I’m reluctant to post this, because it’s a little embarrassing and it might ruin my reputation..
     But, after passing out ten Rated E for Excellent awards, I ended up getting passed Judy’s (of Sugar Queen’s Dream) “Sweet as Sugar” award, and being paid a tremendous compliment, by that crazy canuck known as Fracas:

Now those who might think being a sweetie is reserved for women couldn’t be more wrong. In his day to day life, I happen to know that Mark is a sweetie to not just his lovely woman… but to a whole host of people that look to him for help, advice, friendship and all that good stuff. So Mark… suck this one up. You’re a sweetie and I guess you’ll just have to live with it.

     Without the quote, it was a little embarassing, however, I understand and appreciate the sentiment.  Though I’m a bit of a wildcard at times, and some people might not see it. 

     I’m supposed to pass this on to three more people.  The fact is, I have a lot of great friends, I know a lot of good people, and I’m acquainted with many more.  Out of that lot, it’d be absolutely impossible for me to pick three who deserve it more than others.
     That said, however, there are three people in my life who epitomize selflessness.  They’re “Sweet as Sugar.”  And they’re not bloggers.

     The first person on that list is my Wildcat.  And I know that may not come as a shock to anyone, but it’s true.  Everyone who knows this woman has nothing but good things to say about her.  She works in a hospital, and can bring a smile to the face of the most distraught.  Everyone around town adores her, and they’re extremely protective of her.
     Mind you, it can be difficult on occasion.  She’s so genuinely caring of others that she sometimes forgets to take time for herself.  And if there’s any question that she’s a Saint, the fact that she picked — and puts up with — me speaks volumes.

     The next two are in their eighties, and sharp as ever.  I’ve known them my entire life, and enjoyed their kindness, company and wit throughout.  They’ve treated me like I was their own child, and still continue to show me that no matter what happens, they’re there for me.
     And sometimes I feel like a bad son because I don’t see them as often as I should.  Schedules conflict, out of town, tried to call — all the usual excuses.  But when it comes right down to it, I simply haven’t put forth enough effort.  That’s something that I know I need to rectify.

     So that’s my three.  Sorry I’m breaking a meme, but sometimes we need to honor people outside of the blogosphere. 

     Amusingly, WhoreChurch has awarded blogitude.com the Excellent Blog award due to the following reason:

Mark gets the award because he would beat me up if I didn’t give him the award.

     While the reasoning is patently untrue (I’d be more likely to beat him for saying I’m “not unavailable” *snicker*) the award — and thought — is appreciated.

     And thus, I pass the Award along to these five:

• Fracas, because she’s also twisted hilarious, and because she’s impressed me with her mad marketing skills over the last year;
• Diva’s Ranting Again (formerly Divalicious), because Diva would beat me up if I didn’t give her the award;
• The Silverbacks, because it’s hilarious, and pretty much the first place I click on the off days when I start surfing;
• Absolutely True, which is basically the Blog version of News of the Weird;
• and last, but certainly not least, Instapinch, for having the balls to live in DC and be a Patriot — at the same time, even!  That’s an impressive feat these days!  Plus, it’s fun as Hell watching him rip a Moonbat apart piece by piece and feed him back his words. 

     So, kudos, ya’ll.  Pass it on to five more. 

 UPDATE: 7:16PM EST

     Ok, I just noticed that it’s supposed to be TEN, not FIVE.  I am a dork.

     And so, in keeping it Local, I’ll add to the list the Usual Suspects:

• The Cutting Edge
• Reality Me!
• Domestic Psychology
• Oh … Really?
• The House of Flying Monkeys

     Enjoy!

I make my rounds down  at Blogger’s Landing on a daily basis. 

Here you’ll find all kinds of people.  You find folks who rant and rave, folks who have public service announcements, folks reflecting on life… you name it you’ll find it.  

I recently saw something that has been bugging the piss out of me.  I’m not going to make a daily stop at a particular page anymore because it is a major buzz kill to my joy and happiness factor.  And God knows, I don’t need anybody kicking me out of joy and happiness.  I won’t name any names, that wouldn’t be right.

