Award Two, Too

So, I'm the recipient of yet another award. Dave is truly elated that he is speaking in third person and that happens only ever so often. Kudos to the giver of the award, jill at ~Life After College~. Her hilarious, genuine, thought-provoking, adventurous, entertaining, real-life and interesting perspectives on the real world after college are awesome.


Award Rules

1. Thank the person who gave the award, list their blog and link it.
2. Share "10 Honest Things" about yourself.
3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who encouraged you.
4. Tell those 7 people that they have been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

Ten Honest Things About Dave

1. I'm addicted to all chocolate snacks with either coconut or pecans mixed in.
2. I'm an amazing cook/chef/baker (yep, most definitely!) and dream about owning my own restaurant someday.
3. I have a degree in Biology with a minor in Neuroscience.
4. I usually don't remember movie quotes that often so I suck at those candid question games in bars.
5. I secretly hate Sponge Bob Square Pants. And Barney too. I think Dora is cool though. Also Mr. Krabs and Patrick are cool too.
6. I once ran over a squirrel while driving and it was totally the squirrel's fault. Plus it was night and all I felt was a small bump under my wheel.
7. I still open doors and pull out chairs for ladies. If I had money to burn, I might even have done the whole throw-your-coat-down-over-the-mud/puddle-for-lady-to-walk-across thing. And maybe a bit tipsy. I'd be insane to do that otherwise.
8. I have a passion for driving and also for blogging about horrible drivers I encounter daily.
9. I have a secret crush on Catherine Zeta Jones ever since Zorro.
10. I used to pretend to be Zorro as a kid with a broom for a sword and a pair of black underwear on my head for my mask. And the black towel for the cape. Imagine that.

Award Nominees

1. Mr. Knucklehead at Knucklehead. Although he's already received this award, he's truly a brilliant, creative, inspiring writer. DO check out his "What Happened To..." Series!! Seriously! Freakin' awesome!!
2. Neil at 1000 Awesome Things. If you haven't heard of this blog before, definitely check it out. This guy is known and featured everywhere from CNN to BBC to Esquire just to name a few!

3. Olivia at My Shoes Are Too Small. Amazing read so far that definitely brings a smile to my face and cracks me up!

The end! Roll credits!
Aargh!

P.S. So I was supposed to put seven but I've been busier doing this social experiment ('working at this part-time retail job'). Talk about blog material for months! Lol. And this explains why I've been absent for the past 15 days or so.

P.S.S. Retail is a fascinating, crazy world from the customers to the employees...

Award Two, Too

Baby's First Blog

So as I do every other day or so, I hit the "Next Blog" button on the Google dashboard above my blog's header. It's actually a great way to randomly find other blogs to read and comment on as well as a good way to possibly meet new bloggers. And hopefully, draw more traffic to your blog if you're interested in that...

Well, today was just one of those days. And firstly, I was glad that Google somehow heard my complaints. This time most of the blogs (more than 4/5) were in English. Yet this time I was still bothered! Instead of the results being random blogs in English like I wanted it to be, they seemed to be stuck in the same category as the first blog that I came across after leaving my site.

So, for five minutes I was lost all in travel blogs, then the next three minutes it was stirring around in all cooking blogs. I went back to my dashboard and started again, truly intent on finding some new blogs to read. This time, a family blog popped up. Well, rather a blog with dozens of pictures of someone's baby from every angle doing every possible thing from bathing to eating to sleeping to nursing. It creeped me out a bit I must admit.

Yet, what creeped me out even more was the fear that I was about to be stuck in another time warp of over-exposed and under-dressed kids, smiling moms and dads along for the ride. My scientific mind decided to do a statistical experiment to see how many I would come across before it stopped. Here are the results:

Overall Time Stuck In Family Blog Hel World: 28 minutes
Total Blogs Browsed: 123
Average Number of Blogs Browsed Per Minute: 4
Number of Female Authors: 119
Number of Male Authors: 4
Estimated Average Number of Pictures of Kids Per Blog: Error - Number Outside Count Range
Estimated Average Number of Pictures of Kids Per Article:8
Estimated Average Number of Inappropriate Pictures of Kids: Error - Way Too Effin Much!?!
Amount of Personal/Classified/Private Information Shared: Error - Way Too Effin Much!?!

Am I the only one who feels a bit uneasy about this? And imagine I'm not even the parents posting pictures,  names, birthdays, pictures of their houses both inside and outside, addresses etc. I'm mortified at the thought of how easy this could be accessed by the wrong person. On the news you see way too many instances of sick adults who indulge in even sicker pleasures that end up in innocent children being hurt. This is like leaving a kid in a candy store overnight with free access to everything (pun intended). It's all out there like Britney Spears' famous exiting-car-showing-vajajay shots or Spencer Pratt's lack of appeal/intelligence/charisma.

So, yes while I understand that you may be so proud of your newborn or offspring (which I congratulate and support), it may be true (gasp!) that not everyone may be as enthusiastic as you are. Obviously I'd expect family, close friends, and blogger with similar persuasions to be the ones you'd share these photos, smiles, laughter and moments with. Yet, always consider that leaving such a blog fully open and non-restricted may not always be a great idea. Way too many sickos and perverts out there. Try restricting the availability of your 'kid's' blog a bit to be safe.

