The Sunshine Award – Lemonade After Dinner

As always, I’m so touched that lemonmirae and Kwon Sang Seung remembered me when they were typing up their nomination lists. ㅠㅡㅠ To me, the award is more of them bringing sunshine to me, than me having brought sunshine to anyone, although I still hope the latter has been true. Sometimes, the main body of the writing feels so angsty that a Rainfall Award, Thunderstorm Award or Cyclone Award is perhaps more appropriate! Hopefully, though, the overall effect will one day be such that it means bringing about a fall, a storm or a cyclone of sunlight~~

According to them, the guidelines this time are:

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Answer the questions from the person who nominated you.
• Nominate a few other bloggers.
• Write the same amount of questions for the bloggers you nominated.
• Notify the bloggers on their blog.
• Put the award button on your blog.

Since Kwon Sang Seung may be busy in September, I’m thinking of … delaying responses to his questions until October. It’s my wish to avoid giving bloggers with important stuff going on “extra readings.” Hence, I’ll address lemonmirae’s first. Her online name, which means “lemon future,” sounds bittersweet to me (in a good way!). It can readily be associated with the saying about lemons and lemonade—the future is full of adversities, but we can turn them into opportunities. J-drama lovers may like to head over to her site for gorgeous recaps of the drama version of Death Note.

© Moyan Brenn, shared under the permission of CC BY 2.0. He encourages donations to the Save the Children Fund.

Here are her questions:

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

Ans: My great-great-grandchildren. The world they live in will probably be so insufferably hot and sticky that ours will be a respite to them. In terms of celebrities, I would invite Han Hyo-joo, Han Ga-in and Sho Sakurai from music group Arashi (“Storm”) because of their clean-cut images.

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

Ans: No, I’m pretty happy to dissipate peacefully into the sunlight when my time comes, unless fame can help promote my causes.

3. Name three things about yourself.

Ans: If I can speak for my blog instead, here it goes…

If dramas are the untouchable stars in the sky,

and thoughts are an ever-running stream,

can we at least preserve the most beautiful light from the stars through their reflections and swim forever in them?

4. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

Ans: Tomorrow? Jeon Woo-chi’s self-cloning skill. Come join my and Kwon Sang Seing’s secret society here!

5. What do you value most in a friendship?

Ans:

6. What is your most treasured memory?

Ans: I was about to run through my mind all the romantic walks in the snow, candlelit dinners and cute snuggles in the illustrious history of romance dramas. But within the confines of dramaland, my most treasured memory seems to be that of five-year-old Kiha hiding her baby sister in a jar to protect her from their enemies in The Legend. Not that it made adult Kiha’s actions justifiable.

7. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

Ans: How a crystal ball works!

My nominees:

There are probably millions of amazing blogs out there. These (and dosirakbento, which admin politely declines awards) are merely the ones that rarely fail to make me smile:

1. Soshi Love (With love, from Vietnam to Korea)
2. Knitting with Heart (“A yarnful oasis!”)
3. Ministry of Animals (Oriental paintings of cute animals ❤ )
4. Musings of a Chunkeemonkeeato (K-entertainment reviews and more)
5. Dramajjang (Nominating it seems to go against my principle of not using awards to trade favors. After a long deliberation, though, I think most K-drama blog readers would readily agree that Dramajjang is the most entertaining recap blog around, so it feels fake not to include it.)

My questions:

I didn’t expect to be nominated for The Sunshine Award when I wrote my questions for the Liebster Award. Yet those questions were actually quite apt for this new award, so I am reusing/adapting seven questions from them.

1. A golden sunset, the starry heavens, or a starless night sky?

2. Which literary/screen/real-life figures have been most like sunlight to you?

3. What is the first word someone says to you in the morning and what is the first word you utter in the morning? (This is a question I’ve asked before, but since I’m quite curious about the answer, I’m posing it again.)

4. A small glint of golden light is emitting from a window at the top of a tall tower. Another is peeking out from underneath a pebble. Yet another comes from the iris of a woman’s eye. One more beckons to you from the bottom of a lagoon. A final one zips past you from the glittery feathers of a swallow darting by. If you must follow one, which source of light do you go after?

5. If there is a novel or drama titled That Autumn, The Sun Slept, what do you imagine it to be about? (And for drama lovers, who do you hope will be the leads?)

6. Do you prefer serving your blog sunny-side up, over light, over medium, over well or over hard?

7. The times of sunrise and sunset can be calculated through the following equation:

cos(ω_o) = -tan(φ)×tan(δ)

where ω_o is the hour angle at either sunrise (negative value) or sunset (positive value), φ is the latitude, and δ is the sun declination. All variables are in degrees.

If success or a significant other were a sun, what do you think the equation for the start and end of a challenge or relationship would be like?

 

While I’m interested to know what you think, there is no pressure to answer the questions or in any way respond to the nominations. There are plenty of legitimate reasons not to participate in such activities, so I fully respect your decision if you choose to opt out. If you answer anyway but find some questions too time-consuming, you are welcome to skip them.

Also, since the award season seems to be over, nominees may like to consider postponing their responses until the next season. I will not bear a grudge if you forget about this nomination by then.

Finally, a Sunshine Award post just seems incomplete without a screenshot from the most enchanting sunlight scene I’ve seen in a J-drama…

Now I, too, have a permanent spot.

Till the next time we chat, bye and see you around!

[Published on August 26, 2015.]