I’ve been trying not to go overboard on the whole “vote for me” thing, but it seems my vague references to the voting procedure are not helpful! Particularly to the technophobes in my family who don’t know their hashtags from their URLs!
So here’s the skinny.. the gen… the suss… the story… and the instructions.
For the Best Personal Blog category – well your work there is done. The Grafton Media Blog Awards judges are almost done voting. The numbers are being counted this week and the finalist list will be announced on Friday! If I believed in luck I’d ask yiz all to cross everything, but sure you know me… 🙂
For Best Blog Post – you have 9 days to get me in to the final 10 entries. Now at this stage it’s nigh on impossible as I’m about 40th at the mo. But I’m still in and you can vote this week and next week if you like.
You’ve got to click on the link below – It takes you to a page. You scroll down to where it says “Just another Christian woman talking through her hat…
You click on the little circle.
Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click vote.
To be clear … clicking ‘like’ here or on Facebook doesn’t count
The post is “A Tribute to my 27 Nieces and Nephews” – to read it click here – you might want to before voting for it! 😀
Make sure to go to the FB page if you wanna vote for this pic 😀
Now ANOTHER vote you can give me is for the pic I submitted to win 2 tickets to the awards night. Go to this Facebook page and have a look at the pics. Mine is on the last page (page 4) and it’s of me! looking fabliss 😀 There’s a little tickbox to vote on the pic.
SO all modesty shunned, giz an oul vote and shure you never know…
I’ve a bottle of champagne in the fridge from my 40th birthday in March. If I get on to the finalists list of the Best Personal Blog category, I’ll be cracking it open and when it’s empty I’ll write a blog post straight away – or maybe not 😀
I went to the launch of the Grafton Media Blog Awards Ireland last night. It was also the 2nd birthday party of the #klck (Kilkenny, Laois, Carlow, Kildare) Bloggers Network. It was a great night. Met a few I’d met before and met some Twitter buds face to face for the first time.
These are similar to the scratches on my knee but not as bad as the dent in my ego
The grape was flowing and there was some very nice food. We’d a few short presentations and some quick, fun blogging games. It was great craic!
BUT… 2 things happened that weren’t so great…
First… as me & himself were leaving, I tripped over a cobble stoney thing and went flying. And I mean flying! I remember saying out loud in some bizarre alien voice… “ohhhh nooooo!” as the path sped towards me. My phone in my hand, I had to fling it to try save myself & the thought flashed through my mind…. “I hope that new iphone cover is as good they said it would be…” CRASH!!!!!
Before I knew it, a man who I knew wasn’t the one I’d arrived with, was making sure I hadn’t broken my leg (while I was hoping someone was making sure I hadn’t broken my phone). With effort in greater proportion to the man, he managed to pick me up, and I was half way home when I realised he’d been at the awards and he’d been in the LIFT as we were leaving. I found him on Twitter & suitably mortified, thanked him – for all my 735 followers to see!
Second… I thought the awards had made me forget how to blog! I had been working all day and pondering on a blog post for this evening but… nada! Nothing, not a thing to say. Didn’t even think that the ‘falling over’ story was worth telling. Although reading it back, why I thought you lot wouldn’t LOVE IT, I don’t know! 🙂
So on Facebook, I asked for a subject to help me get writing and my mate Matt from Kent sent me this one… “why so many people are now feeling the need to blog. Blogs everywhere.”
Why so many blogs? I don’t really know Matt. Sorry. bye…. 🙂
It’s a good question though and I actually don’t know the answer. There are 28 different categories in this year’s awards. So does that mean there are at least 28 reasons? At the launch we had a representative from the Irish Internet Association. Her main connection to blogging is within the buisiness community – which seems to be a huge area of blogging! It’s said to be a great way of connecting a buisness to its customers in a more personal, regular and direct way.
In a few of the million articles I’ve read on blogging lately (sorry I can’t ref them…) it said that authors use blogs to stay connected with their fans in between books. They often put teasers and snippets on their blog to have their readers eager to buy their books once published. Other categories in the awards include, personal, lifestyle, music, journalist, popculture, food/drink, eco/green, arts/culture, photography, sports/recreation, humour, craft….
I think for professionals, it’s a marketing tool and a great way of more regularly connecting with customers. It’s also a great way of having a section of your business website that is always changing. But for the rest of us, it’s a way of sharing thoughts & interests. building a reputation for humour & story telling and also for sharing & gaining expertise.
