Tag: meme

Lisa thinks I’m a Liebster?

Honesty, integrity, and sleep.

So Lisa decided that I “deserve an award for being darling; beloved, liked very much, favorite, pre­ferred above others, liked or loved above others.” And who am I to argue with her?

The rules are simple … post 11 random things about myself, and answer 11 ques­tions the sender asks, then tor­turetag 11 blog­gers and give them a set of 11 ques­tions to answer. The goal is to drive each other crazy help others dis­cover new bloggy friends. And we all need more friends, right?

11 new random facts that haven’t already been cov­ered (as far as I know):

1. I know lots of odd facts. But The Wife will almost always ask something about it and I’ll have no idea. For instance, I read about a couple married 81 years, and my wife will ask, “Where are they from?” I have not a clue. But I remembered he was over 100 and she under. (He’s 102, she’s 98, and they are from Connecticut.)

2. I don’t complain about the cold. But I don’t put myself in situations of being out in the cold – skiing, sledding – beyond the necessary stuff, such as shoveling snow, clearing the car off.

3. The Wife, the Daughter, and I like living near the bus route, even though we do have a car. When we got snowed in one Sunday, we got to church anyway.

4. I hate doing webinars. Talking in front of people is OK, but talking to headphones with no sense of how people are reacting is not my thing. Probably why I won’t do a podcast, besides my inability to learn the technology.

5. I try to seek out people at parties and similar events who seem not to have people to talk with.

6. I prefer having a watch to looking up the time on some electronic device I have to pull out of my pocket. Faster, more elegant, IMHO.

7. Having been on food stamps in the late 1970s for a few months – back in the days they had the actual paper coupons, not a plastic card – cuts to food stamps, leaving the food pantries even more to do, rather ticks me off.

8. I tore the meniscus in my left knee 20 years ago. STILL hurts.

9. My work computer was replaced in October, and it was disastrously installed by some techie, and I had buggies that made work hellish for a few months until our internal techie fixed it.

10. When I get back to a database I haven’t used in a while, I can never remember the password.

11. In fact, there are databases I’ll join and forget I’ve done so until I try to register for it again.

11 ques­tions to answer from Lisa

1. What’s been your biggest sur­prise about blog­ging?

People I know personally don’t read my blog. People from halfway around the world DO read my blog.

2. What is your favorite book and why?

Top Pop Singles from Billboard. I read the titles and I can recreate the tunes in my head.

3. What do you do to relax and recharge your internal bat­teries?

On the last Monday of the month, I take off from work. I pay my bills, catch up on the newspaper and/or TV, write a blog post or three, then go to the monthly meeting of the Friends of the Albany Public Library. If I’m caught up, see a movie. Actually, when that is disrupted, as it has been too often recently, I feel like I’m constantly behind.

4. What do you miss about being your child­hood?

I miss very little about my childhood. The geographic closeness of a couple of friends, and my sisters, but I wouldn’t want to go back.

5. What is your most favorite smell in the world and why?

Baking bread, and that does not need a reason.

6. Have you ever done a random act of kind­ness? If so, what was it?

Ever? I hope that I do so regularly, whether it be a surprise back massage, or help push someone’s car that’s stalled out of the middle of the street, or buy some hungry guy a slice of pizza. But I’m not really keeping track; I hope that it has become second nature.

7. If you could design a tee-shirt/coffee mug/bumper sticker saying, what would it say?

Happiness runs in a circular motion.

8. What did you learn about your­self last week?

That, at least on Facebook, I can avoid being baited by some schmuck.

9. Are you a planner or more spon­ta­neous in your approach to your day?

Well, ya know it depends. I like to plan to get to the movies, take public transportation on time, or early. But I don’t plan out much else, except as it applies to other people i.e., the schedules of The Wife and The Daughter.

10. What is the biggest obstacle you’ve over­come in life?

Don’t know that I’ve overcome it as much as learned to fake it, but acute shyness

11. What are the three most impor­tant things in your life?

Honesty, integrity, and sleep.

