The 2007 ROTUS Blog Awards

Because anybody can give an award. - and it works!

Recently my other blog (see the last post) was given a couple of blogging awards and, after a bit of investigation, I discovered that anybody with an internet connection can, and some do, give out an award to any blog or website that he, she, it or they want. Now, you might think that this makes these awards worth about as much as a square of tissue paper, but wait!

I put the code, to show the little graphic of my awards on my blog and, lo and behold, I started seeing traffic on Statcounter that was coming from the websites that had given me the awards and those people seemed to stay around for a minute or five. They were actual readers!

This is kind of like Amway, but you don’t have to try to recruit your family and friends to sell soap for you. In order for an award to work it has to meet the following criteria.

The blogs or websites receiving the award must actually be good.
They also have to believe in the magic just a little bit and put the award code up someplace on their sites.

The blog giving the award must be, at least, not horrible.
It also must post links to the award winners.

There must be several winners at the same time.

What happens then is that people looking at the award winning sites, see the award, click on it out of curiosity, and then click on, after they have seen the other awards, and look at the other award winners. Hopefully some of them will find something that moves them and will become regular readers.

Assuming that this blog is not horrible and without further ado:

The 2007 ROTUS Blog Awards

To Daddy Papersurfer For promoting merriment and creating a blog using a Mac in Great Britain.: A Strong Cup of Coffee.

To Windows to Russia For opening a window into the heart of Moscow: A Giant Bear Hug.

To My Art Becomes Yours for being artistic and wearing a beret in France: The Beautiful Blogger Award.

And finally, to ROTUS for actions above and beyond the call of good taste: A Dead Horse (so it can be mercilessly beaten.)

Why Did I Start This Blog?

I have another blog, that I started first, I'll Never Forget The Day I Read a Book! which probably should have been enough to keep me busy. I posted to that blog for about three months before I noticed that somebody was occasionally reading it. I think I get an actual comment one day.

So then I started to look at websites about How To Blog and one if the things I read was that you should post to your blog every day. -If you have been paying close attention, you may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday, ahem. - It's hard to post everyday to my book blog. One rule that I made for myself is that I have to actually read a book before I write about it. What with a day job, a family, other interests, social obligations, the need to sleep, it can take me a week or sometimes more to get through a good book. I don't bother to finish, or review, ones that I consider bad, whatever that is.

This blog, my post something and get on with your day blog. Has been getting more hits, more links, and more actual readers than the other, which proves the value of frequent posting, if nothing else. I'll Never Forget The Day I Read a Book! has won a couple of awards, though. But then anybody can create an award on the internet. In fact that will be the subject of my next post.

Stay tuned for the ROTUS Award!

(Image courtesy of Silicon Valley Watcher )

Open Mic Night

I'm getting ready to go out to open mic night tonight. Open mic night is when ordinary, sane, usually sober adults got up in front of a room full of people, sing and play musical instruments. It's a whole level above karaoke in difficulty and potential embarrassment.

I usually team up with my friend Johnson, the man with two last names, for open mic night. Tonight we are going to do two songs that we have never done before , and a third that we only bring out in December, so we don't remember it too well- Hugh Matin and Harold Blaine's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," first sung by Judy garland in the 1942 movie "Meet Me In St. Louis."



I'm the taller, handsomer, more talented and modest one, with more hair, in the picture.

Why do we expose ourselves to potential life altering ridicule once a month? It is very motivating, if you play a musical instrument or sing, to get up and do it in public. It makes you rehearse, improve your performance and it gives you an incredible adrenaline rush. Beer helps, too.

$50 Blog Challenge

A Blog About Nothing has issued a challenge:

"How would you spend $50.00 on your blog? One lucky and creative winner will get a check for $50.00 from me in order to spend on their blog however they wish. In order to enter just write a short blog post telling how you’d spend the money and link back to this article."

Well, see, this is a blog that spends nothing. It is on a free blog hosting service. I have, and continue to search for, free blog communities, free statistics services, free advertising, free links. Sometimes I wonder how the internet survives with people like me freeloading off of it.

If I had $50 my children would spend it for me on movie tickets, pizza and prepaid cell phone minutes. In fact I had $50 in my pocket just yesterday and today I'm packing a bag lunch.

Editors Note:

Since the point of tis exercise it to get a link on someone else's blog and since tis is a much nicer way to do it than to concoct a phony genius award, and since Brent linked me in his blog, here are links to the other entrants, to date, for this prestigious $50 challenge.

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