Well, the reason for that seems to me that Crispy and his mommy have spent a lot more time doing things with the Facebook Page they have set up for our main dog, Calvin.

Calvin the Woggle

This doesn’t entirely mean that I’ve been forgotten – well, except maybe for Clean Babe who has been with Shannan since sometime before the summer began – but it does mean that Calvin gets more camera time, gets more attention paid to him as to what he wants to have posted on his Facebook, and other things like that.

I’m aware that the phrase is that a dog is a “man’s best friend”, but how can a dog compare to a lovely, cuddly, squishy teddy bear, that doesn’t need to be fed, walked, bathed or anything like that?

I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle here.

Suppose I should get a start on the vodka in the alcohol press, á la Misery Bear.

Calvin, you don't seem to be doing anything interesting or Facebook worthy. So why do you get more human time spent on you than I do?

The Irish Blog Awards

However, now that I myself have a blog of my own, I now have a small vested interest in this whole thing. Winning at “the Bloggies” would be a great foundation and first step towards my overall plan of taking over the Internet with my cuteness and happy smiling face.

However, despite all of my little hints and nudges along the way, there doesn’t appear to have been the introduction this year of a specific category that tailors quite well to me. Something along the lines of “Best Bear Blog”, “Best Blog of an Inanimate Object”, “Best Blog of a Childhood Toy”, “Best Blog of something that came from M&S” would have been ideal, but I guess that hasn’t happened.

Another thing, despite the fact that he would have to be my bitter rival if we were to be in the same category as each other, I do have to root for Crispy’s blog as well, if he happens to get nominated for anything, which I doubt he will because the only time he ever even got on a longlist was when he nominated himself, the pathetic loner.

But I’m getting off-topic here (gosh, I’m turning into Wrong Babe), my point still stands that the Blog Awards do not cater properly towards my species, and in general, my fellow bears, teddies, objects and the rest. I may have to start calling for Mulley’s resignation from the de facto king of the Internet in Ireland. Although even if I were to manage to rally support, it would probably take so long to properly put into effect, Ireland would be out of the recession, and we’d have cycled through another bad government forced to leave office after the rest of the country moaned.

Crispy didn’t exactly moan at them though. Except for when they reduced his government monies. He really didn’t like that, since it meant less food he could buy for me.

But yes, I have a very mean and angry face saved up for the Blog Awards. I just hope that this tape on my face will last until they can see it.

Therefore, please don’t be alarmed when you see all these pictures of us eating whatever it happens to be. Be it:

TGI Friday’s

Om-nom-nom, TGI Friday's cheeseburger!

Sushi King

Sushi banquet, ho!

Sweeties

Woo! Sweeties for the train ride home!

Wagamama’s

Although it doesn't help that I can't even work a single chopstick very well, let alone use two of them to eat with.

Cheesecake

Mmmm, tiny bear-sized cheesecakes!

Pizza

Yay, cooked Chicago Town X Factor special pizza!

Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings

Om-nom-nom main course!

Please don’t worry! Our diet is – mostly – okay!

Well, 2010 was a good year for me and the other members of the Bear family. We got our page on Facebook and currently have 188 fans! We interacted a lot more on Twitter, although we only have 69 followers there. Sad face.

The most important thing to happen during the year was the arrival of Pudding Babe into the family, having been delivered in April 2010! With the family now growing to include more bears, hopefully the odd eBay search will turn up another bear next year! As for Pudding, we still haven’t figured out everything about him, although recent traits and actions have shown him to be quite the food lover despite his muteness.

Pepsi, Randoms, biccies and crisps - all together with Pudding Babe. What could possibly go wrong?

Another big thing is that we now have this blog website where we can write little stories about what we get up to! Apparently there have been 705 hits since it was started on May 16th. It’s not all that many, unfortunately, but for a starter blog, I think it’s pretty good!

Now, what to look for in 2011 from us:

• More Twitter
• More blog posts
• More Facebook fans
• Dominance at the Irish Blog Awards 2011 (Mulley, take note pretty please!)

And tons and tons of bear pictures! See you next year!

In the absence of my Santy hat from last year, here’s me with a Chrissymas card depicting the kind of bear I looked like!

Regardless of this, he still seems almost hell-bent on taking me outside, putting me in snow, and then taking numerous pictures of me.

Right Babe, Wrong Babe, and Clean Babe making snow bears

Also, it’s cold. And a cold bear is not a happy bear, especially as it means there’s less cuddling going around because people don’t want to be cuddling a cold bear when all they want is warmth. Thus there is a bit of a threshold of how cold I can get until everyone will just abandon me and I’ll get even colder in a never-ending downward spiral of temperature. At least until it becomes nice and not snowy again.

Now, I think I’m off back to the hot press until this cold snap is gone.

Hey, it's all five of us together for once! (L-R: Right, Wrong, Cream, Pudding, Clean)

Anyway, now that all five of us are back again, I thought that maybe we should start doing a series of “in-depth” blog posts about each one of us. If you want to help me pick which one of us should ideally be the first one to write a post about themselves, just post a comment with the name of the bear you think should be the first – be it Right, Wrong, Clean, Cream or Pudding.

All the finer details of each of us will be explained in these posts. Maybe then you can understand the mindset of us a little better!

As you all saw, zombie bears are real. And they are a real threat to proper full-life bears like myself and Misery. As such, given this time of year and the sheer volume of zombies that will be out and about, I think it is only right that I make a Public Service Announcement calling all bears to barricade themselves inside, lock all doors and windows, and take up arms to be able to defend themselves when the eventual onslaught comes. Because if watching Crispy play Left 4 Dead 2 has taught me anything, it’s that the zombies will keep on coming and eventually they will break through your doors and windows.

And maybe then once the wave of mutation has passed us by and it’s all back to normal, then we can go on the offensive and take over the world! With me as President of course. And Crispy can be my lackey, while all other humans are sentenced to a life of slavery.

Yay for bear rule!

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to go source a shotgun, since Crispy won’t let me play with his Beretta 92′s.

Having a fan page:

• Easily lets people like me immediately without needing to bother with friend requests.
• People can still view my page in it’s entirety even if they’re not registered or logged in.
• People can properly post their pictures of me to my page and have a dedicated “photos by fans” section.

Having a profile page:

• Lets me like, post and comment on things on other people’s profiles. This is one of the key factors for me wanting to make the switch.
• People can tag me in photos and videos.

I’m sure I’ll be able to think of more things with regards to this soon, or at least once Facebook stops being mean for Crispy and not loading.

If only there was some sort of middle ground. For example, if Facebook pages were allowed to comment and post on the pages of people who like them and have given permission to. Or if they could be properly tagged in other people’s photos and then they would automatically be added to the fan photos section. Or maybe if they changed pages for public figures and other people and bears like me to have features of both a page and a profile, such as people can both like me and be friends with me, and I could have the powers of both.

Or is all this too much to ask? Time to go sit on the bed and think for a while.

So if you want to be really nice and helpful, you’d go over to their website here, download the voucher for two meals for €10, and help me on my way to having my name representing a lovely burger!

Yay!