Liebster Award!

Amanda Vanlandingham (best. name. ever.) got involved with the OpeWare suite of apps around October of last year I think.  She was a very shrewd app consumer in that she grilled me about what the apps did before purchasing.  :)  I like that in a user.  Better to have a user know what they're getting beforehand instead of them being disappointed in what they assumed they'd be getting afterwards.  Turns out what she was asking about wasn't in the apps, but they were great ideas.  Most of the well thought-out features of the apps come from user suggestions, hers were no exception and they got implemented.  To show her appreciation and support she bought all the apps.  :)

So at this point, Amanda is a friend more than a user.  To top it all off, she's given my blog (what little there is of it) an award!

I very much appreciate the recognition!

To explain what the Liebster Award is, I'll quote from Amanda's blog:

Liebster is a German word meaning favorite, dearest or beloved.  The Liebster Awards are awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers to spread the word and help newer bloggers gain wider recognition.

The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1.  Choose 5 up and coming blogs (with less then 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.

2.  Show thanks to the blogger who awarded the Liebster to you by linking back to them.

3.  Post the award on your blog.  List the bloggers you are giving awards to with links to their sites.  Comment on their blog to let them know you gave them the award.

4.  Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know.

Well, I don't really follow many blogs, so sadly I don't really know of anything that falls into condition 1...  But, I can definitely do condition 4.

1. I met my wife via World of Warcraft.  Before moving in with me, we "dated" in real life 4 times.  We've been very happily married for 5 years in this May (2012).
2. I really want to write a video game, preferrably on the phone.  My major challenge in this regard is that I'm terrible with graphics.  This kind of puts a damper on game writing...  But, I may have a design in mind that offers good gameplay without a heavy reliance on graphics.
3. I was held prisoner of war for 5 years at Georgia Tech.  My release was in the spring of 2003 when I graduated with a Computer Science degree.  Go Dawgs!
4. I love classical and romantic era opera.  My favorite composer is a toss-up between Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner.  Or Verdi.  When I do my woodworking or coding I'm generally listening to opera or symphony classics.
5. I speak a little Italian and German.  I've traveled to each place several times.  Ich liebe Deutschland und Italien!
6. BONUS FACT: I've had the same 3 best friends since 2nd grade.  We still live within an hour of each other and keep in contact daily.