I had fallen a bit behind in reading the blogs my fellow bloggers posted in the last week, too busy with all kinds of real life things. But with it being Liberation Day here in the Netherlands today (70 years ago my country was freed in WW II) I sat back this morning for some nice reading. Much to my surprise I found out that I’m nominated for the Liebster Award! To be honest, I didn’t know what it was, but that was quickly remedied: Liebster is a German word for ‘loveliest’, and it’s tag through which bloggers nominate other users whose work and writing they like. It is a way to spread the word about great blogs and show appreciation for the posts made by others. Always great to be apprecitated! So thank you, Matt of Nintendobound. Matt has a great love for Nintendo, and a hobby of writing about my gaming experiences and thoughts: you’ll find the best in-depth reviews on his blog! Getting the Liebster award means that I first have to answer the 11 questions Matt presented me with, then I have to share 11 random fun facts about myself, and lastly I get to nominate other blogs for this award. So, here goes:
1- What was the best trip you have ever taken?
That’s difficult to answer, as I love going on a holiday. And every destination has something special for me. Despite of having seen a lot of the US, I think I’ll choose Orlando, Florida. It’s such a part of my daughter growing up, we’ve had such good times there, it’s all about memories made!
2- What are your three favorite movies? Easy, if you’ve followed my blogs it won’t come as a surprise. My favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings trilogie, the Hobbit trilogie and Star Trek IV the Voyage Home, featuring the original crew.
3- What game does everyone seem to like but you do not? I know most of you are lyric about Super Smash Bros for the WiiU or the 3DS, but I really don’t see the fun of these games.
4- What game do you like but everyone else seems to hate? Well, I thought Harvest Moon the Lost Valley (not a part of the original series of Harvest Moon, but a new game entirely made by Natsume) deserved a chance. Not for it’s farming and interacting with other game characters, but for the great possibilities in landscaping. But it seems I’m one of the few with that opinion!
5- What characters should be added to the next Super Smash Bros. installment? Funny, this questions coupled with question number three. You’ll understand that I don’t want to add a single character…
6- What long-gone gaming franchise needs to be resurrected?
I’m a big fan of Chibi Robo, who is a Nintendo IP but hardly gets attention in the West. The first game was released way back then on the GameCube, but after that other then Chibi Robo Park Patrol for the DS, Chibi hardly gets any attention in the West. We did get the Photo Finder eShop game, but that was a poor representation of what a Chibi Robo game can be.
7- What long-standing gaming franchise needs to go? I’ve let this question open till the last moment. I cannot think of a single franchise that needs to go. And that’s because I always feel that if someone like I game while I don’t, i can respect that choice too.
8- What job you would never take? I would never go for a job that involves sales, I’m not one to step up to a person and press them into buying something from me.
9- What would be your reaction if extraterrestrial beings made contact with us? My first thought would be that the Gene Roddenberry (the man behind Star Trek) was right after all!
10- What is your favorite videogame song? A difficult one for me, as I tend to play my games with the sound off! But I would say the opening tune for Animal Crossing Wild World. Such good memories!
11- Will you forbid your children to play videogames whose ratings are not appropriate for their age? I would watch and play a bit of the game myself first, and then I’d decide if it’s right for my child. Not all children are alike in what they can or can’t handle. For instance, my daughter loved the Lord of the Rings movies, while a scene in Winny the Pooh with the skull-rock gave her nightmares!
Now for the 11 fun facts about myself, this is going to be a long, long blog-post, but bear with me.
1. I’m from the Netherlands, a country that’s often referred to as Holland. But only two of its twelve provinces are called Holland (North and South) so for the other ten provinces it’s quite annoying to be so casually dismissed. That’s why I can’t resist pointing this out to people from abroad!
2. My work couldn’t be more different from my gaming hobby: I work as a financial controller at a large bank. And controllers aren’t normally known for their love of fantasy like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings!
3. I don’t like Mario. Never have, never will. I have a soft spot for Luigi however!
4. I love going to the Disney parks! We have been to Orlando and Disney World lots of times, even before we had our daughter. There nothing like immersing yourself in the world of Disney and being totally carefree for a day.
5. Though I love doing it in games like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory, I actually hate cooking in real life. Fortunately for me, my husband likes to cook and is quite good at it!
6. I hardly watch any television, I’m too busy blogging and gaming. But when I do watch, I love watching Doctor Who, Sherlock and the Big Bang Theory
7. I have a cup that has a text on it saying: “please Lord, if you won’t make me skinny, please make my friends fat”. Needless to say I wage an everlasting battle with my weight.
8. Although I blog and have made good friends through gaming and the internet, I don’t like going to social functions in real life. I’m more of a one on one person, small gatherings are my cup of tea.
9. I love animals, and when I was younger I had several, like a tame carrier pidgeon, an agapornis and a chinchilla. Now I only have my yorkie, called Scotty.
