The Other Award--the Stylish Blogger Award Nominations

There it is:   the award!  All the award-winning blogs have something like this.

It might take more than one visit to absorb what's all here, because I am going to say something about a bunch of other blogs. And not even half the ones I could say something about, but some anyway so it has to be a long post.


This one has more rules:

• Thank and link back to the person giving you the award   ( that is near the top )

• Share seven things about yourself.  Okay, but I probably already did.

• Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award. (This is what will take up the space.)

• Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award  (this will take the time)

On the one hand, it seems this weekend this award has appeared on half the bloody blogs I read, whereas on the other hand it did not appear on the other half.  Yet.

See How the Other Half Lives

So the first thing to do is to thank the person nominating me for the award, and this gives us a chance to reflect on how the other half lives, for the first blog on the list of those deserving this award is only one half of a class operation whose other half has nominated my blog. Thanks Fran.

Thanks go http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com/
 
Fran has been supportive of my efforts since I was suffering from the intense heat last summer and afraid to run the computer when it was above 90 degrees, and this lasted about six months. By the time the heat finally dissipated, I could not remember how to even post, let alone what I was thinking about when I started it in the spring. That is six things about myself in that sentence, also. Here's another one:

I was in the 111th MP Company and later at the US EUCOM HQ, J-2, or Intelligence Directorate, in the Regular Army and then subsequently in the 85th 'Custer' Division in the Reserves, as a 19D Cavalry Scout and after that 19E Tank Commander. Both of these latter jobs were as an instructor. RA, that's where I learned to use the word kimchee to mean m*rde.  The 85th went into Italy in WW2 especially during the Gothic Line period, and in WW1 they invaded Russia, around Murmansk or Archangelgorod. Might do it again, too, if ...ahhhhhh.

At first going from the regulars to the reserves I had feelings bordering on a condescending contempt for the reserve components, because at first I thought I was a strack troop compared with them, but that changed and ultimately changed a lot, with increased maturity, and perspective on the skills and the efforts the two types bring to the table. And their horizons.

While at EuCom I took actions that I believe won all the wars in the Middle East, including many of those that hadn't even really started yet, but I am not at liberty to explain what I did. That's too bad, because then the next story will stick better in the memory, and leave a false impression. But I can't explain that.

I also helped with an American defeat, on the other hand, the one in the spring of 1980 when a raid in Iran turned into a fiasco, when a desert sandstorm rendered too many American machines useless, and the mission had to be scrubbed, right in the middle of it. I was not there, it is only that I helped in a small way, from where I was, doing my job. I'd have been in trouble if I didn't but again, I can't explain yet I don't think. Maybe, it is over thirty years.

There was also a successful raid around that time, but I was a cog in the other one. Many years later in the US I worked with a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who was on the other side then, and he explained that the reason was well known in Iran, that the spot chosen for the raid is haunted by evil spirits. So of course there was a sandstorm, and no one would expect anything different to happen there. It was in the wind.

It was the djinn.

It gave a sense of closure to be discussing this with such a one, years later, over tea and dates, and to increase multi-cultural understanding between the former, erstwhile adversaries.

In some ways he was acting like he wanted to be a part of the Dukes of Hazzard, and drive an old American beater car, faster than the police would let him.



The Other Half

On to the nominations of other blogs deserving of the awards.

Many I thought of at first already seem to be talking about how they were nominated by someone else, and if the reader has the same experience it can lead to frustration to see it all playing out again, but that is too quick to go negative. There is positive here.

These awards not only inform the reader of many tidbits about the authors which they would otherwise not have mentioned, probably ever, but also allow us to see many other blogs that are deserving of more attention. Revealing these details is actually somewhat painful for the authors, but to readers they are still interesting. After all there are whole books about Edgar Allan Poe or Franz Kafka, and readers still want more.

These nomination speeches are eye-opening for the readers who skipped over things they hadn't noticed before, out of haste and out of habit. This gives us a chance to break the molds.

The first nomination goes to http://theangrymovielurker.blogspot.com/

This blog is the other half of  the Angry Movie Lurker's Blogly Empire, and ironically it dominates the first four pages and more of the search engine results pages for its own name, yet draws only half the traffic I eke out, and survive on, here, a fiftieth what he gets on the big one, even though it is chock full of A-1 quality posts of original and meaty content.

There are well over thirty and nearly forty in-depth movie reviews, with pictures, but the blogger has not posted there since February, the poor b%*tard, probably suffering more in spirit from the neglect of the readers than his physical challenges. He pours his heart into those articles, and three Comments, elsewhere a pic of breasts draws fifty or sixty. It isn't fair and it isn't right. It's one click to get there, and much easier if you click as a Follower, or otherwise bookmark the page.

The blogger can become discouraged when there are only a few evident visitors, and fewer commenters, or followers. Is it only what a former lurker has coming to him? Come on he's writing big articles on there, so you know which movie you want to see. Even if you normally speak a foreign language, I urge you to encourage this blogger by saying something in your own language anyway; for all you know there are ten other visitors from your country and it would also encourage them to participate more fully. We know how to translate with a little effort.

I was going to go to Italy next, to the Torgau blog, but Carlo Antonio has already hit there, so good, that means someone else can get in, as we are limited to 15.

Let's go to Russia then. This one is hard to read for me because it is in Cyrillic, and I have to sound out the letters like a second grader, an advanced second grader who uses Phonics, that is, and fortunately his posts are usually only about thirty words so I can actually make out the gist of what he's talking about, although the details are lost on me. Marsimsgastat, or Gastat

The pictures are good, however, he generally posts figures he has painted and comments a little on them. At least there aren't a lot of definite articles.

