Arbitrary Things

Eek. Tagged again.

  1. Link to the person who tagged you.
  2. Post the rules on your blog.
  3. Write six random arbitrary things about yourself.
  4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
  5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
  6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Thing One
I was, quite literally, a poster child. Back in the days when in-home daycare was a radical choice, my mother was involved in promoting it. Pictures of me as a very smiley, very blond two-year-old were used to show how happy children in daycare really were.

Thing Two
I have discovered, through a certain amount of experimentation, that overly sweet candies can be much improved by roasting them over a fire. Circus peanuts and peeps are particularly good examples.

Thing Three
I’ve never had a driver’s license. I can drive a manual transmission and downshift around a corner, but I’ve never taken the test. There is no good reason for this.

Thing Four
My laugh is preserved for posterity. Neil Gaiman recorded material for his spoken-word album, Warning: Contains Language in front of several live audiences. Most of what made it onto the album was recorded in a studio, but “Chivalry” is the live version. That very loud, very distinctive laugh that’s just a little early? That’s me.

Thing Five
My music collection contains fairly complete discographies of a number of eighties “one-hit” wonders: Soft Cell, Men Without Hats, Thomas Dolby, Falco, Kate Bush, Yaz/Alison Moyet, Dead or Alive, Simple Minds, Madness.

Thing Six
I was in a play about seventeen years ago that the playwright came to see. It took me until this summer to ask the director, “So, did he actually like it, or was he just being polite?” Yeah. I still get stage fright too.

You may have noticed that I’m not very good at following rules. No this is not one of the arbitrary things (it’s fundamental), but an explanation of why I’m only doing two-thirds of the list. If you want to consider yourself tagged, I’d love to hear more about you, but I’m not passing this one on otherwise.

Arbitrary Things
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Tagged!

I woke up this morning to discover that Glendon (of the amazing Flying Trilobite) had tagged me with a meme. In thanks for his not tagging me with all three of them, here is my prompt response.

The 5 Things Meme
5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Starting to think that writing was something I should take seriously.
2. Regrading the yard and putting in window wells to keep the water out of the basement.
3. Being a landlord.
4. Writing specifications for and testing a Y2K compliant GUI to replace a mainframe system.
5. Browsing at dial-up speeds.

5 things on my to do list today:
1. Find bread at the bakery that will handle grilled cheese, PBJ and pot roast.
2. Research just how much the crappy economy is trickling down.
3. Finish butchering a deer.
4. Shoehorn in quality snuggling time with boy and cat.
5. Get to bed a non-obscene hour.

5 snacks I love:
1. Apples.
2. Smoked almonds.
3. Candy corn.
4. String cheese.
5. Gin-Gins.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Give away more than I do now.
2. Pay off the house to be completely debt free.
3. Squirrel some away for cushion and additional income.
4. Write more.
5. Decide what my next challenge will be without regard for pay.

5 places I’ve lived:
1. Georgia.
2. Oklahoma.
3. In a trailer park in a rich suburb.
4. In an apartment when I already had a dorm room paid for.
5. In the hood, by choice.

5 jobs I’ve had:
1. Selling seashells, but not by the seashore.
2. Physics teaching assistant.
3. Psychology research assistant.
4. Team lead (twice, not happy either time).
5. Analyst (of three different sorts).

5 people I’ll tag:
Five people I don’t know enough about. Only five?
1. Betül, because her answers will be very different than mine.
2. Muse142, because she isn’t blogging enough right now.
3. Juniper, for the same reason.
4. JLK, because I can be the first to tag a new blog.
5. R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H.E.R.S., because I can cheat and get a twofer.

Tagged!

Happy Things

Before I parse how badly I was lied to about investing and while I figure out how to miss someone I never knew (no, no link), I thought I’d take Mme. Piggy up on her idea for a gloomy day meme. In the interest of lowering my blood pressure, here are a few of the things that make me happy, in no particular order.

Boys in kilts
A particular pair of deep blue eyes
A sleek, loyal little black cat
Talking nonsense
Hashing out a new idea
Treating libertarians like my personal catnip mice
Fireplace weather
People who don’t scare easily
Crisp, clean sheets
Lazy days and energetic conversation
Imposing order
Discovering I’ve written something that isn’t crap
Dirt under my fingernails
Pop music with complicated rhythms and clever lyrics
Using personal space to herd pedestrians
The iPod shuffle function
A crispy, gooey, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie
Bare feet
Discovering that there are more of “us” out there
Defiance
When the music is dancing to me
A big, unwieldy jigsaw puzzle
The bitter with the sweet
People-watching
Throwing a little swing into the slack rope
Unabashed metaphor
Following along one step ahead
Years-long running jokes
Strong cheese
Finding the flaw in the argument
Difference
The silent shared smile
Daydreaming
Information on demand
Looking behind the mask
Story, story, story

How about you?

Happy Things

No Surprises

What kind of liberal am I again? Oh, yeah.

Liberal Identity

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.

