Like All Award Ceremonies, It's Just Too Long...

I can't believe June's gone. I wanted to write stories for about 20 markets and competitions this month, but only submitted one story anywhere... and it wasn't the Bridport. Oh sad.

There were plenty of other things I didn't get done too, like posting the five awards & memes that were passed my way recently. I didn't mean to ignore them, honestly I didn't, but oops, d'oh, the days got away from me and I just never got around to it as one topic after another came up for a day's post and pushed the meme-post back a day or two...and then another day or two... and then a week had gone by, and more.

But as Skipper Penguin said to Private Penguin, 'Don't give me excuses! Give me results!' So finally, today, I unleash upon you... the Awards, the memes, and the tagging. And I'm glad to do it finally, because if you haven't discovered the folks who passed them to me yet, you're in for joy.

Tanvi at Holey Vision chose me for the Noblesse Oblige Award which is just humbling, coming from her. Almost every post she writes leaves me laughing and crying at the same time, and among all my fellow bloggers she's one of my biggest inspirations. Go visit her to learn about her latest pole-dancing class, how she teaches photography to the blind and visually impaired, and about her amazing childhood memories of Africa. She's just irresistible, and I'm sitting here waiting to read her memoirs (finally, one I'd want to read!). So I hope she writes them someday...

The rules of this one are many, and are listed on her blog (a few posts down the page.) I'm hoping this post qualifies as the brief article they want, but I have written another more in-depth one about the whole blog-thing that I hope to post soon too.

Who am I tagging for this one? You'll see, in a moment...

Meanwhile, JC at Lilacs and Cats handed me with the Honest Scrap award, which asks you to list ten things about yourself that people may not know, and pass it on to 10 other bloggers. I enjoyed reading her list so much, with some things making me laugh out loud and others showing me a kindred spirit, that I'm ashamed of myself now that it's taken me so long to reciprocate, especially because I love her blog and am amazed by her personal story (you can read a sketch of it on her sidebar). So here's my 10:

1. I'm hearing impaired: not enough to bother learning sign language, but enough that if there's any background noise at all, I can't hear the words of a conversation. People I meet in person think I'm nice because I smile and nod while they talk, but I'm really doing that because I can't hear a darn word they're saying to me.

2. The one thing that never fails to make me stand a little taller, or smile, is remembering that my father was a decorated veteran of the Second World War. I was born a few days after his fiftieth birthday, and knowing I was the fiftieth birthday present for such an amazing man just made me love myself.

3. I'm pop-culture-challenged. I haven't heard any of the songs in the current top 10, I've never seen an episode of Lost or any reality TV show; when Elizabeth mentioned that Billy Mays died I had to google him to see who he was and then I thought it was the baseball player; and I have no earthly clue how cricket is played or how American football is scored. No, I'm not from Planet Earth, and yes, I do live under a rock in a cave. Thanks for asking.

4. My favourite movie character of all time may well be David O'Hara's Stephen in Braveheart (the crazy Irishman). But, how a medieval Irishman got himself the name Stephen instead of Donnchadh or Aodh or Muirchertach or something normal, is beyond me.

5. I'm terrified of flying. I know it's the safest possible mode of transport, but every time I show up for another flight I'm ready to poop my pants. It gets worse with each flight I take, and I sense the time is coming soon when I'll need sedatives to get on a plane at all, or that I simply won't go anywhere that requires flying.

6. My favourite paperback fiction character is absolutely Sasha Misurov, the young Russian wizard of CJ Cherryh's Rusalka trilogy. I love him more with each re-reading, and I've read those three books many times.

