme and everyone else has already earned his or her pilot wings (do you remember that AIRPLANE thing?) This is the kind of emotional challenge that makes my inner 4th grader crazy, and perhaps I should be one of those that decline said honor. But, in truth, I am quite pleased, and besides, most of these people I read I will probably never actually have to meet in person, and if I do, I can always give a different name, right?

Now, you all know exactly how nuts I can get.

So it goes.

Here's my list for better or worse:

Inspiration and New Work by Lisa Call

John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity

For purely visual thinking: In the Mood for Arte

For yet another world view full of food: Brownie Points

And last, but not least: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratory