This has been a hell of a long time coming, but better late than mauled by a tiger, as they say. They do say that, don’t they?
In early January Michelle Franco sent some blogger love my way with the Versatile Blogger Award. I went ahead and wrote a thank you post and nominated a few bloggers of my own. Unfortunately, since I didn’t know enough blogs I nominated only 5 bloggers instead of 15. I figured I’d nominate more once I’d had the chance to meet them.
Then something terrible happened – I got nominated for more awards by more fellow bloggers! Wait, that came out wrong. It is obviously awesome to get recognised and nominated by fellow bloggers and I’m really thankful for all of these.
The terrible part is that I only read/know a handful of blogs at this stage. If I had to pass on each award to up to 15 people I’d have to quit my job, break up with my girlfriend, stop eating and finally burn down my house, because at that point why the hell not?
“Alright gentlemen, it appears we’ve got another blog award related incident!”
So by now I’m a very proud receiver of Versatile Blogger Award, Sunshine Award, One Lovely Blog Award, Illuminating Blogger Award and Thank You for Writing Award. I’m really happy and thankful to have received each and every one of these.
“But Daniel, is there even any value in all of these awards when they’re passed on so frequently to such large numbers of bloggers? Matter of fact, isn’t this trend causing a devaluation of these very awards in the blogging world? Verily!”, some of you are saying, while looking ridiculous in your pretentious monocles.
To you I say: “What’s that? Sorry, didn’t hear you, was too busy counting all of these awards I just got!”
On a serious note, I do believe that many of these awards are turning into sorts of “chain letters” of the blogosphere: pass this on to 15 of your friends or else you’ll have 7 years of being mauled by a tiger. What is it with me and tigers today?!
“You laugh now, but he who mauls last…”
Having said that, I have been happy to receive every single one of them, especially from fellow writers whose blogs I frequent and enjoy. And even though I don’t know a massive amount of bloggers I intend to pass each of the awards on to someone who deserves it.
So, taking inspiration from one Carrie Rubin (more on Carrie in a moment) I will bend the rules a bit. I won’t fill out 172 facts about myself that rhyme with my favourite colour. Instead I’ll give proper thanks to those who have nominated me and pass on each award to exactly one blogger worthy of it. I reserve the right to nominate new bloggers at a later stage, because I’m a rebel. Let’s go:
Nominators:
Carrie Rubin, who has nominated me for a whopping total of three awards: Illuminating Blogger Award, One Lovely Blog Award and Thanks For Writing Award.
Despite the fact that these decisively unmanly awards with flowers and candles may have been sent with the sole intent of shattering my male ego, I’m really thankful to Carrie for passing them on. Not everybody gets to have their ego shattered by such a funny and prolific blogger!
Carrie writes regularly and each of her posts carries (puns are awesome) a good deal of characteristic humour and energy. Carrie’s also extremely good at replying to the comments and keeping the discussion alive. I always enjoy visiting her blog and recommend you head right on over to check it out for yourself!
C.J., who passed on another Illuminating Blogger Award to me. Thanks!
All I can say about C.J. is that if any of you have even the slightest affiliation with food, such as e.g. eating it, you should not miss her Food Stories blog. It’s filled with recipes, stories, pictures and everything else food related. Be warned, you’ll probably walk away hungry!
Ella Medler passed on yet another Versatile Blogger Award to me. Thanks a lot for that! I will return to Ella in a bit because she’s also *SPOILER ALERT* one of today’s nominees!
Michelle Franco who should be familiar to most of you after having passed on the Versatile Blogger Award to me earlier. She followed it up with a Sunshine Award in late May. Really appreciate all the blog love, thanks!
Michelle has an active blog for which I have written a guest post a while back. In addition to that she’s the author of a top-rated “Where Will You Run?” book, which I had the true pleasure of reading. Rumour has it that a follow-up book “Where Will You Hide?” is around the corner, but don’t take it from me, head on over to Michelle’s blog and find out from the source!
