Liebster Award…I Confess Creepy Things

So I was nominated by the fair Kendra to participate in the Liebster blog tag.  I’ve already won this a few times, but I love yakking your ears off in response to surveys (and–thanks K–you gave me a blogging topic for this weekend, and I wasn’t coming up with anything, so you SAVED ME); I will happily and humbly accept your nomination.

1. When you find an insect or arachnid in your house, what is your immediate response? Do you scream? Rescue the bug and let it outside? Kill it? No, I will not judge you (too harshly) for your response.   Depends on how big/hairy it is.  If it’s longer than an inch or so, it goes underfoot.  Otherwise I try to put a cup over it and slide an envelope beneath that and dump the whole package outside (UNLESS IT CAN JUMP OH GOD THAT’S THE WORST WHEN THEY CAN JUMP AND THEY JUST RAM THEMSELVES AGAINST THE GLASS OH GOD OH GOD).

2. What is your opinion on so-called “white lies?” Are they necessary in certain cases to avoid hurting someone? Or should they be avoided at all costs?  Hmm.  This is too dang deep for a blog survey…how do I say this without sounding awful..? I tell a lot of lies.  Storyteller by nature, et cetera…I just really like embellishing stories to get a reaction out of people.  I add harmless little details that I think’ll make it funnier or something.  I don’t even realize I’m doing it, which is the scariest part.  I’ll actually convince myself that the embellished version was the actual course of events…if I’m ever telling you a really fanciful story, you should ask me if I’m lying.  I’ll probably blink dazedly a few times and respond with “Oh…I guess I am!”  I DO STRIVE TO AVOID THIS on the blog, though, because it’s much harder to accidentally type up a lie than speak it.

Hmm, what was the actual question?  Oh…white lies.  I don’t think you should lie to avoid hurting people, but don’t deliberately tear someone down either.  Honesty is always the best policy…like if they ask for a critique on something that sucks, just point out the flaws along with the good points.  There’s always good points.

3. What is one of the most bizarre/detailed/vivid dreams you have ever had? Have you ever had a dream that predicted something in the future (yes, this was inspired by the aforementioned dream I had)?  Well…heh.  Do I ‘fess up here?  Every dream I have is extremely vivid and bizarre.  Extremely.  My most recent dream (meaning last night) was that my brother and I had accidentally murdered Shrek the ogre.  Also, my brother was Remus Lupin, from the Harry Potter series, except he was wearing a bra, patterned with oranges.  (It was quite a lovely bra.)  The big oak tree in our yard was actually the Whomping Willow, and we stowed Shrek’s corpse in the Shrieking Shack which was nearby, through a tunnel.  (Realization: it was actually supposed to be Snape that we killed, but I guess my brain subbed in the image of Shrek because it couldn’t picture a dead Snape..?) Then the police showed up, saying there had been a reported attempted break-in at our house.  I had this really awesome grandma who didn’t resemble any of my actual grandmas but she could do kung-fu and she took out two of the cops with her walker.  Then the rest of the police force showed up, but it turned out to be my childhood Taekwon-do class, so there was a brief happy reunion before our living room turned into the PE gym and we lined up on opposite sides of it, getting ready to square down.

That was actually kind of a tame dream for me.

4. Do you eat food that you’ve dropped on the ground? Or throw it away in disgust? Do you follow expiration dates on all packaged food, or only with dairy products and other mold-prone food? This was inspired by the fact that I recently threw out a tub of almost-empty yogurt that had expired a month ago. Even I have my limits when it comes to expired food.   Depends on the type of food.  Is it good chocolate?  I’ll eat good chocolate off a toilet seat.  (I’ll, like, rinse it off first…)  I eat most foods off the floor.  I’m exceedingly ignorant-by-choice of the types of bacteria that thrive in carpets.  It makes life so much simpler.  I am kind of obsessive about expiration dates though…I have an awful nagging fear that I’ll get food poisoning and die if I eat something even a day past the expiration date.  It just looks so final…it’s scary, man.

5. Do you have one or more social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc…)? How has it affected your life, both positively and/or negatively? Or do you prefer to stay off of such websites?  Yup.  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest; check, check, check and check.  I’m a really big fan of social media.  It allows me to connect with others, like my old Wyoming friends, stay in touch, and promote things.  And I love the tiny windows into other’s lives.  (I’m the kind of person who cranes their neck to see into people’s houses when they’re driving past, not because I want to, erm, see anything explicit, but because it really fascinates me to see the kind of spaces other people spend the majority of their lives in.  Is this another thing I can attribute to just having a writer-brain? :D)  I don’t really think they’ve had a big negative impact on my life.  I don’t think they’re interesting enough to get addicted to…only blogs and Tumblr have that power over me.

