Unexpectedly, this weekend has seen a deluge of awards flying in from members of the HEM Community. While going through the blog emails that have been flooding in over this past week, I have gotten wind of award nominations from three fellow bloggers. For convenience’s sake I have combined everything into one article.
Mayday…Mayday!!….we’ve got so many awards, I think we’re gonna burst and splatter bits of grey matter all over the bloggy-verse.
Woop, woop…that’s another lot of awards for us….okay, now I’ve calmed down, let’s get down to business….
Our first award is the Sunshine Award, and this one comes courtesy of Joelle and Vickie, co-writers of the blog “Two on a Rant“. They originally received this babe from Tom at http://catsatthebar.org and soon started dishing out the prizes.
Tom VK, Buffalo Tom, Melinda DLS, Granny K, MarDrag, Himani, Christopher DV, Vijay, Dennis the Vizsla, and someone from Nudge/Wink, please pay very close attention to the following because I’m dragging you into this with me:
The award comes with a few rules.
1. Create 10 questions to ask
2. Nominate 10 bloggers and ask them to answer your questions.
As
These are the questions that our two wonderful ranters have asked of all the nominees. Here’s what I had to say.
1. Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog as a means of keeping my news and article writing skills fresh and to show my work with an audience of thousands from the comfort of my home. I left university with a good degree in journalism and media but found it hard to secure a reporting gig as the industry has fierce competition for vacancies between would-be journos. This was especially grave considering I was (and still) living in London, which is the throbbing heart of the UK’s media industry. After graduation, I drifted in and out of jobs, before settling on a database admin position for a multinational conferencing and publications firm. Fearful of forgetting my journalistic knowledge and just the nuance of writing a compelling story, I finally got round to setting up this blog. Also I’m hoping that keeping a news blog in my spare time might motivate an editor or HR manager to consider me experienced enough for that dream job. Fingers crossed.
2. What is your favorite memory in life?
One that’s just sprung to mind was my eighth birthday. I and my family had settled in a battered women’s refuge in east London, after fleeing an abusive husband/father and I don’t recall my father ever organising any birthday celebration in our house. So on my eighth birthday I was blindfolded and led into the living room, where all my little friends and their parents, plus my family were waiting for me. Surprise!!!. I was dumbfounded and elated. All this..for me. I had simple, but lovely presents, and it was nice being the centre of attention instead of crying in pain in my bedroom. To this day, this is one of my happiest memories.
3. Who is your favorite author?
My favourite all time author would have to be Roald Dahl because his witty and playful means of expression pretty much defined my childhood. Nowadays though I don’t have much time to delve into a book so my reading diet mostly consists of newspapers and pizza delivery menus. There is one journalist who works for the London Evening Standard. His name is Nimrod Kamer. He just has this way of writing which is left-field and playful with puns galore. He really has a literary finger on the pulse of young hip London. If you go to their website, I strongly urge you to check out Kamer’s articles. He’s an Israeli satirist and journalist and here’s his Tumblr blog – http://nnimrodd.tumblr.com/articles
4. Are you presently on a diet and if so, why?
Well, I don’t know if you can call it a diet per se, but for the past few months I have radically changed the way I eat, as I badly need to shed some weight. I am trying to ditch the chocolates and biscuits and eating more healthily, especially at lunch. Pitta bread with humus, fruits, salad…you get my drift. Also I’ve become a fan of the smaller portion meal.
5. Which do you prefer–Turkey or steak?
I would have to say turkey as I don’t eat (beef) steak for religious reasons. I only ever normally eat proper turkey (i.e. chopping up a bird carcass) at Christmas time, and we all know it’s banging with a bit of cranberry sauce. Dry as the Sahara though texture wise. And health freaks, school headteachers and Jamie Oliver devotees in Britain pour scorn on ‘Turkey Twizzlers’ like they were the breadcrumbed droppings of the Antichrist.
6. What is the link the blog entry you wrote that you consider your favorite?
Oh wow…I have so many favourites. Where do I start?. Umm, here’s one!
PHOTO MOMENT: Vijay’s pick of 2013′s best Diwali GIFs
7. How many books have you read this year?
Practically zilch. I really need to sit down with a good book though, I do miss that.
8. Which famous person do you admire most, living or dead?
I am not one to idolise people, but anyone who has made a positive difference to others’ lives and has left a sizeable impact on our society can count. So for example, Swami Vivekanand, Princess Diana, Florence Nightingale, the boxer Muhammad Ali etc.
