11 questions answered, 11 random facts about me

M. Oniker, who blogs over at WTF Am I On About Now?, has nominated me for a Liebster Award. What a lot of you who’ve started following my blog recently probably don’t know is that I already got one a while back. It’s my own fault this isn’t common knowledge; I couldn’t get the award badge to show up in my sidebar, and I got frustrated and stopped trying. I mentioned it in a blog post — answered the questions given to me, nominated a few other bloggers in turn — and then let it drop. And now M., who hasn’t even been following my blog for long, has decided that I’m cool and should get an award. Which is why I’m answering her questions anyway: to thank her for thinking of me when it was her turn to nominate people. ‘Sides, these are fun, and a chance to get to know other citizens of the blogosphere better.

And I’ll try again to get that award badge to work.  🙂

1.  Coffee or tea (or other), which, and how do you take it?

Either, and frequently.  Which one depends on several things, including but not limited to what I’m writing at the time (if I’m working on “that novel,” for example, I’ll be drinking coffee) and which beverage I have on hand (because sometimes I forget to buy more before I run out).  I take either with a little bit of sugar, and cream/milk in the coffee or lemon (or some other citrus — lime juice is tasty) in the tea.

2.  What’s the favorite blog post you’ve written so far?

My favorite post is the one in which I got to announce the publication of my clone-sibling’s first novel.  The most popular seems to be the one titled “Warning: harsh sarcasm ahead,” which got more than one hundred views (most of my posts get between five and fifteen) and sparked some good discussion, which is what I intended it to do.

3.  What country would you like to travel to next?  (Have you been there before?)

I would like to go to Denmark;  I spent a couple weeks there many years ago, and it was beautiful.

4.  What is the last movie you saw in a theater?

Guardians of the Galaxy, I think.  I don’t go to movie theaters much, but I didn’t want to wait for this movie to come out on DVD.

5.  What does your favorite time “out on the town” consist of?

You’re seriously asking me about doing anything “out on the town”?  As in, around lots of people and noise and all that?  Um… no.  (I’m not antisocial, as such; I used to be quite a gregarious introvert.   I just have problems with being around people:  PTSD, autism, a tendency to experience sensory overload even in a library… )

6.  What languages do you speak at least semi-fluently?  (Enough to order lunch without total embarrassment, for example.)

I  can speak Spanish a little bit, but alas, I’d probably do better in Spain than in Mexico, due to differences in dialect.

7.  What is the weirdest local “thing” (place, custom, whatever) where you live?

Define “weird.”  I live a few miles from Blackwater Draw, a very important archaeological site — that’s unusual, and I’m sure some people would classify it as weird.

8.  Do you subscribe to a real newspaper (not online)?

I do not subscribe to a print newspaper.

9.  What habit do you have that other people roll their eyes about?

Don’t know… Several, I’m sure.  (The vast majority of my interactions with other people are not face-to-face.)  Complaining about bad grammar and punctuation in books?  Reading books?  Not leaving the house much?  Referring to my identical twin as my clone-sibling?

10.  If the power goes out (and let’s pretend no batteries), what’s the first thing you start missing?

As long as I have sunlight to see by, I’m still okay.  I start missing reading/books before anything else.

11.  What is the worst thing you’ve ever eaten?

I ate rattlesnake once; it tasted sort of like chicken, but the texture was unpleasant.  On the other hand, I once had a delicious mango milkshake… and it tried to kill me.  (This is how I found out I’m allergic to mango.)  I also have to say that the “food” known as a Monte Cristo sandwich is disgusting.  Way too sweet.  And fried, I think.  I will never attempt to eat one again.

I’m also supposed to list 11 random facts about myself:

1) I am always tempted to make a weird fiction-reference joke when someone uses the word random.  (Oh, for cryin’ out loud, LR, if you don’t get that, I don’t know what we’re gonna do with you.)

2)  I am older than my clone-sibling by forty-six minutes.

3) Although I was born and raised in Kentucky, I am not a Kentuckian.  Never properly integrated into the local culture, never had the local accent… Some people there even said I sounded “English” because of how I talk.  (Because, y’know, enunciation and stuff.  Pen and pin are not the same word.)

4)  At least one of my ancestors was Native American — Iroquois, to be precise.

5)  When I was a young child, I hated sweet foods, and wouldn’t eat cake with frosting.

6)  I have never driven a car.

7)  I love fog.  I love seeing fog in person.  I love seeing photos of fog.  Even better if pine trees are involved, too.

8)  At least two of my cats will have Halloween costumes this year.  (Yes, I’ll post photos.)

9)  The first non-picture book I ever read was The Hobbit; I was eight years old.

10)  I once had a job modeling for an art class in figure drawing.  (Yes, in the nude.)

11)  The first time I ever wrote a story was when I was eleven years old.  Elements of that story eventually found their way into one of my clone’s novels.  (No, I’m not going to tell you what they are.)