7. I can't swim and don't really want to learn.

8. About 15 years ago, while we were living in Baltimore, we heard through the Irish-emigrant grapevine that there was an Irishman incarcerated in a federal prison three hours away. In a mad moment of solidarity, I offered myself to all the jumps and hoops of a security clearance, and managed to visit him a few times and write letters, so that he wouldn't be quite so alone. He was one of the nicest people I'd ever met, told interesting stories and shared many insights that still inspire me, and he'd sacrificed his life in a way, to the war in Ireland and a life on the run across the globe. Then he was transferred out of that prison, we left America to raise our kids nearer to family, and that was it. I missed our visits. Later I found out the CIA recognises him as the IRA's 'chief technical officer'. Holy crap. And now that he's published his memoirs I can read about all the adventures he couldn't tell me about, back then. This revelation doesn't change who he is, to me; I don't judge others. In fact I'd enjoy having another cup of coffee together---this time without the paper cups and armed guards.

9. I loved my library work, but I never want to apply for another job again in my life. Whenever I've started a new job, somebody connected to it has died within the first week. Every time. At my last job interview, I even confessed this bit of oddballity (which was oddballity in itself really), and was hired anyway. At the end of my first Friday, the staff jokingly congratulated me on not killing anybody my first week, and I laughed with them, thinking the curse had finally lifted. Then that weekend one of their students fell off a roof and died, and everyone was overly kind to me on Monday morning. Never. Again.

10. I don't wear a watch and don't carry a mobile phone; I never know nor care what time it is. Fortunately I never need to know either.


So, back to these awards...

Thom's in a class by himself today (in a quarantine kind of way) for tagging me not once, not twice, but three times in the last two weeks. Good grief.

Now I've got (most recently) the Humane Award, which to be fair I'm sharing with about 72 other nice folks Thom has chosen. "Recipients of this award should write a post about it, linking to the person gifted the award, along with ten of their own nominees.”

He's also nailed me with a Super Comments Award. I must admit that my comments on other blogs are sometimes far more interesting than my own posts, mainly because they're inspired by other bloggers...although I hope my mother isn't Up Above reading the comments I've been leaving chez Thom, because if she has, she'll likely be waiting for me at the gate with the BIG wooden spoon when my time comes. Which isn't fair, and it's not my fault that Thom had to get the last word on yesterday's post here, with that willy comment...

Anyhow, no rules attached to this one, except to pass it on to five others. More on that in a minute.

Back on the 15th of June, he also passed me the One Lovely Blogger Award. Awwww...
and I'm to pass it on to fifteen bloggers of my choice.

Jaysis. Fifteen? By my count and rule-reading for all the above awards, that puts my tagging list up to a whopping total of forty-four fellow bloggers. But in choosing my victims, my conscience can now be clear and five meme-monkeys are off my back. I have to say that being thought of and chosen by three such amazing people left me choked up and a bit embarassed--it's humbling to be included in these!

But now, the tagging.

dah-dah-DAAAAHHHH!!!

I used to take tagging at face value and choose bloggers I really thought deserved each award or meme before I passed it on... and doing that got me thanked, ostracised, cyber-hugged, vilified, and eventually threated with personal harm. So I stopped doing that... but then, it seems rude to be given a gift and just sit there on it.

Meanwhile, this blog has blessed me with some wonderful friends, a few of whom I'm met in person or exchanged e-mails with or guest-blogged for, and some of whom do me the huge kindness of visiting every post I write, no matter how short or long or profound or funny or plain dumb it is, and many of you comment every time, or sometimes, or even just once in a while.

I love you guys. You deserve all these awards (in a good way), and if you'd like any one, off you go with it and enjoy, and I'll look forward to reading your post on it. But as to obligation and being tagged, you're off the hook---even if you've only commented here just once.

The rest of you? The ones who read/visit/subscribe/follow, and haven't made any comments yet at all? You're TAGGED, baby! Feedburner's telling me I've got nearly 150 subscribers and Google says I've got 88 followers but hmmm... I'm not getting quite that many comments. So if there's honour among lurkers, you will now choose one of those lovely graphics up there and give us a post. Go on, it'll be fun. For the sake of irony and giggles, may I suggest the Super Comments Award?

Oh, and Moo-Dog. You're tagged too. I'm sure you knew you would be, and how could I disappoint you?

The rest of you taggees can wiggle off that hook by leaving a comment right now...

Ah sure, go on.