Conditions in The Matticus Kingdom today: long periods of SUNSHINE

Julie Chicklitasaurus over at Julie’s Chick Lit nominated me for a Sunshine Award:

Sunshine Award

“The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are: Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere. The way the award works is this: Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Answer questions about yourself. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!”

Thank you very much for the nomination Julie.  We here in the kingdom really enjoy knowing that we are positively and creatively inspiring others throughout the blogosphere!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

{QUESTIONS and ANSWERS}

What inspired you to start blogging?
I finally joined the blogging madness shortly after finding out I was going to be a father.  Initially the idea was to use the space as an archive for the journey towards becoming a parent and beyond, but…  well, the jester took over and now it is what it is.

How did you come up with the name to your blog?
The Matticus Kingdom – This is the name of a mix album I put together several years ago that spanned the various styles of my entire catalog of records: it started very low key with some progressive house, moved into some breakbeat, picked up the pace a bit with some trance (progressive, cyber, psy), and then finished off in a crescendo of furiously flying happy hardcore beats.  It encompassed who I was as a dj, and this blog encompasses who I am as a writer… it just makes sense.

What is your favorite blog you like to read?
What?!  What kind of question is that?  I’m not even sure I could narrow that down even if the question was more specific.  For example, even if the question was “What is your favorite blog from someone who lives in San Diego and has a son that went to the same college as you and has a husband who is a tugboat captain?” even as specific as that is, there are just too many wonderful choices to pick from.  Therefore, I’m declining to answer this question.

Tell about your dream job.
Writing novels.  Fantasy, mystery, westerns, comedies, yes, yes, yes, yes… getting paid to write the silliness that my mind comes up with.  That would be swell, thanks.  Why, can you hook that up for me?

Is your glass half empty or half full?
Half full.  However, it would be empty because I don’t leave glasses just lying around.  I’d either down what was left in it, or dump the contents down the drain and place the empty glass in the washer.  I don’t like leaving things around like that.

If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go?
Where I do go every summer: camping and/or backpacking in the Sierra.

What food can you absolutely not eat?
Mold.  I don’t have any food allergies, that I know of, yet.  However, I can absolutely not take mold based medicines.  Something about hallucinations and hives and just general unpleasantness.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
Yes.  In copious amounts please.  *holding my hand out waiting patiently for the chocolatey goodness to be delivered*

How much time do you spend blogging?
Far too little and far too much.  I don’t get to read and comment as much on all the wonderful blogs out there as I’d like, but I also spend more time than I should scrolling through them, liking them, commenting, replying to comments, replying to replies, thinking of new posts, writing new posts, checking stats, etc…

Do you watch TV, and if so, what are some of your favorite shows?
Bones, Castle, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Simpsons…  those are the staples.  I thoroughly enjoyed Sopranos and Deadwood.  I also really enjoyed Dead Like Me.  I watch Dexter when I can but I’m a few seasons behind right now.  I will also watch Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and NCIS if they are on and there is nothing else competing with them.  CSI used to be in that rotation too, but I haven’t been catching it nearly as much as I used to.  Hmm, I think I might watch too much TV.

{NOMINATIONS}

Each of these bloggers has inspired me through their words, through their artwork, and through their creativity.  I think that fits the Sunshine Award bill perfectly:

Jonathan Hilton
Matrone Bell
The Imaginator
Steph Rogers
Jen Rosenberry
Jenn
Rutabaga
Revis Edgewater
Dave
Wiley Schmidt

help, help, I’ve been Liebstered

Not Quite Alice, that may be true, but she’s definitely Awesome.

She popped out of the rabbit hole and chucked a One Lovely Blogger award at me.  It looks like this:

one-lovely-blog-award

While I was ducking that award, a crazy psychedelic tiger wrestled me to the ground and forced a Liebster Award upon me.  This one, to be exact:

liebster_share1

It’s true.  I’ve been Liebstered and there is nothing I can do about it.

My challenge to you, dear readers is to step off my blog for a moment and read these great posts:
http://myrabbitholes.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/daily-prompt-when-i-grow-up/
http://sarahneeve.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/waiting-fiction/
http://myrabbitholes.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/go-away-kitty/
http://sarahneeve.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/i-have-an-idea-updated/

Back already?  Weren’t those great?  And you went ahead and clicked the little follow button on both of their pages?  Nicely done.

Questions?  Questions?  We don’t need no stinkin’ questions:

1. What is your favorite song?
How many people can actually answer that?  One favorite?  How about this:  favorite Springsteen song: No surrender; favorite Blink 182 song: Stockholm Syndrome; favorite Foo Fighter song: Best of You; favorite Killers song: Sam’s Town (Abby Road version); favorite Tiesto song: Just Be, favorite Crystal Method song: Name of the Game, favorite Johnny Cash song: Jackson, do you want more?  I can keep going…

2. What was the last thing you ate?
A cinnamon and raisin bagel, a banana, and some strawberries: breakfast of champions.

3. Do you prefer to read from an eReader or a paper copy?
Paper copy for the moment.

4. List your five favorite movies?
Five?  Only one song, but you are okay with five “favorite” movies?  That just doesn’t make any sense.  So, here are the first five(ish) I can think of at the moment: Tombstone, Braveheart, LOTR Trilogy, Troy, Open Range, Dances with Wolves, Crash, Spiderman 2, Bladerunner….

