Liebster Award! I has it!

Apparently there’s this pay-it-forward, getting-to-know-you blogging meme called the Liebster Award. I’ve been nominated by Isabellealyssa and Maybee and the ladies of Carrotblossom Patch, Whitecarrot and Pinkblossom. Which is awesome! And terrifying! There are rules and lists and questions and lets just dive right in, shall we? Before my nerves are completely shot from the over-thinking.

The Official Rules:

• List 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the questions designated by the blogger(s) who nominated you.
• Place your nominations for the Liebster Award! Nominate five (or more) other bloggers that have less than 200 followers. Make sure to notify them via comment/email, etc.
• Make up a set of questions for those nominated bloggers to answer.
• Display the Liebster award badge on your blog!

Random Facts About Me:

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1. I’m married. We met in college our Freshman year and I was totally interested in him and we went on a date and it went horribly wrong and we decided to just be friends. Then, Senior year we started dating and our friends were like, “Finally!”
2. He’s from Kentucky and has an adorable accent and we lived in his home state for several years and now I say “y’all” ( or “you all” as in, “Hey there, how y’all doing?”) and “big ol'” (or “big old” as in, “We’re fix’n to eat this big ol’ plate of ribs, so we’re doing just fine!”),  because those are the first two phrases you learn when you live in the South.
3. I’m the eldest of three sisters. We’re perfectly spaced in that my younger sister is two years younger than me and my baby sister is four years younger than me. Our heights follow the pattern as well. (I’m the tallest.)
4. I’m 5’9″ and I’ve long wished to be 5’10” because it makes for a nice round number.
5. I have so many freckles!! Neither of my sisters were so plagued — but other than that apparently we look an awful lot alike. (Also, I’ve grown to like my freckles — they’re fairy kisses after all and it has to be good to have been that much mauled by fairies. Right?)
6. I actually do tan well, despite what the freckles might suggest, once I get past the dangerous burning stage. (Though it’s been a long, long time since I’ve gotten really tanned. Because it’s bad for you.)
7. The longest time I’ve lived in one place is 10 years. That was New York City.
8. Answering the question, “Where are you from?” is really, really hard because I’ve never really lived anywhere long enough to feel like I’m actually from there. Except for  NYC but I’m far enough away from there now that it seems like a lie if that’s what I say. I tend to say, “I grew up in NYC; I’ve lived here for X many years. Moved here from Y.”
9. I’ve lived in 4 different countries and 6 different US states.
10. Through a bizarre and unplanned twist of fate I now live right next door to my dad and a couple of blocks from my grandmother. It’s been a long time since I was this close to family and it’s pretty awesome.
11. I only speak one language. I’ve studied French (high school) and German (a mad college decision) but I don’t speak either of them. Maybe Korean will fall under the “third time’s the charm” rubric and actually take?

Nominator Questions:

Isabellealyssa:

1. Name one of the most influential figures in your life. This will sound cheesy, but I’m going to say my husband. We launched out into the grownup world together and have been on so many adventures and he sees me more clearly than anyone else I know and yet he still likes to be around me. His is the first opinion I go for and the one I most trust.
2. What are the countries that you would love to visit to if you get the chance to explore the world? All of them! Seriously! Though I’ve never been to Asia so would specifically love to visit S.Korea (obviously) and also Japan (took a class on Japanese literature). South America is another continent I’ve not visited so Brazil, Peru… But I’m serious that I’d love to go anywhere I haven’t been before. You just have to throw a name in front of me and my ears will prick up in interest.
3. What is your favourite book? Why? Very much subject to change, but my current comfort read (meaning I’ve read it lots and will read it again) is The Charioteer by Mary Renault. Mary Renault is one of my favorite authors (she draws a scene so beautifully with a minimum of words) and the characters and the love story… it’s all just too lovely.
4. Who would you like to meet if you could meet a celebrity in real life? Wow, this is a hard one.  I’ve already written out one answer, but now I’m changing it and going for Lee Mi-sook — assuming I speak fluent Korean in this fantasy where we meet and we can have a nice long, friendly chat. I think she’s an awesome actress and I’d love to hear her inside scoop on the S. Korean entertainment industry and how it’s changed during her time in it.
5. Name your favourite genre of music and elaborate a little on your favourite artists. I am such a nerd. I love all kinds of music — alt rock, rap, R&B, Motown, pop — but the genre that I listen to most consistently is Classical. And I adore, adore, adore! Johann Sebastian Bach because he was a total badass and a genius and wrote such complex pieces of music (I love fugues) and… I’ve lost whatever cool points I managed to gain ever in life, haven’t I?
6. What are the traits found in your siblings that you wish you could have too? I wish I had my younger sister’s friendliness and courage. She is so outgoing — makes friends everywhere — and is so willing to try new things just to see. She’s also got incredible fashion sense. And my baby sister has such determination and drive. She’s gone through some massive challenges and come out so completely victorious it’s pretty awe inspiring. (I wish they both lived closer to me. Now I’m missing them.)
7. What is the most defining turning point in your life? Briefly elaborate on it. A question best answered by a biographer after I’m dead and you can see the arc of my life… But if I had to make a guess… I’d say when my husband and I decided we’d been in Kentucky long enough and it was time to make a change. We’ve ended up in California and it’s been an adventure getting out here that could in no way have been predicted or planned. It’s taught us both that you don’t have to have your life planned out. The important thing is being willing to take that first step and then keep on walking.

