All Done Slithering; Thank You For Your Support

The voting is over and the winners have been declared at the 2007 Weblog Awards, where this cold blog has been honored to be a finalist in the category "Best Of The Top 6751-8750 Blogs", also known as "Slithering Reptiles".

Voting began last Friday, and ever since, we've been slithering our skin off, trying to catch the leader, Gus Van Horn. But he slipped away over the reptile horizon, making off with more than 35% of the votes, and the prize. This cold blog finished second (with 18%), and Slow Cooker Recipes was third with (15%).

Scholars & Rogues finished fourth with 10% of the votes, despite being arguably the best blog of the bunch. I intend to keep reading them, as well as checking in on all the others from time to time. You can find links to all the slithering reptiles on my sidebar.

But, once again, congratulations to Gus Van Horn, and indeed to all the winners.

Many thanks to all who have lent their support. It's been much appreciated.

And now, if you'll excuse me... I need to molt. ;-)

Slithering Along

After more than three days of voting, the cold blog has finally hit the century mark at the Weblog Awards, where it's an honor to be among the finalists in our category, "Slithering Reptiles". We are currently in third place, and ahead of some very good blogs! Thank you for your support.

Unfortunately, the leaders are about to slither over the reptile horizon. So apparently we need even more support. If you haven't voted for your favorite blog today (or for this one either), please click on the snake (or here) to do so ... and click here too to vote in the other categories!

Thanks again. I gotta slide!

On Your Marks, Get Set, Slither!

Here are the Weblog Award finalists in the category "Best of the Top 6751 - 8750 Blogs" (which, according to the TTLB ecosystem rankings, maps out as "Slithering Reptiles").

Gus Van Horn
Abnormal Interests
Cabarrus Cheap Seats
Winter Patriot
Reno and Its Discontents
HE&OS--Home Education & Other Stuff
Wigderson Library & Pub
Scholars & Rogues
Jack and Jill Politics
Slow Cooker Recipes

Please click those links, have a look around each site, see what you like and then support the blog of your choice (if any). You may vote vote once a day in each category until the voting closes next week.

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In the slithering race, Gus Van Horn has taken the early lead, with more votes than the other nine combined.

Your chilly scribe occupies the middle of the pack, within striking distance of second place, but trailing several other slithering reptiles, including Slow Cooker Recipes, where the slogan is "Slow Cooking and Food for Slow Cookers and Crockpots", and the most recent post is called "Slow Cooker Recipes - quick and easy dinner recipes - Cocktail Wennies"

No kidding. Cocktail wennies for dinner. How much quicker and easier can you get?

All you need is:

2 pks Oscar Myer Link Sauages (lttle wennies)
1 sm jar yellow mustard
1 sm jar red current jelly

And here's what you do:

Dump Weenies [sic] in a crock pot
Dump Yellow mustard and Red Current Jelly on top

Heat on high till bubbly than turn down on low
To serve place slotted serving spoon beside crock pot remove lid
Also place small glass with party toothpicks so that people won't get sauce
on their hands eating the wennies

By the way, that last bit is a great idea. You really don't want people getting sauce on their hands eating the wennies because that sauce is hot (and sticky!) and it will deprive them of the pleasure they would otherwise enjoy while eating those lttle wennies! So please don't forget the toothpicks!! And use party toothpicks if at all possible -- the regular toothpicks are so gauche!

~~~

Alas, this post is not all about slithering reptiles, little wennies and sticky fingers. There are also "adorable rodents" to be considered. A Tiny Revolution is in the adorable rodent finals, and Jon Schwarz, who writes a really great blog, certainly deserves your support.

One of my other favorites is in the finals as well. Mike Golby's YBLOG ZA is a finalist in "Best Middle East or African Blog", so if you don't already have a favorite in that category, please vote for Mike Golby and his amazing blog.

In the big categories, I do hope you'll vote for Raw Story under "Best Blog". I know it's not a blog but they apparently don't, and Michelle Malkin is leading that category at the moment, so who cares whether Raw's a blog or not? It's the best site on the list by far in my opinion and it deserves a lot more support than it's getting -- hint, hint!

Two of the writers from Raw Story are in the blog finals as well. Lindsay Beyerstein, of the blog Majikthise, is up for Best Individual Blogger. And Larisa Alexandrovna's blog At-Largely is on the short list of Best Political Coverage. You could vote for them every day and get no complaint from me.

