Q&A time!

The last few days have been very movie-filled for me. Thursday night I caught a Nolan Batman trilogy showing at our local Cinemark theaters. 6:15pm, Batman Begins; 9pm, The Dark Knight (review written, will be posted eventually, hint: I love it); 12:01am, The Dark Knight Rises. Seeing all three in theaters, back to back to back, was pretty damn awesome and intensely immersive.

This was followed on Friday by seeing Jaws on the big screen for the first time ever. Rockin'!

Long story short, I come back to my online world to find that Steve over at 1001plus thought enough of me to give me a Liebster award, a little chain letter amongst movie bloggers.

Thanks, Steve!!! I really appreciate it, especially given that my little corner of the blogverse is still oh so young. I am greatly heartened to know that even a few people are reading what I'm writing.

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
OK, just like TSorensen, I don't know enough other bloggers who weren't already tagged to tag 11 new people. I do have one, though, but that's about it. Not 11.

Eleven Useless Pieces of Information About Siobhan

1. My name is Gaelic. It's pronounced Shi-vawn. It means "grace of god." Stop saying it wrong in your head.
2. My mother considers me to be a very lucky person. I don't disagree with that. Things tend to work out for me. Small example: Four days after I finished student teaching, I was hired for a full-time teaching position, and a cherry of a job to boot.
3. I like really intelligent films, but my taste in television shows is decidedly more low-brow. My favorite guilty pleasure TV show is Girls Next Door. Low-brow, indeed.
4. During the school year, I eat a turkey sandwich without cheese, a banana, an apple, a yogurt, and a Fiber One bar every day for lunch. And I never get tired of it. I am definitely a creature of habit.
5. The school district I teach in puts on a play each year that staff are encouraged to participate in. The first year I was in it, I played a drunk. The second year I was in it, my role was to beat the living crap out of a former student on stage.
6. I worked towards a PhD in Biochemistry for five years doing lab research. I studied biochemistry for a total of ten years. I can tell you in excruciating detail about how DNA is organized in the nucleus of a cell.
7. I love the Lego video games. Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Batman... I've played 'em all. I can't wait for Lego Lord of the Rings this year.
8. Juan Diego Florez is my favorite opera singer ever, and I've seen him live three times, even flying across the country to see him. He is how and why I got into opera. LOVE YOU, JDF!!!
9. My favorite Olympic sport to watch is curling. It's fascinating. I want to learn how to curl.
10. Despite the fact that I am a ball of energy in front of students in the classroom, I'm actually rather introverted and definitely shy when I first meet you. I hate holiday/retirement/work parties. I never know what to say or who to talk to. Get me in front of my students, however, and you can't shut me up.
11. I know all the words to "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man and will recite them at will as a party trick.

Steve's Questions, My Answers
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?
I rarely buy any snacks at a regular movie theater. I'm usually a "sneak it in" type of gal; granola bars, bananas, definitely a bottle of water. I have sneaked in so many types of food to movie theaters. Once, I snuck in Cold Stone Creamery. Another time, Chinese takeout. The best, though, was the time that I and a friend snuck in six large subs, six drinks, two bags of chips, and a box of cookies to the all-day Lord of the Rings "Trilogy Tuesday." No one even batted an eye at us.

At The Dryden, the classic film theater I frequent most regularly, they sell gelato. I'll usually buy some.

2. What's the first movie that really scared you?
Star Wars, the trash compactor scene. I mean, I really love Star Wars, but when I was six, that scene scared the crap out of me.

3. The television show/book/graphic novel/other thing I would really love to see adapted to film is _______________________.
I think that P.G. Wodehouse is sadly underadapted for the big screen. Problem is, how do you match the perfection that are his novels? It would take a very clever screenwriter to do it well, but I'd totally go check it out. The Jeeves & Wooster BBC series with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry is AWESOME.

4. If you like horror movies, why do you like them? If not, why not?
I don't really know where I land on this. I like *some* horror movies, but I'm hardly an aficionado. I am not terrifically tolerant of violence in films, so most horror movies squick me out from that angle. I'm more nervous about how bloody it will be rather than about how scary it will be.

5. If you could be any movie character, who would you be, and why?
Giving this a whopping thirty seconds of thought, I'm going with Ziva David from NCIS. Not a movie character, but it's what I'm going with. She so damn badass. I want to be that badass.

6. Why did you start blogging? What keeps you going?
I started blogging for a variety of reasons. No one in my "real life" had seen all these tremendous movies that I was watching, so I branched out to the internet to find others who had also seen it. But I've also always loved the idea of being a film critic, so I wanted to write my own reviews. It's a great exercise for me: trying to articulate why I loved one film or why I hated another, or describing just what it is that made Film X so mediocre.

In terms of "keeping me going," to echo Steve, comments are love. Watching my pageviews go up is big for me. It means someone, somewhere is reading it. Even if it's just one person, that's all I need.

7. What movie would you most like to see again for the first time with no prior knowledge?
Lord of the Rings. It's so epic and awesome, and I'd love to see it with fresh eyes.

8. If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
Half a league
Half a league
Half a league onwards
With a hey-nonny-nonny
And a hot cha-cha.

9. What is the best or most useful class in school you have ever taken?
Being a teacher, this is a doozy of a question. I've taken a lot of classes. I *wish* I could take a film class, but despite the fact that I'm constantly checking around, I've yet to find one offered locally that fits in my schedule.

"Most useful" would probably be any education class where I had to create a unit plan. It was helpful to do an entire unit plan before being thrown off the deep end into teaching.

"Best class" would have to be a summer program I did in high school. You take one class, every day, for most of the day, six days a week for five weeks. They offered classes like "Japanese," "Ecology," "Ancient Greece," etc. The class that I took was "Shakespeare for Production." We put on two plays in five weeks: A Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear. It was the most amazing five weeks of my life.

10. Describe your favorite article of clothing.
I have this really awesome purple shimmery dress that I love. It's v-neck, sleeveless, and hits just above the knee. The best part about it? It has pockets. It's such a small touch, but I LOVE that it has pockets. I wear it to work, I wear it to parties, I wear it if I go out with my husband, I look hella good in it, it's machine-washable - it's a win-win-win garment!

11. If there was one household chore I could get away with never doing again, it would be ________________________.
I hate gardening and weeding and landscaping in any way, shape, or form. I hate it with a passion. So I pick that.

OK, so time to pass this on to the one blogger I know who wasn't already tagged:

Life vs. Film, you're up!

Your Questions: I am stealing most of Steve's questions because I am too lazy to write my own plus he came up with good questions. Thanks, Steve!
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. What is your favorite sport to play? To watch?

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

10. Describe your favorite article of clothing.

11. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what are the first five things you would buy with your newfound riches?