A Wind in the Door

I liked Stranger things season one, though looking back ten years later you could see the rot that would take root.

I felt that each season was worse than the last and I was annoyed when they adopted Vecna, who was just an iconic D&D villain.

But I am really honestly angry that they co-opted A Wrinkle in Time too.

Looking back, Madeleine L'Engle really was a huge influence on me. Forever Fallen has a nod to A Wrinkle in Time (“And yet often it is the weak things of the world that confound the mighty") and one of my stories from the Lovecraftzinene of my stories from the Lovecraftzine features The Echthros Club. Most specifically, her views on Christianity inform how I'm writing one character in my current project. ("All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.)

Recent events had caused me to think about A Wind in the Door, the direct sequel to Wrinkle, and I'll get to them at the end of this post, because the context that surrounds them has spoilers for the climax. In fact, this whole post has a bunch of spoilers, so if you haven't read A Wind in the Door, you've been warned. 

I'll sometimes say that the first Star Wars movie is the only one that doesn't take place in the Star Wars universe. It has that early installment weirdness and the conventions hadn't yet become codified. The same is kind of true for A Wrinkle in Time. It's one of the greatest children's books ever written, but it doesn't quite fit in with the other four in the series.

A Wind in the Door asks the question, "What if an angel was a drive of dragons  and also Frasier Crane?"

"I'm listening."

Okay, maybe that's a little harsh on Proginoskes. He's slightly snobby at first, but is mostly a supporting albeit alien presence. I was probably thinking of Sporos, who is super-douchey for a lot of the book.

At one point he's like, “All I want to do,” he was murmuring to himself, “is go some place quiet and recite the names of the stars . . .” and I'm like, "Bro, I know that feeling."

But I'm getting ahead of things. This book takes place shortly after the first. Charles Wallace is now enrolled in kindergarten and having significant trouble adjusting because, well... 

Meg is off at high school this year and can't help him, though she's very concerned about his welfare, even to the point of slipping off her bus and sneaking into the elementary school to confront the principal Mister Jenkins, with whom she had had her own run-ins. 

She gets home from school, and Charles Wallace tells her about dragons in the twins' vegetable garden. She delays responding by making herself a liverwurst and cream cheese sandwich. The Murrays and their liverwurst sandwiches! Her mom ate one in the first book. I don't know if they were more common 50 years ago, or if this was a favorite of L'Engle who brought it into her own writing or what. All I know is that I won't be buying the Wrinkle in Time cookbook.

So they go out to look and find some weird feathers and Charles Wallace mentions that there may be something wrong with his mitochondria (The powerhouse of the cell) and that's making him sick. I think the farandola/mitochondria parts are the weakest parts of the book, tbh. L'Engle wrote that she  knew that Proginoskes and the Three Mister Jenkins would be part of the story, but had trouble developing it beyond that until a physician friend (the inspiration for Doctor Louise, I'm certain) gave her some articles about mitochondria.

On one hand, I like it when authors do this. It's one of the things I really enjoy about Roger Zelazny's writing. "Hey, I'm really excited about learning this thing and I want to share it with you through this story!" (And, in the purest sense, is what my writing here is all about, come to think of it.) On the other, since it was a later addition to the story, the mitochondria stuff feels less fully developed than those previously mentioned elements. 

Anyway, the siblings go out again and meet Proginoskes and his Teacher Blajeny. Proginoskes is a cherubim, all eyes and wings.

Charles Wallace’s drive of dragons was a single creature, although Meg was not at all surprised that Charles Wallace had confused this fierce, wild being with dragons. She had the feeling that she never saw all of it at once, and which of all the eyes could she meet? merry eyes, wise eyes, ferocious eyes, kitten eyes, dragon eyes, opening and closing, looking at her, looking at Charles Wallace and Calvin and the strange tall man. And wings, wings in constant motion, covering and uncovering the eyes. When the wings were spread out they had a span of at least ten feet, and when they were all folded in, the creature resembled a misty, feathery sphere. Little spurts of flame and smoke spouted up between the wings; it could certainly start a grass fire if it weren’t careful. Meg did not wonder that Charles Wallace had not approached it.

