trivium x 10 = trivia!
Kelly tagged me for this game a while ago, and I've been having trouble thinking up ten weird things (I know, I know, but it's hard to actually see the forest, what with all these trees around). I asked MBL and Cameron for help recently, and they pointed out that I could easily do more than ten on food allergies alone, but I'll try to keep that to a minimum. :)
Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs.
1. I don't like getting my face wet in the shower. Yeah, I know, that's the whole point of a shower. Whatever. I like to use my loofah gloves to apply water to my face, then soap, then wipe off with hands; none of this "insert face into stream of water" bizznass. No, I cannot explain it. I am just weird like that. I like to keep a towel within easy reach so that if my face does get wet, I can dry it off while still in the shower.
2. I like to make up little songs and sing them spontaneously as I go about my day. I sometimes sing "real" songs to myself, but more often just start making things up. Often I attempt to rhyme. I get this habit from my mother, I think; I do recall that in years past, she and my brother and I would all collaborate on Spontaneous Singing. For some reason this memory seems to be set in the kitchen of my parents' house, although I'm quite sure it would've actually happened many places. These days, I mostly only do it when I'm alone, although I think that some of you (pokes captn_sideburns) have probably heard a few of them.
3. Alright, you knew it was coming: food allergies! Every day, especially in the morning, my food choices are made up of an intricate calculus depending on how much sleep I got, how the inside of my mouth is feeling (no, really), how long ago I took my allergy medication, and the age of the foods in question. For example, most fruits and dairy must be eaten no less than half an hour after the allergy meds, because otherwise I get very nauseous and have to decide whether or not I can throw up based on how much of my medication is likely to have been absorbed by then, because either not enough or too much allergy med will lead to me having headaches, fatigue, and general grumpiness (due to discomfort) all day. Anyway, since I'm trying to give the short version, I will stop now, but the next two Weird Facts will also be food-allergy-related.
4. I love strawberries. A lot. I am also allergic to them. Le Sigh. Unlike some fruits, like cantelope and honeydew, that I just never eat because they always make my mouth itch at minimum and make me feel much, much worse at maximum, I can eat strawberries; I just have to do it in moderation. Which I am bad at. This leads to me often trying to recruit a Strawberry Controller when I'm in situations in which I am being offered lots of strawberries. (This is similar to the idea of A Controller that I've heard from people who, when drinking, are bad at judging when to stop drinking and therefore recruit a "Controller" to make sure things don't get out of hand; in my case, the Controller's job is to speak to me sternly, as though I were a rambunctious puppy or similar, and say things like "NO! You have reached your strawberry limit! Go have some cheese and crackers!")
5. I also like kiwis. I have a hilarious reaction to them, which is that they taste fizzy to me. I really thought that the universal appeal of kiwifruit was based on the fact that they tasted fizzy to everybody, since it's such a pleasant and delicious thing (like soda, only without all of the terrifying acid/sugar/tooth decay!), but apparently it's a privilege enjoyed by a rare few. (I'm not the only, one, though; I've heard from others who also find kiwis fizzy.)
6. In fiction, I have a much easier time empathizing with and connecting to male characters. This confuses me, as an ardent feminist and a woman, who doesn't necessarily have an easier time connecting to men in "real" life. When I was smaller, and offered the choice between The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books, I would always choose Frank and Joe over Nancy and her stupid friends. I also hated things like The Babysitters' Club, preferring John Bellairs or The Great Brain series--mysteries and gothic stories, Stephen King, etc. I'm not sure if this just illustrates the fact that "books for girls" were crappy, or what; I mean, I also read L'Engle and (more recently) Pierce, which both make use of tremendously interesting, three-dimensional, non-vapid female characters. But if I made a list of my favorite imaginary people, they would nearly all be male.
7. Perhaps #6 has some sort of relationship (causal? resulting?) to the fact that I used to really enjoy reading my dad's Men's Health magazines. I learned lots of useful things from it, since it used to end with a "how to accomplish something useful"-type page (e.g., how to change a tire; how to tie a half-Windsor; how to put up your own shelves). I also enjoyed its attitude toward relationships with women, since it treated the readers as men who liked and respected women, and who (if not actually married already) were looking to get married to someone great, and make that marriage work by, you know, communicating, and participating, and stuff. (See "how to change a diaper" at the end of the magazine.) I also thought it was interesting to compare what the men's magazine said about women to what my magazines (uh, okay, at the time, probably YM? But I got better!) said about men (or, in YM's case, teenage boys). Mostly, the good advice they both gave was along the lines of "if you're honest and actually listen when the other person talks, things will work out much better for everyone involved." Sadly, over the years the magazine has been completely Maxim-ized, and, while not as toxic as actual issues of Maxim, is still heading over to the "here's how to trick women into having sex with you! hahaha!" zone, rather than holding onto its former attitude of "Look, they're not incomprehensible freaks; women just want to you listen when they talk, show them that you care about them as people, and also maybe read this article about How Foreplay Works." Really a shame.