For me personally… ? Well mine is a combination of things. I love writing and I want to be better at it, so it’s good practice. I enjoy writing humour – usually about myself (not cos I think I’m funnier than anyone else – I just seem to fall over more often!) Combined with that is my desire to work out my salvation in fear and trembling (as the Bible says in Philippians 2v12) You won’t find deep Christian theology on this blog. It’s more about the stuff I believe and how I work that out on this bizarre journey that is my life. I use mine to say out loud some of the stuff rolling around my head. Some people appreciate it, many don’t. But saying it out loud certainly helps me think through things.
Not sure If I’ve really answered your question Matt. What I do know is that you are right! “Blogs everywhere.” There were 2000 nominations in the awards. Click here if you’d like to see the Long List. If that’s too many to skim through, take a quick look here. @limmster who has also been nominted in the awards, has put a number of Irish blogs on her #pinterest page. You’ll find mine there if you look carefully. (Look for a pic of Katie Taylor 😀 ) It’s a great quick look at the range of different blogs in Ireland. I’m not a lover of Pinterest but that page is quite striking. Thanks to Belle for letting me mention her here 🙂
And thanks to you Matt! You got me writing this evening which I needed to do.
An Intriguing Sandwich – I’ll try not to ham it up too much! I know… I’m a hoot!
Oh and one of the games that we played last night got a few bloggers to come up to the front, grab words out of a hat and using those words, we have to write a blog post within the next week! So I won’t need help with the next blog post! It’ll have at least one of my favourite words in it…
I’ve no idea what to blog about this week! Actually that’s not true, I’ve plenty of ideas – just this evening I was comtemplating writing a short biography on someone I only met about a month ago! I’ve had to put it off though, he’s not sure he’s up for being my ‘blog fodder! 😀 #youknowwhoyouare!
It’s not that I can’t think of anything to write about, it’s just that I’ve been reading all these articles about blogging and not blogging and why you blog and how to blog and what to blog and what not to blog and blog views and readers and followers and unfollowers…. and whaaaaaat? Is it that complicated? I’m not sure if I know how to blog now! 😦
Since I decided to enter the Grafton Media Blog Awards Ireland my nerves have been in shreds. The stress, the tension, what if I don’t make the shortlist? What if I DO make the short list? What if all I’ve done is bring people to the blog only for them to rubbish me? What if I AM rubbish? That’s it I’m rubbish… I can’t write! I’m deleting this blog… and the other one… and everything else I’ve ever written. And here… throw that laptop in the bin… NO burn it! BURN IT ALL!!!!
Those voices that cause the above mental anguish are very loud and very persistent. You know them don’t you? The ones that tell you how rubbish you are at the thing you dare to hope to be good at. And as time goes on it’s getting worse. So much so that each subject I’ve contemplated blogging on this week has been swatted like a fly on a Louisiana porch.
It started like this…
Maybe I’ll write about that fantastic gig I went to last Friday “No one would read that!”
Sorry??? who said that? “You did! You said it yourself, you know well no one would read it. You love music but you’re no expert. And who’s gonna want to hear your opinion on music anyway?”
oh.. eh.. well yeah… true I suppose. I could write a post about the weather – a funny one. “You’re not funny.”
Huh? What?! I AM funny, amn’t I? “Come on, if you were funny you wouldn’t have added ‘amn’t I?’ Anyway, the weather is old news. You couldn’t possibly say anything that hasn’t been said that would make ANYONE laugh. Just don’t blog”
Whaddywhawha? Why not? “There’s no point, just don’t bother”
Oh… ok then
The increase in the desire to and love for writing is directly connected with the increase in the power of the voices. Now you know I believe in God but I’m not saying this is some sort of spiritual attack. However, I do believe there is a Devil out there who’d love to destroy me, but most of the time he’s happy enough to annoy me and make me doubt myself. But whether it is external evils, or my own inner ones… it feels like there’s a battle going on.
And it’s a fight I’m willing to take on. This is something I want to do and get better at.
It doesn’t matter if at this stage I’m merely ‘ok’ at all this, or not even as good as that. I can learn and practise and learn some more. And get better.
And in the mean time… bring it on! I’m going to keep up the fight. And I’ve got some ‘suggestion swatting’ of my own to be doing! Starting with the negative ones!