Nominees
Alright, the fun part, where each of the awards finds a rightful place! Here we go:
Illuminating Blogger Award
I have no hesitation in passing this award to…drum roll…Ella Medler! She writes often and her blog is filled with reviews, writing tips, reflections and polls. You will definitely learn a thing or two about the world of writing and books by visiting it.
Ella has written a top-rated “Martin Little, Resurrected” book, which is right now on my “to read” list. If you visit her blog you’ll be able to read a sample or two from the follow-up book “Martin Little Takes Epic Action”.
Ella and I have also exchanged guest posts, so you can check out her post here and my post on her blog.
One Lovely Blog
This one goes out to Mirjam Rose. Mirjam is into photography and most of her posts are also outlets for her beautiful photos of the world around her – flowers, nature shots, happy people and other things that will make you smile!
If you ever need to cheer up, after e.g. having been mauled by a tiger, do visit Mirjam’s blog and it should fix you right up!
Sunshine Award
This award goes to a frequent visitor and two-time guest poster on Nest Expressed. Her name is Rachael McGimpsey. I really enjoy her quirky sense of humour and random rants and musings on her aptly named blog.
Even though Rachael is a newcomer in the blogging world, she’s doing a great job of keeping her blog updated with fresh and entertaining content. Head on over and join the fun!
Thanks For Writing
I want to give this one to Laurie Chandlar. She’s the author of a recently completed manuscript “The Silver Gun”. Laurie writes about her writing journey and also about her occasionally weird and funny experiences living in NYC.
Did you know there’s a “can-I-have-your-muffin?” epidemic in New York? No? Well learn more about it and other stuff on Laurie’s blog!
Versatile Blogger Award
Finally we have a man on the nominee list! He’s the author of numerous books and his name is Martin Bannon. Wait, no, Marty Beaudet. Well, he writes under many names. Some may call it “schizophrenic”, I choose to call it “versatile” for the sake of this award. Well deserved, sir!
Martin also has some fun stories to share. We’ve all done some embarrassing things while drunk, but not many of us have done them in the presence of royalty. Don’t worry though, Martin’s got you covered – relive his life’s most embarrassing moment right here.
_____________
Well, that just about wraps it up for this round. Thanks again to all the nominators and I hope the nominees enjoy their well deserved awards!
As for me, I’m off to patrol the area for tigers…
Nest Expressed 
@LAChandlar This Daniel fella sounds like an awesome dude, I wish we were all a bit like him. Thanks for the link love!
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@NestExpressed He is. We do, too. And you’re welcome! 😉
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@NestExpressed Awesome! Thank you, you just made my crappy day not so crappy 🙂 @AuthorMartyB @LAChandlar @raeme67
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@applesndroses Happy to have done so, enjoy your award.
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The versatility goes on… and on… and on… http://fauxmeme.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/versatility-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving/
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@Martin_Bannon Great post with perfectly selected photos of famous people! Thanks for the shoutout and great job on passing the blog love on!
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@NestExpressed Thanks so much Daniel! I LOVE the Awards Galore and am honored you thought of me:-). Loved the tiger theme too! LOL
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@LAChandlar Hhehee glad you did! Enjoy the much deserved award and keep on writing. Happy Sunday!
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@NestExpressed Thank you! That was a great way to handle it. I may have to do something similar for the ones I keep getting 🙂
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@MEFranco1 You’re welcome and thanks again for the award! 🙂 I think it may just be the only way to handle so many awards. Enjoy Sunday!
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Thanks Daniel! That is a great way to deal with several awards at once. I have the same problem. I really appreciate the recognition from my fellow bloggers more than I can say, but it is really tough to come up with 15 new blogs each time. This was a nice way to give a nod to the people who gave you the award without killing yourself nominating a bajillion blogs.
P.S. Thanks for the book love! 🙂
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@MEFranco1 No problem at all, and thanks again to you. Yeah I think for the sake of my sanity I had to do it this way. Don’t make me crazy, you won’t like me when I’m crazy! Wait, who said that?! Anyways, you’re free to steal the idea when sharing your nominations.
