Gift Horse? HEER IZ meee LEWKNG in UR MOUTS

I'm a veteran cynic. Let's face it, any email I receive proffering light bulb! factoids means a browser is soon open and Snopes is being queried. In this day and age, this isn't cynicism, just common sense.

However, when I kindly received the following award from the lovely Ms. Blog-Blethers my natural cynicism was not roused. I was just childishly giddy that someone thought kindly of my blog and that I owed her a hearty "thank you" for her generosity of spirit.

She nominated me for the Brillante Weblog Premio 2008 award:


And I am honored. I have no allusions as to my stature in the blogosphere. My profile is near non existent. I am blessed to have a few people come by and read my musings, and an even smaller few who take time out of their day to write a comment on the things close to my heart. If a blogger wants to shower me with an award, I am pleased as punch.

But. There is always a but. This is where looking a gift horse in the mouth comes in. My natural curiosity was piqued over the wording of the award. The "e" at the end of Brillante and the lack of an i, as well as the word premio, meant this was not an award originating in an English speaking country. So this morning I googled the term and I came up with something at the museum of hoaxes. This website writes that the award is "a viral nuisance" and a gimmick. Essentially all it is is a way for people to congratulate each other.

Well, I could see they have a point from a glass half empty POV.

Maybe there is no central hall of fame for the Brillante Weblog Premio honorees. And maybe all the winners wont be rounded up in the late winter of each year and asked to don their favorite designer duds for a meet up at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California. No, we wont be paraded before carefully selected adoring fans and an even more numerous, but less selectively chosen, horde of paparazzi.

There will be no pomp and circumstance of an internationally recognized prize award, (nor even a major award from the Republic of Fragile). But there is still some comfort to be found in this very simple way for bloggers to take a moment out of their day to stick their hand through the (very, very, very busy) innernets's tubes and shake the virtual hand of one of their favorite bloggers.

So, Hoax Museum, I'll take your glass half empty view and raise it a full stein of Wollmeise! With that said, I am obligated to state the rules of the game:

The rules for award acceptance are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her website/blog.... done!

2. Add a link to the person who gave you this award.... done!

3. Nominate at least 7 other websites/blogs..... done!

4. Provide links of the nominated websites/blogs.... done!

5. Leave a message at each website owner that you´ve nominated.... tbd!


In no particular order,

Shannon at Minerva Turkey
Jackie at Yarnish
Nell at ChickenKnits
Kristin at Knitting Kris
Li at domesticrafts
Stacey at Peaknit
Maryse at bag 'n' trash

Thank you ladies for brightening up my life. Your work and your thoughts (whether full of snark or special angel snowflakes) are always inspirational.


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All snark aside, I would just like to make note that today is not like anyother day. My heart still hurts from the remembrance of what happened 7 years ago today. My heart goes out to all the lives irrevocably altered by the death and disease born of the event. The images come to mind no matter how hard I try to forget. Even from this safe distance, I know I can never be the same.

It is my sincerest hope that the president sitting in the white house in February 2009 has the human compassion and skill to turn this day into a day of hope, rather than the horrific reminder of ethnic and religious hatred that spawned it's existence and scarred our national consciousness.