Another Award?! WOW! Woohoo!

I have been awarded yet another award by Usha Menon - my first Liebster Award - thank you Usha! ;) Check out her website for fun and entertaining clips including haiku at eccentricgrandmum (in case this link doesn't work: http://eccentricgrandmum.blogspot.ca/

I wanted to know more about this particular award as it wasn't self-explanatory to me. I discovered this website, http://wordingwell.com/the-liebster-award-the-official-rules-my-first-blog-award-and-a-few-personal-secrets-revealed/ in the process.

The Liebster Award - isn't it pretty? - was created to recognize and/or discover new bloggers and welcome them to the blogosphere.

According to Lorraine Reguly's reearch of this award, this award exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. It has German origins – the word “liebster” has several definitions: dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, welcome, sweetheart. and apparently boyfriend(!).

It follows similar principles as a chain letter, in the sense that it should be passed forward to a certain number of people. It can be misconstrued, depending upon your personal views, as either something wonderful (who doesn’t like awards?) or as an annoyance (a chain letter that involves work).

The choice lies within each of us to ACCEPT it, and continue PAYING IT FORWARD or to refuse to accept it, thereby STOPPING or INTERRUPTING the chain. However, if you stop the chain, you are only hurting yourself (keep reading for benefits you will have)!

Personal views play an important part in our choice to participate. Some people have refused to accept it and have made attempts to “break the chain”. There have been many people who have been nominated, yet refused to accept it, and now their blogs have been abandoned.

Variations have been made over time to the 'rules'. Marketing plays a role in accepting this award, as other bloggers are promoted. (This is not a bad thing, however, since people should help others!)

Other awards are a part of the whole meme. These include "One Lovely Blog Award," the "Sunshine Blog Award" (which by the way I was awarded last week by Usha as well), and the "Versatile Writer Award."

1. Post 11 facts about myself'
2. Answer the 11 questions given by you.
3. Tell them that they have been tagged by you.
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11 Facts of Myself
1. Born in Europe and moved to Canada with my family when I was six.
2. Born a premature twin, am a surviving twin.
3. Have two older sisters and two younger brothers.
4. Work for a nonprofit agency full-time.
5. Am an ideas person, sometimes creating inventions in my life.
6. Have an eye for detail, good for editing at my day job and other things...
7. Am great at memorizing faces, voices, and numbers.
8. Especially love trees, mountains, and water from my European heritage.
9. Live in North Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), Canada - north of Vancouver.
10.Used to have a cat as my 'baby.' Pets are family members too! ;)
11.See and collect heart-shaped objects. ;)

11 Questions for My Nominees:
1. Where were you born?
2. What city/town, country do you live in now?
3. What languages do you speak?
4. What is your favourite food?
5. Do you like to cook? If so, what is your specialty, i.e., favourite dish?
6. Do you prefer tea or coffee? If so, what kind?
7. What are your top three to five activities you like/love to do?
8. Do you sing or play an instrument? If so, what kind of music?
9. Have you ever performed in a school play or on stage?
10.When did you start writing?
11.What do you love to write about: favourite topic(s)?

Usha's 11 questions to the recipients of this award, including me:
1. Where were you born? A: The Netherlands also known as Holland for short.
2. Do you like to read? A: No, I don't like to read. I actually LOVE to read and wish I had more time! ;)
3. Which is your favorite book? A: ONLY one?! The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, written by Mark Haddon, a brilliant rollercoaster ride of emotions etc.
4. Do you believe in superstitions? A: No, I am not superstitious.
5. Do you like to have Burgers and Pizzas? A: Yes, if organic and I LOVE pizza!
6. Given a choice, which country you will like to visit? A: ONLY one?! Alaska to experience the pristine wilderness and see the Northern Lights
7. Which season of the year do you like and why? A: I LOVE spring for so many reasons: milder temperatures, longer days, flowers, trees blossoming...
8. Which newspaper do you read? A: I browse through several at work, though I prefer my local community newspaper for news and events.
9. What is the first thing you like to read in the newspaper (i) Politics (ii) movies (iii) Gossip (iv) Fashion A: None of the above! I like to read - I follow - one comic strip and read my horoscope for the day just for fun.
10. How many languages do you know? Name them. A: English fluently, a few words in Dutch, and a bit of Spanish and French.
11. Do you believe in reincarnation? A: Yes, I never did before until I had certain incidents that made me a believer.

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND you choose to accept it, write a blog post about Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on yours.
2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a 'widget' or a 'gadget.' (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. nominate 5 to 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (as they might not have ever heard of it).
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Though I would love to nominate both Vinodini Iyer and Shailaja Vishwanath, I know you two have already received the award and, no offense, I would like to nominate a few people who may not have received it thus far.

I would like to nominate the following bloggers for the Liebster Award:

1. Judy Yaron
2. Asiya Fathima
3. Nisha Sanjeev
4. Candess M Campbell
5. Penny McDaniel

Ok, now your turn. Have fun! ;)