Friday, January 23, 2009

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

18 comments:

Sach said...

CONGRATS TMS!

And thanks for RD and all the guest judges including the old man George for hosting this thing!

I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

Go Sandwich! Congrats!!

Anonymous said...

Yay!! Fabulous choice, Cerno. The blog is powerful and really soulful. One of my favourites. Congratulations TMS :)

T said...

congratulations TMS! well picked RD and Cerno. I really enjoy her blog.

Lady divine said...

*stunned*......*still stunned*

I'm a nominee????

Woohooooooooo! Thanks! my pimped up diary of a blog has actually made it to your list!!! yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

Thanks so much! You've no idea how much that means to me!!! yaaay!! Thanks!!

And heartiest congrats to Missing Sandwich!! *big hug*

Icarus said...

the oscars and now this!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, an award AND a nomination. This feels like the fucking Slimmies again. Thanks, RD, and congrats to TMS. Sorry I don't post more often, but I'm not a natural writer and it takes a lot of effort. As for the pix issue you mention, I'm on a Mac, using Safari, so maybe it looks weird on other browsers.

Btw, RD, I think you should design some badges the winners and nominees can put up -- LLD-nominated blog, etc.

dramaqueen said...

The funny thing is that I just won Rs.50,000/- worth of shopping at Odel.... haven't squeezed any balls yet, though. Looking forward to it.

Congrats TMS!!!

Anonymous said...

What!?!?!? I'm imagining things and shall return once I have sufficiently pinched myself back into reality.

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Gosh, what can I say other than thank you for the thank yous.

I think I'll wait quietly for TMS to recover from the trauma.

DB - Maybe I'll get out my set of crayons and do some drawing at some point eh!

DQ - Yes, I know, that line was aimed at you, the shopping not the squeezing bit.

ViceUnVersa said...

hmph… 3 nominations. That’s all. I am like the bride left at the altar. Next year or else is all I can say RD! But TMS winning is a great honour to me. Please allow me to include another rather girly spiel about Natty as part of the celebrations and this distinguished award.

Natty
She's annoying, catty and her breasts arrive about 30 seconds before her. Like a TV commercial.
Known, as a terrible gossip Natty is the worlds most misunderstood person or best understood. I love her for her warm hugs, dedicated loyalty and most of all for her love of four legged animals. Natty at Lintas was one of the early morning people bitching away at anything and everything. Always having some huge issue but ever ready to give anyone a helping hand, hug.
God so many memories.
Natty in her younger years went for ad agency interview and mentioned me as a role model due to my client servicing skills in asking my clients to f’off. Needless to say she did not get the job.
Old Joes, The pool bar on Park Road, R&B, Otters, Shooters, Clancy’s. Always with the Arrack and Coke. Never try to out drink Natty. You can’t.
Quiet morning chats at her desk at Lintas. When I really got to know her as a person. She talks and talks. And talks. ☺ I sincerely, genuinely love her with all my heart.
Congrats TMS!

Wait...

Good morning RD, bags packed? Don't forget your Odel pants :)!

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Good morning DD and thanks for the long comment.

Bags are not packed at all yet, flight is the Sat night one so packing will be a rush job tomorrow, inc the Odel pants. I'm hoping they'll have some new ones in stock too, so I can add even more colour to the RD pants collection.

Anonymous said...

Ok. I'm back. I have pinched myself repeatedly and it doesn't look like I'm going to wake up any time soon. And then I asked myself, why I would want to wake up any way? This parallel world I woke up in is pretty cool. RD, Cerno and most of the blogsphere have gone stark raving mad though. So much so that they think I deserve blog of the year.

If you think that a pretty messed up year, blogged about so ambiguously and nonsensically is good, then baby... I love you. All of you. So much so that I even cried a bit. You've made a shitty year finally make some sense.

And congratulations to all of you. Every single nominee in every category. Reading you has been my utmost pleasure over the last few years. So much so that I have done very little work, resulting in an office circular banning blogging! And a big round of applause to RD, the real winner every year.

And aiyo DD - aney why did you have to tell them about the booooooobs!?!?!?!?!?!

tash said...

congrads TMS :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats to TMS & all the other nominees!!

ViceUnVersa said...

RD - Look forward to see the new pants. PIX THAT IS ON THE BLOG.

Natty - Must advertise best assets, no? No pun intended. Love you most. Then what precedes all your entrances. :)~

Anonymous said...

Congratulations TMS - may this spur you on to greater heights. And if you do run into RD at the GLF give him a squeeze

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations miss Sandwich! :D