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The Astounding Blogger of the Year Award

2 Jan

January 2, 2013

Over the course of 2012, it has been the honor of the Editors and Staff of Mr. Blog’s Tepid Ride to receive a great many awards and nominations for a variety of blogging awards, some of which you see published below. And we are especially grateful to have been nominated more than once for each of these awards. I am now a multiple Versatile Blogger Award-winning blogger, as well as a multiply Inspiring Blogger and even a double Blogger of the Year.

vers

very insp

And so forth and so on, yadda yadda yadda. These are all pretty harmless, if somewhat silly. There is no real award, there are just people who make up “awards” and give them to their friends who make up awards and give them to their friends who gave them awards in the first place. Let’s say what they really are- ploys to drive up traffic, since each comes with a silly set of rules requiring the “winners” to answer 5 to 10 silly questions about themselves (“When did you first begin blogging?” “Which flowers bloom in your imagination?”) and then pass the “award” on to 10 or 12 other bloggers, who pass it on the 10 or 12 more, etc  etc etc.

It is the blogging version of a chain letter.

But they are really no big deal and they make people happy and if someone wants me to be the Motivation Blogger Award winner, than far be it from me to complain. But to foist this on 10 other unsuspecting bloggers and make them slough it off to another 10, each of whom has to answer a set of ridiculous questions is not something I want to be a part of. There is enough unwanted spam in the world.

So it is in this spirit, or perhaps in direct contraction of it, that I announce that Mr. Blog’s Tepid Ride at bmj2k.com, Your Daily Dose of the Absurdities of This Absurd World, has both created and awarded to itself as the first recipient, the Astounding Blogger of the Year Award.
 PHONEY BLOG AWARD

Thank you, thank you, please be seated. I am humbled by your applause, and your standing ovation? Well deserved, I admit.

What makes this award special is that every time you are nominated, you are entitled to another Whitman Mayo. As you can see, I have been nominated nine times. And even better, I have twice been decorated with the Golden Crown Whitman Mayo. Truly, none have been so honored since the dawn of time.

This award represents the pinnacle of the blogging arts.

As a condition of the award, the winner of the Astounding Blogger Award promises not to foist it upon any other person or site.

However, that shouldn’t stop you.

Pick five sites that you feel deserve this made-up award and post a link to this very page so that they may claim their award and proudly display it on their site. But there’s a catch! Each “winner” must answer the questions below and post them on their site.

1- How does Cthulhu affect your everyday life?

2- Who would win in a fight- Kirk or Picard?

3- Which flowers bloom in your imagination?

4- You see that thing last night? What’s up with that?

5- Do you really want to live in world where men wear meggings?

That’s it. Simple, right? So go on out and pick five sites that you feel embody the history and the majesty of the Astounding Blogger Award and give them the honor of this prestigious decoration.

As for me, I’m off to write my acceptance speech for Cattle Rustler Blogger of the Year.

Blank Award:

PHONEY BLOG AWARD blank

Whitman Mayo:

circle mayo small

Gold Crown Mayo:

circle golden mayo with crown small

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Christmas In Heaven (Christmas Classic)

27 Dec

December 27, 2012

This has never before been reposted. This is a true story whose impact that the passage of time has not blunted at all.

December 29, 2011

I need to tell you upfront that this is not about religion. While the following post will touch on religion it is not a central part of the story. It is just sort of there. So before you go in, if you are the type to be easily offended, turn off that part of your brain.

This is, at the core, a sad story. It was told to me secondhand by frequent contributor and distinguished scholar Allan Keyes but it is one that has happened to millions of people, possibly even those you know. As I said, it is a sad story.

Mr. Keyes was sitting in a restaurant when he overheard a conversation between two people at the next table. They were talking about a friend of theirs who had tragically lost her baby. A horror at any time, the woman was taking it even harder due to the looming holiday season. The couple at the table had, among other things, bought her a card to console her. It was a “Baby’s First Christmas in Heaven” card. They thought it would cheer her up so much that the woman would, and I quote, “frame it and put it on her wall.”

While on the surface a card like that may seem a bit ghoulish, when written well it can bring some measure of consolation to the person getting it. Here is a sample found online of what I think is a good verse:

I see the countless Christmas Trees around the world below,
with tiny lights, like heaven’s stars, reflecting on the snow.
The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away that tear,
for I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

A poem like that could give a measure of comfort to a grieving parent.

But it has to be done right.

I found this bit of poetry online.

~Christmas In Heaven~

In Loving Memory of all who are spending their first Christmas in Heaven

I’ve had my first Christmas in Heaven;
A glorious, wonderful day!
I stood with the saints of the ages.
Who found Christ the Truth and the Way.

We sang the glad songs of redemption,
How Jesus to Bethlehem came,
And how they called His name Jesus,
That all might be saved through His name.

Oh darling, I wish you had been here;
No Christmas on earth could compare
With all the rapture and glory
We witnessed in Heaven so fair.

You know how I always loved Christmas;
It seemed such a wonderful day,
With all of my loved ones around me,
The children so happy at play.

Yes, now I see why I loved it;
And, oh, what a joy it will be
When you and my loved ones are with me,
To share in the glories I see.

So dear ones on earth, here’s my greeting;
Look up “till the Day Star appears,
And oh, what a Christmas awaits us,
Beyond all our partings and tears!

~written by A.S. Reitz 

Something in those lines caught my eye. Did it catch yours?
Read these lines again.

Oh darling, I wish you had been here

And

And, oh, what a joy it will be
When you and my loved ones are with me

In other words, “I wish you were with me up here in Heaven. Things will be so great when you get here.”

Catch it yet?

The narrator of the poem is saying “I wish you were dead too. I can’t wait for you to die.”

It continues.

And oh, what a Christmas awaits us,
Beyond all our partings and tears!

Wow, he makes Christmas in heaven sound so good that maybe I should jump in front of a truck and get there right now! Maybe I’m nuts, but if you reread the poem’s last two verses, isn’t the narrator implying that the loved ones should hurry up and die already? That is a dangerous message to send a grieving parent.

I fail to see any comfort in that poem.

Merry Christmas! Now Drop Dead! Isn’t that what the season is all about?

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