And now it’s time for the 2nd Bloggle awards, an award ceremony that happens every 6 months here on martyholman.com, giving the common person (like the author) access to some amazing blogs on the web 2.0.  Hopefully, we’ll get some acceptance speeches.

Most focused blog
Nominees:
Ethos: a cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod;  From where I sit by Michael Hyatt; Gotcha by Jake Holman;  History in the making by Ben Arment;  Reluctant Republicans for McCain by Clay Davis
THE WINNER:  History in the making by Ben Arment
Anything this guy writes is gold.  He’s somewhere around brilliant and then some.  His focus is creativity in the church.

Best blog, comedy
Nominees:
Rainy Day Communications by Katie Ferguson; Stuff Christians like by the Prodigal John; Don Miller is by Donald Miller;  Vince Antonucci by Vince Antonnuci
THE WINNER:  Stuff Christians Like by The Prodigal John.  Wildly funny, and will make you laugh out loud in your office every time you dare to read it.

Best blog, story
Nominees:
Trek to the summit by Tom Hogsed;  Scott Hodge by Scott Hodge;  Jenn with 2 n’s by Jenn;  Connecting with Pastor Mike by Mike Laurence
THE WINNER:
Jenn with 2 N’s by Jenn

Best blog, pastor
Nominees:
Velocity by Dave Ferguson; Leading Smart by Tim Stevens;  Life Church.tv:  Swerve by Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald;  Perry Noble dot com by Perry Noble;  Tony Morgan Live by Tony Morgan;  Without Wax by Pete Wilson
THE WINNER:
Life Church.TV:  Swerve by Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald.  This was the hardest to judge.  These blogs are amazing!

Best blog post
Nominees:
“A couple of my rules for startups” by Mark Cuban (March 14, 2008);  “Creating WOW product experiences” by Michael Hyatt (May 17, 2008);  “The Lifetime of an opportunity” by Steven Furtick (July 30, 2008);  “The Secret of the web” by Seth Godin (August 11, 2008);  “The Bible said so” by Winn Collier (September 2, 2008);  “What Complaining says about you”, by Ben Arment (September 9, 2008);  “Palin, Religion, and how Secualrism is out of touch” by Dale Fincher (September 15, 2008)
THE WINNER:
“The Secret of the Web” by Seth Godin (August 11, 2008).  This was not an easy task.  I have so many subscriptions to blogs and highlight very few of them, but very few of so many is still a lot.  These are all excellent posts, written originally by the authors.

Best blog, pictures
Nominees:
It’s all going to change by Kevin and Jen Richardson;  Mark Beeson by Mark Beeson;  Ethos:  A Cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod
THE WINNER:
Ethos:  A Cultural Watercooler by Randy Elrod  Randy always helps me to think more artsy than I really am.  He bring out the culture in me, and I don’t use that term scientifically.

Best blog, intellectual
Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk;  Dale Fincher by Dale Fincher;  Jeffs Deep Thoughts by Jeff Campbell;
Jenn with 2 N’s by Jenn;  Winn Collier by Winn Collier
THE WINNER:  Winn Collier by Winn Collier. I’m pretty sure his nominated post for best blog post won him this award.

I wish I knew him or her (no winners, just a list of 3)
Steven Furtick by Steven Furtick
Flowerdust.net by Anne Jackson
Blog Maverick by Mark Cuban

I’m glad I know him or her (no winners, just a list of 3)
Mill Industries by Eric Mill
Brian Howe by Brian Howe
You can know God by Michael Lukaszewski

Thanks for joining me for the 2008 Bloggle awards!  Check back for the acceptance speeches and comments about how wrong I was.  And…

Please vote for your favorite all around blog

In this post, Susan commented that she “really enjoyed the discussion.”

Last night, a lady in our church got this bright idea to invite some of her friends to an inpromptu potluck grill out (aka barbeque, cookout, shindig, etc…).  This week Carie is away taking a class for AP Spanish certification (or certificacion, if you please), and so I popped over to the house of the fam having the grill out and we had a great time eating and chatting and enjoying one another’s company.  Four or five families took the family up on her offer and community was built – just like that.

