From Boston University’s Show Us Your Blogs competition:

The 16 finalists are listed below, in no particular order:

1. This Be My (B)log http://carolineb-log.blogspot.com
A student discusses her ongoing treatment for leukemia.

2. Alliteration Abound http://www.alliterationabound.com
Video game aficionado posts on gaming and life.

No, I did not win, and that’s perfectly fine. To be honest, if I won I would’ve been a little ashamed for beating out the third-place leukemia blogger. Or the first-place obscure foreign film blogger, or second-place science translation blogger. Their blogs have purpose, have meaning. Whoever wrote up my ditty was very good at putting a name on what is essentially randomness. Sometimes I’m emo and blog about being emo. Sometimes I’m Elmo and blog about being Elmo. Sometimes I’m E/Mo and blog about being E/Mo.

But like when I landed my computer tech support job, which I thought I was equally unqualified for, I’m wondering what the competition was like. Did my exuberant, exhilarating, enthralling eloquence beat out blogs with purpose, or just Myspace junkies? Were there only sixteen applicants?

And then I actually read the article. There were 150 entries in the competition. I don’t know which of my posts the judges read, but my blog beat out at least 134 other blogs, each with a blogger that had the cojones to put their work under scrutiny. Possibly using an anonymous email through an anonymous proxy on an anonymous public terminal wearing gloves, a mask, and a trenchcoat after making sure he wasn’t followed, but that’s beside the point: seeing my name up there on the list made me blush for the first time in a long while. I barely blush anymore when my girlfriend tells me I’m cute!

All I can hope is that if someone new does happen upon my blog, they look beyond the first page of posts. Because this is a personal journal, there’s a wild variety of content out there, everything from short updates to music video discussions to analyses of my memories and dreams to short stories and essays. Most posts have some reference in the title, with cryptic references sneaking in if I have to obscure a detail or strong point. And true to my blog’s description, there are gaming references!