Paying It Forward

liebster-awardI am very humbled and pleased to have been nominated for a Liebster Award by the always inspirational and entertaining, Fantac Cisse of journalististgeocultures.com.  She has a wonderful blog feature entitled, “Daily Shatzi.” If you are in need of some wisdom, entertainment, or a confidence boost, I highly recommend that you check it out. I would like to share with you one of my favorite Shatzi’s , “Capturing Starlight 101,”  Culture is not one thing. It’s Everything. It is an exceptionally moving and well written piece.  Thank you for recognizing my work, Fantac. It would be my pleasure to accept this accolade.

The Liebster is a way for bloggers to acknowledge other bloggers whom they feel have a unique, entertaining, informative or educational voice.  It is also a terrific way to promote and spotlight hidden gems in the blogging community. For more information and the official rules, please visit the Global Aussie website http://theglobalaussie.com/the-official-rules-of-the-liebster-award-2016/.

One of the requirements for all nominees is to write a short essay on their favorite blog.  Well, I will tell you right now that is going to be impossible for me to do because I enjoy so many of my fellow writer’s work. My tastes are rather eclectic and lucky for me there are blogs out there for everything I am interested in! What I would like to do is highlight some folks who I think are wonderful candidates for the Liebster:

List of 2016 Nominees:  

  1. Jesse Zahrt is the Average Jester (http://averagejester.blogspot.com/). Whenever I am in the mood for offbeat humor or an amusing tale of family life, I immediately seek out this blog. In addition to being a wonderful storyteller, Jesse is also very encouraging of his fellow writers.
  2. Brittany Bonnaffons for Ordinarilyextraordinarymom (https://ordinarilyextraordinarymom.wordpress.com/) Brittany weaves tales of motherhood interspersed with inspirational pieces. Her writing is personal and from the heart.
  3. Teresa Branam Wilgus’ Midwest Girl’s Dreams (https://midwestgirlsdreams.wordpress.com/)A fellow 50-year-old who decided to follow her passion and become a writer. Teresa’s blog is filled with introspections and life observations that engage her readers and encourage interaction.
  4. Anna H the webmaster of It’s Not All Gumdrops and Unicorns (http://itsnotallgumdropsandunicorns.webs.com/). This is an innovative site full of plenty of places to go! Since I am a fan of the horror genre, I like this truly unique site. Anna also adds a bit of music and animation to the mix as well.
  5. Theresa Jacobs for The Writers Life (http://theresajcbs.blogspot.ca/). She is an author who dispenses sage advice on the craft of writing as well as promoting fellow scribes.
  6. Vikas Singh (https://vickys89.wordpress.com/). Vikas is a writer whose dream like posts will haunt you and tug at your heart strings.
  7. Ron Brown for The Time Tunnel (https://brownsemts.com/) I love learning. The Time Tunnel is a collection of inspiring social commentary essays. What I like the most about this blog is that Mr. Brown is not afraid to speak the truth about the issues within our culture to encourage us to broaden our horizons and see the other side of the story.
  8. Don Miller in Ravings of a Mad Southerner (https://cigarman501.wordpress.com/) Don’s blogs are part Lewis Grizzard and Garrison Keillor. A former football coach, Don wittily talks about the South, politics, football and the characters from his past. Delightful!
  9. Captain Kirt for To Baldly Go (http://baldlygo-captainslog.blogspot.com/ ). Captain Kirt is a cartoonist and blogger who is from Yorkshire. With each drawing and blog post we catch a glimpse of his life and join him cycling or fighting the urge for Doritos. Quirky and entertaining.

Apparently one of the things that Liebster nominees must do is provide 10 random facts about themselves. This is the part that is always awkward for me.  Whenever we would have team meetings and this type of ice breaker would invariably rear its ugly head, I never knew what to say.  Okay, here it goes!

10 Crazy Facts about Yours Truly:

  1. I used to be an NBC page.
  2. I don’t watch Game of Thrones (A preemptive apology to all GOT fans. Please don’t send Daenerys and her dragons to kill me).
  3. I am obsessed with the online trivia game, Sporcle.
  4. My favorite Impractical Joker is Q.
  5. I love the old Top Gear gang of Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond.
  6. I ADORE COFFEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention I ADORE COFFEE!!!!!!!!!!
  7. I am a Trekker (No, I don’t run around my house in Uhuru’s uniform so just get that out of your mind).
  8. I have committed the film Anchorman to memory.
  9. I wish I cared about the Kardashians.
  10. I thought 50 Shades of Grey was a comedy.

Well, I am surprised!  That was painless.  Alright nominees, as part of the process I must provide you with 10 questions.

  1. If travel was something everyone did as a rite of passage growing up where would you recommend they go and why? (one country only)
  2. What is the last show you binge watched?
  3. What is your favorite food?
  4. Give a tip for other bloggers or potential blog starters:
  5. If you had to choose between living with TV or music, which one would you choose?
  6. Who has been the most influential person in your life?
  7. If you could travel back in time, what year would you visit and why?
  8. The gun or the cannoli?
  9. Who is your favorite author?
  10. What is the last movie you saw?

 

To the people that I nominated, if you choose to accept, please read the rules from the original post:

The Official Rules of the Liebster Award 2016

 

  1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you. They will thank you for it and those who you nominate will also help you out as well.
  2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.) At the bottom of this post I’ve included a whole lot of images you can use for your 2016 Liebster Award.
  3. For the 2016 Liebster Award I will be shaking things up! Write a 150-300-word post about your favourite blog that is not your own. Explain why you like the blog, provide links.
  4. Provide 10 random facts about yourself. (This year I’m making this optional. If you wish to engage with your readers, it’s a great idea to include random facts about you.)
  5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 200 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
  6. List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
  7. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post or mine if you don’t have all the information so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

 

Before I wrap up, I wanted to thank everyone out there in the blogosphere for encouraging my writing and enjoying my humor.  I really appreciate it and you!