What is the last award you received?

Certain things in life fascinate me. Like the Miss America pageant. Awards shows fascinate me.

Either it's something like the Academy Awards or the Emmy Awards, where (basically) what happens is that the people involved vote for themselves and their co-workers, which I lovingly refer to as "Hollywood Pats Itself on the Back."

The other night, The Golden Globe Awards were given out, which we are led to believe are voted on by the Hollywood foreign press, whatever that is.

The thing that fascinates me about awards is twofold. First, when competitive athletes are given awards, like a Most Valuable Player award, I wonder why it's so important, since they keep score in games and we already know who the winner is. What's the point of giving out an award in an endeavor where there are already declared winners and losers? Why keep score, otherwise?

It seems as though the more attention one gets, the more awards are given out for the job. Athletes, actors, performers and writers get awards regularly. How many janitors, bus drivers or so-called "regular people" get awards for the jobs they do? Not only do they earn crap wages, but they don't get appreciated outside their place of employment.

In the entertainment industry, the big prize is the amount of money that one earns from the work. Actors, directors and producers all earn large amounts of money, and it seems very important to them to also be given a statue or some sort of prize for being good at something that the general public has already awarded them money for being good. Popular actors are awarded by making money from their work because the public likes them. It's also (apparently) important to them to be given an award to verify that people think they're great.

That's an odd way for people to act (pun) who already are saying "hey, look at me!" by doing the job they're doing. I suppose it's partly their tremendous ego that demands more attention and partly their insecurity over whether they're really any good at what they do that motivates them to be so excited about someone telling them that they're good.

I suppose it's true that sometimes, money isn't everything.