Blog Awards

I have, at last, entered the world of blog awards.  At least, I've been nominated for one.  Curious as to how this works with the official-looking widget and all, who's behind it, and who decided that I was worthy of an award, I did a little research.  After all, it seems like most of the bloggers I follow are being nominated for awards every week or two.  There are an awful lot of awards out there, and at some point it seems to me to start losing validity.  So, I started researching the Leibster Award (the one I'm tagged on.

Conclusions:
A blog award is a chain letter.  Just like the blog hop self-interview I did late last year, "The Next Big Thing," there is a set of questions to answer, and an obligation to "nominate" other bloggers.  Now, the idea of a blog hop doesn't bother me.  It gives you something to write about and maybe encourages some people (from the blogs before and after you) to look in and maybe they'll like what they see and follow you.

But calling it an award?  I'm not there.  To me, an award is earned and adjudicated.  The Leibster Award only has one criterion: have less than 200 followers.  Since it also obliges you to nominate 11 more people, you can see where this could easily result in nominating darn near everyone you know.  For that reason--and because I'm not really a big fan of chain letters--while I thank Karen's Different Corners for the nomination, I won't be biting on this one.

Unless, of course, I really need a blog topic and want to use that interview.  Because ultimately, we all like to talk about ourselves.  And an official-looking badge is kind of nice.  But I'll wait to win one for something more meaningful than being small, something that says that at least one person thought my blog was special in some meaningful way (and yes, I know I may wait a long time for that).  Even better: the Pulitzer Committee comes for me.  Yeah, I know.  Look, up in the sky!  It's a bird. .  . it's Superman!   No, it's a flying pig!!