Blogger Reflection Award

Sage has awarded me the Blogger Reflection Award. Here it is for all of you to see:

I am very grateful for this honor. I originally started a blog so I wouldn't be anonymous when leaving comments on other blogs, and as a way to talk about the off road club that I'm in. My club posts are few and far between, and don't seem to interest many people. So I split that blog off onto it's own and started a second blog which centers around my family.

This is what Sage wrote about my blog:

Dan is a family guy with a motorcycle, but DOM doesn’t stand for Dan on Motorcycles. It's an acronym for Dirty Old Man (I see little evidence of in his posts, if that’s what you’re looking for, go read Herb's blog). Dan's posts are thoughtful, often reflecting on what he and his family are doing. He loves his wife. His recent memory of his father’s death was most touching. He’s emotional; he makes the rest of us men look bad by expressing his feelings in such warm and tender ways--kind of like Barry Manilow. Thanks Dan, may we learn something from you.

Thank you Sage, that was really nice. But let me just clarify one thing: I don't have the talent to ride a motorcycle, and I wouldn't think of insulting dirt bike riders everywhere by letting it be said that I ride a motorcycle. I actually ride an all terrain vehicle (ATV) called a quad. It has four wheels to help keep me on the ground at all times. I don't ride beyond my abilities; I have a family to care for and they care about me.

If any of you would like to read about my off road club - the Dirty Old Men - please click on the link in my blog scroll. We are a family orientated club, not a bunch of perverted old guys. The founders of the club (32 years ago) may have been dirty old men, but now-a-days, "Dirty" describes how we get after we've been riding in the desert.

Being honored with this award comes with a few rules, which I will make a decent attempt to follow. Those of you chosen have no obligation to play along.

1. Copy the rules for participation

2. Replace my bloggers with your five bloggers. Then reflect and write at least a paragraph about each one. (Don't worry, you wont get your wrist slapped with a ruler if you fail to complete this).

3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.

4. Go leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they've been given the award.

5. Put the icon on your site.

Here are the blogs I have chosen for the Blogger Reflection Award:

These are in a particular order because my mind works in an organized and logical manner – sometimes to my advantage; sometimes to my disadvantage.

I hadn't even heard of the word blog before February, 2006. That’s when I heard on my favorite morning radio program about Bean’s Blog. For those of you who don’t know who Bean is, Bean Baxter is a radio personality in Los Angeles, and does a morning broadcast called The Kevin and Bean Show. You can read more about their show here and here. In January, 2006, Bean started a daily blog which became enormously popular. Bean had made a commitment to his readers that he would post everyday for a year. That was a tall order (albeit, self imposed).

I didn’t begin reading Bean’s Blog until about two months after he started his daily post, but I quickly realized how much I liked it. Bean told his readers about all kinds of obscure stuff, but still, some of it was interesting to me. Bean posted about the things that he personally liked: the Seattle Mariners, the Seattle Seahawks, the U.S. Post Office, his infatuation for anything Hello Kitty, the Planet Pluto, and the person who discovered Pluto, Dr. Clyde Tombaugh. Bean also posted about music and songs, and would often include running lists as part of a theme – songs about summer, songs with a number in them, etc.

It was because of Bean’s Blog that I came to enjoy blogging, and I started leaving comments on his posts. I didn’t want to be anonymous, so in March of 2006 I launched my first blog. From Bean’s Blog I discovered many other blogs, some of which are acknowledged below. Bean tried but didn’t quite make it to his one year commitment, but those of us who experienced his blog will probably not forget it soon. So I hereby posthumously award this Blogger Reflections Award to Bean’s Blog.

My second award goes to one of the bloggers I discovered while reading comments on Bean’s Blog. Once I started commenting on Bean’s Blog I would often click over to other people leaving comments and check out their profiles and blogs. I liked Diane’s blog and I think I was one of the first people to leave her a comment. I’ve visited ever since, enjoying many of the things she posts about. Her love for her two dogs is obvious in many ways; the blog title itself is the name of her dogs. Reading Diane’s blog reminds me of when I had my two dogs, but also when I had more time to do the things I personally enjoyed, and having the means to do it. I enjoy reading Diane’s blog, and it’s through her blog scroll that I discovered many other blogs. That’s how I discovered Sage’s blog, who awarded me with the Blogger Reflections Award.

My third and fourth awards go to bloggers I discovered while reading comments on Diane’s blog. V’s blog is well written and occasionally has topics that really get me thinking. Three recent ones are his posts on Troy Davis, the Jena 6, and the Katrina hurricane victims. I think it takes a special type of person to be able to call attention to human rights and human suffrages causes, and help remind people of injustices and such. V has also posted about documentaries that focus on important subjects. I would probably not have been aware of such issues had it not been for V.

Jenster’s blog I discovered while reading Prunella Jones’ blog, who I discovered while reading Diane’s blog. Jenster is a cancer survivor who writes about her family. She is a woman of faith and although I haven’t been reading her blog for a very long time, I took to it quickly and read it often. This short paragraph I'm writing about Jenster's blog doesn't do it justice. It’s also a good-looking blog, and I wish my blog looked so good.

My final award goes to Frank Murphy. I discovered Frank’s blog while reading Bean’s Blog. Frank posts everyday, and I think that alone is deserving of an award. Frank is a man of faith whose posts are many times about his family, sometimes about his town of Knoxville, sometimes about his life experiences and travels, and although I don’t often leave comments, I read it regularly.

Please take the time to visit each of these blogs. Maybe you too will find something that you like about them.

Due to many demands both in family life and work life, I will probably be posting less often. I will also have less time to read posts, which I have been doing during my lunch time (at work) for quite some time now. I am now limited to reading post from my home computer on nights and weekends, where I must share use of our computer with my wife and two kids.