Between Silence and Growls: The Sisterhood of The World Blogger Award

My heartfelt thanks to apqaria for her nomination! And, of course, congratulations to her too for her own nomination by another blogger!!

Her message was timely as well as I had been looking forward to a more light-hearted topic to make a brief departure from the dark subject matter dominating the last few posts. To more jaded individuals, this kind of awards may feel more like little games than actual trophies you would gather your whole family to celebrate with a bottle of champagne. Still, I believe all of us can always benefit from a word of encouragement. Let us spread more of such love around.

The rules, in apqaria’s words, are:

• Link the blogger who nominated you on your post.
• Put the award logo on your blog.
• Answer the ten questions that were given to you.
• Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
• Nominate five blogs and make sure they are aware they are nominated.
• When you have responded, leave a link in the comment of the person who nominated you.

apqaria‘s questions:

1. Do you have a habit that you would like to quit? Ans: Scanning the news while having my meals.
2. When was the last time you had a blogging slump and how you got out of it? Ans: Years ago with an older blog. I didn’t get out of it and do not want to get out of it. I adopted a very practical approach and covered what I thought people were interested in. There were so few visitors and I disagreed with what I wrote so much that I found it pointless to carry on. With this new blog, I decided to go with my own preferences in everything (the content, the tone, the look, etc.) even if some choices defied common sense. Surprisingly, readers identified with it far more strongly than with the previous site.
3. Do you think you have a strong memory? and is there a certain memory you want to erase? Ans: You have to have a powerful memory to manage sneaky co-workers. I do not want to erase any factual memory, since you never know when they will come in useful. At most, I prefer some of them to be secured in some vault and surfacing only when I want them to. I do want to erase a few emotional memories though (Who doesn’t?). Now where is this mystic eraser we are talking about?
4. Do you like exercising? And do you do that on regular basis? Ans: Yes, swimming!! No time to make the long-overdue sojourn to the pool though.
5. What is the thing you appreciate most about your character or yourself in general? Ans: Curiosity.
6. What is your favorite drama and movie you watched last year? Ans: My Love from Another Star (the power of first impressions!). I was highly skeptical of it at first though. Coincidentally, my favorite movie should be Interstellar (except that I have yet to sit through a complete viewing).
7. Long hair or short hair? Ans: Shorter than a lion’s, longer than a hare’s? As long as my kid will not go down the route of Rapunzel!
8. What is the headline you wish to see tomorrow in the news? Ans: Some pharmaceutical company has discovered a drug that eradicates all forms of violence from the planet. 
9. What is the view that always make you feel relaxed/happy? Ans: I was running through various natural landscapes in my mind, but the most blissful and comforting scene must be families having dinner together in a cozy mood. Not that it is a sight that can always be found readily. Nowadays, everyone in real life seems perpetually busy, perpetually unhappy and perpetually lost in his/her own electronic universe.
10. Do you have relatives/friends in real life that share your drama love? Ans: Yes, but not the same dramas! So near yet so far!

My nominations:

This is a very tough decision, but owing to considerations of the nature of this award, fairness and bloggers’ likely receptivity to the nominations, I have to exclude the following groups of blogs no matter how much I have enjoyed reading them:

• Blogs clearly authored by male writers (Zen Habits, Newtonian Light, Inquiry Into Inquiry, etc.)
• Academic, philosophy and current affairs blogs
• apqaria’s website since I cannot make her answer the same questions all over again after only a couple of days!
• And finally, since it is difficult to differentiate gratitude from love, I am excluding blogs authored by readers who have frequented this website (Terry Sissons, Laurie Nichols, Hiedi, etc.) – you definitely have my friendship and support though!

My nominees are (in alphabetical order):

1. Archi.drama by Karinna (Fantastic exploration of architecture and interior design in dramas)
2. iKurate by buttercup and ghostwriter (Nifty tool for checking up drama reviews, neat design)
3. Otherwordly by Yee-Lum (Yee-Lum operates a Michelin-starred restaurant, except her dishes are words and her ingredients hail from diverse lands and seas. The result is spell-binding and more memorable than an actual seven-course gourmet meal.)
4. Soshi Love by sweetangel (Colorful showcase of Korean and Vietnamese cultures)
5. Last but not least, The Talking Cupboard by mimi (Extensively researched and curated resources on Joseon history and culture)

My questions:

Since many of you are busy or have probably been nominated before, I do not really expect any answer from you, but here they go:

1. Which side are you on: (A) « La parole est d’argent, mais le silence est d’or. » (“Speech is silver, but silence is golden.”) or (B) “If there are people who truly want to live on in this world, they should first speak, laugh, cry, scold and fight without fear, chasing away this cursed era in this cursed place!”?
2. Is there a book author or blogger whose tone of writing reminds you of a close friend or mentor?
3. What is the first word you utter after waking up?
4. What is the first word someone says to you in the morning?
5. Black, white or grey?
6. Thunderstorm or drizzle?
7. Water or fire?
8. Orange Marmalade or orange marmalade?
9. If there is such a thing as DNA of the spirit (e.g. in terms of never-say-die mentality) that is independent of biological connections, which historical figure would you trace your genealogy to?
10. Between a rock and a hard place: does the choice make a difference?

[Note: This is an archive of a post published on March 3, 2015.]

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