Right in the middle of the hubbub of last week’s busy-ness comes this ray of sunshine out of the dark abyss: the kind gent, Jonco, who brings the world BitsandPieces.us (and a daily visit from me) has chosen SixPackTech as one of his five choices to receive the Arte y Pico Award for excellence in blogging. I am humbled and honored. I am thankful beyond measure.

The award name is obviously in Spanish, so I asked a number of Spanish speaking people at work to help me interpret the true meaning of the name. I received many different answers, all hung up on “pico”:

“Arte y Pico” means:
Jorge – Art and Plus
Juan – Art and ‘lift it up’; ‘elevate’
Diana – Art and poke
Saul – Art and more

I looked up the word “pico” by itself in my Spanish/English dictionary at work and here’s what I got: “pico” means:
1. beak
2. mouth
3. corner
4. peak
5. pick
6. small surplus
7. to keep one’s mouth shut, as in “callar el pico”
So you get a gist of “pico de gallo” which is quite possibly the “beak of the rooster.”
Or “pico” just may mean “shut the hell up!”

But there are rules accompanying the coveted Arte y Pico Award and I print them here just as I found them on the original site:

Rules:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you copnsider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contrubuites to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog thathas given her or him the ward itself.4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y pico“blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y pico”blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) To show these rules.

I have recognized the originator of this nomination (BitsandPieces.us.) That satisfies Rule #3.

I showed the rules. That’s #5.

Rule #4 has been satisfied by BitsandPieces.us and SixPackTech.com.

I hereby nominate the following for receiving the Arte y Pico Award:

1. Gerard at Presurfer.blogspot.com for his daily excellence in tasteful and interesting content.
2. Jogi21 at RandomGoodStuff for his professionalism in design and content.
3. ILuvNUFC at SeeHere.blogspot.com for daily, constant, interesting, constant, bizarre, constant, unusual (did I already say “constant?”) links to the netherworlds. Every day. So enjoyable. And there’s also ‘UFC’ in the name.
4. Admin at Yeah-oops.com for the pictorial tweak on reality every day.
5. Algebraoflife at CrookedBrains.com for the wonderful daily graphics that inspire us all.

This takes care of Rules #1 & #2.

All the Rules have been satisfied.

Let me take this time to acknowledge all involved who indirectly help SixPackTech on a daily basis. Thank you so very much. And thanks to the readers who I hope are greatly entertained when they visit.

But there’s more…

By my interpretation, this is quite similar to an email chain letter. Why did I follow this through?

Consider this, if you will:

1.You have a great blog. I give you this award. Pass it on with these 5 rules to 5 more blogs you consider great and link back to me.
2. Five people get this “award” and pass it it on, following the rules, all the while linking back to the previous messenger’s site.
3. And so on, and so on, five times fives, times five…

Why do I think this is bogus? Look at the graphic. Look at the text in the graphic. Pfft!

The origin of the original post for the award started on Monday, June 30th of this year. Quite recently. This is not a time honored award by any standard.

Now look at the text in the Rules. I posted them right from the Arte y Pico site. Spelling and grammar; hell, the site is mostly in Spanish!

Then, (from the original site,) all the crocheted products.

Although this “award” may be questionable (it links back to the origin via the rules,) it’s a kind of clever, double-edged sword.

First off, ya gotta hand it to whoever thought this idea up in the first place. It’s certainly novel. I bit on it the first day. Then I got to thinking… I’m like a lot of you other poor schlub bloggers who post our own individual mindsets out there on the Internet. For most of us it’s a free way to be one’s self in public. It’s an easy way to say, “Hey! Look at me!” I am as guilty as the rest of you. We all try to post meaningful content. Sometimes the hosting is free (Blogger, WordPress.com.) Others, such as myself, pay money to have their ideas hosted on servers in unique ways and styles. Blogging’s like dangling a mini-me worm on the end of a hook in the big ocean that is the Internet. Let me see who thinks like I do. Who will nibble and who will bite?

As far as this “award” is concerned, I remain neutral, but grateful for the bestowal. I accept the “award” and pass it on. My wish is that we schlub bloggers all get into the mainstream and get accepted as who we are.

Thank you very much. Have a nice day.