Category: How I love the Interwebs

Sigh. When I was asked, maybe a month or so ago, to help out in determining whether nominated blogs were eligible for their category in the Canadian Blog Awards, I was happy to do so. As I said, the CBAs have been good to me over the years, although I had always been concerned that maybe they were a little too deeply mired in the political end of the Canadian blogosphere. Over the years, I’ve been fairly careful to avoid the political blogs because I find the participants particularly combatitive, confrontational and often disrespectful. Life’s too short for that kind of conflict and stress! So when I had the opportunity to jump in and represent both the family blog community AND maybe even the PR and marketing and social media blogs where I spend all my time, I thought it was a good opportunity to offer a diverse perspective to the organization of the CBAs.

So far, it’s been an unpleasant experience. There was a request for a Best Feminist Blog category, to which I responded “as a feminist with a blog, I’m not sure I see the merit in this category.” (Or something to that effect.) Best Feminist Blog was, to me, not all that different from Best Female Blog, and I couldn’t quite imagine why we would require an exclusive category for it. Before we could even decide on how to handle the request, it was promptly followed by a request from the other end of the spectrum for a best Anti-Feminist Blog, which I personally find somewhere between ridiculous and offensive, and a shitstorm of epic proportions ensued. In the end, we tried to make a compromise with a “Best Activist” blog category, and that impressed nobody. There are now calls from one end of the spectrum for a “girlcott” of the CBAs, and people are pissed off enough to be withdrawing not only their own blogs but nominations they have made. Most of you reading this probably don’t care a whit one way or the other, but I wanted to post this because someone on some discussion board noted that I have been pretty much silent on my participation — and if you read even half the comments on various blogs and discussion boards, you wouldn’t wonder why!!

The whole thing makes me very sad. (In fact, I’m sure it’s more than half the reason I reacted poorly to some comments on this blog earlier this week – I kind of felt like there was suddenly a battle on every front, and with four days until Christmas and the hormonal stew that is 100 months pregnant, I really didn’t need the extra stress.)

I don’t really know the other guys who have done the lion’s share of organizing the awards. I know them by name, because I like to keep at least marginally abreast of who’s who in the blogosphere, but I admit I don’t regularly follow their blogs. I know from the conversations we’ve had in trying to sort out this mess that they’re nice, thoughtful guys who are trying hard to make something that’s good for all Canadian bloggers – and that’s exactly why I agreed to be part of the team and why I am sticking with them. And they are getting resoundingly trashed for their efforts. It’s really quite shameful. Sure, people can disagree with the positions the operators of the blog awards have taken, but my best advice to those who vehemently disagree is to help out in the organizing of next year’s blog awards… not trash the awards in general and sully them for the people who are genuinely tickled to be nominated and the people who nominate their fellow bloggers to recognize a job well done.

There are only seven blogs nominated so far in the Best Family Blog category, and only one nominee for Best Blogosphere Citizen from “our” end of the blogosphere. I’d really like to see some of the people who hang out here even occassionally take the time to nominate a few favourite blogs, so this crazy issue doesn’t tank what can be a great opportunity for us to recognize the hard work and great effort of our favourite bloggers. It is, in the end, only a silly blog award. But I know it feels terrific to have the validation of a nomination, it’s fun to compete (even when you come in near last, like with the Weblog awards!) and I’ve been proud to display my CBA badges in the sidebar. Don’t let a few bad attitudes spoil the fun for the rest of us.

It’s that time of year again – nominate your favourite blogger for the Canadian Blog Awards!

This year, I was asked to help judge eligibility in a category or two (you know, cuz I’ve got nothing else going on right now to keep me busy) and I was pleased to lend a hand. The Canadian Blog Awards have been good to me over the years (my series on Taking Down Rick Mercer from 2005 was a lot of fun to write) and this year they are being operated by a new and diverse group of bloggers including Saskboy and Northern BC Dipper and Stephen Taylor and Jason Cherniak and a handful of others.

I know a lot of people are critical of this type of thing, saying it’s nothing more than a popularity contest, and there is always at least a bit of controversy. But I’ve found some of my favourite blogs through the CBAs over the years, including Ali from Cheaper than Therapy and the now-defunct Debaucherous and Dishevelled. It’s great exposure just to be nominated, and a lovely compliment to the blogger as well.

With 26 categories to choose from, there’s no reason not to nominate your favourite bloggers today. I particularly like the addition of a new category called “Best Blogosphere Citizen”. Nominations are open through January 11. Feel free to spread the word, too, as the more nominees there are the better the awards will be.

I may well be one of the last people to know about this, but I thought it was pretty cool and thought I’d share it with you.

I’ve long been a huge Queen fan. I remember writing out the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody by hand, copying them carefully from the album liner of my mother’s copy of A Night at the Opera, when I was about eight years old. They’ve always been one of my favourite bands, and I think the loss of Freddie Mercury is on par with John Lennon’s death.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical when I heard that band members Brian May and Roger Taylor had reformed the group with new lead singer Paul Rodgers. Who could ever fill Freddie Mercury’s shoes?

But then I heard that they released a free single called “Say It’s Not True” and I had to check it out. The single was originally written back in 2003 to support Nelson Mandela’s 46664 World AIDS Day fundraising concert. It was recorded as a single this year and released for free download on December 1st, World AIDS Day. From the official QueenOnline site, Roger Taylor said:

“By making the song available for free we hope to help Madiba [Nelson Mandela] with his campaign to get across the message that no-one is safe from infection. We have to be aware, we have to protect ourselves and those we love. The song follows the line of his personal message: it’s in our own hands to bring a stop to this.”

I think it’s a great new song, and a lovely tribute to both Nelson Mandela and Freddie Mercury. You can download it for free from QueenOnline.

Free music not your thing? How about Free Rice? I first saw this nifty little vocabulary game that lets you donate grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program while demonstrating your wordy prowess at Bub and Pie’s place, but it’s been all over since then. (Warning: it’s very addictive! Don’t click through unless you have some time to play!! And don’t be lulled into a false sense of security – they get harder as you go along.)