I’m supposed to come up with questions for other people and tag those others. Ain’t doing the latter – but do it if you would like – and I have no inspiration of questions. So hey, YOU, answer the questions Lisa answered.

1. What is your dream vaca­tion spot and why?
2. Where did you come up with the name of your blog?
3. How do you define blog­ging suc­cess?
4. What is your favorite type of “going out” enter­tain­ment?
5. How many states (name them) have you lived in?
6. What is your favorite hol­iday and why?
7. What’s your favorite number and why?
8. What would be your dream vehicle to own?
9. What is your favorite hobby?
10. How do you try and keep your blog fresh?
11. Where do you do your best thinking?

The blog at random

How do you sell dolls to boys?

This is a thing I’ve been doing at the beginning of the year: pick a post for each month of the previous year, using a random number generator. See how well it reflected that year just passed. Pretty sure I got this from Gordon, who lives in Chicago, who remains the only non-local blogger I ever met.

January:

In 1969, I HAD to root for the New York Mets over the Orioles, and of course, the Amazin’s won.

(Re: Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who had died recently.)

February:

What IS the solution to a fairer voting process?

(Cited Arthur@AmeriNZ)

March:

I’ve wanted to fly since I was a child, had the flying dreams and everything.

(One of those Ask Roger Anything responses.)

April:

“So here’s another question up for interpretation.”

(One of those Internet awards I responded to.)

May:

A ANNOTATE the text by writing down important details, ideas, words, or quotes

(My monthly writing about The Daughter, in which I kvetch about vacation homework. Complaining about homework becomes a recurring theme.)

June:

My paternal grandparents then moved upstairs.

(I swear I hit Father’s Day LAST year. In any case, pictures and memories of growing up in Binghamton, NY.)

July:

*”The most damning element here is not that George Zimmerman was found not guilty: it’s the bitter knowledge that Trayvon Martin was found guilty.”

(Obviously about a certain trial in Florida.)

August:

She was working for an insurance company for a couple years making more annually as she would for her first two years teaching.

(A piece on income inequality. The “she” is The Wife.)

September:

How do you sell dolls to boys?

(Finally, an ABC Wednesday post. This was K for Known As, Formerly.)

October:

Then Arthur wrote about it, and I was going to let it go as a topic.

(Arthur, AGAIN? Anyway, this was about NALT Christians.)

November :

I must say that I didn’t vote for Kathy Sheehan in the primary, and that one of her campaign workers inadvertently talked me into that position.

(Day before Election Day, I write about Albany’s now brand new mayor. Arthur is also mentioned in THIS post!)

December:

But I was always disappointed that certain seemingly simple songs often had ONE note (or more) that wasn’t in the standard scale.

A second ABC Wednesday post, which, considering I wrote one 52 times last year, is not surprising. X is for Xylophone.)
***
An animated portrait of my 2013 on Twitter, which isn’t terribly interesting as it might be because I don’t use Twitter very much; the one for Arthur is more interesting, but each is less than 50 seconds long.

 

The 2013 quiz

Thinking by Numbers by Daniel Tammet.

One of those year-in-review quizzes from Jaquandor.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Didn’t really make any, so didn’t have to worry about failing to keep them. But then I read Richie’s post and wondered if I’ve been doing it all wrong.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

No.

Did anyone close to you die?

David Janower I was mighty fond of.

What countries did you visit?

Ha! Traveled even less than the previous year.

What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

More optimism.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Despite my complaints about it, a solo in the church play. Also, a reading of Langston Hughes poems.

What was your biggest failure?

Easily distracted. I’m sorry, what did you ask?

What was the best thing you bought?

There are some Kickstarter items that arrived that I liked such as MURDERVILLE Comic Book #1: “A Farewell to Armories”; The Werewolf of New York; and especially a retrospective collection of Kal cartoons from The Economist.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

My friend Lynne Jackson, who attempted to walk to Binghamton for a good cause.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Congress, last I checked, had a 12% approval rate, which I assume includes their immediate families, plus the lobbyists who own them.

