16 Random Things About Me

Here’s a funny little meme that’s been hopping around on Facebook. I already did it there but, since it seems like the kind of silly, personal stuff I often post in this space, I thought: What the heck? This time out, though, I’m going to tag a few people who either aren’t on Facebook or who aren’t very active in that part of the Ether.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I’ve always wished I was either taller or shorter -- tall and elegant or tiny and cute. At 5’6” I’m absolutely “normal,” which has never sat just right with me.

2. I’m capable of eating impossible amounts of raw fish. I don’t know why this is true, but it is. Sit me at a sushi bar, and just settle in, ‘cause we won’t be leaving anytime soon.

3. I was born in Vancouver.

4. When I quit smoking mid-way through 2007, it took me a while to get my writing rhythm back. But at first it was very difficult for me to focus -- to get to my magic place -- without nicotine.

5. I won’t hear anyone say “fiction” and “novel” right next to each other in the same sentence. It’s a pet peeve. If you tell me you just read – or wrote – a “new fiction novel” I will stop listening and possibly even stop talking to you.

6. I have seen Rocky Horror Picture Show a number of times. Though not recently.

7. Vanilla Sky is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Philadelphia Story is another favorite. And All That Jazz, though I haven’t seen the latter in a number of years because I’m afraid it won’t have aged well.

8. I like to walk. A lot. If I don’t get my 2 k a day moss begins to grow between my ears, or so I fear.

9. Until I was about 10, in the wintertime, I wondered why everyone kept talking about the “windshield factor.”

10. I don’t listen to music at all while I write. It interferes with the voices in my head.

11. I get oogy at even the mention of the possibility of some kind of vermin infestation. And in the case of an actual vermin infestation, the only way to calm me is to let me clean -- a lot -- and then take me away and feed me raw fish.

12. I miss my eight-hole Docs.

13. I will always remember where I was when I heard Wayne Gretzky had been traded to L.A. And I expect you to remember, too!

14. I require a great deal of moisture. I don’t know why. I drink no less than two liters of water every day, several cups of tea, a latte or two and generally some wine in the evening. A lot of liquid.

15. I can’t wear socks without shoes. It’s a total weird thing, I know. But my feet just feel incredibly wrong when I wear one without the other.

16. I have no desire to eat chicken feet. Almost anything else, but not that. I know where they’ve been.

I tag Kelli Stanley (who tagged me in the first place); J. Kingston Pierce; Ali Karim; Peter Rozovsky; Clea Simon; Sandra Ruttan; Karen Anderson; Brian Lindenmuth; John McFetridge; Lesa Holstine; Patti Abbott; Lee Lofland; Mary-Francis Makichen; Bill Cameron and I think I’d better stop there, before everyone I know stops talking to me! On that note, if I haven’t tagged you and you’d like to play, just give ’er. There really doesn’t seem to be any meme police that I’m aware of.

Comments

Hi Linda-I already did it on Facebook (Bill Cameron) although I guess I can copy it here. You are way more interesting as I might have guessed.
Peter Rozovsky said…
I once did a meme that asked for six random facts about myself. Sixteen -- wow, this is one for the industrious time-wasters among us.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter Rozovsky said…
1) I might eat chicken feet, but only if they had worn shoes -- and socks.

2) I may have wanted to be taller. I probably have never wanted to be shorter. I have never wanted to be both at the same time.

3) I don't like raw fish; you can have mine.

4) When I was 10, I thought that the copyright annoucement at the end of television baseball broadcasts forbade " retransmission of pitchers' descriptions and accounts of this game without express permission of Major League Baseball." This made sense to me, as the pitcher is obviously the most important player om the field. (The real prohibition related to "pictures, transmissions and accounts."

Here are my replies to that earlier meme, though I have to update number 5 to include Ireland.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Sandra Ruttan said…
Done.

But it might have been far more interesting if I'd written the 16 things about Peter. Although I might have missed the raw fish thing.

Which incidentally, I agree with.
Patti: I *So* doubt I am more interesting than you!

Peter and your industrious time-wasters comment: Ummm. Thank you?

(Oh and thanks for all the fish!)

(Oh and thanks to Sandra for all the fish, too! There's so much more sushi in the world available to me that I know that the two of you aren't Hoovering it up.)

And Sandra: the 16 things about Peter does sound like a very excellent idea for some future meme, right? We'll *all* think of 16 things about Peter!
One more thing: I *did* have eight hole Docs, back in the day. But they were never pink. (Thought I should make that completely clear.)
And PEter writes:

"I might eat chicken feet, but only if they had worn shoes -- and socks."

Now you're just being disgusting.
Bill Cameron said…
Turns out I can eat quite a bit of raw fish myself, so long as rice, seaweed, and a little wasabi is involved. Spicy tuna roll? OMG, yes!

(My 16 Thingies are up on my blog now, though they started in Facebook too. Hi, Patti!)
Peter Rozovsky said…
Sixteen is a hell of a lot of things. And it's not really a nice, round number, either. I don't know of any culture that ever had a number system that used base 16, there were never 16 planets or apostles or fingers or toes or tribes or degrees in a circle or months in a year. Why sixteen? Well, I guess if you count the holes on both sides of an eight-hole Doc, you get sixteen.

P.S. I like wasabi and rice but, as before, so long, and no thanks for the fish.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter Rozovsky said…
""I might eat chicken feet, but only if they had worn shoes -- and socks."

Now you're just being disgusting."


No, just trying to respect your tastes. In fact, I probably would find chicken feet disgusting, though my grandmother used to serve tongue. I think they came from cows,

And once on a vacation in France, I made it a point to eat one new and disgusting thing each day. Nothing as appalling as raw fish, of course, but an adventure nonetheless by my standards that included lapin, cuisses de grenouille, gesier de canard confit and Andouillette de Vouvray. I guess you could count this as one of my sixteen, or even let each animal part be an item of its own on the list of sixteen.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Kelli Stanley said…
Ah, reuse! A perfect motif for the Depression era--now or then. ;)I'll follow suit on my blog ... and in the meantime, Linda, is the raw thing just limited to fish, or do you like steak tartare as well?

(For the record, I've dabbled in sushi but prefer fish fully cooked and never staring at me from a dinner plate ...)
And where did the 16 things come from? Like, why 16? I do not know. I don't make this stuff up!

And, Kelli: I do like steak tartare, if prepared by the right hands. And my steak? Bring it blue! (Hamburgers, too. I don't buy the ecoli stuff. If heat doesn't kill it in spinach, it ain't gonna do much for meat.)
Ali Karim said…
A funny idea when completed, but 16 is a lot of stuff to reveal, but fun and thanks

Ali
http://www.existentialistman.blogspot.com/
Very good, Ali. Now what do you think it is about American coffee that you like? Prepared American style? Or...?
Anonymous said…
Linda - I'm posting my "tagged" list on The Graveyard Shift on Saturday 1-10-09. I've also added a few extra things about me, including one that's not true. The first person to point out the lie will receive a DVD of the entire first season of A&E TV's hit show Crime 360.

I owe you one for this...

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