Friday, January 30, 2009

Premio Dardos Award

Premio Dardos Award image. Image believed to be in the public domain. Origin unknown.
Dear Gentle Reader,

Last week I received an award from Barbara Martin.

The Premio Dardos award, Barbara told me, is for the appreciation of merits—cultural, literary and individual—of every blogger who expresses him/herself on his/her blog.

I was tickled pink and I replicated the very interesting selection that Barbara had made, on my blog.

I remained tickled pink. 

And I wanted to share that feeling.

After careful thought, I would like to nominate the following 14 blogs for this award, because it seems like a fun idea, and because they are all worth it:

1. OxyJen - OxyJen is currently on a Haiku binge rather than writing, which she alleges she will do soon. Or a koala will get her. (?) Of course, your humble scribe is still waiting for the European trip report that was promised a (long) while ago...

2. Comfort Spiral  - Cloudia takes us to explore her diverse Hawaii, through her prose and through her pictures, too. Cloudia starts every day with an eclectic and thought-provoking collection of  quotes. Any one of these three components makes the visit worthwhile.

3. Lifetime Learnings - Junosmom in Kentucky is a near-daily updater and quietly offers her perspectives on the world, along with prose snapshots of her world. Concise, clean, and wittier than any webcam.

4. Strikkepinner og andre pinner... (Knitting and some more) - Bea from Norway writes super small blogs on her world in Norwegian and English. She invents great designs for her knitting (your humble scribe is in love with her monster patterns) and is currently on a mission to satisfy foot fetishists around the web (meant tongue-in-cheek, Bea.)

5. The Tainted Archive - I discovered Archavist recently. He writes about writing genres that are not my genres, and he writes very well, and draws me in. He also conducts an excellent interview and has acted in Dr. Who. 'Nuff said; talented guy.

6. Pattinase - Pattinase writes well on an interesting collection of topics. Pattinase has mastered brevity, with content, in a way that I doubt I ever shall. She also attracts readers that leaver longer messages and appear to have short conversations with each other. That takes a special knack. Finally, she wrote the blog I sent you too last week when I found out I had received this award.

7. Volatile Rune - Another recent discovery, Frances is a poet, a copywriter and a hoarder of books. Need I say more? Well, she possesses a wry wit and both a deft ability and agility with English. I have just started perusing her archives; so far so very good.

8. Pics and Poems - David King is a retired teacher who has given a lot of thought to words in his life. I was convinced he was an Anglican or Roman Catholic priest, for some reason, mostly his erudite eloquence that normally comes from years of making presentations. His posts are not that lengthy, but they sometimes require time to read and to digest. Always a nice visit. 

9. Abrideira - Is from Spain and write micro-posts in Spanish. But what you visit for are the pictures of unusual industrial design, and design art, that she finds and purveys at no cost but your time. 

10. Mind the Gap please - Audrey is a young French woman who is studying and living in London, and falling in love with the city. She does not post often, but her quirky photos of what entrance her, and her descriptions of London life (in French) remind me strongly of discovering new cities and new loves and new cultures ... and of youth. A treat, for your humble scribe at least.

11. Nidosenlamiel - Pica Miel is from Argentina and this little Honey writes a plethora of blogs in Spanish. Your humble scribe's Spanish is really Latin crossed with French, and google translate is really not that useful when people play with language and write poetry. But I persevere as I am usually amply rewarded.

12. Patchwork Quilt - Lorie from Massachusetts updates when the mood strikes her. And she has a fine eye for composition and detail for her artwork and her perspectives which she shares when she does update. So, she is an occasional read, and well worth the wait.

13. Stix and String - Heidelweiss at Stix and String out of Utah does not believe in awards. Which is fine. And she proclaims that she does not post frequently, which is true, although there is no pretense about her posts when they come. But you really want her to visit you; if she returns, she leaves stellar comments on a regular basis. It is always a treat to see what she leaves behind after a visit.

14. EyeCandy - Candace is creative, funky, and fun. She does great things over on her blog and I like popping by to see what is what in her world. Her blog lives up to, and exceeds, her title. 

There you go. Lucky 14. One more than 13, which has been unlucky ever since the Bartholomew Day Massacre on Friday, 13 October, 1307. And one less than 15, so I am surely breaking any chain-letter pretensions of the award...

Nominees, there is absolutely no need to send out further nominations or do anything except bask in the glow of appreciation because I wanted to say thank you to some bloggers whose work I enjoy. 

I bet a third of you do not even know I exist, which is totally fine with me.

For legalistic propriety, the rules for acceptance, which I feel morally bound to replicate (but not follow), are:

1. be tickled pink;
2. copy and paste the award picture to your blog;
3. write down the regulations;
4. link to the blog who bestowed you the Award; and, finally,
5. nominate 15 blogs for the Award.

