Awarded by a Peer : Nothing quite like it!

A nice moment today when I checked into my blog today and discovered that the always awesome lovethebadguy had presented me with a Liebster Award which is, “essentially an Internet high-five, given with the purpose of encouraging bloggers to keep doing what they’re doing.” Well as anyone who is honest about what they do will tell you, there’s nothing quite like a genuine kind word and appreciation for whatever it might be that you do, even more so when its from peers.

But what is a Liebster Award?

Well me being me, I couldn’t just let it go and had to at least do a quick look so I think I’ve got it : ‘Liebster’ is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. That is a lot of positive adjectives and makes me wonder for lovethebadguy’s sanity a little because I’m seldom considered sweet or beloved or most of those – but then it occurs to me that online people might take me for a lot nicer than I am in real lie PLUS this award is to my blog more than me and it’s a lot less of a smirky, snarky, smart-ass than me. So that works. But dammit, does this now mean I have to start living up to this? Aw hell, all that time cultivating and refining my evil skills and now someone things I’m nice… dammit.

…sorry… couldn’t help it…

Anyway.

Awards like these in the blog world tend to come with some rules and requirements – mostly for everyones amusement I’d wager – so here they are:

• When you receive the award, post 11 random facts about yourself and answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
• Pass the award onto 11 other blogs (and notify the blogger that you nominated them). Do not nominate the blogger who gave you the award.
• Write up 11 NEW questions directed towards YOUR nominees.
• Paste the award picture into your blog.

Huh… alright then, let’s get to it shall we, I don’t imagine the handful of ye faithful readers have all day. First up, the 11 random facts. This should be fun, I think I’m going to try and stream of consciousness this a bit and see what spouts forth:

1. I got pulled over by a policeman for crossing a red-light on the very day I got my drivers license.
2. I’ve read “Dune” by Frank Herbert about once a year for the past… 14-15 years.
3. Collecting copies of books I love borders on an obsession.
4. Someday I want to own an island and live on it.
5. …or somewhere in the mountains works too.
6. My first cell-phone was forcibly purchased and given, I didn’t want it. Still iffy about them sometimes.
7. I love and loathe technology at the same time – it’s a conundrum.
8. I love art but somehow making myself practice any form of it takes forever, there’s something very wrong with my brain at times.
9. There’s a bit of anarchist in me somewhere, having tea and scones with the atheist I’d imagine.
10. I can drink a White Russian any time of day or night and pretty much any time of the year.
11. I really hate lists like this because it takes me forever to think of stuff for some reason…

Wow that took me a long time! *phew* Clearly this post is going to take some doing still so before I give in to the laziness, moving to phase 2, the answering of the questions:

1. Who is your literary soul-mate, and why? This one’s easy – Philip K. Dick, the sheer variety of scope, concept, motif, characters, depth and imagination that he had in his work echoes my own desire to not be stuck/tied to just one thing or genre and he is an idol, a level of thought I aspire toward.
2. What is your least favourite book of all time? Twilight – not because of the series’ own inherent badness (and there’s no shortage of that!) but because of the phenomenon it’s become and what the success of it and its ilk implies about the reading public and what such large volumes of the populace want. It saddens me.
3. Facebook or Twitter? Facebook. Twitter has its uses but 90% of it is just an utter waste of time.
4. Cats or dogs? Always been a dog person primarily but no hate for cats as such.
5. What superpower do you wish you could have? Ideally? High level telekinesis.
6. What is your favourite season of the year? Probably both spring and autumn, essentially I like the good times between harsh summers and biting winters.
7. FanFiction — yay or nay? Yay for certain because while a fiction you love has it’s own canon, there’s no reason it can’t fire your imagination for you to create your own alternate possible reality, it’s half the joy of great stories for, even though I’ve never written any, I’ve imagined a few.
8. What are the constants in your refridgerator? Cheese, wine, fruit.
9. You and one book character hero are stranded on an island. Who is the hero? 
10. Same island, but you’re trapped with the bad guy! Who’s your villain of choice?
11. What is the story behind your blog’s name? Well I’ve always been fascinated by the Anansi mythology and I liked the idea of all the stories belonging to him, it was amusing and since I want to be a great story-teller (hopefully) it seemed to fit – spinning my stories like a web that draw people in… 🙂

Aaaand that took even longer! Damn this is harder than I thought! Anyway, on to the last parts, nominating others for the award and asking 11 questions of my own. Well the folks whose blogs I’ve enjoyed following and think are deserving of this award, either because they’ve been around a while and are awesome or are deserving of a bigger audience are :

•  400 Days ’til 40
• Laure at Buttercream and Chantilly Factory
• Stef at Dodging Commas
• Dianne Gray author
• 1 Story a week
• theothers1 at ChantelC
• AHBlack at Andys Words and Pictures
• Musings of an Eclectic Soul

Alright fine! That’s not 11 nominees but that’s not my fault. Or maybe it is, but it really isn’t, then again – oh never mind, just bear with me and lets get to the last part! My questions to the nominees!

1. What book are you reading right now?
2. If you could remove one moment or person from all history – who and why?
3. What’s the last thing you do before going to sleep at night?
4. Would you be willing to go to Mars if offered a chance on a colonisation project?
5. What’s your favourite flavour of ice-cream?
6. If there’s something strange, in the neighbourhood – who you gonna call?
7. What’s your favourite John Carpenter movie?
8. Can you name all the seven dwarves?
9. If you had the power to revive any defunct TV show, which would it be?
10. If you had to pick only one author to read for the rest of your life, who would it be and why?
11. What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?

DAAAAAAAAAMN!! FINALLY!! …It is done. I’m going to go now…