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Maybee:

1. Name your favouriteeeest  K-drama heroine and why. You can list more than one but must specify reasons. Hmm…  Hard question and my answer will be a bit weird but, I’m going with Kim Ji-won from High Kick 3. She’s the kind of person I’d most like to become. She had such an unshakable sense of herself and was both open to trying anything and taking any path, but stood strong against society pressures and expectations. I’d love to have that kind of strength of character. (It’s weird that I’m saying this about a high school character — but she was really, really mature.)
2. Which K-drama character/s do you identify with the most and why? And now the easy question! Go Dok-mi from Flower Boy Next Door. To an almost painful degree, so it was really awesome that (a) her anxieties were handled so well and (b) her character’s trajectory was so positive.
3. What K-drama trope gets you rolling your eyes and gives you hives? (Clearly, a hyperbole, but indulge me, please.) Well, I’m not sure about hives… but it will send me into fist-clenched rants of fury, so… close? The all-knowing patriarch, aka: Daddy Knows Best. The dad will come in and make all kinds of decisions and even if they’re totally wrong-headed no one argues. Not even the mom. And it’s treated like this is just how it is. It drives me crazy. (Doesn’t happen all the time, thank goodness.)
4. What do you look for in a fellow K-drama blogger? (hahahah. Sounds like a dating site question? Indulge me.) An opinion — not necessarily set in stone, but a sense of, “this is what I like” and “this is what I don’t like” — so I can see where they’re coming from. And also a sense of enjoyment — not that they’re always loving what they’re seeing, but that they actually do like k-drama (or whatever they’re blogging about for that matter) even if sometimes it disappoints or even outrages them.
5. What’s the best thing about blogging? Being read is awesome (I ♥ you, statistics-bar), getting comments is even better, and having a discussion and getting a feeling of community and connection is the best thing ever.
6. What’s the worst thing about blogging? The big empty white space with “New Post” hovering above it, several days since your last post, and nothing to say.
7. What would you be reborn as? And why? (Yes, “why” is my favourite question. Why? Why? Why?) Let’s go for something completely different — A giant squid. They go places I never could and I honestly can’t really imagine what a giant squid thinks about as it squids along in the great deep. So it’ll be a completely new experience. (And yes I realize I’m answering the question as if it asked what I’d like to be reborn as… I have no idea what I’d actually rank when the time came — something awesome, hopefully.)

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Pinkblossom and Whitecarrot:

1. Which KDrama character would you actually date? Why? (wc) Oh — Kim Boong-do from Queen In-hyun’s Man definitely. That was a man who knew how to walk the line of strong and passionate without tipping over into domineering or clingy. Also, he was so sexy smart and (once he leapt to the future) not overly involved with life-and-death issues. Or his mother.
2. What would you do if you were stuck on a lifeboat with Richard Parker the Bengal tiger? Would you kill it if you got the chance? (wc) Die. I would, I mean. Either from the far more agile and cunning Richard Parker or from the shark that got me after I fell overboard trying to avoid the tiger. (Ooh! Or maybe it’d be a giant squid what done me in. Irony.) So there’s a new goal in life: don’t get stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger.
3. Apples or pears? Choose! (wc) Pears! Apples are mundane but pears bring the fancy. (Unless it’s a Macintosh. I do love a good Macintosh… so juicy sweet…)
4. Does an actor’s life off the screen affect how you view them on screen? (pb)  It can if I let it. I do try and not combine the two too much and avoid reading too much entertainment gossip. That way I can enjoy what I want to enjoy and not get hung up on what crazy thing an actor’s gotten up to lately. (Sometimes that doesn’t work, obviously. But for little things like chronic dating or weird diet regimens… I’d rather just not know.)
5. Would you rather have a long-lost twin who shows up and steals your man, or an evil Cheongdamdong mother-in-law? (pb) I’ve always wanted a twin… But I’ve pictured how I’d handle an evil Cheongdamdong mother-in-law so many times. It’s like I’ve gone through countless Rocky-eque training montages, so it’d be a shame to waste it. And I tell you, the battles would be epic.

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The Nominees: 

So I’m not entirely sure how to double and triple check that a blog fits under the “less than 200 followers” rule… but I think I’ve chosen fellow “below the radar” bloggers in keeping with the spirit of the Liebster Award. All are bloggers I’ve enjoyed chatting with and, most importantly because I am so slow on these kinds of things — none of them have posted Liebster Award posts. (I’ve kept it to five and put them in alphabetical order. For science!)

1. Curioser and Curiosor of SPQ&R
2. Fly from Dramas Whoo!
3. Jandoe from You Don’t Know Me
4. Ladida and Malta from Idle Revelry
5. Snow_white from The Drama Corner

The Questions I Pose:

1. If you could have one mutant power, what power would it be?
2. Breakfast, lunch or dinner?
3. Why a blog and why the k-drama?
4. If you could be in a k-drama, what drama would you choose? And would you be an established character, yourself, yourself with mutant powers, fill-in-blank?
5. If you created a second blog about something completely different from what you’re blogging about now, what would it be about?

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Done! That was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. And now you know even more random stuff about me. Be sure and click all the links (all of them!) — they lead to some very cool blogs.