The Versatile Blogger Award

It’s Award Week here on the blog. Last week I was nominated for the Kreativ Blogger Award.  On December 28, Judy of jayjaysfavorites blog nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

Before I go any further, I want to say a word or two about blogger awards in general.  There’s a certain segment of the blogosphere–perhaps a demographic of significant size–that views these awards with a bit of a jaundiced eye and appears to want no part of them.  This perspective views the awards cynically; many of  them come with “rules” that “require” the recipient to pass the award along to six or ten or 15 other bloggers, and the sense is that, over time, the entire process becomes watered down.  There also is a belief that, ultimately, recipients don’t spend any time thinking about who the next set of award winners ought to be and, as a result, the significance of the award is lost.

I’m sure there’s more than a kernel of truth to this, but I have no reason to believe it describes the majority of the people who receive and bequeath these awards.  I think most people accept them graciously and really do consider which blogs they choose to recognize in turn.  On balance, I think these awards are a good thing; I think they provide exposure to worthy blog efforts by making more people aware of talented bloggers than would otherwise be the case.

And so, I sincerely thank Judy for presenting me with the Versatile Blogger Award.  I’ve checked out the other blogs that Judy chose to recognize and I have no doubt at all that great consideration was made on her part in determining her selections.  That my blog was included is a humbling, but gratifying, experience.  Be sure to check out Judy’s blog–it’s well worth your time.

 The Rules

These are the rules that every nominee must comply with:

1. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs you enjoy reading.
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

#1 has been taken care of above.

#2…this is kind of tough because I just went through a version of this exercise the last time around, but here are seven more things about me.

• For the last eight-plus years I’ve split my time more or less evenly between the Chicago and Indianapolis areas, traveling back and forth roughly every two weeks.  (I have family obligations in both places.)
• I hold degrees from the University of Michigan (B.A., political science) and University of Chicago (M.A., statistics and social science research methodology).
• I’ve had the opportunity to play baseball at Camden Yards in Baltimore, home of the Baltimore Orioles major league baseball team
• I’ve read Shelby Foote’s 2500-odd page trilogy, The Civil War: A Narrative, about the American Civil War, twice.
• My favorite novel is Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
• My master’s thesis was entitled “The Nature of Ideology and Partisanship Among American College Students” and was based, in part, on a 200-person survey that I designed, implemented and analyzed.
• I don’t gamble on anything, ever.  Part of this is because I don’t have the stomach for it and part of it is that my extensive background in probability theory allows me to really understand games of chance (and they’re essentially all rigged in favor of the house).

#3…the 15 bloggers I’m nominating for the award…well, rules were made to be broken, right?  I’m only nominating nine other bloggers.  Don’t like it?  Tell it to the judge. 🙂

1. Victoria of Victoria A Photography Blog is located in Melbourne, Australia and posts marvelous images from the Melbourne Zoo (and other spots around the area).  Check it out, you won’t regret it.
2. Jennifer Triplett of An Artist’s Eye at Treebranchdesign Blog posts remarkably creative, eye-catching material day after day.  No two posts are alike.
3. Naomi Wittlin of the Poetic Aperture Blog epitomizes what the Versatile Blogger Award is all about; take a look and see what I mean for yourself.  Always well-written, always insightful.
4. Anne Camille of the Four Deer Oak Blog consistently posts well-written entries filled with interesting images.  Lately there has been a plethora of well-seen close-ups and intimates.  I encourage you to take a long look.
5. Malcom Newell of PhotoLancaster Blog is based just south of England’s Lake District and routinely posts excellent imagery of many different genres with the occasional poem tossed in for good measure.  Again, the essence of versatility.
6. If artistic versatility is your thing you owe it to yourself to check out the blog of James Brandon O’Shea.  Poetry, prose, photography, sketching…James does it all and he does it all very well.
7. Scott Brill of the Pieces of Me and Other Sundry Things Blog never ceases to post thought-provoking entries–sometimes prose, sometimes imagery, sometimes a combination of the two.
8. Paprika is the pseudonymous blogger at Paprika-no-Yume and is virtually bubbling over with multifaceted creativity.
9. Lynn Emberg Purse of Composer in the Garden Blog fits the “versatile” description, cubed.  Composer, singer, musician, photographer, writer, gardener…there are probably three or four things I’m leaving out.  Experience the wealth of brilliant original material from a variety of media on her blog; you won’t be sorry.