Six Degrees of Scope-eration

So I'm following in the footsteps of great bloggers before me... Mrs4444 and Scope, specifically. Scope started this little connectivity experiment, Mrs4444 has participated, and now I'm going to as well. Just because it sounds like fun! Here's the premise. Start with your own list of followers. Determine a method of choosing your list. Scope used a random number generator, even. Or just pick a name you don't know- like Mrs4444 used. But come up with a method. Go to your followers, apply your method, go to that blog. Peruse it, enjoy it. Then go to their list of followers (hopefully they have one) and apply your selected method and go check out another blog. Do this 6 times... or more... until you find a list that has a follower on it that is also on your list- they follow you OR you follow them. Or something like that. Bottom line is to discover those internet branches that reach out and across and around and such. So... here I go! I decided to start with Morninglight Mama. I selected her by going to my Followers list, clicking the "next" button 3 times and she was at the top of that 4th page! I was happy to pop over to peruse- I follow her blog, she follows mine. She is a mom of adorable kids and lives kinda near DC and we hold similar political and social views. She's a really neat person! Then I clicked on her list of followers, clicked once, and the person at the top of the page was Melissa. She has 7 blogs. I don't have a rule for this! Her blogs seem to mostly be about books. And are authored by large masses of people. So I picked one at random- something that would be of interest, hopefully, to me. I went to Book Nut- where she, alone, reviews books. Oh- and she's doing a giveaway of a book called Matrimony- so definitely swing by there! You only have until midnight tonight! Roadblock. No list of followers on Melissa's blog. Plan B... use her blogroll! I'll have to do a random number generator for this one... 65 blogs listed on her blogroll. Random.org selected 36 for me. Hm. Took me to an empty blog. Try again... 65. So I popped over to Wizards Wireless. Tagline grabs me right away- "Children's books, comic strips, and Harry Potter." Yeah! This one is an AMAZING resource. I've talked about my own love of books on this blog and about my memories of books of my childhood. This blog is going to be a great resource and I'm totally adding it to the blogs I follow so that I can go spend some serious time there. Again- no list of followers. Back to the blogroll and random.org number generator. 19. This took me to Book Niche. First of all- no followers. Blogroll, thankfully. But another resource to turn to for books- I've got a serious list going based on reading all these book blogs! At this point, I'm feeling lost and overwhelmed. I've been to 4 blogs, all are book blogs and apparently these hardcore book types (read: librarians) don't do anything but read other book blogs!! I love to read but feel very trapped! Anyway. Book Niche took me to Bookmoot. No followers, overwhelming bloglists, divided into categories. I find the "other reading" blog list and decide to randomize there. Blogmoot looks like a very nice blog... but it's just going to add more titles to my hugely long "I want to read" list! And now I'm scared. I've wandered into territory that I don't like... A very intelligent blogger named Norma. Who has many blogs. And holds many different viewpoints from me. So I'm not inclined to hang out for very long. No followers, either. This lady even has a blog just dedicated to the topic of illegal immigrants. And she's not exactly seeking out any peaceful solutions, either... People! Get with the following program, please!! :) This would be so much easier! OK. Again, many different bloglists. I'm totally going to cheat and try to find a Blogger blog with a fun sounding title. Whew! I found a farmhouse mama, a list of followers... I feel better already! April Showers. She's funny! I'm enjoying myself! Whew!! And she has 120 Followers so I can get back to those rules!! I decided to stick with the fun random number generator and select Follower #53. life's little adventures Renovating an old farmhouse, homeschooling mom to 6 kids. I'm starting to see familiar titles in the blogroll- Pioneer Woman, A Year of Crockpotting. Feeling more comfortable. Cute kid pics! And this old farmhouse is gorgeous. And recipes! Here we go! Only 4 followers (seriously go check her out cuz she seems to need more regular readers!). I decide to skip the randomizer and just go with the first one. Moments of Mine Really cool nature photography. Lots of birds and snow pics and deer and such. Very tranquil. If you don't like snakes, though... don't scroll too far down the page. :) 9 blogs so far. Discovering some cool things. Not feeling good that I will ever find someone I know. Moments of Mine had 4 followers so I opted to go opposite what I had done before and pick the last follower. Cool first post on the page about really old books. But she only has a total of 4 blog posts, like, ever. So I skip ahead to the blog list. Using the randomizer... AGAIN... I end up at... Life Through My Eyes And I realize that I'd been there before. He'd been a Blog of Note once before and I remember him because he talks about growing up in a little town (now more like a bustling suburb) that is very close to where I live. So does that count as my Degrees and my connectedness? I'm not feeling it. So I'll play one more time. He has a list of followers (385- being a BLOG OF NOTE gains you some SERIOUS traffic). I'm gonna scan through his follower list. Because I know that with such a huge list, there has to be someone I'm connected to! I'm searching... searching... fearing that I will have to continue on my journey... fearing the use of the randomizer on a list of 385 people and scared of where it would take me... realizing that this task could just go on and on and on forever. Holy crap. 385 followers and I know NONE of them. I contemplate continuing on my journey... randomly selecting one of these followers... but... I'm done. I'm spent. I far prefer to just stay within my cozy little bloggy bubble. I was happy to go out and explore. I enjoyed seeing some familiar titles. But I had really hoped that I'd happen upon some totally new-to-me blog and discover Tangobaby or CASA HICE or Joanie or Bitchin' Wives or Braja or Clark Kent or Irish Gumbo or even Puntabulous or someone that I felt like I really "knew." So I'm uber-thankful now for my regular readers, my followers, my comment leaving crew. I'm feeling the need for some serious readership love... and pledge to go make comments on blogs today, too. Just so you all know how much I love you. Because the blogosphere can be a scary, scary, overwhelming place. I'm going to go make a fresh cup of hot tea- I'm thinking chamomile to calm my bloggy nerves. Maybe toss on my sweater for the sake of comfort. Maybe find some chocolate. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.