disappointing

Life Something I somehow neglected to mention. I was a shortlister for The Bloggies 2006 this year. And you know what? It was one of the most thoroughly disappointing experiences. I mean the initial rush of being one of the hundred and fifty initial voters was certainly exciting, and I did find a few good blogs which I'd never read before but in general it was a case of having to vote in catagories which cover subjects I have little interest in (Craft) or which were in languages I couldn't speak (some of European, all of South America).

Part of the problem was seeing the usual suspects on the lists yet again. There's no doubt that some of them are excellent, well writing blogs and that's why they're being voted for. But I read some many works which are just as good, if not better, but which simply don't have the audience or enough readers affected enough to give them one of the vital ten (I believe) votes in order to get on the shortlist we were given.

The catagories weren't tailored to the voter, from what I can guess because of time constraints. After emailing the Bloggie people, I ended up ommitting my South American category out of fairness, but I was saddled with having to select five of the political blogs even though I've never read any of them because they're covering the walls of power in a country not my own. I ended up pciking the A-Listers simply because I'd heard of them.

Oddly enough, Mike was with me and I wish I'd had his kind of dilemma: "When faced with the ethical dilemma of whether or not to vote for yourself in a particular category (see paragraph 3 section b), you will agonise for, ooh, seconds."