Being nominated for The Versatile Blogger award was delicious … yet so soon, here I am again, but this time I am LOVELY. Or, more accurately, a lovely blogger.
Cool! I figured my first nomination was a fluke and went back to doing what I do: having fun with words and pictures, then sharing them. Like most people, I’ve never met an award I didn’t like and until I began this blog, never got one. So being officially declared lovely is very fine. 
A huge virtual hug and gracious a “thank you” goes to my nominator, whose blog Empowered Results is dedicated to spreading the word about people and groups who make their communities a better place. You can find her in my Links section too. It’s wonderful that she cares enough to give her precious time to her community.
Before I get into the business of nominating others, I’d like to talk about the good stuff appearing on the world-wide web. It’s a joy to see, especially after so many pundits and sages have declared the imminent collapse of civilization and the death of literature and art due to the pernicious influence of (drum roll), the Internet. It’s particularly gratifying that so many youngsters are participating.
If you use Facebook at all, you probably figure it signals the death of grammar. Not true. Grammar’s been dead for a long time. We just never got around to officially burying it. Grammar began to vanish more than 60 years ago, before I entered elementary school in 1952. The Internet didn’t cause the problem: it is a reflection of how education changed during the 20th century. By the time I started first grade, New York City public schools had already stopped teaching grammar. If you don’t like it, start bugging your school systems to teach it! Stop slashing education budgets and eliminating teachers. Or live with minimal literacy as the American standard. You can’t have it both ways.
I got a year of grammar in high school. It got added following national standardized tests that revealed us to be collectively clueless. Among The Hope of the Future group that surprisingly included me, where average test scores were typically between 97 and 100 percent on everything testable, no one scored above the 66th (say that three times quickly, hah!) percentile in grammar. We were outed. We couldn’t tell an adverb from our elbow.
Unless you attended private or parochial school, you are unlikely to have learned formal grammar. If those who design the curriculum don’t include grammar, educators should stop bitching about how college students don’t grasp the concept of a “complete sentence.” How could they? Their teachers don’t know either!
Yet here I am and so are you. It turns out the Internet is not necessarily the instrument of the Devil. It is apparently human nature — despite the grunters, texters and those who write threats on cardboard using crayons — we still need to communicate with words. For years I thought my Boomer generation’s single significant contribution to posterity was high-fashion blue jeans. We made denim mainstream, transforming work pants into the most essential item in our wardrobe. We deserve a collective Nobel Prize for that alone. Is there a Nobel for generational achievements? If so, how would they divvy up the money? I take checks and direct deposits.
The Internet has given us wings. We can fly everywhere simultaneously. We can share our art, writing, craziness, opinions, dedication, and concerns. We are independent of the establishment and corporations. You don’t need an agent or a publisher … just the willingness to put yourself out there.
I wasn’t born into this world. I belong to the “first geek” generation. We tended this great garden of technology. We helped it blossom into a ubiquitous presence that younger generations don’t even notice. It’s just there. But WE know it’s magic and we are magicians. It turns out the work we did was not just a paycheck. We transformed the world. Who’d have thunk it?
About this award:
Its origins are mystery incarnate, buried so deep in our collective mind that even Google cannot unearth it. Which translates to my having no idea how, when, or where this award originated and as far as I can tell, no one else knows either. If someone does know, please tell me. I love being “in” on secrets.
The rules applying to The Lovely Blogger award are identical to those for The Versatile Blogger award. You put a nifty logo on your blog to announce your loveliness and have an opportunity to confer loveliness on other bloggers who will, presumably, in their turn pass the honor along … like a gigantic chain letter, until every single one of us has many awards over which to rejoice. I love it, I really do. So many of us go a lifetime and nobody notices us at all.
My nominations are:
- T. James, Writer and Author (I’m not sure what the difference is, unless you aren’t an author if you aren’t published on paper, but hey, whatever) has created a pink free version of the award logo for those who have a personal issue with pink. I decided that I could cope with a bit of pink, but if you can’t, check out his site and you can have a monochromatic rose that has not a hint of pinkatude. He is the first of my nominees. He’s a good writer and uses words like a rapier. I like that. I know he’s been nominated before, but he’ll just have to cope with another one.
- Cristian Mihai is a young man with talent and a plan. He is going to be a published author. His tips, plans, and of course, writing are here. Good he’s starting early. It can be a long road.
- Beg To Differ is witty and original. Dedicated to everything, this is a good blog to just hang out and read and laugh a little, smile wryly, snicker, or say “huh?” … Oh, forget to mention for anyone who cares, he is Canadian. Deal with it.
- Hot Rod Cowgirl rides to live and lives to ride. Her love of horses is contagious. Also, some great pictures and links. It helps if you like horses, but even if you don’t, it’s a good blog.
- The Good Greatsby is funny. Really. Try it. Original humor is rare and keeps me sane. Thanks!
