Sunday, April 22, 2007

Usin' my noggin

What have a Minnesotan evolutionist, a grandma in Texas, an acclaimed writer from Terengganu and a camera phone pest in KL got in common? They are all recipients of the Thinking Blogger Award. Which begs the question, what is a “thinking blogger”?

When I was bestowed the award (twice) by Ms. Blabs and Pugly, my first thought was: Thinking Blogger? Is there any other kind? I began to think whether it is really useful to label a blogger as a thinking one.

My instruction, in tagging my choice of Thinking Bloggers, was to tag blogs that make me think. But surely a "blog that makes you think" is not only one that is constantly spouting profound wisdom on his/her blog?

Would that mean that bloggers who write only about the routine aspects of their life should be excluded? Does a person who lovingly blog about his cats not make you think? Or is the foodie who frequently keeps us up-to-date about fabulous eating places in town (with lots of photos to go with the post) not worthy of the award?

The blogsphere is a wonderful medium for expressing anything you want (within reasonable bounds) and there will always be an audience who would consider any one of your posts intriguing.

I will get down to the task that I have been entrusted with soon enough but let me deal with some other questions that have been nagging me. By which route did the tag reach me? Are all the people before me of the same ilk?

The only way to find this out is to trace back all the recipients of the award that leads back to Ilker, the creator of the tag. So I did!

(in reverse order, leading back to the originator)

37. Almost Anonymous
36. Pugly / Nights Over Egypt
35. Dina Zaman / The Splenderful Chronicles
34. Eliza’s Haberdashery / Kak Teh's Choc-a-Blog Blog
33. Bibliobibuli
32. Greening the Blue Planet
31. Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic
30. The Sleepy Reader
29. 3M’s Review
28. This is the Life
27. The Song of My Soul
26. Fruit In Season
25. Sting My Heart
24. Laurel Wreath
23. Middle Years
22. Rocking Chair Reflections
21. Morning Glory
20. Ordinary Mom
19. Temporary? Insanity
18. The Smiling Infidel
17. Slacker Moms R Us
16. The State of Discontent
15. I Obsess
14. 24/7
13. Red Neck Mommy
12. A Work of Art
11. Under The Mad Hat
10. Bub and Pie
9. So Fast Away
8. Life, the Ongoing Education
7. California Teacher Guy
6. History Is Elementary
5. Another History Blog
4. Primordial Blog
3. Sandwalk
2. Greg Laden
1. The Thinking Blog

Amazing! Don’t you think?

==================================================
My nominations for the Thinking Blogger Award go to:

Pazuzu’s The Floating Turd: He writes an enormous amount of crap, as the title of the blog suggests, but as you will find, not without a lot of thought. Don’t forget to read his accompanying blog, which is a fun satire on Malaysian politics.

Ridzwan’s Ridzwan.com
: This self-titled blog frequently deals with issues facing Singaporean Malays. He puts across his ideas eloquently. I don’t agree with everything he says which makes reading it even more compelling.

Lokman’s The Blokeman: Lokman is another Malay Singaporean blogger who defends the Singapore ethos strongly. He stands for no nonsense and provides an insight into why his countrymen are such resilient creatures.

Cikgu Lee: Just when you think Malay blogs are boring, here comes one which brings fresh air to the genre. A Chinese blogger who can use my mother tongue better than I do certainly gets me thinking.

Suria Matahari: Why not? She reminds me that family and friends matter most. That’s worth thinking about.

Note to tagged bloggers:

Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award!

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

Remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking!

21 comments:

Blabarella said...

Goodness, you actually took the trouble to trace how the tag started, amazing!! And perhaps a lot of time on the hands in the interim? hehehe

Thanks for doing this! The blogs you highlighted sound like they're definitely worth checking out!

an0nymous-ign0ranus said...

good choice in pazuzu. i wowship the feller.

bibliobibuli said...

