Everything is new to a puppy.
It’s time to clear out some backblog, er, blacklung, a-HEM, backlog on the blog. I got nominated for two “awards” last week. Yeah, these kinds of awards are not AWARD awards, like Oscars or Emmys. These are “Gimmes”. Bloggers pass them around as a form of networking, which is fine as long as you realize it’s self-congratulatory. I do like reading people’s “award” acceptance posts because they list other blogs they like to read, and sometimes I end up liking those blogs too. I’m a big fan of anyone who is trying hard to put coherent sentences together. It’s a dying art. If you don’t think so, try comparing income statistics for those with degrees in English and those with an MBA or IT certification.
My real life is quite full at the moment with the training of our new guide-dog-puppy, the classes I must finish to renew my Radiologic Technologist license, and my on-call work at the Urgent Care clinic. You’ll have to forgive me for rushing through my answers, revealing personal data, recommending other blogs blah-blah-blah, so we can all get a good sleep and keep moving forward.
The Versatile Blogger nomination is appropriate, because versatile really means you can’t stick to one subject, and I can’t. I’m all over the map, as my regular readers know. My long-term strategy is to survive long enough to investigate all 15,000 topics I’m interested in. Kymlee (http://kymleemurphy.wordpress.com/) granted me this boon, for which I thank her here as I did at her own site. I’m supposed to reveal 7 things you probably don’t know about me. Nobody said they have to be important things. Some are. Some aren’t. You decide.
- I never get jealous.
- I am, however, sometimes envious. I’m working on it.
- I am not able to touch-type without looking at the keyboard.
- I am able to play guitar without looking at the fret board, which is much harder than typing. Hmmm…
- Though I love Broadway Musicals and show tunes from 1920-1976, and know many songs and shows by heart, I have zero appreciation for anything written since then. The appeal of Glee is therefore a total mystery to me.
- I hate shaving my chin whiskers. I have kept jobs I disliked solely because they had no problem with me having a goatee.
- Sometimes I believe in God, and sometimes I don’t. This is a contradiction with which I am comfortable, and with which I believe God (if existent) is also comfortable. It’s only other people that sometimes have problems with it, and it’s none of their business.
I’m also supposed to give shout-outs to other blogs I currently read. My perennial favorites are right there on my Blogroll, complete with mini-reviews. I subscribe to many others, and sometimes read additional ones. Here are some of my newer sources of delight:
The Brown Road Chronicles (http://brownroadchronicles.wordpress.com/). Steve and his family live in rural Michigan. Living rurally is different than living in cities, both physically and philosophically. This is a good place to explore that difference.
Anna at the Insanity Aquarium (http://insanityaquarium.wordpress.com/) writes great little short story gems replete with black humor and a neatly raised eyebrow.
Debbie Hampton at The Best Brain Possible (http://www.thebestbrainpossible.com/) is her own grand experiment. She tried to kill herself and failed, and now lives with less brain tissue than she had before. Having re-dedicated herself to living, she’s focused on all topics related to brain-building and full functionality.
Jaye (http://jgavinallan.wordpress.com/) is a Bru woman, part of a tribe of indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia who now number fewer than 130,000. She writes in a spirit voice from forests and jungles, but she walks with this consciousness through modern cities. She thinks she is an unsuccessful writer. I disagree.
How can you not love Momfog? (http://momfog.com/) I already liked reading her light, humorous articles on aspects of family life, and then her house burned down. In writing about how her community helped them rebuild, and how the experience validated their values and brought them comfort through the struggle, she also became someone I admire.
Day after day after day, Paul Johnson, aka The Good Greatsby (http://thegoodgreatsby.com/) cranks out the funny. He does this on top of having a family, some sort of job or other, and performing in plays in foreign festivals. He’s 10/10 on the quality scale 88.4% of the time, and not at all bad the rest. That is an amazing output. (I suspect he has hostages from the writing staff of The Simpsons in his basement.) Paul, why aren’t you out there making TV better for the rest of us?
Finally, Sara, who calls herself the Medieval Maiden (http://midaevalmaiden.wordpress.com/) has shown a great character arc as a blogger. She and I share a dream of trying to harness the force of legends and ancient wisdom in order to restore warmth to a cold, modern world.
Part one is done.
We move toward
a door ajar, a new award.
And though you know my poetry stinks,
I pray you, stay for “7 Links”.
Invisible Mikey 
Mikey, gee thanks for passing me the baton, but is there some subliminal meaning as to why the link to my blog does not work? 🙂
I have never been called a grand experiment, but I guess I am and proud of it and much better for it. I like it!
