It’s Blogging…with Style!

Many thanks to Belinda Kroll (aka Worderella) who recently honored me with the Stylish Blogger Award.  While I’d like to think I earned it with perfect prose, I’m thinking the template designer might be more to blame thank.  Either way, big thanks to Belinda for the honor.

According to the rules, the newest “Stylish Bloggers” must show off that style by:

– Linking back to the person who gave you the award. (Note: if you don’t already read Belinda’s blog, it’s interesting and I recommend you stop by.)

– Giving 7 facts about yourself (a rule I’m modifying in my own case to add “which readers wouldn’t already know”)

– Passing on the love by giving the award to others (the original rules said 15, but I’m exercising editorial discretion…because it’s my style…); and

– Letting the new Stylish Bloggers know about the award by commenting on their blogs.

So in the spirit of participation (and who doesn’t like a game?) here are some facts about me:

1.  I have disembodied arms crawling around in my house.  (Literally in my aquarium.) Rigel the Feather Star lost two arms (don’t worry…he had 30), one a week ago and the other almost two weeks ago.  Both are still moving, feeding themselves and apparently determined to survive despite a noticeable lack of…pretty much everything.

2. I am allergic to fish, but not to shrimp.  (Also note: this is a food allergy.  I seem to have no problem touching them as long as they’re still alive.) This also makes taking fish oil pills something of a no-no.

3.  I have an odd sense of humor.  Case in point: Origami Boulder.  (You buy wadded up paper now!) I’m not sure why I find that website so awesome, but I do.

4. Sometimes I Google strange things just to see what I find.  (Note: this is a game where self-editing becomes important, because not everything on the Internet can be forgotten as easily as you’d like to.)

5.  I have worked as an animal trainer, a camp counselor, a professor, and I even made an appearance as a snake handler on a cable television show.  (I was there, they needed someone to hold the snake…and the rest is [bad] television history.) I have also spent well over a decade working at The Profession We Do Not Name, which many of you already know about but I’m not discussing here.  Chinese walls and all that.

6.  My favorite food is Thai curry, the hotter the better.  (Other weaknesses include coffee and lemon cupcakes, but you already knew that.)

7.  I speak, read and write Chinese (Mandarin, for those interested in dialects) and take great delight in the startled looks my ability creates on the faces of elderly Chinese men (and women, but the men seem more startled) at Asian markets.  This is more amusing to those of you who have seen me (or know that I’m Danish by ancestry) but trust me…I get some awesome looks.  Back to that odd sense of humor again, but in some cases all roads really do lead to Rome.

As to the new awardees, I’m passing on the Stylish Blogger Award to the following worthy individuals:

1.  Piper Bayard, whose eponymous blog keeps me in stitches.  Her most recent entry, “Bayard, Holmes, Movie, No Popcorn: Black Swan” is a perfect example.  You’ll see a lot of  Black Swan reviews, but few willing to call everyone in the film “a nut job of some variety.”  My thoughts exactly.

2.  Kristen Lamb, whose most recent post (ironically about blog style…) proves exactly why she deserves this not only more than I do but more than most of the blogs on the web.  Her continuing efforts to educate writers and others about social media and to help us establish a style make her more than deserving of this.

There are many others who deserve the honor, but I’m far behind the 8-ball today, so the most deserving two I know will have to do.  If you know anyone else who’d like to play (or even just like thai food) hop into the comments and let me know!

P.S.: tune in tomorrow for today’s originally scheduled post: “Revenge of the Drive-Thru ATM”