9. If you could sum up your philosophy on life in 10 words, what would it be?
“Whatever life throws your way, don’t let it faze you”.
10. What is the most exotic food you’ve ever eaten?
As a half-Mauritian, exotic foods come as a default setting. I’ve done Caribbean fish head curry, son papdi, sugared rose petals, a three-layed chicken burger from a McDonald’s restaurant in India and drank out of , then hollowed green coconuts in Mauritius.
Noelle and Vickie nominated us in the last week of April (27th). Just three days later, one of their nominees, Melinda de los Santos of Fido ‘n Fluffy’s Blog also nominated us for this award, and we rewarded Melinda by making her the latest-ish entrant into the Hall of Fame known as the HEM Community. Welcome, Mel!
Melinda also asked ten questions for the Sunshine Award. Here are my answers. You saw it here first.
1. What do you find most relaxing?
Just lying down in a park or field, on a breezy and slightly warm spring day, listening to the birdsong.
2. Who are three of your favorite celebrities?
Number one is the British comedian Russell Howard…he’s as funny as duck, in second place is the Indian singer Shreya Ghoshal, a true rags-to-riches story. I want her to be my wife and have pretty singing babies with me. Thirdly it would be the journalist Jon Simpson as he epitomises the very concept of a professional and sophisticated media personality, not given to feeble posturing and obsessions with fame.
3. What is your ‘pet peeve’?
People who have annoying laughs or who speak too loudly like everyone within striking distance has to hear their entire life story and what colour their kaka was after gym and lunch. Put a lid on it, baas!
4. What is the most challenging and/or best thing about being a parent?
I am not currently a parent myself (still a work in progress), but from observing my mother and sisters it would be handling toddlers’ volcanic temper tantrums, especially when you come from a family of Krakatoas. I guess for me now with my siblings, nephews and nieces and of course, with my future children, it would be watching them grow up, pass through all those special milestones and growing into their own personalities.
5. What talent or skill would you like to possess that you don’t think you have?
I have always desired to be a polyglot, a person with mastery of several languages. I can currently only speak English to native fluency and would find it useful to be able to visit another country and be able to communicate effortlessly with locals and read their media.
6. What was your most awkward or embarrassing situation?
Going to a job interview for a computer admin position in central London and suddenly realising that my belt had broke causing my trousers to behave loosely. Thankfully they didn’t taking advantage of by gravity, but the laugh of the interviewing panel as I left and tried to save face haunts me to this day.
7. What’s it like riding a roller coaster?
Your guts are inches away from exiting your mouth and the adrenaline rush makes you feel immortal. I never actually rode a rollercoaster until I visited the Winter Wonderland fair in Hyde Park, London about three years ago. I avoid the high ones though.
8. What do you think of ‘motivational speakers’?
I think some speakers can really put across a message that can radically change your life and inspire you in a way that you wouldn’t normally give credence. Some are very expressive and are masters of the oral word. However that doesn’t exclude the numerous faddy ones out there, who are little more than money-grabbing quacks preying on people’s sensitivities for a quick buck.
9. If you could have any part or role in a movie or play, what would it be?
I know I am going to sound like a typical man here, but an action role, where I pack serious heat, roll up into a hive of badly dressed baddies, drop a one-line catchphrase and then machine-gun the lot of them sounds really down my street…past the newsagents. Or I can play a newsagent. Less eventful.
10. What subject in school did you find the most uninteresting?
Maths, as I had no head for numbers and found it boring. That didn’t stop me getting a B grade in my secondary school examinations though. Also add to that physical education (we call it P.E. in British schools). I was a rubbish athlete/sportsperson and the teachers were sadomasochistic thugs. Armed with stopwatches.
And now for my 10 questions:
1. If you could introduce one new thing (design, widget, story idea, new page) to your blog, what would it be and why?
2. What is your favourite television programme?
3. What do you think is the biggest crisis affecting humanity (or other animal species) in 2014?
4. Who is your favourite reporter or media personality and what is it that you like about them?
5. If you were marooned on a desert island for a week, Castaway style, what five objects from your home would you pack with you?
6. Do you collect anything as a hobby?
7. What was the last thing you remember reading in the newspaper or watching on TV news or heard on a radio news bulletin?
