Can I be frank? I’m not fond of rules.
I loved the badges they handed out in Girl Scouts for doing things like embroidering (they looked so cool on your sash) but I hated embroidering. In places like Oregon, I admire how the traffic flows so well with those red-light-green-light on-ramps, but I reject the notion that I have to be told when to merge onto the freeway. (You should see me hoot and holler and sing “Oh Fair New Mexico!” when I run those on-ramp lights.)
And I absolutely cherish receiving blogging awards, but I struggle with the requirement that we link back to the person who thought up the award to begin with (who, in this case, we don’t even know) and then dole out exactly five awards to other bloggers.
So, I am going to rejoice in the fact that QuoinMonkey and I recently received The Superior Scribbler award from Sharon Lippincott (aka ritergal) over at The Heart and Craft of Life Writing—who, by the way, we’ve been following for over two years and who we enjoy immensely—but I’m not going to re-post the rules of the award nor do the linky-link thing nor bestow the award (I hate bestowing anything, unless it is a wart) to five bloggy friends.
(I sure hope this doesn’t land me in Blogger Award Jail, or worse, Blogger Award Solitary Confinement, where no awards are ever bestowed on me again, because, by golly, I’m a poor winner. Dang.)
But in the spirit of doing awards ybonesy-style with a big heap of QM thrown in, we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight fellow bloggers who scribble awfully well and photograph like the dickens and make us laugh and are just plain nice people:
- First, Sharon-slash-ritergal is a Superior Scribbler. She wrote and published the story of her early life in New Mexico (you gotta love that!) and gave a blow-by-blow of how she did the publishing part. And at the end of almost every post, she includes a “Write Now” prompt, motivating readers to not just read her stuff but write their own.
- Bo over at Seeded Earth has inspired us for a couple of years with her photographs, not to mention I got to meet her and Mr. Bo in person (and they are lovely people), but Bo recently redesigned her website, and man, she is rockin’. Role model, friend, fellow lover of nature, all-around wise soul.
- Another photographer, Stevo at Asian Ramblings, wows us with the way he documents his life living as an expat in China, plus he’s a friend on Facebook, which means I get to hear what’s really going on in his head. Kidding.
- If you’ve never visited Jules over at Thinking About…, you have missed some great book and film reviews and a most excellent chicken parmigiana recipe, which, by the way Jules, I made last week and had my family believing that I had been returned from an alien abduction with superior cooking skills. I have since shattered their dream.
- Corina at Wasted Days and Wasted Nights is another person you must visit if you haven’t already. Her posts are often based on memoir, and what memories she has, not to mention she’s about to become a grandmother. And given that I grew up on Freddy Fender, I was hooked the moment I saw her blog title.
- You’ll notice we’re drawn to photographers, which leads us to Robin at Life in the Bogs. Excellent photographer and finder of the perfect quote to go with the photograph (although that’s her other blog–Bountiful Healing) and on Bogs we get to share in Robin’s life and her love of nature, especially her ever-changing pond.
- Heather, Heather, Heather. What can we say about Heather, except, my God, that is one freakin’ funny woman. And she is entering her hour, which is to say, she is the Queen of Hallo-Ween. So if you keep an eye on Anuvue Studio during the month of October, chances are you will see the transformation of her home into a full-blown folks-otta-be-paying-for-this-but-Heather-would-never-make-’em event. Oh, another stellar photographer to boot.
So these are the folks we’d like to shine a light on—today. Visit them, comment, relish, noogie, Snoopy dance, high-five. You won’t be sorry.
Oh, and we will do this again, hopefully not before too long, since there are others we’d like to point out and since ya shouldn’t need an award before it dawns on you that the blogging community you’ve been hanging with for a year, two years, some going on three years now—they’re awfully talented and pretty darned special.
Blog on!
As recommended, I visited all of the blogs and left comments on several. Corina’s post for today messed with another blog I visit regularly. Corina writes so well that it is a pleasure to read her pieces.
Visited Sharon’s blog and left a message. Her post tied in with what I have discovered while writing the pieces on my relationship with my dad. I will be sure to stop by more often.
I enjoyed the photographs on the other websites. I wondered in Stevo knows my cousin in China…of course, I realize that with a few hundred million people in the country that is unlikely.
Thanks for the referral. I can see who I could become glued to my computer visiting every great blog in existence. How do you all allot your blog viewing time?
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I love referrals and have found lots of neat blogs that way. Last year I participated in a day to highlight other bloggers but I haven’t seen another like that. I think it would be neat to do it at least once a month.
