NBI Awards: This Is Going To Be Amaaaazing!

I’ve wanted to have my own blog for years, but I never pushed myself to do it. I was always too busy. Work, moving to another country, more work, trying to hold down a social life, yet even more work. But I spent an awful lot of time trawling all the other cool blogs around the Intertubes. One of my favourites that really drew me in was The Pink Pigtail Inn. It’s not around anymore, and hasn’t been for like 3 years (the domain expired and something else is there now instead), but Larisa really had a way with words, and I wanted to be just like her.

So I commented, lots. Blessing of Kings, Tobold’s Blog, Sacred Duty, Life in Group 5, The Bossy Pally, Spinksville, and Herding Cats are just a few that I’ve haunted regularly over the years that are still about, tossing my ideas in at random in their comment sections. And gosh, pretty sure I wrote essays almost every single time.

(Slight aside, I am apparently legendary at work with my lengthy emails and bug explanations. There’s good and bad to that, but it is what it is. I’m getting better at executive summaries, so that’s nice.)

I actually had an aborted attempt at a blog about a year and a half ago. I did one post, about lag I think, and then it died. I think I had made the concept too focused on technology behind games, and my drive was quickly overwhelmed by attempting to find topics.

Fast forward to October this year, and the efforts of Doone and Syl, among others, with the Newbie Blogger Initiative. This is a fantastic resource that gives us bloggers a place to congregate and chat about the act of blogging itself. It’s provided an excellent means of advertising support, networking, advice, and contacts. And for the month of October it has been super active in getting folks into the community.

 

When I saw people posting about the effort, I figured, y’know? I should get off my keister, then sit my keister right back down and toss up some blog posts. And so I did. Decided I’d put my games design degree/interest to work and participate in this great community.

And how great it is! Some folks, such as Balkoth, Pasduil, Milady, and Ravanel Griffon to name just a few of many who have given me a great welcome, and have pretty cool blogs themselves. And of course my own friends who have commented on my posts on Facebook and my blog directly.

Anywho, the Newbie Blogger Initiative had awards at the end of the October for 2013. There are a lot of great new blogs, and to be even considered among them gave me warm fuzzies. But to find out I was nominated for a couple awards made my day. I was on the list of top nominees for the “Monicker Medal”, for having excellent naming sense. Congrats to Chindividual for the win, because portmanteau. Seriously, that’s quite the memorable name.

Also true for blog posts. Except replace mapping with finding/creating fun pictures.

I was not only nominated, but won the Epic Promising Star award! The text of the award is “This is awarded to the overall most outstanding Newbie Blogger and is the NBI’s highest honor. Your blog has been acknowledged for its style and content.” That’s... just wow. I’m still grinning like a complete idiot. I’m just happy to finally put my thoughts to keyboard, and to know other people find it entertaining is an immense confidence boost. And now I can put the award over to the right there; the shining star a beacon to keep me writing and smiling.

And I do plan to keep on writing, asking interesting questions, participating in discussions, and making goofy captions to my images. And perhaps the next NBI I can welcome other new bloggers. So I raise my glass and tip my hat to the Newbie Blogger Initiative. Thank you for the hard work and the help!