The perceptive and sensitive reader (
Barbara Martin!) who nominated me states that she generally does not pass awards on to others as there have been comments that the awards are like chain mail letters. (Flexible yet heavy and hard to write upon?) 

So instead of passing the award onto 15 nominees, Barbara chose 11.

Yes, the logic is a bit scanty, but it was my first award on the web... 

Who am I to quibble? 

Me, I have chosen 14 including e-people whom I have just encountered, e-people who do not know I exist, and e-people whom I know dislike awards.

I am contrarian. 

As mentioned, I initially chose zero new people and replicated Barbara's list because it was populated with such nice people (I feel a tremendous affection and affinity to two utterly new discoveries via Barbara; Raph's Ramblings and Bindu's Transient Lives). 

From my perspective, this is another way to say thanks.

Thank you all for (e-)enriching the web.


Tschuess,
Chris

Postscript: 

For those in the mood to play along, I was tagged by EyeCandy's Candace in the "six things meme game" and responded yesterday. You could consider yourselves tagged too, if you wanted to play. By you, that means you, Gentle Reader...

16 comments:

Barbara Martin said...

It's nice to see that you passed the award onto others whom you have encountered over the blogosphere. I'm off to visit your new friends.

jjdebenedictis said...

Guilt! Guilt assaulting me from all sides! First a dig about my haiku-hooliganism, then a solid kick in the missing trip report; argh! Argh! *reels* I had no idea receiving awards was so painful.

:-D Thanks very much, Chris! it was very sweet of you to nominate me. I don't think I'll be passing the award along, but I did enjoy reading your links. I will post a thank you to you on my blog also.

*huggles*
OxyJen

pattinase (abbott) said...

What dear friends we make on this wonderful blogosphere.

Candace said...

Wowzer. Thanks, Chris. I'll figure out something to do with it, I'm quite sure. Have a great weekend and I hope you are better soon.

Cloudia said...

Thanks CHRIS and right back at you!
One niggling point: The pictures are all taken by me unless credited to neighbor Ted.
I'm just blown away by the quality folks I've met through blogging these few months! Aloha-
Thank Again, Bruddah!

Sepiru Chris said...

OK, I am up twice today. This might put me down for the count...

Barbara,

They are an eclectic group, I hope you enjoy some of them. And thank you again for award in the first place. I really was (and am) tickled pink.

Oxyjen,

*big grin* Yes, awards can be painful... this is the (e-)equivalent of having an award pinned to you, through more than just the fabric...

And no need to do anything other than be thanked.

Pattinase,

Funny place, this.

Candace,

Well, if you earn something, you have to be prepared to receive your wages, such as I can pay them... And you certainly earn more than your keep.

Cloudia,

It has been fixed, both on the page and in my consciousness. For some reason I just assumed that floating neighbour Ted (who I previously assumed was a vegetarian and not a neighbour...) did all the pictures.

So sorry to not give full credit where credit was due.

Ooh. And of course, when I think of Miss Kitty peering in the porthole, or the foliage peeking in the concrete hole, I can identify your style, not just visually, but from your literary perspective as well.

Tschüss all (I am back to bed for the day. [The weekend?]),
Chris

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Thank you very much.

Sarf's Travels. said...

Well Sis at OxyJen said to come tell you a few interesting things that you might not know, and since I live in Iceland. I figured there might be a bunch of stuff that you don't know about here.

* Iceland gets all of it's electricity from hydro and Geo thermal - Probably knew that.

* Reykjavik has a lot of hot water from the Geo stations. So they heat the sidewalks in winter.

* Reykjavik Uses the hot water to heat the lake by city hall to let the birds stay there all winter.

* Hot water comes into your house as a utility like cold water does in Canada. So you can have the unique experience of getting in the shower and there being no cold water. It was a surprise the first time it happened to me < ouch >

* Reykjavik rarely gets below -5C during the winter which makes it warmer than my home town of Edmonton Alberta.

* There is a national breeding week in Iceland (un offically) but it is the two weeks that it is legal to have sex outdoors :) and there is a big party in the west man isles that week. Nine months latter there is a statistical increase in the number of babies born...

* Iceland was occupied by the Germans in WWII and then by the Americans/ British both without a shot being fired.

* Iceland has the longest running democracy 800 years. The "Alþingi" (English: Althing) parliament was a meeting of the Icelandic chiefs each summer in Thinkiervillr, where the chiefs meet to trade, judge crimes, and solve inter tribe problems.

* When Iceland separated from Denmark at the end of WWII 90% of the country population went to Thinkirviller for the Reformation. But only 30% of the population showed up to celebrate 1000 of Christianity, for a country that claims 80% christian.