8. My Big Life Goal is to open my own school. To that end, I am teaching/participating in the opening of a new school/planning to do graduate work in educational policy. Selfishly, I sort of want to get a graduate degree from an Ivy or similarly big-named school. Lucky for me, I've found that three ivies offer graduate degrees in education: Columbia, UPenn and Cornell. (WTF, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton? Isn't education IMPORTANT enough for you guys?) I could also go to Stanford, just like Jessie Spanno always wanted to! I'm so excited... I'm so excited... I'm so... I'm so... scared............... (Yes, that is the first thing I think of when I think of Stanford. Thanks, brain.) I have also been looking at Oxford University's creative writing program, since my (other) Big Life Goal is to be a novelist...
9. Despite having made fun of Courtney's and others' hippie ways for ages, I am now actually sort of becoming a hippie myself, at least in the eyes of my students ("Ms. Larkin wants to recycle! What a hippie!") and with regard to food. (I'm about to post a recipie in kitchen_fu for cookies, only using organic local honey, unbleached flour, turbadino sugar, and organic, non-hormone, cage-free eggs.) I'm sort of concerned that my switch to Hippieville may have something to do with my recent physical blahs, since I just realized recently that I've cut nearly all refined sugar and white flour out of my diet, in favor of soy and wheat products and dark chocolate made with turbadino. Hmmm.
10. I wasn't into blond men until I started dating Cameron, and now I find myself noticing blond men much more often. Including Brad Pitt, whom I had never really found at all attractive before, and now think is pretty cute. Weird.
Anyway. There are ten weird things about me. Next, I'm supposed to "tag" ten people to also do the survey, and I'm going for...
sadunreadissue
captn_sideburns (Three entries ever? COME ON!)
mitchco
zenmasterzeno
doyouright
eeriemusic
gryphonmage
jenesisdark
minusthepants
z_squared82
TAG YOU'RE IT.
Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs.
1. I don't like getting my face wet in the shower. Yeah, I know, that's the whole point of a shower. Whatever. I like to use my loofah gloves to apply water to my face, then soap, then wipe off with hands; none of this "insert face into stream of water" bizznass. No, I cannot explain it. I am just weird like that. I like to keep a towel within easy reach so that if my face does get wet, I can dry it off while still in the shower.
2. I like to make up little songs and sing them spontaneously as I go about my day. I sometimes sing "real" songs to myself, but more often just start making things up. Often I attempt to rhyme. I get this habit from my mother, I think; I do recall that in years past, she and my brother and I would all collaborate on Spontaneous Singing. For some reason this memory seems to be set in the kitchen of my parents' house, although I'm quite sure it would've actually happened many places. These days, I mostly only do it when I'm alone, although I think that some of you (pokes captn_sideburns) have probably heard a few of them.
3. Alright, you knew it was coming: food allergies! Every day, especially in the morning, my food choices are made up of an intricate calculus depending on how much sleep I got, how the inside of my mouth is feeling (no, really), how long ago I took my allergy medication, and the age of the foods in question. For example, most fruits and dairy must be eaten no less than half an hour after the allergy meds, because otherwise I get very nauseous and have to decide whether or not I can throw up based on how much of my medication is likely to have been absorbed by then, because either not enough or too much allergy med will lead to me having headaches, fatigue, and general grumpiness (due to discomfort) all day. Anyway, since I'm trying to give the short version, I will stop now, but the next two Weird Facts will also be food-allergy-related.
4. I love strawberries. A lot. I am also allergic to them. Le Sigh. Unlike some fruits, like cantelope and honeydew, that I just never eat because they always make my mouth itch at minimum and make me feel much, much worse at maximum, I can eat strawberries; I just have to do it in moderation. Which I am bad at. This leads to me often trying to recruit a Strawberry Controller when I'm in situations in which I am being offered lots of strawberries. (This is similar to the idea of A Controller that I've heard from people who, when drinking, are bad at judging when to stop drinking and therefore recruit a "Controller" to make sure things don't get out of hand; in my case, the Controller's job is to speak to me sternly, as though I were a rambunctious puppy or similar, and say things like "NO! You have reached your strawberry limit! Go have some cheese and crackers!")
