Award for Playing on my Computer

I messed up. I really messed up.

I love writing my blog. I enjoy meeting and talking with other bloggers. I love seeing my stats go up and reading the comments that people leave on my posts. I have been trying to make sure to always leave a follow-up comments to anyone who leaves a comment, so they know that I did see it and appreciate them reading my ramblings. However, I dropped the ball on this one. I was reviewing some past blog posts to see how well I had covered a topic I was considering revisiting, when I came across a comment I had forgotten about.

This proves my blog has
no specific point. I can
ramble about anything
and everything.
I talk in the same way.

I won a blogging award last October called The Versatile Blogger. It was given to me by blogger Brandi Boddie of Colorado. Brandi is an author of Christian romance and will be having her first novel published this fall. You can visit her site by clicking here.

I was excited to get this award and do the follow-up that goes along with it, but something happened. I don't know what it was, but somehow, it got put to the side and I just forgot about it. I want to blame my school schedule, which is what I blame for most things that I forget. It gets people off my back when I apologize and say, "I'm sorry. I was so busy with my research paper, it must have slipped my mind."

It doesn't matter if it is true or not. They usually buy it. So, I am going to use that excuse again. I was very busy with school and didn't even feed my daughter that week. Luckily, she is of an age she can feed and dress herself. I forget she is in the house most of the time.

So, I am revisiting what I was supposed to do back in October. According to Brandi, I am supposed to follow these rules.

1. List 7 things people may not know about you. 
2. Pass the award on to 7 other bloggers and let them know they have won.
3. Don't forget the thank the blogger who gave the award to you.

 I will start with the last one. Brandi, I do appreciate the award. Thank you so much. I hope you didn't think I had just carelessly cast it to the side when you sent it to me. I have no real excuse. It just got away from me. Thank you.

7 Things People May Not Know About Me

1. Besides my daughter, most of my time is spent with Adam Elliot. This may not be a very interesting fact, but every time I write a new blog, he says, "I bet I am not even mentioned." Most of the time, he is right. However, this time, he will be wrong. He even got listed at number one.
2. I don't like most people. I don't know why this is, but I don't. I enjoy socializing and meeting new people. I like to get out of my house and go where I can find people and have interesting conversations, but I don't necessarily like the people I am talking to. I think I hide it well, but I have been that way for as long as I can remember.
3. I love dill pickles. A jar of pickles does not last long in my house. I put them on everything.
4. The inside of my head is a sick and twisted place. My Facebook profile gets a steady dose of the things that I find funny and go on inside my head. However, it is heavily edited. I very rarely let out the things I am actually thinking.



I wish this would happen to all of them.

5. I have had a pet tarantula and will pick grasshoppers and cave crickets up with my bare hands, but am terrified by a praying mantis. I don't know why, but I can't get far enough away from them. I hate them. They are so creepy. No other bug bothers me. And for anyone who thinks now that they have this information, it would be funny to scare me with one, be warned. I will not hesitate to hurt you and will not feel guilty about it.
6. I talk to myself most of the time. Occasionally, I actually speak out loud. I am usually able to play it off once I realize I have done it, but sometimes the words that just blurted out of my mouth are rather embarrassing. Since I don't like most people, I don't really care what they think, but my daughter thinks I am nuts.
7. When I get my teaching degree, I plan to get a contract with the Department of Defense and teach on military bases. I am willing to go to any base in the world.

My Versatile Blogger Recipients

Click the titles to visit the page

1. I only discovered A Softer World recently.  The blog posts consist of a picture or series of pictures with a clever caption or saying to go with it. I love this blog.
2. Shane Morgan's blog In Shane's Brain covers a variety of topics. He writes about whatever is on his mind that day. Sometimes funny, sometimes thought-provoking.
3. A few months ago I discovered The Cowardly Feminist by Vesta Vayne. I love hearing about her adventures in Pasadena and thoughts on every day struggles we all face. She posts 3-4 times a week so there is always something new to read. She has self-published two books. This is probably my favorite blog to read.

I know I am supposed to give this award to seven people, but I really don't read that many blogs. I do have a few more, but they have either already received this award or are very well-read bloggers who would not care notice if I awarded them with this. Here is a quick list of others I read, but I will not be sending them notification. The Blogess, Guilty Squid, The Weed, Oh Noa, and God's Comic. The Cowardly Feminist is one of those blogs with plenty of readers, but I thought it deserved a special mention.

Other blogs I read are usually about technology, photography or graphic design. They sometimes bore me despite being topics I am interested in, so I will not pass them on to you.

Brandi, thank you once again for the award. It is appreciated, even if it took me three months to say so.

