Rob Ross: loyal reader, versatile blogger.

Written by Rob's Surf Report

I have been outed as both a loyal reader and a versatile blogger. I feel that both are true, and so I’m going to show these awards off and do my best to fulfill as much of the acceptance criteria as I can swing. In spite of any shortfall on my part, the sentiment will remain; you can’t take that away from me.

😀

versatile-blogger-award-image loyal-reader-awardThe first criterion for both is that they are displayed. Here they are in all their colorful glory; I especially love the Loyal Reader’s colorful gloriousness, although the Versatile’s green reminds me of limes.

The second criterion for both is that I thank the blogger who awarded me by linking back to the post and blog whence I was announced to be some shade of awesome, and I am proud to thank Didi from An honest day or two for awarding me in her post “Humbly Honored“. Didi is a great person, a sort of generational ally who finds meaning in a life fraught with adversity, which can be a tall challenge; she’s a jiu-jitsu coach who has been in a coma, struck by lightning, and living for over two decades with an illness that was at one time a death sentence for anyone. She’s tough, and she’s out of Texas, so you don’t mess with her.

For the third criterion of the loyal reader award, I am asked to answer a rhetorical question chosen by Miss Dierdre, and that question is, “who is deserving of this award”? No. . . wait. I think that’s the one she answered for hers, and she may have forgotten to make up one of her own. Or  maybe she intended to pass it on. I’ll work with that: let me tell you that it can be hard to follow a blog when you’re a blogger. They make it easy for you, put this button right in this black bar at the top of the browser’s viewport that says “Follow” with a plus sign next to it. They’re practically begging you to follow your fellow bloggers. Then you hit the thing and everything you start following will aggregate in your reader, which is a page on WordPress that is uniquely populated according to who is logged in. Highly technical description I know, but here’s the point: we are bloggers, and we come here to write. It takes time and effort to follow blogs for realz, and so I decided a while back that if I feel a true desire to loyally read a person’s blog that I would subscribe by email. In fact, I had to ask Didi to put an email subscription link on her homepage so that I could get email notifications of her posts, and that way I never miss a post. I follow a few blogs by email, namely The Accidental Cootchie Mama, All Night Knits, Beardtalks, and Okay, What If? as well as Didi’s blog. That’s what makes me a loyal reader, because I’m trying to curate solid blog connections one at a time. I want to make sure the ones I follow are worth it to me. For what it’s worth, each of them are loyal readers to me and if I were to give this award out, they would all be on that list. And if you read all of my posts and hit that “Like” button at the bottom, you better believe I have noticed you as well – I’m doing my best to pay attention to that. Also, my Dad reads all of my posts, and so I would give this to him as well, if I were giving it out.

The last criterion for the Versatile is to post seven interesting things about myself. I try too hard to be interesting and so I don’t think I am, but I’ll give it a whack and see what falls out:

  1. I really dislike chewing gum. For that reason I have long preferred mints, especially Starlight mints.
  2. I have narcolepsy and often struggle with staying awake in the early evening.
  3. I have made surfing an immediate priority for next summer, by hook or by crook.
  4. I am an ascetic but I hate throwing things away, so I can’t unless I’m giving it away, selling it, or recycling it.
  5. I should be running right now.
  6. I’m running out of interesting things, and I’m sure that shouldn’t be happening.
  7. I seem to be the only person out of Detroit who remembers the dude who did those commercials on early Saturday mornings, where they’d talk about the difference between TV and reality and his tagline at the end was “hey, there’s a smart way to watch TV!”. I think his name was Larry or Lenny, I don’t quite remember.

OH MY GOD I TAKE IT BACK!!!!!!

Many thanks to Keith Norman for being the first person I know of to get these on YouTube, you made my day!

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7 thoughts on “Rob Ross: loyal reader, versatile blogger.”

  2. Congratulations on your awards. Very deserving. Also, thanks for the mention of my blog. I appreciate you being a loyal reader and hope to keep you as entertained as you keep me.

    Reply
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