I read blogs. Quite a number of blogs, actually. I’ve thought occasionally about adding a blog roll here, but quickly discarded the idea, because I’ve never found other people’s blog rolls useful for actually finding new interesting blogs. There is too little information: just a list of links. But on the other hand I do like to hear about new interesting blogs, and I imagine some of you may, too, so I’d like to spread the word about the ones that I like.

Here are the blogs I read, in alphabetical order, plus a few non-RSS blogs and other sites that I skim or read every few days. (Those all either have no RSS feed, or have really bad ones, but are sufficiently useful or interesting to make actually open the pages manually.) There’s also one news site for every country I care about (Estonia, Sweden, England) – each of them the least bad of a generally unsatisfactory offering.

RSS:

3 Quarks Daily – a filter blog posting “interesting items from around the web on a daily basis, in the areas of science, design, literature, current affairs, art, and anything else we deem inherently fascinating”. Think BoingBoing but with more intellectual content and less geeky humour. One of my favourite blogs whose only shortcoming is the number of posts, which is starting to be too much. (Incidentally that is why I dropped BoingBoing from my blog list: there was just too much of it.)

Ask Moxie – parenting Q&A remarkable for its sensible advice and sensible readers/commenters.

BabyGadget – beautiful baby stuff, furniture, clothes, toys etc (but rarely any gadgets). None that I have seriously considered buying but they are nice to look at.

Coding Horror – my favourite blog about software development, more specifically about “programming and human factors”. Well written, interesting and insightful posts from a developer who clearly spends time thinking and not just coding.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman – a woman on a cattle farm in the US somewhere, who writes funny posts about and posts great photos of her life on that farm. Above all this blog is very very funny.

Ebalogaalne – My one and only blog in Estonian, by a linguist and generally nice guy. The only well-written Estonian blog I have found, and believe me I have searched, so I really treasure this one.

Good Enough Mum – another very sensible English mum.

Itching for Eestimaa – an American expat in Estonia writing about Estonian politics and his experiences in and of Estonia.

Joel on Software – Joel Spolsky writes about software. Sometimes insightful, always discussion-provoking.

Nee Naw – an ambulance dispatcher in London. I don’t know why, but I find his stories interesting.

NY Times most emailed – I like the NY Times, but their site is too big for me to read and filter, so I let others do the filtering for me.

Parent Hacks – does what it says on the tin.

Random Acts of Reality – an ambulance driver in London.

Schneier on Security – a security consultant (who also writes good books, by the way) writing about security issues from a human angle.

separated by a common language – about the differences between British and American English.

SF Site – science fiction, mostly book reviews.

The Daily Grind – news in the .NET world.

The Daily WTF – daily weirdnesses from the world of software. Not as good as it used to be, but still good for a daily chuckle.

The Happiness Project – one woman’s quest for a happier life. I keep thinking that I should do something similar (although not in a blog) but keep putting it off. Her blog reminds me to think about my own life.

The Loom – a science blog with posts about parasites, dinosaurs, science tattoos etc.

This Blog Needs No Name – my own blog. I read the RSS feed so that I get a local copy of the blog, for when I want to go back and look up a previous post.

XKCD – funny comics.

Zen Habits – another blog with tips for better living.

Non-RSS:

BBC News – for English news.

Eesti päevaleht – for Estonian news.

Google News – for global news.

reddit – to see what other people consider hot.

Salon – my favourite online magazine.

Stockholm’s SF bookshop – for more SF book tips.

Svenska Dagbladet – for Swedish news.

Thanks to a tip from Liina, we went to the children’s song and dance session at London’s Estonian House. We met a bunch of Estonian mums with their children, and sang children’s songs, and I met the cranky monkeys who were quite uncranky in real life. In fact Ingrid was more cranky because she was really tired, but she enjoyed being there nevertheless and liked seeing the other children. I think we’ll be doing this again next time (in a month’s time).

Back in the office for the first time in a week, Ingrid at home with Eric.

I bought a pair of trousers today. This means that I now have two pairs of weekend trousers, so I can now wash them! Yay!

Not a big deal, you may think. No, this is a bigger deal than it may seem: UK trousers normally never fit me. (The last pair I bought only fit well until after the first wash. Or maybe until I lost some more of my mummy weight? In any case, now they sort of fit OK-ish at best.)

Of the 5 pairs I had that fit me, I had bought one in the US and 3 in Estonia, Estonia being closer and cheaper than the US, and the last one from a French mail order catalogue. My hiking trousers are also of an American brand. I suspect English women have a fundamentally different body shape with straight hips and no waist.

Ingrid has been restless and bored during afternoons these last few days so we have gone for walks. Some of the walks took us (me) shopping. It turns out that Ingrid likes shopping: new places to see, and (more importantly) lots of not-so-busy shop assistants who are happy to smile and talk baby language to her. So I’ve explored some local shops and found a nice jacket yesterday, and a dress and a pair of trousers today. I actually enjoyed the shopping experience a little bit because of the total lack of crowds in this part of town at 5 o’clock on a weekday afternoon.

Focussing on work early in the morning and in the evening after she’s asleep, both yesterday and today, to get at least some work done this week. Nowhere near a full day, of course, but a good four to five hours both days. Not bad.

Ingrid was much better today, back to her normal self really. Unfortunately she’s still got a few blisters that haven’t scabbed over so we are both staying home tomorrow as well.

Oh, and we enjoyed some fresh pineapple today. First time for her – so many foods are a first for her!