<div style="text-align: center;"><a title="Me, Downtown by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/3958218147/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2520/3958218147_359906463b.jpg" alt="Me, Downtown" width="333" height="500" /></a></div>
Below are the highlights for the Tulsa side of the Turnpike on the big news at <a href="http://oklahomablogawards.blogspot.com/2010/02/2009-okie-blog-award-winners.html">the Oklahoma Blog Awards Web site</a>.
<div style="margin: 0px;">Congrats to all the winners, runners-up and nominees. Blogging is so important these days to how people learn about Oklahoma and what we can learn about ourselves. To anyone out there thinking that blogging sounds like fun, I say this: Do it. It's hard work (more than a lot of folks think, but that's true about darn near everything, isn't it?) and it's demanding of one's time, but it's worth it.

So worth it.

</div>
<a name="more"></a>Last week, Oklahoma bloggers voted for their favorite Oklahoma blogs in the annual peer-selection competition. Winners and runners-up include:

<strong>Lifetime Achievement</strong>
<a href="http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/">The Pioneer Woman</a>

<strong>Best Overall Blog</strong>
<a href="http://theartofmanliness.com/">The Art of Manliness</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://www.thelostogle.com/">The Lost Ogle</a>

<strong>Best Audio/Podcast Blog</strong>
<a href="http://blogoklahoma.com/">Blog Oklahoma</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://goodbyetulsa.com/">Goodbye Tulsa</a>

<strong>Best Culture Blog</strong>
<a href="http://tashadoestulsa.com/">Tasha Does Tulsa</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://oklahomarock.com/">Oklahoma Rock</a>

<strong>Best Blog Design</strong>
<a href="http://erinconrad.blogspot.com/">Erin Conrad Photography</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://adbrad.com/blog/">Ad Brad</a>

<strong>Best Family Blog</strong>
<a href="http://www.918couponqueen.com/">918 Coupon Queen</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://www.rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/">Rocks in My Dryer</a>

<strong>Best Food Blog</strong>
<a href="http://tulsafoodblog.com/">Tulsa Food Blog</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://blog.newsok.com/fooddude/">FoodDude</a>

<strong>Most Humorous Blog</strong>
<a href="http://thelostogle.com/">The Lost Ogle</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://irritatedtulsan.wordpress.com/">Irritated Tulsan</a>

<strong>Most Inspirational Blog</strong>
<a href="http://blog.newsok.com/lifeisreal-jim/">Life is Real</a> (posthumous)
Runner Up: <a href="http://www.napkindad.com/">Napkin Dad</a>

<strong>Best New Blog of 2009</strong>
<a href="http://okiecreative.com/typography/oklablog/">Okie Creative</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://carlessintulsa.blogspot.com/">Carless in Tulsa</a>

<strong>Best Political Blog (Conservative)</strong>
<a href="http://batesline.com/">BatesLine</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://wwwtmrcom.blogspot.com/">McCarville Report</a>

<strong>Best Political Blog (Liberal)</strong>
<a href="http://www.okiefunk.com/">Okie Funk</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://alternativetulsa.blogspot.com/">Alternative Tulsa</a>

<strong>Best Rural Blog</strong>
<a href="http://www.theredneckdiva.com/">The Redneck Diva</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://www.britgalusa.com/">Brit Gal in the USA</a>

<strong>Best Tech Blog </strong>
<a href="http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/">Blogging Basics 101</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://www.stfpr.com/newmedia/index.cfm?categoryid=2">STF PR New Media Now</a>

<strong>Best Tulsa Blog</strong>
<a href="http://tashadoestulsa.com/">Tasha Does Tulsa</a>
Runner Up: <a href="http://irritatedtulsan.wordpress.com/">Irritated Tulsan</a>

This year marks the first time an Oklahoma blogger has been honored with a lifetime achievement award. Based on her enormous success as a blogger, and the positive image of Oklahoma she presents to the rest of the world, the final determination panel decided to honor <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/">Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman</a>, with the award.

In addition, this year is the first time a blogger has been recognized posthumously. <a href="http://blog.newsok.com/lifeisreal-jim/">Jim Chastain, whose blog, Life is Real via newsok.com</a>, inspired hundreds of Oklahomans with his fight against cancer. Although he lost that battle just two short months ago, his words live on.

<a href="http://www.okiedoke.com/">Mike Hermes, a newspaper editor from Little Axe, is the founder of the Okie Blog Awards</a>. This year’s awards were coordinated by <a href="http://www.jenx67.com/">Jennifer James, an Oklahoma City public relations practitioner and writer who blogs about Generation X</a>.

Members of the panel that counted the votes and determined the winners included Mike Hermes; <a href="http://www.oklahomatoday.com/">Louisa McCune-Elmore, editor, Oklahoma Today</a>; <a href="http://www.stfpr.com/index.cfm">Mike Koehler, new media director, Schnake Turnbo Frank PR</a> and <a href="http://www.acogok.org/">John G. Johnson, J.D., executive director, Association of Central Oklahoma Governments</a>.

Winners will be formally recognized this spring at an organized gathering of Oklahoma’s Twitter community. Information about the tweetup will be made available on <a href="http://okctweetup.com/">okctweetup.com</a>.