Leibster+Sunshine Blog Tags

Greetings friends! 

I've been meaning to post an actual useful post for some time, but I've been surprisingly busy this month as well as brain dead. Excuses aside, I've got a post for you today that is hopefully more enjoyable than my recent content, curtesy of the lovely Allie from Rainy Days and Stardust Veins.

The new nominees and questions will be at the end of this post, so if you're here because I tagged you, feel free to skip to the bottom.

Sunshine Rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you (thanks, Allie!).
• Display your award.
• Answer the questions you were asked.
• Nominate 5 bloggers.
• Ask 6 questions.
• Let your nominees know they were nominated.

Leibster Rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog (once more, thank you Allie!).
• List the rules and display an award logo on your blog post. 
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and notify them by commenting on any of their posts.
• Ask the nominees 11 new questions.

Sunshine Questions: 

  

1. What is your favorite kind of tea?

Pretty much anything black. English tea and Irish Breakfast tea in particular, no sugar or cream.  If I have something vanilla flavored, such as chi-vanilla, I like to put cream in it (because vanilla being thin just doesn't seem right).

I also enjoy lemon ginger with honey, which is an herbal tea.

    

  2. If you had to get all dressed up (like, to the nines) to go to a fancy restaurant or event, would you?

I'm entirely sure what "to the nines" means, but yes! I quite enjoy dressing up, though I've never thrived in such events. They're quite anxiety-inducing.

  3. What is something you’re a secret fan of that you’re afraid to admit about?

It's not a secret, but a lesser known and perhaps odd fact about me is that I'm greatly and ironically fond of the older Barbie movies. I could rattle off a huge list of why, but the main reasons are that they are nostalgic, and they hold genuinely good moral material.

In Barbie, the Princess and the Pauper, there's a line in the opening song sung by the princess Annaliese (who is to marry for the greater good of her kingdom, despite loving a different man), and the pauper Erika (who is an indebted seamstress to a horrible shop owner because her parents borrowed money to keep their daughter fed and alive), that goes; 

"Annaliese: I'll remain forever loyal, 

Erika: I'll repay my parents debt,

Both: Duty means doing the things your heart may well regret". 

And I find that to be a prime example of how amazing a role model Barbie used to be for young girls, such as myself. That's something modern shows, movies, and music that children are exposed to lack; duty, morality, and maturity on a level that they understand. 

Needless to say, I adore these movies and still enjoy watching them and am happy to expose my little sister and nieces to them.

  4. Do you have a favorite music album? If so what and if not, why?

I do not; I tend to find songs like one may adopt stray kittens. Unintentionally, but then fall in love with them. Even with artists I like and am familiar with, I couldn't tell the name of more than two albums, and then I could only tell you the contents of one. 

  5. How do you take notes? Are they neat and tidy, color coded by subject, or are they messy on-the-back-of-your-hand reminders, or perhaps you don't take any?

All of the above, I'm afraid. They start organized and sometimes color coded, but over time more notes are added on and scribbled all around the originals and it becomes a terrible mess that I will, depending on the importance of the notes, rewrite and organize later. 

I often don't take notes when I should, and when I catch myself doing this I will scribble them all over my left arm and hand.

  6. If you were a book, what might the title be?

"Messes: How to Make Them, Stumble Into Them, Be Pulled Into Them, and Exist In Them Because There Is No Escape".

In all seriousness, I don't have a clue. I began an autobiography called "Art in the Face of Anxiety" which was going to be about my testimony and whatnot, but I didn't get far in it and that title was just a place holder.

Leibster Questions:

1. If you had to chose to go to either the distant past or distant future for one year, and when you came back no time had past, which would you chose?

I would choose to go to the distant past; where the future is headed is pretty easily predicted and in areas that it's not, I'd rather live my life not knowing what I'll face and when. Besides that, if sci-fi has taught me anything (and if I could time travel, I'd clearly be living in a sci-fi story), it's that the future isn't necessarily set in stone, and so simply my knowing it may change it and what I think will be the future won't be, because I'll be deceived by what I saw by time traveling, and not by what will be there as a result of my time-traveling.

And when it comes to the past? We can never stop learning. If I could go back into the distant past and meet an old author, or go to the origin of a particular artifact, I could learn so much, and such knowledge may even be used for the better of the future. 

2. Who are your top three favorite YouTubers?

Well that depends. There are so many different types of YouTubers, there's tutorials, education, music, gaming, satire, and various other forms of entertainment. 

But off the top of my head, Bernadette Banner, Blimey Cow, and Mossy Bottom are my more consistent and comfortable (as in, I'm certain they will not have inappropriate content and am thus free to share them here) favorites. 

3. Where would you go if you had an all-expense payed trip for a three-day weekend and what would you do there?

Ah, but there's so many places I'd like to go! 

Perhaps a back-packing trip through the rain forest, Ireland, or Sweden! Oh, and I would love to do something that is very close to the top of my bucket list; stay in a castle with my writing group. Though I'd prefer the latter to be for a week or so, I would take even just three days.

4. If you could have anything, real or mythological, as a pet, what would it be?

As a pet... Hm. Well I would love a dragon, because they can fly and I could ride them and they're, you know, dragons. 

A phoenix would be lovely pet, but would mostly be for show because I couldn't hold it or pet it because it's made of fire and would burn me. 

A griffin, depending on the size, may be like a cuddly large dog, but it could fly and might run off that way. 

