De Liebster Award

My little bro, Justin nominated me for the De Liebster award. (See his nomination here.)  It's not really an award, but it's one of those blogging games where you answer questions posed by the other person.  Apparently, it means "dearest" in German.  That is because I am dear to the Germans.  (Even though, I generally prefer the Austrian way of doing things over the German way.)

Here are the basic rules to the game.

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions the nominator asked, and create 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post. Go to their page and tell them.
4. No tag-backs.

(But rules are made to be broken, right?)

Eleven Things About Myself
1.  I like to read, a lot.  I have always loved science fiction, but over the last few years I've tried to branch out into a number of different genres.

2.  I love bacon with all of my heart and soul.

3.  I have an amazing wife.  I love her even more than bacon.

4.  I once camped out for 5 days to get tickets for Star Wars Episode 1.  That was during my senior year of high school.  I skipped school except for one day that I had a test.  I had an alarm clock in my tent so that I could wake up on time.

5.  I am a Mormon.  I know it.  I live it.  I love it.

6.  I served as a missionary for my church for 2 years.  Star Wars Episode 2 came out while I was on my mission.  When all the people were lined up and camping out, I wanted to go contact them.  My companion was much too frightened.  He said he didn't want to talk to the Star Wars crazies.  I told him I had done that before my mission.  His response:  "I know, that's my point."  Thanks for the love.

7.  My amazon wish list is always up to date.  I am always accepting presents.

8.  I love the mountains.  I love the cool air, and I love to be close to nature.

9.  When I was little, I was apparently too loud.  My Dad told me to stop yelling.  However, he assured me that I could yell as much as I want when I'm in the mountains.  My grandparents live in a little town nestled in the canyon.  The next time we were at their house, it seemed to me we were in the mountains.  But I asked my grandma, "Are we in the mountains?"  I just needed to make sure.  However, my grandma was a bit perplexed when my volume suddenly went way up.  I'm not sure if she was in full support of my Dad's opinion on the issue.

10.  I love the ocean.  I love how it teams with life.  I love how I can float, relax, have fun, snorkel, or swim.  It's hard to decide whether I like mountains or ocean better.

11.  I'm obsessed with numbers.  I spend most of sacrament meeting manipulating the hymn numbers in my head.  I have to figure out what numbers they are divisible by, what I would need to add or subtract to make them into palindromes and other strange manipulations.  Also, it's important that my food be microwaved at an amount of time that is divisible by 3.

1. Favorite mystical/mythical animal?
I'm gonna have to go with Cthulhu.  He is a being dreamed up by H.P. Lovecraft.  His face is like an octopus, with giant leathery wings.  He calls out to unsuspecting victims who are eventually driven mad.

Plus, he's the cutest toy I own.  (My wife gets annoyed that I always take him on vacation with us.  Who would want to be without Cthulhu?)

P.S. I don't know if Cthulhu counts as mythical.  If not, I'll go with dragons.  (Clearly)

2. Favorite place
Hawaii. More specifically, the north shore of Oahu.  More specifically, Shark's Cove. (But Sunset Beach is a close second.)

3. Most random childhood memory
I just picked the first one I though of.

 When my sister Jen was going into 4th grade, she had heard terrible things about her new teacher, Mrs. Bennett. Naturally, the first thing she realized was that nothing could be worse than having to attend fourth grade with such a terrifying teacher.

The plan? We decided to break her leg. She employed me to jump up and down on her leg over and over. Unfortunately (or fortunately, in hind sight) I was not mighty in stature like I am today, and did not successfully break her leg. She had to face the great terror that is Mrs. Bennett, and she became her favorite teacher.

4. What is something about yourself that you're proud of?
I was pretty proud of myself when I was published in the Ensign. (The professional publication of my church)

5. What is something awesome about yourself that I may not know?
I wrote the software for the LDS church that parses through all the talks in the Ensign that are posted online.  This software detects scripture references in the talk and turns them into links to that scripture.  So, every time you click on a link to a scripture on lds.org, that is me.  You're welcome.

6. Favorite number.
42. That was obvious. Although I'm also partial to palindromes and numbers divisible by 9.

7. What are your feelings on the matter of cheese?
Do you really have to ask?  When I was in Paris, I couldn't decipher the menus at all.  But it didn't matter, I just looked for anything that had "fromage" (cheese in French) and I knew it would be good.

8. Favorite book or series, if not possible favorite genre.
My favorite novel is Dune by Frank Herbert.  Although, the rest of the series is not nearly as good as the first book.

9. A quote you love?
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

It has been attributed to Nelson Mandela, it has also been attributed to Marianne Williamson.  I don't know who the true source is, but it's an excellent quote.

10. Someone you look up to in history
I would probably say George Washington.  It's amazing how there were so many instances in his life where he should have died, but somehow he survived.  I firmly believe he was protected by God, to help found the United States.  In fact, an Indian chief who had fought against him in the French and Indian war, later told him, "a power mightier far than we shielded you. Seeing you were under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit, we immediately ceased to fire at you. "

Even more amazing is that the people loved him so much, he could have been King.  But he wanted true freedom much more than power.

11. Someone you admire in present day?
I'm not trying to make this post political, but the person that first came to mind was Mitt Romney.  I've been studying his life as I've been trying to decided how to vote.  Regardless of how you feel about his politics, he has lead an amazing life.

He had an employee whose daughter had gone to New York and disappeared.  Mitt Romney flew everyone in that company to New York, at his own expense, to help find this girl.  He also closed down several of his other companies in the New York area to put together a team of people.  They found the girl in a basement with a drug overdose.  They were able to save her life, but she would have died if they had waited any longer.

Another time he went into a VA hospital.  He asked the administrator what their greatest need was.  The administrator said that they just couldn't afford milk.  For the next several years, they received milk for free.  Paid for by an anonymous donor.  Eventually the milkman fessed up that it was Mitt Romney.

There are a number of other stories about his generosity and service of others.  Learning about him has made me want to be a better person.


What about the other rules of the game?  Tagging others and giving them questions?
I don't want to tag anyone.  Justin has already nominated everyone in my family who writes regularly.  But if any of you dear readers would like to take the ball and run with it, I officialy nominate you for the De Liebster Award.  And for my questions, I would like to officially reuse Justin's questions that I just answered.  They were good ones, don't you think?  (Like I said, rules are made to be broken.)