So I was reading through my RSS feeds this morning and realized that today is BlogDay 2005 - a result of a group of people to try to get bloggers to "share the love" once a year and to primarily devote that day's entries to pointing out other bloggers they like. And this is a great idea, I think, especially for me, considering that I don't do a lot of the social-networking things you see at a lot of other blogs. (That is, I have no blogroll at my site, no Friends list, etc.) So, today I thought I'd devote my entire entry to just this - to linking to friends, readers of my journal and others who I follow along with in my Bloglines account via RSS. And do you have a blog as well, by the way? Well, why the fuck haven't you written and told me about it yet? I love keeping up with the lives of my readers, and am always excited to hear about other people's own personal blogs, so don't be shy!

Boys Will Be: The infamous sex journal of my old, old friend (and onetime lover) B., another Chicagoan who's actually quite active elsewhere on the web but under her real name, which I don't want to mention. The only thing, though, is that B. has a steady boyfriend now, so her blog isn't updated nearly as much anymore.

Daniel X. O'Neil: An old friend from my poetry days, and the owner of local small press Juggernaut. This is the guy, by the way, who originally convinced me to be a self-publisher in the first place.

The Fengi Newsletter: Daily rants from Greg Gillam, an old, old friend of mine here in Chicago, again from my poetry days. This was supposed to be simply a supplement to his main literary site but has sort of taken on a life of its own over the last year or two; you can find lots of funny, snarky essays about politics and pop culture here.

Goldenlad's Musings: A reader of mine in London, although I can't remember now if he uses his real name there, so I'm not going to mention what it is. I was supposed to stay with Goldenlad, in fact, during my UK/Ireland tour in 2004 that ended up getting cancelled; Goldenlad is also the guy who donated a digital camera to me earlier this year, which is still much appreciated.

J*Blog: The personal blog of Jason Allen, another reader of mine in...Michigan? I think; don't kill me, Jason, if I got that wrong! Jason's always pointing out interesting stuff at his site, as well as filing reports about things going on his life.

jazzy hands journal: Run by Kathryn, a reader and longtime correspondent in Australia. This is personal blogging at its best: confessional stories about money, jobs, her sex life (or lack thereof) and other always fascinating subjects.

John Paul Davis' Online Repository of Opinionated Blather: Another old friend from my poetry days, now in Ohio but still writing and publishing on a regular basis. John had a kid recently, so new posts are coming only infrequently at his blog; it's still definitely worth checking out, though.

Jessica Stover Dot Com: I'm not sure if she's still reading or not, but earlier this year Jessica and I had a semi-regular correspondence going on which was always a delight. If Jessica's name sounds familiar, it's because she used to be the host of this teen video show on AOL that was just stupid popular; AOL ended up fucking her over, though (what a surprise!), so she's now solo and taking it to the streets. Goddamn hilarious stories about her life as an aspiring screenwriter and actor in Los Angeles; you absolutely must add her feed to your account right this second. Awesome!

Lionessden dot com: Personal journal of my old friend Kim Holzer, yet another person I know from my old poetry days. Kim, where are you now? I know you used to be in North Carolina, but I can't remember now if you're still there or not. Anyway, Kim recently became a teacher, so her blog is mostly these days about that experience, and the things she is learning from it.

Mars Life: My friend Mars, a filmmaker and animator here in Chicago, who of course I mention here on a semi-regular basis, as longtime readers already know. This is just another personal blog - stories and photos from Mars' life, including his recent marriage and his almost-finished education in animation at the Illinois Institute of Art (or whatever the hell the name of that school is).

me[three]dia: Personal blog of an acquaintance of mine here in Chicago, Andrew Huff, who during the day is the editor-in-chief of GapersBlock.com. This is more like BoingBoing than a personal journal, with regular links to all kinds of other interesting stuff on the web.

News & Events: Hey, whaddya know, yet another old friend of mine from my poetry days! It's Ben Ortiz in this case, who has sort of bounced back and forth between Chicago and Texas over the last decade. He's a professor now at Truman College, in my neighborhood; his blog is mostly information for his students, but also contains lots of interesting stuff for the general public as well.

City of Destiny: My friend Katherine Hodges, a writer and event organizer here in Chicago, and someone else who regular readers know that I mention here pretty often. Katherine was the one behind the Quimby's show last week that I performed at. If I'm not mistaken, Katherine's getting geared up soon to release a new zine; I'm sure you'll be able to read all about it over at her blog.

The Psycho Killer Shit List: My friend Scott Ridgway, a novelist here in Chicago. (The title of his blog comes from the novel he's writing right now, about a group of art-school students who write a violent manifesto as a joke and then have it blow up in their face down the road. It's a really great story, by the way.) Scott's blog is even more ranty than mine, if you can believe that, so caution is advised.

You Knit What??: Ultra-snarky blog about bad knitting patterns, co-run by my friend Jenna here in Chicago. Believe me, you don't have to know anything about knitting in order to laugh your ass off on a daily basis there.

And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Claude le Monde as well, one of the more vocal of the thousands upon thousands of people on the web who hate me, hate my writing, hate everything I stand for, and in fact can barely hear my name mentioned without shitting themselves in anger and disgust. Which is fine, I suppose (at least, there's not much I can do about it), but does always lead me to what seems to me to be a pretty obvious question - if you hate my journal that much, why do you keep reading it? I mean, seriously, "Claude," I hate Rush Limbaugh with pretty much the same intensity as you apparently hate me...so I do the healthy thing and NOT LISTEN TO RUSH LIMBAUGH, because I just know that he's going to drive me batshit crazy if I do. It's self-destructive to fixate that intensely on someone you hate; better, I think, to simply live your own life, do what you think is right, work your job and love your partner and do all those other things that make us humans happy. This is the thing I'll never understand about those unending amount of people who can't stand me; why they don't just stop reading me, if they really do dislike me that incredibly much. (And let's make no mistake - "Claude" really does dislike me that incredibly much.) Humans, man - I don't think I'm ever going to fuckin' understand them.

Hey, ladies! Keep those dirty emails coming in! Yesterday I asked the female readers of my journal a question about penises (or penii, as one of my respondants called them) - specifically, if there are certain types of erect penises that are more of a turn-on to them than other types. I've been getting some really great responses already, but thought I'd keep the question open for a couple of more days, just to see what others have to say. Anyway, drop me a line if, say, a purple cock gets you more excited than a pink one; or if a wet cock gets you more excited than a dry one, etc.; or of course if the details of the penis aren't what get you turned on at all, but rather simply the sight of the penis itself. Inquiring minds want to know!