Tagged again, or memed, as Amuirin put it. Meme is one of those slippery weords for me which I have to look up to find it’s a cultural concept that gets passed around, but still somehow it remains elusive for me, so I keep looking it up. (And weord is so a word, it’s just one I made up, combining weird and word. Jabberwocky is a weord, as is gonzo.)
Tagged again I am, and the mem-niotic notion is to post 7 random facts about oneself, then tag 7 others who are to post the guidelines, too, and tag 7 others, et cetera, und so weiter, until everyone is repeatedly tagged and frantically posting and tagging, preoccupying the work force until it slows down, curbing global warming and reducing the waste in our disposable consumer society so that the planet is not an overheated toxic landfill for our grandchildren. Umm, or maybe I just made that up, too. Never mind. Here are my seven:
1. I’ve (somehow subconsciously) decided that food and drink taste good in direct proportion to how much I’ve been told I shouldn’t partake of them. Nothing has made meat taste good so much as finding out I have high cholesterol and having various medical professionals advise me that I shouldn’t eat it. A nice sausage is now truly delicious. Cheddar never tasted better. The same thing with beer. I’ve never enjoyed this stuff so much since I’ve been told it can raise my cholesterol.
Probably the best thing that ever could have happened to my health and diet would have been someone prohibiting me from tasting broccoli, kale, or brusselsprouts.
2. On the other hand, nutritionists have recently come out and said it’s good for men to eat sardines. This is very very good news, as I was previously told they were bad for my cholesterol, which meant sardines on crackers with cheese became quite tasty. So far they are still tasty, despite being, um, good for me.
3. Regarding spirituality, I seem to be out-of-step with much of the human race. Ferrinstance, If I understand Christian theology properly, Christians believe humans have souls and animals do not. Thus, if one were to line up a chimpanzee, an orangutan, a human, and a fly and ask a devout Christian which three have the most in common spiritually and which is the odd one out, a Christian would single out the human and say the other three–two primates and an insect–have the most in common.
I find this rather stunning, and another bit of evidence that our gift of speech is a wonderful and devious double-edged sword; we are capable of so much, including amazing self-deceptions.
I do not know if souls can be measured — movies about 21 grams notwithstanding. If there is a Creator, I do not know if That One has a divine scale that can display the spiritual gravitas or weight of a bonobo compared to a bumblebee.
But some part of me intuitively believes I have more in common with the ape, and the ape more in common with me, than either of us has with the bug.
And don’t even get me started about the souls of dogs.
4. I almost adopted a parrot once. (Yes, Amuirin, this is for you.) A friend who is a vet in a bird hospital hooked us up, the avian adoption agency told me we would get the African gray but that I needed to speak to and reassure the current owner. I had a long phone interview with a frantic woman suffering immense guilt about her changed life circumstances and her bird’s need for company. Over an hour into the interview she revealed she was interviewing four others, too — something the bird adoption agency had told me wasn’t true. When I told her this, she got even more anxious and freaked out, and the conversation ended. I never spoke to her again. (The adoption agency was quite exasperated with her, however.)
It may be for the best. Psittacines in general are very, very social creatures and need mental stimulation; since then, our schedules have changed so that we wouldn’t be around a lot, and that would be difficult for a bird such as a parrot; when bored they are prone to neuroses.
A large bird with a powerful beak and mental health problems — there’s a nightmare for you, Amuirin. *Wide-eyed grin and grimace, like Wallace of ‘… and Gromit’ *
Still, I would love to have an aviary, with two or more species of birds, especially a little flock of budgies, and a large parrot or two. I even know what I would train them to say.
5. I occasionally have an odd taste memory of certain foods or food smells that I can’t quite place. The sense memory of a specific sauce will come to mind, but I can’t quite place it, let alone think of its name. So I have an odd, mild craving I can’t satisfy because I can’t quite think of what it is.
6. Most of us work to make money. But not many of us get to do so literally. My father had an aunt who worked for the Bureau of Engraving in the 1930s through the 1950s. She left the Upper Midwest and moved to Washington, DC, where she worked her way up to becoming a supervisor in the paper-money-making business.
It’s cool to think she was making all that money, such as silver certificates, that went into circulation, passed among countless hands, wallets, and cash registers.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t a very pleasant person; in fact, my father remembers her as embittered and the first overt racist he ever met. The Bureau integrated during the time she worked there, and she apparently became somewhat bigoted during the process. She must have been pretty difficult to work for. It was a different world back then — but still.
7. I’m an incredible procrastinator. I come up with lists of things to do in an effort to organize my efforts, get halfway through them in the course of a weekend or week and then, at work, start a new list and get halfway through it, again and again, until I have several lists and create a new, master to-do list out of all those. Which, as I’m also a pack-rat, I’ve saved along with other, older lists. I may only get half to-done, but I’ve got some incredible lists detailing my ambitions. They could become keepsakes. I could put them in a scrapbook and have an effective diary of my life, both what I’ve accomplished and what I’ve put off — wait, before I finish this random item, I’d better go add that thought to one of my lists …
* * * * * *
Okay, I’ve asked a few people if they are up for playing and heard back from these four: J, Melonkopf, Trucie, and Jeff, consider yourselves tagged, and I look forward to your randomness.
