Congrats to Ashley Burns for being selected as Best Local Blogger over at the Orlando Sentinel!

For those of you who don't know Ashley, he used to be the editor over at UCF Future. Even when I moved away from Orlando for a couple years, I'd read his sports column religiously. It was in the midst of our 0 and forever streak, so it wasn't always kind, but it was always funny as hell, rather truthful, and thoroughly enjoyable. I think he's writing for Axis now occasionally, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, he has a blog called "Blumpkins for All," and was named best local blogger by the Orlando Sentinel (who shamefully didn't print the name of the blog ;). Ashley's site is generally a brash, offensive stream of lunacy and youtube links that's probably only outdone by his myspace blog. It has traces of the humor you'll remember from the UCF Future days, only completely unhinged. When it's all said and done, it's that level of authenticity that blogging is about and what makes his site stick out from the noise.

"My blog is every thought that crosses my mind regarding sports, pop culture, politics and especially Orlando - completely unedited and uncensored. Everything is 100% original and I apologize for nothing."

Heck yeah. If you haven't subscribed to Ashley's blog, and you aren't easily offended, go check it out.

His win is even more important than it may appear though. The two other finalists were a local radio station and a Sentinel columnist. Turns out, Burnsy (as most folks probably call him) wasn't just rep'n his love for Blumpkins. He was representing the "actual bloggers" category of the contest.

Scott Maxwell is a great columnist, and his Sentinel blog is of similar quality, it just seems rather strange to have a msm journalist who works for the paper be nominated. Heck, if any Sentinel blogger should be nominated, it should be Dave "Get off my lawn!" Ballentine for his outstanding, truthful coverage of the downtown area. I hate those damn birds next to Lake Eola too, Dave.

There are a ton of great bloggers in the area. Lots of folks from Weblogs, Inc, one our blogsmith networks, blog professionally from the region . Then there are local community folks like Josh Hallett, Ryan Price, Mark Baratelli, John Rife -- heck, John Rife took an RV and drove around North America for three months video taping small towns and attractions for FindingAmerica.tv. How about John Frost and the Disney Blog? Erik Hersman's new Roofable or even WhiteAfrican? The guy spoke at TED for crying out loud. And if we're talking orlando blogging, there are a slew of hyperlocal, orlando only, blogs with folks like East Orlando Life, The Other Orlando, and Living Orlando (which is awesome).

Hopefully by next year, we can see a number of the great writers in the area start to be recognized for their efforts. I'm really glad that Burnsy won, as it would have spoken volumes if someone from the MSM won the category instead. "Orlando Sentinel's best local blogger is... ourselves! yay!"