Actually, changing to any one of my second choice answers put me squarely among the “liberal elite.” Again, very unexpected. But the graphic is cute.

Thanks to Bora and Mike for the pointers. I needed a little fluff today.

No Surprises

Book Meme–No, No, A Different One

This one comes from, oh, everyone at ScienceBlogs. Presumably, the average American has read six of them. Like the average American does book memes. And yes, there are problems with the list.

Bold are finished. Italics are partially read. Number of asterisks tells you how many body parts I’d give up before reading it again (I added that part myself).

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell **
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding ***
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I’ve read other Du Maurier, Nabokov and Atwood and liked them. I just haven’t read these. I’ll read more Austen and probably Dickens, but I’m not in a hurry. I came to Tolkien too late for him to inspire enough wonder to get me to put up with the prose. I really need to read Dracula, but I was spoiled by reading Saberhagen’s take on it first.

Much of the rest of this list just doesn’t address why I read fiction. I don’t do dystopias. Dostoyevsky is one of the few authors I know of who can write “cautionary” works that are still readable. I don’t do the meticulously observed mundane. And I want something like a happy ending.

So let the “Oh, but you must read…” begin.

Book Meme–No, No, A Different One

Top 10 Signs You’re Reading My Fiction

This is one of the cooler memes I’ve seen. It started on Fangs, Fur, & Fey and propagated on Wyrdsmiths. The original was specific to novels, but until I’ve finished another, it will be difficult to generalize about mine. This post includes my short stories.

  1. The main character is not integrated into their society. Yes, this says a lot about me.
  2. You won’t see a lot of central romance. The romance you will see is usually more a flag for a change in outlook. This says much less about me, except, perhaps, that I don’t equate romance with drama. What can I say? I’m happy.
  3. Fear is a greater motivator than danger, and there are lots of things scarier than death.
  4. Work and economic circumstances are a strong presence in the story and may drive the plot.
  5. The past often plays a larger role than the present.
  6. Narrators (and close POV characters) are sort of reliable. That is, they won’t lie to you, but their outlook is limited or their focus narrow.
  7. Characters are not all able-bodied and -minded.
  8. Families, if relevant, are small and have frequently been pared down by circumstance.
  9. Someone is going to discover that their deeply held beliefs about the world aren’t so much wrong as based on incomplete information. This will be critical to the resolution of the plot.
  10. Reading over this list, it seems a little grim, but the endings of most of my stories are cheerful, triumphant or both.
Top 10 Signs You’re Reading My Fiction

Writing Meme

Kelly started it, and while I’m feeling too busy to play, I’m also feeling like a bad mother to my blog, so here goes.

What do you find _______ about writing?

Hardest? Making sure the plot makes it to the surface of the story.

Easiest? Dialog and character tics.

Most fun? Breaking the rules, with malice aforethought, and making it work.

Most tedious? Submissions. I’d much rather just write, but I know I need to keep measuring myself against the higher standard to make myself improve.

Coolest? Discovering that maybe I did know how to do that after all. It’s always nice when I hit the dreaded bit and just write right through it.

Least cool? Knowing that in some ways, I’m ten to fifteen years behind the trends in my genre.

Best? Being able to scratch that creative itch and know that what I made beats the hell out of any sticker-laden, ribbon-bound, specialty-sheared, cutesy, disposable scrapbook.

Worst? Never quite grasping what I’m reaching for.

Writing Meme

Who Is This Strange Person?

I’m currently revising a novel, making sure I keep writing new things, and playing beta reader for a couple of friends, so the blog is going to continue to be underloved for a little bit. Here’s a meme running around that will at least give you an introduction to the person behind the stock CSS. Thanks to Doug Hulick for the idea.

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
The car, which replaced a much loved car that died in an accident, is the only bill I still have to put in the mail. Everything else only requires that I not do something silly enough to lose my job.

2. Where’s the best place to eat a romantic dinner?
The only qualifications are that we have to stop whatever else we’re doing and pay attention to each other and that it can’t be too noisy.

3. Last time you puked from drinking?
I think I was about fifteen. I woke up the next day with the flu, so I’m not sure it was the brandy, though.

4. When is the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar?
One word—acrophobia. Actually, drunk and dancing are mutually exclusive. The particular high of dancing doesn’t often come if I’ve got more than a wee buzz.

5. Name of your first grade teacher?
I’m pretty sure I was in first grade. My mother thought it would be bad for me to skip it and be two years younger than everyone else in my class. I just don’t remember any of it.

6. What do you really want to be doing right now?
Carving out a big enough chunk of time to really get rolling on my new story.

7. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A teacher, until I realized it meant being on stage all day. A dancer, until my joints betrayed me. An astronaut, similarly ruled out by my body. A counselor, until I discovered that there was no evidence that most types of therapy had any lasting value.

8. How many colleges did you attend?
Two.

9. Why did you wear that shirt you have on right now?
It’s warm, clean, and I haven’t worn it in a while. That and it went with the handiest pair of clean pants.

