Memes and Things!
A while back, over on IJ, lilithilien tagged me for that Seven Quirks/Facts About You meme. I finally got around to doing it, but I'm not gonna tag people. I just don't work that way.
1. At last count, I've moved 16 times and lived on three different continents (North America, Europe (Belgium and Germany) and Asia (Iran). And yet I've only lived in one state in the US (CA) and somehow keep ending up back in the town I was born in (Sacramento).
2. I'm a frustrated interior designer. I would love to have a house that wasn't decorated in Hippie/Geek, but a) we're not that well off and b) we'd both rather spend big money on computers.
3. I'm a gourmand, not a food snob. I can find something I like on the menu at my local coffee shop and be fairly happy with it. On the other hand I adore really excellent cooking and wish we could eat at the better places here in town more often.
4. I don't like bars. Getting to a restaurant a little early and having a drink first is one thing, but I don't like hanging around in bars. If I have to go out with people like that, I’ll take a coffee house or even a Denny's any day.
5. I don't know when my first girl crush was but the first one I remember was in very late 1977. Mom, debra_tabor and I had left Iran and were staying in Greece for several weeks while Mom and Dad made some decisions. We went on this amazing, week long, classical tour of the Peloponnesus and our tour guide was a post-grad archeology student named Marina. She was incredibly smart and I remember her as being absolutely beautiful too. It's weird to think that she's in her 50s now.
6. My problem as a writer has never ever been a lack of ideas. I have tons of ideas--good ones--that no one but Nancy ever hears about. I just lack the discipline to sit down and do the work. And yet I played Guild Wars for 10 hours last night.
7. I'm a big girl (5'2 and 210lbs) but my mental self image is stuck somewhere in the early '80s when I was MUCH smaller. I carry a lot of my weight on my back and belly and I'm always surprised when I see myself sideways in the mirror. I think "when'd I get so....thick?"
And now, the answers to the pop culture thingie that was going around a while ago. Since I did this on two different journaling systems, I'm not listing the people who guessed correctly. If you did, pat your self on the back or have a cookie.
"'scuse me while I whip this out." -- Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles. This could have been any number of lines from the movie, including the cut tag I used here.
"Very nice," he said, moving in the general direction of away. -- This was the hard one. I was amused that so many people guessed various British authors of comic works (Douglas Adams, Terry Prachett and so on), because it's actually by one of the UK's comedy greats from a generation earlier than these guys: Spike Milligan in "Hitler: His Part In My Downfall," which is the first volume of his wartime memoirs. He's talking about writing with some friends and showing it to the unit's lieutenant. Some of that very material went on to be used in the Goon Show which was a huge influence to any number of British comedians and writers. I recommend the books, they're a fascinating, funny and sometimes difficult look at what happened when a bright, intelligent, talented young man who was also bipolar went away to war.
"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow." -- Commander Susan Ivonova (*sighs happily*) from Babylon Five.
"The worst sin -- perhaps the only sin -- passion can commit, is to be joyless." -- This is my sig quote and has been for a while. It's something Lord Peter Wimsey says to Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night. There's a lot in that book that resonates with me for various reasons, but this is what I hope shows in my writing.
"Pass me the gold lamé, I'm having a moment." -- This is the in-joke. debra_tabor came up with it somewhere along the line and we've been saying it ever since.
"I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel." -- Edmund Blackadder. I'm not sure if it's Blackadder II or III, but any variant on "I have a cunning plan" is part of my personal lingo.
"Yes, it's true. This man has no dick." -- Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters. I love that movie so freakin' much and Venkman is one of Bill Murry's great roles.
"What the shit is this?" -- Dolomite in the blacksploitation film Dolomite. This is part of the household vocabulary because it's a Fandom Wank in-joke.
"Whatever, white people." -- from the MST3K version of Girl in Gold Boots. The scene is a drunken, doped up '60s bash and there are some Black guys playing drums and looking incredibly bored, so one of the 'bots says "Whatever, white people." We use this a LOT around here.
"Maybe he's just pining for the fjords." -- from Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch. Not everyone my age has parents that speak fluent Python, but I got lucky. Ever since the late '70s it's been a family tradition to have a penguin on the telly and we all know how to tell which dioceses a dead bishop is from.
"Oh no, not again." -- The funny thing is that I meant this to be the bowl of petunias that is created when the Infinite Improbability Drive kicks off over Magrathea in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. But someone guessed the other pop-culture version that I've used more than once: John Hurt doing a cameo in Spaceballs says it just before the alien pops out of his chest and goes into the Michigan J. Frog routine. It is the absolute best moment of a movie that wasn't up to Brooks' earlier standards.
"I'm good. This is fun for me." -- To my shame, I got this wrong and amireal had to correct me. It's actually "I'm fine. This is fun for me." It's the newest of the pop culture references for me and Rodney says it to John in the S1 ep "Suspicions."
"Cooly. Calmly. Entirely without pants." "No. Not without pants." -- Like I said, this is a "pants" game joke. The original lines are from my favorite bad movie of all time: Equilibrium.
