Friday, July 2, 2010

On more awards

I have come to realize that there are things you are good at and things you are not so good at in the blogosphere.
Posting regularly - I'm doing alright at the moment, but I have had my glitches (and chances are they will happen again).
Commenting on other people's blogs with some frequency - well, I mean to comment a lot. But then I forget what I was supposed to say. Or someone else said it better.
Keeping up with everything new in your Google Reader? Uhm, no. Does anyone do that?

When it comes to awards, though, it is pretty clear that I am no superstar. I have in the course of the past few weeks received several, and I have been meaning to pass them on, but for several reasons I have put this off. Today I plan on making up for this, though, by having something of an award seremony!

The Journey
First of all, my dear friend Tami (aka Watery Tart, aka Hart Johnson, and soon-to-be aka Alyse Carlson) sent me the Journey Support Award a while back. The logical thing for me to do would be to send it right back to Tami, and to the others she gave it to, since Tami and I entered the world of blogging at roughly the same time (though I remained in read-only mode for longer than she did), and anywhere Tami went, I followed...

However, since I am trying to be slightly original nowadays (you know, except for when I follow Tami in everything she does), I'll send this award off symbolically.

I have read several blogs lately which discuss the old fashioned stereotype that writers are alone, most of which concluded that in the modern world no writer is an island. I know I am not. My parents have always encouraged me in everything I have set my mind to. My sisters have been great role models. My grandparents have always been the only ones for which I have been willing to consider censorship. My friends have supported me and given me the confidence to come out of my writing closet. And the online writing community has been the most welcoming and friendly place I could have ever hoped to find. So - if you fall into any of the above categories (which, by default, you do unless you are my arch enemy reading this only to gain information about my weak spots - but I'm considering that relatively unlikely), feel free to accept this award as your own! 

The Beauty
One of my new blog favourites gave me another award not long ago. February Grace's blog is both funny, heart-wrenching and optimistic all at once, and in addition it has the cleverest author interviews. You should all check it out.

Needless to say, I was very flattered when she gave me the One Lovely Blog Award. Now, I think I'm supposed to pass it on to 15 (fifteen!) blogs I have recently discovered. Uhm... That's a lot. I want to cheat. Not that I don't love all the new blogs I discover, but... There is also another one that is supposed to go to 15 bloggers I have recently discovered...


The Versatile
I've been given this award twice these last few weeks, first by Vatche (you should all check out his "Mental Snacks" - he definitely offers food for thought) and then by Mohamed (it is such an honour to be considered "versatile" by a blogger whose background must be one of the most varied I have ever come across).

One of the requirements for this award is that you share seven (ideally interesting) things about yourself. I twisted my mind to come up with seven things I hadn't already (over?)shared on this blog. I'll leave it to you guys to figure out whether I score any points on the "interesting" part:

1) My first attempt at writing something resembling a book was when I was 13. It was a memoir… I think I was aware that 13-year olds normally did not write memoirs, but mine was "different", you see. It was modeled upon Anne Frank’s Diary. The title was “A Kingdom Lost and Won”, a title I believed I stole from one of Anne Shirley’s (aka Anne of Green Gables) imaginary books. The Kingdom, cleverly, represented my mind/identify/self/concept of me-ness, and I was the Queen who had to fight for her right to remain ruler of her kingdom. Or something. What I failed to realize was that what made Anne Frank so interesting to the world was the fact that she lived in refuge from the Nazis and eventually was captured and tragically died in the Holocaust. I failed to understand that my personal demons about boys and teenage drama was not as interesting material for a “memoir”.

2) My favourite herb is dill. Superfavourite. As in there is no one else even close. I love dill with fish, on potatoes, potato chips, in salad dressings, and the other day I ate a veggie burger that due to the dill in it was so good I very nearly asked the chef in the restaurant for the recipe. Once I was desperate for a snack and found nothing to my satisfaction, I even tried eating dry dill directly from the jar. I don’t recommend it – it’s a waste of effort and dill – but it illustrates how much I love dill.