Another Russian one with a great deal of 18th Century material, especially the Great Northern War but with promise of more on the Polish Succession, and this time with a lot of English-language material to complement the Russian in Cyrillic, is at   Gromoboy's Oderint dum Probent at rusmilhist.blogspot.com

Some of how I described Gastat also applies to this one from Catalunya, except that this one is usually in Catalan, Castilian and English to help the foreign readers such as myself. http://elsenyorverd.blogspot.com/

Others I read in Catalan will no doubt already be hearing from Italy at least so I will merely point at the Blogroll at the lower right hand side of the screen. There is also puro Castilian to be found there. What is that, four?

I have more. Here is Norway, with Gunfreak with his apartment. If he keeps doing 28mm it will soon be full.
I read him on TMP before reading at his blog.

Back in 1972 I read a book from WW2 called "We Die Alone,"  and always remember that when I think about Norway. I've only been to Iceland up there, and even then it was flying over it several times without being able to land there.

Elsewhere in Scandinavia, I can't figure out yet which part, but probably Sweden or Denmark, whoever uses o with an umlaut, we have this one, where Gunnar is. A theme I am indirectly aiming to not hide under a rug is the theme of disability and challenge, being met as well as it can, and to be honest it is a part of human life.

Several of the Internet people have got one situation or another to deal with, and each of them feels alone. I have probably got half the symptoms myself, of all the ones I am running into here; in this case there is some material on coping with MS that can be helpful to others to read about it, and realize they are not alone. http://gataskog.blogspot.com/

Also from Benno's Figures (see FIGZ in the Blogroll) is this one from Belgium  http://peterscave.blogspot.com/   mostly written in English with the highlights in either what looks like it could be Vlaams or Dutch. A Breughel painting there still sticks in my imagination, and he reproduced it as a vignette of figures he painted, one ticked-off lady going inside the Gates of Hell to beat on them down there. That is Art.

Speaking of art, there is at an undisclosed location resembling the USA this one with art made for the blog and pieces on artists past and contemporary, and other stuff. I usually do not think it's worth fighting annoying popups but I do for this one, and that is a recommendation, there is good stuff in there.the sketch is the one I look at from dgrphx, which I pronounce wrong, I think the grphx is supposed to be pronounced graphics, but I see it as digger-phx. It's what happens from reading instead of hearing words.

Another one from the USA I think is Dirt Cheap Wargaming, a fantastically unpretentious blog that goes far to combat the Snobbardly Tendency, to paraphrase out of context the famous Dave Hollins, that can sometimes be detected among self-appointed elitist wargamers, obliviously and unapologetically destroying their own hobby, via their stupidity and insensitivity, and inability to get along with others. I am reminded of the wealthy git who passed off someone else's painting as his own in a collection worth thousands of Pounds of Silver on a certain forum recently, while admitting he knew nothing of the war he was representing either, and only paid the money, then tried to pass it off as his own work as if he was therefore Glorious somehow, when he had hired a painter who he did not mention at all--well, here at this blog http://dirtcheapminis.blogspot.com/

you can make an army out of a half-burnt matchstick and may well get a better game out of it too. What a git that guy was, at that other forum. It's still up there too.
 I don't think he can erase it.

Heilige neun, that's already nine. But there are still more.

This one is in the UK, with Adam from Lancashire, it is about the 18th century with an eclectic mix of his painting projects, books from the eighteenth century, for free, and his extensive travels to the scenes on the ground with reports for the use of those who can travels there after him. I've referred to it before and will again, when I can put it together. Last time I had the article started I was interrupted by the Bears game with the Packers, but I will put it together again.   http://goldensuninn.blogspot.com/

 I have my Ten, set for Eleven--that way it's better.
Here I would think from the USA also is the mistress of minis doing A Girl's Guide to Gaming Geekery. She's been doing figures and other models for ten years and knows lots of tricks, then in the middle of the history of her blog the symptoms break out--migraines, shakes, etc etc, blackouts and what not. Here again is someone who is figuring out how to deal with an oncoming disabling condition...how to paint the fine details when her hands start shaking, or the knife falls into her foot.  I hope that she will be able to continue and carry on with the blog. I noticed my hands were shakier than they used to be, or at least I thought so, trying to paint figures this past couple of months, although it might have always been like that.

   There are Dutch blogs at http://brigadedaendels.blogspot.com/     mainly about 1/72 plastic or otherwise figures for the Anglo-Russian invasion of the Batavian Republic during the time of the French Revolutionary Wars, and also the one I first followed I think, written half in Dutch and half in English, at http://rampjaar.blogspot.com/                    and they are also nominated.
 
The trip around the world will end with Germany and Austria, respectively, with these two:

http://scheckssyw.blogspot.com/     this one has 40mm figures, not only Prince August, but several other makes, and also has remarkably good photo settings  to display these figures, so that they look like real guys, even though the figure itself in your hand would look like a big caricature if you saw it that way first.

http://zinnsoldatengeneral.blogspot.com/  this one is from Austria where Andreas Hofer is doing the American Revolution, this year, and at Christmas he has a remarkable mounted figure as a cross between Santa Claus on horseback, and General Robert E. Lee.




Well, I had another article cooked up, but this is plenty for now. I'll get to the other article later.

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