6. Why exactly are there warning labels on things such as bottles of hairspray stating “Do not use near heat, flame, or while smoking.” “Avoid inhalation.” “Avoid spraying in eyes”? Do these companies think we are idiots, or are they simply terrified of being sued by a person who says “You didn’t tell me that it’s dangerous to use my hair dryer in the bathtub!! How dare you do such a thing!!” Yes, this is somewhat of a rhetorical question, so instead of answering it, feel free to share the most absurd warning labels you have ever seen.  Yeah, I think it comes of the companies being afraid of sue-age.  (Haha…)  Why would you even use your hair dryer in the bathtub anyway?  Are there really people that hellbent on multitasking?

7. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? If so, what was his/her/it’s name? Was it human, animal, vegetable, mineral, or alien?  I…well, I did.  Her name was…*cringes* Plecostomus, because that was a type of fish I had in my fish tank.  I just called her Platty for short.  I’m not sure she wasn’t human; she was humanoid, but she had green skin and red hair and in the world she came from capitalization was reversed so she wrote her name pLATTY.  I was…a special child.

8. Do you talk to yourself on a regular basis? Or perhaps to your pets? Have you ever engaged in a fascinating discussion or argument with yourself? (Please tell me I’m not the only one who has done this…)  Well, I journal daily, which is essentially an elaborate written conversation with myself.  Sometimes if I’m alone (or in math class) I’ll make snide little remarks to myself, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had a fully-fledged self-argument, a la Eleventh Doctor in Nightmare in Silver.

(photo credit the BBC)

9. When was the last time you sent an actual pencil-and-paper letter to someone? Do you think handwritten letters are always more intimate and personal than an email or text message, or does it depend on the situation? Speaking of which, can you write in cursive (I can’t, so don’t worry about being judged here)?  I probably send more snail mail than most people, but I still haven’t sent a letter in a long time.  Maybe it was…a year ago??  People don’t do it nearly often enough, but I love getting handwritten letters.  I feel so shpecial upon receiving one, and I definitely feel like there’s a stronger interpersonal connection there than with email.  That said, I also love email, since it’s so much more practical and speedy and allows me to keep up with friends whom I don’t see on a daily basis! (Love ya, Cleo!)

I can write in cursive.  Pretty well.  I’ve got a fancy fountain pen and I spent a lot of one summer trying to make my script as pretty as possible.  My normal, note-taking, paper-writing printing is somewhat of an ugly lovechild between printing and cursive…teachers hate it, I hate it sometimes (all the letters are nondescript lumps), but it looks vaguely artistic.

10. Do you feel as though TV or magazine advertisements actually make you more likely to purchase the product being advertised? Or do you simply enjoy mocking them and/or laughing at them? Feel free to mention one of the strangest, best, worst, most sexist, or most creative advertisement you’ve ever seen.  I mean, I’m sure they do influence my purchases.  I try not to let them, but if they weren’t effective, advertising wouldn’t be the multi-billion-dollar industry it is now, right?  I do like to mock them; and a lot are selling naked women, rather than, um, the actual product.  BUTBUTBUTBUTBUT–the Phillipines version of Pantene made this really awesome commercial about negative labels that are applied to women vs men and how we can break through them, and it’s one of the coolest commercials I’ve seen in a long time.  Worth a watch:

My 10 questions time!  I’m upset that no one did my sock drawer survey.  (Except for TeenieYogini.  She’s just better than all of you.  *sniffs haughtily*) That hurts, you guys.  SOO I’m just going to steal the some of the questions from there and TAG people so they HAVE to respond, mwahahahaha…

1. Show us your sock drawer.  *PEERpressurePEERpressure*
2. Favorite type of workout?
3. Favorite type of cheese (or cheeze)?
4. What would your last meal be?
5. Favorite outfit?
6. Favorite caffeinated beverage?
7. One of your favorite fictional characters has shown up on your doorstep ready to take you on the adventure of a lifetime. Who are they, and where do you go?
8. Any tattoos you’d like?
9. Hair color? Would you ever dye it? Chop it all off?
10. Favorite smell?

And I tag:

1. Kris @ Plants & Pages

2. Andrea @ I Run for Donuts

3. Cleo @ The Literary Flaneur (yes I’m going to keep tagging you for these things; as your sassy clumsy friend I’m just going to pressure you into doing more and more surveys and stepping away from your insane TBR pile)

4. Kailey @ The Caffeinated Runner

5.  Lacey @ Life Hands You Limes

6.  Joelle @ On a Pink Typewriter

7. Alex @ The Run Within

*counts names on fingers furtively* Crap, that’s only seven.  All the other blogs I read (that haven’t been tagged already) are either too topic-specific for this kind of thing, or are too BIG (in terms of follower count), and nominating them sort of feels like yanking on an upperclassman’s sleeve to ask where the bathroom is.  I AM NOT WORTHY.  If you’re reading this, consider yourself nominated, I guess!!  I am so totally stoked you are reading this!  Congrats on your life decisions!

Y’all should recommend some more blogs to me.  Any other ramblers out there, either fitness-, food-, or literature-related?  ALL THREE?  I must meet some more of my kin.  We must form a tribe.