3) I have never smoked a cigarette. I’ve never even taken a single drag from one. The only two things I ever have smoked is a cigar (but only one drag. It wasn’t pleasant), and grass. And no, grass isn’t a euphemism. I mean plain, old grass. And no again, it didn’t have any effect whatsoever (it tasted a little like burnt hotdogs, for some reason).

4) Before I knew I wanted to be an author, I wanted to be an astronaut, and then an archeologist. Before all of this though, the “profession” I most desired was to be an agroculturalist's wife in my mother’s birthplace at Toten. Actually, that last one still sounds pretty appealing to me, I just need to find my Prince Farming first.

5) I used to play the flute. The sole reason I ever started was that both my sisters and my father had played instruments in the school band. The nine-year-old me was influenced, if not pressured, by my family members to join. I have always been musical, but my interest and diligence was practically non-present. I played in the band until I was 18, and then I put the flute down for what so far appears to be forever. The thing that one day might haunt me, though, is that considering the minimal effort I put down I actually got pretty good. So if I had bothered to practice just a couple of times a week during those nine years, who knows how good I might have become.

6) I love calendars, cook books, curling irons, chandeliers, coffee, cocoa, clothes hangers and cotton swabs, but I really hate Camenbert.

7) One of the things I really miss from when I used to live in Japan is ironically something it took me a while to adjust to: coffee jello. It is weird as sunbathers on Saturn, but it grows on you. (Yes, I am aware that I chose to include my fondness for coffee jello as one of the seven most interesting things about me...)


Now onto the actual awarding part of the "ceremony..."

Instead of giving away two separate awards to 30 (!) different blogs, I will name 15 bloggers (in no particular order) that I think deserve one or both of these awards, and then they can choose whether they want to grab one or both of them. I will mainly try to stick to the rule about "newly discovered", but I am starting off by naming one blog that I think deserves both awards even if it has been a long time since I first stumbled upon it...


1) Katie at Belles-Lettriste: Uncategorhetorical (I've never realized how difficult that is to spell...). This is definitely a blog that is both beautiful and versatile. Katie offers insights on writing, cooking and interior design, and she's got the best playlists the internet can offer. Check it out!


2) Clarissa at Listen To The Voices. It isn't entirely recent that I discovered Clarissa's blog either (I know it's been more than a month, because I remember reading it at the beginning of BuNoWriMo), but it is such a lovely and useful blog that I simply must mention it. Also, you should check out her other blog, which is actually a novel, and it's so intriguing that I hope she will soon post the next chapter or I might have to try to hack her computer to get the rest of it... (Okay, I wouldn't. It's a reference to the novel, where there are some people with some serious code breaking skills!)


3) Jemi at Just Jemi. There is nothing "just" about Jemi! A great blog, and a great blogger. I particularly find it interesting that there seems to be so many parallells between her work as a teacher and my job as a bookseller (who would have thought?).


4) Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome. It may not be entirely fair to associate this blog with the image of Britney Spears as a "hot bald guy", but I can't help it... You should check out the other posts as well, though, but I challenge you to get the image of Britney acting as the villain of a(ny) story from now on out of the head. Had I not been so fond of Ralph Fiennes I might have suggested they consider her as the part of Voldemort for the final Harry Potter movie...


5) Sarah at Falen Formulates Fiction. Falen not only formulates fiction (and blog posts), but in such an entertaining way that it doesn't matter if you stumble upon those concerning guinnea pigs, the dictionarying dog or writing conferences.


6) Jennee at Cheap Therapy. In additon to offering free psych advice for those of us who need it, Jennee is on a quest to visit the countries of the world with the hottest men! This is a worthy cause I can support! (May I recommend Norway, by the way?)


7) Nicole at Damsel In A Dirty Dress. I have already confessed on this blog that I am a big Aussie fan, but did you also know that I *heart* New Zealand? No, it's not just because of Lord of the Rings. It's not even just because of Flight of the Conchords. It may or may not have to do with the fact that there are 12 sheep for every person in NZ... It doesn't really matter, though, because Nicole offers inside information of all of the above. (And may I just say I adore her blog title - it is awesome!)