This is just a public service announcement so that folks will realize that a blog that is used as a platform for a non-stop personal vendetta is extremely boring.

I’m not the victim of the below bunch of bullshit.  I’m not even sure I know who the victim of this blogger is, but I know for a long, long time this has been going on and frankly I’m bored as a monkey with no fucking trees to swing from with it all.  I don’t think I’ll be passing by her blog for tea and crumpets again because her style of writing makes me sad.

It’s a mean nasty person who is constantly stirring up crap with an people by constantly picking old wounds to keep them open.

I totally understand the occassional happening with an ex and it being something interesting or even just something a sister needs to vent about. Or a past ghost comes up and bites a brother in the ass…. makes for interesting reading and is perfectly acceptable. 

But, when someone makes it part of their daily routine to check up on and often write crap about someone, it’s sad.  These kind of people need to get a life.  A real life, not fantasy world. 

Whether whatever happened was right or wrong on either side, enough is enough.  The slamming of another person and constant degradation is boring to say the least.  I don’t think the person I’m referring to bothers to check my shit out, but if they do, I hope they are not infatuated enough with themselves not to realize this is a wake up call.  Knock it off. 

Get a fucking life, or not.  I don’t care either way. I’m a big girl and I can just stay away from your blogs.

Ok, so they really actually reach over and smack my goodies, no. Too bad, huh? They actually cyber slapped with a meme. After they read my answers, they’ll think long and hard (heh I said long and hard)… =)

With the fact that I’m pretty boring in mind… everybody knows I love my kids and family and all the good stuff people tend to take for granted, so I shall give insight into who I am on a deeper level.

All Of The Eight Things You Didn’t Want To Know About Me

Eight Things I am Passionate About:
1. Widdling down Big T’s many collections.
2. Coffee (need I.V. drip STAT!)
3. SEX woooo hoooo! yah, I said SEX in all caps.
4. Taking the boy to see the monkeys the zoo at least once a month.
5. Bill Clinton being first lady gets me hot.
6. Karaoke. I AM DIVA, hear me roar
7. Blogging cuz ya’ll put up with my whining and verbal vomit.
8. Ignoring people who are drama freaks.

Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die
1. Invent something cool that will get my name in the news (any ideas?)
2. Give forth one more mini-me that will in turn drive me crazy like the others do (uh, maybe. It might just be temporary insanity)
3. Route 66 with Big T, a camera, & a cooler of cold beer (Cold beer and the worlds biggest ball of yarn!!)
4. Quit being flaky and actually go to a blogfest (I suck)
5. Join the mile high club (I travel alot and I just want my wings)
6. Lose enough weight to wear sexy slutty tight around the ass jeans (just once)
7. See Van Halen and the Police in concert (I missed it back in the day)
8. Get Dancin with the Stars good at Latin Dancing (reow sexy sexy)

Eight Things I Say Often
- “For fuck sake”
- “Bite me”
- “And you want me to do what about it?”
- “I’m gonna love you forever and ever. Amen.”
- “Stop bitchin’. You’re goin’ to school!”
- “You suck!”
- “Good morning, ‘insert company name’”
- “What are you thinkin?”

Eight Books I’ve Recently read
1. It’s Happy Bunny. Life, Get One. (only 10 pages with big pictures)
2. Killing Yourself With a Fork & Knife (read half)
3. Elevate Your Life (one month devotional with short stories)
4. Tuesdays with Morrie (still working on it)
5. Herotica

I have ADHD and can’t sit still long enough to read a book very often. I stick to recipes, blogs, and magazine articles.