Would that mean that bloggers who write only about the routine aspects of their life should be excluded? Does a person who lovingly blog about his cats not make you think? Or is the foodie who frequently keeps us up-to-date about fabulous eating places in town (with lots of photos to go with the post) not worthy of the award?

well said. there are so many blogs i enjoy for a whole variety of reasons. i don't think one needs to blog on big themes and public issues to be a great blogger.

the n ice thing about the award is that it creates a trail of very enjoyable blogs which are very different from each other.

congrats on being part of the chain

NinJaMoo said...

Whoa! You did a trace! Good job!

izso said...

I'm glad my blog is so nonsensical and plain obvious as it is. That way I don't get tagged for anything other than really silly things like top 10 pet hates or something. I can live with top 10 lists.

And congrats on the trace, how the heck did you manage that anyway?

Mr Incognito said...

Ms. Blabs & NinJaMoo >>> it was fun doing the trace but only recommended for people with LOTOTH (lots-of-time-on-their-hands)and minor OCD

Babe >>> i would say that too but then it might conjur the wrong message

bibliobibuli >>> thanks :) you noted the difference too? we may be more similar than we imagine, actually

izso >>> no brainer, this one. just follow the links. but your blog is not nonsensical and plain obvious. even if it is, who cares as long as we have fun reading it.

EHT said...

I'm very impressed that you would/could take the time to trace your personal "thinking blogger" ancestry. It's interestng to see where it went after it left my site.

Ed said...

congratulations on the award!

Indeed deservedly bestowed on you! Just wondering what took them so long to get you the award!??

Indeed Mr Incognnito is a thinking blogger! And bro the invitation to Sg is still open!

akula said...

wo beb, Thinking blog, and I just started mine.

The Pisces Man said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Pisces Man said...

Haha, I just asked the same question to another blogger who had been tagged this Award thing.. (another thing that we share in common huh? Hahahaha). This leads to the question that, are you sure you have tracked down all the recipients of the "award" 'coz I noticed two blogs are missing (including the blog where I posed those similar questions to).

Anyway, I've seen ppl being tagged before on certain topics or themes. But this time, it's quite weird laa. Just keep on tagging other people for the "award" huh? Hmmm... sounds like a get-rich-quick money making scheme to me, where money is invested but no product is involved, except that in this case, no money is involved of course... :o

Mr Incognito said...

elementaryhistoryteacher >>> sometimes i surprise myself! nice of u to drop by.

Edroos >>> looking forward to that, my friend.

akula >>> it looks like a hit already

The Pisces Man >>> these are just the direct predecessors of the tag so not every blog would be included. Anyway, i can't get rich from this. It's just a nice back-patting exercise.

The Pisces Man said...

Hope u didnt take me the wrong way... that was a joke by the way, and you sounded rather serious.. :)

Mr Incognito said...

The Pisces Man >>> Fuhgeddaboudit (in my best mafia voice)

Anonymous said...

Oh man...i am so not worthy la to be tagged if i had that old blog heh? ;) Man...you got plenty of time or wat to do the tracing back....!

Unknown said...

Hi Mr Incognito,

My my! Such passion for detective work here. Even if someone had LOTOTH (lots-of-time-on-their-hands)..ha ha, one still need to be intelligent lah to do it perhaps..dunno...I don't feel clever at all now!

Mr Incognito said...

ms italiano >>> i'm sure that old
blog would have picked up a few awards. i did the trace in one Saturday morning (surely u have blogged hopped more than 37 sites at one go before?)

ruby ahmad >>> or had nothing useful to write about

pugly said...

Don't you think you think too much for your own good sometimes?

Mr Incognito said...

pugly >>> yeah but see where it has got me

zewt said...

ahhh... so you're one of us... :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks a lot for the award. Wasn't aware that I even had that many readers.

I don't read that many blogs so it's gonna be slightly difficult passing the award on but I will eventually. I promise. Eventually. Really, promise.