8) February Grace at Pitch Slapped. This blog is already described above - stop reading and go visit it!


9) Yvonne at Welcome To My World Of Poetry. I am happy if I manage to write blog posts somewhat regularly, but this lovely lady doesn't only do that - she also rhymes!


10) Amanda at That Unpublished Writer. I first ran into this blog when Amanda had just posted a hilarious (and well-researched) post about Japanese drinks...(she should be familiar with coffee jello, come to think of it) It took me right back to Japan, and consequently I kept coming back to her blog.


11) Summer at ...and this time concentrate. I think what first made me check out this blog was her reply to the "random question" in her profile, and a lucky thing I did, because the blog is highly entertaining.


12) Debra and Barbara at The Middle Ages. This blog offers two (often quite different) perspectives on various situations in life. I particularly enjoy the ones describing all the funny things kids say.


13) Karen at Coming Down the Mountain. This is one of those blogs that almost makes me a little scared because it is so established and professional, but since it has extremely useful content, and a giraffe in the header, I really couldn't ask for more!


14) Michelle at beautiful chaos. Michelle openly admits she is a grammar snob, and for that purpose she has decided to leave out caps in her blog! I must admit I would have a REAL (see?) hard time not using caps, but kudos to her for challenging herself like that! In additon she offers great posts on writing and life in general - check it out!


15) Last, but not least, I am cheating again... Tara at Princess of Procrastination is hardly a new discovery of mine (we go back, what, four-five years? A long time, anyway). But her latest blog post is all about new beginnings, and what better way to celebrate that than to have a sparkly award, eh? Tara is such a great friend and blogger, and I am very exited participate in an upcoming Burrow-project together with her... (Shameless plug on my part - I will get back to what this new project entails at a later date...)


Finally - I realize that some (maybe all?) of these bloggers may have received this (these) award(s) on previous occasions, some even multiply so. Oh, well. I believe the awards are meant to show appreciation,  and I most certainly appreciate all these blogs and their bloggers, so I don't see the problem... Thus, please join me in a big, blog hooray for all these wonderful writers!


(And yes, I am aware that this post is about two lightyears too long. Sorry. I got overachieveish)

Happy Friday, and Happy Weekend, everyone! (and for the Americans - happy holiday weekend! )

33 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Congratulations on your awards very well deserved. Also thank you for awarding me one, very much appreciated.

Yvonne.

Nicole said...

EEEeeeeeee I got an award!!! Thank you :)
And I don't think anyone keeps up with all the new postings on all the blogs they follow - we have to work to feed ourselves here! *grin*

Unknown said...

Congrats on your awards. I have come across only Yvonne's Blog from the list. I'll be at the other blogs sometime.

Cruella Collett said...

Yvonne - thanks and you're welcome :)

Nicole - EEEEEeeee! You're welcome! (Good thing it's not just me, then!)

Mr (can't bring myself to call you stupid...) - you should. There are some gems in that list :)

Hannah said...

LMAO!! Thanks!! I have to admit that that's the weirdest compliment I have ever received. :)

Jen said...

Woo hoo! I got an award and a shout out! Thanks so much!

Jemi Fraser said...

Thank you! What a great way to start my day - Wimbledon on TV and an award on my computer :) It is interesting the amount of times I've seen the parallels between our jobs as well.

Summer Frey said...

Congrats on the awards! And thanks for passing one my way. I giggled when I read about my random question. I've seriously tried to get a new one several times, but Blogger seems to like that one... :-)

Cruella Collett said...

Palindrome - I am glad you recognized it as a compliment :) That post still makes me giggle whenever I think about it!

Jennee - you're welcome :)

Jemi - yay Wimbledon! Left - right - left - right, right? ;)

Summer - clearly Blogger must have realized what a superior question it was (or rather, what a superior answer you gave)!

February Grace said...