5. I also like kiwis. I have a hilarious reaction to them, which is that they taste fizzy to me. I really thought that the universal appeal of kiwifruit was based on the fact that they tasted fizzy to everybody, since it's such a pleasant and delicious thing (like soda, only without all of the terrifying acid/sugar/tooth decay!), but apparently it's a privilege enjoyed by a rare few. (I'm not the only, one, though; I've heard from others who also find kiwis fizzy.)
6. In fiction, I have a much easier time empathizing with and connecting to male characters. This confuses me, as an ardent feminist and a woman, who doesn't necessarily have an easier time connecting to men in "real" life. When I was smaller, and offered the choice between The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books, I would always choose Frank and Joe over Nancy and her stupid friends. I also hated things like The Babysitters' Club, preferring John Bellairs or The Great Brain series--mysteries and gothic stories, Stephen King, etc. I'm not sure if this just illustrates the fact that "books for girls" were crappy, or what; I mean, I also read L'Engle and (more recently) Pierce, which both make use of tremendously interesting, three-dimensional, non-vapid female characters. But if I made a list of my favorite imaginary people, they would nearly all be male.
7. Perhaps #6 has some sort of relationship (causal? resulting?) to the fact that I used to really enjoy reading my dad's Men's Health magazines. I learned lots of useful things from it, since it used to end with a "how to accomplish something useful"-type page (e.g., how to change a tire; how to tie a half-Windsor; how to put up your own shelves). I also enjoyed its attitude toward relationships with women, since it treated the readers as men who liked and respected women, and who (if not actually married already) were looking to get married to someone great, and make that marriage work by, you know, communicating, and participating, and stuff. (See "how to change a diaper" at the end of the magazine.) I also thought it was interesting to compare what the men's magazine said about women to what my magazines (uh, okay, at the time, probably YM? But I got better!) said about men (or, in YM's case, teenage boys). Mostly, the good advice they both gave was along the lines of "if you're honest and actually listen when the other person talks, things will work out much better for everyone involved." Sadly, over the years the magazine has been completely Maxim-ized, and, while not as toxic as actual issues of Maxim, is still heading over to the "here's how to trick women into having sex with you! hahaha!" zone, rather than holding onto its former attitude of "Look, they're not incomprehensible freaks; women just want to you listen when they talk, show them that you care about them as people, and also maybe read this article about How Foreplay Works." Really a shame.
8. My Big Life Goal is to open my own school. To that end, I am teaching/participating in the opening of a new school/planning to do graduate work in educational policy. Selfishly, I sort of want to get a graduate degree from an Ivy or similarly big-named school. Lucky for me, I've found that three ivies offer graduate degrees in education: Columbia, UPenn and Cornell. (WTF, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton? Isn't education IMPORTANT enough for you guys?) I could also go to Stanford, just like Jessie Spanno always wanted to! I'm so excited... I'm so excited... I'm so... I'm so... scared............... (Yes, that is the first thing I think of when I think of Stanford. Thanks, brain.) I have also been looking at Oxford University's creative writing program, since my (other) Big Life Goal is to be a novelist...
9. Despite having made fun of Courtney's and others' hippie ways for ages, I am now actually sort of becoming a hippie myself, at least in the eyes of my students ("Ms. Larkin wants to recycle! What a hippie!") and with regard to food. (I'm about to post a recipie in kitchen_fu for cookies, only using organic local honey, unbleached flour, turbadino sugar, and organic, non-hormone, cage-free eggs.) I'm sort of concerned that my switch to Hippieville may have something to do with my recent physical blahs, since I just realized recently that I've cut nearly all refined sugar and white flour out of my diet, in favor of soy and wheat products and dark chocolate made with turbadino. Hmmm.
10. I wasn't into blond men until I started dating Cameron, and now I find myself noticing blond men much more often. Including Brad Pitt, whom I had never really found at all attractive before, and now think is pretty cute. Weird.
Anyway. There are ten weird things about me. Next, I'm supposed to "tag" ten people to also do the survey, and I'm going for...
sadunreadissue
captn_sideburns (Three entries ever? COME ON!)
mitchco
zenmasterzeno
doyouright
eeriemusic
gryphonmage
jenesisdark
minusthepants
z_squared82
TAG YOU'RE IT.