I received an email yesterday telling me I was one of the 50 ‘honorable mentions’ in the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100. “Dear Open Media 100 Contender”, the email began. Open Media 100 Contender? I had no idea I was an Open Media 100 Contender. If I was nominated, it was probably as a joke.
Anyway, I didn’t get listed in Open Media 100 and now my life is ashes, and my hopes are dirt. Well, not really — but it sounds good.
There are folk I respect in the list, and I don’t want to rain on their parade. So for them, I send congratulations, with an added note that they deserve the recognition. But you know without looking who most of the people are in the list — categories carefully designed to ensure the proper (read that link popular) people are listed. My name being among the honorables is one of the few surprises in the list, if that isn’t pretentious of me for saying.
Dave Rogers, Mr. Cranky Pants (he is so going to get tired of this quip) had something to say about the list, and he isn’t even an honorable (neener neener, Dave, neener neener). He writes:
You know what I think? Well, you probably know what I think, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I think it’s all bullshit. I think the world needs this “framework” like a rooster needs socks. I think it’s all just a scam to get some high attention-earners to vector a little attention toward these attention-seeking entities. A little fancy, high-tech, brown-nosing. Invoke that whole reciprocity thing. I link you, you link me, we’re a happy family… Oh, sorry, just had a hideous flashback to a purple dinosaur that traumatized me as a parent.
If Dave is a cranky writer, at least he’s a cranky, good writer. But he’s not an honorable. Neener.
Mitchelaneous writes, You can only milk that cow so long before it runs dry. Lots of farm metaphors in relation to this list. Rooster with socks, milking cows and all.
John Wagner writes, The AO/Technorati list seems a step in the wrong direction. You step in the wrong direction at a farm, you’ll know it.
Anyway, I want to know if this “honorable mention” I got is worth something. Both the Yahoo and Microsoft jobs I had interviewed for didn’t come through (which didn’t necessarily surprise me, but did disappoint me) and I just applied for a job as a check out clerk at Dierberg’s, a local grocery store. If this honorable mention can’t help me get a job at Yahoo or Microsoft, or a new book at O’Reilly or some other publisher, will it at least help me get that cashier job at Dierberg’s?