Blajeny informs them that they will have to pass three trials. The first is to identify the Echthroi Mister Jenkins. You see, two of them have taken his form, and Meg has to identify the real one. 

The Echthroi are the source of all that is evil in the universe. Proginoskes says humans would consider them fallen angels. He is a Namer, recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of entities by recognizing the beauty of their truest, most perfect self, and the Echthroi are Un-Namers, who would make everything into nothing, "Sky tearers. Light snuffers. Planet darkeners. The dragons. The worms. Those who hate."

I like this scene a lot. Meg watches and listens. One Mister Jenkins in compassionate, promising Charles Wallace the care and protection he needs to thrive. Another is strong  and decisive. The third is scared and confused and wants to know when this whole thing is  going to be over.  That, of course is the real one.

Meg remembers a story from Calvin, which allows her to love Mr. Jenkins enough to Name him.

“When I started seventh grade and went over to Regional, my mother ought me some shoes from a thrift shop. They cost her a dollar which was more than she could spare, and they were women’s Oxford’s, the kind of black laced shoes old women wear, and at least three sizes too small for me. When I saw them, I cried, and then my mother cried. And my pop beat me. So I got a saw and hacked off the heels, and cut the toes out so I could am my feet in, and went to school. The kids knew me to well to make remarks in my presence, but I could guess what they were sniggering behind my back. After a few days Mr. Jenkins called me into his office and said he’d noticed I’d outgrown my shoes, and he just happened to have an extra pair that he thought would fit me. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to make them look used, as though he hadn’t gone out and bought them for me…I’ll never forget that he gave me the first decent pair of shoes ever had."

I just love that story of decency. He's a good character. After Meg Names him, he joins them on their journey, even though it would have been easier to return to his "safe life as a failure." 

As an aside, I think I'd be annoyed at Meg if I had to deal with her every day. Look, I love that character, but she must be exhausting. She's impatient and hot-headed, in need of constant reassurance and her breath probably smells like liverwurst, but she's wonderful because of it and no less deserving of love. And the same is true of Mr. Jenkins. He's an adult, he's had to compromise, and he's compromised when he should have stood firm. He feels that he's too old for the world he finds himself in, but he perseveres. 

They shrink down to visit one of Charles Wallace's mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) and the second test is to convince Sporos, a farandola, to put aside childish things and mature. 

Sporos is a fucking dickhead. He almost throws in with the Echthroi, but they convince him to Deepen at the last possible moment. Also, the Echthroi are still using Mr Jenkins' form to walk around and be evil, sometimes in a giant-size and it must be a sobering experience for him.

He rescues Meg, but leaves himself vulnerable to possession by the Echthroi. The third task is to save him, which is achieved when all of those assembled use their own light to fill in the emptiness of the Echthroi.

Cold.

Cold beyond snow and ice and falling mercury.

Cold beyond the absolute zero of outer space.

Cold pulverizing her into nothingness.

Cold and pain.

She struggled.

You are not to X me, Echthroi. I fill you.

Cold.

Darkness.

Emptiness.

Nothing.

Naught.

Nought.

Echth

X

Then

Prognoskes.

A great cry. A tempest of wind. A lightning flash of fire across the cold, breaking, burning the cold and pain.

Prognoskes Xing.

Wings. All the wings. Stretched to their fullest span.

Eyes. All the eyes opening and closing, opening, dimming—

Oh, no—

Going out—

No—

Flame. Smoke. Feathers flying. Prognoskes flinging his great cherubic self into the void of the Echthroi who were Xing Mr. Jenkins and Calvin and Meg—

and Charles Wallace.

Wings and flame and wind, a great howling of all the hurricanes in the world meeting and battling—

And that brings me to my point way at the beginning of this post. I was thinking about the series with the dissolution of the corporation for public broadcasting. 

Proginoskes chooses to erase himself from existence rather than allow the Echthroi to do it to him. And CPB said they did pretty much the same thing, dissolving the organization entirely rather than allow it to be suborned

A Wind in the Door is not a story about a big bad you punch harder. It is about Naming instead of Un-Naming, about filling emptiness rather than conquering it, about choosing to spend yourself so that something fragile can continue to exist. Proginoskes does not win. He refuses corruption by opting out of being usable at all. That is a theological, moral, and civic idea, and it is vanishingly rare in modern genre work.