8. What do you normally eat for breakfast?
9. Which blogger in your follower’s list has inspired or helped you the most?
10. What’s your favourite aspect of using WordPress (or other blogging platform) when updating your blog?
Another HEM Community member, Diana of the “Part-Time Monster” blog has nominated us for the WordPress Family Award and the Very Inspiring Blogger Award as part of a special giveaway commemorating the six month anniversary (or in her words, “blogiversary” – nice portmanteau, BTW) of the founding of her blog.
Nominees:
The nominees listed below will receive all the awards featured on this page, but can accept or decline all or some. In the spirit of the Beautiful Blogger award I have selected 10, based on recent likes/comments for this weekend. Well done to all of you!
1. cindy knoke http://cindyknoke.com/i-blog-therefore-i-am/
2. iithinks http://iithinks.wordpress.com/about/
3. sachemspeaks http://sachemspeaks.wordpress.com/0-index/
4. sagedoyle http://wallgrimm.wordpress.com/about/
5. Adeena http://adeenat.wordpress.com/about/
6. Sawa Minori http://angelartstar.wordpress.com/award/
7. White Rabbit’s Gallery http://hakescafe.com/awards/
8. leesha0304 http://prolixme.wordpress.com/about/
9. KOH http://383g.wordpress.com/about/
10. rabirius http://rabirius.wordpress.com/about/
To Joelle, Vickie, Diana and Melinda, I humbly appreciate these awards and for your kind consideration and respect for the work I do here on the Half-Eaten Mind. To Melinda, especially a big warm welcome to the blog and a massive congrats to Diana on reaching the sixth month of glorious blogging for PTM.
Thanks to all of you!!!
SOURCES & IMAGE CREDITS:
“Sunshine award.” – Vickie & Noelle (Floridaborne), Two on a Rant (27 April 2014) LINK
“SUNSHINE AWARD” – Melinda de los Santos, Fido ‘n Fluffy’s Blog (30 April 2014) LINK
“6 MONTH BLOGIVERSARY–AWARDS EDITION!” – Diana Gordon, Part Time Monster (2 May 2014) LINK
“Top Ten of 2013” – Ashtyn, Wonderland’s Reader (30 December 2013) LINK
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halfeatenmind.wordpress.com 
Thanks for the great answers to my questions. 🙂
The 3 layered Chicken Burger sounds like a menu item that should be on the McD menu in the USA.
Now for the answer to your 10 questions:
1.I would like to be able to copy and paste from word into the WordPress text box and not have to reformat all over again. If there’s an easy way to do that, I’d like to know. I learned to type on an underwood manual typewriter, so I didn’t grow up with computers/cellphones
2. Vikings
3. The way that industry and government worldwide is becoming a monopoly with cameras on every street corner..
4. George Noory, coast to coast am. I like the fact that no matter who the guest is, he treats all with the same respect and doesn’t interrupt. The show can be both entertaining and informative. There are times when it’s hard to fathom how he keeps a straight face.
5. Satellite phone, sturdy tent, sunglasses, sleeping bag, and a survival trunk (containing a week’s worth of food, water, pen, paper, first aid kit, etc.).
6. Not really, but dogs and cats seem to collect me.
7. The Obama administration knew the video wasn’t why the US embassy in Bengazhi was attacked–and how the administration keeps trying to slip out of the premeditated act of placing the blame on some poor guy who posted a badly-made video.
8. Yogurt and honey.
9. Cats at the bar http://catsatthebar.org/2014/05/04/private-detective-joe-kitty-part-7/
10. There’s a whole world full of kind, decent people who are supportive,caring, and actually think I might just have a brain. 🙂
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Thanks so much! I need to start saying that in other languages, if I can remember to do that, just so it doesn’t cease to convince you of my genuine appreciation. I’ve been considering not doing awards anymore, but haven’t fully decided yet what I’m going to do. I’ll let you know what I come up with, but not sure when. This is only based on the time involved in the award process, unfortunately. Either way, I value this and I’m deeply honored!
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Thanks for your comment, Sage.
I do see your point there. Awards are lovely, but they do take up a bit of time, but whatever your decision, it’s all good.
You’re very welcome.
Vijay
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Thank you 🙂
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Amazing answers!!!
I especially liked No. 6 and you raised some good points.
P.S. Yogurt and honey is a first-class competition. I might have to try making my own some time 🙂
Regards,
Vijay
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Competition…oh my gerd…had meant to say ‘combination’…
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Thank you very much for the nomination!
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A hearty welcome, Rabirius.
Vijay
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