I play license plate math. I see a plate, and it’s usually divided into two parts. I try to calculate down to a more common factor. Since there are so many letters, I assign them values. The Roman numerals stay the same.
My goodness. I’ve awarded one of those blogging award things, this one called the “Versatility Award” from Jaquandor at Byzantium Shores. This is because I guess I’m a versatile blogger. Surprising since I write about the same thing every day. Anyway, the award is GREEN, so I MUST accept it.
As is usual with this type of thing, I’m supposed to provide seven facts about myself and then give the award to several other bloggers. I’ve often skipped these steps, but I’m feeling agreeable. The problem is, after six-plus years of blogging, it’s difficult to find facts I still can ‘reveal’ about myself that aren’t either common knowledge to those who read this blog, or things I don’t feel like revealing. So a couple of these are rather arcane.
1. I play license plate BINGO. I’m always looking at license plates, not just on long trips. I saw two from Kansas on a Sunday morning within a block of each other in Albany, NY this month. Other ones I’ve seen this summer I’ve found unusual in these parts: Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico. Plates I’ve seen recently that are not that unusual: Florida (not surprising; probably a snowbird) and California. I see California quite regularly. Not as common as an adjacent state (or province, such as Ontario), but regularly enough.
2. I play license plate math. I see a plate, and it’s usually divided into two parts. I try to calculate down to a more common factor. Since there are so many letters, I assign them values. The Roman numerals stay the same. Then I attribute values to other letters as needed. Example: ABC 12345 becomes ABC=12345. C is 100 so AB(100)=12345, AB=123.45; B kinda looks like 13, so A(13)=123.45, which is some number less than 10, but greater than 9. (It’s actually 9.49615385, but I’m doing this in my head, so I’m guessing A=9.5.) Yeah, scary.
3. I’ve never had a job that makes me the civil rights, or diversity guy, though I am the Black History Month guy at my church, somehow. For instance, there was an unpaid position for the city of Albany’s Commission on Human Rights and I didn’t apply for it, even though I was actually interested in it.
4. Truthfully, the specific reason I didn’t apply for that commission was that I had previously applied for this unpaid position earlier this year, was even interviewed, but was turned down. I wasn’t brokenhearted about it, but going through the rigamarole AGAIN so soon, for a volunteer job, just wasn’t my cuppa.
5. Sometimes when I type, I leave off a letter or syllable, especially if that letter or syllable has repeated letters that show up earlier in the word. The second I in liaison, e.g. Or Denders instead of Defenders. I spell well, but my typing, not so much.
6. The word I see misspelled most often, besides the homonyms (its/it’s, there/their/they’re) seems to be ‘definitely’, often spelled ‘definately’. And I often read that misspelling as ‘defiantly’.
7. My Twitter name, Ersie, is in honor of a stuffed monkey I used to have, which my ex has held onto, even though I had had Ersie before I had met her.
Who to honor? Guess I’ll bug some of the ABC Wednesday folk:
Meryl at Departing the Text who is “a parent with a Ph.D. in Educational/School Psychology…currently an instructor for Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, and author of Teaching Content Area Graphic Novels (2012). My next book will be one for parents on kids’ graphic novels and literacy.”
Lisa at peripheral perceptions: “As a kid, I was never happy with the box on only 24 crayons. I was more of a 96 crayon box kid. Still am.”
Leslie at The Pedalogue, from BC, Canada: “I retired from teaching in ’06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring…I’m a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience.”
Amy at Sharp Little Pencil, who is a poet, singer, and a bunch of other stuff, growing up not far from where I did, albeit a few years later.
