97 ‘generations’
of
The Versatile Blogger
Award
- Purplume’s Blog – May 30, 2010
- Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories – June 23, 2010
- Addicted To Romance – June 8, 2010
- Book Mark Your Thoughts – June 8, 2010
- Badass Bookie – June 11, 2010
- Thoghts Enterred in Phrase – June 14, 2010
- The Daily Harrell – June 15, 2010
- Renae Mercado – June 16, 2010
- Amparo Ortiz – June 17, 2010
- YA Literature Lover – June 19, 2010
- T.K. Richardson – June 23, 2010
- Words from the Woods – June 29, 2010
- Patricia Stotley – July 2, 2010
- “Dishin’ It Out” – July 7, 2010
- Kate Masters – July 12, 2010
- Margaret West – July 12, 2010
- Walker’s Muse (now “Mass Musings”) – July 12, 2010
- Ashley’s Bookshelf – July 17, 2010
- Books That Bite – July 22, 2010
- Missy’s Reads and Reviews – June 27, 2010
- About Books Blog – July 27, 2010 (Passed it on to others in their comments before this post was published)
- WV Stitcher – July 3, 2010
- Copper Penny Designs – August 3, 2011
- StudioJuls – August 5, 2010
- EB Bead and Metal Works – August 6, 2010
- Copper Diem – August 7, 2010
- TyneBoden Necklaces – August 7, 2010
- Life of a Twingle Gal – August 8, 2010
- The Knit Wit – August 8, 2010
- And then there were 4 – August 12, 2010 (Passed it on to others in their comments before this post was published)
- Crazy About My BayBah – August 20, 2010
- Two Monkeys and a Washtub – September 11, 2010
- Mommy Only Has 2 Hands – September 15, 2010
- Victoria’s Voice – September 15, 2010
- Kim {Mama} – September 17, 2010 (Passed it on to others in their comments before this post was published)
- A Grace – full Life – September 16, 2010
- Sunshine Praises – September 29, 2010
- Mom’s Mustard Seeds – September 29, 2010
- A Slice of Smith Life – September 30, 2010
- My Heart’s Desire: Health In Him – October 11, 2010
- Mommy Time Out – October 13, 2010
- The Unexpected Education – April 6, 2011
- Karima’s Blogs – April 7, 2011
- The Steady hand – April 7, 2011
- Indiana Inker – May 20, 2011
- Kortney’s Krazy Life – May 30, 2011
- The Gentle Flower – June 2, 2011
- Lindy Legends and Other Such Nonsense – June, 3, 2011
- Lala Musings – June 4, 2011
- Motherhood: {truth} – June 5, 2011
- Always Just a Mom – June ?, 2011 (open to invited readers only)
- Far From Camelot – June 7, 2011
- insignificant at best – June 8, 2011
- Depression Cookies – August 23, 2011
- Punk Rock Psychic – August 26, 2011
- Frugal Science – August 26, 2011
- the artful blogger – August 31, 2011
- psychodynamom – September 16
- scatteringmoments – September 17
- Aurora Morealist – September 17, 2011
- Revelling In the Overflowing Grace of God – September 2o, 2011
- Resting in His Grace – (passed on to others in comments; blogged January 19, 2012)
- A Father’s Love – September 21, 2011
- Jesus Carries Me – September 21, 2011
- Still Growing – October 18, 2011
- wordtabulous – October 24, 2011
- Kana’s Chronicles – October 25, 2011
- sparklebumpsthebookwhore – October 25, 2011
- sandylikeabeach – October 25, 2011
- traveldestinationbucketlist – October 25, 2011
- steve allen photography – October 27, 2011
- David Heilman – October 29, 2011
- photographyofnia – October 30, 2011
- Cats & Co – November 18, 2011
- Gabrielle Angel and Autumn Sunshine – November 18, 2011
- poeticjourney251 – November 18
- PryncesSyndrome – November 29, 2011
- LScott Poetry – December 1, 2011
- 365daysofcourage – January 3, 2012
- Believe Anyway – January 17, 2012
- Celeste’s Stories & Writing Adventure – January 30, 2012
- kenzie.kay – January 31, 2012
- Shannon M. Howell – February 2, 2012
- Pete Denton – Writer – March 10, 2012
- Vanessa Chapman – March 13, 2012
- They call me Betty – March 16, 2012
- Raising a Realist – March 17, 2012
- iGameMom – March 19, 2012
- Peace, Love & Fabulous Things – March 21, 2012
- The Shy Lion – March 27, 2012
- tea and craft – April 1, 2012
- My Grandmotherly Ways – April 3, 2012
- Tecrin Tries – April 5, 2012
- buttons and beeswax – April 17, 2012
- Will Knit for Food – April 27, 2012
- Celebrate Life! – April 21, 2012
- Exit78
Opal at Celebrate Life has given me “The Versatile Blogger” award, which I greatly appreciate. We’ve been reading each other’s blogs since at least 2008.
Many of these blog awards have a list of requirements that go with them – which really makes them into a sort of ‘award meme’ – and this award has its own set of requirements, which I’ll be treating a tad differently.
One of the requirements is to nominate 15 bloggers that you follow regularly or have recently discovered – a little bit of linky love and sharing with others some blogs that you like.
What I started with, instead, was to trace the lineage of the Versatile Blogger award as it came to me. I went back 97 ‘generations’ of the award before I came to a blog that had died. Some of the blogs had been awarded multiple times, but I just followed one path back, making it all the way back to May 30, 2010. I’ve included links to all of the ‘generations’ of the award before me on the right.
The Versatile Blog award has been around a long while in internet time. The earliest mention I could find of it was from October 2007. There is a Versatile Blogger Award site, but its earliest post is from only a few months ago.
Another of the requirements is to tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself:
- I don’t do memes or awards. I’m making a bit of an exception on this one, because it’s fun. Sometime meme and award requirements are just too much of something I’m not interested. I also don’t like to make others feel like they are obligated to do something, which is why I won’t be passing this on to anyone else.
- Though I was born in the North, I’ve been a legal resident of the South for three quarters of my life. However, I was a legal resident of Texas for tax purposes when I was in the Navy and we lived in California, Connecticut, and Idaho.
- I’ve spent about 15 1/2 months under water – 6 deterrent patrols on a nuclear submarine.
- I didn’t need to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day – my eyes are green, as are my dad’s, bother brothers, and two of my sisters. The other sister has blue eyes.
- Even though I have a bachelors degree, I’ve never been on the campus of the college I got it from. The same is true for our son-in-law. We got our degrees from the same University and they weren’t mail order or online course. We did our coursework in actual classes, but they were held on military bases.
- I am a member of The Order of the Blue Nose (line crossing ceremony for the arctic circle).
- I rode a bus unaccompanied to Houston from Nebraska when I was 13 to spend the summer with my mom and step-dad – I lived with my grandparents. That summer of ‘65, we lived in a very depressed area (slum?) very close to downtown. I rode a Greyhound bus unaccompanied back to Nebraska at the end of the summer.

