Tuesday 16 October 2012

The Liebster Blog Award

Many thanks to Katherine Amabel of Beyond the Hourglass Bridge, who nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award, which – contrary to popular belief – has nothing to do with German strudels, and a lot more to do with nominating your eleven favourite bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to answer eleven probing questions of your choice. So, in answer to Katherine’s questions, here goes (also, I was in a kind of picture-y mood, so this post comes with images!):


Can you tongue roll, cross eye, ear wiggle or perform any other feats of physics? (And you can’t say getting motion sick at the slightest provocation, because I call dibs on that).
I can cross my eyes, and roll my tongue (though the latter only after quite a bit of practise as a child). I can also do the Vulcan Salute, which I consider to be a much greater feat of physics, simply because it enables me to feel more like Spock.

Live long and prosper.
 

Would you rather watch that video from The Ring, or start up a nice, family-friendly game of Jumanji?
I haven’t seen the Ring or Jumanji, so I really can’t answer this one. Sorry.


If you could be any book character, who would you be and why?
Ooh, that’s hard! Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle, since she has magical powers, and she lives in a moving castle...

Tell me again why this would be a bad idea?


What fantasy invention do you most wish was real? e.g. Light sabres… invisibility cloaks… or those completely innocent and in no way drug riddled potions from Alice In Wonderland…
I would very much like a time machine. Or is that a sci-fi invention? Either way, providing I didn’t accidentally end the universe by marrying my grandfather, that would be lovely.


Name one habit you’re trying to break.
I have successfully avoiding perusing my Facebook newsfeed, and checking it several times an hour while trying to write essays. But who knew that this left you so excluded from useless social news, like the fact that my sister’s boyfriend’s grandma had super-glued his fingers together, or that funny picture of that cat...


What’s the scariest book you’ve ever read? (Because I feel like sleeping with the light on for a month).
Weirdly enough, it was The Princess Bride. I was going along, reading and reading and thinking “You know, Prince Humperdinck is a bit of an asshole, but he’s not actually evil.” And the The Machine showed up, and he revealed his sinister plans and I kind of just went “Oh God oh God oh God!”  and have forever been trying to work out how to make my villains that evil. It’s not sleep-with-the-light-on scary, but I was terrified.
 
Enough said.


What was the first job you ever wanted?
I think when I was very small I wanted to be an Olympic sprinter, because I won the younger-siblings-of-students running race at my brother and sister’s primary school. Sadly, my sporting talents didn’t last, and now I’m angling for author-archaeologist, a la Agatha Christie.


What was the first job you ever had? (Sorry!)
I worked at a burger place last summer, failing spectacularly to defy Arts-student stereotypes everywhere. This is what I do with education in Classical Latin. Nonetheless, I can proudly say to this day that I never flipped a single burger. And that it was not MacDonald’s.


If you had to live in any time period, past or present, other than now, what would you choose?
I’ve been ready Colleen McCullough’s The First Man in Rome for the past week or so, and studying Ancient Rome at uni, so I think I’m going to have to go for the late Roman Republic today, because there were brilliant orators in abundance, and every day was a toga party. 

Look! It's Cicero!
  

What’s the most exotic place you’ve ever been?
I don’t know what counts as exotic. I’ve been to Rotorua in New Zealand, where steam belches up out of the ground, and our hosts told us horror stories of a man who dived into what he thought was a nice warm spring, only to be boiled alive. I’ve been to a beach in Japan where they bury you up to your neck in hot sand and you just lie there for hours, which is somehow supposed to be therapeutic, but is really just horribly uncomfortable. But if you’re going for traditionally exotic, Jaco Island in East Timor, which is the deserted tropical island stereotype.


 
Finally, if you could apparate, where in the world would be your favourite spot to take your lunch breaks?
See above. Though really, if I could apparate, I wouldn’t choose just one spot to take my lunch breaks. I would find a new one everyday, I just have very small overseas holidays every day. It would be amazing.


Next step – to nominate eleven blogs, and ask eleven questions of my own.


Nominees
I admit that I’m not much of a blog-reader, and I admit even more sadly that I couldn’t find 11 blogs that I read often enough to consider my favourites, that also have under 200 followers. But here are the ones that I did find and, following in the footsteps of Katherine Amabel, I am happy to fill the other six slots with the blogs of commenters. So if your blog has less than 200 followers, and you post a link in comments, I will add you to the list. (By the bye, I couldn’t work out how to check how many followers people had, so if you have more than 200 and I’ve nominated you – whoops?)




And now, my lovely nominees, you must answer these eleven questions, and then come up with your own eleven questions for eleven more bloggers of your choice.

  1. Who is your favourite historical figure?
  2. Where did you find the name of your blog?
  3. What genre do you write? Why?
  4. If you had a patronus, what would it be?
  5. What are your thoughts on Mr. Darcy?
  6. Do you have a muse? Are they real? Imaginary?
  7. What would you like to learn to do, if you could learn anything?
  8. Do you write with music playing? If you do – what music, and does it relate to what you’re writing?
  9. How many languages do you speak? What are they?
  10. Do you ever talk to your characters? Do they ever talk back?
  11. Would you ever be an astronaut?
And now I’m off for a backwards wander through nominees and their nominors for the Liebster Blog Award. Thanks again to Katherine Amabel!

2 comments:

  1. Haha great post - your first answer cracked me up! :) I'm helping a fellow author with a on my blog at the moment - just being a follower could win you $10 but there's also a $30 prize for the most creative sketch of a chip packet (sounds weird, but his book is all about walking, talking chip packets so it's fun!) and the best chip flavour/personality idea will get a cameo role in his next novel. It finishes tomorrow but I'd love to see you there. :) http://beyondthehourglassbridge.blogspot.com.au/

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    1. I checked the contest out at your blog, and the book sounds utterly bizarre. In a good way, mind you. =) I shall have to practise my chip-packet-drawing skills and see what I can win. =)

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