I want to express my deepest gratitude to Tom von Kapherr of Cats at the Bar for this nomination! I must confess, when I found out about the nomination, my initial reaction came in the form of a gigantic question mark in a thought bubble floating over my head. I did a little research, and I’m still pretty hazy about the details of the award and whether or not it really is a thing (honestly, it feels very much like a meme), but it definitely seems worth accepting the nomination. If nothing else, I am tickled to death and extremely humbled by the idea that this blog has inspired something like this in the first place.
It appears that the conditions for accepting this nomination include answering these ten questions about myself, and then nominating ten other blogs and giving their authors ten new questions to answer in turn. Honestly, I have no idea what happens next in the process after this post, but it does give me an excuse to talk a little about myself outside of the context of baseball. Onward to the questions!
1) Would you or have you ever gone skydiving?
Yes! A friend and I did a tandem jump a few years ago (we each paired up with a professional, of course). Much to my surprise, the free fall did not feel like falling at all, but rather, it felt like floating. I suppose that’s normal when you’re thousands of feet in the air reaching speeds of approximately 130 miles per hour.
2) Have you ever eaten an insect?
Not intentionally. Some say that people eat copious amounts of spiders over the course of their lifetimes, while others say this is merely a perpetuated urban legend. I almost ate a honey bee once, after it flew into my mouth on the playground when I was in the first grade. Fortunately, I managed to spit it out without getting stung, but the bitterness stayed in my mouth the rest of the day.
3) What is the most exotic pet you’ve ever owned?
I actually never had a “real” pet until this past August, when I adopted the most adorable (and feisty) kitten in the world and named her Minerva. I have also owned some fish, including a string of bettas over the last decade, each of whom I have given the coolest name I could think of at the time of their adoption (my current betta is Alexander the Great). Outside of that, my brother and I used to chase after, and sometimes catch, lizards during our childhood, but I don’t think that really counts.
4) Fish or Chicken?
Tough choice. I would have to say chicken. Unless I can count shrimp, crab, and lobster as “fish,” but that would be cheating.
5) If you could, would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?
Definitely fly. Breathing under water certainly has its advantages, but living in Kansas, the opportunity to use it rarely presents itself. Flying, on the other hand, could come in handy virtually anywhere.
6) You find a wallet in a cab, what do you do with it?
If the wallet has ID in it, I would get in contact with the owner myself and arrange for its return. If I can find an address, even better, because then I could just mail it without the embarrassment of exaggerated gratitude. If the wallet has no identification, however, I would turn it in to the driver and hope that he/she is honest enough to pass it on to Lost & Found.
7) How do you feel about being nominated for this award?
I had not read ahead on the questions when I said earlier that I was “tickled to death and extremely humbled” by this nomination, but now that it comes up, I can’t think of a better way to say it. When I started this blog a little over a year ago, I never imagined that it would grow to the extent that it has. I thoroughly enjoy keeping up with it, and I’ve learned a lot in the process as well. I find it a tad overwhelming that others find as much enjoyment in it as I do.
8) Who do admire most in the world, living or dead?
My dad. He is easily the most disciplined and responsible human being I have ever met, and he goes out of his way to help people when they need it. I pretty much spend my life trying to emulate him.
9) Do you separate your laundry?
Growing up, my mom always meticulously separated our laundry, and she taught me to do the same. When I got to college, however, I realized that it was much easier, not to mention cheaper, to throw everything into a single load. These days, I only separate the laundry if something needs bleached or if I otherwise worry about colors bleeding.
10) In which month were you conceived?
Well, my birthday is in September, so I assume sometime in December? Not really a topic I ever brought up with the folks…
Now for my nominations! I don’t follow many blogs, and some that I do follow exist outside the WordPress sphere. Nevertheless, there are plenty of good ones out there, and I actually feel bad having to choose. Nominees, feel free to accept or ignore nominations as you feel. My nominations, in no particular order, are… *drum roll*
1. Broken Bats Baseball
2. Tabula Candida
3. The Baseball Sociologist
4. The Thesis Whisperer
5. Coco Crisp’s Afro
6. Biblioklept
7. She’s Caught in a Rundown
8. The On Deck Circle
9. Photo of the Day, Etc.
10. Stephen Liddell
Nominees, your questions are:
1. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
2. Where do you usually do your blogging? (i.e. at work? at home? during your teacher’s lectures?)
3. How do you go about picking topics for your blog posts?
4. Are you addicted to caffeine?
5. Are you a morning person? A night owl?
6. What is the best book you’ve ever read?
7. What is/was your favorite subject in school?
8. Do you have any pets?
9. What is the best sporting event/concert/other performance you have ever been to?
10. Have you ever gotten stitches?
Hey! This is cool….although this is just probably a blogging “pyramid scheme,” it still represents to me how we all love/have passion for the written word and we’re all in this together. (some how!) *ahem* my answers:
1. probably starts with a “p” and ends with a “y.”