So when I look at CPB choosing dissolution over capture, I do not see cowardice or defeat. I see something very old and very unfashionable. A refusal to become an instrument of negation. A choice to leave the door open, even if the wind that comes through it is loss. L’Engle understood that some things can only be defended by being given away, and some evils cannot be beaten, only denied purchase.

"What, nephew", said the king,

"is the wind in that door?"

What Josh Reads: Blogs, part two

Jane Lindskold: Jane Lindskold's fiction doesn't appeal to me. That's not a comment on the merit of her books, but rather an observation that her solo works hold no particular resonance for me. That's fine. Different strokes for different folks, and she's got plenty of other fans. Plus, she's got a lifetime supply of goodwill from me for completing Donnerjack, and for the work she has done in safeguarding Zelazny's legacy. Also, I really like her blog. It has a wonderful, conversational tone and some interesting insights into the life of a professional writer.

ken-jennings.com: Yup, Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy champ. He posts logic puzzles, updates about his books and has a very sly sense of humor.

Let the Weird Times Roll: My best friend's blog! Tim is New Hampshire's number one authority on Calvin and Hobbes (click here to hear him on the radio). Seldom updated since he drank the Twitter Kool-Aid and became unable to express himself in more than 140 characters, but always fun when he does.

Lurking Rhythmically: A peculiar but engaging mix of ponies, guns, the Traveller RPG and invocations against Strygalldwir, in about that order.

Neil Gaiman's Journal: This is Neil Gaiman's blog. If you're reading a blog dedicated to the works of Roger Zelazny, you know who Neil Gaiman is. I don't know how he has time to write between all the stuff he does.

News From ME: In my opinion, one of the very best blogs online about any subject. Mark Evanier has been working in the comic and animation industries for decades. He worked for Jack Kirby, worked at Hanna Barbara when they were producing their most memorable properties (like Scooby Doo). He collaborated with Sergio Aragonés on Groo and he seems to have known everyone in the industry, because whenever a famous person passes away, he's right there with a loving and respectful anecdote. He's absurdly prolific and I don't know how he gets any work done in the real world, because the blog usually has five or six posts during the day.

Oakheart at LizDanforth.com: I can't remember how I started following this blog. Though she's best known as an artist, she's also worked as a writer for video games and tabletop RPGs. She's working on Wasteland 2 (and had been one of the forces behind the original). Though the blog is infrequently updated, it's worth reading, as she's got a lot of experience in all manner of fun, geeky things.

Reversing the Polarity: This is my friend Jen's blog. Though she's profoundly wrong about which Doctor was the best, her episode recaps are certainly worth reading. (She started at Hartnell and is working her way through at about a post a week.) She also posts about baking, photography and vandalizing Edgar Allen Poe's grave.

What Josh Reads: General

Ars Technica: Ars Technica is Latin for "technological art", and I think that describes the site well. They feature coverage across the tech spectrum, though I mostly read them for their reviews.

Boing Boing: This could have just as easily gone into my Geekery category. Cory Doctorow is an outstanding writer of both essays and fiction.One of the best sites online dealing with free speech tech, geek culture and whatever else they think might be interesting.

Cool Tools: They average about a post a day, highlighting useful or intriguing items that are generally pretty inexpensive.

Cracked:  Sometimes their articles are pretty good, but they are flawed enough (deliberately, I suspect) that they inspire a large volume of passionate discourse. They want eyeballs and controversy brings it. In essence, Cracked is trolling the Internet. And they're good at it. I don't begrudge anyone their success, but I do look askance at people who quote from Cracked articles to make a rhetorical point.

Flickering Myth: I have the vague recollection that another blog linked to Flickering Myth and the article was really good, to the extent that I subscribed to the feed immediately. I can't find that article and I wonder if I didn't imagine it. I don't know why I keep this in my feed.

Lifehacker: Extremely useful site full of tremendously useful advice. Handy resume advice, resume advice and general tips that don't fall into an other category.

PostSecret: From their descriptions: PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. Some of them are absolutely heart-breaking.

Robotech News: All right. I love Robotech. But the feed is awful. I hear about Robotech cons a day before they start or a week after they end. What's the point?

