Arte y Pico: Simple Patron of the Arts or Blogging Evil Super Genius?

The Arte y Pico Awards have really gotten around in my blogging circles. In my almost two years of blogging, never have I seen one virtual award sweep the internet the way this one has.

In one way, it's really, really nice-- it's a thoughtful nod of appreciation to one's fellow bloggers for a job well done. For bringing the art of the craft to an audience. It's a way of saying, "Hey, friend-- good job!" I would like to thank my online friend Alice, my pal the Crotchety Old Man and the lovely and very funny ChatBlanc for kindly bestowing these on me recently. Your good-eggishness has not gone unrecognized!

Yet in another way, when you just pop across the virtual street to see your beloved neighbors, and you're suddenly tripping over Arte y Pico awards-- well, it's a bit like a plague of locusts. I think I've stepped on, like, hundreds of these things as I make my journey from blog to blog.

They make a neat tinkly-crunchy noise.

So, in summary, really nice, but better wear thick-soled shoes when you make your way around the blogosphere. It's a plague of locusts with each locust delivering a teeny-tiny Pulitzer.

Now what makes me think the "Arte y Pico" blog owner himself is an Evil Super Genius?

Well, it's because this SEO mastermind wrote right into the rules how anyone who receives the award should link back to the original Arte y Pico page. And we all, for some mysterious reason (or because the rules say so, and made-up rules must always be followed), we go ahead and do it. Oh, and I include myself in this. I did it as well.

Which means that every blogger who distributes this award to their five recipients puts a link to Arte y Pico. And those five bloggers distribute to five bloggers who put a link to Arte y Pico...

And so on...

And so on...

DeadRooster touched on this a couple of weeks back, but I felt it merited further emphasis. The blogger behind Arte y Pico has managed to develop a pyramid scheme of linkbacks all because everyone enjoys sharing the fun of awards. It's brilliant!

Of course, when it comes to what I now like to call the "Arte y Pico Link Enticement Snare" (also known as the "Arte y Pico Paradigm", the "Arte y Pico SEO Strategy", and "Phyllis"), other clever brains have figured this out and have launched similar awards initiatives, also requesting links back to them. Will these have the staying power of the Arte y Pico awards? Time will tell.

The Arte y Pico blogger does have the advantage because he:

1. Did this first and
2. Wrote his whole awards page in Spanish so it's harder for us non-Spanish speakers to see the underlying Evil Geniusness of it all
3. Made a really elaborate, frilly artistic award with winged ladies and other geegaws so we're concentrating on how much we'll have to dust the thing on the virtual mantle... And are paying less attention to the fact he's snuck a link to himself into the darned thing

So Arte y Pico-- created by a simple patron of the arts, or Blogging Evil Supergenius? You decide.

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Vote for this post at Humor-blogs. Or, you know, just hand me some Endust for my Arte y Pico awards. Thanks!

I Would Like to Thank the Academy... er, Alice...

The creative and wonderfully nutty Alice of HoneyPie has kindly bestowed on Of Cabbages and Kings this fine blog award, for which I greatly thank her.

The award was originally created by Arte Y Pico and is dedicated to those who:

"nourish and enrich the spirit and creativity. They see dedication, creativity, camaraderie, joy and above all, ART - much art. I wish that this prize is entertaining to all bloggers who share this space and enrich it a little more each day."

I bet you're wondering where the art comes in, aren't you? Well, see, Alice knows all about my extensive collection of "Bullfighters Painted on Velvet"-- I just didn't think she'd spread it around like this. I mean, I don't want to have to contend with a possible high-tech burglary and, as we all are aware, the Bullfighter on Velvet market is really buzzing lately.

Anyway-- Thanks to Alice for bestowing upon me this great award. It will look really good on my mantle, right in the place of honor between:

• My "Flute Player Who Made My Ears Bleed the Least This Year (1989)" award, courtesy of my high school marching band director

• My Honorable Mention in the "Dave 'Scribbles' Jaffe School of Drawing Cartoon Turtles for Fun and Profit" scholarship contest and...

• The McDonalds' Monopoly winning game piece which nets me a free small fries the next time I go there. Woo-hoo! Free fries!
  

Ahem...

In terms of passing along the award, I would like to share it with the following folks:

• Joe of Crotchety Old Man Yells at Cars- Who fights the good fight against surly web applications that wish to hamper his vast humor and keen observational eye through glitches and obtuse HTML...

• Greg of The Midnight Garden because his garden really is his art-form, and he takes photos of it and the nature around him that lighten the heart... soothe the soul... Er, also get dirt under your nails.

• Claire of A Little Piece of Me, for her humor, spirit, kindness and crazy doodling. Also because she's taught me the proper way to use "pants" in a sentence for the next time I'm in the UK. Here-- I'll use it in a sentence now: "Getting awards from your fellow bloggers is not pants. It's cracking, and I'm terribly chuffed! "
  

And I guess while we're having a day of sweetness and light and to make this acceptance speech as excruciating as possible according to the laws of any major award ceremony...

I did want to mention, Cabbages had received a really lovely blog review last week over at DoYouDiggIt.com. The thing that struck me most about this review is how much thought was put into the writing of it. You just don't see reviewers who work so hard to craft their own language within their reviews. So thanks to Mary Ward over there at DoYouDiggIt, for stopping by and taking a look at my weird little corner of the Internet. It's much appreciated.

If you gang would like to check out the review, you can do so here.

Thanks to everybody these last few months who have helped keep Cabbages lively, interactive, and fun.

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Did you know that I first came across Alice of HoneyPie's blog through Humor-blogs? True story!