Keep me posted on the second book.
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@AuthorMartyB @NestExpressed @LAChandlar @applesndroses Thanks.
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One of me would like to thank you, Daniel, for the unexpected and surely undeserved nomination, just as soon as we figure out what it means. Just like my—or my—invitation to have tea with Her Majesty, this nomination has left me—and me—in a bit of a tizzy. At least I don’t have to go out and buy a suit—and neither do I—to take part in your nomination, so for that both of us will thank you posthaste: Велике спасибі!
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@Martin_Bannon Whoa, whichever one of you came up with the idea of using Google Translate and going “Ukrainian” – well done! The other one could learn a thing or two from you. Indeed, no suit necessary here, just enjoy the award and try not to fight each other over it! You’re most welcome, thanks for writing and for visiting the blog!
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Daniel, thank you so much. I am wobbly with emotion – must hold onto my glass a bit tighter. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can’t find the words to thank you. I guess that’s not a good advert for a writer, huh? I need another drink – Saturday evening here, so I’m allowed.
I am grateful. There – that was a little more coherent. I am humbled to receive an award from such an inspirational person. You made me happy today, Daniel. : )
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@EllaMedler Happy to hear that you’re happy, even if that happiness results in temporary incoherence . I have every intention to get to your book as well, looking forward to getting to know Martin Little! Have a great weekend and keep on writing.
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@NestExpressed @MEFranco1 @EllaMedler You’re welcome. Loved your new blog post today. Great stuff!
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What a fantastic acceptance speech. Just the right amount of humbleness, appreciation, and….snarkiness at the ubiquity of these endless awards. Really gave me some good laughs. I especially enjoyed the “…another blog award related incident!” in suggesting you burned down your house. Hopefully, it won’t get to that point. 🙂
And thank you for your very kind mention of me. I feel like I should send you chocolates or something. But that would be impossible because I would eat them first. But in all seriousness, I appreciate the shout out. You have such a breezy, humorous writing style. I could see you with your own newspaper column. I’d certainly pay the airmail charge to get that Danish paper. That is, if anyone still read newspapers…. 🙂
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@crubin Snarkiness is a part of me that I hold close to my heart…hmmmm, I’m pretty sure that sentence made zero sense! Chocolates are always welcome, I have a pretty well developed sweet tooth!
We have juuuuuuuust about finalised everything in the new apartment, so burning it down is definitely not high on the agenda.
All the mentions are thoroughly deserved and I’ve meant them all. Thanks again for the flowery nominations. I’ll make sure to send carrier pigeons with the latest posts to you from now on, how quaint would that be?
Thanks for the kind words about my humour style. Actually my next hope/project is to get featured on Cracked.com – I’m a regular reader of their articles and many of my posts are inspired by their format. Can definitely see myself writing something for them! Will keep ya posted.
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@Daniel Nest
I wish you luck with that, and I’ll be on the lookout for those carrier pigeons. 🙂
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@NestExpressed Thank you Daniel! Flattered and for once almost speechless. 🙂
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@raeme67 Not at all, you deserve it! Please don’t go speechless now, we need you writing more stuff.
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@NestExpressed There is not much chance of the speechlessness lasting too long!
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@raeme67 Good! Speechless Rachael couldn’t sing made-up songs and talk about blue winged monkeys!
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@NestExpressed I”m an expert on blue winged monkeys. Others may be fooled in to not believing in their existence, but I know the truth.
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@raeme67 That’s right, you gotta stay sharp and be one step ahead of the enemy…even if that enemy is a freak monkey creature!
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@NestExpressed I had plenty of practice warding off your evil ninja monkeys…
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You made my day! -Thanks so much for the “nomination” ! – And , yes I am just a little ball of sunshine! 😉
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@raeme67 You may not be all sunshine all the time (who is? Gandhi was, maybe?), but I can certainly relate to your sense of humour. Happy to have made your day, it’s fully deserved!
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