The conditional cognition blog just received the Versatile Blogger Award!

All thanks goes to one of my favorite blogs, Miss Demure Restraint, for presenting the award to this blog. She’s a funny, witty author that knows how to tell a good story. You should check her out sometime.

When I first received the information regarding the award, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to post this article based on the stipulations involved. The Versatile Blogger Award recipients are asked to

thank the person giving the award, which I have no hesitation doing. I am grateful to have this blog praised, particularly when it comes from a blogger I hold in high esteem.

Next, I am supposed to contact 15 bloggers and let them know that I am going to present them the award. Well, I’ve recently returned to being an active part of the blog world after a year-long hiatus stemming from the loss of my domain name. Since my comeback, I’ve sadly found that several of the blogs I’ve enjoyed reading and bloggers with whom I’ve frequently interacted have been dormant for some time :(. Due to this massive shrinking of my personal blog community, I figured I’d be lucky if I could even list 15 blogs for the presentation of the Versatile Blogger Award. I contacted Miss Demure Restraint and she reassured me that if there aren’t 15 blogs on the list it’s fine.

I must add that these disheartening discoveries of past blog friends indefinitely offline did not lead solely to dead ends. Fortunately, my blog surfing lead me to discover quite a few new blogger buddies. With that said, I present to you conditional cognition’s 2011 Versatile Blogger Award winners:

• 1000 Awesome Things
• Aphorism Of The Day
• Blurt
• Counterfeit Humans
• cultural junkie
• Grim Rhapsody
• Jackass Letters!
• Miss Demure Restraint
• one cool site: blogging tips
• Viridian Circles

The final condition of receiving the Versatile Blogger Ward is that I share seven things about myself that may not be known in the blogosphere. Let’s see if you find these interesting. In no particular order, conditional cognition facts revealed:

• I love playing, coaching and watching soccer/football! I’ve been playing since I could walk with only a few breaks here and there. Despite any lapse in the action for me, my soul thrives off the beautiful game:

• I worked in a flavor chemistry lab for my first high school job (not to be confused with my time on Chocolate in Ya Ear). All those non-natural foods that you get from the store probably had flavors developed in labs like the one in which I worked. I’ve contributed to projects with ubiquitous flavors: orange, butter, vanilla, and cheddar. One thing to keep in mind: natural flavors listed on a food label doesn’t mean that it didn’t come out of a jar on a chem lab shelf. Maybe I’ll share a story or two in future posts.
• I sleep deeply. If the sleep of the average person was equated to the depth of a small pond, mine would be the abyss known as Mariana’s Trench. I think it’s wonderful, but I guess there could be security concerns if I couldn’t wake up in an emergency.
• I’m the proud owner of a Saluki mix dog, named Shorty. Living outside the USA, people don’t really get the name. “He’s not short,” people often say, but they don’t quite get the reference. It’s funny to me, considering there’s at least a couple songs on the radio each hour that have the term “shorty” in the lyrics. Fascinating fact: Salukis are the first known domesticated dog.
• I hail from the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota. “Seriously? For real?,” people often say. To which I respond, “Yep! You betcha!” I haven’t lived there for a while, so now I sip soda instead of pop. Did you know that Minnesota has more shoreline that California, Florida and Hawaii combined? I don’t miss the Canadian roadblocks, but I’ll always yearn to return to my home state.
• I am only fluent in one language, English, and used to be fluent in another, Spanish. I can read most words in three other languages: Tigrinya, Amharic and Arabic; though, I can barely understand the majority of what I read and am unable to hold a conversation in either one. On top of that, I have sprinkles of German and French in the mishmash from an extended stay in Bonn and multiple travels to Martinique.
• I wrote a pilot for a science education television series. The show’s name played off my former hairstyle and featured me as the host. I can’t say anymore, because my friend and I are still sitting on the script.

I had fun putting that post together and hope you enjoyed checking it out. I am always looking to find new blogger friends and captivating blogs to read, so maybe this post will lead to new connections. I’m curious to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment on any blog I’ve listed or fact I’ve shared. I’m all ears! Or should say “all eyes”, since I’ll be reading your comments?