Says Simpleton goes "Indie"

Ariel over at Bittersweet Life has handed me a backhanded slap-down honored me by dubbing Says Simpleton as an "Indie Blog."

"Just what is an indie blog?" you are thinking right now.

Well, here are the traits necessary to merit "indie" status:

1. Minimal overall influence. That's to say, you're not one of the net's heavy hitters. Your influence is limited to one geographical region or slice of society, i.e., those people who are "cool enough" to read it.
2. Negligible financial impact. In other words, you are not paying your rent thanks to your blog. You aren't even buying groceries thanks to your blog. In all likelihood, your blog is buying you the occasional sleepless night, and that's it. You do it for the love.
3. Fiercely unique. Your blog is dedicated to pursuits that most people view as peripheral to "serious" life. A few examples would be art, minor league hockey, photography, creative writing, rock climbing, theology that doesn't read like a musty encyclopedia entry, and God.
4. Illogically dedicated. Seriously, you continue to write all these posts, month after month, for free? Don't you realize that hardly anyone reads them? Haven't you considered that you could invest your sweat and cogitation with higher dividends elsewhere? Yeah, yeah, yeah--and I'm not stopping. I need to be heard!
   
5. Unapologetically eclectic. Your blog defies pigeon-holing. People say, "He writes about... He writes about...hmm," and you smile. That's because you like being a hybrid. You mix and match--art and spelunking, theology and basketball, philosophy and movies, etc.--because life is like that.
6. Typically ignored. Your blog is not consistently (if ever) linked by any of the blogosphere's celebrities, those who provoke dozens of comments, are read by thousands of people, and could send waves of traffic to your blog if they deigned to notice your existence. But that's all right, it's the price of being indie.

As Ariel explains, this is not a 'meme' thing, but rather is "more of a "I think your blog is small and poverty-stricken but very cool" type of thing. In other words, the indie blog label is an honor that many can only aspire to."

As I considered who I might nominate and dub "indie", I realized that if you are reading this, then chances are, you probably meet most of the criteria. So, if you fit the bill, and would like to play along, then grab an "indie badge", link it to the original post, perhaps write about it (preferably with the word 'rogue' in the title), and then post for the rest of your online life knowing that you've reached the apex of your blogging obscurity.

Still, just for kicks, I'll nominate my friends from swbts.