I’ve Been Given An Award

While my writing has yet to generate me an award, this site has given me two. This is a strange position to be in, because this particular award that I just got from a very good friend of mine is one I’ve already got on another blog of mine. And in case you don’t know, getting these awards means doing a bunch of extra work, like answering questions, creating new questions and nominating other blogs to get the award. Well, I’ve already nominated every other blogger I know personally for this award, so my strange position is to either nominate some of my new followers for this or to not nominate anybody. One path creates a ton of extra work for me, the other path is my easy path. And I don’t want to leave anybody out, so I’m not sure of what to do.

So to keep things fair and not upset anyone, I won’t be nominating anybody else for this because I don’t want to hurt anybodies feelings. This was a hard decision to make and it truly doesn’t mean I wanted to take the easy way out, although to be honest that was a nice aspect of my decision.

The award, The Liebster Award, ironically enough looks different than the one I was originally given, so how prestigious is that? As far as I know the Oscars have one award and it looks the same every year. Regardless, here’s what I have to do to get the award (aside from creating new questions and handing it out to new people).

I have to give 11 facts about myself. Since I’ve already given 11 facts about myself when I accepted this award before, I’ll give those facts again, some of which you already know.

1. I can play guitar. I’ve been playing it for 18 years now.

2. I have recorded songs with a friend of mine whom I used to play live with.

3. If you ask nicely I’ll let you hear them.

4. I also play bass guitar.

5. I also play saxophone.

6. I also play tuba.

7. I have played the piano.

8. I have also played a violin.

9. I have also played drums.

10. Those songs I recorded, I played every instrument on them. I also mixed and produced them.

11. On one of those songs I even did the singing. It’s a remake of a song that was previously unreleased by one of my favorite bands ever, Bare Jr. The song was given to me by the man himself, Bobby Bare Jr. who also agreed to let me remake the song. Unfortunately we never finished enough songs to have an album, so the song is still unreleased. Twice.

That was ultra easy! Now I’ll answer those 11 questions given to me by Shay Leigh, who gave me the award. Thanks Shay! (you all should definitely check out her blog and her books!)

1. What is your favorite line from a book?

Oh man, so many! I think my personal favorite is from my book because the line I wrote was exceptionally good and it even surprised me. Since I wrote it I’ve heard from various people that it happened to be their favorite line as well. “Mommy, they’re moving now.” Read it in Hand One Is Dealt!

2. Where do you hope to be five years from now? What are you doing to make it happen?

I hate this question because I don’t live for the future. I never have. I live for the here and now. That has been a great way to live as well as a downfall. But I would LOVE to be a more popular author. Maybe not so much a more wealthy author, just more popular. After all, I got into writing books to entertain, not to become rich.

I am currently writing! I hope to have my next book out soon!

3. What is your happiest memory?

I was very young when this happened and it’s one of my earliest memories, but it was of me and my parents standing in our hallway at home hugging each other.

4. What 3 moments from your life do you think has had the greatest impact on who you are now?

Hmmm, interesting. My parents divorce, one way or another influenced who I would become because it changed so much of my life. Also my work in radio. I loved it and it was a huge part of my life. Lastly, meeting my wife. I love her dearly and knowing her has changed me in many ways.

5. What is your favorite scent?

Dragon’s Blood. I just got some incense of it because I missed it too much. What a great scent.

6. If you could change one major thing from your past, what would it be?

There are too many, but on the whole I wouldn’t change anything because everything that has happened to me has made me who I am today. But I think there are a few things I would have done differently if given the chance. The biggest one would have been that I would have done a little better in high school.

7. Have you laughed today?

Not yet, I just woke up. And waking up from a decent sleep is not funny to me.

8. What’s your favorite joke?

Ok, you’ll have to bear with me here. It’s one of my favorites but I don’t really remember it… so here goes. I’ll try to tell you, but I really have no idea how it ends right now. Maybe it’ll come to me.

Three guys are walking through a field. They come upon a pile of bricks. One guy says to the other two, “I bet you I can throw a brick in the air higher than you!” The other two take the challenge. The first guy picks up a brick and throws it up into the air. It goes pretty high.

The second guy picks up a brick and he throws it up in the air. It goes even higher.

The third guy picks up a brick and… now this is where I don’t remember exactly what happens. I know he throws it up in the air, but now I’m at a loss as to what happens. In any case, I know another joke that is just as funny and I DO know it fully, so here it is.

A man is on a plane and he’s smoking a cigar. The lady next to him has a parrot on her shoulder and it’s talking and squawking and making a ruckus. Eventually the woman turns to the man and complains about his cigar. The man says he is NOT putting it out. And then the man turns to the woman and complains about the bird and how it’s annoying. She insists that she isn’t going to shut it up.

They continue complaining to one another for a while until finally the man says, “Okay, I hate your bird and you hate my cigar. How about we take them both into the bathroom and throw them down the toilet and be rid of both of our problems together?”

The woman agrees and they head off to the bathroom. He throws his cigar into the toilet and she throws her parrot into the toilet and they flush. Both problems gone.

They return to their seats and sit down, finally happy. A short while later they look out the window and do you know what they see?

A brick.

9. What 5 places do you want to travel to?

Five?! I’d love to see the world one day, but I don’t know if I can limit it to five places. The nerd in me would LOVE to be a traveler to another planet, so there’s that. I’d love to see California sometime, Alaska, Ireland, Australia, Colorado, Mexico… I could go on and on.

10. What is your greatest fear?

Fear itself.

11. Are you ticklish?

For the longest time I wasn’t, but my wife tickles me all the time and it drives me nuts cause I thought I wasn’t ticklish. Guess I am!

Okay, so there was that. I’m done, whew. Thanks to Shay for the award and I am sorry I didn’t hand it out to others but as I said, I’ve already done this before and I don’t know anybody else to give the award to.

Here it is, in all its splendor!