Sipapu Natural Bridge Trail, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah, September 30, 2011

Natural Bridges National Monument overflow camping on nearby BLM land

Farmers’ Market, Great Falls Montana, September 1, 2007

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota, August 22, 2007

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I like how you did yours, and I learned a bit more about you! What a creative way recognize some of those who’ve received this award. Interesting to learn how long this meme has been around. I thought I’d seen that award from my old blog.
Admittedly, the awarding others are something I didn’t like, simply because I don’t want them to feel as if they have to participate; not everyone likes doing them. I’m one that isn’t too big on the memes, but occasionally I have done them.
Times have changed so much, haven’t they? You let a child travel on a bus by themselves now, and the outcome might not be the same; and the parents would get in trouble. As a child there are few things my parents let my brother and I do (even though they were overly-protective) that I wouldn’t allow my daughter to do today; much too risky.
I’m enjoying the pictures you have included with your post; hopefully I’ll be able to take a few outdoor photos later today.
I was surprised that I was able to go back as far as I did with tracing the award, considering that most blogs don’t last very long. I’m sure that there were a few that were abandoned in place or dormant. It was also interesting that there were more blogs on blogger than on WordPress.
Karen pointed out a significant typo on my post. I was 13, not 5, the summer I went to Houston on the bus and back.
What a project – tracing back 97 generations of the awards!
Yeah, I didn’t expect it to go anywhere near that far.
A very interesting way to deal with a blog award meme.
I wonder if those bus trips at age 13 gave you the wanderlust to explore and travel?
I have had fun dipping into the links on the right. Now to go click on another one…..
The bus trips — and the one two years later when I went to live with my mom, certainly contributed to the wanderlust, but there were other contributors before that. My grandparents took my 17 year-old uncle and I on a camping trip to Colorado when I was 5 and took my sister and I on a camping trip when I was 12. Then there were all the trips to the cabin at the lake over the years.
If any blogger can be called Versatile, that is you Mike. Congratulations and I endorse Opal’s choosing you.
Thanks… I enjoy doing this and I don’t want it to keep it interesting for me — and anyone who wants to tag along.
This was great, Mike.
You spent a good bit of time doing this, as link posts don’t come easy… plus, you did tons of research! What I’m most fascinated with is that you spent over 15 months under water on a nuclear submarine. What was that like?
It wasn’t all at once. It was on 6 patrols of about 3.5 months each. The submarine was about 150 feet (107 m) long and 30 feet in diameter. We never surfaced. It was like being below decks on a large surface ship all of the time and never going up to where you could see outside. It’s totally self-contained, with enough food stored on board for the entire patrol. There were about 144 men on board. We had two crews, the blue and the gold. When we were done with our patrol, we would turn it over to the gold crew during a “turnover” week and then fly home. The sub was out of Holy Loch, Scotland, but we lived in Connecticut.
Thanks for the link to my blog! What a cool idea for a post! I had no idea who far back the award went!
Congrats on receiving it!
Lisa
Thanks Lisa. I didn’t know how many I linked to would actually see this.