An Award Is Me!

In a "turnabout is fair play" meme/award/mutual linkfest, Spinks of Welcome to Spinksville and Book of Grudges has nominated me for a reward that (a) doesn't exist, and (b) she received as well.  It's a sort of Pay It Forward kind of thing, only without the extremely sappy runtime.  Obviously, I'm thrilled as a Texas peach in summertime to be recognized by a woman who single-handedly manages the British Empire, and gratefully accept this reward as I have run out of coasters and need somewhere to put my drink.

According to her, these are THE RULES of this award:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Well then.  Have I bragged yet?  Backlinked?  Good.  Here are seven blogs that I read pretty regularly and find to be Spifferific(tm):

• Hardcore Casual - Syncaine was a blog writer that I read for well over a year before I started blogging myself, so it's all sorts of surreal whenever he mentions me.   He's one of the very good "general MMO" bloggers, covering a wide range of games, but more importantly, concepts.  And he takes Tobold to task, which amuses me to no end.
• Girl IRL - When we ran the Age of Blogging initiative, we had hoped for some good blogs to be an end result, but never expected several excellent ones that would suddenly give us a run for our writing.  Girl IRL made a quick and well-deserved name for herself through detailed and always-interesting articles, and is one of the first blogs I check each day.
• The Greenskin - Back in the spring of 2008, Snafzg was pretty much the only steady, regular WAR blogger on the block, and I've since grown to appreciate him as a great writer and a friend.  Even though he's often disillusioned with WAR, it's usually in a funny and spot-on way, and he's done so much to build and strengthen the WAR community that he should be a textbook example of what future games' communities should include.
• West Karana - I've gone through mixed feelings on this blog.  Usually Tipa covers games that I haven't played and am not interested in, and coupled with her savage tweaking of WAR when it first released made for a sad panda.  But I've come to appreciate her passion for MMOs, imagination for blog posts and the many, many screenshots she includes.  Now, it's one of my favorite reads, and I hope she keeps on going for years to come.
• Werit - Despite his on-again, off-again relationship with WAR, I'd follow his blog to the end of the universe and perhaps three feet beyond.  He's been a big inspiration for my shaping of Bio Break as a general MMO blog as well.
• Wizards & Wenches - I have to say, I still liked his first blog layout the best, but Regis keeps trying to top himself with an endless series of revisions.  Great style, great writing and a huge heart to fellow bloggers makes him a stellar guy.  He's hosted many WAR blogs personally, and bound us all together through Blog Warhammer.
• Book of Grudges - It may be a shadow of its former self in the WAR blogging community, but BoG will always have a huge priority in my reading schedule due to its fierce passion of gaming and acute observations about WAR in particular.  So, in a roundabout way, I've thrown this award right back at Spinks, along with Arbitrary and Hawley.

And finally (geez, accepting this award is a lot of work!), ten stupid facts about me:

1. I'm blind in my left eye due to complications from birth.
2. I make up and sing songs all the time, partially because I see my life as an ongoing musical.  And no, I'm not a great singer.
3. I have a miniature wiener dog named Gracie who will piddle on you in a heartbeat if you get her excited.
4. My first gaming system was the Atari 2600.
5. I used to design and program games back in high school with BASIC and C++.  Mostly RPGs, adventures and even one ambitious action RPG.
6. I went to college to get a computer degree, tacked on an English major as well, and then ended up in the ministry as a youth pastor.
7. I count backwards from 10 every morning after I turn off my shower and before I step out of it.
8. My current favorite drink is Arizona Diet Green Tea.
9. My wife and I play spontaneous hide-and-go-seek in our house without announcing that the game's begun.
10. I have and play on a pink Nintendo DS.