With impeccable timing aspermama has nominated me for a Liebster Award just in time for this, my 200th post. This isn’t some award from a nameless, faceless panel sat in isolation somewhere, but recognition from a fellow blogger, and as such it really means a lot to me. I cherish the opinions of my peers who know what it is like either to be on the autism spectrum, or to raise an autistic child.
Besides, apart from all that serious stuff, I think it will be fun to join in!
The rules:
- Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
- Answer the 10 questions given to you by the nominator.
- Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
- Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
- Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them
Aspermama’s questions:
1. What song impacts you the most personally?
I find it difficult to choose a single song because my listening preferences change depending on my mood, but one that I keep coming back to is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I could listen to David Gilmour’s soaring guitar solos for hours on end, and the lyrics speak to me in a way that makes them very personal. This is a song I can play when I’m feeling a little down in the certain knowledge that it will lift my spirits.
2. What was your favourite book growing up?
I think that would have to be Dune by Frank Herbert. I loved the world he created, the eponymous desert planet Dune, as well as the richness of the pictures that reading it conjures up. I still have the paperback copy I bought in my early teens and it has been read more than 20 times over the best part of 30 years.
3. If you could go back to any time in history, which would it be?
This has to be a particular place as well as a time: I choose the Victorian age in England because it was a time of great progress in philosophy, science and engineering. It was a time when there was such great energy dedicated to progress and for all its faults — and they are many to a modern eye — it was an age where people began to defy conventional thinking. It planted the seeds of our modern world.
4. What do you like about yourself the most?
My compassion. I think that is my greatest quality: I care about people and try to help them in whatever small ways I am able.
5. What was the last book you read?
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I love his writing: there is an elegance to it that I can only dream of emulating. And the imagination he demonstrates in his fantasy novels and short stories to create such vividly described characters and settings is stunning.
6. If your life were made into a movie, what would it be about and who would play you?
My life has been largely devoid of dramatic incidents and as such would probably make a terribly dull movie. I think a much better idea would be to give it a treatment, Hollywood style, and embellish it to the point where even I don’t recognize it. Russell Brand could play me: he looks nothing like me and so I could rest easy in the knowledge that I would never get recognized on the streets.
7. If you had an entire day to do whatever you wanted, what would you do?
I would take my wife for a day out, perhaps to the coast, because she would enjoy that, and I derive pleasure from seeing her happy.
8. What is your favourite guilty pleasure?
Guilt and me have an arrangement where I don’t feel guilty as long as I enjoy myself and nobody gets hurt. My guilt mostly stems from feeling I have failed to meet my own standards of behavior or achievement.
9. What about yourself do you most want people to know?
I will listen if you want to talk to me. I can’t promise to be able to help, but I will do my best to understand and offer support.
10. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
The ability to read non-verbal communication — body language. Well, it seems to be a super power to me: it is beyond my natural abilities.
My nominations:
This is the hardest part for me. Which blogs do I choose? Do there really have to be ten? Well, I guess as long as it doesn’t break the rules I can do whatever I want. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite reads…
- Laughing Helps: Marriage Spiced With Aspergers — Blog by a woman married for 20 years to a man with Aspergers. By turns it is funny, sad or uplifting, but always fresh and insightful.
- The Clockwork Pastor — Thought-provoking and intelligent blog by an openly gay ordained pastor with Aspergers.
- The Autistic Me — Blog by C. S. Wyatt, PhD, with a focus on autism and education.
- autisticook — Yes, I know aspermama nominated this blog, but I find her writing so engaging. She adds a lot to discussions with her well-thought-out and informative comments. And there’s food-related posts too: what more could you want?
- Mados — Plenty of helpful information about autism: well-written and -researched.
- ischemgeek — A very personal account from another blogger who contributes so much to online discussions. Sometimes painful in its intensity but well worth reading for her insights. And, yes, I’ve repeated another of aspermama’s choices. 😉
My questions:
- Why did you start blogging?
- What has made you happy recently?
- If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
- What 3 words best describe you?
- Who inspires you, and why?
- What is your favorite place?
- What is the greatest challenge you face in your life?
- Who is your favorite author?
- What angers you?
