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16 May 2012

Rooop! That's the Sound of the Universe Ending Because I'm Actually Doing What I Should

Sorry about that.

Anyhoo, Amanda Heitler of Drama, Dice and Damsons gave me this thing, to which I say hurrah! And thanks!

In Soviet Russia, Blog Awards You

It comes with prizes! In the form of rules, questions and facts about me!

RULES

1. Thank and link back to the awarding blog
2. Answer the following seven questions. 
3. Provide ten random factoids about yourself. 
4. Last but not at all least, hand this on to seven deserving others. 

Amanda notes: "Just to mention in passing, I really want to change the questions and most of them are vague or slightly daft, but tradition is tradition I suppose."  Yeah. I guess they are supposed to be ice breakers or something? I will forge ahead and do my best but I am also providing alternatives that may be no less vague or daft for those to whom I pass on this award.

The questions:

1. What's your favorite song?
I don't know. But this is always fun:



ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Name one song you listened to over and over as a teenager.

2. What's your favorite dessert?
I don't know, but I want to try making this chocolate cake with unusual icing.

ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: What are you having for lunch today?

3. What do you do when you're upset?
Either transition quickly into laughter / making fun of myself, or start talking and trying to explain myself and end up crying and sick of the sound of my own voice. It's a win / win, really.

ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Describe the last time you were bored.
 
4. Which is your favorite pet?
Yikes. I have three pets right now, so I'll tell you which is my least favourite: the fish, partly because he's on his way out, and is taking his time. He might live, but he probably won't. I am not very attached to him, although he is pretty and I have enjoyed having him around. (I am doing everything I can for him and yeah it's not over until it's over but there is not too much to do, really.) He is also the most plant-like. Don't get me wrong: I like plants, just not as much as I love my dog and cat.

You've all seen Dizzy:


And this is Ben:



ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Which is your least favourite pet? He or she doesn't have to belong to you.

5. Which do you prefer? Black or White
What?

ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Which do you prefer? White or whole wheat?
 
6. What is your biggest fear? 
Doing something that seems reasonable at the time but turns out to have horrible consequences, like, for example, going away for the weekend after there's been a wee bit of a flood in the basement and coming home to a smell like the entire house is coated in cat pee but is in fact rancid with mildew. Oops! 

ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Name one of your strong points or special skills.
 
7. What is your attitude mostly?
Good. Unless there is no coffee or someone is trying to take advantage. Then bad. Very bad. 

ALTERNATIVE QUESTION: Do you think it is better to help people or leave them alone?

TEN RANDOM FACTOIDS
Okay, I am borrowing / adapting Amanda's because she is cool and I spent too long on the questions. You can read her original factoids in their pristine state here:


  • Amanda: I regard garment shopping as a form of purgatory. ET: Yup, me too. 
  • Amanda: I love walking barefoot (this might have come up before - in which case, I do apologise, but I'm not really that interesting) ET: Yes.
  • Amanda: I am a balrog in the morning. ET: If you mean one of these guys, then yes me too.
  • Whistling People chewing ice freaks me out and makes my spine wobble.
  • I have a broken nose collar bone from a left-over riding  cycling accident.
  • Amanda: I have a horrible effect on technology. Batteries run down in days, computers act funny, stuff does not work as it should. Magnetic field misfire is my theory. ET: Yo, you're a SLIder! I occasionally mess with streetlights, but it sounds like you've got an extreme version of the syndrome.
  • I adore airports and deeply fear flying. In some ways I wish we still lived in the days of steamships. I would like to feel exactly how large the ocean is as I move across it.
  • Amanda: I get stagefright before every class I teach. ET: This totally used to happen to me. Since I started teaching tai chi and qigong exclusively and got away from the university, it doesn't.
  • Amanda: I fall asleep reading. Sitting up with a book in my hand. ET: If I am reading, I can't fall asleep. 
  • Amanda: I failed my first driving test in spectacular style by backing into a lamp post. ET: Awesome. It happens, right? I only passed my driving test on the first go because it was a couple of days before Christmas and the examiner was in a festive mood. True story!

SEVEN DESERVING BLOGGERS
Okay look, I know this kind of thing can be a pain in the arse. Just remember this means I think you are awesome:

Mark K! RPGer extraordinaire and all-round cool guy, Mark blogs at The DM's Screen. (I have not met Mark in person, but I suspect he is really, really nice. He and his wife raised a guide dog that they then had to pass off to the person who needed the dog. That is how nice he is.)

Bluestocking! She's been rocking the short story publications lately and I think we'll see much, much more from her soon (no pressure, Bluestocking). Follow her now at The Bluestocking Blog.

Madeline Mora-Summonte! She's one of several hosts of the year-long challenge Write 1, Sub 1, and a proud owner of tortoises. She blogs at The Shellshank Redemption.

Shannon Lawrence! She was an A-to-Z co-host and she's hard at work novelling. Cheer her on at The Warrior Muse.

Chris Kelworth! He's a local writing buddy and all round nice guy. He blogs about life stuff, writing, reading, expanding the capacities of your gadgetry through the superpowers of software programming, and whatnot at The Kelworth Files.

Jan Morrison! Jan writes mysteries and literary fiction and blogs about writing and life. She shares her wisdom at her eponymous blog.

