Meme time!

Q: What book are you currently reading? Is it good so far?

Glad you asked. I'm currently reading Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories, a collection of the various Peter Wimsey short stories that Dorothy Sayers wrote (having previously finished off all the novels). It's interesting the difference in the forms -- these are more "mystery" than the novels, though Sayers' true interest and talent is in providing fascinating characters than in intricately crafted whodunnits. Despite there being a bit less characterization than in the novels, these shorts benefit from their length, bringing Sayers to a point and conclusion in a timely and satisfying fashion, rather than the normal meandering through large, engaging casts. Well worth reading.

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Take a picture o' yourself right now. Don't change yer clothes, don't fix yer hair ... Just take a picture. Post that picture with NO editin'. Post these instructions with yer picture.

(meme via Stephen; accent via Talk Like a Pirate Day)

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We did an ice breaker for myself and fellow managers today. Since it's the sort of thing I've done here before, I figured it was worth passing on my notes.

1. What cities have you lived in?  San Francisco (Mountain View); Los Angeles (dimond Bar, Glendora, Monrovia, Phillips Ranch); in Colorado Ft Collins and Denver (Denver, Centennial).
2. What do you do when you're not at work? Reading. Playing D&D and other RPGs. Playing "City of Heroes" with my wife. Writing. Working in the garden. Spending time with Katherine. Furthering my collections (wine, comic books, quotations). Church stuff. Karate.
3. What's the coolest thing about working in IT? Getting to see and be involved in the whole enterprise. Being a part of a set of solid teams. The people I get to work with.
4. What advice would you give a new employee to hit the ground running?  Talk to peple. Build contacts both among your colleagues and your clients. And, from a practical standpoint, you'll never regret it if you make friends with payroll, HR, facilities and office management, and, of course, local IT.
5. What is your favorite TV show? Currently, the weekly one I'm most excited about is Doctor Who. The one I chew through like popcorn is Law & Order. Unlike a lot of the others, not really interested in any sitcoms. Historically, Babylon 5 and Firefly are tops in my book.
6. What is your favorite movie? Who can narrow it down? This summer, probably Iron Man and Hancock.  Comfort food family fare would be Undercover Blues. Classics would be Twelve Angry Men and The Maltese Falcon. And just to throw out a couple more, Baron Munchausen and The Incredibles. 
7. What is your favorite food? If osso bucco is on the menu, that's usually what I'll order. As a general genre, Italian food. I'm also very fond (overly so, I fear) of both ice cream and cookies as general categories.
8. What is your favorite music/artist/group? Far too many secondary choices, none that stands out as an absolute. Loreena McKennitt. The Nylons. The Battlefield Band. Various Baroque composers (Handel, Bach, Vivaldi). Loudon Wainwright III. James Barry. The Bangles. My tastes dance all over the place.
9. What is your favorite book? Yikes, again, far too many. Gaiman's Neverwhere springs to mind. In terms of rereads, Heinlein (Starship Troopers? Friday?). Parker's Spenser novels? Brust? Norton? Gah!
10. What's your favorite vacation spot? Wales. Or, perhaps, England's West Country.

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: Media - Books :: Media - Movies :: Media - Music :: Media - TV :: Personal :: Personal Q&A :: Travel
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Via DOF.

1. Write the title to your own memoir using exactly six words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag five other bloggers.

Plenty of Potential, Not Much Progress 

Or, alternately,

Luckier Than I Should Have Been 

I eschew tagging folks for memes. Pick it up if it floats your boat.

(Note that this is the same idea as the Six Word Memoir ongoing thing that SMITH does. Even published a book of them, Not Quite What I Was Planning, which I own.)

