Saturday 17 March 2012

The Versatile Blogger Award

So I read on ash-matic's blog that when you receive two pieces of news, one has to be good and one has to be bad and that you must categorize them accordingly. I received two pieces of news this evening, but they were not very difficult to categorize. 

The bad news was that my cute little 6 year old brother, Jack, fell during his skiing holiday yesterday and broke his wrist in two places. However, that turned out to be quite good news for him, since when I called my sister she told me he was quite delirious from the excitement of having a plaster cast! So I guess that news is half and half! 

The lovely news was that I won another award! A great big, shiny thank you to the wonderful armchair squid for nominating me! Please go and visit him right now! (I sneakily took a different 'badge' for the award, he has another, go have a look!)



Here are some instructions:
1. Nominate 15 others for the award and inform them with a comment on each of their blogs.

2. Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award.

3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.

4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.

5. In the same post, include this set of rules.

7 Random Things About Me:

1. I blush really easily. This is quite a large concern of mine right now, since I know that I'm going to have two horribly pink, rosy cheeks as I give my presentation on Monday and as we speak I am silently contemplating how much make-up/paint/paper bags it would take to sufficiently cover my silly cheeks.

2. I love animals but most animals hate me because the moment I see anything furry, I have to pick it up and snuggle it. Our fluffy little kitty, Olga, hides from me whenever I'm home because I frequently bother her and tell her that I will make a scarf out of her someday...

3. I might have mentioned this before, but I am absolutely terrified of wolves. To ease my fear when I arrived here in Norway, I decided to research them a little, since someone once told me that what frightens you is the unknown, so I figured that if I made the unknown known, I wouldn't be frightened any longer. How very wrong I was! I read all about how wolves howl in order to summon the rest of the pack to them and bravely played a couple of sound files. Proud with my efforts, I relaxed into my chair, only to hear a bird loudly chirp outside moments later. I jumped right out of my skin, screamed/squealed/cried and ran for the door. This was it! I'd summoned the wolves with my sound files! It was horrific, to say the very least.

4. I sneeze whenever I go out in the sunshine. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of super power that I just haven't figured out yet.

5. I have invented my own card game. It's called ''Going Out with Nikki" and is a combination of Rummy, Old Maid, Snap, Cheat & other favourites. Rules include having to tell a joke when the joker is played and having to politely apologise to your fellow players if you call 'cheat' and nobody cheated.

6. Speaking of card games, I am really good at Snap. Like really good. It's some kind of not-so-hidden, actually-I-make-it-very-well-known-to-everyone-I-meet talent that I have. I lose at every other game known to mankind so I am very proud of this fact.

7. I never imagined that this blog could possibly get more than 20 followers, let alone more than 50, nor that I would be given two awards and in the process get to ''meet'' so many kind and interesting people! Thank you all so much!

My lucky nominees:
Lisa has a lovely blog, which I linked to earlier today (see below)
How could I not nominate Jeremy, when he has such an interesting blog and when he made a post especially for me yesterday!
Go and look at the beautiful videos Mark posted yesterday!
My good friend Laura turned 22 on Tuesday, so this can be my gift to her :) 
Sabrina always writes such interesting things :)
Amber has a dinosaur cursor. Enough said. 
I love the way Dana writes 100 word posts each day.
Anita has such a pretty blog. Go and have a look at all of the beautiful pictures she posted today! 
I have just discovered Dahye's blog but she definitely deserves an award for it!
Please go and congratulate Amy, it was her blogiversary yesterday!
Jenn's blog makes me smile :) 
Melee has a great music blog. 
I'm new to Shawnee's blog but she posts some lovely photos!
Bel just signed up for the A - Z challenge, so go and give her some support!
And last but not least, my dear friend Debra really deserves to win all kinds of awards for her lovely blog!


inspire nordic

15 comments:

  1. OMG! Thankyou so much! :D

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    1. You're very welcome! It wasn't just about the dinosaur cursor either, I really like your blog :)

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  2. Oh, Nikki... too kind by half, especially as my blog is most likely the most unlikely blog you would follow! ;)

    If, just if, you're at all interested in reader fantasy fiction, maybe you should give my story, 'A Matter of the Heart' a whirl? It's not fantastic by any means, but hopefully it entertains enough for folks to overlook my mistakes.

