Category Pay-it-Forward Tuesday
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I was reading one of my favorite "non-Lotus" blogs, Rands in Repose, and he mentioned in a recent post that he had been tagged for Pay it Forward Tuesday. He explains what it is briefly, and I basically followed the links back to (nearly) where it began - and what it is. This "blog entry zero" for Pay it Forward Tuesday is this entry on Significant Figures. As explained there:

Anyway, I asked Deborah [Ng, a freelance writer] to give me a better handle on this whole “pay-it-forward” concept and she said, “Here’s how it works. I plug your blog. You mention the whole pay it forward concept and plug someone else - try and encourage that person to pay it forward as well. The idea is to keep this thing going throughout the blogosphere.”

Now, when considering what blog to pick to pay it forward, many went through my mind. At first I thought of some bloggers in the Lotus community - and I thought that, hey, you're already reading them. I then thought of recommending some blogs that I am quite fond of that you're not likely to know about - but many of them have no idea who I am (such as Rands' blog I mentioned earlier), plus Rands has already been tagged. One other thing I had to consider was that noone really tagged me - I am tagging myself, based on reading about this on another blog. So, what to do?

What to do indeed.

Well, here's what I have decided. Since I am kicking it off in this "cloud" of the blogosphere, I am going to tag a couple of people. One of these people is already in our community, and his blog is read by enough people that if he responds to the tag and pays it forward a fairly significant number of people will read it.

My first tag is our friend and luminary, Volker "vowe" Weber. Volker is our true "A-list" blogger of our community, and his blog is a great collection of wit, wisdom, opinion, and it is wrapped in a very stylish package. If you are new to blogging then vowe's site is a must-read.

Update (begin)
Volker informed me that he doesn't do stuff like this - he says that he doesn't participate in "pyramid schemes". So, I will add another one - however I still recommend Volker's blog, it is most excellent.

I am now going to tag John Vaughan ("jonvon"). Jonvon is one of the true "artist souls" amongst us - and it is rare to find an artist's soul living in a geek. His blog is an amazing eclectic collection of art, poetry, thoughts, and yes even technical stuff. I highly recommend his site as a must-read.

Update (end)

Update 2 (begin)
Well, it turns out that vowe re-read my intention of this post, and has since realized that it is not a pyramid scheme. He now understands that this is not one of those types of posts ("tag five of your friends", etc.), and he has made some excellent suggestions in the flavor of "paying it forward". Thanks, Volker - I truly appreciate it. Update 2 (end)

My second tag is going to reach out to a blogger that is probably not familiar to you at all, but he is very familiar to me - his name is Ward Jenkins, and he is my cousin. Ward is a fantastic illustrator and animator, and he has a blog called the Ward-o-matic. Ward blogs about animation, art, design, and his wonderful family. Ward has been working for a few years for a production house here in Atlanta called Primal Screen, where he has done some truly amazing things for the Cartoon Network, Nickleodeon, and a host of TV commercials. Ward's hard work has paid off, as he has just been hired by Laika/House, the commercial division of Laika. Ward has been hired as the 2D Animation Director, and it is a position he has earned - and I am very proud of him. Incidentally, he did the design work for the 20 characters that were a part of the C.U.L.T. shirts a few years ago on the "Collaboration League/Just Us League" shirts.

So, hopefully these two exceptional men will "pay it forward" and enlighten us to some interesting blogs as well. I will try to continue "paying it forward" for a few more Tuesdays at least, just to get some hopefully new blogs on your radar.

And even if you haven't been tagged (yet), why don't you go ahead and Pay it Forward yourself? It is always to do good things for other, as it really does help your Karma

Rock
**Maybe we should sell handguns by prescription only and let people buy Prozac at trade shows.