Meme: The Filthy Blog Cootie Bug

Having been tagged by Hoosier Army Mom and Revere Rides Again, here are my eight random thoughts:

1. I am an only child. My mother was 36 when I was born, my father nearly 41. I was a sickly baby and a bull-headed child. I'm not sickly anymore, but people tell me that I am still bull-headed, a veritable "dog with a bone" once I get an idea.

2. When in school, I had two major fears: writing and public speaking, the latter to the point of having to be given tranquilizers the night before and day of a scheduled speech. I got over my phobia of getting my ideas down onto paper in fifth grade when I wrote my first research paper, "Themes in the Tragedies of Shakespeare"; my fear of public speaking disappeared without explanation around the time I turned 40.

3. I have one significant phobia today: a terror of centipedes. Merely the sight of a centipede is enough to elicit a bloodcurdling scream and flight on my part. Unfortunately, this old house frequently allowed centipedes to enter via the bathtub drain until we had the bathroom remodeled a few years ago.

4. When sightseeing, I always check ahead of time so as to learn if there are any nearby cemeteries. The first time my best friend and I visited California, we spent days on end touring cemeteries on our own. Probably the out-of-town cemetery I have most frequently visited is Oakgrove Cemetery — the burial site of Lizzie Borden and her parents.

5. Through my cousin's Administration of Justice instructor in 2000, I got special permission to visit the local medical examiner's office to view and attend a morning of autopies. Most visitors that day were squeamish. I wasn't. I didn't balk even at watching the infant's dissection, but I did leave a bit ill following the autopsy on the reeking burn victim, whom I identified as a woman even before the medical examiner did. I based my conclusion on the x-rays, which revealed a woman's jewelry etched into the deceased's bones by the searing fire.

6. Mr. AOW and I started dating in January of 1972 and married in June of 1972. In all fairness, however, I have to admit that we did know each other for one semester in high school. We couldn't stand the sight of each other back then! He was a poor student and Peck's Bad Boy; I was the opposite.

7. Before 9/11, I worked the newpaper's daily crossword puzzle, read epic novels, and had an absolute abhorrence to watching the news. In other words, I didn't pay much attention to politics, especially world affairs. Now that I'm a counterjihadist, I spend most of my spare time reading nonfiction about politics and Islam as well as the news on the web — and blogging.

8. I'm obsessive-compulsive about following the rules of grammar mechanics. On many occasions, I've taken out my red pen to correct errors on menus. I do occasionally break the ruls of grammar, but I know full well that I am breaking them.

This meme requires that I tag three more bloggers, but I typically don't tag others. However, I'd love to see Beamish's, Mustang's, and The Merry Widow's responses to this meme!

Put the Blame on Meme

Jaco, thou varlet, it's 70 degrees and sunny out and there's a beach somewhere with my name on it and I'm stuck in here with a meme cootie! OK, here's 8 things at least some of you don't know about me that might help to explain what the hell the story is with RRA...

1. I'm a "war baby", born in 1944, and am fulfilling my lifelong dream of becoming a cantankerous old lady. Everyone on both sides of my family lives into at least their 80s (my dad and 3 of his siblings into their 90s) so there should be lots of time left to hone those skills. My dad was career Army, my mom is 89 and can outrun me, and my brother voted for Obama and I went all big sister on his a$$ about it.

2. I am a native New Englander and live in a historic coastal town I've always loved. Am also a New Yorker, having lived in NYC for 13 years, 1966 to 1979. As the song (I forget which one) says, "no money could take those memories from me, no money could make me return." I was involved in the NY Libertarian Party but my ex and I bailed out once we realized the inmates were running the asylum. I've been conservative-Objectivist ever since which means I'm pro-capitalism/individualism and liberty/America/US military/Western values/US Constitution/choice/defeating the Jihad.

3. I gave up tv over 5 years ago because I decided I could either do tv or the internet and that was no contest. I'm a total cyber-squib but I love the net so I sort of wing it. I like talking to people about things but hate "small talk". I love classical music, jazz fusion, New Age background wallpaper music, classic rock, and a couple of weird musicals. Favorite contemporary authors include are but not limited to Rand, Cline, Pratchett, O'Brien, Perry, Stephenson, Simmons, Flynn, Peters, King (no, not him) and Rowling until that wretched 7th book in the HP series blew her cover. I am a disaster junkie and read enough about volcanos, conflagrations, hurricanes, plagues, and the Titanic to know that nearly everybody stands there like a deer in the headlights until it is too late.

4. I don't like confrontation either because I get into fight-or-flight mode too quickly. I don't argue well extemporaneously so I tend to resort to sarcasm and/or try to back people into corners. I should be locked up for about a week with a continuous loop of Liz Cheney's current interviews and learn how to do it right.