Where did most of your money go?

The house. Specifically, a new front porch, desperately needed, but very expensive.

What did you get really excited about?

Blogging. Got a second (or ninth) wind.

What song will always remind you of 2013?

Has to be New, by Sir Paul McCartney, the ONLY song my wife, my daughter and I could ALL identify.

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

Sadder. The body politic has worn me down.

Thinner or fatter?

About the same.

Richer or poorer?

Poorer. I put aside more money for the health reimbursement program for the daughter’s braces.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Traveled, but that was a function of money, in no small part.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Brooding.

How did you spend Christmas?

Went to church, doing the gift thing.

Did you fall in love in 2013?

Yes.

How many one-night stands?

As many as last year.

What was your favorite TV program?

The Good Wife, CBS Sunday Morning, The Daily Show.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nah, hate is highly overrated.

What was the best book you read?

Thinking by Numbers by Daniel Tammet.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

The music to The Lion King.

What did you want and get?

Books and music.

What did you want and not get?

Our office to move downtown from Corporate (frickin) Woods.

What were your favorite films of this year?

The Sound of Music and Singin’ in the Rain, neither of which I had ever seen in its entirety before.

What did you do on your birthday?

As little as possible.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?

As usual, “fashion” is silly. Function over form.

What kept you sane?

Writing; singing; listening to music; learning new stuff; and then I suddenly realized that the question ASSUMES that I AM sane, which may or may not be the case.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Wendy Davis.

What political issue stirred you the most?

The damn snooping on Americans, and apparently, everyone else, by the NSA.

Who did you miss?

I miss my parents, still.

Who was the best new person you met?

New woman in the office. Her cat’s name is Roger.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:

I actually went through a period of melancholy caused by some specific circumstances. The situation didn’t change, but my attitude towards it did, and it made it a whole lot more palatable.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

So you think that you’ve got troubles?
Well, trouble’s a bubble,
So tell old Mr. Trouble to “Get lost!”.

Why not hold your head up high and,
Stop cryin’, start tryin’,
And don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed.

When you find the joy of livin’
Is lovin’ and givin’
You’ll be there when the winning dice are tossed.

A smile is just a frown that’s turned upside down,
So smile, and that frown will defrost.
And don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed!

(Who can identify the lyrics? It is one of these.)

The Normblog questions answered by Dustbury

People who are wealthy and think they did it all by themselves tend to annoy me.

Stolen from normblog

A couple of months back, Dustbury wrote about Norm Geras, who died in October of prostate cancer, again belying the narrative that no one dies from it; my father did.

Chaz wrote: “In the online community, however, he may be best remembered for the normblog profile, in which he sent four dozen or so questions to leading bloggers and asked them to answer any thirty of their choice.” Here is a list of all the hundreds of bloggers who answered the call.

I had opted to answer the questions that Norm posed to Dustbury that Chaz deigned to answer.

Well, except that the next day, Chaz wrote Norm’s instructions:

“Please NB that you should not answer all 50 questions, but (as requested on the document itself) just 30 of them — enabling you to select those questions most congenial to you and leave out any that aren’t.”

Chaz added: “The wisdom of this practice really didn’t dawn on me until I’d submitted my answers when I realized that this was how Norm knew what you really valued above all else.” Which means I’m going to chuck *Which English Premiership football team do you support? since it is NOT in my area of expertise.

But I will add some questions answered by John Green, but NOT by Dustbury, just because.

*Why do you blog?

Therapy is too expense.

*What has been your best blogging experience?

Getting comments about my grandfather, who died in 1980, years after I wrote about him.

*What has been your worst blogging experience?

Some haranguing guy at my Times Union blog who was complaining every day about something I wrote.

*What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger?

Find a schedule and try to stick with it. Once a week or twice a day, but be consistent. Three posts in a day, then nothing for three days isn’t as good as once a day.

*What are you reading at the moment?

Xerox Ferox, which is a thick book of essays.

*Who are your cultural heroes?