2. home
3. It must stoke my interest, and have something to do with the Oakland A’s
4. YES! eVERY DAY!!!!
5. both.
6. Best book!? impossible. Some of my favorite writers are Paul Auster, Jean Genet, John Fante, Herman Hesse…the list goes on and on…..
7. P.E. I hated high school.
8. Bauhaus last year in Los Angeles
9. nope….because I aint no snitch.
Yeah, I really do think it’s a meme floating around more than anything, but you’re right: it’s a pretty great way to share and to get to know our fellow writers, as well as to acknowledge our appreciation for one another. Thanks for the answers! It’s going to be fun reading what people say as these come in.
Paul Auster is a nice choice. I enjoy his work, too. Have you seen the movie, “Smoke.” I believe it is either based on him, or inspired by his work. Nice film.
Auster wrote the screenplay and co-directed the movie. You’re right. Bill…it’s a great movie.
I should have known that. I’ve only seen it like six times. Did you see “Blue in the Face,” which was kind of an ensemble film somewhat related to “Smoke?” Another good one.
I think the last award or nomination I got was winning a free throw contest in fifth grade, so I’m all on board this ceremony. Thank you for putting broken bats on the list. My name is steve by the way. The answers to the questions.
1) cow brain
2) at home
3) Usually a snippet of conversation or a thought at work sparks something. I jot down notes in a notebook, think about it some more, and when I get home, put it together.
4) i’d have to stop drinking it every morning to know for sure, but I’m not that brave.
5) there’s been night and morning periods in my life, but definitely a morning person more than night.
6) i liked Mint Condition by Dave Jamieson. It’s a book about the baseball card industry. I remember reading it real fast and I’m usually a real slow reader so I guess I liked it a lot. Oh yeh and Don Quixote is one I like to go back and read parts of every once in a while and the Universal Baseball Association and Shoeless Joe.
7) History and Spanish.
8) i used to live with a german shepherd collie, but she moved up north for more space.
9) Brewers versus Rangers Easter sunday 1987 at county stadium. Brewers were trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth and came back to win with 5 runs on two home runs extending their undefeated streak to begin the season to 12 games. It was cold in Milwaukee, but two friends and I went swimming in lake michigan after the game.
10) playing football I dove to catch a ball and smashed into a bird bath. cut my mouth real bad…lots of stitches…lots of weird colors as it healed and lots of weird looks from strangers.
Thanks again for this. I don’t think i’ll pass it on because I only read 4 other blogs. I guess I could nominate them, but you’ve already nominated two of them (Coco Crisps Afro, On Deck Circle) and the third one is your blog-The Baseball Attic. The fourth one is http://verdun2.wordpress.com/. And since you already answered the questions and so did Gary-Coco Crisps Afro, I think I did what this nomination asked assuming Bill Miller from On Deck Circle answers the questions here. Maybe I’ll give him a heads up about it.
And thanks for the heads-up, Steve.
First, I want to express my gratitude to the Baseball Attic for this nomination. I have to confess that I was unfamiliar with this blog until Steve from Broken Bats Baseball made me aware of its existence. Now I have another fine blog to follow!
As for my responses to the questions, here goes:
1) The weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten was some sort of bony fish encased in a tasteless aspic in Russia around 20+ years ago. I had no idea what I was eating, and I hope to never have to try it again.
2) I always blog at home. I’ve tried to do it in places like coffee shops, but there are always too many distractions.
3) Some of my posts are a result of topics I’ve been discussing with other bloggers / friends. Other ideas simply arrive all at once, inspired by some unknown force.
4) Funny you should ask. I just tried an experiment to see how long I could go without a cup of coffee. It turned out that 48 hours is my max. The last couple of days without coffee were pure hell. Had a cup two hours ago and feel like myself again.