Well there you go some interesting things about Iceland.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Chris!! :D

I better make you some of those Monster mitts now, don't I? You might not need them in Hong Kong, but you'll just have to travel somewhere cold next time.. ;)

Hope you feel better soon!!

(and I did get a bit worried over at Flickr when some guy started to favorite my bare naked feet.. LOL)

Candace said...

AND I will be doin' these here shenanigans this weekend AFTER the Super Bowl -- no, I won't be watching the Bowl. Instead, I will be scraping together my last vestiges of sanity before earnings season (aka busy season) really hits me here.
A dinner out, a walk with the Girls (a greyt and a standard Collie), some light reading, a movie... and then Monday A.M., I turn My soul over to Mr. Moth (my nephew's name from anyone with Mephistophelean leanings).
In the meantime, WOWser. What blogs you've introduced me to! Thanks, pal.
Your Correspondent in Athens

Abrideira said...

Thanks you very much, Chris!

From Abrideira with love! ;-)

bindu said...

I have 14 more blogs to explore now! And thanks again for mentioning me (I'm tickled pink again! :)).

Raph G. Neckmann said...

These look most interesting, Sepiru Chris! I shall enjoy working through the 14 over the next few days.

Chain mail letters - I love the image you conjure up! (I've always had a fascination with historical costume - once made a tunic out of beaten copper discs sewn onto woollen fabric. It looked rather cool in a neccentric way, but the weight made it somewhat uncomfortable. How did those ancient warriors ever stand up?!)

Thank you so much for your mention and link - 'tremendous affection and affinity' - I am honoured!

Sepiru Chris said...

Archavist,

You are more than welcome, with writing like yours you really bring this sort of praise onto yourself.


Sarf's Travels,

Wow, and I thought your home town was "V******(unidentifying number of stars".

I never would have guessed that -5°C was the downward limit in Iceland... And heated sidewalks... No wonder they have time to have so many bands.

So many wonderful facts, Sarf... it is a real loss that we moved to Hong Kong and could not come visit you with Sis (yours) and her EH as part of their European tour.

Thank you very much for all your information. I have enjoyed my sporadic visits to your site, via OxyJen, in the past. I resolve to visit more often.


Bea,

I was wondering if that (the foot fetish followers) was going to happen; I am always amazed at some of the search requests that pull me in--and what people are apparently looking for. I mean, really, who looks for "cuneiform pornography" anyway?

A visit to a cold place would be demanded if I had such a magnificent mitts, and a place populated with monsters. But that is not the point of nominating you, Bea.

You have a great sense of vitality that bubbles off the screen when I visit.

It deserves to be shared ...or it will slosh all over the floor and cause me problems with my landlord.


Candace,

If you really turn your soul to Mephistopheles, you are meant to have a Poodle (ein Pudel), like Faust.

(I have always wondered if this is where poodles get their bad reputation from... and then I meet poodles...)

While your creations and apparently inexhaustible energy are enough, prima facie, to forgive people who think you must have made a deal with the devil, I don't believe it. No, not for an instant.

Let the mothman mythmaking be, his chronicles don't concern thee.

You create eyecandy.


Abrideira,

You are very welcome. Really, it is you who must be thanked for finding such unusual things, so often, and for sharing them.


Bindu,

Well, I am tickled pink to have discovered a kindred traveling soul. (If you are still pink, breathe... slowly... there, there...)


Raph,

Squires did the heavy lifting, warriors just swung.

I have always enjoyed costumes as well, Raph.

What type of collar did your tunic have?

Right now I am trying to imagine how a Peter Pan collar (not really appropriate for armour, I know) would look on you or Maureen. And I am trying to imagine its proportions for the giraffe's elegant neck...

Raph, I have finally realized that you must take all the photos on your site, because they all are so perfectly matched to your content.

You also ought to know that there is a peculiar chromatic distortion caused, I assume, by their passage through the telescope. They all look like drawings.

Of course, that would mean that somebody spends heaps and heaps of time on their blog posts, and a busy entrepreneur and travel leader like yourself... ...it couldn't be humanly possible, but then who knows what the constraints are for giraffes? Not I.

Tschüss all,
Chris

Raph G. Neckmann said...

The constraints, Sepiru Chris? Not much sleep! (Wild giraffes sleep only for short naps, standing up. Blogging giraffes snooze occasionally in front of the screen, telescope, paintbrush or camera).

My tunic didn't have a collar - I confess to having been lazy when it came to the sewing - I just cut a hole and didn't even hem the edge!

Speaking of armour and collars, I must introduce our local historian Trachelus Aplombus to the blogosphere soon ...

Sarf's Travels. said...

Thanks for the kind comments, Sporadic visits works good, it matches the frequency that i post new stuff :)

Here is one more factoid,

Icelandic doesn't have the letter C in there alphabet.

Takk (thanks in Icelandic)