500 Followers Q and A Part 2: The Answers.

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who asked me questions during the first part of the post, which for those who haven’t seen it a link can be found here. There is an eclectic mix of some normal questions and thanks to certain bloggers some weird questions to! Now, surprisingly Jillian over at rantandRaveaboutBooks isn’t the main culprit for weirdness and vulgarity that award goes to Anne at Inked Brownies! Gggrrr to her questions!

Now, as always no offence is meant and it’s all in good fun peeps so remember that. 🙂

OK, onwards to the questions and the answers. I’m going to try to answer the questions in the order that they were asked from the first part of the post however, occasionally mistakes happen so the order may slightly vary if I find that I missed anything when I check the post before posting it.

I will start with the first question that I was asked in that post that honour goes to ZeeZee – thanks for being the first. 🙂

1 – ZeZee from Zeezeewithbooks asked: What are your tattoos of?

Well, I have quite a few! So, here goes: A classic red Autobot symbol, a classic purple Decepticon symbol, A tribal dragon, a Celtic cross, Chinese writing, Song lyrics from a Evergrey song (Words mean Nothing), A quote, Mum, Dad, Punisher skull, another Autobot symbol in black, two nautical stars, another dragon, the Cold spider (there a band), a tribal cross, a faith ambigram, my dog’s name (she had to be put down in February and she was a huge part of my life so I honoured her memory) and lots and lots of various red and black tribal designs some small and some larger. Some of my tattoos can be seen in the picture below.

2 – Jillian from RantandRaveaboutBooks asked me 5 questions, cos of course, she took liberties!

A – If you could assemble a superhero like team (i.e. The Avengers) using either book or comic book characters, who would be on your team and why?

OK, here goes and it’s more Suicide Squad than Avengers. And, for any fantasy fans who read this, you will all go, well, yes, that group kicks ass and for any other people, it’s true this group is epic and awesome!

• Falcio Val Mond (The Greatcoats Series by Sebastien de Castell) – he always has a plan and also somehow manages to get out of all the scrapes and fights he finds himself in.
• Tyrion lannister (The Game of Thrones series by G.R.R Martin) – he maybe a dwarf but he’s a clever little bastard and he also has an amazing wit for a little guy.
• Jorg Ancrath (The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence) – every group needs a resident psychopath who lacks in morals.
• Logen Ninefingers (The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie) – remember how I just wrote that every group needs a psychopath, well, what’s better than one loony, yes, you got it, two! Logen is older and more mature than Jorg and not always crazy only when he gets angry and ‘the bloody nine’ takes over. But what a team these two would make, carnage and mayhem for all!
• Fiddler (Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson) – he’s a sapper, demolitions, he blows things up and every team needs someone who can make things go boom!
• Croaker (The Black Company by Glenn Cook) – he’d have two roles just like in the books, he wouldbe the teams physician and annalist, keeping the boo boo’s and ouchies at bay so they don’t hurt and chronicling are dark deeds and exploits as we attempt to takeover the world.
• Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski) – well, you need a sorceress in the group so it may aswell be Yennefer as from the Witcher games she’s easy to look at and can double as the groups eye candy!
• Storm (The Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne) – every group needs an animal companion and I’m choosing Storm, loyal and fierce with big sharp teeth!

B – If you had to choose one video game to play for the rest of your life, old or new, which one would it be? 

Hhmmm, a tricky question! After some thought I’m going with Red Dead Redemption. I love this game, amazing gameplay and a great story in a western setting, I’ve spent hours in this game and could easily play it over and over again!

C – Who’s the coolest blogger you know?

Well, unfortunately this pains me so much as I’m going to get nothing but grief from it but obviously the coolest blogger I know is myself! Hey – if I can’t praise myself what hope is there! 🙂

No, “shudders and shivers” as I start typing, it’s in-fact the person who asked the question Jillian herself, she’s fun and always up for banter on Twitter – seriously people you should follow us both, we generally wage war on each other all the time and it’s epic! But also her blog is really good, be it ranting or raving, her reviews are always well thought out and decent to read. And, her discussion posts are great to. I guess she’s just a really cool and fun blogger.

For those of you unaware of are Twitter battles, Jillian at RantandRaveaboutBooks, Anne at InkedBrownies and Donna at Chocolatenwafflesblog generally berate me (in fairness Donna not so much, she’s a fine lady compared to the other two filthy smutresses) but the trio have been christened The Potty Pals as you can see below:

D – If you could pick any band to write and record the story of your life, who would you choose and why?

Flaw, one of my favourite bands. I prefer their more mellow songs to the louder stuff they perform but that’s my choice for the answer. Emotional and heartfelt lyrics and a singer in Chris Volz who bleeds emotion in his lyrics and has a unique and emotional voice.

Check out My Letter by Flaw !!HERE!! for an emotional and poignant  song.

E – Speaking of tattoos, are you thinking of getting another any time soon? 

Short answer, No, it’s not something that I have thought of recently but in the future who knows! And, I have always liked the idea of getting “not all those who wander are lost” tattooed.

3 – Lynn from lynns-books asked: which actor would play you in a film of your life story?