We're Playing Tag

I just finished my preparation for my next blog, but it will be delayed for a couple of days.  I received a Facebook message last night from Jessica Patch stating that I had been tagged (definition: to monitor the whereabouts of (an offender) by means of an electronic device) in her blog.  She had been tagged by someone else who had been tagged by a person before them.  

This tagging consists of several questions to answer about yourself or your writing and to then tag other people who blog.  Participating in this exercise serves several purposes:

1. Apparently, this is supposed to be fun.
2. It could be seen as a writing challenge.  Since I do not get to pick the topic, I am at the mercy of the questions posed to me. 
3. It is dangerous.  This diminishes my usual method of taking several days to self-edit before I post. Look out!
4. Blog-promotion.  I do appreciate being tagged by Jessica.  Jessica has many more readers than I do and her tagging me will bring traffic to my blog.  I have already seen a spike in the numbers for today.  Plus, I get to be promoted without me doing it. (i.e. endless Facebook posts that read, "CHECK OUT MY BLOG!!!")
5. I get to point out the blogs of other people that I enjoy.

TAG QUESTIONS:

Do you think you're hot?
We just moved into a new house and soon discovered that our A/C was not working.  I was hot for a few weeks, but we fixed it.  However, I been told I look mighty fine in a suit.

Upload a picture of the wallpaper you are using.

I can't help it.  I like to laugh and find the humor in everything.  Over time, I have learned, it is always there, but sometimes you have to look for it.

When was the last time you ate chicken?
Yesterday, for Father's Day, my daughter and I shared a buffalo chicken pizza.  It was very good; I suggest you try it.

What were you thinking while doing this?
Why do we have to listen to a 45 second instructional to leave someone a voice mail? BEEP, TALK, we get it!  Condescending phone companies.

What song or songs have you listened to recently?
I don't listen to music regularly, but recently a coworker and I were reminiscing about the popular Christian groups when we were in high school.  This was when Christian music was just starting to break into the main stream.  We found ourselves singing "Holy Rollin'" by Bryan Duncan.

In 1987 or '88, Bryan Duncan was the headliner for the Illinois Christian Teen Convention.  I pretended I was  Bobby Duncan (Bryan's son) to meet girls.  It worked.  I am still in contact with some of them today.  A few are still asking to meet "my dad."

Do you have any nicknames? If so what are they?
I have had nicknames over the years, but don't really have one now.  I was named the "Lone Farter" in the 5th grade after embarrassing myself in front of the class while writing on the chalkboard.  You can figure it out.  Someone started calling me Bert in high school and that one stuck for several years.  Occasionally, when I run into an old high school friend, I will hear that again.  Most recently, my name was NEEDLES.  This was my club name while I was VP in a motorcycle club.  Since I was a professional piercer and owned a tattoo shop, the name made sense. Today, I generally walk away from anyone who tries to speak with me, so who knows what they are calling me now.

Tag 5 bloggers 
This part has been really difficult for me.  I only started blogging last October and haven't really done a lot of blog reading.  Just in this last month have I started taking this a little more seriously and looking for tools and other bloggers.  Therefore, I have very few that I read regularly.  Here is what I have so far.

Jessica R. Patch
She used to call her blog, What are you Doing Here?  I don't know what happened to that.  Now it is just her name, but I guess I can live with it.  Jess is a very talented writer.  She writes entire books, which I hope to try to tackle someday.  In her blog, she interviews Christian authors and writes wonderfully inspiring devotionals.  She blogs three times a week so there is always something new when I drop by.  As kids, Jess and I went to the same school and church.  I had a big crush on her sister for a few years, but I think it was fairly obvious, so I don't think I am revealing anything they didn't already know. 


Pantopragmatic Posturing
This is the blog of Maurice Smith.  You never know what you are going to get at this blog.  It is sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always thought-provoking.  Maurice knows what he thinks and believes and will educate you on why he sees life the way he does.  Maurice was my youth minister many, many years ago and always challenged us to think more deeply.  He is still doing it.


In Shane's Brain
Several years ago, Shane and I were salesmen at a cell phone company.  He later joined my church and has since moved to New Orleans.  Soon after, he started blogging.  Shane's posts are generally about something that was on his mind that day.  Sometimes an inspiring thought, sometimes it was something that irritated him, and other days it is just a general observation.


God's Comic
This is the blog of comedian Brad Stine.  Always funny, but usually tackling serious issues.  Just like in his stand-up routine, Brad uses humor to illustrate his viewpoint.  Recent posts have covered low-flow toilets, male fashion, nude protesting, telemarketers, and the Green movement.  Definitely worth a read.

I don't know who else to tag. I really need to start reading more blogs.  If we do this again, I promise I will have five.  Get off my back.  Jessica, thank you for the promotion and the opportunity to participate in this exercise.  I really enjoyed it and  I still want to spend a day with you and 'Jane' getting into trouble.