OK, once again, I’ve been tagged for one of those round-robin-style blog awards. Always nice to be recognized by another blogger in a positive way, so I’ll respond to this one, as I did before with the Brillante Award.

This time, it was Hawa of the Fackin Truth Blog who has tagged me, this time for the Certified Honest Blogger Award.

First, the rules of the award:

Certified Honest Blogger Rules

• When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
• Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
• Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Honest Weblog.’
• Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
• List [if you can and or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself.
• And then, pass it on.

I want to thank Hawa for this. Not because it means I’m really all that great or anything but because (1) it’s nice to know that I’m exuding some kind of truth or honesty around here, and (2) I appreciate that I bring anything positive to my loyal readers, whether it is education, entertainment or tomfoolery. Now, as for Hawa herself, she doesn’t post frequently at Fackin Truth, but I will say that she has always posted honestly and enjoyably, and she very much earned her own Certified Honest Blogger award by doing so.

I’ll pick seven other blogs here not simply for their brilliance but for their intelligence and sincerity, since this award sticks “honest” in its name:

1. Raving Black Lunatic (Written by Big Man, who is one of the few bloggers I feel a true kinship with. We don’t always agree but we often are on the same page without having previously known it. Big Man is someone who my wife often jokes is the black version of me. That’s probably not fair to him, but he speaks from his heart on issues of race and politics…and other important stuff that occasionally comes up aside from those two.)
2. BlackGirlInMaine (This is a woman who speaks from her heart as well, a black wife and mother living in one of the whitest states in the nation and speaking on issues from motherhood to class issues to race relations to politics and whatever the hell else strikes her fancy.)
3. Losing My Religion (In this blog, SocietyVs takes on religion from both a standpoint of faith and skepticism. He does what I often try to do here, but with much less swearing. And God love him for it, because he often hits issues much more effectively than I do.)
4. Stupid Church People (Author Steve Chastain, like SocietyVs above, does much to make his readers think critically about religion while keeping their eye on spiritual truths. And, like the previous blogger, he doesn’t suffer from chronic potty mouth like I do.)
5. Something Within (When I’m not sure if I want to hear views from a strong woman or from a spiritual professional, this is the place to go (since I’ll get either or both). The author is a very sharp and sincere female reverend [possibly pastor, but I’ve never been positive about that].)
6. Truth for Dummies (Spiritbear does a good job in this blog of fighting against the tide of “churchianity” in search of real “Christianity.”)
7. The Word of Me (This blog is very critical of Christianity, and to me, that’s a good thing, because I need to be challenged. Even though I often don’t agree with what is written here, I appreciate the honesty and intelligence that goes into the posts.)

Do I dare go through with the listing of 10 honest things about myself? Damn! I guess I’d better be honest and do it. Hopefully I won’t embarrass my wife or son in the process (my little girl is still to young to be affected by…or understand…anything I might say here). Hawa did it, so I guess I’d better belly up to the bar and jack up my pants or whatever else one does before getting ready to boldly humiliate themselves…

Ten Honest Things About Deacon Blue

1. I’m not an overachiever. In fact, I may not even be an adequate achiever. Went to a Big Ten school and barely squeaked out a B average. I wrote fiction in high school, giving everyone the hope I’d be a novelist, and I’m only now writing one here in bits and pieces on my blog at the age of 40. I’m not a huge go-getter in the professional world, which hurts my family’s pocketbook. Sometimes, I wish I was a little more like Donald Trump or some other high-powered asshole.
2. I can do Hawa one better on the virginity thing; I didn’t lose mine until well after college. I really, really wanted to lose it earlier, but I was too shy and lacked confidence with women on a romantic level, even though, ironically, most of my best friends in life have been women, particularly in high school and after college.
3. Yes, I own porn. (And no, my wife doesn’t care.) This shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone who’s read my feelings about the subject, but I might as well come right out and say it. DVDs, MPEGs on the computer, novels, online erotic fiction, photos. Got ’em all. However, I also know where the real and good stuff is, and that’s only found personally in three dimensions with Mrs. Blue, and not in the two-dimensional realm. But porn does keep me out of trouble.
4. There are three kinds of sexual fetishism that I find extremely gratifying to my fantasy life and/or my actual sex life. And that’s as honest as I will get on that. Being the reasonably smart person I am, I don’t pontificate on any of them in this blog, so if you think you know my kinks from past posts, think again. My wife knows about one of them very well, she sometimes remembers the second, and there’s no reason for her to know about the third, since it is impossible in real life and would be inadvisable to pursue even if it was possible.
5. I consider myself to be a pretty crummy child of God. For all that my Father has made possible and all that Jesus went through for me, all I can say is that I am an ungrateful and unproductive brat both for my heavenly Father and my brother, messiah and Lord.
6. I get zero satisfaction in most cases from being “right” in an argument or from winning in competition against another person.
7. When I worked in office-based settings, I never once handed in a 100% truthful expense report after a business trip. That’s what you get when you don’t give cost-of-living salary increases and keep increasing the employee contribution to the health insurance while reducing what it covers; still, though, I was wrong to do that.
8. I once stole a laptop from a company I worked for. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving company, but that still doesn’t make my actions any less wrong or sinful.
9. I actually think Spam tastes good.
10. I sometimes pick my nose. (But, in my defense, I wash my hands before interacting with anyone or touching any common items.) However, I haven’t eaten any of my boogers since the age of 8.