Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Don't Do A Damn Thing Award! I Just Like Your Blog.

I try never to break a promise. Try is the key word. I told you that I would someday tell you what I really think about blog awards. Here goes.

Who created these things? They remind me of chain letters. I used to do chain letters when I was young. Sometimes, there were stickers involved or some fun thing like stamps or dollar bills that you stuff in an envelope and send off to fifteen people in the up line. I once got a grand total of a $3 return for a $15 investment, plus postage.

No, I know there's no monetary cost involved with blog awards. For writers, time is money. Cha-ching!

Let me be the first to say that receiving blog awards is a wonderful form of mutual respect and admiration among peers, but why does there have to be so much work involved with them? In my humble opinion, there should be no work involved with a form of recognition.

Speech? Sure, if you feel fly like that, go on, give a hearty speech! But, come on!

There are so many different awards and each one requires you to nominate 5, 10, or even 15 other blogs in return, let each of them know you nominated them, thank the person who gave you yours, link back to them, let the world know about your picks, put the badge on your site, and then answer 7, 10, or 15 questions about yourself or tell interesting things about yourself. It's extremely time consuming!

No offense to those giving me blog awards, but I already do this when I'm feelin' it. I talk about bloggers I like and give them a shout-out publicly in my forum and I talk about myself incessantly. Helloooo, it's my blog about me and my everyday underwear of life. You get me, warts and all, whether I'm receiving recognition or not.

One peer described blog awards as weeds and warned me, "Don't do them! Just don't even acknowledge them. It sounds cruel, but you don't have the time." I must admit, it's good, solid advice. However, since I'm new and too dang nice, I could never just totally ignore them at this point. I'm not that famous yet. Yet.

So my policy is to acknowledge blog awards in my Wednesday Woo-Hoo each week and I will give each new blog award credit one time if I haven't received it before, thanking the original blogger who gave it to me, and nominating one (or a few if I have a few in mind) special blogger(s) in return. Hey, I do want you to feel special if you receive an award from me, so I don't want to give out twenty a week! My peer is right - I really don't have the time for all the brouhaha and neither do you.

So, in response to the blog-award-a-thon-a-rama circulation and my perceived notion that we all need a break... in true Everyday Underwear style, I created my own award for you to pass along to your blogging friends. Former graphic artists can do crap like that.

I lovingly dub my creation:
"The Don't Do a Damn Thing Award... I Just Like Your Blog."

Here's the rules:
  1. Accept it.
  2. Do nothing.
  3. Take a nap.


You're welcome.

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61 comments:

  1. Love this award. Want to give it to all my blogfriends.

    Seriously, it's not that it doesn't feel wonderful to be acknowledged - of course it does. And we don't want to blow off people who acknowledge us - I was raised to be polite. (In theory, anyway.) But I have enough shit I have to do - and does anyone ever see in a blog title, "I was just given the Fluffer Nutter Butter Award" and race over to see that post? I don't think so.

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  2. Great idea, I'm with you on this one! I spend enough time trying to get my friends to stop spreading hoaxes, I don't need another chore. Not that I minded YOU liking my blog.

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  3. I knew I would speak to the masses with this post. Call me the blog whisperer...


    Please, share it with everyone! We all deserve this one! LOL!

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  4. Ha ha, Lynne, I know what you mean. I'm not being rude, just honest about the amount of work and that it's silly how many there are sometimes. Sit back and have a drink on me on this one!

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  5. Love it! Can I use it, please?
    McGuffy's Reader
    http://www.mcguffysreader.blogspot.com

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  6. Totally, my dear. That's what it's for! :0)

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  7. ooh hoo... nice award. I just finished doing one and said to myself then I wasn't doing another. Time consuming ain't even the word. Try doing one while multi-tasking... like between sleep and posting the post.

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  8. Oh, this is definitely my kind of award!

    I cannot cope with the award rules!! Copy, acknowledge, choose five other victims, whistle Dixie while you crawl on your belly like a snake...AAGGHHH!! I can't do it!!! It makes my brain hurt.

    Yours is sheer brilliance. :)

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  9. Cindy, I have often thought of this as no more than a chain letter. A scam of sorts. The first one I ever got was exciting, but then when it dawned on me, and I received quite a few more, it was hard to get overexcited about. So thank you for calling the kettle black, or a spade, a spade. Your compromise makes sense! :)

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  10. Great idea and I will definitely use it! Thanks!

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  11. Out-flippin-standing! I love it!
    One book I read called these awards "amateur moves" that no serious blogger would touch...and went even as far as to say it make your blog look trashy.
    Honestly, I was touched and honored when I recieved my first one from another blogger...but then they start moutning up and do take on the form of chain letters. *sigh* It's not that I'm not appriciative, it's just that, like you said, there's not enough time!
    So, yes...I'll happily use your awesome graphic and pass it on!

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  12. That's awesome! Who wouldn't love that kind of award? And you are so right about these awards that circulate being like chain letters.

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  13. Blog awards are great, but I understand where you're coming from. I've gotten the same awards multiple times and I just thank the giver. I don't duplicate blog awards on my blog.

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  14. This is so AWESOME. You HAVE to give this award out and start a new trend.


    I try to adhere to the spirit of the award, but some of them are too much work. I do enjoy reading the answers when people do a thorough job of answering the questions, but for bloggers like us, who share so much already, it's hard.

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  15. Mod Mom Beyond IndieDomJune 25, 2012 at 8:31 AM

    Any award - heck - anything that requires me to do nothing and then take a nap sounds like an amazing idea to me!

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  16. There have been times when I wondered why I never got any awards for my blog...then I realized what receiving it entailed and decided "forget that!". So I really appreciate your post, 'cuz the idea for the blog is to write about you/me/us and our daily life, not make lists and answer lots of questions...not enough time in a day for sure!