- Your Great Outdoors is the official blog of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. If you are a birder, or just love nature, here’s news and stories and more about their Massachusetts preserve. If you are local, go for a day and take your camera. There are Audubon preserves all over the USA and probably one near you. They do good work and deserve your support.
- Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is not funny. It’s a sometimes painful, insightful, nakedly honest look at the world where the author fights her pain and the demons who stalk her. Not light reading, but very well done.
- The Garden Journal: The Small Space Big Harvest Garden is a wonderful resource for those of us who must, due to space limitations or prefer for whatever reason, to create beautiful gardens in small space. Great pictures, lots of ideas. A joy for those of us who love to grow things outside.
- Moment Matters is a little of this, more of that, and beautifully designed. It adds up to a thoughts and useful information about everything from home improvement to human relations. Great photos, too.
- Lust and Rum: New York, Thy Name is Delirium. I grew up there and visiting this blog is like a trip home. Good prose, fine pictures, and a lot of class. It’s a wonderful town and a lovely blog.
- Heaven4Earth is a thoughtful blog. It’s nice that I’m not the only one left who likes to ponder the meaning of everything. Well written and beautifully presented.
- Damien Wijerathne is doing some wonderful photography, especially of animals. Excellent work!
- Urban Wall Art is a unique look at some of the beautiful art we often dismiss as graffiti. Really beautiful work, well photographed, supported by good writing.
- Ishooteditnblog is written by a young fellow in Singapore and I quite enjoy looking into his world. If you enjoy travel, this is a virtual vacation. A young man with a camera, one of the delightful crop of new eyes and voices I am finding every day.
- slappshot is … well … I’m not sure how to describe it. Well written, absolutely. Frequently funny too. He describes it as “Tales of a single dad, his adventurous daughter, and their 4-legged sidekick” and if you would like to taste something out of the ordinary, try this on. I like it. Maybe so will you!
And now, for a little more into the not-so-secret world of me:
- Most of the stuff I would like to tell you would prevent my running for president.
- I have a gigantic dracaena marginata that is planning to take over the world.
- I watch reruns of The Golden Girls with my husband. We laugh.
- My house needs a deep cleaning. Volunteers?
- There’s a lot of iron in our well water. It leaves rings.
- I do not miss working; I just miss the paycheck.
- I am still a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.
Whew! Accepting these awards is a lot of work! But it has a purpose and I hope you recognize its validity and importance: these awards as an opportunity to tell people about other talented bloggers who deserve to be noticed. Some are sophisticated, others just starting. It doesn’t matter. The importance is that there is so much passion by so many people eager to communicate their ideas, stories, art, information and more. Everything is out there — all you have to do is look around! Youngsters and oldsters and everyone in between has a unique world view.
Come! Look through new eyes!
Pingback: One Lovely Blog Award Times Three! « Hot Rod Cowgirl
Believe this is my second read of this blog about blogging and blog awards. But this read was more thorough. Interesting comments from the other bloggers you’ve cited. Maybe I’ll blog someday but right now I don’t have the inclination or energy. I’ve written and said so much in my professional life that I prefer to follow the works of you and other bloggers. I agree this is a terrific venue for people to express themselves in a public arena where others can read and respond. Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!
Congrats on your nomination and woah, thank you so much for nominating this novice photographer too! You certainly made my day! =)
You are very welcome. You deserve it and I’m glad to be able to encourage your!
We all were novices! The trick is no trick. Shoot. Write. Shoot more! The freedom you get with digital is the freedom to not worry about how much it will cost to even see your images … so just keep doing what your doing. And have FUN!
Thanks for the nomination – it came as a pleasant surprise this morning. As far as being a writer and author goes – have you tried to find an unregistered domain name with either of those terms in it? It’s like looking for hens teeth…
For me, there’s Joe Public who writes, but not obsessively with the manic gleam in their eyes of a true lunatic – that’s reserved for a writer. An author is an egocentric writer that thinks that other people might actually be interested in reading a book (e or otherwise) that they’ve put together. That’s just my two-penneth.
I enjoyed your post, and I agree – the yoof of today have not been taught the respect due to the traditional ways of doing things. Grandmar has been retired to the attic – mothballed as an irrelevant hindrance to enjoying today’s fast paced and minimalistic prose party. I fear plot, characterisation, setting and theme may all follow.
I too am of the Magical First Geek Generation. I have touched a Sinclair ZX80, an Apple 2 and an original IBM PC. I have loaded games off cassette tape and read green text on a fuzzy monochrome monitor. I remember when discs used to be 5 1/4 inches across. Do I miss those days? Yes and no. The technology was unreliable and slow. The youthful voyage of discover however – well, as I’ve decided never to grow up so that continues. I have a shiny new smartphone (or ‘superphone’ translated into yoofspeak) that does many really cool things. Angry Birds is definitely a better game than ‘Pong’.
