Weekend Items: Award-Winning and Embarrassing Blogging

Hi folks -- hope you had a good weekend. Here are a few items from over the weekend:

* As you know, there was a big entertainment industry awards show last night. What you may not know is that congratulations are in order for our own blogger John, who brought home a a big award.

I am, of course, talking about the Hugo Awards (not that other awards show).

You can see blogger John onstage with the other winners -- sad to say, he was not the best-dressed, most-glamorous or hottest person on stage, as actress Morena Baccarin was on hand to accept an award for the movie 'Serenity', on behalf of writer/director Joss Whedon.

You can see more photos here, where you can play a fun and really easy game: "Who's Not a Science-Fiction Writer?"

* On the political blogging front, the Washington Post had an item (last item) about Mike McGavick, Republican candidate running for US Senate in the state of Washington, who used his blog to make a couple of personal revelations regarding potentially damaging incidents, including a DUI conviction and an earlier divorce.

Presumably, he did this to pre-empt any potential attacks by his opponent.

It's kind of interesting to see the different reaction to this episode, compared to an earlier attempt in 2000 by Massachusetts Senate Candidate Jack Robinson at a similar pre-emptive revelation, also using the Internet.

Robinson's disclosure was seen as kind of bizarre, though it didn't help that he was also kind of notorious for getting into a car accident while on his cell phone, doing an on-air interview.

While making personal disclosures on a blog is still somewhat out of the ordinary for a politician, it's moving closer to the realm of the expected as candidates and politicians try to get more mileage out of social media.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: john scalzi, hugo awards, mike mcgavick, political blogging, morena baccarin