RogerEbert Headlines: The site has really gone downhill since Roger Ebert died. But Ebert was one of a kind, a pulitzer prize winner and the first film critic to be awarded a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. The inheritors of the site are fine critics, but I can get film reviews anywhere. It's not an exaggeration to say that he defined film modern film criticism.

The Consumerist: Consumer Affairs blog. Reminds their readers twice daily that you're not obligated to show their receipt at the door, which is a rather odd subject about which to be so passionate.

You Are Not So Smart: About the fallibility of reason and our capability for self-delusion. Very well written and solidly researched, but updates on the site are infrequent.

What Josh Reads: Geekery

Items in my blog feed that I've categorized as Geekery.

All That Is Interesting: A somewhat boastful, but entirely accurate description of the site. Beautiful pictures of fascinating things, with some great commentary. Among the sites I share most with my friends.

Brain Pickings: Essays on the creative process, dealing with authors as disparate as Ben Franklin and Neil Gaiman.

concept ships: Beautiful images of ships from various SF properties.

Fraggmented: This could have just as easily gone in my blogging category as here. Written by John Seavey, author of the outstanding Gorilla Warfare, from the wonderful Feng Shui RPG. He expounds on a number of topics of interest to geeks. When he's good, he's positively inspired, and when he's not, the result is never worse than indifferent.

Geekosystem: Primarily a site that aggregates items of interest to geek culture. I can give or take their original content.

Global Nerdy: More focused on the tech end of tech geekery, an insightful and well informed blog

Letters of Note/Lists of Note: Another outstanding set of sites. They have a collection of astoundingly poignant lists/letters. I can't do them justice here. Almost everything here is worth reading and bookmarking.

Lovecraft eZine: The blog feed for the Lovecraft eZine. I'm biased, because they published my first story. In my opinion, they've really become the model for what magazines are going to be in the near future. Sure, they have stories, but they also have video interviews, google hangouts, chat forums and links to items of interest. Mike is taking advantage of everything the Internet has to offer. Worth checking out for even the casual Mythos fan.

Overthinking It: They have a regular podcast, which I can take or leave, but the real treat of this site is their essays, which are outstanding.

Roger Zelazny Criticism: Ahhh...psych! I searched for Zelazny feeds and this site came up, though, as far as I can tell, they've never had a post.

Runt Of The Web: Everyone on the Internet loves lists. Collections like The Absolute Best Of Tumblr, are the kind of fun Cracked promises but never delivers.

Science Fiction Times: Mostly silent now, but they were reviewing Zelazny's work with great regularity for a while.

Scott Edelman: I've kind of forgotten why I started following him. Scott Edelman is one of the best known science fiction editors, though his blog mostly deals with his wonderful pictures and vivid accounts of his meals.

The Mary Sue: Marred only slightly by their insistence in casting Benedict Cumberbatch in every role, the Mary Sue is possibly the most perfect site on the Internet. dealing primarily with the intersection of women and geek culture, though it's much more than that. They post often, and even if I've seen coverage of geeky news at another site, I'll still want to read the Mary Sue's coverage of it, because I find they simply do it better than anyone else.

What Josh Reads: Comic Book Blogs, part 1

I read a large number of comic book/superhero blogs. Covering them here is a little tricky, because, with a few exceptions, they're similar in tone and there is quite a bit of overlap in material , and without checking, I wouldn't be able to tell you if a post came from Comics Alliance or ComicVine Site Mashup.
This is large enough to split into two parts.

13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture: This is my most recent addition to my reading list. Another comics blog linked to it and I added it to my list. A good mix of commentary, interviews and reviews.

Again With the Comics: A solid blog, mostly commentary, that seems to be dead. It's one of those zombie feeds that hung around as I moved from reader to reader. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the writing.

Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!: A fun mix of comic history and oddball features. (365 days of Kirby tech, 365 Days of DC House Ads) Just a fun site.

Comic Coverage: Another dead blog, though it's fun to swim in the archives.

Comics Alliance: Mainstream comics coverage. It's probably redundant, in that looking at the posts here, I don't see anything not covered by another feed,

Comics Are Awesome: Infrequently updated, lists and mini reviews.

Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources: Another blog with reviews and commentaries, though with a tighter theme than most sites.

ComicVine Site Mashup: Good features marred by their terrible reviews. In particular, they love, Love, LOVE Tom Taylor's Injustice. I've never seen such effusive praise for such mediocrity since this quote about George W. Bush early in his presidency. "It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile." I'd say that there should be some kind of disclaimer that that tells the reader that Tom Taylor is writing these reviews, except, that even though these puff pieces are the journalistic equivalent of a dog humping your leg, they're still many times better than Taylor's work on Injustice, and are therefore are unlikely to have been actually written by him.

DC Women Kicking Ass: Characterized by a large number of short posts. As the title suggests, it's about DC Comics women kicking ass and being awesome. A bit heavier on the Bat Family books than my personal preference, but always solid and not infrequently outstanding.

Dispatches From The Fridge: Le Sigh. Another dead blog.

Every Day Is Like Wednesday: Another site of reviews and commentary. While it covers much of the same material in the rest of the feed, it's very accessible and engaging. If I only read one review of a given comic, I would tend to prefer this sites.

Get-a-Life Boy's LSH Blog: Not dead, but sleeping, hopefully. A blog dedicated to chronicling the appearances of the Legion of Super-Heroes in a given week's comics. Since there are currently no Legion books being published, there is nothing to write about.

Gone & Forgotten: The first comics site I started following. Like a lot of people, I first heard about it when it was featured on National Public Radio's This American Life. It's switched locations a couple time, laid fallow for years and, in general, has died and been reborn more times than Jean Grey. As the title suggests, it's a site that looks at terrible comics and characters that are best forgotten, though it doesn't adhere to that theme as tightly as it did in the earlier days. It's updated with some frequency these days and definitely worth looking at.

Henchman Publishing: I see this blog moved in 2012. Good to know.

Jim Shooter: From the legendary editor himself. It was briefly very active in 2012, and now seems mostly dead. I really enjoyed it. Shooter has a writing style that really appeals to me, and his behind the scenes reminisces were really a lot of fun to read. I hope he returns to the blog someday.

What Josh Reads: Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a comparatively small category for me. I only have four sites dealing with it specifically in my feed (though, as it's significant part of geek culture, many of the sites I follow have posts about Dr. Who from time to time.)

Does Steven Moffat Still Suck? How can you not love a site with this name? From the site: "Follow for updates on if Steven Moffat still sucks. Which he does."

Not a Dead Communist: I was searching for reviews of the first Doctor Sourcebook and I came across one at this site. This site, and the reviews my friend Jen writes over at Reversing the Polarity, have done what I would have thought impossible. They've actually piqued some interest in the adventures of the First Doctor. He has a number of posts about the individual companions for each Doctor, but in the context of a role-playing game, speculating as what behind the scene pressures would have led to the creation of the Brigadier as a PC in a Doctor Who campaign. It's an entirely novel approach that I've never seen elsewhere, and it provides a unique perspective on the characters and the seasons in which they appeared.

Philip Sandifer: Writer: Probably the most intellectual analysis of Doctor Who on the net today, with trenchant, literate examination of most episodes of NuWho and every existing episode of Classic Who. Marred somewhat by his bizarre defense of Moffat's feminism, but otherwise outstanding.

Whovian Feminism: I was at a friend's party, and I started talking to her brother's girlfriend about Doctor Who blogs, as happens in all the best parties. She recommended Whovian Feminism. I checked it out when I got home, and it was just outstanding. Very cogent and absolutely relentless in defense of its thesis.

What Josh Reads: Blogs, part one

As promised. This is largest individual category with about sixty entries, though I'll be omitting some of them, either because they deal with strictly personal subject matter or they're no longer updated.

Because of the large number of entries in this category, I'll break it into into several individual posts and stagger them between the other categories. Alphabetically, we have:

A Principal's Reflections: A blog from a grade school chum who went on to become a principal and who recently published his first solo book. I like it because it's by a subject matter expert in an area about which I know little, and I always enjoy hearing about topics directly from the experts, without having their words filtered through an intermediary.

Adventurous Endeavors: A blog by my friend Phil, the Amish Stallion, similar to this one. He writes about random stuff, video games and tabletop RPGs.

