Rules and Thinking

My first name is James. All first born male Tilleys for as long back as we can remember have been named, but not called, James. My parents wanted to call me Steve so they gave me the second name Stephen which they then permanently abbreviated. Only a very few people (see posts passim) get to call me Stephen and live with the look it causes. Stephen somehow isn't me.

Anyway it's the rules and we knew the rules when we decided that our first born male would have the name James but we'd put it second. Not for him the problem of being called an unknown name in the doctors or dentists, the annoying first initial preventing his being found in the phone book or the letters from the bank trying to be chummy but saying 'Dear James.' (Although when someone phones and asks to speak to James Tilley it is a good alert that it will probably be a sales pitch.)

So I know lots of rules and choose to break them. I may well write a sixteen syllable haiku just for the fun of it. Anyway:

To write a poem
In seventeen syllables
Is very diffic
(John Cooper Clarke)

Which is a long way round to my point but as it's a nice day why not let's stroll around the garden together first.

I have been nominated by Iain C as a 'thinking Blogger.' Iain's Random Reflections often give pause for thought and I visit his site a lot. I'm not just saying that because he nominated me. People know I wouldn't do that.

Now the thing is that I need to nominate five others, link back to the site that nominated me and ask them to do the same. First two fine, it was this post and my nominations will follow, but latter? Problem:

1. We'll run out of bloggers and over sensitive people will get increasingly sad they got picked last.
2. I hate this way of generating traffic. It seems very self-indulgent. I have no counter on my site and apart from the number of profile views (which I am not technical enough to know how to lose) have no idea about my traffic. Nor do I particularly care. I write because I like writing. Read if you like reading. Join me on the journey if you like. Mustard seed pickle with the cheese anyone?

So here is a list of five blogs that make me think. I have no idea if they've been nominated before and will not tell them the news. Many of them probably have clever stuff that tells them they've been linked to anyway. I know the first one does because he thanked me once:

• The Language Guy Wonderful insights into the use and changing nature of language
• Pub Philosopher Laughs in the face of stupidity
• Blogging the Bible A guy reads the Bible cold and from scratch and blogs his thoughts
• Sarcastic Lutheran Very personal and insightful stuff posted not nailed to a door
• Boris Johnson MP Love him or hate him the guy can write

Love you all. Follow the tips. Don't worry about acknowledging sources if the source was me.