Excellent. Thoughtful and esoteric, I bet no one else in the blogosphere has used ‘psittacine’ in context today.
Number 7, that’s so exactly what I’d figure you’d do. It would be cool to see a post with some of your lists, sub-lists, master lists.
#1, the bad for you feels good thing, I found that particularly relevant, though kind of in an opposite way. When I’m trying to keep up with blogging, it seems a chore sometimes, and not what I want to spend time on. But now that I’m tryin’ to write a novel, all I wanna do is blog, blog, blog. If only life-coaches and philanthropic organizations could harness the power of perverse human psychology.
1. mmmmmm, baaaacccoooooonnnnn…
2. I have a can of sardines in my kitchen which is not really tempting me. You can have it.
3. there was an exhibition here in Sydney last year of huge close up photos of various individuals great ape’s faces – Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimapanzees and Bonobos. I defy anyone who saw it not to believe that these animals have a soul. You can see it clearly in their eyes, especially the orphans traumatised by witnessing their mother slaughtered for the bush-meat or pet trade.
4. So, what would you want to teach them to say??
5. frustrating.
6. was she embittered because she thought some of the people from other races had taken her promotion during the integration period or something?
7. me, too. My iPhone is great for lists.
You’ve taken the stupid task of a meme and made it both original and interesting, and entirely not stupid. Congrats!
Regarding #1, why do you think diets don’t work? 😉
Amuirin, yes — I know. I believe I should be doing something else now, too, which is why the ‘puter is so alluring.
It’s a pity it’s so difficult to incorporate Tom Sawyer’s fence-whitewashing lesson into this equation, whereby we can lure others into taking care of our chores by pretending we enjoy them.
I’m going to delight in trimming the yard now. Are you sure you don’t want to come over?
And mmMMmm, J, these brusselsprouts are so delicious; are you sure you don’t want some?
Truce:
1: yes, baaaaaaaacccooon, wrapped around sizzling coins of saauuus-sage!
2: that’s what you say now — but what happens if you’re told you ought not eat it?
3: it’s funny but it was easier for me to watch nature programs on TV when I was younger. Programs like what you describe register for me now, and it’s harder for me to watch.
4: I think I ought to post on this.
5: Only mildly so — it passes. Mostly it’s just puzzling; why can’t I think of the name? My wife says it never happens for her.
6: I’m not sure. I don’t remember her, and think I only met her when very young. My father tells me she accompanied us on our trip from New Jersey to Minnesota when I was a month old (described in numbers 1 & 2, here.)
7. I can see that an iPhone might be great trouble for me.
Oh. My. Buddha. I am so boring. I responded to your meme and I am so ashamed. *Blushes Furiously*
Well… I guess I can make up for it at a later date.
🙂
How so? Responding is what one expects, nicht wahr?
I had no idea beer raises cholesterol. I thought it was the opposite.
Good thing we bottled hard cider this weekend.
Seems like everything we’re forbidden tastes better. *sigh* Guess that explains Eve and the apple.
When I first tested high, the doctor told me to cut back, in general. Then a decade ago a friend told me how he could tweak the test results by not drinking alcohol before getting tested — I had similar results. I’ve told someone else, and he has had the same thing happen for him.
This is all anecdotal, of course. We’d have to agree to a diet and follow it for weeks, then taste both while drinking and while teetotaling, to be sure.
Hey OB… I guess you’re just more interesting than me. Hee! I loved your randomness. I really cracked up over the vision of “A large bird with a powerful beak and mental health problems.” Muwhahaha!
BTW, I knew a African Green parrot named Maxwell that made bomb-dropping noises, complete with the whistle… I taught him to swear in Italian and also do this dialogue:
NM: “Hey, can you talk?”
Max: “Yeah, dummy, can you fly?”
Hey Ben, finally finished mine. Got through the first five easily enough, then took forever (and convincing from the better half) to finish the last two.
Cheers.
[…] Ombudsben and Donna both tagged me for this most recent form of a fairly popular meme…7 random things about me. Maya would like that, as one of her favorite words is ‘random’. So, here goes. […]
NM, Maxwell sounds very cool — I love the bomb sound effects, and the dialogue. Getting them to reply to a cue is great.
Jeff, I enjoyed your 7. In my reply I forgot to add something — my solution for your nuptial financing might also have the side effect of making you a better Yankees and Packers fan, too.
In fact, I had great fun reading all 3 of yours, Jellyjules, Jeff, and Melonkopf. I’d tag each of you again, but that would be unfair, huh?
And Truce — when will we read yours?
[…] Random Things About Me – a meme By truce The lovely Ombudsben tagged me a few days ago, and I thought I’d posted in response but clearly I am losing the […]
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