Trask Avenue

I began this blogging adventure in June, but didn’t really get into the swing of it until late August. When I come across blogs which have been cooking for years and years and years consisting of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of posts…well, I’m slack-jawed. To be fair I walk around slack-jawed all the time so that description, while accurate, doesn’t properly characterize my reaction to the perseverance of these noble souls. I just don’t often get a chance to use “slack-jawed” and this seemed as good an opportunity as any. Regardless, I admire the creative persistence of these folks, their ability to consistently post interesting material, their dedication to writing, and so on and so forth, yada yada yada, etc etc etc. So while I may be all slack-jawed, I’m also amazed.

I also realize by all accounts I’m still a toddler navigating my way through the mysterious and intrinsic maneuverings of the Blogland culture. I’m on my feet and walking, occasionally stumbling, but still taking baby steps. (Sorry for the inconsistent toddler/baby analogy, but give me a break. I am still a toddler, fer crissakes.) One evident reality is the preponderance of awards awarded by bloggers to other bloggers. In this way we are very much like Hollywood. We love to shine the bright lights upon our own, only the lights we shine are not on the red carpet, nor are they mounted on top of television cameras broadcasting our mutual lovefest around the globe. Our lights are dim desk lamps illuminating cramped writing hovels where we do our global shout-outs via the interwebs and these awards. Granted it doesn’t generate the same level of publicity as the Hollywood shenanigans, but the intent is the same: “Hey, here’s some cool stuff designated worthy of recognition. Don’t be a lunkhead. Go check it out.” Residuals from increased DVD sales are also missing on our end, but let’s not go there.

I’ve been fortunate to have a few of these awards laid at my virtual feet, as it were. It’s reassuring to know someone out there is, indeed, taking the time and effort to drop in now and then, read my stuff and generously suggest other folks do the same. I suppose I haven’t been a proper “award citizen” as I generally don’t follow the rules of award acceptance such as announcing it on my blog and performing the various other duties, one of which is passing the award onto others. I’ve been remiss.

Today I intend to remedy that. Well, sorta. There will be no awards, no glittery .gifs, no colorful .jpeg badges, no listing this and that about myself or my underappreciated posts. Instead I’ll point y’all to five specific posts by people with whom you may not be familiar. I’m not saying this is their best stuff or even representative of their body of work. I’m simply saying they’re enjoyable and maybe you can devote a few minutes to take a peek. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them too. If you do, think about browsing through their other posts. There’s treasure in them thar hills, my friends.

Oh yes, the disclaimer. My perception is Blogland consists of, for lack of a better word, tribes. We all belong to one or possibly more of these tribes. You know what I mean – a group of people who all read, “like” and comment on each other’s material. I’m not sure exactly which tribe(s) I belong, but I don’t think any of these folks are in it/them. I can say this because I don’t see the usual suspects lurking in their blogs. Whatever the hell that means. What I’m trying to say – and I’m taking the long route here – is if I think of you as are one of my tribe mates you won’t see your stuff referenced below. The clan already knows how wonderful you are. My hope is to cast that lovelight elsewhere. With that in mind start clicking, brothers and sisters!

the wedding gift – jamelah.net

Chew on This – Mostly Bright Ideas

How To Survive A Life Threatening Case Of The Sniffles – Pretty Feet, Pop Toe

Flying cars, feline-revolutions, and reaching 101 – Wandering Menace

Here comes the smolder – the wuc