Cheri at Idle Chatter has been kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster Award, whatever that is.
I’ve been doing this blogging thing long enough to do a few things with awards:
1. Accept them graciously.
2. Struggle with the random facts, but find some anyway, ideally, ones I hadn’t mentioned before.
3. Totally ignore the part about passing it on, on the theory that some people get really ticked off by it. I don’t, but I’ve long learned that my reaction to stimuli is not a universal.
{1} Each blogger should answer the questions the tagger has set for you.
Not only will I do that, but I’ll also even answer the questions Jeannie had for Cheri:
Butter or margarine?
Olivio, which is an olive oil-based product. I grew up on margarine, but now prefer butter, which I will cook with.
Fact or fiction?
Fact. Truth is stranger…
Musical or Action film?
Musical. Grew up with LOTS of soundtracks of my mother’s.
Realist or a dreamer?
Realist. Yet, I hold out hope…
Do you read between the lines?
I try to take it at face value until proven otherwise, which happens a LOT.
Are you as tall as you want to be?
At my tallest, I was 5 feet, 11 5/8 inches. I couldn’t get an extra half an inch? That said, I don’t much care.
Pet peeve?
Bad drivers who imperil pedestrians and bicyclists. The latter act badly, but car hitting a person is more likely to harm the person than the vehicle, or the person inside it.
Introvert or extrovert?
If you ask me, introvert. If you ask most people I know, extrovert. Make of that what you will.
Favorite quote/movie or song?
“So here’s another question up for interpretation. Favorite quote, movie, or song?” Favorite quote from a movie: “I’m walking here!” from Midnight Cowboy. Or about 99 others. Favorite song from a movie? Even more difficult. It could be the Sharks women singing America from West Side Story, or Streets of Philadelphia by Neil Young from Philadelphia. The first thing that came to mind today was the wistful optimism of When You Wish Upon a Star by Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio.
How many projects do you have going right now?
There’s the FantaCo project (bibliography), the attic project (now that it’s finished, a lot of rearranging), and a work project.
What is your “One Thing?” (City Slickers)?
I dunno – music. Or fairness.
And now for my questions from Cheri:
Do you like amusement park rides?
I did as a child. But last summer, I rode a few, and they gave me a wretched headache.
What’s your pet peeve?
The assumption that because YOU experience it this way, EVERYONE does. (Yeah, I answered it differently above. I do that.)
If there was a movie about your life, who would you want to play you?
Roger E. Mosley. It should be a Roger, right?
Last movie you saw at the theater?
Quartet, if we’re talking full length. But I did subsequently see the Oscar-nominated live-action short films for 2012.
Morning person or night owl?
That’s a problem: night owl by nature, but I must, and more to the point, my WIFE has to get up in the morning. I’d go to bed at 11 or 11:30 on my own, but that 5:30 alarm comes TOO early.
What song makes you cry?
Lots of songs make me cry. Crying by Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, for just one.
Realist or dreamer?
Realistic dreamer.
Believe in love at first sight?
Probably not love. Lust, maybe.
Do you play the lottery?
When it gets over $300 million if I think of it. I didn’t last time…
Beach or mountains?
Water. I mean, I’m not going to hang out in the sand, but I’d rather be where a lake, or river is.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Got to answer this recently: flight.
{2} Choose 11 new bloggers to pass the award on to and link them in your post.
Nah. But if you want to self-select, be my guest.
{3} Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.
Feel free to steal any from here.
{4} Go back to their page and tell them about the award.
Not applicable.
{5} Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.
1. When I was in junior high school – before they started calling it middle school – we decided to go by our middle names, mostly. I was Owen, Ray was Albert, etc.
2. Ever since I was in Prince of Egypt, some guy in the choir has started calling me Jethro, the name of one of my characters,. Others are calling me God, my other role.
3. I listen to music at work (on headphones, most of the day). I love music but am loath to use headphones, or earbuds, on the bus, or when I get home.
4. I’ve been a janitor on two separate occasions, once in Binghamton, NY once in New Paltz, NY.
5. I love to engage Jehovah’s Witnesses in theological conversation when I have the time and energy.
6. On the first day of my March Madness pool, I was in 10th place, out of 10th, on the first day. After the weekend, I had risen all the way to 8th, but still with a chance to win.
7. There are certain accounts I have I use so infrequently that I ALWAYS forget the password and have to get a new one.
8. I tend to play music based on the artists’ birthday – a lot of Elton John and Aretha Franklin and James Taylor in March, e.g.
9. I never answer my telephone at home unless I know who it is, and it’s someone I want to talk with. That’s why God created the answering machine. Conversely, I ALWAYS answer the phone at work, if no one else does.
10. I’ve never not voted in a local, state, or federal; election. I might have missed a school board election in my first couple years, but haven’t missed one of those since 1976.
11. I “follow” people on Twitter, then never actually read what they have to say; time is not fungible. I’m only vaguely better on Facebook.
***
Roger Ebert’s A Leave of Presence, released earlier this week, is a wonderfully optimistic piece, despite the return of his cancer. (I could not get to yesterday afternoon for a time, probably because the server was overloaded.) It was likely the last thing he published before his untimely death this week. I once again highly recommend his autobiography; an excerpt, about his death, can be found HERE. The Chicago Tribune obit.
Mark Evanier on the deaths of comic book greats Carmine Infantino and George Gladir.