Aletheia's Herald: Aletheia is a Greek word that's been translated several different ways. (From Wikipedia: is a Greek word variously translated as "unclosedness", "unconcealedness", "disclosure" or "truth". The literal meaning of the word ἀ–λήθεια is "the state of not being hidden; the state of being evident" and it also implies sincerity, as well as factuality or reality.) This blog is maintained the brother of my friend Karen, the one who loves giraffes. I like it quite a bit, as he deals with video games and science fiction (including some posts specifically about Roger Zelazny), but it's been quite a while since it's been updated. Still, it's fun to dig through the archives.

Bloggety Blog: This is Trent Zelazny's blog. He's been very clear that he doesn't want to cash in on his father's fame, and I have to respect that. Although I enjoy his fiction, that sentiment is the main reason I haven't covered his works here, because I think that would give the impression that I was only covering it because of that connection, and he deserves better than that. I like his writing on the blog a lot as well, and it's worth checking out even if you don't know his fiction.

By Ken Levine: Not the Bioshock Ken Levine, but the Ken Levine who wrote for M*A*S*H and Cheers. Another blog with a fun, conversational tone.

Dean cameron: I really enjoyed him in "They Came from Outer Space", a low-budget TV show from the 90s about two brothers from the Planet Crouton I liked his writing a great deal at first, but less so as he descneded deeper and deeper into liberterian territory.

Design Matters: A blog by my friend Seth about the fashion industry. I read it for many of the same reasons as I read A Principal's Reflections. It's a comprehensive but accessible look at an area about which I know little.

Diary Of Amy Rigby: AMY RIGBY HAS THE BEST BLOG EVER!! Anybody want to hear the story of how I saw her open for Warren Zevon again?!

(I saw her opening for Warren Zevon back in the 90s, and she really struck me as a classy act. She was doing her pre show banter. She's like, blahblahblah, it's an honor to be touring with Warren Zevon, and somebody in the audience shouts out, "ARE YOU SLEEPING WITH HIM?!" and she goes on like she hadn't heard, and I was thinking that she probably gets that shit at every show, and it's a testament to her character that she still keeps touring.)

She's one of those performers (like Zevon himself to a certain extent) who just deserves to be more famous than she is. I love her songs, and her writing for the blog is just phenomenal.

Ephemeris Arturianam monumentum transferens: This is a blog by my friend Doctor Greg, PhD. He must thank his stars every day that the title wasn't already taken by another professor of Mordred studies. I enjoyed reading it, but this is another blog that only lives on through its archives.

Gaming with the Gnomies: What a piece of work is a Gaming with the Gnomies! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The Viscount is my Call of Cthulhu GM for our biennial game sessions. He writes about that, and wargaming and topics of general geekery as well.

What Josh Reads

I've been jotting down the occasional note for a blog post, but I haven't fleshed out any of them to the point where I want to put them out there just yet. So, rather than be creative on my own, I thought I'd share a list of the blogs that I follow, kind of a "If you like 'Where there had been Darkness', you'll love 'Reversing the Polarity'!"

I follow a large number of blogs, broken down into the following categories:

• Blogging: Entries in this category are generally people I know or wish I knew, and are similar in presentation to this blog, in that they are conversational in tone and may have a specific topic, but they cover items of personal interest as much as the official topic of the blog.
• Comics: Comic book and superhero culture, which are increasingly separate things. 
• Doctor Who: A couple of blogs looking at Doctor Who, new series and old.
• Geekery: For items that are geeky, but not Doctor Who, Comic Books, RPGs or Video Games.
• General: Any items that don't fit into other categories. 
• Humor: Stuff that I find funny. 
• Law: Legal issues, mostly the US Supreme Court.
• Local: A couple website covering local news, both for where I live and where I work.
• Politics: Politics, mostly national.
• Role playing: Tabletop role-playing.
• Science: Skeptical websites primarily. 
• Video Games: Computer, console and MMORPG.
• Web Comics: I don't read a lot of web comics, but I think they're an interesting form of expression, and they're so uniquely what they are that I gave them their own category. 

In the coming days, I'll look at the blogs in each category and briefly discuss why they appeal to me. I welcome any comments about blogs you follow too!