I'll go with the dragon. Be it large enough to ride, or small enough to cuddle with, dragons are always an acceptable answer.

(Editing Edna: Psst, Maple, if you're reading this then I promise I'm not copying your answers!)

5. What’s something (or someone) you couldn’t stop loving if you tried?

I can't think of something, because I feel like if I tried to stop loving it there would be a good reason.  But someone would actually be four someones; my three nieces and my nephew. 

I believe that, when each of them were born, it was my introduction to 'falling in love'. 

Not romantically so, but just in general. Not to love like a sister, and not like a friend, I've always known what it was like to love in that way, I can't remember an introduction to it. But this love is something entirely new that I can only figure is what it feels like to be an aunt. 

And so, these sweet babies stole my heart very quickly and I don't foresee me getting it back any time soon.

6. What is one moment in your life time just stopped?

I haven't a clue. I think when I'm playing music with other musicians, it tends to fade away. Which is odd enough seeing that, as a bassist, keeping track of time is very important. 

Then there's also all the times when someone in my family got hurt or injured and- oh wait, I've got one! 

Years ago when I was at summer camp, my group away from the camp and went hiking on a national forest trail, off-grounds. And whenever we took a break, I loved to get lost in the present. No time for thinking of the past or being anxious of the future; I closed my eyes and listened to the birds and enjoyed God's creation. 

This happens often when I'm outside, but never so intensely as when I'm deep in the nature.

7. What’s a food or drink (or combination) you like that most people you know think is gross?

For food: Chocolate and potato chips. Or no, a few people like that as well.

 Lightly dipping fries/potato chips/popcorn and chocolate milkshakes is one that my brother was completely repulsed by.

For drinks: Ginger ale and root beer. I've not actually had anyone dislike that, but no one I've known, other then a certain clan of friends, has tried it.

8. Stripes or pokadots?

It depends. If the dots are small and not huge, clown-like dots, I like pokadots. And depending on the color scheme of the strips and the contrast between them and the width of the stripes, I like stripes. 

Either thing can give me a headache and make me feel sick if done a certain way, though, so it varies from circumstance to circumstance.

9. What book is a book (or series) that you wish was longer?

The Last Dragon by Silvia De Mari! The book itself is a perfect length, I think, and it has a series, but I want it to have a series that's in my language. I want that so badly. 

I wonder, if I wrote to miss Silvia and requested that she have the other copies translated, would she?  Probably not. It has to go through agencies and other official people and whatnot.  

I guess I'm still subject to having to learn the entirety of the Italian language before I can read the rest.

10. Was there ever a movie you were waiting for for a long time that when it finally came out it was a disappointment? Why was it?

The Star Wars sequel trilogy. Some of it was good, some of it wasn't, and though it was entertaining and good as its own thing, it was disappointing to be looking forward to the trilogy so much only to  have all the cannon messed up and character development lost. 

Overall, it was an okay idea, but with a less okay execution. 

11. What is your least favorite Disney or Pixar movie?

The Good Dinosaur. The first time I saw it all I could really do was scratch my head (though the opening scene is hilarious, and the scenery throughout the movie is beautiful). It's enjoyable, but I'd expect something more... I don't, maybe in depth, from Pixar. 

(Also the scene when Arlo and the child get drunk (or maybe 'high' is the better term?) off of the fermented fruit was just weird and boring. I don't get why kids movies so often feel the need to put in odd scenes like that, they've never been entertaining to me, not as a kid and not now. I always just space out until they're over.)

New Sunshine Questions:

1. What's your least favorite book-to-film adaption?
2. What's your longest-lasting hobby?
3. Do you prefer mountains or valleys?
4. If you were a fruit, what kind do you think you'd be and why?
5. What's your favorite flower?

New Leibster Questions:

1. What is the strangest thing you've done in the early AMs?
2. If you had to act out an entire musical, of your choice, to save your life, which one would you choose to do? (can you tell that I'm struggling to think of questions?)
3. What are your top three favorite words?
4. What are your top three least favorite words?
5. What is the most obscure thing you've learned?
6. What is the best thing you've read for required reading in school?
7. Have you ever started reading a book, and then couldn't bring yourself to finish it? If so, what book was it, and why couldn't you finish it?
8. What's your opinion on puppets?
9. Which do you enjoy more; sun rises or sun sets?
10. What was your favorite book as a child?
11. What are your top three favorite books now? 

11 Nominees for Both Tags:

(Yes, I apologize, but I won't be the brave soul to go and find seventeen different bloggers to divide the tags between, though let it be said that I tried to. Many sorries to you eleven beings.) 

• Julia from LitAflame
• Noah from NoahLitleWrites
• Mary from Wild Writing Dreans
• Martina from Planet of Positivity 
• Jasmine from JustJasminella
• Jessica from JessicaC.Writes
• Julia from Julia's Creative Corner
• Mya from Life From Behind A Camera 
• Felicity from The Wonderous World Around Us
• Ruby from The Sea Calls Us Home
• Ari from Ari D. Original

And thus I conclude with a wish you go well, sweet be your dreams and your happiness swell (all the kudos to you if you know what song that's from). I'm off to go alert these eleven fine folk of their nomination. 

I shall see you anon, friend.

                ~ Edna Pellen 

P.S. Many apologies for the ever inconsistent formatting of this post, Blogger updated some time back  and I've yet to acquaint myself with the changes.