Stylish Blogger Award

I tend to have a natural aversion to partaking of these sort of things but in general I think this one is a good thing. It allows people to show genuine appreciation for other peoples blogs, make the blogoshere in general aware of them and reveal a few interesting tidbits about themselves.

So, I’ve had several nominations in the last week so figure it’s time I did the right thing and completed my part!

 And to do so I need to do four things:

1. Thank and link back to those giving the awards.
First up, Ruaridh and The Ooh Shiny Complex blog, then Hetairoi and Hetairoi Wargames and finally Anton and his Agony of Anton. I’ve a feeling there was another but I can’t find the link on my blog so apologies if I’ve missed you.

2. Share seven things about yourself…
Mmmm, difficult one this but here goes.

• I worked in archaeology for ten years and did one Time Team, in South Shields, that was possibly the worst episode they did! We found bugger all! But it was fun…
• I can’t swim. If I fell in deep water I’d put up a good show for about 30 seconds before sinking without trace…
• When I was seven, at school, we got to bring in some of our favourite music to play. My choices were Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Chuck Berry’s My Ding-a-Ling!
• My favourite movie is A Matter of Life and Death.
• My favourite book is proving impossible to decide upon
• I once sent a letter to the Inland Revenue from Varanasi, India explaining I would be out of the country for two years and would sort out my tax when I got home. (All paid now by the way!)
• I have a reputation for being VERY bad at making decisions

3. Nominate 10-15 blogs for this award
This could be hard as if you look at the full lis tof blogs that I follow there are a lot. So I’ll stick with the few that have really hit the mark for me.

• Tarleton’s Quarter – Giles’ excellent AWI and now lots of other stuff blog. Some really excellent painting and lots of good info on the AWI if you are looking for specific unit uniform info.
• Wall Advantage – although I don’t get to play Advanced Squad Leader much at the moment, frequent visits to Ian’s blog keeps the interest going and lets me know what new stuff is around.
• Der Alte Fritz Journal – Jim Purkey’s excellent SYW and 1806 blog with some lovely big battalions! And lots of Mindens on display.
• A Miniature History of the Revolution – although my AWI is a bit on the backburner at the moment there is some excellent info on smaller actions in the Revolution here and lots of links to good source material. Well worth a delve.
• AJ’s Wargaming Blog – lots of regular posts from a variety of periods. Check out the range of laser cut markers and scenery as well. And I nice helpful chap as well.
• Caliban-somewhen – just browse this blog and see the amound of stuff this guy gets painted to such an excellent standard. Some good Punic War stuff there as well.
• Steve’s Random Musings on Wargames and other stuff – another blog I read regularly but don’t comment on enough. Worth checking out his other blogs as well.
• Sgt. Steiner’s Wargaming blog – I came to this blog via the DBMM game reports but there has since been a divergence into other periods. Good, regular updates and pictures.
• The Wargaming Site – originally just an Ancients site but now covering 6mm WW2 and other stuff. Again, good regular updates from an enthusiastic blogger. 
• England Prevails – excellent ‘what-if’ blog for the Second English Civil War from 1988 onwards. Really well done period posts and something I wish I had the time to develop myself.
• Geektactica – came to this via his excellent Impetus armies. Another great site with excellent miniatures and reports.

There we go. Lots of other good stuff in my Blogs I Follow list.

4. Finally, notify all of the above of their nominations. Which will take a little while but will be done.

On the whole blog front, I’m still trying to decide on whether to move to WordPress. I’ve done a test run and everything comes across OK but I just can’t find the time or inclination at the moment. I need to sort out selling a few things as well as I need money for Partizan. Think I will try and put them here first rather than go the eBay route in the hope I can do a trade at Newark and save postage/fees etc.