    I enjoy your blog, and your direct, frank, honest approach:)

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  17. I agree. At first it was an honor, then it was a chore. It's probably an attempt to boost page views through the readers of the 15 other bloggers on which you bestowed the award. Yours is the perfect antidote.

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  18. I think my blog is perfect for this award. http://badluckdetective.com I'm nominating myself (your rules did not say I couldn't) I've accepted it, taking 5 minutes to do nothing and then heading to the bedroom for my nap. I think you need to add "eat chocolate" as rule 4.

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  19. I humbly accept this award on behalf of http://reallyreallyrealhousewives.blogspot.com/ - mostly because I need the nap.

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  20. I think I might cry, because this is the best award I've ever received. "You like me - you really like me!"

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  21. Dear Blog Whisperer, thank you for the award. I obviously napped right through it (as per usual). I like your honesty though, I don't know anything about these awards but it's good to know the truth. Time is money for sure and I'm already 'wasting' a lot of it on Pinterest for god sake LOL

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  22. KCLAnderson (Karen)June 25, 2012 at 11:21 AM

    I am so with you on this one...after the first couple, I decided I'd play along or not, depending on my mood and whether or not I had writer's block, and I'd change the rules if I felt like it.

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  23. I just used it on my blog - and linked back to you for credit!

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  24. Love your blog and this post! Fun stuff!

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  25. That's too funny and deliciously mocks the notion of blog love!

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  26. Just love the whole attitude of your award and I have quite a few I will pass it – great work … wonderful not having to nominate 15 blogs. Thanks a million and thanks for a great spot to stop by. Viveka

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  27. Ah my favorite kind of award! No worries I don't give or accept them either. I agree with your peer. Seriously I sometimes feel like the white rabbit on Alice and Wonderland.. No time no time...
    Thanks for coming to visit today!

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  28. Cindy - once again, you make me smile!! And thank you for all of the shout outs you have given me. Your support is wonderful!!
    xo
    Lisa

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  29. Aw, Lisa - you deserve it! I dub thee with the award!

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  30. Well, there you have it, then. Congratulations, you have received the Don't Do a Damn Thing Award!

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  31. Thanks, Viveka (great name, by the way!) and you deserve this award! Have a nice nap.

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  32. Well, sometimes blog lovin' is good and other times it just gives me a headache. LOL!

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  33. Thank you, Holly! Nice to meet you!

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  34. I read it earlier, Cindy, thank you! It's getting great response (as I knew it would). We all need a nap and some lovin' for nothin', right?

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  35. I am exactly the same way! Congratulations, Karen, you are a lucky recipient. Have a great nap, sister!

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  36. Oh my gosh, this is so funny, I have mixed feelings about awards. It is nice that other bloggers pass them on to you, but really, they're just a forum to talk about yourself, which we all do enough on our blogs! So, it seems a bit silly. This is a great idea!

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  37. Ha ha, now you know the truth at least ;0)

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  38. I DO like you, my sweet girl! Enjoy your nap and pass along the award as you see fit!

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  39. Don't we all need a nap? I love a good nap, to be sure! It just had to be part of the award system ;0)

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  40. Self-nomination is allowed. Rejoice in the nappage! Add number 4's as needed...

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  41. Well, thanks. That's what you get with Everyday Underwear, me - warts and all. Or whatever it is that I have that day.

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  42. You betcha! Congratulations. Award yourself as often as needed.

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  43. I could have also named this post "Blog Awards - The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly" - LOL!

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  44. Well, I suppose it's better than pyramid schemes... I do like the questions sometimes ;0)

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  45. You know I really do love your work, so you deserve the award, the nap, and all that crap! You don't have to do any-thing-at-all, girlfriend!

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  46. It's recycleable too... I like to try to save the planet as well.

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  47. Glad we are all in agreement here - and I thought the majority of bloggers would be ;0)

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  48. "Sheer brilliance..." wow, I love the sound of that.

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  49. We all do what we can. But I have a knack for saying it out loud while doing it. LOL!

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  50. What an interesting user name you have, Mare Ball! Nice to meet you. Here, have an award which results in a nap ;0)

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  51. Fabulous idea!!
    I like Suzie's chocolate rule!

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  52. As women, I think we should be able to employ "chocolate" as a rule whenever we want. It soothes the savage beast.

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  53. love the post

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  54. love the post
    bev

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  55. love the post

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  56. Beverly, you kept going into my spam filter for some reason, but I finally got you ;0) Thanks for persisting with the comment. Now go have some chocolate or a nap as your reward...

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  57. It takes several hours to put the post together with all of the links, and then for SEO we should be linking to specific pages rather than the whole blog anyway! UGH!!! I do like to read other people's and find new blogs this way, though!

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  58. Jodi, I honestly have a love/hate relationship with them, but as you said, I find good blogs that way too!

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  59. Peter Kevin ConnellJune 27, 2012 at 10:21 AM

    I agree wholeheartedly! I just posted the same basic response on my Today blog. I LOVE your blog Cindy and that's my award notification. Best!
    PKC

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  60. Well thanks, Peter! You are ever so kind to me ;0)

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  61. Oh, my dear, dear Cindy. I barely know you and I do like you a lot already. You offer yourself up so readily. Because this post, to me, was like a red rag before a bull.

    And I hereby award you a BLOG AWARD (OhYesIDid), the like of which I suspect you will have never come across.

    You are now the proud (?) recipient of the one and only Golden Sideboob Blogging Award.

    So there.

    http://summat2thinkon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ttot-102-golden-sideboob-award.html

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