O hi, Asia!

I see the PrayerPunk nominated me for a Liebster Award. Thanks, Jareth! (Even though that’s not your real name…)

Liebster’s a fun little “tag-you’re-it” blogger chain letter where recipients answer and ask a few questions, then pass along some of their favorite blogs. It’s a little time-consuming, but hey. I’ve got some time.

Liebster is meant to promote fresh, fab blogs with fewer than 200 followers. If they have time/inclination, nominees are asked to:

• post eleven facts about themselves.
• answer the eleven questions they’ve been asked.
• nominate eleven other blogs and ask them eleven questions of their own.
• display one of the many Liebster award badges (I grabbed the 8 above off Google.)
• notify your nominees/recipients.

Eleven Facts About Me

1. I am Susan Hurley. There are hundreds of us.

2. I don’t enjoy the self-involved nature of this list; I wish it were “Two or Three Facts About Me”.

3. At the moment, I’m technically homeless and unemployed. Thankfully, it’s by choice.

4. I lived in Russia for a year in a town that’s closer to California than to Moscow. (5 time zones from Cali. 7 time zones from Moscow.)

5. I am equal parts dog and cat person.

6. I was a ski instructor for a season at Crested Butte, CO. Sometimes we called it Crusty Butt.

7. My favorite bands are Metallica and Radiohead for the same reasons: longevity and prolificness. Each album is so different from the next, yet still sounds like them.

8. I enjoy discussing religion and politics, but have no affiliation to either.

9. I won’t talk while someone’s looking at their smartphone. If they say, “Go ahead, I’m listening.” I reply, “That’s ok. I’ll wait.”

10. I’ll eat anything. And by “anything” I mean “anything that’s normal to eat in the US.”

11. I think I’m moving to Shanghai in April.

My Eleven Nominees for the Liebster Award

Answers to 11 Questions from Prayer Punk

1.  Of any author, Malcolm Gladwell has influenced my thinking the most.

2.  The band/artist I like, but don’t like to admit to is: Lady Gaga. (“Glamophonic, electronic, d-d-disco baby • I like you a lot, lot, all we want is hot, hot…”)

3.  Favorite meal is coffee and a fat breakfast taco from Wheatsville, Taco Shack or Torchys in Austin, TX.

4. Being concerned with overpopulation, if I could change one thing about the world I would magically make it biologically impossible for human females to have more than 3-4 children. (Similar to how most people can’t have more than 32 teeth…)

5. I do not know anyone who claims to be abducted by aliens.

6.  Zombies over robots. (But only because I play Plants versus Zombies and watch Walking Dead. Robot games and shows: 0.)

7.  I admire friends of mine who’ve really accomplished something. Whether professionally, personally or otherwise, among many others I admire: Erica Aaron, Leann Marshall, Sara Rose, Lea Platz and Angela Casarez. You guys did it! (Whatever “it” may be…)

8. It may sound lame, but if I could pick any time or place in history to live, I’d continue to live here/now, in the one I was assigned.

9.  Favorite movie is Fight Club.

10.  A cat best represents my personality.

11.  I don’t like how much the media and misinformation contributes to our opinions of faraway places. My aim in blogging is to give fair, informative accounts of what countries like Vietnam and Hong Kong are really like. (And yes, I consider Hong Kong to be its own country.)

11 Questions for My Nominees

1.  What was your immediate reaction after learning that you’ve won this award?

2.  If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you pick?

3. What’s been your #1 worry lately?

4. Under what circumstances would you get plastic surgery and on what body part?

5. What’s something that many people are interested in, that you have zero interest in?

6. Don’t you think that ELEVEN questions are a bit much?!

7. What was the last thing you ate?

8. What’s the least amount of money you’d need to support yourself every month?

9. You suddenly have $1,000 to spend on ONE thing in the next 6 hours. What do you buy? (No investments!)

10. When did you start blogging and why?

11. What words or phrases do you find especially annoying?