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Here's Steve's Open Question(s) for February (just barely in time):

1. Do you write in your books?  Do you write reading notes, random notes, or just your name?
   
   I usually write my name in paperbacks I buy, once I finish them, along with the date finished, and, if the location I bought it is interesting, that info, too. In some cases, I update the date when I reread them. I have this dream that someone will find a book I've given away and tell me about it. I also like finding names/dates in old books I buy. "Who was that person," I wonder, and "what did they find in this book?" 
   
   In books of quotations, I make tick marks next to ones that catch my eye. In books I'm studying, I don't cavil (since my college days) to underline key passages.
   
   
2. Do you have any autographed books?
   
   Quite a number of graphic novels and trade paperbacks. It's a nice thing, but not something I obsess over.
   
   
3. Do you write dedications in the books you give as gifts? You like finding dedications in your books?
   
   I'm a big believer in writing dedications in books, though I'm not always thorough about doing so. I've always enjoyed getting dedications in books, or finding them in books I've bought used. They add a human element, a connectedness to the book.

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From an e-mail from my folks:  Things that "If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!"

• 45 rpm spindles - I remember these -- little inserts you could put in a 45 record's hole to make it fit on a "normal" record player.  Don't laugh -- it's essentialy the same as the little micro-SD chips that fit into a normal SD chip carrier.
• Green Stamps -  I remember my mom collecting these ... though we were more of a Blue Chip Stamp kind of family.
• Metal ice cubes trays with levers - You can still find these in the refrigerators of churches and vacation cabins.  They are virtually indestructible, and will probably outlast civilization.
• Beanie and Cecil - I have utterly no recollection of the old TV puppet show -- but I have fond memories of the cartoon version many years later.  "And your obedient serpent is ... a Bob Clampett cartoooooooooon ..."
• Roller-skate keys - Vague recollection.  They were used for skates that clamped onto shoes, right?  This was back at the dawn of time, when roller scale wheels were in two pairs, like auto tires, rather than inline, like ice skates.  Never had them, anyway.
• Cork pop guns - I actually had one of these.  Not terribly exciting.
• Marlin Perkins - Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom naturalist and pitch man.  "Just as that giant cobra is consuming Jim, so too can a personal disaster consume your life savings.  At Mutual of Omaha ..."  We used to watch that show all the time when I was a kid.
• Drive in Movies - A few of these still exist.  While they were long past their heyday when I was dating, I did take in a drive-in movie or two.  Don't ask me what they were.
• Drive in restaurants - Not in an American Graffiti kind of way -- though you can "drive-in" to Sonics, which I've done a couple of times.
• Car Hops - Roller-skating waiters at drive-in restaurants.  Nope.
• Studebakers - Nope.
• Topo Gigio - Nope.
• Washtub wringers - My Nona had one, though I suspect she got it from the ranch where she grew up.
• The Fuller Brush Man - One of these guys actually sold us something when I was in kindergarten.  I recall having a Fuller Brush (or perhaps just a comb) for some years.
• Sky King - Before my time..
• Reel-To-Reel tape recorders - I remember when these were the mark of a true audiophile.  Some of the people my parents played chamber music with had these when I was growing up. 
• Tinkertoys - I had these.  They rocked.  (They are also still available in stores).
• Erector Sets - I had one of these, too, though it wasn't quite as fun.  Not as flexible as Tinkertoys.
• Lincoln Logs - Had a set.  Booooring.
• 15 cent McDonald hamburgers - No, but I remember when you could order a Whopper and "get change back for your dollar."
• 5 cent packs of baseball cards - No idea.  Never collected 'em.
• Penny candy - Not that I recall.  But I didn't buy much candy growing up.
• 25 cent a gallon gasoline - Yes.  We used to on long (looooooong) weekend drives. "Let's go back by way of Barstow!"
• Jiffy Pop popcorn - Not something we ever got, but I was always fascinated by the commercials.
• 5 cent stamps - I don't recall.
• Gum wrapper chains - I remember kids making these, but I never did.
• Chatty Cathy dolls - Not that I recall.
• 5 cent Cokes - Not that I recall.
• Speedy Alka-Seltzer - Before my time.  I was more a "I can't believe I ate the whooooole thing" generational sort.
• Cigarettes for Christmas - Egads!  No.
• Falstaff Beer - Before my time.
• Burma Shave signs - Before my time.
• Brownie camera - We had one.  Shot huuuuuuge negatives.  A great little camera.
• Flash bulbs - Aside from countless TV shows and movies, we never used 'em.  We did have an Instamatic that used flash cubes, though.
• TV Test patterns - Sure, back when channels actually went off the air for the evening (following a rendition of the National Anthem, and, possibly, that flying poem).
• Old Yeller - Never saw it.  Read the book growing up, though.  Never had a desire to see it after that.
• Chef Boy-AR-dee - Um, still around.
• Fire escape tubes - What?
• Timmy and Lassie - We occasionally watched Lassie when I was growing up, but in color, and post-Timmy.
• Ding Dong Avon calling - Yuppers.
• Brylcreem - Before my time.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees - Only by reference in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Yes, I am old.