Hhhmm, well, I should say Channing Tatum and make all the female bloggers out there swoon, thinking “oh my, what a handsome devil he must be, be still my beating heart”. Alas, that wouldn’t fit with who I am at all and the answer is Jack Black. funny, goofy, pretty cool, just an average normal guy and kinda cool.

4 – Christina at cphilippou123 asked: 

A – What’s the geekiest thing you’ve ever done?

Well, thinking about it, I haven’t ever really partaken in much geeky stuff so I would say and apologies as it’s related to the tattoo question asked by Zezee but the geekiest thing I’ve ever done is get the Autobot and Decepticon symbols from Transformers tattooed on me. It’s an 1980’s cartoon – surely that is classed as geeky? 🙂

B – What’s the best book gift you’ve ever received?

The best book gift I’ve ever received. I would have to say, signed copies of When the Heavens Fall and Dragon Hunters both by Marc Turner and both are awesome books. I entered a contest that I had seen on Twitter about one of the characters in When The Heavens Fall, there wasn’t many entrants and I was lucky enough to win a copy (I’d already read the book on the Kindle) but decided to give it a go. I tweet quite a lot about the books I’m reading and this was before I had a blog (February time) around Dragon Hunters release date, I follow Marc on Twitter and he follows me and as I had been praising WTHF, he messaged me saying that he would see about getting me a copy of Dragon Hunters to review, nothing happened (though as I now have a somewhat successful blog and have been lucky enough to be added to Titan’s mailing list – Marc’s UK publisher, fingers crossed for a review copy of his next book Red Tide due out in September, hint hint Titan!).

And, when he emailed me about the contest, he asked about the book, I told him, no Titan hadn’t been in touch but I’d got it on preorder from Amazon (I live in a crappy town with no decent book store, especially not for fantasy, my favoured genre is shunted into a small corner) and not to worry as I was really looking forward to it. When the book I had won WTHF arrived in the post, imagine my surprise when Marc had also included a copy of Dragon Hunters and signed both books to. That was a really nice thing for someone to do and he comes across as a great guy on Twitter.

Up next are Anne at InkedBrownies questions, be forewarned, this is going to get weird and surreal. I have myself to blame as much as Anne as well, I’m dumb and I responded with funny comments!

5 – Anne at inkedbrownies ended up asking me 3 questions, cos you know, her and Jill enjoy berating and bullying me!

A – The Curse of The Buxom Strumpet is a movie coming out somewhere this year and stars Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen. If you had to choose between these two people , which one would have the highest chance of you developing a crush on them?

Well, this came about after yet another of my stupid comments! I really am a stupid boy! Anne commented on a recent tag I did where I wrote that I was too old to have book crushes, her reply was along the lines of, she still occasionally has them and is older than me. So, I wrote back that with being a fantasy fan, most main characters are male and so it is hard to find a female character to develop a crush on as most females in fantasy are secondary to the male lead and in a Grimdark book I would have to develop a crush on buxom strumpet number 1 – probably the prostitute the male protagonist sleeps with, as she would be the only female character in the book. And, yes, the comment came back to haunt me with this question!

Both are great at what they do, an amazing actor and actress! But, look at them, they are both so old “shudders” one would be dusty and the other probably has wood worm! Hhmmm, decisions, decisions, well, I’m sorry Gandalf there may well be those out the that want to play with your magic stick but I’m going for the Dame and the reasoning is, I’m straight – no offence peeps but I’ve got to pick the woman.

B – You’re into gaming. Does Lara Croft do it for you when it comes to fictional crushes?

Well, Yes! Lets be fair, what male gamer didn’t have a crush on Lara Croft and her twins! And, the Tomb Raider games are actually really good with the exception of The Angel of Darkness which sucked and not in the sense you would want with Lara involved! 🙂

C – So the real question is: are you into that kind of shit or not?

Well, this question came about after my comment about Anne’s first question where I replied with: Oh, joy, picking between two old, dusty and ancient people, can you say necrophilia! See, my sarcasm got me in trouble!

So, OK, to make this clear to you all out there, no I am not into necrophilia! Gee, thanks Anne, that’s not something I ever thought I would have to write!

OK, the foray into the wacky and the weird is over now and we are back to more normal territory!

6 – Inge at thebelgiumreviewer also just like Anne and Jillian took liberties and asked me a variety of questions, asking me 4:

A – What’s your favourite platform to play and why? Playstation, Windows, xBox?

Playstation. I didn’t have an original Playstation way back in the mid nineties but I have had a PS2, PS3 and now own a PS4. I did have an X-Box 360 so I’m not a total Playstation fanboy but they are just the make of console I prefer. Also, it’s a small thing but I have always preferred the Playstation style controller and the console has 2 of my favourite gaming exclusive franchises on it (Uncharted and God of War).

B – Do you play online with others or go to these conventions where they play in group for hours and hours?

No, I don’t go to conventions though I do think going to E3 (gaming convention) would be really cool. And, no, I don’t play online, with mindless games (WWE, Fifa, UFC) I just want to relax and chill out if I want some ‘me’ time, But I’m a fan of games with stories and just like with reading, I like to be immersed in the game I’m playing (Red Dead Redemption, Witcher 3, Dragon Age, etc).

