February 4th, 2007
The DeafRead Awards Banquet
I was invited to attend courtesy of my good friend, the Sandman. The guy won, incidentally for Best Single Entry.
It was really great to associate faces with so many names. Amy Cohen Efron, WildStarrySkies, Joey Baer, and Rebecca Wilova of Bellamoden. It was great to reconnect with Ella Mae Lentz (my roommate at the Laurent Charrette), Ryan Commerson, and Erin Casler.
I regret I didn’t have the opportunity to introduce myself formally to Carl Schroeder, Elisa, and some other bloggers who were there there but I didn’t recognize.
Last but certainly not least, it was great to meet Tyler Mayer and Jared Evans, the driving forces behind the tool that unified all of the bloggers together under one banner: deafread.com. Â We had a great chat about the impact of finding one’s passion in life post-marriage. Â Tyler said he put a lot of sleepless nights in when he put deafread.com together to the chagrin of his wife. Â My wife can probably attest to the damage done to our marraige by my inability to figure out when’s a good time and a bad time for doing fire department stuff.
I wished I could’ve stayed longer but had to leave to head back home to PA.
Now that some of the other bloggers have had a chance to weigh in on their awards on their respective blogs, I have to say Ridor’s gloating on his blog strikes me as being somewhat childish. Personally, I think its time for blog readers to recognize that Ridor may have been the original “blogger” but to also look at deafread.com and appreciate the true diversity that we have and either give Ridor the chance to grow into something that transcends his current blogging model or look for a better alternative.
Elisa’s posting was the epitome of graciousness and struck the right tone. Carl’s Vlogs was also a stunning example of the graciousness and kindness of how someone who was nominated but did not win.
All I can say is I’ve been inspired by my experience last night.
February 5th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Aloha,
Thank you for nice compliments. I won four nominations which ARE honorable.
Mahalo, Carl
February 5th, 2007 at 10:22 am
It was good meeting you, too! I find it fascinating about you being a Deaf firefighter. My students are doing an unit on employment for deaf people. I plan sometime soon to refer them to your website and write something if they want some extra credit.
wss
February 5th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
The best ones rarely win.
February 17th, 2007 at 12:59 am
[...] A few people have commented either on the conference itself or the Deaf Blog Awards banquet that evening, including Neil at Deaf Firefighter’s Blog and Jamie Berke at Berke Outspoken, who noted a fact from the conference– approximately 2% of us blog, the other 98% read. She encouraged further participation from the readers/audience, and I agree. Don’t be afraid to add your voice to the conversation! I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but Dave of daveynin’s thing attended the conference, and took pictures of the panels and the presenters. [...]