Ben Franklin and Paul Simon? John Lennon and Thomas Jefferson? Actually, my first thought was Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

*What is the best novel you’ve ever read?

11/22/63 by Stephen King has supplanted A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

*What is your favourite poem?

Ever since I learned it was parody, it’s probably The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

*Who is your favourite composer?

Mozart, though I am quite fond of Beethoven.

*Can you name a major moral, political or intellectual issue on which you’ve ever changed your mind?

When I was 14, I supported the Vietnam War; when I was 15, I opposed it. I’ve gone through lots of changes involving religion, from fundamentalist fervor to rejection of religion to my current, always evolving beliefs.

*What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to disseminate?

Being civil and decent does not mean weakness.

*What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to combat?

Yelling the loudest does not make you correct. I think people confuse clever retorts with sound policy, which scares the heck out of me.

*If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be?

There needs to be a chance for third parties, and given the way the Republicans and Democrats rig the rules, we need another way to cast the ballot, such as Instant Runoff Voting.

*What would you do with the UN?

The problem with the UN is that the things it does well, in health care, e.g., is largely invisible. It probably should not put out the presumption that it can do peacekeeping.

*What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world?

Global warming, which will affect the availability of water (too much or too little, it appears), cost of fighting natural disasters, from mudslides to fire.

*Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come?

I’d like to be positive; not sure that I am.

*What would be your most important piece of advice about life?

Don’t be a schmuck.

*Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own?

Probably not, because she would keep saying stuff that would inevitably tick me off.

*What do you consider the most important personal quality?

The pursuit of honesty.

*What personal fault do you most dislike?

Self-absorption.

*In what circumstances would you be willing to lie?

Interesting question. As I’ve noted here before, I’ve been hugely influenced by the book Lying by Sissela Bok. Would I lie to protect someone? Maybe. But what if I lied and said someone was in the closet when I thought he was in the kitchen, in order to protect him, but he had actually moved to the closet?

*Do you have any prejudices you’re willing to acknowledge?

People who are wealthy and think they did it all by themselves tend to annoy me.

*What is your favourite proverb?

“A stitch in time saves nine.” I’m lazy by nature.

*What would you call your autobiography?

Rambling with Roger. Actually, I have no idea.

*What would your ideal holiday be?

A rail pass to places where they play Major League Baseball.

*What talent would you most like to have?

Play the piano. THAT’S not going to happen.

*What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job?

Teaching remedial math to adults, but not using that ugly Core Curriculum stuff they’re using in New York State.

*How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money?

I’d spend some time working on genealogy, working more with the Friends of the Library, and maybe volunteering for the Red Cross.

*What animal would you most like to be?

Golden retriever. I’m not a dog person, but I do like them.
**
Who would play you in the movie about your life?

Forest Whitaker. As a child, I have no idea.

*What is your most treasured possession?

A copy of Abbey Road allegedly signed by four Beatles.

*If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

Labyrinth.

*Who is your favourite comedian or humorist?

Bill Cosby. Or Bob Newhart.

*Who are your sporting heroes?

Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

*If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for?

Truth serum in the Washington, DC water supply, so we’d know for sure that Lobbyist A owns Congressman B, et al.

*If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner who would they be?

I must have answered this a half dozen times and never tire of it: John Lennon, René Magritte, and Jack Kirby, for no particular reason, except to see if Magritte would complain about the appropriation of his apple for the Beatles’ Apple Records; I suspect he would not care. They could talk about art from different perspectives.

 

What Your Reading Rules Reveal About Your Personality

Maybe I like my fiction with pictures and my non-fiction without.

OK, is that a pretentious title, or what? My “personality”? My preferences, maybe.

Anyway, the meme comes from Jeanette at Book Riot. Then Jaquandor did it, and added questions (after #5). SamuraiFrog did it, and added #9.

1. Always stop at the end of a chapter. Always.

Well, I’m not hung up on that.

Certainly, I want to have a good jumping-off point, so I’ll see if there’s a natural section break.