Catherine Stine! I am in love with her blog header. And the best part is, the illustrations are from her book, FireSeed One. P.S. FireSeed One is on sale for 99 cents right now! Okay this is too much excitement. Go now to Catherine Stine's Idea City and be amazed. 

Feel free to add yourself to the list. You know I adore you and do not want you to feel left out.

23 comments:

Guilie Castillo said...

Great answer to the Kreativ challenge, Elizabeth! Thanks for the link to my blog here on yours--much appreciated :)

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

Ha! Great answers!

Why thank you, Elizabeth! Kreative I will attempt to be as I answer the questions. I may mix and match the originals with the alternatives - I'll see what the tortoises want to do. (I do have another award I haven't addressed yet so...stay tuned!) :)

Oh, and I just did a few blog posts for W1S1 in 2011 and a bit in 2012. I did participate in 2011 (the monthly category) and it was awesome.

Mark K said...

Aunty Liz! You darling... thank you so much for nominating me. My parole officer will be so proud of the things you said about me. Oh, did I tell you? I get released next week :)

I've baked some Lemon Drizzle cake for you by way of a thank you :)

Bluestocking said...

Aww, thanks so much! I'll have to put on my thinking cap for some of the questions. And sign me up for chocolate cake with unusual icing ;)

Jan Morrison said...

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the thought and the work that goes into keeping these things going AND I made a decision over a year ago to not have awards on my site. I just get the guilts when I can't live up to them. So I will happily visit all the bloggers I share this honour with and am pleased you like my blog! You did a great job at answering the questions...I also cannot abide people chewing ice (gives you hairline fractures leading to - gasp! - decay!!!

Catherine Stine said...

Elizabeth, you rock! Thanks for the award and for mentioning my novel, Fireseed One. And what cool questions... I will have fun with these. Eh hehehehehe.

Elizabeth Twist said...

Thanks and you're welcome! Keeping blogrolls is the easiest way I know to make sure I regularly visit the bloggers I admire. I love your posts.

Elizabeth Twist said...

Yay! Do what you want with the questions - there are many of them.

I took your bio on the W1S1 page to mean your were some kind of W1S1 bigwig. Unless you say otherwise I'll leave the text of my post untouched. Any kind of W1S1 participation is a big deal in my books, and deserves inflated praise, so there.

Elizabeth Twist said...

Well, I've got to do what I can to keep you out of trouble, Markie.

Hoorah for cake!

Elizabeth Twist said...

It is such weird icing. Basically you make a paste by heating flour in milk and that is the base. You process / blend sugar and butter or shortening (yuck, shortening) and then whip it all together with vanilla. I imagine it is creamy and not excessively sweet. It looks awesome. Basically, I love baking but I do not want to eat tons of sugar. I'm always looking to cut back.

Elizabeth Twist said...

You are welcome! Yes, don't feel obligated in any way to follow through on the, uh, obligation? I know those guilts and usually I am not so diligent about following through on awards.

I did not know that about chewing ice. It grosses me out even more now.

Elizabeth Twist said...

I hope you do have fun with the challenge, Catherine. Your book looks great. It is wonderful to see so many writers getting their stuff out there to read.

Amanda Heitler said...

Now if I had any sense at all or was one quarter as smart as you, I'd have re-done the questions. Superb.

Elizabeth Twist said...

I'm a cheater cheater. Note I stuck to the letter of the law and answered the questions I was supposed to, and left the actual violation of protocol up to others.

And, ahem, you did change "desert" to "dessert."

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

You did a ton of work on this. When I get these I'm gonna have to remember to pass them on to you.

Elizabeth Twist said...

Please don't. Or do. I don't know. I may never blogard so well again.

nutschell said...

Congratulations on the award! Enjoyed learning more about you:)

Happy weekend!
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Mina Lobo said...

Hey, congrats on the award! I dig that yours had questions (mine didn't, although you're right, it does take more time to answer those and also think up stuff about yourself). Also, I loved the "Soviet Russia" bit...my son, who's just a few days shy of 17, sometimes whips out that joke, which boggles my mind, as I can't imagine him ever having seen Yakov Smirnoff's routine.

Some Dark Romantic

Mina Lobo said...

I'm totally with you on the coffee thing, BTW. :-)

Traci Kenworth said...

Congrats!! And great alternative questions.

Mark K said...

Dear Aunty Liz,

I am going to be a wayward one and politely pass on the honour of taking part in this award. My reason being that some folks I nominated for previous awards either ignored it totally or declined (either politely or otherwise, nothing rude though), and I rather not approach folks I've nominated previously because I know they accepted my last award 'thang' < street slang - I'm so hip!

Hope you can forgive me for my late missive? Do you like cheesecake? I still have one, though I removed the file from it so it looks a bit 'restless', shall we say.

Shannon Lawrence said...

Thanks so much, Elizabeth! I'll post it Monday! I've had a rough day (week/month/year) and this was a lovely surprise.

Shannon at The Warrior Muse, road tripping through the #atozchallenge participants!

Georgina Morales said...

I love your answers! Your cat is very pretty. For me, a pet has to be able to engage in games or petting, some kind of physical interaction, and for that reason I've never had fishes. Don't think I ever will. Congrats on being so kreative!

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