I am the same about having to look at the keyboard. I never was a very good typist before the brain injury, but, now, it is much worse. Think, the claw. BUT….I am just damn glad that I can type. There was a time I could not.
I hear ya on the God thing. I have a problem with the whole idea of an entity. I think it is mostly semantics. I prefer to substitute “universe.”
Thanks for sharing your unique quirks and the other bloggers. Will check them out.
You’re quite welcome, my dear. Beats me why the link doesn’t work for you. It does from my own computer. You’ll have to ask someone with an IT cert. I only have credentials related to the word-writing part.
We are all our own experiments, but I do think yours is a cut above, hence “grand”.
It does work, but, for some reason it is not blue ??? Sorry, the visual threw me!
Sometimes the links are blue, sometimes they aren’t. It has something to do with whether or not they’ve been clicked on by you while currently on the page. Perhaps if you quit the browser, or reboot the page, it will turn blue again. Or perhaps I blew it when I put the link there 😉
love the dog the links work for me no trouble have a great week xxjen
Lila’s changing every day, but she hardly ever sits still long enough for a photo to come out sharp. The tiny objects in the center she’s staring at were the first deer she had seen. Thanks, Jen.
yay! I love reading little tidbits about my friends out here in the blogosphere. 🙂 these gimmie awards are fantastic aren’t they 🙂 one more thing to write about! hehe ♥
They are pretty fun, I agree!
That’s very interestering. I’ve never heard of a gimmie award… but then again, I haven’t been around for long.
Puppies are cute.
Now, I’m new here and I wish I had something useful to contribute with but a little hi will have to do for now.
So… Hi, Mikey and co!
Anyone polite who doesn’t try to sell things here is always welcome , Sol. A “hello” from far away is a contribution, so I thank you.
(Sol Vaadal is a young psychic in Norway I believe, though her English is perfect. Other countries understand the value of teaching multiple languages to children better than mine does.)
I smiled at your #7. “Well spoke, old mole!”
Thank you, brother.
This award was surely named in your honor! I got a good chuckle at your entire post. If I had known you would write such an entertaining acceptance post, I would have passed along other awards to you!! If I ever get another one, you are at the top of the list!
Thanks so much! Now I have had 5 people give me this ‘award’, so I might have to actually do one of these myself at some point… and also bake some kind of celebratory cake… ‘cus any excuse for cake is a good excuse.
And I now seriously want ‘I’m a big fan of anyone who is trying hard to put coherent sentences together’ put on a t-shirt, because that line is just fantastic and had me applauding! It’s a good job nobody saw me do that…
Heh, heh. Indeed, if someone sees you being uninhibitedly joyful it might blow your “dark” cover. I’ll watch myself in future.
You’re just so funny, Mike!
I like this —>If you don’t think so, try comparing income statistics for those with degrees in English and those with an MBA or IT certification.
Amazing, you never get jealous. You could probably turn that into an e-course for the rest of us.
Lots of love!
I really don’t understand the lack of jealousy thing, so I presume it must have been a gift. I sometimes wish momentarily that I had some things or advantages others have, but now that I generally have “enough” – enough food, time, energy, health, space, comfort, love, fulfilling work & enough money for our small level of costs, the envy dissipates rapidly.
I do like laughing, and learned a lot about how to be funny from my Mother. Thanks, Sandra.
I’d like to be in charge of making TV better but nobody has offered me this job yet. Where do I apply? I should mention I won’t be able to work on making TV better during any of the hours when my TV is working.
You are good enough to crank out a couple of “spec” scripts and send them to half-hour comedy shows you like. Lower-rated shows sometimes read unsolicited scripts, and many agencies representing new writers do as well. You already have that constant output habit. My pal, Larry Brody, began selling scripts as a college student, and he ended up writing everything from cop shows to movies to animation. You might check out his site for advice: http://www.tvwriter.com/
Just to let you know… your website looks extremely strange in Mozilla on a Mac
Just to let YOU know, Mozilla isn’t a browser. It’s a company that makes Firefox, which, by the way, I compose and post the blog using – on a Mac. Sorry about your “viewing problem” though. (I get all kinds of spam.)
You’ve gots to give them credit for trying though, haven’t you? Well batted, sir.
Cheers, Pie 😉
Great data, several thanks for the author.
You’re welcome. Drop by anytime, Edmond.
I totally love your photo and blog. Thanks for all the great blogs to read.
Thanks, PM. There’s even more of them in Part Two!
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