Ich Liebe Dich, Part II

This has been a long and difficult week, which is why my reviewing schedule has been off. Two of the reviews I posted this week were written a month ago and held in reserve. Suffice to say I've spent the week in the car. It's been difficult.

It was a surprise to learn that I'd been handed another Liebster Award, this time from Alex Jowski at Alex Jowski Movie Reviews. It's bigger and badder than last time and much like a Sesame Street episode, is brought to you by the number 11.

Here are the rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the 11 questions the person giving the award has set for you.
3. Create 11 questions for the people you will be giving the award to.
4. Choose 11 people to award and send them a link to your post.
5. Go to their page and tell them.
6. NO TAG BACKS

All You Didn't Know You Wanted to Know about Me.
1. I am phobic of spiders and also extremely claustrophobic in the sense that I tend to panic if I can't move. If I am pinned, I do not do well. This makes certain movies difficult for me.

2. I like cooking and wish I had more time to do it. I can make the favorite meal of my wife and both of my daughters. I can also make a cake from scratch.

3. I don't like the taste of coffee. I used to, but now I don't. I also don't like the taste or consistency of milk and I hate walnuts and pecans.

4. I am the youngest of five. I'm also further away in age from my siblings than they are from each other.

5. When I was a kid, my brother Tom and I played a game called living room floor hockey. When our parents were out, we would make a ball out of tin foil and wrap it with black electrical tape. The rules were that we both had to be on our knees at all times. One would sit in front of the fire place with his baseball mitt while the other tried to slap the tape/tin foil ball against the base of the fireplace. Of all the games we played, this was the one that I could actually compete with him in. This was what we did when our parents went out. The only thing we ever broke playing this was Mom's kitchen timer from winding it too strenuously. We played this for hours at a time.

6. I teach English, but my first teaching job was martial arts and self-defense.

7. I've worn glasses since I was eight. In high school I wore contact lenses, but gave them up. Glasses are easier, and I look weird without them.

8. I am a terrible speller. The bad spelling of my students has improved mine over the last few years, though. Spellcheck is one of my favorite inventions of humankind, right up there with fire and the wheel. It's made my life immeasurably easier.

9. I claim in public to be only 35. Of course, I've been married for more than 20 years, so I'll allow you to draw your own conclusions on that, but I really wasn't married when I was 15. I make this claim because right now, I can still pass for 35 despite being older than that.

10. I think birthdays are pretty stupid things to celebrate. That comes in part from being born on a holiday. It also comes from the fact that my brother Tom's birthday is the day before mine, so I always had to celebrate on his birthday. My fondest wish every year is to make it through the entire day without a single person wishing me a happy birthday. This has never happened, and I know it will not, but I still think about it. When I was 18, my birthday present (at my request) was a chocolate cake without Tom's name on it.

11. I am an animal lover, but I've never been a fan of birds. However, one of my favorite pets ever was a dove my wife brought home from a bird sanctuary. My older daughter named her Angel, but I called her Pidge. I objected at first, but it wasn't long before Pidge was my bird. I used to walk around with her on my shoulder. I still think about Pidge almost every day.

Answering Alex's Questions as Best I Can.

1. What do you enjoy most about blogging?
Comments. It's easy to say that I'd blog without them (and I did for a long time, essentially), but comments mean someone is reading and is moved enough to take the time to say something back, and that's gratifying.

2. What movie do you end up recommending to people more than any other movie?
Generally speaking, the last movie I saw that I really liked. If the person likes horror movies, I always recommend The Devil's Backbone because more people need to see that.

3. What celebrity or artist have you have met who has inspired you the most in your life?
I've met a disturbing number of celebrities, but none have been personally inspiring. Dennis Hopper was by far the coolest, though.

4. What is your favorite "bad" movie?
Soldier with Kurt Russell. I can't explain why, but it makes me ridiculously happy.

5. What is a movie that offends you - a movie you hate for moral reasons.
Any movie in which a person has a dream job but complains about his or her life constantly. Shut the hell up! This is particularly noxious in rom-coms where the woman will have some awesome job but is depressed because she doesn't have a man in her life.

6. What are two of your favorite books that have NEVER been adapted into a movie.
J.G. Ballard's High Rise springs to mind immediately. After I think of that, I think of Ray Bradury's Dandelion Wine.

7. Whose opinion do you trust more in deciding if a movie is good or not? Critics in magazines/newspapers, fellow bloggers, or the general public (like imdb scores, etc.)?
Critics and bloggers, mostly. I try to go into films as cold on opinion as possible, though.

8.. Which game from your childhood do you wish you could play again? (Could be a video game or a playground game like Tag).
Living room floor hockey, as described above.

9. Do you have a nickname? How did you get that name?
I have several. When I was a kid and all the way through high school, I was Beaver. the reason was simple and boring--I was Stever the Beaver. After high school, though, that name died. No one has called me Beave or Beaver for more than 20 years, and I no longer answer to it. I have a family nickname, too, but I won't reveal it because it is literally a family nickname--no one outside of the family knows it.

10. What was the first thing you posted on your blog and why? (Initial "Welcome to my Blog" posts don't count).
Aside from an initial post and a general set-up of how I planned to attack the 1001 list, I posted a list of 25 films I thought should be included on The List and are not. I've added to that every year since in December.

11. What is your favorite beverage?
I drink a lot of tea and a lot of Diet Coke. I don't drink a lot of alcohol any more.

Answer Me These Questions Three (+8)
If I've tagged you, here's what you're answering.

1. At a movie theater, what snacks do you buy? Or do you sneak them in? If money were no object, what would be your movie theater snack of choice?

2. What's the first movie that really scared you?

3. The television show/book/graphic novel/other thing I would really love to see adapted to film is _______________________.

4. If you like horror movies, why do you like them? If not, why not?

5. If you could be any movie character, who would you be, and why?

6. Why did you start blogging? What keeps you going?

7. What movie would you most like to see again for the first time with no prior knowledge?

8. If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?

9. What is the best or most useful class in school you have ever taken?

10. Describe your favorite article of clothing.

11. If there was one household chore I could get away with never doing again, it would be ________________________.

And now, to put some of you under the gun...
If I've linked to you here, you're next, my pretties!

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