Appreciation

It was a very pleasant surprise to see that Dave over at Sham's Grog'n Blog sent me over the Superior Scribbler Award. This award was started by Melissa over at The Scholastic Scribe, as a way of appreciating the folks in the greater blogging community.

I was at a leadership class earlier in the year that focused on communication. It was a three week class, which was held in 1 week increments over a 6 month period. The head instructor/CEO of the consulting group was Mickey, and Mickey loved to talk. He always had a story to share with the class. During the class, it was very common for him to stop in the middle of something and look at one of us and spend five minutes appreciating something that person did. It was almost embarrassing when he did it, as it was almost over the top. But he genuinely wanted to make sure he took time out to appreciate the contribution of the people around him. His basic belief was that people wanted to be heard, and that they want to add value. Simple stuff really. However, he build a 3 week course on those two principles, and it was an amazing course. He could really connect to people, and had a wonderful gift for immediately recognizing the unique talent that was inside people, and then be able to provide very personal insight on what that meant. He was fascinated by language, and he felt that authentic meaningful conversation, devoid of waste, was the way to drive value into organizations and relationships. He was very successful at what he did, and he always stopped to take time out to recognize and appreciate those around him.

So, when I look at this award, it is a way of telling someone that their blog is meaningful and appreciated. In my previous post, the central theme was about how the urge to create was in our DNA. Appreciation is the second half of this theme. People want to their creations to be appreciated. I know I do. This is fundamental to us. I think it was my 10th grade literature teacher once told us that writing is a very personal thing, and that gives the reader insights into how the writer perceives the world around him. He said that it is like taking an X-ray of the writer's brain and holding it up for analysis. It was an interesting perspective that I think is very true. With blogging, the writer opens himself up for others to come into and provide feedback. In a sense, blogging is an intimate creation, as it is very personal expression of the writer. This award is meant to appreciate the writer for putting out his inner thoughts through writing for all to see.

Before I begin, I do want to send out a special thanks to Dave for recognizing my blog. Dave writes this over at his blog:

Bret Smith of The Grumblin’ Grognard: A relative new-comer to the blogosphere, Bret is laying the foundation of what I believe is a very promising addition to the old school web log circle. From what I’ve read and enjoyed thus far, this guy gets it. Keep up the great work, Bret!

He is right in that this is a relatively new blog. I have another blog, which I started prior to my trip to China, and that was a compilation of a number of different topics. I started this blog to pull out my gaming ideas and to centralize them here. I invite all my readers of this blog to take a trip over to my other blog: http://mrbaron-bps.livejournal.com/. It has lots of interesting stuff, although, recently I have been discussing sports quite a bit, as for the next 2 months, football season enters into the playoff phase, which I find very exciting.

One of the rules of this award is that I am suppose to call out 5 other blogs. My biggest concern with this is most of the other blogs I visit all have won this award. This makes it a bit challenging, as I do not want to give out the same award to someone who just received it several days ago. With that in mind, I am going to call out a number of blogs, and keep in mind that some of these blogs have already won the award. I am also going to list out more than five. I suppose if I am going to deviate from the rules, I should just go all out.

My top blogs of interest (in no particular order):

1. http://www.phinfever.com/newsite/. This site is run by Dave Blake who is one of the bigger Miami Dolphin fans I know. On the front of their site is the daily blog that has the latest on the Dolphins. I love this site, but of course, I am a huge Dolphin fan.

2. http://grognardia.blogspot.com/. James has become the rallying point for the old guard of gaming. His blogs are always well thought out, and very interesting to read. The first blogs of his that I started to read was his analysis on the book covers for the various D&D editions.

3. http://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/. I love the name of Dave's site: Sham's Grog 'n Blog. In his recent blogs, he has been providing cover to cover analysis and commentary on the OD&D rules books.

4. http://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/. I have only recently discovered this blog, and I found his analysis and commentary of The Lord of the Rings to be outstanding. This is one of my all time favorite books, and it is very enjoyable to read an essay from someone that shares a similar passion.

5. http://montecook.livejournal.com/. This is Monte's blog. I watch this one, because every now and then he puts up a really insightful blog on game design, upcoming products or just a commentary on the game industry itself. BTW, his Ptolus book was outstanding, especially the layout. I will do a review of that at some point.

6. http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/. This is Amityville Mike's The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope. This is another blog that I just really like the name of. He provides good old school philosophy and banter. In particular, I enjoyed his A-Z mega-dungeon blog.

There are more blogs I could list, as it seems that I am constantly looking at them, when I probably should be doing work. Now on to the required fine print, and I will call it a wrap on this blog for today.

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Acceptance of the award entails listing the following rules in order to promote the growth of The Superior Scribbler, don't 'Kill the Messenger', winners!:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List (scroll down). That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.