5) I used to be a night owl, but now I’m in bed at a more reasonable 11:00-11:30. I like to get most of my daily work done before noon.
6) Favorite Book: Notes From Underground
7) History, though I almost never had a good history teacher until college.
8) We have a pet fancy rat named Tibble. She’s a good girl, low maintenance, and my kids love her.
9) I attended a memorial in a vast stadium in Kiev for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster back in 1990. Very impressive ceremony.
10) I haven’t had stitches since I was a kid. Fell down a flight of stairs in my cousins house and split my head open. Not a good one.
Thanks again,
Bill
Thanks for stopping by, Bill! It sounds like you’ve spent a good amount of time in Russia — may I ask why you were there? I also noticed that you listed Dostoevsky for your book. I just read Notes From the Underground a few months ago and enjoyed it. Dostoevsky is one of my favorite authors.
Well, I used to work for MI6 in the Ministry of Silly Weapons Department. We were testing a device which combined the elasticity of marshmellows with the toxicity of a Domino’s Pepperoni Pizza. Mission: Fail.
Actually, I was there in the spring of 1990 and in January, 1991 on a student exchange between the college I attended and Kharkov University (now Kharkiv) in eastern Ukraine. As you’ve probably noticed, Kharkiv is in the news a lot these days for all the wrong reasons. I was a Poli-Sci Major, with a focus on international relations and Russian history. Spent a total of only about four weeks there over those two trips. Visited Kiev, then over to Moscow for three days, one day in Poltava, and around 8 hours in Leningrad. Second time there was all Moscow all the time. First trip, stayed with a host family in Kharkov for a couple of weeks. Extremely nice family. Treated me very well. Have no idea whatever became of them.
Dostoevsky could write well, but he could never lay off the 3-2 slider on the corner.
Cheers,
Bill
If I could go back and do college all over again, I would definitely make a point to do a semester or two abroad. It never really occurred to me at the time that it would be that worthwhile of an experience, but in retrospect, I realize I could’ve gained so much from it. I’m glad to hear you had such a good experience with it.
You’re very welcome. Thank you for writing a blog that’s enjoyable to read, and for being such a faithful reader of mine! I’m curious about the cow brain… you’ll have to elaborate on that one. I would love to read Don Quixote in Spanish at some point, but I’ll have to brush up on my Spanish first.
I went to a mosque in milwaukee back in the early 1990’s. After the prayers, there was a meal and cow brains was one of the dishes. It was in a soup and the brains part was wrapped in some vegetables.The texture was like cream of mushroom soup before heated up and a little like cottage cheese too. I don’t remember what it tasted like. I kind of plugged my nose without being obvious. More of a survival instinct I guess so I would’t vomit.
I wouldn’t eat it again, but i’m thinking it’s probably good to try insects and brains and even smell bus fumes from time to time because if we’re too healthy, we might not survive a big disaster when the water is bad and food is scarce. Make our stomachs more flexible or something.
Every day you have something new about baseball. It really is like daily baseball bread to me.
I bought the spanish Quixote, but never could make it through the old vocabulary and the english one is always with me so i wind up taking a shortcut, but me too, I’d like to try it in spanish again.
Maybe the thing i love most about spanish is the lasting image of two people carrying the same suitcase; each holding one of the handles. And when i think about Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza and how they influenced each other; I think of that suitcase. Quixote lost in dreams and Panza rooted to reality, but both sharing themselves along their adventure of 900 pages and in the end trading places sort of.
I guess it makes sense since a panza is a belly like the fat of the earth or salt of the earth and Quixote was always criticized in the book for shuffling clouds with all his wacky ideas.
But the book is so damn funny and at the same time it rips a part Spanish culture and politics and castles and chivalry and what not. Anyway.
I’ve had goat meat and eel, but cow brains definitely trumps… well, a lot of things. We read kind of a children’s book version of Don Quixote in my high school Spanish class, and the story is pretty fantastic. I wish I had continued to study and learn Spanish in the years since then, but I didn’t. Only have myself to blame for that.
It’s never too late and one of the big advantages we baseball fans have when learning spanish is that baseball is a big part of the language; not so much in Spain, but the rest of the Spansih speaking world. One of my favorite expressions is for on deck circle. It’s circulo de esperar and that’s interesting because esperar translates as to wait and also to hope.