10. I don’t like sports, don’t like watching them and I don’t like exercising, though I do ride my bike to work.
11. I’m not good at Zelda games, the logic somehow always eludes me. Playing Ocarina of Time I was constantly stumped about what to do next, forgetting to use my Ocarina more then once.
So there you have it, more then you always wanted to know about me! Now for my own nominations. It’s difficult to choose, as I’ve found so many gifted writers on the internet. Most of them are on Wordpress and most have less then 100 followers (at least, as far as I can see). If I haven’t named your blog, don’t feel disappointed, there just are so many great blogs out there!
Simone van Geloven (in Dutch, she studies international event, music and entertainment and I’m her proud aunt)
And now for the questions I have for them:
1. Can you tell something typical about the country you live in?
2. Why did you take up blogging?
3. Do you set yourself a goal of number of blogs per week or month?
4. Where do you get your inspiration to write?
5. Do you own more then one gaming device, and which ones?
6. What are your favorite kind of games?
7. What are your three favorite movies?
8. What is your go-to music when you feel sad?
9. Does your work or study match your blogging topics?
10. If you have a partner, is he or she into gaming?
11. What kind of pet do you have?
I look forward to seeing your answers!
Congrats on the nomination, that’s exciting!
Thank you!
Awesome stuff! Too bad you have no love for Smash Bros.
I can see why your daughter would have nightmares with that skull-rock scene from Winnie the Pooh. That thing is terrifying!
I did not know about the whole Holland/Netherlands thing. Here in Brazil the country is almost universally called “Holanda”, we should fix that.
And I am glad to see you love Disney as well. WDW is an amazing place.
WDW is indeed a magical place! We have often wondered how all the foreign young people cam to work there, so now I know! Tell me more about the exchange program, it might be just the thing for my daughter!
It is a great program.
It is usually destined to those who are in college, but I think there are a few options to the ones that are already graduated.
You get to stay in one of four Disney-owned condos, and share an apartment with people from all over the world. The apartments are pretty good and come furnished and packed with all appliances that are needed for basic survival.
The apartments, which are gender-specific, can house between four and eight people, according to the name of bedrooms they posses, with two people sharing the same bedroom .
Disney provides the transportation to the parks and to the mall/supermarket for free with buses that collect/drop people on all condos before heading to their destination, so going to work or enjoying a day off at one of the parks is pretty simple.
Before going there, students are assigned to one of the possible roles – which include operations (working on rides), merchandise (working on stores), character performer, custodial (working on the park’s cleaning team), quick service (working on a fast-food restaurant) and others.
As benefits, it is possible to enter the parks for free with the use of an ID, and we are also given discounts on stores and on some restaurants! I am not sure what is the salary nowadays, but it is probably floating at around 8 dollars per hour.
We get a weekly paycheck from which a weekly rent that pays for the apartment we stay in is discounted. If one works the minimum hours they tend to give (30 hours per week with two off days) the weekly pay will be of about 180 – 200 bucks… it is plenty to make do if one does not splurge on anything.
Oh, by the way… here is the website for the programs:
http://ip.disneycareers.com/en/default/
Thanks Matt, I’ll forward it to her. Sounds like a great time there, while even earning some money!
This was such a fun read, Yvonne! I got to learn all sorts of things I didn’t know about you before, which is great ^^ Also, thank you for nominating me and my blog! I’ll definitely write up a similar post for my site and answer your questions in it. A question for you, though: am I also supposed to wrap up my post with 11 interesting things about myself, or do I just answer your questions?
You’re very welcome!
Well, to be honest I had to google too what I was supposed to do. But yes, 11 fun facts about yourself are required too. Plus then you nominate others, adding 11 questions to them. So you can see I generated quite a bit of work for you, lol.
congratulations on your well-earned liebster! i quite enjoyed reading your responses.
and thank you for the nomination! i just posted my responses and whew! it’s quite the lengthy post. grab a pillow or something if you want to read it. i expect i will put someone to sleep at some point. 🙂
Whew, it took a while, but I got there! http://akirstymoment.com/2015/05/09/my-liebster-award/ 🙂 Thanks for the nomination!
You’re welcome, you deserve it! I’ll read it tonight, looking forward to it!
What an entertaining read! It’s great to learn such anecdotes about fellow gaming bloggers, especially regarding things that are usually not discussed in posts. 😀
Also, I just realized you nominated me! Thanks a lot. I will answer your questions in the next days! 🙂
Glad you liked it! I had out a message about nominating you in your blog comments, but you must have missed it. Have fun making the blogpost!
Really? Usually, Blogspot lets me know about new comments, but I didn’t see anything from you lately… Oh well, maybe there was a mishap with the system.
I checked the other blogs you listed, and they are great! This Liebster award is quite a neat way to expand one’s reading horizons. 🙂