5. Marriages: 1. Divorces: 1. Kids: 0. Degrees: 2. Careers: 3 -- designer, editor, antiques and collectibles dealers. Books published: 1. Rent-payer jobs: too numerous to mention because I have ADD (or whatever it is) and am too scattered to run a business or function well in corporate environments. Head-on car crashes survived: 2. Wear your seat belt. Ex-boyfriends from Hell: 2. (Jaco and MR know about one of them -- the rest of you don't want to, trust me -- so they can can attest to the accuracy of that designation.) Ex-boyfriends not necessarily from Hell and some actually rather nice: MYOB. Interest in growing old with any of them: zilch.

6. I have a BFA in fashion design and Masters in Classical Civilization. I put the first one to use working as a designer for yarn companies and knit/crochet magazines in NYC and haven't used the second for much of anything, but it was great fun getting it. I love buying and selling antiques and collectibles and keep telling myself I'm going to learn to do mosaic.

7. I've studied Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism since I was about 19 and have been atheist since about age 17. I am totally at peace with being an individual human being with a finite lifespan in a natural universe and I find life full of meaning. Imagination plays a big part in my enjoyment of life, but will not substitute wishful thinking for what I perceive as reality.

8. While I greatly admired Rand's heroic characters, my personal lifelong (from age 11) fictional hero is Captain Nemo from the 1954 Disney film of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". You want to know what makes me tick, go check him out. I love what Edward Cline said about fictional heroes in "Hugh Kenrick" from his Sparrowhawk series, that a hero captivates the soul and serves as a projection of the innermost self and as an idealization of successful living, even though he may die in a story... living or dead, a hero is the stylistic embodiment of living on one's own terms... "

On the other hand, I hope I will have the sense to get the hell off the deck if anyone is ever shooting at me.

OK, that'll have to do. Ooops, nearly forgot the nominations: Always on Watch, Grant Jones, and Bosch Fawstin

Curses! Memed!

I've been memed. Drat and damnation.

Okay, 8 things about me folks don't know but are revealing about my personality.

Look, I've revealed far more about myself here than I have anywhere else. So if you folks already know it, it doesn't count.

1) I do not like confrontations. I do not go looking for a fight or trying to start an argument ( the War on Islam excepted). But if I am cornered, or if you threaten me or someone I care about, it gets very ugly very fast. My daughters call it The Voice. My wife has seen what happens beyond The Voice when you push me too far (not to her). You want me on your side in that dark alley.

2) I am very shy around strangers. I tend to keep to myself in crowds. I don’t like public speaking. When I have to I resort back to the musician, the performer, in me to get through it. That just occurs naturally anymore. I hate talking about myself (“go around the room and introduce yourself and what you do” terrifies me) because I think I am terribly boring and don’t know near as much as I do. I often think I suffer from a bit of clinical depression but have never looked too far into that.

3) My original college major was music/clarinet. My degree is in journalism which I never pursued. A mistake.

4) I would rather be teaching History or Literature as a profession, though at my age it’s a bit late to be changing course that severely. My daughters tell me they wish I would teach English to some of their dunderheaded friends who have received college degrees (and they don’t know how) and that, because of the way I can spin a “fish” story, I ought to write children’s books.

5) My favorite book is The Monkey Wrench Gang by Ed Abbey. Another is A Soldier of the Great War. My favorite author is Jim Harrison. I can’t stand Hemingway. He whines too much. Suck it up and get on with it, dude.

6) I loathe computers. I loathe cellphones. To me they are necessary evils in our modern age. I STILL have one rotary phone among the others in my house. I do not play video games on line. I prefer something like pinball (always!) or Pacman. I have not watched network TeeVee in years or cable TeeVee since the November travesty. Except for some history shows and even more cooking shows. I make a wicked chili and used to roll my own pastry for Dutch Chicken Pot Pie. My wife still lets me make chili but has now reserved the pastry making for herself. Not for taste but for ease of cleanup :)

7) I have read methodically the Bible as a single continuous “work”, cover to cover, twice. That does not include all the other Bible reading I have done. All those begatting chapters are tough. I still have the first Catholic Bible given to me by my parents and the first King James version given to me by a childhood mentor. All that said I think I am a lousy Christian and a terrible Catholic.

8) I keep far too much inside. I don’t talk about things that trouble me personally to anyone, even the death of friends and family. Whether family members or the number of friends that have been very violently murdered ( 4 thus far), I don’t grieve except to myself. A stoicism I got from my father which is both a curse and a blessing. I handle the large crisis far better than the daily day to day petty annoyances. By the way, each of those friends might still be alive IF THEY HAD CARRIED A GUN. AT LEAST THEY WOULD HAVE HAD A CHANCE.