Again, thank you for the nomination – I’ve enjoyed reading your writing, and taking a look at your photography. You take great pictures.
You ARE my age. My first computer was the mainframe at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. It was the size of a grocery store, had less memory than my first cell phone, and you had to create documents by embedding commands because they hadn’t invented word processors. Personal computers, such as they were (remember Atari and Commodore computers?) didn’t have hard drives. You just kept swapping those big floppies back and forth.
We aren’t better than the young’uns, but we understand the stuff we use. We can’t fix everything, but we can fix most it. We also got to have a hell of a lot more fun than they have. No AIDS. The big danger was pregnancy or gonorrhea. Or getting caught. We also had some really good drugs, or at least I did.
AND then, we got serious and created a new world. And wore patchwork bell bottom jeans that made us look as if we’d been stuffed into a waffle iron.
I worked on the development team for DB-1 — the world’s first relational database — before IBM bought it. Along the way, I got the equivalent of a master’s in system analysis and later, a virtual Ph.D. in object-based data linking tools for use by developers building AI systems. That’s what I wrote about. Not bad for a kid who barely scraped through high school algebra.
I have no ambivalence about technology. I love it. I have 3 personal computers and would have more if I could figure out some excuse for spending the money. That’s why my husband got a new computer. I needed a fix. He got the injection. We are both happy.
The level of literacy in the general population is not encouraging, but I’m not sure it ever was much better. And there are a lot of young people out trying to find their voices. Even in our own generation, how many write coherently? If everyone could do it, I wouldn’t have had a profession.
I published a book … 5 years ago … and the other day, finally got around to setting it up for Kindle. I guess that means I’m an author … and I suppose the plethora of “how to” books I wrote for software and hardware count too. But I identify myself as a writer.
Writer isn’t my job description. It’s who I am. Yes, I take pretty good pictures too, always with great pleasure, but that’s a hobby.
Writing is easy for me, like breathing. I will always resonate with people who love words, who make them sing. You are a writer. I was glad to be able to tell a more people about you. I think that’s the whole (and only) point to these little awards: we have a reason to put out the word about people who deserve it!
It’s dawn here. Oh well. I’m retired. I don’t have to go to bed unless I want to. Anyway, I AM in bed. Just not asleep!
Keep on doing what you do!
I’ve been thinking about it, but really I suppose I am the First Generation of Home Geek – I programmed in BASIC and FORTRAN – my mum used the old paper punch cards in a mainframe.
As for understanding the stuff? I can’t claim that anymore – it’s a world filled with JAVA and HTML5 – neither of which I have much of a clue about. I am relegated to the status of user, not programmer, but somehow I feel a little more in touch with humanity as a result.
Words though, I am even newer to (demonstrated by this sentence), having only been writing creatively for just over a year. I appreciate your generosity in signposting my little corner of the internet. It is dark and quiet here, and I can huddle up, think, and grave my musings into the memory of my server – for others to read, or not, as they wish.
Good luck with your book on Kindle – after 5 years of dormancy it would be great to see it widely read.
You may not have “current” skills, but you understand … and that counts.
Reblogged this on EMPOWERED RESULTS ~ Creating A Difference In Our Communities… and commented:
Hi All! As you know this was one of my Nominees…read this post….now you know why!
Enjoy!
Thanks! I try to share the good stuff. Right now, I’m having tons of of fun digging up video clips of favorite old TV shows and movies. Probably not my most brilliant writing, but great fun. I just posted a new one with lots of dogs and horses and I hope you’ll like it. Bring hankies.
Yes, I loved that post. Here is the horse that made me dream of becoming a jockey after reading a book about him when I was a kid.
Very nice post thanks. I really enjoyed reading it very much. Have a great day.
Thanks!
Congrats and Congrats:) You are very deserving of the awards!!! Thank you for nominating me for the Being A Lovely Blogger Award too:) I am working on it as I write as I was nominated for it a while ago and am just now getting a post done! I truly appreciate your support and the kind words you spoke about my blog…and love of horses! Have a Wonderful Wednesday:)
And I really enjoy vicariously sharing your world. I always loved horses … always wanted horses … I rode, but never owned and now my back is gone (from falling off horses, of course) and I can’t ride anymore, but I love them still. And your post about your father was deeply touching … you have no idea how I envy you that relationship.
Thank you so much….yes the aging process stinks at times! I have been very blessed by my parents in that they gave me a good life full of adventure and love. Dad had me riding my own horse before I was 2 and ever since then I have ridden. I miss both Mom and Dad very much…thankfully I have lots of memories.
Sounds like you’re up for the Bloggers’ “Hall Of Fame”. You’ve certainly amassed an impressive body of work with a rapidly growing list of readers. Good Luck! Surely, you know we’re all counting on you.
And don’t call me Shirley!