I have a mighty heavy post in the works, but it's geared more toward the JewsbyChoice.org blog, so you likely won't see it unless I decide to cross-post.
[[[[An aside: As you well know, it's Christmas Eve, here there and everywhere, except for perhaps countries that have already woke up to the tree. I found myself on the bus today trying to figure out why there's so much focus on the "Lonely Jew on Christmas" and little attention is paid to the lonely Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists on Christmas. I mean, what do they do on Christmas? Are there Muslim traditions? Do they eat Greek food or something? I'm curious, but blind to the answer.]]]]
While hopping around throughout the web, I happened upon (as I'm forever in search of JewTech stuff) the Wikipedia entry for "J-Blogosphere," which I found particularly amusing. It says that the first mention of the term appeared in February 2004. That really isn't that long ago, but I guess perhaps that was the birth of the movement of which I am proud to be a member. While perusing the entry, I noticed a mention of a collection of blogs "A Rabbi Must Follow." A list of the blogs can be found here. Note, though, that the list is from 2006, so I imagine some of the blogs have decreased in traffic or perhaps have even gone defunct. Successful blogs are few and far between, despite the efforts of their authors, and that's the reality of the interwebs.
Of course, the more I click around, the more websites I find and the more bloggers I come across. Every time I find a dedicated Jewish gentleman blogging, I cross my fingers and pray for a miracle that maybe one will happen to be my bashert, right? Slap me silly and call me Chavi, but that's just the reality of the situation of being a 24-year-old who spends at least 1/2 her day online between work and blogging and living a web-oriented life. I don't think there's anything sad or pathetic or unfortunate about it. It's more the reality of the life that many of us lead. I've had successes in making some amazing friends online, not to mention a semi-successful relationship that turned out to not really be that successful after all.
Anyhow, the Jewish web is a big, wide world and is sometimes unpredictable, as to what you get and who you meet. I'm just proud to be a part of it as it grows, changes, and helps other Jewish bloggers find their place amid the crowd.