Ooo, thank you so much! I will treasure the versatile blogger award- have seen that around and do not have it- thank you so much for thinking of me and especially for your kind words about my writing and my blog *squishy hugs*

I will post it soon...hmm. seven things about me eh? Oh boy. I don't think I can outdo coffee jello!!! LOL


I'm really excited too because with the exception of Watery Tart (whom I already adore) I have not yet gotten to check out any of the blogs that you listed- and so I'm looking forward to discovering the voices of the other writer's you've recommended! thank you so much for taking the time to list them all.

sorry for the rambling answer- no coffee yet- I should come with a warning label.

bru

Michelle Gregory said...

thank you and i'll have to check out the other blogs and maybe follow. and yes, sometimes i *do* go into Google Reader and read most of the new posts if they appeal to me. some days, i don't read any of them.

my word verification was rebra. now what does that conjure up? is this a new kind of zebra or are we talking ladies unmentionables?

Karen Jones Gowen said...

It was fun to learn more about you! And I had to LOL at what you said about my blog-- established and professional? Really? I would never have guessed, because I don't think about myself that way. I'm a mass of anxiety and insecurities. I'm glad the giraffe made you feel at home enough to join in! Thanks for the award!!

Cruella Collett said...

Bru - perhaps you need coffee jello? ;) And I am glad that my efforts to link to all these lovely bloggers seem to inspire people to check them out - in my opinion that is an award well spent!

Michelle - rebra! I must admit my mind immediately jumped to underwear (a bra you wear again? But then don't we do that with all of them?), but I definitely wouldn't mind learning about new types of zebras either :)

Karen - oh, but it is! With your great advice and manymany followers - so I'm glad you have that giraffe too :)

Ann said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Congratulations on all the lovely awards. It was great learning about my newest blogging friend! Have a wonderful weekend.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the awards! I am just overwhelmed. :D

I've never smoked a cigarette either, although that's because when I was five, I ate one and got sick. What I WOULD like to try, though, is coffee jello.

Hart Johnson said...

*hugs Mari* Thank you my Burrow sister, for the lovely words in the support portion.

Now: have you considered you will only consider occupations beginning with A but that the things you LOVE mostly start with C. Just an observation that you may want to choose an OCCUPATION you can LOVE: CHILDREN'S author maybe...

Cruella Collett said...

Ann - thank you and likewise. I didn't get to explore your blog as much as I'd like, but I will be back :)

Amanda - well deserved :) I wonder if any of them import stores carry coffee jello..? Mmmmm... (And I actually ate sigarette buds from an ashtray as a kid too. It didn't really affect me much, but it made both my grandparents quuit smoking!)

Tami - aww - thank you too! You've been such a resource for me, and I can only hope to repay you in Viking lessons and digressions some day ;)

And I like the way your mind works. Children's author doesn't sound so bad! (Have you been talking to my WiP??!?)

Amber T. Smith said...

*glomps Mari*

Thanks so much my Digressionary friend! I will definitely check out some of those blogs. When I discover the way to make time pause for an hour or two anyway. *grins*

Haha - word verification is 'mauthi', which to me sounds like 'mouthy', which is what my son was described as being today at his annual review today. *snort* Yup, my boy has turned into that thing we all dread: a teenaged boy. *gulps*

Private said...

Haha! Here it is for the third time; I have something for you on my blog:)

Julie Musil said...

Coffee jello? Huh? I've never heard of that. And I've never taken a puff of a cigarette either. I don't think we're missing much.

Congratulations on the awards!

Cruella Collett said...

Tara - *glomps back* You might need it, with the whole teenage boy things going on at your house... (say hello from me to D and E - ha! That rhymed! [And I totally almost wrote "Say hello to me from D and E!...])

Alexandra - wow, thank you! Eller, tusen takk, som jeg kan si til deg... (Men ingen andre forstår oss! Mwahahaha!)

Julie - I agree, we're not missing out at all. Well, we are missing out the smell, and the coughing, and spending all that money, and the fire hazard - but those are things I can live without ;)

Powdered Toast Man said...

