The 2008 Blogging Awards - The Big One Is Here, Blog Of The Year 2008

Phew!

It's been a relentless journey, though I don't know if journeys are allowed to be described as relentless. A telesales person can be relentless, perhaps a Jehovah's witness as he tries to save my soul, not to be confused with sole, as that would be a fish and I always prefer meat. Can a journey be relentless? I don't know. I'll ask David Blacker or Brandix or one of those writer coves and get back to you.

But here we are. It's Friday, it's the end of the week and it's time for the big one, the award for Blog of The Year for 2008. I'll confess and admit to being a bit knackered after all this handing out of awards thing. I feel a bit like one of those chaps whose had a party round at his place and, though it was great fun but I've now got to do the clearing up as well as recover from all the getting ready beforehand. This hosting isn't easy you know.

I'll explain something here, something that you may think is undemocratic. I've excluded both Darwin and Cerno from being nominated for this award. Purely because they are the last two winners and I wanted to give the award to someone else. It's not a hard and fast rule, next year it may be open to all the previous winners, but we'll just see how it goes. It should be noted, for the sake of the constitution, that Darwin and Cerno, had they been nominated, would have been prime candidates to run away with the title. Check out this incredible post from the C man if you doubt me.

I must be the same as most bloggers and blog readers in that there are a handful of blogs that I read day in day out. Frequency of posting is such an influencer for all of us in terms of how much attention we give to a blog and I wish all of the nominess would publish more. But, unlike me, I guess they don't get the benefit of hour upon hour behind their desks, they've probably got proper jobs with managers and things.

I'm hoping for a guest judge on this one but I've just been given a message that he's running a bit late, it's mostly my fault as I only asked him at the last minute. We'll hope he gets here in time to present the award and do a speech.

The nominations are those blogs that grab me and that I always read. There are others that I'll check every now and again but these are my real attention grabbers. It's subjective I know, your ones will probably be different, but that's why these awards are being held at my place.

Here we go with the nominees:

1. David Blacker for The Blacklight Arrow. - I admire these proper writers, I really do. They have styles and big vocabularies and DB is well known for his huge one. The only word that springs to my mind in relation to the Blacklight Arrow is eclectic. Other people would probably have different adjectives, like captivating, varied, stimulating and eye catching. Sadly I'm just not up to it. The only two negatives are that he just doesn't post often enough and sometimes the pictures overlap the text. He writes, we read. It's that simple, that good.

2. Dinidu de Alwis - He has been a shade on the quiet side in recent days, so much so that there are some rumours circulating that he's run off with Kalusudda. Keep that quiet though won't you. He sometimes writes provocative things, sometimes he hits us with hard hitting pieces and then chucks out a photograph of a flower or a story about someone's scary kid on facebook or something. The fact that just about anyone who is anyone links to Dinidu's blog is a reflection of either its consistent quality or the fact that he knows everyone. Or both.

3. Lady Divine for A Glimpse Of Lady Divine's World - I suppose this is what many would call a pimped up diary of a blog as it's really a pimped up diary. Of a blog. What is it with these bloody creative types and their ability to write in interesting and grabbing ways? It's almost as if that's what they do for a living or something. She regales us with the words to accompany her day to day life, there's the odd poem chucked in for good measure and frankly it's just a damn good read.

4. The Missing Sandwich - Another big star of the Sri Lankan blogosphere. TMS, when not organising the Solidarity Gaymes, appearing on TV, in newspapers or on stage, is really a quietly spoken girl who keeps herself to herself and likes nothing better than a quiet night in. She is the shrinking violet of the Sri Lankan blogopshere and hardly appears in public. She also writes the blog that I'm first in the queue to read.

5. DD for ViceunVersa - His post titles aren't just attention grabbers, they're more like sexily dressed nymphomaniacs who walk up to a chap and grab his balls. Or, for the girls, the ones who don't have balls, I suppose they're like a chap who rushes up to you and says "hey Odel is having a half price sale on shoes today and you've just won 50,000 Rs to spend there." Not that anyone we know has ever won such a prize of course. And while I'm on the subject I'll chuck in a little story about balls and prostitutes if you promise to keep it quiet.

One of my business partners was on a long weekend in Prague with some mates. While he was innocently standing at a road and waiting for the green light to cross said road, a woman, who was quite clearly a prostitute, came up to him and asked if he wanted sex. As she did this she squeezed his balls very, very hard. Women, you won't know the pain but, imagine being right in the middle of that Odel shopping spree and then waking up and discovering it's all a dream, and you'll have some idea.

So my business partner says no to the woman and she wanders off , leaving him in some pain. Later on he's in a bar with his mates, he goes to take out his wallet from his back pocket and, you've guessed it, it's gone. He then remembered feeling something else as the woman had squeezed his balls. That was her removing the wallet. So there you go. It's nothing to do with DD, I just thought I'd share the story with you.

As for ViceunVersa, well it's a blog, it's written by a Sri Lankan who has a clear and burning passion for Sri Lanka. Sometimes he says things I and many others disagree with. Sometimes he gives us little insights into the advertising world, of Sri Lanka, the UK and elsewhere. There are times when he writes poignantly about his life before the UK and he does it with that gift of the written word, the gift of taking his reader to the place. You know, without hauling you onto a plane and actually taking you there. But it's an all engrossing blog and consistently in the most popular reads listed on Kottu.

There we are, those are the candidates, a strong bunch of chaps and girls and an even stronger bunch of blogs. It's a mixed bag and it's been a tough task to pick the winner. Eventually I've gone with my gut feeling. Which blog is the one I feel most excited about?

Yes, the winner is.....

The Missing Sandwich.

And, in the nick of time, the guest judge has arrived. It's the great man himself, last year's winner, the Right Honourable Lord Cerno. I'll hand the podium over to him:


"Congratulations to TMS, well deserved winner of the "Best Blog of 2008" award! She will be (or already is) the happy recipient of the award which is a 16tonne Olmec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec) head sent as an email attachment. Anyone who frequents the Sri Lankan Blogosphere (kottu.org) would have already read something of TMS. The blog's unignorable posts feature regularly to the "most popular posts" list on kottu.org.

TMS attracts a fair share of drama. I was already a regular reader when a photograph of TMS appeared on the Sunday Times. Then her blog got hacked. She has also been attacked in the papers. But she continues post on with passion, courage, and above all a great sense of humour. Instead of taking my word on this take hers by reading TMS blog yourself. While you are there, lend a hand moving the award."

What can I add. Other than a message to T that the speech genuinely was by Cerno.

To The Missing Sandwich, 2008's blog of the year and to the runners up I offer my hearty congratulations.

Tomorrow we'll wrap up the awards for this year with a very final new and extra special one and some slushy words from me.

RD