Vampifan's Views 10 Stylish Blogger Award

To my great surprise I have been nominated for a Stylish Blogger Award this week - not once, not twice, but three times! The guys who nominated me were -

Adam from The Lead Will Walk The Earth http://theleadwillwalktheearth.blogspot.com/

Doug from Doug's Land of the Dead
http://dougslandofthedead.blogspot.com/

and Gnotta from Chez Gnotta' http://gnotta.blogspot.com/

A huge thanks to all three of you. I was flattered and honoured to receive the nominations. It's heartening to know that all the work and effort I put into this blog is appreciated.

To receive an award there are four steps to follow -
1. Send a thank you and a link to the nominating blog.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the word on to 10 or so other deserving blogs.
4. Let them know of your nominating them for the award.

Okay, seven facts about myself. I came up with loads more than seven. I might do a separate article called 100 Facts About Vampifan. Too ambitious? Nah, I think I could manage it. Anyway, here's the seven I came up with for this post -
1. I am teetotal. I haven't drank alcohol in any form since 2000. I stopped drinking due to some medication I was prescribed and to be honest, I don't miss it. I never was a big drinker, even in my student days, many, many years ago.
2. I only drink water when at home. If I go out for a meal I'll drink orange juice.
3. I am a chocaholic. Cadbury's Dairy Milk is simply divine! I like most brands but none can beat Cadbury's.
4. I haven't had a bath in well over 20 years. And before anyone thinks, "smelly devil" I'll have you know that I shower regularly.
5. I prefer to dress casually and have a particular fondness for T-shirts with printed pictures on the chest. It should surprise no-one that I own quite a few Vampirella T-shirts.
6. The first horror film I saw at the cinema was "Carrie" in 1976. It scared the crap out of me. Well, to be honest, just one scene did, right at the end of the film when a friend of Carrie comes to visit her grave. As she bends down to lay flowers on the grave, Carrie's arms suddenly emerge from the grave and grab her friend in an attempt to drag her beneath the earth. To be fair, everyone in the cinema jumped at that point, so I wasn't alone in crapping myself!
7. I prefer cats to dogs but I'm tolerant of all animals as I can't stand cruelty to animals. I owned two long-haired Persioan cats from 1986. Clint, was a Silver Chinchilla, similar to Blofeld's cat in the James Bond films. Sadly he died of cancer in 2000. His bother, Wiskee, was a Golden Chinchilla and he was my best friend. He died of old age in 2004. I miss them both immensely but I vowed never to own another pet after Wiskee died. Whilst they gave me and my parents so much pleasure during their stay with us, the pain of losing them was just too much to bear. Losing Clint was bad but when Wiskee passed away I was heartbroken. I have never known such heartache and I just couldn't go through that loss again.

Now for my own nominations. They are -
1. Tactical Miniatures Gaming run by my good friend, Willy aka LTL Dad or Veloci. I placed Willy's site first on my list because he was amongst the first of my followers and we have got to know one another very well via comments on our blogs and through numerous e-mail messages. Willy's attitude to gaming is one we should all aspire to - just have fun! His enthusiasm for gaming in any period fills me with admiration
2. Dawn of the Lead Mikko is a great bloke and another friend I've known from the early days of my blog. Mikko's knowledge of zombie films is just one of a number of reasons that I like his blog so much. Another reason that I like him so much is that he ALWAYS replies to any comments to his blog. In my book that earns him huge brownie points.
3. Rogzombie If you check on my list of favourite blog-sites you'll see that Roger hasn't posted anything for over nine months. Fear not, his site is not dead but Roger has had a lot of personal problems in his life. I was priviliged and humbled that he shared them with me as we have kept in close contact via Facebook. Only recently, Roger told me he was back painting zombies, so hopefully he'll post the fruits of his labour soon. He is one of the nicest and kindest persons I know and I'm proud to call him a friend. He too, was one of the first followers of my blog.
4.6 Mil Phil's Phil is another of my early followers. Phil writes with great humour and enthusiasm for whatever project he is currently interested in. It changes from time to time but he is intersted in zombies and I admire him for his modelling skills. Anyone who realises the importance of good scenery is okay in my book.
5. Ancient Warriors My Australian friend The Extraordinarii is just starting work on his zombie campaign but it is a good start. He is an excellent scenery maker and has made numerous items of street furniture like street lamps, chain link fences, billboards, etc. These are the sort of scenery items that can bring a gaming board to life. The devil is in the details.
6. Down Among The Zed Men I've only known Colin, who runs this site, for about a year or so now but we hit it off right from the onset. I know Colin is struggling to keep his blog going due to real life intruding into his hobby. I hope he perseveres with his blog or at the very least take a break to recharge his batteries. How can I fail to be impressed by a bloke who always calls me Vampifan the Great? You're one of the good guys, Colin!
7. Lucky Joe's Place Lucky Joe has always been a friendly bloke and a frequent commentator on my blog. He is both a 28mm scale and 15mm scale gamer so kudos to him for managing both. Not all of his stuff on his blog is zombie-related but so what? We all have other interests. Joe has always come across as an enthusiastic gamer and I hope that never changes. There are some things you can't buy with money - enthusiasm is one of those things!
8. Obviously Zed This site is run by Oliver/Whiteface and is dedicated to his ATZ campaign, in which the Whiteface family struggle to survive in a world gone mad. Oliver's batreps are impressively written and always leave you begging for more. He is a guy after my own heart and I salute him.
9. Zed Storm Rising Darrel's site is similar in many ways to Oliver's. Nothing wrong with that, in my view. His blog also concentates on his ATZ campaign and he too knows how to write an exciting batrep. He is currently working on an ambitious project of making a replica of his own home in 28mm scale. I wouldn't want to try that myself with my own house, so more power to his elbow.
10. Brains and Guts I came to Johnny's blog site earlier this year, a good while after it had started. That was very remiss of me but Johnny aka Lord Siwoc was forgiving and we have since become very good friends. His site is another devoted to ATZ with ocassional forays into LARPing, which is an aspect of the gaming hobby that I have never tried. Like everyone else I have nominated here, I hope his blog goes from strength to strength and continues for many a year.
One thing that all of the ten blogs I have nominated have in common is that they are run by people I would happily game with. If the three chaps who nominated me didn't already own this award, then I would quite happily have nominated them as well. One blog that I do admire greatly is The Angry Lurker run by Fran. The reason that I haven't nominated him is that I know he is already a recipient of this award. Even so, Fran is a top notch bloke and his blog is always worth a view.
As you should know I regularly post on a Wednesday and a Sunday of each week. This week I'm a day late because these nominations came right out of the blue and blind-sided me. I had a review all planned and ready for what should have been yesterday's posting but I felt it was more important to respond to my nominations, especially as I received three in two days. So I set about working on this post and it has taken me a lot longer to compile than I anticipated. Sorry for keeping you waiting but I hope you understand these are not normal circumstances.