Somehow I don't follow any of those blogs. we must live in different blogospheres cuz I always end up seeing awards given to blogs that I read all the time.

Congrats for you award.
Yay Giraffes!!

Cruella Collett said...

Powdered Toast Man (yay name!) - perhaps we live in parallell blogiverses? Is your blogiverse also run by a king named Nathan Bransford? o_O

Katie Rob said...

Dude! Thanks! This is so cool! I've never gotten an award before!

Yay for exclamation points! They make everything so much more exciting!

Let's try again:

Dude. Thanks. This is so cool. I've never gotten an award before.

See?

Katie Rob said...

PS - I loved your "7 things" - hilarious!

I also used to keep a diary at about 13 that I was 100% sure was going to be published and read by millions when I was a famous artist. It is truly cringe-worthy (and TWEE! SOOOO TWEE!!!). It's funny how everything was the end of the world, and how right my mother was when she said that one day I would look back on those uber-dramatic moments and laugh my ass off.

Dill is pretty good, but cilantro is my favorite!

Unfortunately, I have smoked lots of things, cigarettes and grass (the "other" kind) included. BUT, like you, I have also smoked ACTUAL grass. Gross.

Prince Farming is as of now my favorite phrase ever uttered by anyone anywhere.

Cruella Collett said...

Katie - you're very, very welcome! Your blog has been right up there as one of my absolute favourites ever since I randomly stumbled upon it that glorious day way back in, 1563, wasn't it? It was a very good year.

And I agree! Exclamation points rock! Without them everyone would think I was ironic all the time! Or asking questions? But the exclamation point saves me from both those misjudgements! (?) (!)

Also, I must admit I am fairly happy someone finally commented on Prince Farming. I was ridiculously pleased coming up with that. In retrospect I realize I should have googled it to make sure I really did come up with it. As it turns out, I didn't. It's a BAND! They even have a website (yup - princefarming.com), from which you can listen to their music. It isn't terrible, but the song I am currently at makes me wish they had learned at least one more chord before they recorded an album...

Deb and Barbara said...

Cruella! Deb and I just got back from a girls' weekend away (off of the Canada Day July 1 celebration). We snuck out on Thursday and schedule-posted our Friday blog, hoping no one would notice that we didn't ring in for a bit. And here was your wonderful award just sitting there collecting dust before we could clasp it to our very honoured and choked-up chests and say, "THANK YOU!!!!!" We're sooooo excited and thrilled.

Um, question: as newbies -- is there something we need to do, or do we just pat ourselves on the back and bow to the blogoshphere???

PS love, love your blog too!

xo B

Cruella Collett said...

Deb and Barbara - you thought you could just slip away and nobody would notice? Ha! The blogosphere tracks you down ;) Happy belated Canada Day!

I am no expert on these award thingies myself, but the general rule appears to be to accept it (which you have done); if you like you can put it on the metaphorical mantelpiece (your blog); and then you're generally supposed to pass them on to blogs you like. But a lot of people don't do that. To me the really great thing about the awards is that it has given me a new way of discovering new blogs (awards work as recommendations, after all), so if you know any great blogs you'd like to share, this would be a good opportunity (but the back-patting is important too!)

Anonymous said...

Congrats to everyone on their awards and thank you, Cruella, for mentioning my blog! :D

I'm glad you enjoy my Mental Snacks.

Write on and rock on, everyone!

Cruella Collett said...

Vatche - thank (right back at) you! :)

Deb and Barbara said...

Oh, I'm gonna sound like SUCH a newb -- but how do you "put them on your mantelpiece" and how do you get the icon if you want to pass them on?

sorry to bug you!

PS your post about the US feels bang on from the point of view of this Canadian.

B

Cruella Collett said...

Just in case you check back here before you check your email - I replied by email to that last one :)

Deb and Barbara said...

I didn't get an email. Thankfully I checked back here. Email sounds great.

Did you try this address: radeckirites@gmail.com

Thanks a bunch! B

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