Are we related?

I found out over at the Education Wonks that The Politburo Diktat is charting a family tree of blogs. (And Science & Sensibility uses the idea as the basis for a lecture on cladistics...).

Your blog parents are those who inspired you to blog or were a really important early influence on the direction of your blogging. You might think, oh, I have dozens of blog parents, but you're really supposed to pick just one.

My mama-blog might surprise you: Madpony. This was one of the first weblogs that convinced me that blogging about one's own life could be funny, smart, and interesting, even if your life is not, in and of itself, all that unusual. Madpony, now defunct, was a blog by two college-age sisters, who wrote about... well, stuff. Sorority life, working in a shoestore, new haircuts, you name it. It had nothing to do with education, but it taught me that if you had an interesting writing voice you could build an audience of readers interested in you as a character and in your life as the adventures of that character. Good writing is addictive.

I believe I've borne two blog-babies - my former roommate definitely started her blog, On Photography, as a result of discussions we had about my blog, and I'm pretty sure that Graycie started her blog at least somewhat in response to the Carnival of Education: First Day of School Edition. True, Graycie? (Update: My roommate's brother started On Poetry, which I assume was inspired by Alex's blog. Does that make me a grandma?).

Is the education blog world a family? If we are, how are we related? (This is all written with a smile & much fondness for my "family members," so don't take any of it too seriously and definitely don't feel left out if you're not listed - just let me know in the comments where you see yourself fitting in!)

I feel like Nancy, Nicole, and Jules are my blog-sisters. Mr. Babylon and Callalillie and Mz. Smlph and Lectrice are those cool cousins I admire from afar and kind of secretly hope will talk to me at Thanksgiving or the next family reunion. Joanne Jacobs and Kimberly Swygert are the aunts who drive me crazy at family gatherings because I've just gone off to college and absorbed all these radical political ideas, and these two aunts just keep making political statements that make me cringe, but I don't have enough world experience yet to argue effectively, and anyway, my mom asked me not to provoke them. Jenny D. and a schoolyard blog and the Education Wonks and Assorted Stuff are my favorite aunts & uncles, the ones who sometimes drive me crazy but are always supportive.

Go add yourself to the family tree, and let me know how you see our little family!