So Much Stuff I Can't Recall

4 Jobs I've Had:

1. Cook
2. Proofreader & Factchecker
3. Magazine Production Manager
4. Stay-At-Home Dad

4 Movies Watched Over and Over:

1. Tremors
2. Zoolander
3. Undercover Blues
4. Clue

4 Places I've Lived:

1. San Jose, Calif.
2. Salem, Ore.
3. Triangle Lake, Ore.
4. Richardson, Texas

4 TV Shows I Watch:

1. Heroes
2. Mythbusters
3. Monk
4. Psych

4 Places I've Been:

1. Mexico City, Mexico
2. Vancouver/Victoria, B.C.
3. Flint, Mich.
4. Wall Drug, S.D.

4 People Who Email Me Regularly:

1. Dina
2. The Misfits
3. My Folks & In-Laws
4. Various Spammers

4 Favorite Things to Eat:

1. Italian Sausage
2. Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
3. Barbecue
4. Breakfast for Dinner

4 Places I'd Rather Be:

1. Disneyland
2. Seattle, Wash.
3. Santa Cruz, Calif.
4. In a House the Bank Lets Me Think I Own

4 Things I Look Forward to This Year:

1. Letting the Bank Let Me Think I Own a House
2. Finishing My Novel
3. Successfully Completing My First Year Teaching with DISD
4. Upgrading My PowerBook (Memory, OS)

4 People to Tag:

1. Hillary
2. Obama
3. John McC
4. The Mittster

Labels: Memes

Well, grade school, at least.

See also: Mich, Linda, and Angie.

Labels: Memes, Stats

Mich asked the following questions over on her blog, trying to unravel the mystery that is Star Ware preference:

1. What year were you born?

2. Are are male or female?

3. Which do you like better, the Original Trilogy or the Prequel Trilogy?

4. Why?

5. Which is your single most favorite Star Wars episode?

6. Why?

My answers:

1. 1968

2. Male

3. The original Original Trilogy. Not the revisionist re-releases.

4. Han Shoots First

5. Star Wars. Not Episode IV. Not "A New Hope." The first Star Wars movie will always be, simply, Star Wars.

6. Han Shoots First. (Actually, if there was a version that restored the original Mos Eisley footage and kept the rest of the redo stuff -- so no hokey alien antics on the streets, no Han not shooting first, no Jabba -- it would be okeydoke by me. Though as-is is plenty good, too.)

Labels: Friends, Memes

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Middle name after the disciple Thomas. No wonder I’m skeptical.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Most any meat at any meal is good. At lunch a nice pulled pork with barbecue sauce on the side is just dandy.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No, I have kid.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
(Yer kiddin, right?) Define “a lot.”

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes. And not in a specimen jar or my pocket, either.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Does anyone really jump? Isn’t it more of a bungee fall? And no, I wouldn’t.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
There was a lemon thing at Baskin Robbins the June Phil was born. Nothing’s come close since, though B&R German Chocolate Cake and Blue Bell Key Lime Pie are good.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Wasn’t listening to anything. So I hit the “play” button in my FoxyTunes app (thanks, Ang). It picked “Consider” by The Choir. Good song.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO LINKED THIS TO YOU?
The Mir? Yes.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
That episode of Psych that had a Spelling Bee ... that was kind of like a sport. And Shawn and Gus make sport of Detective Lassiter a lot. Um, yeah ... sports.

30. FAVORITE FOOD(S)?
Multi-meat pizza; Togo’s pastrami/Erik’s Marrakesh Express; really good, hard extra-sour rolls/bread; loaded potato skins (no chives/onions); Guinness.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Scarpy endings.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Theater: Spider-Man 3; DVD: The Cheap Detective

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Olive green

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Season: Winter; Girl’s name: Summer

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Brendan by Frederick Buechner

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Wireless optical mouse, so it’s the woodgrain of the desktop.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Cape Canaveral, Florida

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
San Jose, Calif.

(See original 47 Qs here)

Ang. Jenny. Mich. Jen. You're up next.

Labels: Friends, Memes

Lock up the children:



This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

• dead (4x)


• knife (2x)


• death (1x)

(via Jordon Cooper)

Labels: Memes

Since Jason tagged me, I guess I better play along.

Here's my Visual DNA:


And if we're looking to tag people, I'll tag Angie, Linda, and Michelle (who I think already did this, so she's halfway home).

Labels: Friends, Memes

A - Available or Married? Married

B - Best Moment? See above

C - Cake or Pie? Pie -- sweet, sweet pie

D - Drink of choice? Black Cherry & French Vanilla Diet Pepsi

E - Essential Item? Swiss Army Knife

F - Favorite Color? Blue

G - Gummi Bears or Worms? Bears, unless chocolate pudding and Oreo crumbs are involved

H - Hometown? San Jose, Calif.

