Thursday 15 October 2009

Bar humbug..... Awards tyranny or joy?


The weather is changing,oops that was yesterday on climate change!
But change is in the air, the leaves are turning those fabulous mixture of colours. The sun is shinning but it's getting cold first thing and at dusk.
The sun rises at this time of year, if I'm awake for them, are spectacular outside my bedroom window.
And it is also award season. Or possibly it's award season all the time, but I just deal with them when I've got several I haven't done anything with!! So because last time I had any awards it was just embarrassing, as I'd had them so long I couldn't remember who'd given me what!
This time I know (she said polishing her halo!)
I've been given them by three wonderful women who work hard at maintaining their blogs and what they stand for. I'm pleased to be able to call them my blog friends, and delighted that they think I'm one of their friends to award me.
Trouble is with awards is that they are a pleasure to get and a pain then to have to deal with. Each award has a slightly different citation, which are all really about saying how much we admire someone else's work/ attitude/compassion/ humour.
The rules then about finding 5or7or8or453 recipients then means that depending on the length of your blog roll it just becomes repetitive. And when we then have blogger mates in common the award can be given several times.
So the whole thing ends up being somewhat meaningless, cause lets face it if we didn't like someone's blog we wouldn't bother reading in the first place,unless of course we were Mrs Outraged of Chipping Sodbury who reads shocking blogs just to confirm her narrow view of the world, that it's a dangerous place!!!
Now please don't get me wrong I AM VERY PLEASED to have been given these awards and I'm not at all ungrateful.
But I do feel we have all somehow got hoodwinked into behaving in a certain way over them.
Whether I've just got cynical, and that is because I've been blogging a long time and have a coterie of blog friends, and therefore some security in what I write will be well received, as my friends share some of the same ideals I have.
However if I put myself back to how it felt to first get awards when I first started blogging then it felt very different, it was affirmation then of doing something new and challenging. I had no idea I could write and getting them was a colossal boost to my self esteem.
So maybe blog awards should only be given to new bloggers to encourage them, and us old hands should sit back and smile indulgently at the youngsters efforts!!!
That said, by not dealing with what someone has given you is also ungrateful. They may have given it because they are a huge fun of your writing, and not just because they've got to get rid of these bloody things somehow!!!
Below are my three awards and I would like to thank nitebyrd, angela r and lori, for their generosity in giving them to me.
I on the other hand am now refusing to hand them on, I don't want to name 435 people or even say if you read me then you deserve an award.
If you read me you do it because you like my stuff and be assured that I read you cause I think you are wonderful. As I by nature I'm not very tolerant of fools, so if your get read by me it's because I consider you to be no fool.
I know this is going to sound very bar humbug spoilsportish, but I'm fed up with the tyranny of awards. Either cause I get them, and have to deal with them. Or even worse when I don't get them and I hook into not being good enough. Neither place is one I want to be in if it's all the same to you.
But I mustn't be too churlish, so here are my awards and instead of you getting them I'll just dedicate the bunch of flowers to you all, cause I truly do think your fab and I'd be lost without you



The deliciously naughty nitebyrd deemed me worthy of this award.


The wonderfully artistic Angela Recada handed this one over to me




This award was givwn me by the wonderful Lori, and the condition of recieving it was to supply this list of one word answers

1.Where is your cell phone? pocket

2. Your hair? short

3. Your mother? dead

4. Your father? dead

5. Your favorite food? toast

6. Your dream last night? unknown

7. Your favorite drink? champagne

8. Your dream/goal? contentment

9. What room are you in? living

10. Your hobby? writing

11. Your fear? loneliness

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? seaside

13. Where were you last night? here :)

14. Something that you aren't? mean

15. Muffins? ugh!

16. Wish list item? strength

17. Where did you grow up? Staffordshire

18. Last thing you did? sleep

19. What are you wearing? dressing gown

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your pets? Trix!

22. Friends? many

23. Your life? BLESSED

24. Your mood? curious

25. Missing someone? sons

26. Vehicle? MX5

27. Something you're not wearing? shoe

28. Your favorite store? Marks&Spencers

29. Your favorite color? green

30. When was the last time you laughed? yesterday

31. Last time you cried? monthago

32. Your best friend? eve

33. One place that I go to over and over? devon

34. One person who emails me regularly? gelipaulalindanickymax

35. Favorite place to eat? home

8 comments:

Paula said...

I agree wholeheartedly about the awards and the rest too. My German thoughts in your perfect English ;-)))

Miss Robyn said...

awards cause me angst. sometimes they make me feel left out, like a little girl in the school playground.. and I refuse to pass them on in fear of doing the same thing to another blogger.. your words make 100% sense..

Mel said...

I'm still amazed that anyone bothers to read my gibberish. LOL When some award gets put to it--I'm just flabberghasted..and humbled.

But I do so agree that they're very encouraging to the newcomers of the blogworld.
Any newbies out there we can hand them to--we oughta hand 'em to.

<-- oldfart.....LOL I don't qualify! ;-)

Lori ann said...

:) You are not being churlish (fun word)you are right! i've done the same as you Mandy, accepted(gratefully) and then forgotton about them. I only passed this one on because it had the fun one word meme (i like yours!)to those that i thought would like to play.Did you miss the second award that I gave you? (which you don't have to do anything with!) Maybe we could just say thank you very much and then leave it at that?
it works for me. :)

speck of dust said...

Ha ha, you're so funny. Well done on getting the awards :)

Chris Ford said...

Churlish you're not. The whole award thing is flimsy and fills people who aren't maybe that good with a self importance. The blogroll idea fills the same purpose. I reel away from the blog that I find with a whole page of 'awards' and links, but DO keep coming back to the ones with good writing and interesting comment.
Hope your foot is on the mend.x

angela recada said...

I agree with you about the whole issue of awards. I want to acknowledge the person who made a point of giving it to me, but I'd rather not play the game. I guess I'm "no fun."
:0)

Sorrow said...

The curse of the awards,
you put it succinctly with your usual panache!
LOL
(((HUGS))))