sent Council acknowledgement

I sent the RASC Toronto Council the following:

members of Council,

I'm not often tongue-tied.  Hearing my name called at the 2011 Open House and Awards Picnic at the E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory, for the Ostrander-Ramsay Award for Astronomical Writing, was a surprise.

It is an honour to share this award with past recipients, members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, many of which have become friends.  To have my SCOPE newsletter column recognised so formally is humbling.  I write the bi-monthly piece to relay useful, informative, and fun web sites that I myself frequent and enjoy or discovered in my travels through the internet.

I thank the RASC Toronto Centre Council for considering me.  But the Webspotting column is not solely my own.  The idea (and title) of a regular column about the ever-changing web grew out of discussions with the SCOPE editor at the time, Phil Chow.  His successor, Adam Clayson, supported and the current editor, Eric Briggs, continues to support the column.  All three gentlemen have also helped with seed ideas and themes.  Of course, I have to thank Mom!

From a young age I began to write.  Through excellent training and encouragement in high school and university, I developed some skill and dramatically increased my interest in writing, both in fiction and non-fiction.  Today, expression via the written word is something I cannot help but do.  I enjoy it on a personal level;  but I write mostly to share.

It is all still sinking in.

It is with honour that I accept the Ostrander-Ramsay Award.

I thank you.

respectfully,
Blake