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This one was started by PZ Myers at Pharyngula as a means of demonstrating evolution in cyberspace. I am not going to tap anyone -- pick it up as you will.

First, the rules:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

• You can leave them exactly as is.
• You can delete any one question.
• You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
• You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.
• You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

The lineage:

• My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
• My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
• My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
• My great-great-great-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
• My great-great-grandparent is Kate.
• My great-grandparent is Finally Maturing.
• My grandparent is Parts-n-Pieces
• My parent is I See Invisible People.

The Questions and Answers:

• The best adult novel in SF/Fantasy is: Good Omens
• The best scary movie in modern pop culture is: The Blair Witch Project
• The best happy song in classic rock music is:  "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
• The best cult novel in historic fiction is: The Name of the Rose
• The best high-carb food in American cooking is: Tater Tots

(via Terry -- though you have to wonder about any meme where the rules are substantially longer than the substance. :-) )

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Media - Books :: Media - Movies :: Media - Music :: Personal Q&A
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Via Doyce:

Two Names I Go By:

1. Dave
2. Three-Star Dave (on various net sites, with or without asterisks)

Two Things I Am Wearing Right Now:

1. "Bring on the Bad Guys" Kirby villain t-shirt
2. Banana boxers.

Two Things I Would Want in a Relationship:

1. Margie
2. More Margie

Two of My Favorite Things to do:

1. Play games (online, offline, face-to-face, whatever)
2. Blog (duh)

Two Things I Want Very Badly At The Moment:

1. To discover it's actually Friday.
2. To finish welcoming Margie home.

Two things I did last night:

1. Karate class.
2. Dinged Lady Zebra to 23.

Two things I ate today:

1 Some leftover Chinese from Wild Basil.
2. Some pasta.

Two people I most recently talked to:

1. Margie -- she's home, huzzah!
2. Katherine

Two things I'm doing tomorrow:

1. Going back to the office (been working from home the last couple of days).
2. Karate class.

Two longest car rides:

1. Denver to Indianapolis (with a "this was further than we thought" impromptu overnight stay somewhere most of the way there).
2. Denver to Los Angeles, non-stop, two or three times, over the holidays.

Two Favorite Holidays:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas

Two Favorite Beverages:

1. A big, spicy Zinfandel.
2. White Rascal Hefeweise

Two Things you may not have known:

1. I'm on the CoX I11 Close Beta ... oops, shouldn't have said that.
2. My greatest speech success in High School was an expository speech on left-handedness.