10. GAS PRICES?
I walk to work, so I don’t have a lot of personal stake. I’d like to see prices accurately reflect our society’s investment in oil, but I’m pretty sure that the brunt of any changes would be borne by the people who can least afford it.

11. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you?
I’m awfully happy where I am, and I’d have to take a bunch of people with me to be happy anywhere else long-term. However, I’m rather fond of Edinburgh, Flagstaff, and PEI.

12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
The first three beeps somehow worked into my dream at the time. Then my first thought was, as it always is, to shut it off before it disturbs Ben. This is silly, since my alarm doesn’t wake him up even when he has to get up first, but I never claimed to be brilliant before dawn.

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
Heck if I know. Falling asleep is almost always a long process of the brain winding down.

14. Favorite style of underwear?
Ones that fit.

15. Favorite style of underwear for the opposite sex?
Favorite cut depends on the cut of the guy.

16. What errand/chore do you despise?
Dishes.

17. If you didn’t have to work, would you volunteer at an art gallery?
Nope. Art museum—maybe. Art gallery—no.

18. Get up early or sleep in?
What am I trying to accomplish today? Sometimes sleep is its own goal.

19. What is your favorite cartoon character?
Danger Mouse. Well, it might be Penfold, actually.

20. Favorite NON sexual thing to do at night with a girl/guy?
Stay up talking until the world takes on that slightly surreal glow and anything can be said without worries.

21. A secret that you wouldn’t mind everyone knowing?
Nope. Sorry. Either someone knows, so it’s not a secret, or it’s dying with me.

22. When did you first start feeling old?
Getting arthritis at 13 made me a bit precocious.

23. Favorite 80’s movie?
Real Genius.

24. Your favorite lunch meat?
Smoked turkey.

25. What do you get every time you go into Sam’s Club?
Hives.

26. Beach or lake?
Lake with trees and rocks along the shore. Someplace nice to sit and just stare at the water.

27. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual that was invented?
It works for me.

28. How many people do you stalk on Myspace?
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a Myspace page once.

29. Favorite guilty pleasure?
Sambuca or Drambuie. Depends on the day.

30. Favorite movie you wouldn’t want anyone to find out about?
I don’t usually scream to the world that I have a small collection of Danny Kaye movies, but I don’t care if anyone knows, either.

31. What’s your drink?
See 29.

32. Cowboys or Indians?
Never played either as a kid, but I’m some tiny part native Canadian.

33. Cops or Robbers?
Both. I usually root for whomever is smarter.

34. Who from high school would you like to run into?
Evan. Erin. Jackie, if it were still possible. Pete. Stacey. I’m sure there are others I’m missing.

35. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
I don’t drive. Ben keeps it on the Current until I’m appalled by what I’m hearing. Then it goes on the local alternative station until the commercials come on.

36. Norm or Cliff?
Carla.

37. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons?
Simpsons.

38. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?
There was a lot of being young and a lot of learning. I’d spare some people’s feelings if I could, and there were a couple of boys who weren’t worth kissing. For that matter, there were a couple who I should have just gone ahead and kissed, circumstances be damned. But I’m happy with where it all got me.

39. Do you like the person who sits directly across from you at work?
Uh, there’s no one there, but most of the people I work with are cool. I try to keep the ones who aren’t from realizing it.

40. If you could get away with it, who would you kill?
“Whom,” people, whom would I kill. Are you trying to make me homicidal? Seriously, though, I think the consequences of killing even an awful person would be too hard to predict.

41. What famous person(s) would you like to have dinner with?
Alton Brown (for the conversation more than the cooking), Alan Cumming, Miss Snark, Oscar Wilde—almost anyone clever and not too sweet.

42. What famous person would you like to sleep with?
And dispel the mystique? You’re kidding, right?

43. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
Nope.

44. Last book you read for real?
The last one I finished was a Tamora Pierce YA. I’m reading Mary Roach’s Spook currently.

45. Do you have a teddy bear?
I think I still have a Gund that was given to me tucked somewhere in a closet. I have a stuffed dinosaur, though.

46. Have you ever brushed your teeth?
Duh. Ew.

47. Somewhere in California you’ve never been and would like to go?
I’ve never been to California. Seeing M5 Industries would be cool, though.

48. Number of texts in a day?
Now I know you’re kidding. Do you know how few cell minutes I use in a month? I’m a poster child for a shared plan.

49. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
I’m working on the new career, although I don’t expect it to replace the current one
.

50. Do you go to church?
Aside from weddings, christenings, and funerals, maybe twice in my life.

51. Pencil or pen?
Keyboard.

52. What do you want to achieve in life?
Perfection, but I’ll manage if I never get there.

53. How old are you?
36

54. Where do you see yourself when you are 40?
I plan for retirement, since it helps to start early (mmm, compound interest), but my other long-term goals are pretty fluid. So far, adult life has treated me well. I think I’ll hang in there and see how it goes.

Who Is This Strange Person?