2. Use specific bookmarks.

Oh, goodness, no. Whatever I find that’s thin enough I’ll use. A ruler, a bus schedule, the envelope from a bill, a Post-It note. It’s not that I don’t OWN bookmarks; it’s that I’m not organized enough to FIND them when I want them.

2a. No dog-earing, bending, or folding of pages.

I HATE dog-eared books; I find them inherently ugly. As a page (clerk) at the Binghamton Public Library many years ago, I noticed how people would do that, and it rather ticked me off.

2b. Weirdly enough, spine-breaking is fine, just don’t get too crazy with it.

And I REALLY hate that! I’ve had books come apart in my hand in two or three sections, held together by some strands. It was not just aesthetically unpleasing, it made the reading experience too much work. Not to mention a cost to the taxpayers.

Re: a comment on someone’s blog, no, I can’t use a book as a drink coaster, either!

3. Always read two books at once.

Depends. Generally, I get so engrossed in one book that I’ll just finish that one, then forget where I left off with the other, not physically, but emotionally.

4. No (or minimal) writing in books.

I tend to agree with this, except for some used textbooks I once had to buy back in my college days. Sometimes the previous owner even used a highlighter, and that was sometimes OK too. But in general, for most purposes, no.

5. Rereads must be earned because there are too many great books out there to read an okay one twice.

It’s been so long since I reread a book, can’t really speak to it. In my teens and twenties, I did all the time, and they weren’t necessarily “great” books, but ones that resonated with me. It’s more that I don’t have time to get through all the books I want to read, but that “earned” stuff seems like elitist snobbery to me.

Now, there are sections of books I’ll read. A Grimm fairy tale or a Shakespeare sonnet or a particularly nice passage But most of the books I have are comic books in hardcover form – Mr. Frog has been reviewing the early Marvels, BTW – or reference books on movies, TV, music, sports, and general knowledge, some of which I have NEVER read (though some histories of programs such as The Twilight Zone and The Dick Van Dyke Show, I have). In some ways, the vast majority of books I have I consider reference books, even if you would not.

6. Not finishing a book is OK.

I had a REALLY hard time with this for a LONG, LONG time. But after I passed 50, I got less driven about that. Too many books to worry about THAT one, even if I’M “supposed” to have read it to prove how well-rounded I am. Partly it’s that I don’t care to meet that amorphous expectation.

7. It is always better to take more books on a trip than you think you’ll possibly have time to read.

Seriously, it’s only in the last two years that I took ANY books on trips. It was usually periodicals I took because if they get lost/damaged, I don’t care as much. I once left a book at a motel, and to get it back, it cost more than it would have I just purchased it again. That said, I don’t get much reading of any type done on a trip, except in the car, and that HAS to be a magazine, where I can navigate and read at the same time.

8. Having a favorite genre is fine. Getting stuck in that genre is bad.

Meh. Several times I’ve tried to read fantasy, and most of the time, it just didn’t take. Indeed, most of what I read is non-fiction, and the only fiction I read last year, 11/22/63, was based on a real event. Yet, I read comic-related material for years. Maybe I like my fiction with pictures and my non-fiction without?

9. Reading on a tablet is still reading.

Well, sure. I mean I don’t do it, not likely to do it, have no interest in doing it, but I don’t find anything wrong with it. I’m more bothered that they are leasing the book to you, essentially, rather than you owning it, but that’s commerce and ownership issues, not reading issues. (Jaquandor answered this question of mine on this topic recently.)

I just listened to the Bat Segundo Show podcast with author Norman Rush. About 45 minutes in, Rush noted that what he likes to do when he visits people’s houses is to look at what’s on their bookshelves. That would be lost with the adoption of the tablet, though I suppose Good Reads, or other online reading lists, can be inadequate substitutes.

Books on tape are also reading, I decided. I mean, how else, save for braille, can the blind read? There’s REAL snobbery in this arena. If one is actively listening, as opposed to having on the background the way some people play music, then it’s reading. Love this short but sweet story.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial