Not Non-Partisan Enough Perhaps

I have to admit honestly that I was a little bummed out to see I finished last in the final six for Best Non-Partisan Blog at the Canadian Blog Awards. I have to concede that I have an ego, and the ego gets a hold of me sometimes and he bludgeons me over the base of the skull.

At first I was disappointed because I mustered only 25 votes and my readership easily exceeds that number on an hourly basis. Then I felt a little bitter about losing out as the only conservative “non-partisan” in the running as the progressive blogs all got voted much higher. And then of course there was Paul Wells. It’s not easy to compete with a person of that stature.

So I kind of sulked for a while and didn’t write anything tonight.

But then I thought about it a bit and I realized a few things. The first is that there are people out there who do think I’m the best Non-Partisan writer, and that’s actually a big compliment. People went out and voted for me because they genuinely like my writing and what I have to say. And even if it was only 25 people, that’s something significant because it tells me that I’m doing something right [even if I haven't figured out what].

Second, I didn’t promote myself much in the finals because I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. But part of success depends on self-promotion, and I should have known that. You can’t just sit back and hope people will notice you. You have to get out there and make them take notice.

Lastly, I know it’s just an award that doesn’t evaluate the true meaning of a blog. After all, I can think of a half dozen brilliant writers who didn’t win awards this year, but they toil away in relative obscurity anyway. They write because they enjoy doing so, and I guess it’s not different for me.

So congratulations to the winners, Nunc Scio, Paul Wells, and Galloping Beaver. And also fellow “losers” James Bow and Stageleft. I do feel honoured to be in such well regarded company, and these sour grapes too shall pass. Hey, this gives me something to aim for in 2009.

Thanks to those who voted for me this year. And also to Joanne for the original nomination.

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Beer And Popcorn Crowd Not Just For Liberals

Coming soon to a theatre near you in Ontario. Seriously.

Cineplex Odeon in their infinite quest to make gobs more money have decided to find out that ponderous question that has consumed the masses for a millenia: do beer and movies go together?

Personally, I would answer in the affirmative if I’m at home in my pyjamas and slippers. Crack a beer, flip on the movie, zap the popcorn. Some might even make it through a two-hour movie without much difficulty. But imagine a movie like, say for instance, Batman: The Dark Knight. Imagine drinking beer while not going to the bathroom for two and a half hours. Sounds pretty tricky to me. Especially if it’s more than one beer. And let’s face it. If you’re drinking beer, it’s always “more than one beer”.

Next thing you know you have Johnny Bathroomrunner bouncing up in front of you just as the Joker does something particularly vicious and you dart your head side to side in a frantic quest to see what’s happening. Not that it matters because soon a multitude of his fellow beer connoisseurs are also doing the same thing all around you.

No? Don’t think so? Why not? Never been to a hockey game? Sure, you can miss four minutes of a hockey game and barely miss the context of the play, but try missing four minutes of plot from a good film.

Having said all that, using the typical anti-chaos theory logic from Jurassic Park, Cineplex Odeon thinks they can control it to VIP screening rooms and limit it to two drinks and it will be fine. Good luck with that. No, seriously. Good luck. But know this: every stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life began with the sentence “so I was drinking…”

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Ok, I Have To Admit Sometimes I Don’t Understand The Internet

Sure I’ve been using it since 1996 but I still can’t fathom some of the weird things that happen when I’m blogging. Today, for instance, I get home and I check my Sitemeter, usually to look at referrals since I like to know where my traffic comes from. Well today it was all coming from here:

What is this craziness, you may ask? I have no idea. They are all google image searches that wind up at my photograph I ripped off some mainstream media site during the summer showing Maxime Bernier walking with his well-endowed former tattletale tell-all girlfriend Julie Couillard. Here’s an example of the full link.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://bp0.blogger.com/_1sBPtDd4cws/SJSdzzBrBQI/AAAAAAAABaQ/D1dpBpt0E2Q/s400/julie_and_maxime.jpg&imgrefurl=http://unambig.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html&h=270&w=400&sz=29&tbnid=OnL7d26ZResJ::&tbnh=84&tbnw=124&prev

This leaves me to wonder one thing. Just what in God’s name is going on here?

Also insane

My blog is somehow spamming other websites with trackbacks about articles I wrote that aren’t relevant to the blog it’s spamming. Why is it doing this? Am I really sleeping and this is a weird dream?

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