I - Indulgence? No thanks (can you still even buy those?)

J - January or February? February

K - Kids & names? Yes & Phil

L - Life is incomplete without? Oxygen -- also, pork

M - Marriage Date? No, did not bring a date to my Sept. 3, 1988, wedding -- what kind of cad do you think I am?

N - Number of Siblings? 3

O - Oranges or apples? Apples

P - Phobias/Fears... see earlier meme

Q - Favorite Quotation? "The suspense is terrible ... I hope it lasts," and pretty much everything else said by Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka.

R - Reason to Smile? The Joker's rictus-inducing laughing gas

S - Season? Winter

T - Tag three people! Angie, Jenny, Mike

U - Unknown fact about me: But how would you verify?

V - Vegetable you hate? Brussels Sprouts

W - Worst habit? Gulden's mustard, occasionally kraut

Y - Your favorite food? Nachos

Z - Zodiac? No, I am not the Zodiac Killer


Blame Michelle.

Labels: Friends, Memes

I got tagged by Michelle in the latest "awkward confessional" meme that's circulating on the internets. Six Weird Things About Me. I came up with six, but one of them deserves a post all of its own, so I've resorted to hyperbole and making things up for one of the items below. Can you find it?

Six Weird Things About Me

1. I'm terrified of the new $100 bills. Ben Franklin's big ol' noggin, the way his eyes follow you. It's uncanny. If you want to scare me half to death, send me a $100 bill in the mail. I can tell counterfeit, so don't be a jerk. Krugerands are also frightening. They make me think of Freddy Kruger, and horizontal stripes -- like on his bloodstained brown and red rugby shirt -- don't look good on me at all.


2. I often daydream of being on Oprah, not to discuss my writing, but my line of hand-beaded luxury accessories (purses, neckties, chewing gum valises, etc.) Not that I actually do any hand-beading; I think mainly because I'm afraid I'm not ready for Oprah yet.


3. I do not enjoy the aerial bucket rides at amusement parks. Not so much because of the precarious height and flimsy connection from bucket to cable and the way they swing threateningly in even the slightest breeze, but because I imagine that I'm being carried to a detention facility high in the Swiss alps as I've been framed for the murder of a loved one and also I don't speak French and will not be able to understand the guards who will beat me for not obeying rules I cannot possibly understand. But I blame my fear on heights, mostly.


4. I pronounce the L in Salmon, even when not referring to the author, Rushdie.


5. I am right-handed, but wear my wristwatch on my right hand. I blame this on my older, left-handed brother who refuses to wear his watch on the wrong hand and make things even. Should open war ever break out between our two families, this is why.


6. I have only one anecdote that deals with the prefix "pseudo." If you use said prefix conversationally, I will tell the anecdote to you. So you will be prepared to laugh at the appropriate moment, should I ever tell you the anecdote in person, I will tell it now so you will be ready.

   When Dina and I lived in Sunnyvale, our rental condo had underground parking. None of that is germane to the anecdote, but it helps set the scene, which, again, is not at all relevant. Suffice it to say that I was waiting in the car -- our Plymouth Champ, if I recall correctly and irrelevantly -- listening to talk radio, probably KGO, doesn't really matter, and the caller was ranting about people who pretend they're smart. Whether the caller was a liberal complaining about conservatives putting on smartypants airs or vice versa isn't important so don't worry about it. What is important -- and the closest thing to a point this anecdote has -- is that this caller referred to such people as "suede-o intellectuals."

   I guarantee I will not tell the anecdote any better than that.

As far as I can tell, all my blogging buddies have already been hit by this meme. Rather than add to their shame by tagging them a second (or third, or fourth) time, I'll open up the tag to whoever has wanted to share six weird things about him- or herself and feels slighted that no one has tagged them yet. If you're playing along, leave a note in the comments so we can all come over and point and laugh and spill hot cocoa on your faux hardwood floors. Maybe I'll share my "pseudo" anecdote again.

Labels: Memes

On her blog this morning, Brenda Coulter offered to reveal the contents of her two seven-foot bookshelves. Pick a bookshelf (1 or 2), pick a shelf (1 thru 7), and a starting point on the shelf, and she'd let you know about the five books that led her to. I enquired about the 4th book from the right on five shelves of bookshelf two.

She suggested I help start a meme on this by offering to reveal the contents of my bookshelves, too.

Here goes: Bookshelves 1 and 2 have three shelves accessible, Bookshelf 3 has four. Books aren't stacked neatly, so tell me how many to skip and whether to start from the left or the right side of the shelf. (Shelf 3 of Bookshelf 2 is the only one shared with Dina.) I also have a pile of books across the room.

And then there's the DVD-shelf. The equivalent of six shelves (boxes piled up on the shelved DVDs). Pick shelf, start number, left or right.

So, who's first?

Labels: Books, Brenda Coulter, Memes