Saturday, February 25, 2012

Did You Mean "Lobster?"

I received a wonderful compliment this week. The fabulously funny Tracie over at Crack You Whip gave me a blogging award. Tracie is a published children's book author. Noticed that I put the word published in italics. I did that to draw attention to the published part. I am not assuming my readers are stupid and do not know what italics are for (unless you really don't know, then maybe you are), I just intend make this part very clear. I won this award from a PUBLISHED (see what I did there, capitalized and bold that time) author. It was not just thrown at me by some goober that happens to know how to use the internet. This means I am recognized by the literary world. They're going to start sending me checks any time now.

For those of you who don't believe me, I can prove it.
Here it is.   See.   I can do stuff.
I have seen this award floating around the blogosphere, but never knew what it was for. Mainly because I did not know what a Liebster was. I won the Versatile Blog Award from Brandi Boddie at Penning Praises a few months ago. I knew what that one was for since I know what a versatile is, but I had to turn to Google for the meaning of this one. Liebster is actually a German word that translates to "dearest" or "favorite" in English. Now I really feel special.

This is not to be confused with CRACK YOUR WHIP
which focuses on professional bullwhip competitions.
Not as exciting as it sounds.
In order to properly accept this award, I have to follow a few rules. First, I have to link back to the person who gave it to me. As I stated earlier, the Liebster was passed on to me by Crack You Whip. Pay her a visit if you are not already familiar with her blog. It is well worth the trip. Believe it or not, she draws those illustrations herself. Seriously, go check it out.

Second, I have to pass the honor of this award on to five other bloggers and notify them on their blogs. However, they must have less than 200 followers. We don't want those bloggers who already have thousands of followers to get big heads.

When I have have done this in the past, I really had trouble because I did not read many blogs, but now I read a few hundred (slight exaggeration) so the problem is whittling it down to only five of the dozens that immediately come to mind.

The first is a friend of mine. Rob over at Rob's Altruistically Self-Serving Blog. He is one of the few bloggers that I know personally. He has just started blogging and only has eight posts at this time, but he has told a few good stories. Rob may have just started blogging, but he is no stranger to the internet. He is part of a podcast that records every week. The link for the show is on his site.

Next is the fabulous Nellie Vaughn at Buttons Are Not Currency. Nellie writes on a variety of topics, has some short stories and shares her life. Sometimes funny, sometimes thought provoking, always entertaining. On a side note, her name is not really Nellie Vaughn. I know her real name, but am not telling.

Violet at Creative Devolution is one of my absolute favorite bloggers. She lives in Africa and tells her stories through pictures. Her drawings are hysterical and she captures the moment very well. I always get excited when I see that she has a new post available. I wish I could draw.

This blogger I will get to meet this summer. My cousin is getting married in the same city she lives in (Portland) and Jen from "Jen" e sais quoi graciously offered to show us around. She just barely met the requirements of the award since she has 175 Google Friend followers, but she is still under 200 so she gets it. Jen has the courage to disclose exactly who she is in her posts, even on the occasions when she isn't painting herself in a positive light. Her readers love her for her honesty and openly sharing her struggles. She is very funny when she wants to be and is equally adept at addressing serious issues.

Lastly, I have to send some love to my internet fiance, Red from Doesn't Speak Klingon. I became a follower of Red early enough that I commented on her very first post. I have read every one since and have never been disappointed. In fact, one of her posts moved me so much, I proposed to her on the spot. I still don't know her real name, but my offer stands. Red picks apart the destruction of the English language, is anti-Valentine's Day, pro-Star Wars and loves her parents. Pay her a visit.

Here it is again in case you forgot what it looked like.
There are many deserving bloggers, but these are the ones who came to mind for me. I am off to each of their blogs to let them know of the great honor that has been bestowed upon them. Check out each of these blogs for yourself. I will be watching.

32 comments:

  1. OOOOHHHH, you know I will forgive you for giving me the honor although I'm under the limit. :) Either way, pfft! Its all about being more fabulous than google calls for so you are TOTALLY over the limit.

