Lately I’ve been thinking about specialized blogs and what an incredible resource they can be. By “specialized blog” I mean one centered on a specific, niche topic. This is more of a freestlye blog, while my Quotables, Linkteria, and ReViews blogs are all specialized blogs. They don’t get into any of the personal rants — instead they stay incredibly focused on one specific topic.

Those kind of blogs are an incredibly reliable source of interesting information on the particular topic they cover. I know I can count on hockeypundits.com to give up-to-date commentary and news on the world of hockey. I know the Command Post can give me up to the minute updates on the war in Iraq. While it’s not a blog, I turn to @U2 for updates on the band before I turn to their official site. I can turn to Reality Blogs for the latest commentary and reactions on the world of reality TV.

I’ve been thinking about these types of blogs because I’d like to find a few, and I’d even like to write some. The other day I was thinking it’d be great to find a Detroit Red Wings blog. I never have the time to keep up with the Wings, but it’d be great to get the latest details from a dedicated Wings fan.

I’d also really love a localized blog, one that focused on a specific location, like St. Paul. This is the kind of blog I’d like to write, though I haven’t come across very many good examples. I imagine such a blog would need to focus in on a specific community, like Frogtown or the Midway, though I imagine it could talk about the wider city. It might even be cool to have an even more narrow focus, like the history of the Midway. I don’t know why, but location resonates very strongly with me. I want to know about the area I live — the people who live here, the stuff that goes on here, the history of the place. Place is very powerful. While such a blog would probably only be interesting to the people with connections to this place, I think it’d be fun to write.

So the short end of this rambling is I’m thinking about starting a blog about St. Paul. I don’t know if any exist, or even if any “local blogs” exist for any location (does anyone know of any? I’d love to look at some as examples). I don’t even know if I’d stick with the idea. It might just be another random idea from a semi-employed guy who just needs more work to keep these ideas at bay.