9) I have lived in the same county all my life (except for the first year after I was married, when I lived 4 miles over the county line). Partly because I love it here and partly as a sense of belonging, of duty. My family has lived here since the early 1700’s. We signed the initial petition to erect this county. I know where all my ancestors are buried. My sister, cousins, etc have all moved away. Only my kids (2 of 3), mom and I remain. Someone has to keep our name here, someone has to watch those graves. And, a bit of trivia, though we are now separated by a continent, I live now and grew up within 2 miles of where Pastorius' adopted mom hails from. The borough I grew up in was, until 1900 or so, named after his family. We may have bumped into each other as very young kids (when he was visiting). Come to think of it, I seem to remember this 8 year old railing against the Crayon Book and the Musselmen who followed it.

10) I've been a rabid knife collector for over 30 years, curently have nearly 1,000 different knives of all sorts. I always carry at least four. Three, for utility, you might know about. The fourth not until I have run out of ammo.

11) I’m a counter-jihad blogger. And damn proud of it.

Okay. So I nominate Epaminondas, Carlos Echevarria and Jewel.

Hey, guys, blame Pastorius ;>)

Filthy Blog Cootie Infection

Stogie from the great blog Saberpoint infected me with this meme. I'm, apparently, supposed to give eight facts about myself which people would not know, but are revealing of my personality. I'll probably give you a few more than eight, since I'm totally obsessed with myself.

Okey-doke.

1) I was adopted. My parents who raised me are German. I call them Mom and Dad, because they put their time and love into me, and I am grateful to them for it. My birth parents are English. I know both families, and consider myself close to both sets of parents. My birth mother is a writer and my birth father is a Salesman who turned into a "Managing Director" which is Brit-speak for a CEO. I am a salesman who has evolved into an executive and business-owner, and my wife is a painter. My birth father is EXTREMELY OPINIONATED, and THINKS HE IS RIGHT ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Does that sound familiar? For all the similarities between my birth parents and myself, I am more like my adoptive family in values. We are homebodies, and I am close to the ultimate homebody.

2) My wife is a first-generation immigrant (from the Philippines) which, in a way, I am also. In many cases, I relate to immigrants better than I relate to native citizens of the United States.

3) My wife is totally fucking beautiful, and she is one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever known.

4) I pretty much did nothing BUT music until I was thirty years old. I was a "minor-league rock star", playing clubs on the Sunset Strip and around Southern California. We had a CD out, got very limited airplay, decent reviews in major newspapers and music periodicals, but sold very, very few copies of the CD. I was dirt poor. I look back on that period of my life with a small measure of pride, for my creativity. But, for the most part, I think of it as years of complete idiocy and self-absorption.

5) I used to be heroin-chic skinny, though I have never used drugs. Now I am a relatively muscular, though thin (no fat on my body), middle-aged dude.

6) I once lived in what had been a crack-house before I moved in. It was in the ghetto of Pasadena, CA. It was literally a shack, and you could see through cracks in the walls to the outside. Druggies would come to my door all hours of the day and night looking for the guy who lived there before me. I had a pitbull then, and I used to answer the door with him on a leash. I would allow him to jump on the people and snarl. That scared them all away. One day, the poor, little black kid next door (he was about five years old) said to me, "Hey Mr., do you want to see a picture of my best friend?" I said, "Yeah," and he held up a Polaroid of a frightening looking dude in corn rows who had a gun pointed towards the camera. I asked the kid who the guy in the photo was. He said, "That's the guy who lived there before you." I often wonder whatever became of that kid.

7) I have about 100 units towards a degree in Philosophy. I quit college only 20 units from my degree, to play music. Later I went back to school and started over, getting a degree in English Literature, when I was in my 30's. I had gone back to school with the intention of becoming a Professor of Literature, but by the time I graduated, I was already making more money than my Professors, so I stuck with business. 

8) I love to garden, read poetry, listen to classical music, and jazz, and I love girly stuff like fragrances, stemware, candles, ornate candleabras, etc.

9) I used to have hair halfway down my back which was curly like Robert Plant's. In fact, I used to look a bit like Robert Plant. I would dress in d black clothing painted in iridescent blues and greens most the time. I was a VERY arty dude, and people would either love me or hate me. Now, I am about as normal looking a person as you can possibly imagine.  

10) I'm a huge basketball fan, rarely missing a Laker game, unless my wife wants to do something with the family.

11) I'm also a huge fan of Mixed-Martial Arts, which is the most brutal sport on the planet. I love watching dude's beat each other to a bloody pulp.

12) The secret to my prolific blogging is that, because of the nature of my business, I am on the phone a good deal of everyday, I read the news while I'm on hold, and every ten phone calls or so, I post something on one of the various blogs I contribute to.

13) Besides having produced an album of music, I have also written a novel, two screenplays, and quite a few short stories. Unfortunately, I've made very little money writing. The only things I've ever had published were articles in business periodicals, and music and film reviews. 

14) Now that I'm in my mid-40's, I've finally learned how to jettison resentment and anger towards people who I feel have wronged me. However, I have a very hard time forgiving myself for not living up to my own expectations. I guess that's called a mid-life crisis. 

:)

I hereby infect on Culturist John, Revere Rides Again, and Midnight Rider with this Cootie Meme.