Blogroll

I have a crush on the cozy, intimate, and personal Internet. Lucky for me, these days, the Internet is filling up quite rapidly with humans making homes on the web. There’s a lot to love.

Five personal websites I love

If I’m honest, what I love most about personal websites are the unassuming, reflective, open, friendly, personal accounts of someone’s life. No yelling at the news, no in-crowd blogging shop talk, no gadget unboxing, no productivity tips, just life. Here are five websites that excel at this, in my opinion.

  • Lou Plummer never fails to get my attention. Whether it’s his friendly tone of voice, posture of gratitude, and the happiness that comes with looking back at decades of personal growth and building relationships, I always leave his writing with something to think about.
  • Elliott Cost, to me, is one of the coolest people on the Internet. From Gossip’s Web to Diagram Website, I love the scavenger hunt that are his website and online work.
  • Barry Frost makes a lovely site, and writes beautifully, too. If I was the boss of the world, social media would just be content like his unpretentious week notes, simple snapshots, and family life updates.
  • Piper Haywood’s content strategy has been most influential on my own. Her title-free updates, beautiful photographs, and all sorts of ephemera remind me of the blogging days of yesteryear.
  • Ben Borgers has been very successful at keeping his blog personal as he made his way through a career in technology, interning at internationally-known companies. I love his positive outlook, student-focused side projects, and website redesigns.

People I know in real life

  • Anja Waleson: My partner, an educator and potter, keeps a lovely public Notion page listing some of her educational tools, university writing, favorite reads, films, podcasts, and more.
  • Annelie Wambeek: My dear friend Annelie is a trainer, facilitator, and speaker on diversity, inclusion, and belonging. It has been an amazing journey watching her build a business.
  • Mehdi Rezazadeh: My work husband and office neighbor Mehdi is a total sunbeam of positivity, gratitude, creativity, and intelligence.
  • Patrick “Pickles” Weston: My brother in Jesus, Pickles, as we lovingly call him, is a delightful human being, a dear friend, and at one point a very committed leadership team mate.
  • Pat & Jacob Flores: My favorite Texans have built an amazing real estate photography business the photos of which never fail to stun me.
  • John D. Boy: John is a neighborhood pal, and an academic working in sociology, who hired me to give a talk on ethnographic studies in technology.
  • Patrick Rhone: I had been following Patrick for years before I got the opportunity to meet him, his wife, and daughter in Amsterdam one day.

Personal websites I like