Thank you for highlighting my blog! Now I guess I should start posting again. I’ve been in blah blah land this week. It’s pre-Australian-trip distraction, I think. Hopefully I will be able to post while on my trip, even if it’s only pictures. We’ll see. I’m only taking my netbook so I will be limited on what software I have, etc.
I know what you mean about rules. I really dislike them, too. It reminds me of a post I started to write and never finished. I’ll have to dig it up and finish it. Look for it in a day or so. Again, it’s memoir.
Thanks again!
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That’s really nice of you. I’m horrible about returning blogging awards. But doing a general post about your faves is a great idea.
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Thanks for stopping in, Marie. Yeah, maybe I have too jaded a view, but it seems like so many awards are created by someone wanting to generate traffic to their site. So while I truly do appreciate our peers giving us awards, and I love honoring blogging friends, I rebel against doing all the rest of the stuff intended to generate traffic to someone I don’t know.
Corina, hope you get your nonconformer post up. I bet a lot of bloggers are nonconformers. Somethin’ just tells me.
Bob, when we first started, I lost hours and days and weeks doing blogging. I was obsessed with it. But now that I have other obsessions (ART!) I am WAY behind on visiting other blogs.
But there was a time I got to striking a healthy balance between being present to my family and living around me (garden, etc.) and social networking (before I became consumed by my art projects) and the trick was limiting my time on the computer. Visiting other blogs about once a week. That’s doable. And I do it because I enjoy the sense of connectedness.
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Thanks for the mention. BTW, I’d much rather that than a wart, ybonesy. For not getting on of those, I’m very grateful.
As to blogging, you really do have to limit your time. It’s easy to lose a few hours. Once in a while is fine, but I can’t imagine spending hours every night visiting stranger’s blogs.. That said, there are a few I visit regularly, because they’ve turned into blogger-friends. Using an RSS feed helps, you can buzz in and out quickly, and stop whenever you choose.
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ybonesy, I am a fan of blogs & many that you mention are bookmarks for me. I will have to check out the few that I haven’t visited. D
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Wow, thanks for the props, and I’m glad you loved the recipe. It’s a good one, though I think I use about 2x the sauce and cheese they ask for. Hence the extra yumminess. 😉 Did you serve it with pasta or rice? Or polenta? That was my internal battle. I ended up with polenta, but regretted it, as I don’t really much like polenta. Except when I do, because then it’s awesome. But sadly that’s rarely when I make it.
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Jules, I also used much more cheese and sauce. I think the recipe called for a couple of tablespoons, and I was, like, right! I served it on pasta, noodles, and put extra heaping of both cheese and sauce on that, too.
I am not a polenta fan, either, unless, like you, I have it in a place that does it just right. It’s not as easy as it seems.
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Kinda made me smile that I know almost all those peeps.
Yeah, peeps. And they’re all gold stars in their own right.
I never realized Oregon’s red and green light merge thingies weren’t a national phenomenon.
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Thank you so much for the “ybonesy-style with a big heap of QM thrown in” highlighting of my blog. I’m not a big fan of blog awards or the rules, either, so it was nice to be highlighted in this way by people I highly respect. (There’s a lot of “high” in this comment…lol!)
I’m a little sorry (for any new visitors) that my Bogs blog is a bit of a downer right now, but that’s life. Or death, as the case may be.
I’m familiar with some of those you highlighted and I’m looking forward to checking out those who are new to me.
Thanks, YB. 🙂
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By God! I HATE rules too yb! I love to mess with the minds of people who make them up… We should all unite in dotting our t’s and crossing our eyes!
Thank you for the plug Ladies. I bow humbly. I’m late to respond because I am currently building an alien spacecraft in the garage for the mob. The funds may be limited but the spirit of Halloween will always prevail. Moohoohaw! I’ve already begun hearing my team’s yearly motto “It can’t be done!”. Won’t they be surprised when I unleash my new work uniform… complete with Rosie the Riveter T-shirt and glow in the dark pumpkin slippers… to direct what is ALWAYS possible!
I think the coolest thing happening this year is the many neighbors coming by to drop off whatever they think looks “spacey”. The economy has hit us all hard but everyone wants to be a part of something fun for the kids.(Personally, I think the adults get just excited). Whatever it is…it chokes me up. Right now I am testing some weird green curly glowing light next to my elbow and an old 70’s lava lamp is lit up in the kitchen bubbling away. Someone else dropped off a bunch of old gadgets with buttons that light up and are durable enough for the kids to pound on. Command central will be marvelous! No photos have been revealed as yet…oh but never fear!
Here’s my 15 minutes of fame from 2 years ago. I look and sound like a dork…and sadly it wasn’t a costume… But there can be no dispute over the title 😉
http://anuvuestudio.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/the-not-self-appointed-queen-of-halloween/
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