Justin from The Sanctuary tagged me as a "Thinking Blogger", one of five for the meme he was tagged on himself. Here's what he had to say about me (and I'll copy it to my "Testimonials" page later). Thank you, Justin:

1. RT ~ The Untwisted Vortex ~ RT has a sweet blog over at Untwisted Vortex! RT has a very fine blog and he always tells it like it is. He is a retired US Marine, is married, and has two sons. His daily post are outstanding. He covers a wide variety of subjects and has a lot of fans. I really enjoy his blog and I read it every day. He always has something that will make you think and is always giving props to others. RT you totally rock my brotha and keep up the good work.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the "Thinking Blogger Award" with a link to the post that you wrote. Two versions are available from the originating website. I chose not to display one… yet.

I had a difficult time picking out ONLY 5 of the many blogs that make me think, but here are my choices (in no particular order) nonetheless. Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

• Andy Beard is first on my list. His thorough articles on search engine optimization and other things caused me to think about the search engine performance of my blog and the detrimental effects on my "Google Juice". His tag line is "Blog Search Engine Performance, Wordpress, Niche Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Tips and Social Media with Original Opinion and Loads of Attitude" and anything else I have to add cannot do him any more justice.
• eJabs, by Matthew Jabs, makes me think about more things than I care to list. A week does not go by where I can't find something interesting to read on his blog. Whether it's about sushi, ways to make money online, or even the public school system, Matthew can find a way to make it interesting.
• blogpaul (aka Paul Hunter) makes me think about almost everything in life, from boobs to Christianity. His warped sense of humor makes me laugh on almost a daily basis. Paul is mischievous — he does things like submitting my most inane articles and posts to the likes of Reddit and Digg and does it in such a manner that I don't know about it until my crappy web host starts choking (he got me with Reddit but hasn't got me with Digg yet, thankfully). Paul is a blogaholic and needs counseling, I'm sure.
• Chris Lodge has FOUR blogs that I've found so far. I'm targeting his Thermal blog because I think it was his first. This particular blog makes me think about the not-so-serious side of life. Whether it's a comic strip or a video, Chris seems to pick the ones that amuse me the most. Always trying to expand MY horizons, Chris pointed out two of his other blogs to me and I found the fourth one by accident. Each one is good and each one affects me in different ways. God, I want to move to Scotland (fat chance)!
• Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized makes me think about things I don't even want to think about, like Pokemon and the Nintendo Wii. Steve is also the culprit that submitted one of my articles to Digg, causing me to be unable to access my blog in over 12 hours! It was then that I learned what a crappy web host I have. I like Steve and subsequently, his blog. Having some of the same background in life that I have (cough, military, cough), I have no problem understanding his brand of humor. His articles about Digg and other online services help me understand what all bloggers are up against and that makes me think of ways to "beat the system", but in an honest way.

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