they say you can’t win if you don’t play.

i’m at the Canadian Blog Awards, this year: http://cdnba.wordpress.com/.

thanks to Neil & Mad & possibly some other complimentary soul, i’m nominated in three categories: Best Overall Blog, Best Personal Blog, & Best Family Blog. i’m in damn good company. and so i need some votes. like, uh, daily. vote early, vote often. exercise your democratic rights.

i was nominated last year. and the year before. and i thought, “oh, how nice!” and sat demurely around hoping to be noticed. i said nothing. no posts about the nomination, no tweets. no facebook. and i quietly lost. duh.

i wasn’t raised to be a self-promoter. i come from a long line of people who’d swallow their own tongues and all their teeth rather than be thought to crow about their accomplishments. swear til the sailors blush, goes the family motto, but anything that might appear as pride? avoid such vulgarity on pain of death.

sometimes the change in times turns the pearls of family wisdom to vinegar. in the era of social media, if you sit on the sidelines waiting politely to be noticed, you miss your chance. that’s the point of the whole shebang. blogs and twitter and facebook and all the rest of it are a chance to speak one’s piece, try out one’s voice – or, uh, voices – and connect with people. to do that, you gotta put yourself out there. risk judgement. court the danger of disapproval. be so vulgar as to draw attention to yourself.

erm, MYself.

so, should you have a free fifteen seconds, you can vote for me here: http://cdnba.wordpress.com/vote-2009/

i’d love that.  and thank you.