5. What writing project are you working on now?
I’m working on three:

An epic fantasy called Ascursion – it’s done, I just need to write up a synopsis, cover letter, etc… and figure out where I want to submit it.

I’m in the process of editing a backpacker, mystery, intrigue sort of story that I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2012.  You can find it here.

I’m just a few chapters away from finishing writing a comedy western.  You can see what I’ve posted for that so far here.

6. Are you allergic to anything?
Penicillan and Amoxycillian – and I’m sure I’ve absolutely butchered the spelling of both.  It’s probably something I should know how to do considering I’m allergic, but… since I’m allergic I’ve never had any bottles of them sitting around.

7. Do you have any real life stories that start with, “This one time at camp…”
Yes.  Tons.  Here’s a sample:

This one time at a camp we used aerosol bug spray pooled in our hands to create little torches.  Then one of us got the brilliant idea to try doing the same thing on our feet.  It’s not as easy to clap out the flame when it is on your feet…  Running through camp seemed to do the trick okay though.

This one time at camp our scheduled night out in the woods (away from the main part of camp) coincided with a meteor shower.  As we lay out on our ground tarps the whole heavens opened up for us in a fantastic light show.

This one time at camp we found a trail that led from our camp to a neighboring camp.  Oh, the shenanigans we had planned, until we realized the trail dead ended at the end of their shotgun range.

8. How do you handle telemarketers?
I don’t have a home phone and I don’t answer calls on my cell phone from numbers I don’t recognize.  It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to a telemarketer.

9. When was the last time you wrote someone a letter by hand and mailed it?
Last month – all of my thank you letters for Christmas cards and gifts.

10. Besides writing, do you have any other artsy talents?
Some people have said that I was a pretty good DJ…

…..

7 Facts about me:
1. The force is not strong with me.
2. Snickers is my favorite candy bar.
3. My truck has almost 200,000 miles on it.
4. I broke my wrist in high school rollerblading.
5. Spiders creep me out.
6. There was a time in my life where I could have very happily become a hermit.
7.  I think there is real magic in this world just waiting to be found.

……

The One Lovely Blog Award Nominations are:

a. http://themotherofnine9.wordpress.com/about-me/
b. http://missfoureyes.wordpress.com/about/
c. http://noblogintended.wordpress.com/about/
d. http://knockedoverbyafeather.wordpress.com/about/
e. http://sortaginger.com/about-2/
f. http://www.jonathanhilton.com/contact/
g. http://ladylovelyblogger.wordpress.com/about/

The Liebster Award Nominations are:

a. http://mischievouseyez.wordpress.com/about/
b. http://girlycamping.com/about/
c. http://waggingmytale.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/daily-prompt-all-about-me/
d. http://shireensingh.wordpress.com/about/
e. http://nowwritingeveryday.wordpress.com/about/
f. http://gordonflanders.wordpress.com/about/
g. http://theloneshewolf.wordpress.com/about/
h. http://soiwentundercover.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/trifecta-challenge-week-58/

And my questions for them:
1. If you were a knight, what would your knightly name be?
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…)

drum roll please

Look what I found this morning:

versatileblogger111

Isn’t that a lovely gift from dmauldin53?

I don’t normally accept nominations for these awards but they had such nice things to say about me and asked me very politely to accept it.  I was powerless to refuse.  You should take a minute to read this and that and pretty much everything else at the Mauldin Family blog.  It’s a whole lot of awesome.

…..

Versatile Blogger Rules  (If you choose to obey them)

  • Display the Award Certificate on your website
  • Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award
  • Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
  • Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post
  • Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

…..

required reading (more promotion)

So, it’s a new year, right?  Yes, we’ve already established that. 
Hooray, huzzah, etc…

And, you’ve all set New Year’s resolutions to read more, right? 
Of course you have.  Who didn’t?!  We are all readers and writers in this section of the blogospere.

To help further you on with that goal, I’m sending you forth to read Tranquil Dreams who was kind enough to nominate my (completely unworthy and altogether waste* of a) blog for the Blog of the Year 2012 award.  She is the complete package.  Period. 

Photography?  Yep, she does that.  Movie and book reviews?  Of course.  Random musings and waxing philosophical on life?  Without a doubt. 

Sounds pretty good, right? 
But wait! 
There’s more!

She also does posts on food, and comedy, and daily prompts, and writing challenges, and…

Basically, if you can’t find something on her blog that resonates with you, then I’m not really sure what you are doing on here in the first place.

Hmm, that came off as a bit snarky, didn’t it?

Well, that’s just the way it is.

….

*If you don’t agree, feel free to praise my “work” in the comments section.
** What are you still doing reading this, don’t you have a recommended blog to check out?
*** Yes, it was very good of you notice that there wasn’t a 2nd asterisk notation in the main body of the post.  Or a third one for that matter.  You have my permission to find yourself a cookie.

shameless promotion

And not even of the “self” kind.

I was nominated today for the REALITY Blog Award (Real Energizing Amazing Lovely Inspiring Touching Yippee), and while I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to follow through with the required stipulations for accepting the award, I definitely wanted all of my wonderful followers to take a minute to check out the blogger that nominated me in the first place: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/.

You won’t regret it.  You might even find yourself sticking around for more than a minute.  I usually do.

So, go forth, read, enjoy!

And thus endeth this episode of shamelss promotion.  Tune in next time for… well, probably more of the same.  That’s just the way we roll here at the matticus kingdom.