It’s always blissful when another blogger recognizes my blog as a blog that bloggers approve. I enjoy the recognition. So when I was recognized for the aptly named “Blogger Recognition Award” by Suze over in Suziland I was, to say the least, tickled. Thank you, Suze! The rules? Tell a tale:
One particularly dark winter a nearly complete man delved deeply into the recesses of his own intellectual bowels. Finding within the pages of his private journal something worthy yet hidden, he made a sudden declaration: “I should begin a blog!” Months later, on a January morning in the year of 2016, in a grand tavern nearby, the man made another, similar declaration among peers: “I think I’m going to start a blog,” he said, rather meekly, speaking mostly into his frothy beer. “Delightful!” came a response. “Oh, you must!” came another. “Please, I will read every one!” another responded. “Don’t be a maroon,” said one, but such wise words were never heeded and, furthermore, are not welcome in bars.
And so there came a day, a day unlike any other, when the nearly complete man became complete. He started a blog. Initially, he started it and kept it private except for a few eyes and called it “The Largely Incidental Words of a Nearly Complete Man That Decided To Blog While Sitting In a Bar, and Did So Despite the Unwelcome Advice of a Wise Person” but decided the name was unwieldy and the privacy unhelpful.
So this man settled on “Being Tom” because he liked the lyrical sound of tom.com, but found it too short and ill defined. As fortune would have it, however, the name “Being Tom” was already copyrighted and underutilized by an interior designer in New Zealand, so the name was lengthened to the now renowned tombeingtom.com. The blog, incidentally, is about Tom, being Tom, for whatever that means. In the dictionary the word “tom” means “now complete man.” It really doesn’t, but it should.
I am to follow my origin story, it is said, with a bit of advice for new bloggers. My advice? Copy everything you see here, post it somewhere else, and give me all due credit. You can call your blog “Me Being Tom Being Tom.” Really, there will be no blog like it in the world, unless of course 12 of you do it, then there would be only 12 of them like it in the world. Okay, okay, if you don’t want to do that because you eschew great success, do this instead:
Write from your heart, do so frequently, thoroughly, and succinctly (but not too frequently, thoroughly or succinctly), and visit other bloggers with honest intent to shower them with witty, insightful, and very public feedback. The first part is to make your content remarkable. The second is to draw to you readers that shall then remark. As my buddy Fleetwood once said to his buddy Mac, “You should never break the chain (never break the chain).” Fleety was always following his advice with an exact parenthetical repeat of that advice, for some reason.
Okay, now I am to select “up to fifteen” bloggers to recognize with said award. I could go all Oprah and say “awards for everyone!” but instead I’ll recognize some of those who have been with me since nearly the start, who participate in my weekly rants, and whose words have guided me through many a cold, wintry night. Ready?
Oh Dasher, Oh Dancer, Oh Prancer, Oh Vixen. Oh Comet, Oh Cupid, Oh Donner, Oh Blitzen. You too, Rudolph. I could not have made it, and would not keep coming back, without your guiding lights. Thank you for being you, you need to be recognized. Do with it what you will.
(If you do choose to participate, post your origin story and give a couple of bits of advice to the noobs.)
Folks, have a Merry Christmas, find completeness, be you, and always, always recognize the people in your life that you love that love you.
It’s so easy even a Tom could do it. π
Congratulations, Tom! Merry Christmas to you and yours ππ
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Thank you, Rita! And a very, merry Christmas to you and yours, as well! π π€π
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π»
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Way to get recognition!!
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Thanks, George! Merry Christmas to you!
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Congrats Pastor Tom Pole Saw! Very well deserved!!! Happy Holidays Tom
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Thank you, Huntress! Have a Marvelous Day! π€
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I’ll be me too.That’s the best thing I can do.
Merry Christmas, Tom, and lots of joy and good stories.
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Thank you, Bojana!
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Gawd, I absolutely adore you!
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Likewise, Suze! Merry Xmas!
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F’ing Tom Being Tom is da f’ing man!!!!
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F’ing right he f’ing is! β
Hope you had a great Xmas, Gill. π
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Hope you had a wonderful Xmas T and have a healthy, happy and productive, however you choose to define that, 2020
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Thank you, Steve! And the very same to you. Best wishes with the house(s)!
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Well, hello there.
Here from Mole’s post. I will have a look around if you don’t mind.
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Please do! Try to leave things the way you found them, or better. π Welcome to TBT, fg!
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Congratulations! This was an awesome tale! Good advice, too. Iβm dying! LOL! You are hilarious Brother Tom!ππ«
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Thank you, Kim! I hope you saw that you were one of the reindeer “awarded.” Donner, I believe you are. π
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Iβm very impressed! That was brilliant how you did that!!! Yes, I am Donner. Thanks so much for including me in such a great group of bloggers! Iβm humbled to be included! Thanks Tom!
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Well deserved, Kim. Tribe!
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Not only am I proud to be included in such an amazing group of people, I got Dancer! You know me so well (although if one of the reindeer had been called Player One, I know you would have bestowed that on me, haha!)
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No fog can stop the glowing cheeks and nose of Trainwine!
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π€£π€£π€£
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Love your style of writing! I’ll be reading more. π
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Thank you!
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Thank you, Jill! Welcome aboard!
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How appropriate that I was named Dasher because I nearly missed this in the holiday crush, and all hopes would have been dashed, but fortunately I was clued in by one of my fellow nominees. Thank you for the recognition–it means a lot to be recognized by someone whose work I enjoy, and there seems to be a lot of that going around this season, but that’s another story.
I shall now dash away to offer an origin story of my own. I’ll try to make it original.
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I was surprised, I must admit, that you had the same old rehashed radioactive goldfish story we’ve seen a thousand times before. But it just goes to show you, in a universe this vast and unassuming, the likelihood of eating a uranium-infused Carassius auratus is remarkably high. I’m just glad you use your powers for good (and to collect wooden nickels). Otherwise, with one snap of my finger … ah, but that’s another story. π
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Congrats Tom! I’m glad to have run across your blog this year and look forward to reading more of your stuff in the new year.
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Likewise, Arionis! Thanks!
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Thank you so much for the nickname and the recognition!!!! I do have to ask how you decided on Prancer for me.
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Haha! I was playing off the whole “graceful” theme, Grace! π
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