Hey you! Yes, YOU! I need my doors enlarged…

Which will teach my ego to get a little shaky after a couple days of meme-age and no shout-outs. You know what’s even worse? I don’t care about that kind of thing… or rather don’t want to, and am usually quite happy pretending I don’t. Rationally, in fact, I don’t. But the Heather in my subconscious just needs to be let out now and then. Suddenly I feel like Frasier: well aware of how I should be, and how I rationally am… and suddenly uncomfortably confronted with how normal, attention-seeking, and limelight-loving I can be. So now, let’s talk about ME.

The Honest Scrap Awards

This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.

Where I get to go on about how marvellous I am, prompted by other quite marvellous people whose names I simply can’t remember right now, darling. I have people for that. What? I have to NAME them? I thought this was about me? Well, all right then.

Rule the First: Graciously acknowledge your undeniable greatness, by being kind enough to mention those who mentioned you.

The following people are to be commended for having truly discerning and in all ways excellent taste in blogs. I haven’t paid them a penny (and you’ll never prove otherwise). The strange Scandinavian lovely Copra, the strangely hippyish I bet he’s stoned all the time Pete of Dragonchasers, the completely incoherent and rather odd mysterious and dashing Ardua, the is probably a vampire with bad taste in soda complex and convoluted Sara from SOAGC, and last but certainly not least, the brilliant, insipid inspired, role-stealing, Oscar-snatching and much more dedicated to her writing than me Jen of GirlIRL. (Belated edit so I don’t get sued: and the smelly, snot coloured wonderful, eco-friendly Book of Grudges!) I love you all, truly. Mwah, mwah – let’s do lunch! Eh? I have to name MORE people? What is this, the yellow pages? When do I get to talk about how brilliant I am? Sigh.

{The name-checking is starting to go in some pretty tight circles. I’m going to try to cast the net a little wider, though I haven’t looked to see if people have been previously named or not. To all those I read regularly, you know who you are and if I don’t name you, it’s not because I don’t love you, it’s because you’ve already been named… or because I’m a forgetful old bag.}

Ye Official Sovnding Rvle Nvmber II: Chooseth 7 blogs (not 6, but 8 or more shall be acceptable, though 12 is right out) and be ye as nice to them as others have been unto you.

– Anyway Games — a blog I am not always unlazy enough to comment on (mostly because I have it in for Blogger’s weird commenting windows), but which I am NEVER too lazy to read. Much clearer than my own thought-processes, and therefore a welcome change.

– Esri’s Blog — doesn’t matter if it’s the Gaming Granny or the White Lion, or even the cap-popping Yo Momma of Death (yes, I have advance information on the name of her next blog), I love it. Not-quite-that-young-and-representing women bloggers. Go us! And oh my, I STILL haven’t changed the URL in my link? Fixed.

– MMOment of Zen — more general bloggy goodness. Consider yourself exposed! (In a good way. I think.) Like the rest of us, Lars doesn’t have as much time to play as he’d like, yet like the rest of us, he cares enough about MMOs to see how we could improve them.

– Oakstout — and not ONLY because the blog’s tagline makes the Engligh-English speaker in me want to giggle uncontrollably. You American English speakers may not get it; suffice to say it’s rude and giggle-worthy. Don’t change it, Oak! In any case, he also happens to write some fun blog entries — no matter how good the tossing, that helps too.

– The Battered Shield — KHAAAAAN! (Yes, I had to say that.) Need I say more? If I didn’t like the blog, it wouldn’t be on this list or, for that matter, on my blogroll. And he’s been going for aaaaages; well, compared to me anyway.

– Tish Tosh Tesh — one of those blogs that makes me feel less fabulous and scrumptiously clever than I really am. Damn your cleverness! It’s not the only one, but it’s the one I’ll pick on this week. One of those bloggers who, unlike me, actually has some clue what he’s on about.

– Word of Shadow — by a nerd (self-admitted!), for nerds, which means you should all gallop over there and take a read. Denial is a river in Egypt you know!

There are a metric butt-ton more I’d like to mention, but seven is a nice magic number. Many of the bloggers in this meme thing have frabjously long blogrolls; take a click tour someday, it’s well worth it, or just go nuts adding people to your RSS reader. Works fer me.

Regel Nummer Drei: Because 10 Facts About Me Will Sound More Fact-Like When Given in Pseudo-German

1. I speak 3 languages, the fortunate mix of which (English/French/German) allows me to at least make out the basics of quite a few more.
2. As a kid, I was convinced Maleficent (of Sleeping Beauty) was hiding in the corner of my room every night. She was so cunning, nobody but me could see her. She still scares me.
3. My anxiety dreams usually revolve around airplanes (often but not always me staring in horror as someone says “Well, you’re going to have to fly this thing now”).
4. I have a quite ridiculous, and worsening, fear of heights. Even games with cliffs can make me want to give up my lunch. EVE is a giant ball of space-sick fun. 
5. I’ve spent the last 10 years in total fiction-writing blockage. On the upside, I get to flagellate myself daily for it.
6. I detest aniseed, or anything that tastes of it. Yucketty-yuck.
7. I could give up breathing more easily than coffee.
8. One of my more distant French relatives was a famous actress in her time. 
9. Reading doesn’t scare me; visuals, on the other hand, stay with me forever and send me huddling behind the sofa.
10. I would kill (or at least maim really badly) for a pony; well, a horse, now that I’m all growed up (and out).

The Real Reality Stuff: or, The Rules

If you’ve been tagged and you fancy taking part (no obligation, this is supposed to be fun), take heed:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

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I trust all the people I badmouthed slightly misrepresented in my quest for Internet Glory know I didn’t mean a word of it. And if you think I did, I have lawyers standing by!