Eight Movies I’ve Recently Seen
- 1408 (kinda creepy)
- Mr. Brooks (extremely psycho)
- Premonition (easily confused me)
- Oceans 13 (I needed a nap anyway)
- Come Early Morning (Jeffrey Donovan makes me wet)
- Elizabethtown (actaully a good movie after I got over Orlando being in it)
- A History of Violence (Ed Harris made me sad cuz he was evil)
- I Now Pronouce You Chuck & Larry (Hahahaha. I highly recommend)

Eight Songs That I Could Listen To Over And Over
* You’re In My Heart - Rod Stewart
* Your Man - Josh Turner
* Candy - Will Smith
* Forever - Will Smith
* Rocky Top - Pride of the Southland Marching Band
* Rapper’s Delight - Sugar Hill Gang
* Gold Digger - Kanye West
* The Most Beautiful Girl - Prince

Eight Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends
(I’m keepin it real and keepin Sugar’s answers to this one. Kudos.)
Honesty
Laughter
Energy
Intelligence
Pride
Morals
None judgmental
Ethics

Eight Things I Have Learned This Past Year
- You can’t merge two families and not expect kaos.
- Don’t get pissed, make fun of it.
- I found out who my friends are.
- I went around the mountain ten times but got the wedding planned and executed. I will never plan another wedding, ever.
- My baby girls can accept change and go with the flow.
- No matter how nice I am to my EX, that’s he’s always gonna be a dick.
- Life is lived one day at a time.
- I need to relax more

Eight People That Should Do This Meme and Not Complain:
- Chuckie @ What’s Up Chuck?
- Lenae @ Flat Coke & Flies
- Ms. P @ Fresh Taste of Banana Puddin
- Robert @ Observations from the Back 40
- m@ @ Animal Mind
- Mark @ Blogitude.com
- Lee @ Vicinity of Obscenity

     Sure, the Asshat Conartist — err, Ashwin Khanna — thing left us all with a bad taste in our mouths.

     But it amazes me that a legitimate, $50 Contest sponsored by SomeMakeMoney.com is still short five entries after several months.  The contest was setup July 29th, and entries have only trickled in…

     For a few more “legitimate contests,” be sure and check out Contest Blogger, which contains not only some great contests, but a few nice SEO tricks to help bloggers build a little ‘net value.

     So between Work and Wildcat, I haven’t been around much lately.  Go figure!

     It’s no big secret — err, well, maybe it is — that I’ve been doing IT work since 1986.  Not your average IT guy, mind you, but the type who gets a Monday morning call, gets on a plane, and goes and fixes something at a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Malaysia, then gets back in time to have a beer with the Pirate Chicks™ on Wednesday night.
     In and out, real fast, get paid.  That’s the way I like it.

(Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPM7jdE7gWs)

     No, I didn’t mean like that, although, I have had my days…

     Last year, I hooked up with the owner of a business of the Adult variety.  She marketed my skills pretty well (no, seriously, not like that!), and I ended up working on a few websites and servers which I probably never would have had they not been so professional.  I mean, these are business people, first and foremost, and if you can keep your head around nudity and porn and do your job, then you’re going to be highly regarded.
     And so it was today that I ended up working on two servers for one such customer, and learning a hosting control panel that I’d never seen before, all the while brushing up on the foreign language it was written in.
     A good day.  A busy day.  And paid in full for my services already, which is almost unheard of these days.

     I was supposed to pick up the Wildcat earlier today, but circumstances beyond our control prevented it.
     Since I’d already scheduled around it, however, it gave me time to sit down and catch up on what used to be my regular blog reads.  One of them pointed me towards a “new” blogger, Gina at Life’s Short, where I found something that had me laughing my ass off for a solid half hour.

     I expect great things from this one. 

UPDATE 24-Aug-2007:
Actually, Ashwin Khanna is a scamming little prick.

     Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

     Seriously … No memes, no tagging, no ridiculousness … I figured, “Hey, why not?”  Check it out…

Tip: Gerri at Absolutely True

Some Make Money is giving away $50 for some linkage. Follow the directions below and go post a comment about it here for a chance at a portrait of Grant.

** Start Copy Here **

We all know how important getting link backs is and with this chain, you can get the ball rolling! You don’t have to be an established blogger to take part in this chain.