~~~

It's been fun but I gotta run. The wennies are hot and I'm hungry. I'll be back with more of the usual fare in a little while, if I can find some toothpicks!

OK! There they are! I'll be back soon. And please don't forget to vote.

Weblog Awards: Finalists Announced

[Updated below]

The finalists have been announced in all the major categories at the Weblog Awards.

Congratulations to Raw Story for making the finals along with Huffington Post, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Sullivan and others in the "Best Blog" category (yeah, I know, Raw Story isn't a blog, but who cares?) and also to Raw's managing editor Larisa Alexandrovna, whose blog At-Largely also made the short list in "Best Political Coverage".

Congrats also to Mike Golby, whose Y BLOG ZA has made the finals in the category "Best Middle Eastern or African Blog" (where he's up against Iraq The Model, among others).

There are other familiar names on the list (such as Talking Points Memo, Captain's Quarters and Hullabaloo), and I was disappointed but not surprised to note that Chris Floyd's Empire Burlesque and Arthur Silber's Once Upon A Time were not among them. Oh well. Too much unvarnished truth is clearly a very dangerous thing.

Voting begins tomorrow, and I hope you will support Larisa and Mike and any of your other favorite bloggers who happened to make the cut.

UPDATE: the finalists in the "ecosystem categories" were announced after I started writing this post; I was astonished and very honored to find out (via a comment from The Wendigo) that this frozen blog has been selected as a finalist in one of them ("Best of the Top 6751 - 8750 Blogs"). Readers of Jon Schwartz will be pleased to learn that "A Tiny Revolution" is also a finalist (for "Best of the Top 2501 - 3500 Blogs").

By the way, WP is classed as a "slithering reptile" in the ecosystem, while ATR is an "adorable rodent". And with that out of the way, I'm humble to say Thanks again for your support and Please support your favorite bloggers.

Voting begins tomorrow, as I understand it, and runs for about a week. You may vote once per day per category. And if I ever find out more, I will share it.

Weblog Nominations Are Closed: Thanks For Your Support

Nominations have closed and the selectors are working on their short lists for the 2007 Weblog Awards, where it has been an honor to be nominated in no less than four categories, along with such talented and dedicated patriots as Chris Floyd, Larisa Alexandrovna, Arthur Silber and Michelle Malkin. It's also been my privilege to nominate a few excellent but largely unrecognized bloggers, and of course I hope they are all selected for the next phase.

The short lists -- 10 finalists in each of 45 categories -- will be posted in just a few days, and then the voting will commence. Unlike the nomination process, in which you were asked to register or sign in or else comment anonymously and await moderation, voting will require no registration or login and the results will be visible in real time ... or so they say. I'll let you know when the lists are posted so you can join me in supporting our favorite bloggers. I'm looking forward to voting early and often.

Early and often? Hey! That's a joke! It's an election-integrity joke, too! There aren't too many of those around, and that's a shame, isn't it?

But seriously: you can only vote once in each category ... unless you have access to the secret proprietary source code ... or you can change the memory card on the machine ... or you know the secret sequence of invisible controls that flip the result -- Hey! What do you know? 51% for me!! It's a miracle!!

Hey! That's another joke! Come ON! Would I kid you about something as serious as election integrity?

Nominations Open For 2007 Weblog Awards

Here's a nice chance to help more readers find your favorite blogs:

Nominations for The 2007 Weblog Awards are now open! The Weblog Awards is the world's largest blog competition, with over 1.5 million votes cast in the last four years for nearly 1,500 blogs.

I've already been thinking about which blogs I want to nominate, and now I'm trying to figure out which categories will be most suitable for them.

And I can't deny I'd be honored if anyone wished to nominate this frozen blog -- in any category at all!

But the main thing, as my mother always used to tell us, is to participate!