What do you mean? African? Or European?

I was nominated by Jodi Lea for The Liebster award: recognition for bloggers who are “up and coming” – meaning they have less than 200 followers, or have recently published their blog.

I haven’t done any of the research myself, but per Jodi Lea: “Not to be confused with the WordPress.com sponsored blog awards, the Liebster is a blogger generated award that provides links to new bloggers, a chance for your readers to know you better, and increase publicity for your blog.”  That sounds pretty nifty to me.

Unfortunately I can’t accept this award as I have surpassed the 200 follower maximum to receive it.  Hmm, or is that actually, a fortunately I can’t accept this award because so many of you have already found me and think I’m awesome? 

However, for fun, I’m going to play along with at least part of the rules:

Upon receiving the nomination, you are required to do the following:
a. Tell 11 things about yourself
b. Answer 11 questions asked by the nominating blogger
c. Nominate 11 new bloggers
d. Ask 11 questions to the bloggers you nominated
e. Inform the bloggers you choose

a. Tell 11 things about yourself something silly
a.01 – We had pet desert tortoises growing up.
a.02 – We got a couple of them as hatchlings.
a.03 – They were small enough that two of them could fit in the palm of my hand, and I was pretty small at the time too.
a.04 – As they grew they turned into social creatures that would follow us around the backyard hoping for a treat and biting our toes if we ignored them.
a.05 – One of their favorite treats was grapes.  It was always pretty entertaining to watch them eat one.
a.06 – Mature desert tortoise bites hurt more than you’d think.
a.07 – One of them we named Herby.  He was super speedy.  You might even say he had a bit of turbo in him.
a.08 – All of them figured out how to escape from the backyard at one time or another.
a.09 – They are much smarter than you’d think too.
a.10 – I sat here for a good five minutes but couldnt’ think of anything else related to them to share.
a.11 – Oh wait!  No, never mind…

b. 11 questions asked by Jodi Lea  – and my answers:
b.01 – As a kid (or older) when you pretended to be someone else, who were you and why did you want to be them? – Superman, because he was a super man.  It seems pretty self-explanatory.
b.02 – Have you had your “15-minutes of fame” yet? How did it happen? (If it hasn’t happened, how would you like it to happen?) – Nope.  Don’t want 15 minutes of fame.  I’m much greedier than that.  I need at least a good 30 minutes or so, and if it can be about something I’ve written that would be fantastic.
b.03 – If you could change one thing about your personality – what would it be and why? – Nothing, because I’m perfect.  Oh, alright.  I guess I could stand to be a bit more humble for obvious reasons.
b. 04 – What was the last novel you read? Would you recommend it? – George RR Martin’s – Dance with Dragons.  Yes and I have several times.  I’m not sure why you haven’t read it yet.  (Oh, but you should probably start with a Game of Thrones and read the whole series in order or you’ll be really lost.  “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”)
b.05 – Who was/is your favorite teacher, and why? – My parents because they actually parented.  It was hard on all of us, but I learned a lot and am better for it.  Except for that whole humbleness thing…
b. 06 – Besides writing, tell us about one of your other talents. – I’m very good at sitting on my couch and watching TV when I should be editing something I’ve written.
b.07 – Where were you when President Kennedy was shot? – That happened during one of my previous lives and the details are a bit fuzzy.  I think I was probably sitting on a couch somewhere though.  My current life didn’t start until 1981.
b.08 – You wrote a novel about your life growing up, and now Hollywood is making a movie based on that novel. Which actor/actress would you want to play you, and why? – Vigo Mortensen, because he is the king and it is good to be the king.  It would need to be directed by Mel Brooks though to make sense.
b.09 – What was your favorite TV show when you were in grade school?  What about now? – The Simpsons then and now.
b.10 – What are your top 3 pet peeves? – Lists, answering questions presented in list form, and answering questions that want a list as part of the answer.
b.11 – Do you like your first name? If not, what would you change it to? – I do like my first name.  But, if I didn’t, I’d change it to Bill or George. Anything but Sue!

c. Nominate 11 6 7 8 new bloggers (yes, yes, I’m a terrible person only nominating 6 7 8 instead of 11, maybe I’m not perfect after all):
c.01 – http://desertskys.wordpress.com/about/
c.02 – http://kkline922.wordpress.com/about/
c.03 – http://alpheba.wordpress.com/about/
c.04 – http://alpinemummy.wordpress.com/about/
c.05 – http://robinclaire.wordpress.com/me/
c.06 – http://myselves33.wordpress.com/about/
c.07 – http://girlycamping.com/about/
c.08 – http://rubiesandduels.wordpress.com/about/

d. 11 6 7 8 questions to the bloggers I nominated (hey, it’s only fair they have less to answer if I’m nominating fewer of them, right?  There must be a correlation in there somewhere.  I used to be good at math to figure out those sorts of things but my brain doesn’t understand numbers anymore – something about too much time on the couch):
1. What is your name?  (How did you decide on the name you chose for your blog and your blogger personality?)
2. What is your quest?  (What is the purpose of your blog?  What do you write?  What do you get out of it?)
3. What is your favorite color?  (Seriously just asking about your favorite color.)
4. What is the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?  (This is sort of a bonus question – Google or Wikipedia might be able to help.  I will accept an answer for either the African or European variety.)
5. What is your favorite Monty Python movie or sketch?  And why?  (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge…)
6. How much do you hate lists?  (You can answer this question any way you like: comparison, a picture representation, with a list, a number on a scale (out of 5 out of 10 out of 42), etc…)
7. If you were a woodchuck, how much wood would you chuck?  (See question 6 for suggestions on acceptable answers.)
8. If you could be any character from TV or film, who would you be and why?  (Moe from the Simpsons so you could own your own bar?  Princess Leia from Star Wars because she looks good and knows how to fight?  Or Beatrix A Kiddo from Kill Bill for that matter?  Indiana Jones because he is awesome? etc…)

e. I Informed the bloggers I chose via the pingback links in section “c.”