Wednesday, November 12, 2008

An Awards Show

Hmm. Yeah that's right, just hmm.

I often begin this way when I have no clue where to begin. Sometimes it is because the brain pan is vacant, the cupboard is bare. No subject comes to mind. Other times like this one are that I have something to say, but have no clue how I feel or how to say it until I write it down. So bear with me here.

Early this morning I was rifling through one of those drawers we all have kicking around our homes. One of those receptacles we fill with past memories. Old photos, awards, news paper clippings it made sense at the time to clip and save. A drawer filled and promptly forgotten. Like a time capsule, it sat patiently for me to rediscover it's whereabouts. Today I did.

I pulled everything out of it. I was looking for something, I just did not know what. Forty thousand ga-gillion pictures of my daughter as a wee one being a wee one. Some made me smile and reflect about how much I miss her being a wee one. Pictures of me and my wife sporting different bodies and darker hair. A shoe box of swimming ribbons and awards for breaking this team record or that team record. My daughter was and still is quite a jock. Old pictures of ancestors I don't even know or recognize. Pictures of family distant and close. The memories spread out on the couch reinforcing my existence.

And then I found what it was I must have been looking for. One of my old report cards from the Third grade. The school was Gorrie Elementary School in Tampa, Florida. I had transferred there mid year from some school I cannot remember in Maryland. Swapping schools was no big deal for me. By this time in my short life I had already attended four or five different schools.

So I opened the report card. My teacher was one Mrs Gillette. I'd like to say we called her Razor, but I can't. My memory is not that sharp. My grades were fine. It was her rather detailed documentation of my progress or lack thereof I found interesting. When I first got there she found me mouthy, I couldn't/wouldn't follow directions, but I was decent in math and I loved to read. Her final entry for the last quarter seemed to indicate that I had won her over. I was passed on to fourth grade (another school again). I had learned to follow directions and she was impressed with my writing. She said I just loved writing assignments.

It was odd reading comments about me from so long ago. I do not remember much from my time at Gorrie School other than it was an old three story school surrounded by a dirt playground in the middle of Tampa. Shooting Marbles was hip and I had a silent crush on the cute girl who sat next to me. The stuff Mrs Gillette was concerned with had long ago been lost in my not important file of memories. That was school work. The stuff I had to do to please the adults around me.

I put the report card, all the pictures and awards back into the drawer and forgot about it. Forgot about it until some minutes ago when I visited Randal's blog, l'ennui melodieux.

Randal Graves is a superior wordsmith. His writing often blows me away. He is scatterbrained, plays loosy goosy with the mother tongue, and is creative to point of making me jealous. I like his blog. It always entertains me. Imagine my surprise when I found he had bestowed upon me the award you find at the top of this not yet real long post.

This is where my quandary begins. This blogging culture often confounds me. Umpteen million "look at me" people all trying to get someone to pay attention to them. All sorts of tricks to secure an audience abound. Meme's, Polls, Link lists, Follower lists, comments, and yes awards. All of them seem to be part of someones strategy to gain a larger piece of the audience pie. The thing is though, at some point, these tricks become more than bait and take on a life of their own. They become part of the culture. Instead of casting a jaundiced eye on them now, I realize what they are after their release into the Internet ether. They are compliments. They are another blogger telling you they like what you do. To ignore them in my opinion is not only rude, ignoring them or worse dissing them detracts from the idea of blogging. Bloggers like to connect with people.

So with this in mind and my teacher's assertion that I do enjoy writing reading and yeah even 'Rithmetic, I gratefully accept Randal's nod in my direction and a nod to Mrs Gillette who recognized my infatuation with the written word. Coming from someone whose writing I admire is indeed more than a trick. Randal doesn't need to draw more folks in. They seem to find him. But don't tell him that. His noggin is already pumped up big enough as it is. And he's from Cleveland. That should tell you all you need to know.

Naturally there are rules in accepting this award. Another one of those blogging things that confound me. But there it is. So here they are taken from the host site, The Scolastic Scribe:

~Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
~Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
~Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
~Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
~Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Okay, three of the five rules have been met. Site giving award linked, award displayed, and rules dutifully posted for all to see. Now I have to pick five deserving souls whose blogs I enjoy for whatever reasons. This is the hard part. This demand that I be exclusive instead of inclusive. But in the spirit of the game, I always follow the rules.

Middle Ditch - Monique has one of the most interesting blogs out there. An audio-serial blog about life in a small English Village. She has been at it for quite awhile and each post tickles me to no end. The work in producing it must be tremendous.

Weldable Cookies - Wonderful writing with an in your face attitude I find refreshing

El Cerdo Ignatius - A real Conservative. A man who keeps my lefty pinko leanings in check on a regular basis. His comments and blog cut through the crap but with class and no animosity.

Demeur - Tenacious Liberal( I can call you that I hope. Obama says it is not a dirty word anymore) dedicated to progressing our station in life.

Snave - Another Liberal (again consider this tag a compliment) who presents liberal ideas without spewing and drooling with his eyes all bugged out. Moderate in his approach, but definite in his points.

I believe I have now completed the necessary requirements to call this puppy spanked. All I need do is visit Scolastic Scribe and link to their list of others who have been graced with this award to end all awards. Yeah right.

Later..............

7 comments:

BBC said...

I just hope that it doesn't rain all day long so I can get more done on the new storage area.

Randal Graves said...

The noggin isn't that big anymore since I started taking those meds.

Watch out for snave though, he may be mild-mannered, but he'll fling poop at you.

You're right though, any of us with a blog, whether they admit it or not, wants to connect at least a little, otherwise we'd spend all our internets time surfing for porn. And compliments they are.

It's weird seeing shots of our kids that young, no? I remember, but it's an entirely different space and time.

Gary ("Old Dude") said...

I must agree, your rambling scribblings are most definitely a cut above the norm----you are truly worth of your award.

Demeur said...

I hope you won't take this the wrong way but I think I'll forgo adding this award to the blog. As I see it it's become the new chain letter of the internet." When you get this pass it on to 5 or 10 other blogs". It's also like those memes that have been wasting bandwidth. Hey if you have a question just ask. If there's an actual award that a group of bloggers got together and voted on then that's okay because only a dozen or so actually got one. To slap a bunch of awards on your blog that you see everywhere you go is like getting those gold stars on your grade school papers. Just about everybody got one for just doing the work.
Hey the pumpkin stickers are gone anybody seen my turkey stickers?

MRMacrum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Middle Ditch said...

Mr Macrum, you are quite something.

There I was reading your blog about old forgotten photographs (made me smile, I love finding those) and the long lost school report (made me want to find mine again). Oh what some wonderful memories ..... And then I scroll down, still smiling to find, suddenly out of the blue .... AN AWARD!!!

You are just too kind.

Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me, how much I enjoy writing the episodes, how much we love our recording sessions and how much the comments are appreciated.

You are just ........ Mmmmm ....... What's the word ..... just .......... wonderful

lol

MRMacrum said...

Demeur - I am not sure what "taking it the wrong way" means. Your points about the gold star in class are well taken and I cannot say you are wrong here. But your assertion that you are forgoing this award due to some kind of personal ethic falls on deaf ears. What with you hanging two awards in your own sidebar that are of no loftier standing than the one you refuse here.

Since you ask: "Hey if you have a question just ask." - I have two questions

Might I ask that since you are indeed agreeable to hanging bling awards in your own sidebar, does that not make your comment here a tad hypocritical?

Or is it that I irritated you with this award or at some time in the recent past?

Regardless, I hold no animosity nor will I retract my high opinion of your blog. Whether you want the award or not, it has been given to you by me. What you do with it is your business.