This is one of the ills of the vastly extensive social networking capabilites of society today. Anybody and I mean anybody (sex offenders down the street, perps in jail) can network or blog. They can even use a fake name and profile. After all the milk cartons, child abduction reports, and ads in the newspaper scare me enough and I don't have a kid!

On a different note, some of these pictures are truly hilarious. Even funnier is the captions that some of these mothers put. Not only am I concerned that if these kids ever read this blog later when they grow up they may be scarred but that they may be pissed that whatever their mom wrote was definitely NOT what they were thinking at the time. Some captions were:

HOPPY WEEN (kid smiling in bunny costume for Halloween)
Bucket head (kid with bucket over head)
I like my ducky (slightly annoyed kid given a bath)I
I love when my mommy rubs soap on my head (same as above)
I made stinky! (child given a diaper change)
Nearly naked baby! (pretty much naked baby)
I came out of my mommy's tummy (child sleeping in crib)
I can't find my hand, mommy! (kid with hand in pants)

Another thing that may come off as slightly annoying to some is the obsession you may have with posting a picture of every single thing your child does, wears, eats. By all means, keep a great record that you can look back on and treasure. Though sometimes instead of sharing it with the World Wide Wackos, try a CD or photo album instead. Yay!

Now can the "Next Blog" button link me to a different category? Please?

Aargh!


P.S. In keeping with the data obtained from my research, I have included 8 baby pictures in this article. Though not all I think one would be happy to post online.

Disclaimer: Dave "Loose Cannon" Wills, Mark My Words and http://markthisup.blogspot.com in no way condones, tolerates, promotes, supports, encourages, advertises, justifies or endorses child pornography, adverse pedophiliac behavior, and/or the excessive and irresponsible posting of under-dressed, over-exposed children online.

Baby's First Blog

I Lost My Virginity Last Weekend

Yes, it is true. I guess it finally happened. I've seen it happen to other people and now it has happened to me. I also join the club.

I have received my first peer-blogging award.

That's right, Mark My Words has had its award-receiving cherry popped and it is indeed a great feeling. The person guilt responsible for this generous deed is none other than the talented poet and writer, The.Kisser, at Kiss.The.Pen. She is a fantastic weaver of words, imagination, emotion and at times sensuality that arouses the mind and stimulates the brain. And body. Her unique art of words and flow is amazing.

After consulting the almost-all knowing Google as well as the giver of my award's page, I checked the rules. I am supposed to:
1. choose seven other bloggers/people to award (and let them know)
2. tell ten creative things about myself.

In true spirit of receiving this award, I also nominate seven other worthy bloggers.

1. Jason Polan at Every Person In New York. This blog really deserves this award for its creativity and talent. Here, a talented artist and people observes make anonymous sketches of everyday people and their activities in the busy streets and corners of New York.

2. taraSG at My Day in Six Words. Pictures can tell a thousand words or maybe a 1006? Great picture blog.

3. Benedict Jones at Notes From A Basement. Creative writing is his forte and his regular 50-word project is not just a good read but also intriguing and compelling.
 
4. Emily at One More Thing...  The way she tells a story about her adventures and experiences in life is superb. And it draws you in and evokes emotions that you can relate to. Good honest writing and soul-sharing.

5. CJ and Blondie at Blonde Monde. Every one loves blondes, right? Even more, trying to date them. What's even better is hearing about dating from their perspective. Talk about insider trading! Great blog.

6. KC Kelly at The Other 98¢. Great comedic, funny and interesting opinions and stories on life, people, news and everything in between.

7. Nomad at 365 Days of People. This awesome blogs chronicles the experiences we all encounter with different sets of people around us each day that we can't live with it or without. You're bound to find at least one group every other day that you can definitely agree with the author on. Good laughs and observations about people.

Check out these awesome blogs and tell them Dave "Loose Cannon" Wills sent you!


Ten creative things about myself,
 

1. I am an accomplished musician and play several instruments from piano to guitar to drums.
2. I too wax poetic and have considered myself a poet since childhood. Read me here.
3. I can do a backflip.
4. I paint at times, when I have time. I prefer oils too.
5. I like to make stick figures using modeling clay and sticks and pretend they're real life figures. Possible additional blog material? Hmm...
6. I play several sports and clearly am an outdoor person.
7. I used to (still like to) make awesome kites as a kid.
8. I'm pretty handy and can fix or repair stuff.
9. I'm a beast in the kitchen. Those unfamiliar with the phrase it means that I know the difference between a dash and a tablespoon and oregano and parsley.
10. I like extreme sports.

In true spirit of Mark My Words history,

Aargh!

P.S. There are many other fantastic bloggers who I read and follow so although they may not be listed here, you can find them on my follow list. Some have already gotten this award, some have others and some probably will get this same award really soon. Keep writing because Dave loves to read and comment!

I Lost My Virginity Last Weekend