- Star Wars or Star Trek?
My Autistic Dance 
I want to answer these questions. I have a great love for answering questions like that. Heh.
I just have to say, excellent taste in books. I haven’t read Dune yet or much of Neil Gaiman but I know Gaiman is an incredibly good writer, and I have many respectable friends who think highly of Dune. I have several Dune books and a few by Gaiman, just have to get to them (among several hundred other books I own but haven’t read yet.)
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I can’t imagine owning that many books I hadn’t read: I wouldn’t have time to acquire them all because I’d be busy reading the ones I did have 😉
The first book by Neil Gaiman I read was Neverwhere. Got into it right from the start and was hooked. 🙂
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I’m kind of crazy about books…I’m pretty sure I have well over a thousand. I have boxes and boxes full because I’m hoping to open a bookstore within the next few years.
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Bookstores are awesome. 😀
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Neverwhere is still my favourite!
I want to respond to your questions. You have cool questions. But I still freak out about awards. It’s just too much to handle: rules and social expectations and pressure. It feels special to be singled out though, even if it does make me feel shy. But that’s not your fault. So thank you for reaching out and for the AWESOME compliment. 😀
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You can still answer the questions in the comments here if you’d prefer — I’m not one to stand on ceremony 🙂
& you’re welcome 😀
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Thank you *blushes*
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😀
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Thank you very much! That is an honour.
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All part of the service 😀 And also by way of a thank you for the Todoist advice.
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You are welcome! I am glad that it us useful/inspiring to you!
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Why did you start blogging?I wanted to talk about what was happening to me, to make sense of it. My first real post was describing my reaction to becoming non-verbal at an unexpected moment. But it was also because I’d discovered that I wasn’t alone in that, and I wanted to share it with others who maybe thought they were alone.
What has made you happy recently?Saying goodnight to my long distance partner on video. We don’t often get a chance to do that.
If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?Being appreciated at work for the things I’m really good at. Instead of getting fired for the things I’m not so good at.
What 3 words best describe you?Passionate, naive, intelligent.
Who inspires you, and why?Skin, the singer from Skunk Anasie. Because she’s so unapologetic.
What is your favorite place?The woods near where I grew up. And the English landscape, especially that mix of nature and the traces of human history and influence.
What is the greatest challenge you face in your life?Being more forgiving and less perfectionistic.
Who is your favorite author?Iain Banks.
What angers you?Not being taken seriously.
Star Wars or Star Trek?Trek! Everything up to Voyager. I couldn’t get into Enterprise even though I loved Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap. And I was a bit disappointed by Star Trek: Insurrection so I stopped watching the films after that. Star Wars is entertaining but is far too simplistic for me. Plus really bad screenplays in the recent films. Like, REALLY bad. Sorry if that offends anyone. But Star Trek, especially TNG because I grew up on that, holds a very special place in my heart.
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I love your answers and appreciate the thought that has gone into them. 🙂
Yours is so similar to my own reason for starting to blog. I’ve yet to knowingly meet another autistic adult in the flesh, but online is a different story. Reading other people’s blogs does help you feel that you’re not going through this on your own, that there are others who understand.
I love woods! Where I grew up a third of our land was wooded and I spent a lot of time among the trees: I love the way sunlight falls through the leaves; I love the smell after rain; I love to listen to the birds; I love to stare at patterns in the bark. (I just drifted off in reverie, writing this triggered memories of the woods from my childhood and I was suddenly back there. Most enjoyable.)
Iain Banks, with or without the ‘M’, is among my favorite authors. I discovered his books in my 20’s when somebody lent me a copy of The Player of Games. I have nearly all his books, my favorites being The Crow Road (“It was the day my grandmother exploded” — what an opening!), The Bridge and Espedair Street. I think I identify with the awkwardness of his protagonists, the way they don’t fit comfortably into the world around them.
Good ol’ Star Trek! I grew up watching re-runs of TOS so I will always have a soft spot for that (just like Tom Baker as Doctor Who). I resisted watching TNG when it was first broadcast because I felt it wasn’t “proper” ST without Kirk and Spock, but my brother liked it and I relented. I’m so glad I did because I would have really missed out.
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