Here are the rules:
1. Copy this post from the point where it says “Start Copy Here” to the point where it says “End Copy Here”
2. Add yourself and 5 of your favorite bloggers to the end of the list.
3. Post this on your blog

Enkay Blog | Ms. Danielle | Cash For Comments | BetShopBoy | JohnCow | Mr. Gary Lee | Jon Lee | Dosh Dosh | Some Make Money | The King Kong Blog | RomanDock | Michael Kwan | Ed Lau | Jane May | Sam Breadstone | Windows Tips, Tricks and Hacks | ProBlogger | The Beef Jerky Blog | The Prize Blog | Online Coupon Codes | Jamaipanese | Rugjeff | ShadowScope | The News Press Net | JohnWaraas | Online Opportunity | Sara | Gaje Master | Graphic Design | romandock dot com | RevieWOW | Drunken Housewife | Sparemoolah | Anton | LR2 | JugglingCats | SkyWindows | Fracas | Blogitude.com | Oh… Really? | Reality Me! | Domestic Psychology | Swank Blather |

**End Copy Here**

     This thing’s been going ’round and ’round, and I read several of these blogs at least a few times a week (if not daily).  So … Let’s get on with it.

-Start Copy-

It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)

Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!

Just think– if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. ****
http://www.neonscent.com/
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. ****
http://www.bushmackel.com/
3. Don’t let money change ya! *****
http://www.therandomforest.info/
4. Always reply to your comments. ***
http://chattiekat.com/
5. Blog about what you know & love. *
http://sugar-queens-dream.blogspot.com/
6. Alt tag your images for added search engine exposure. *
http://fracas.wordpress.com/
7. You can’t please everyone — just write what you feel. *
http://www.blogitude.com/

-End Copy-

Fracas said it best:

I am tagging: Because this meme is helpful and if done, can provide links to those who choose to do it, I’m not pointing the finger at anyone in particular but offering it up to anyone who wants to do it. If you want, also feel free to nab the graphic I’ve created to add a bit of fun. Just remember that if you’re doing the meme, you should make sure you carry over the links to the people on the list. Otherwise, their tiPs aren’t getting a fair shake.

Although… that said… I’m gonna tag one person: Anton.

GirlieGeek tagged me a while back to do this shameless meme, but I’ve been in the dark ages for a while and I’m just now getting to it.

I’m supposed to give 8 totally random facts about who Diva is.

So, here we go:

1.  Diva is a very young grandmother at the ripe old age of 36.  Tyler is a two year old -mohawk sportin - curtain crawler and is truly the love of my life! 

2.  Diva digs travel.  I found a super swell job back in 2000 and stayed here.  It affords me the luxury of travelling both the U.S. and Europe.  I’ve been everywhere I’ve ever thought I might want to go and then some.

Diva just found out today she’s going on a European hoooo-haaaaa in October with stops in Germany, Budapest, Italy and France.  I friggin love my job!

3. Diva does karaoke.   I’m a junkie.  I go to Vegas, I karaoke.  I go to NYC, I karaoke.  Everywhere I go, the camera goes with.  Why, to add to my karaoke scrapbook that was started in 1998.

4.  Diva worked her way through school as an adult.  I was a complete idiot in my younger years and didn’t figure I needed an ed-u-ma-cation cuz I was a-gettin married and he’d take care of me.  Sha, right.  In 2000, I went back to school and graduated in 2006.  Go me!

5.  Diva is on the road to freedom.  By the time I reach the big 4-0:  both of my kids will have graduated high school, I will have my MBA, I will lose a bunch more weight (fingers crossed here), and I will be footloose and fancy free.

6.  Diva loves a super cool cat named Tony.  I’m about to get hitched in September. Pretty cool, huh?

7.  Diva and her bridal party are going to trash our dresses immediately after the wedding/reception.  We haven’t quite figured out said method, but I’m sure it will include rescue scuba divers and a two story dock on Norris.   Zacque, grab your camera.  Mark, grab the scuba gear.

8.  I am an offical member of the Knoxville Zoo.  My Tyler is a lover of the camels, therefore, we venture to the zoological gardens often.  I figured out that it was going to be cheaper in the long-run to have a grandparent annual pass, so I could take the boy to see the animals anytime we want to go.

Diva chooses to tag the following kiddies:

Fracas (because she tagged me, paybacks are a bitch)

Mushy (because he drinks to everything)

And anyone else who’s bored and would like to do it.