Two jobs I have had in my life:

1. Jack-of-all-Stations at Burger King.
2. VM Systems Programmer at Pomona College.

Two places I have lived:

1. Centennial, Colorado
2. Mountain View, California

Two of my Favorite Foods:

1. Apple Crisp
2. Chili Cheese Fries

Two Places I'd rather be right now:

1. Wales
2. In bed with Margie.

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Job Jollies :: Love and Marriage :: Personal Q&A :: Travel
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Steve's "Open Question" for this month:

What magazines do you read? Do you subscribe, or pick them up at the store? Do you have favourites, or do you grab a copy on a whim? How long do you keep the magazines? Are there magazines you flip through but would never admit to owning? (keep it clean, though [grin])

I subscribe to Smithsonian (some excellent historical and "natural history" articles) and Consumer Reports (I don't always agree with them, and aren't always interested in all of their subjects, but there's almost always something I can find to read in there).  Oh, and Comic Buyers Guide (all about the comic book biz, historically and present), almost forgot that one.  I subscribe to them because if I waited until I remembered to pick them up at the store, I'd almost never get them.

I keep magazines ... hmmmm ... I'm an awful pack rat, but I am trying to get better.  All  the above get round-filed after reading.  Another reason I don't subscribe to National Geographic.

Regarding magazines I'll read when  pressed -- say, at a doctor's office -- I get a guilty pleasure out of flipping through the inanity in People and Us.  I enjoy the news blurbiness of Time and Newsweek (but wouldn't read them regularly enough if I subscribed to them). And, in a crunch, popular mechanics and science and even "housewife" magazines will make do.  Gotta have something to read, man ...

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Les points to a Popular Mechanics article on 25 Skills Every Man Should Know.  How many of them do I know?  Let's see.

1. Patch a radiator hose - I've not done it.  I think I could do it, if it's of the nature I think it is.  I'm going to count it.
2. Protect your computer - Been there, done that.  Multiply.
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized - I believe I could do this.  Life preservers, life vest, rope, gaff sticks, or even just (I think) swimming.  Certainly I'd give it the old college try.
4. Frame a wall - I've done nearly the equivalent with our cabinet-making, so I think I could do tihs.
5. Retouch digital photos - I do it regularly.
6. Back up a trailer - Been there, KOAed that.
7. Build a campfire - And lay a good fireplace.
8. Fix a dead outlet - Done it.  Of course, I've also caused small electrical fires at times (though only with switches, not outlets).  I prefer not to, but if it's just a matter of replacing an outlet, I can do it.  In fact, I've done it many times in upgrading from traditional vs. Decora outlets around the house.
9. Navigate with a map and compass - Get around in a car?  Yeah.  We talking being out in a field with a topo map and a compass?  Been quite some time, but I think I could get there alive.
10. Use a torque wrench - Frequently.
11. Sharpen a knife - Done that.
12. Perform CPR - I've trained, but it's been a while.  I could be coached, but I'm not sure I could do it.
13. Fillet a fish - I wouldn't trust any fish I filleted. Fortunately, it's not a circumstance I've ever found myself in or think I will be.
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid - I've done that, successfully and unsuccessfully.  I'll count that as a win.
15. Get a car unstuck - Done it, and aware of the basic principles and tactics.
16. Back up data - Do it in various ways -- not as often as I should (who does?).
17. Paint a room - Done it.
18. Mix concrete - I've done it in small batches for fence foundations, and the fence is still up.  I'll take it as a win.
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle - I have no doubt I could do it, with instruction, but I wouldn't know how to start.
20. Change oil and filter - I've done it before.  Not for many years, and that by choice.  I would want some instructions, but ...
21. Hook up an HDTV - I'm pretty confident I could -- I've certainly screwed around with every other A/V configuration we've had.
22. Bleed brakes - No clue.  Nor would I trust a car I tried it with.
23. Paddle a canoe - I've done it, though not lately. 
24. Fix a bike flat - Done it before.
25. Extend your wireless network - Hell, I've been asked by friends to work on it for them.  Boo-yah!

So that's 21 of 25, making me 84% of a Manly Man, I guess.  Much handier (or claiming to be) than I would have guessed.

Filed under :: Cars :: Home Improvement :: Personal Q&A
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