Now in the process, Susan shared something that was she was going to be going through on Thursday and it led to this pretty intense, 2008 style discussion where everyone chimed in and gave their opinion (their were a wide variety of opinions by the way) using Scripture, real life circumstances, and stories of what people around us have gone through considering this subject.

In the end, I was able to see about 4 different opinions to a really hard topic and appreciate why several people in my church think and believe certain things about life.  And I wonder what would happen if more people decided to give away their nights to a community of friends and acquaintences in an effort to get to know people more, rather than sitting in front of a tv or working on the lawn. (2 things I didn’t say in this statement:  1.  Sitting in front of a tv is wrong.  2.  Working on the lawn is wrong.  Thank you)  Would our lives change for the better or worse?  Would you feel stifled with too much community or could you use a bit more, even with your friends?

Would you, like me, feel stuffed like Thanksgiving after 2 pieces of chicken and an interesting couscous dish?

So I’d like to thank my friends (4 different life groups in our church represented) who took a step with me and in the spur of the moment decided they could use a night with friends.  I sure could because I miss Carie a lot!

This post was specifically written for Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday!

So I have this idea, I want to do this as practice for writing, and I wanted to see what people who read my blog from time to time might think of the idea, or better yet, suggestions for improving the idea.  Here it is:

I want to write an autobiography based on the timeline of my facebook friends.  So it wouldn’t be a real autobiography, but one actually more focused on those 337 people that have connected with me on facebook.  (I probably have had a real relationship with 300 of them).  Along the way, I would be the constant (Lost fans represent!)amidst the massive amounts of different ages, areas of the country, and social circles represented in the story.

I would obviously want it to be true and yet interesting enough so that its not just about my relationship with each of them, some of which would be colorful, some of which would be,”We met each other at school in the dorm room, and I wrote him up because his room was really dirty” (Sorry I went to Pensacola Christian College).

I would break it down into timeline type chapters, even though I can’t find the social timeline that Facebook used to have, and those would look something like this:
Birth – 17 years old (Ohio)
18-21 – Pensacola Christian College (Florida)
             Neighborhood Bible Time (9 states)
             Arizona
22 -      Taught at a Christian School (Atlanta Ga)
23 - present (now almost 10 years later) - Radio Dj
             Pastor at a church  (Massachusetts)
Current update – Big time blogging friendships beginning to form.

So this is what I’ve been pondering and I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the project. 

Would it help my writing or just be a nuisance?

This post was written for Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday.

I’ve found a few interesting posts in the last hour that you should read if you get a chance.
First of all, this post with a big picture online that says “Sorry Pats”.
It’s by the Boston Herald, apologizing for the false walkthrough report.  Another words, Mat Walsh, the guy who all Pats fans everywhere victimized for being an idiot liar, never said that he filmed a super bowl walkthrough.
But in the end, let’s be serious here, they don’t need to be apologizing to the Patriots, the Pats need to be thanking them.  Why?  You might ask.  Well, as this guy says here, it’s a matter of perspective.  Because of this story, nobody actually cares about the physical evidence that they actually have, they only care about this supposed super bowl walk through, so when there is no “super bowl” tapes, this mess can all go away.  It’s a bit like telling the parents that you wrecked their car, and then saying, “Just kidding, I just drove it after you told me not to.”  It’s still wrong, but now they look at it from a different perspective.

Also, this blog, and the latest post associated with it, is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. 

This blog is an unofficial poll about what kind of worship music churches are using.  He has a lot of good things to say, and here’s a good place to start.  Plus, he’s met Andy Stanley, and that makes him an indirect hero in my book.

Lastly, it’s Wednesday, so join Randy Elrod and me around the Watercooler today for all things culture related.  You’ll be glad you did.

Please let me know about a blog you enjoy reading.

For those of you wondering what a blog carnival is all about when I talk about “Monday’s Moments”, a storytelling blog carnival every week, you might want to chck out where I came up with the idea in order to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.  Randy’s carnival  around the “Wednesday Watercooler” is growing and filled with a lot of very cool posts on arts, culture, blogging, and life.  Check it out now!