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    1. I don't think there is really anyway to know how many followers someone has. I don't even know how many I have. I know who my Google followers are, but people follow from other places and Blogger does not give me the stats for those.

      Either way, your blog is more than deserving.

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    2. Who cares about the "follower limit"; you are a total rock star so I am honored to be included. Thank you, Brett. I love you and your kids. :)

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    3. YAY!!! We (I) love you too. My daughter is now more at ease with meeting up with you since she knows she is going vintage clothes shopping.

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    4. Amen, my Bruthah. Of course, you know that Kirsten and I will probably (AKA: truly) dis' you to go shopping. I have at LEAST three a-m-a-z-i-n-g vintage shops I can't WAIT to show her! We'll have so much fun!

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    5. That is not a problem. I get bored with shopping after about 30 minutes.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you. Same to you. I noticed you won it at the same time.

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  3. All great blogs and congratulations to you!! Crack You Whip is brilliant too :)

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  4. Thank you Brett! What an amazing write up! All of you guys are amazing and I feel so honored to know each of you. I will make sure I check out each of these great blogs you recommended!

    And congrats, but you well deserve it!

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    1. Thank you so much. It was a lot of fun putting it together.

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  5. Great new for you - congrats! AT first I thought this whole award thing was sort of pointless - however, now I'm really into it because it's such a wonderful way of finding new blogs to follow! I'm checking out your suggestions. Thanks!

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    1. Thank you. It also helps us to promote each other. I saw a big surge in traffic when I appeared in Tracie's site.

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  6. I won? I actually won something. I am going to pretend that you could only award one person with this honor, and that person is me. This is the second greatest thing that has happened to me this week. The first being the ten cents I received from a girl that thought I was homeless because I was standing outside a convenience store with my dog. Thank you!
    Now, who to choose?

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    1. That is funny. Even funnier is that she thought you could do anything with ten cents. You deserve the award and the money.

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  7. Congratulations, winners and Brett for your Liebster award. It does sound like Lobster doesn't it? LOL

    I'm off to breakfast, you know, because I'm hungry and it's early.

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    1. Thank you. When I looked up Liebster in Google, it asked me if I meant lobster. It took a lot of digging to find the translation.

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  8. Yay!!! Thank you Brett! This just made my week! We've moved (we're back in the States now, btw) and have no Internet. So I got on my dinky little phone to come see this. Thank you thank you! Your link-back drawing will be a fun one to do. :)

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    Replies
    1. You are quite welcome. I look forward to what you do with it.

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  9. Congrats on the award! And you passed it on to very deserving people.

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    1. Thank you. I thought so too. The toughest part of these awards is limiting it to the number they asked for. I always feel like I have done something wrong to the ones on my list that I had to cut.

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  10. Congrats to you Brett. I am familiar with Red and Jen, both awesome blogs!

    Now I'm off to check out the other three!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Nellie Vaughn lives in your part of the world.

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  11. Wow. An award. I'm shocked. I'm stunned. I'm mortified that now I have to be consistently awesome. (Performance anxiety, anyone?)

    However, since you and I keep having these weird coincidences, I feel beholden to add that it is Twilight Zone-y that the first (maybe only, who knows) blog award I get is in German. Because I'm German. Well, okay, 7th generation American, but deeply German on both sides. I saw "Liebster Award" and thought how touching it was that my beloved axe-murderer has given me the "beloved" award! aww...

    Now I'm off to check out the others you awarded, although some I've visited before.

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    Replies
    1. I felt that pressure too when I started getting more followers.

      I've got some German in me as well, but it is a small percentage. I don't know that I could say what my ancestry is since it is a mixture of so many.

      I was happy to give the award to you. You deserve it.

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  12. Hey, congratulations! Now you just have to win the "Lobster Blog" award (after perhaps creating it) and you'll be completely rounded out!

    I don't know how you manage to keep track of so many blogs, but I'm glad you have them listed. I've discovered lots of good ones thanks to you!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. I use Google Reader. I plug in the blogs I want to follow and it notifies me when they put up a new one.

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  13. Congrats on getting an award!

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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