C – What do you think of the movie The Road?

Erm…..I prefer the book! Overall, I do think the film is a great adaptation, with some good cinematography creating the bleak and depressing scenery. Viggo Mortensen is a really decent actor to. And, the film does a good job of creating an atmospheric and haunting experience while you watch it.

D – Can you come over and get me past level 1 of Silent Hill 3? It’s been lying around for more than 10 years and was a complete waste of money as I never got past level 1.

Well, yes, of course I can. After all, I am a gentleman and a gentleman always offers to aid and help a damsel in distress or a lady. However, I’m not entirely sure that a lady would be playing a Silent Hill game in the first place!

7 – The Orangutanlibrarian asked: My question isn’t so much a question as a challenge to write a haiku about leprechaun’s!!

Well, anyone that follows my blog, knows that I dabble in poetry, however, it’s dark and morbid and is written merely in the simplistic rhyming style. I don’t do haiku’s and whatnot.

So, here goes and yeah, I decided to keep with the normal for my poetry and made Leprechaun miserable!

Evil Leprechaun:

Short, green, always mean,

Leprechaun myths are all lies,

Vile, gold stealing dwarf.

8 – Sarah at sjhigbee asked: what is the single thing that worried you the most about blogging and how have you coped with it?

I would have to say blogging in general and would my blog be good enough to fit into the bogging community! Blogging wasn’t something that I ever expected to start doing and my main reason behind starting is fairly weird compared to most. I guess, I just got on with it and did it, thinking well, if I try my best then that’s all I can do and if I fail, so be it.

My review writing lacks the eloquence and prose of a lot of other reviewers but as long as I can say to myself that I have written the best review I could then I think my review style is fine. Likewise, I write poetry on my blog, simple rhyming stuff but the words hold meaning to me and I thought when I posted my first poem that if no one likes or comments then so be it, it contains emotion to me and hopefully other people will find some meaning in the words to but if not, that’s OK.

So, I guess the answer is, I cope with it by trying to do my best. And, I think that I have managed to do my best and create my own little place in the blogging community with TheTattooedBookGeek.

9 – Vicky at booksandstrips asked: how do you make sure you read all the blogs you follow?

The wordpress reader is a god send for this, as it means you can browse each post one after the other and don’t need countless tabs open on the computer to various different blogs to read the posts. But, I do still check lots of blogs via the Internet but for when I’m busy and don’t really have the time, the wordpress reader is great – ecspecially at 5.30am before I start work. For finding the actual  time for reading blog posts, well it is like reading, gaming, blogging and procrastination, there is always time for it! 🙂

10 – Danielle at booksvertigoandtea asked: What will you do when you reach 1K?

Erm………..I haven’t got a clue, I didn’t expect to get anywhere near 500 followers and a thousand seems very very far away. But, let’s say, I’ll pour myself a drink, doff my imaginary hat and congratulate myself on being a fairly decent blogger while saying not to shabby, not to shabby. For the blog itself, who knows, I would say another Q and A but…..have you seen some of the weird questions I have been asked?? I don’t think my delicate disposition could take another! 🙂

OK, we’re onto the final questions now, asked by the final member of the Potty Pals, along with Jill and Anne, Donna, again there’s a few questions and some are weird but it’s all good fun!

11 – Donna at Chocolatenwafflesblog asked me 4 questions:

A – If you had to choose between wearing a hairnet at work (it looks terrible on girls, but totally worse on guys) all week or fluorescent pantyhose every weekend, which one would you choose?

Easy, a hairnet at work. And, the reason is quite simple, Donna left out the technicalities and as I am follically challenged (my hair has decided it wanted to leave me) and I keep my hair very very short, I would not be required to wear a hairnet, so boo ya, I escape on a technicality! 🙂

B – Who would you want to be stuck in a lift with for 24 hours?

Well, I know that I am going to get nothing but grief over the answer to this, so, women, please avert your eyes! I’m a male so obviously it’s going to be a female! Hint hint, wink, wink! 🙂 And, my answer is WWE wrestler and The Lasskicker herself, Becky Lynch! She’s a fine-looking lady and is amazingly funny on Twitter, she throws out puns better than I do sarcasm, so at the very least it would be an amusing 24 hours!

C – Did you finish Resident Evil Code Veronica X? I’m stuck at the end because I don’t have enough ammo.

Yes, I finished the game. Hhmmm, it’s survival horror, conserve your ammo and go for headshots that way you would have had some ammo left!

D – If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, which would you pick?

Dust by Tremonti, love that song, best song of the year, it’s awesome! Check it out !!HERE!! and see how amazing it is!

E – My usual question: how many socks do you own?

Yeah, I know, people, it’s a strange one! Not sure what the average is,  but on perusal I own approximately 35 pairs of various socks!

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Well, that concludes the Q and A, thank you to everyone who left me questions to answer in the first part and to everyone who reads, likes and comments on this post, remember, it’s all good fun!

Best of luck to you all with your own blogs and thank you once again for all the follows, likes, comments and shares via Twitter over the last few months, it’s all greatly appreciated.

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