"My _____ let me show you it/them." -- OMG lolcats. We use this sentence construction ALL THE DAMN TIME now. Usually it's second grade humor like "my butt, let me show you it."
1. At last count, I've moved 16 times and lived on three different continents (North America, Europe (Belgium and Germany) and Asia (Iran). And yet I've only lived in one state in the US (CA) and somehow keep ending up back in the town I was born in (Sacramento).
2. I'm a frustrated interior designer. I would love to have a house that wasn't decorated in Hippie/Geek, but a) we're not that well off and b) we'd both rather spend big money on computers.
3. I'm a gourmand, not a food snob. I can find something I like on the menu at my local coffee shop and be fairly happy with it. On the other hand I adore really excellent cooking and wish we could eat at the better places here in town more often.
4. I don't like bars. Getting to a restaurant a little early and having a drink first is one thing, but I don't like hanging around in bars. If I have to go out with people like that, I’ll take a coffee house or even a Denny's any day.
5. I don't know when my first girl crush was but the first one I remember was in very late 1977. Mom, debra_tabor and I had left Iran and were staying in Greece for several weeks while Mom and Dad made some decisions. We went on this amazing, week long, classical tour of the Peloponnesus and our tour guide was a post-grad archeology student named Marina. She was incredibly smart and I remember her as being absolutely beautiful too. It's weird to think that she's in her 50s now.
6. My problem as a writer has never ever been a lack of ideas. I have tons of ideas--good ones--that no one but Nancy ever hears about. I just lack the discipline to sit down and do the work. And yet I played Guild Wars for 10 hours last night.
7. I'm a big girl (5'2 and 210lbs) but my mental self image is stuck somewhere in the early '80s when I was MUCH smaller. I carry a lot of my weight on my back and belly and I'm always surprised when I see myself sideways in the mirror. I think "when'd I get so....thick?"
And now, the answers to the pop culture thingie that was going around a while ago. Since I did this on two different journaling systems, I'm not listing the people who guessed correctly. If you did, pat your self on the back or have a cookie.
"'scuse me while I whip this out." -- Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles. This could have been any number of lines from the movie, including the cut tag I used here.
"Very nice," he said, moving in the general direction of away. -- This was the hard one. I was amused that so many people guessed various British authors of comic works (Douglas Adams, Terry Prachett and so on), because it's actually by one of the UK's comedy greats from a generation earlier than these guys: Spike Milligan in "Hitler: His Part In My Downfall," which is the first volume of his wartime memoirs. He's talking about writing with some friends and showing it to the unit's lieutenant. Some of that very material went on to be used in the Goon Show which was a huge influence to any number of British comedians and writers. I recommend the books, they're a fascinating, funny and sometimes difficult look at what happened when a bright, intelligent, talented young man who was also bipolar went away to war.
"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow." -- Commander Susan Ivonova (*sighs happily*) from Babylon Five.
"The worst sin -- perhaps the only sin -- passion can commit, is to be joyless." -- This is my sig quote and has been for a while. It's something Lord Peter Wimsey says to Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night. There's a lot in that book that resonates with me for various reasons, but this is what I hope shows in my writing.
"Pass me the gold lamé, I'm having a moment." -- This is the in-joke. debra_tabor came up with it somewhere along the line and we've been saying it ever since.
"I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel." -- Edmund Blackadder. I'm not sure if it's Blackadder II or III, but any variant on "I have a cunning plan" is part of my personal lingo.
"Yes, it's true. This man has no dick." -- Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters. I love that movie so freakin' much and Venkman is one of Bill Murry's great roles.
"What the shit is this?" -- Dolomite in the blacksploitation film Dolomite. This is part of the household vocabulary because it's a Fandom Wank in-joke.
"Whatever, white people." -- from the MST3K version of Girl in Gold Boots. The scene is a drunken, doped up '60s bash and there are some Black guys playing drums and looking incredibly bored, so one of the 'bots says "Whatever, white people." We use this a LOT around here.
"Maybe he's just pining for the fjords." -- from Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch. Not everyone my age has parents that speak fluent Python, but I got lucky. Ever since the late '70s it's been a family tradition to have a penguin on the telly and we all know how to tell which dioceses a dead bishop is from.
"Oh no, not again." -- The funny thing is that I meant this to be the bowl of petunias that is created when the Infinite Improbability Drive kicks off over Magrathea in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. But someone guessed the other pop-culture version that I've used more than once: John Hurt doing a cameo in Spaceballs says it just before the alien pops out of his chest and goes into the Michigan J. Frog routine. It is the absolute best moment of a movie that wasn't up to Brooks' earlier standards.
"I'm good. This is fun for me." -- To my shame, I got this wrong and amireal had to correct me. It's actually "I'm fine. This is fun for me." It's the newest of the pop culture references for me and Rodney says it to John in the S1 ep "Suspicions."
"Cooly. Calmly. Entirely without pants." "No. Not without pants." -- Like I said, this is a "pants" game joke. The original lines are from my favorite bad movie of all time: Equilibrium.
"My _____ let me show you it/them." -- OMG lolcats. We use this sentence construction ALL THE DAMN TIME now. Usually it's second grade humor like "my butt, let me show you it."