The Case of the Mysterious Award

I got another recognition, a Beautiful Blog Award, from RJ of Chook-minders Quill. I came to know him through ever’s Pamatay Homesick and although we only visited each others blog a few times, it’s nice and flattering to know his appreciation. Who wouldn’t melt if you received a review like this?

“The Sandbox ni BlogusVox. Napakalawak ng kanyang mga sariling paniniwala at pananaw sa mga isyu sa lipunan at sa buhay. Masarap basahin ang kanyang mga entries (maiksi lang pero kaya niyang ilahad lahat ang kanyang opinyon) at kaabang-abang ang kanyang comics strip series (na pinamagatang Buhay Buhangin)!”
I give more importance to it than the award itself.

Why oh why, my tinapay
Like RJ, I also have some nagging questions regarding this award. Unlike my previous award, this one has no historical beginning, no criteria on how it should be given and no rules in passing it to others. To satisfy my curiosity, I did some snooping. Starting from RJ’s blog, I traced its source and followed the white rabbit into the rabbit hole.

Enter Ms. Marple
After my 9th blog-hopping, I found myself running in circle as I end up two blogs away from where I started. The mystery only thickens when along the way the award changes name from “Beautiful Blog” to “Blogger Buddy” award and back. Undeterred, I re-traced my steps and found one blog was a recipient twice. I have to use the resources of the internet, a little detective work and common sense to find this "other donor”.

Mystery Solved?

From what I gathered, the “other donor” was the first recipient of this award. She took it, it wasn’t awarded to her, from an Indian web designer’s blog and passed it on to her friends. Somehow, somewhere along the way, somebody made a mistake of copying the code of another GIF file and that’s how “Blogger Buddy” became “Beautiful Blog” award. If I base my conclusion from what the web designer said here, he started this whole thing, only to promote his blog. He doesn’t know the first recipient from Eve. Of course I may be wrong, but then again, what the hell has this young Indian web designer got in common, besides blogging, with a bunch of Filipina “Mommy Bloggers”, most of whom living in the western hemisphere, married to foreigners and blogging about “Zenni Optical frames”? It’s not really a real award. It’s just like a friendly “tag-your-it” game among friends that leaked out and fell on RJ’s doorstep.

Perhaps RJ will be disappointed, but I’m not. His review of my blog is good enough for me and I appreciate it very much. The only draw back here is I can’t pass it on to my other friends who are also deserving of an award. It won’t be fair.