Reciprocation

Is this better than a baby photo?

A blog award is a funny bird.

On the one hand, it's wonderful to be recognized. It's a ego boost and proof that at least one person out there actually reads the words you put down and doesn't just skip to the cute photos of your baby, or worse, a dead British phone booth. (If you click on that link right there, you have to promise you'll read the post, not just look at the pictures.)

On the other hand, most blog awards are merely chain letters that beg to be broken. At least the blog awards don't come with a dire warming of doom that if you don't follow the directions and do exactly as they say within 48 hours the Rapture will ensue and you won't be invited. Still, I can't bring myself to ignore them entirely. Chanel at Fabulously Neurotic, has repeatedly made mention of my blog and she has recently urged the bloggerverse to pay it forward.

So I will. But I will only follow some of the rules. And FYI, I now have a whole page where I will post any awards (like I'll ever get another after this) under the Awards Mantle tab up above. I'll also include my EGOT awards there when they arrive.

So Chanel--did I mention her blog Fabulously Neurotic?--has wacky adventures every week that she shares through her wonderful way with words. You should go there.

Sometime during the past several weeks, she has proferred the following:

This one has rules that I will follow in part. I'm not sure what it takes to get this award except to be so interesting that the giver just can't wait to hear more about you. Thus, I will tell you 7 facts, as the award itself states. Perhaps it should be called 7 Secret Admissions instead.

Fact 1: I take pleasure in mowing the lawn. I think it's the smell. Not the mower exhaust. The fresh cut grass.

Straight-shootin sci-fi.

Fact 2: I own nearly 3600 albums, over 3000 on CD.

Fact 3: I only hop on the treadmill to run so that I can watch a television series from the beginning without interruption. Right now it's Battlestar Galactica.

Fact 4: I prefer breakfast food. My favorite is cooking my own tortillas (not from scratch; they come in a package, but uncooked) for breakfast burritos. With bacon or sausage. Or both.

Straight-edge punk rock.

Fact 5: I enjoy folding laundry. Kind of a zen thing.

Fact 6: I just received in the mail the old Dag Nasty album Can I Say for, like, 22 cents, plus shipping and handling.

Fact 7: I was the hopscotch champion in second grade. Except that I wasn't. I came in second, but told my parents I won. They bought me a new rubber throwing disc that was all the rage at the time. The Pogs of the mid-seventies.

Chanel also awarded me  this darling decoration:

I'll just let you sit back and ponder why my blog is particularly lovely. There are no rules here, so this award will probably just sit and fester.

Then a couple of weeks ago Bryan at Notes from the Night Owl  invented a blog award that celebrates individual posts within someone's blog. I like this idea because it's much more than a chain letter that you pass on just for the sake of passing on. It recognizes distinct, specific efforts, which gives me a real reason for passing it on.

Bryan called this The Classic Post Award and offered it up for my post "Turn and Face the Strange."

And Chanel, in her eternal benevolence, has paid her Classic Post forward by granting me The Classic Post Award for my post "Baby's Day Out." You may go read those now if you haven't before.

So this is me paying it forward. I hereby bequeath The Classic Post Award to the following posts from blogs you all should be reading and following.

From  Notes from the Night Owl, the post "School's Out" is a nostaligic trip through the old neighborhood in all of us. This is the first post from his new-ish blog (he has two others), where he discusses memories or experiences from his childhood, mostly. His prowess with a descriptive passage is to be envied.

From Cynicism 101, the post "Optimism 101. What the what ?!?!" is the rare opportunity where Dr. Cynicism lets go of the pessimism for a day and his evil twin Dr. Optimism takes over. It's funny if you get what cynicism is all about.

From Fabulously Neurotic, the post "Apparently they've changed the definition of 'Comedy'" is Chanel's innocent, genuine surprise at the ending of the movie Marley and Me. This displays her personality and writing in the best way.

From Moody Writing, the post "Don't Overstuff Your Verbs--Unpack" is another one of Mooderino's writing tutorials. He's got so much great writing advice over there that is was hard to pick just one post, so go read his blog. Plus, he does a great close analysis of texts like Hunger Games and Fight Club.

From Notice Your World, the post "Hot Dog" shows off another of Charlie's stories of growing up in his family. He also includes homemade cartoons to illustrate his epic tales and the pictures in this post are pretty hilarious. It's all in the details.

Five is a good number for now. There are certainly many other bloggers that deserve this recognition, but these are the five that came to mind today. I don't think there were any explicit rules about passing on this award, so I will probably come back to it and give five more away when I feel like it.

Thanks for playing along.