    Sorry to hear about your little brother - with any luck he'll have forgotten about his accident in a couple of days and be telling tall tales about how he did it - I know that's what I'd be doing :)

    Not sure if these will help, but here are a couple of tips I used to use when I was doing my graphic design degree and would have to present work to class:

    1) Use visuals, slides, flip charts - anything to draw attention away from you and focus it elsewhere. It also allows you to focus your attention on said 'thing', and takes your mind off worrying about the crowd - and it makes you look good by being able to chat away confidently.

    2) Pick several friends in the crowd to look at now and then whilst presenting. This gives the illusion of talking to the audience, hopefully you get a moral boosting smile or thumbs up from said friend/s, and again, your focus of attention becomes one of a casual chat between you and your friends.

    3) Take your time. Breathe. Remember that it is only a tiny slice of time out of your life, and there could be far worse things happening than being there.

    4) Have index cards for prompts, so you follow a set order of topic presentation, but not too many, just enough to keep your mind fresh and free of cluttered thoughts.

    5) Raise points about your presentation that the crowd can relate to, or even make them think. Pose a question and give your answer to it as part of your talk - this will also get folks thinking (hopefully).

    6) Last of all, ENJOY IT! Seriously. Use it as a chance to show folks how good you are at your chosen subject. Show them you know your stuff, but keep it concise, simple and DON'T WAFFLE. And please, please, please, avoid 'um', 'ahh' as gap fillers - this is where index cards save your butt!

    Hope it goes well, and thank you for the nomination :)

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  3. Oh you sweet, sweet GAL YOU!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I must take this and mention it in either my next post or one after that. I just came from sharing things about me, and I don't want to bore anyone with another report on myself!!! But I thank you kindly, this is very special to me. I will most DEFINITELY participate, but I will wait about another post. OK?

    I DO HOPE YOU LITTLE BROTHER IS OK!!!!!!! Ooooh the risks but also normalities of childhood! BIG HUGS AND MERCI!!! TAK!!!! Anita

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  4. Nikki,

    On my blog look at the left hand side and above 'Gathered round the hearth' you will see a section entitled, 'Written by yours truly' - ther are two links to my stories: one is a short two part, and the other is the ongoing one. I hope you enjoy them. It'll be nice to get some feedback, good or bad, it's the only waynI'll get better at writing :)

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    1. Great :D I will get this presentation out of the way tomorrow (sucessfully, thanks to you!) and then I'm travelling back to England tomorrow afternoon so I will have plenty of time to read them during my journey :) I'll let you know what I think!

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  5. I love the little facts about you! Your self-titled card game sounds fun O_O hehe! Ohhh man I'm with you on the blushing thing :( anything will make me blush red like a beet! Especially if i get embarassed O_o (it also doesnt help that when i'm slightly under pressure and embarrassed i go red, my brain turns to mush and i stumble over my words so i end up just sounding plain drunk >_< hah)

    Your blog is dreamy! xxxxx

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  6. Thank you Nikki! Who says brown nosing doesn't work. :)

    I tend to blush easily also especially if I am talking to an outgoing person. I don't know why they just tend to say just the right thing to trigger this reaction.

    That card game sounds fun!

    Sorry to hear about your brother. . . Or not if he is that excited about it.

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    1. Haha you're welcome :)

      I have the same problem. It's so uncomfortable!

      I'm pretty sure he loves that it has happened. I remember when I was 10 my best friend broke her leg, had a plaster cast and crutches and I was so amazingly jealous! Kids love that kind of thing, I think :)

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  7. Ohhh, sweet Nikki!
    Thank you for the nomination!!! I am so honoured to have been nominated from you!

    I will make a post for tomorrow :)

    Have a great Sunday! Today we have an amazing sun in London!

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  8. Thank you sweet Nikki. You are just beautiful. Anita

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  9. Thank you very much! A great birthday present :)

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  10. Thank you so much Nikki, what a very nice thing to do. I'm working on my A-Z posts but I will see what I can do about posting the stipulations og the award
    dreamweaver

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  11. Aww, Nikki! Thank you so much for the award! You're a darling. xx I will do this as soon as possible. :)

    Hehe, I love #2. I'm an animal-freak myself. And #4 - that's so random! But rather hilarious. Makes me wonder what causes it...

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  12. Congratulations on the award, and thanks for passing it on to me! :)

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