Wish I'd prepared a speech...

A friend and fellow blogger with clearly excellent taste bestowed upon me (and a mere fourteen others) the highly respected Premio Dardos award. [crowd cheering wildly]



Meaning no disrespect to Annie, (I'm honored that she thought to include my lame little blog among her far more intellectual selections), I dare say the whole thing seems a little hokey to me. I did some extensive Googling on this particular "award," and have been unable to find any true origin or definition other than what each recipient has copied and pasted from the one before. It's like a chain letter through the blogosphere.

And this is what they all say: "This award 'acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write.' Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It's a way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

The quotes within the quote indicate that this phrase was taken from somewhere, presumably the birthplace of the award, but I was unable to uncover an actual link to its home.

Okay fine, it's a sweet gesture. I should just graciously accept. But I will unfortunately be breaking the rules, because I have been instructed to pass the award along to 15 more blogs that I deem worthy of the same recognition. The thing is, most of the blogs I read are just my family and friends, posting pictures of their kids doing funny things and projects they are doing around the house. I thoroughly enjoy each of these blogs on their own merits, but would struggle to offer a thoughtful tribute addressing how each one "adds value to the web" (as Annie so beautifully did). And it would be kind of embarrassing to list the approximately two blogs I read that transcend this basic format.

But thank you, Annie, for showing public appreciation for my writing and the motivation behind it. And to the rest of my blogging friends: Keep writing!