Tuesday, December 2, 2008

6 Random Things about Me

I got tagged by OzAtheist for the six random things about myself meme. Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (That's the underliney bit at the top.)
2. Post the rules on your blog. (That's what yer reading.)
3. Write six random arbitrary things about yourself.(That's what yer on pins and needles waiting for. GET ON WITH IT!!!!)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (nag nag)
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (Oh for fuck's sake I'm on DIALUP!!!!!)
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. (Yoh! OzA! My entry is up. If this announcement doesn't count, I'm also sending the info. via twitter.)

Random Fact About Fiery #1- I let a pro-lifer have it on the phone today. She called up wanting to play a recorded message for my mum that was a matter of "life and death" urgency. When asked what the subject was, she said abortion. I said, "Abortion is a horrible...horrible...horrible thing... to prevent. Abortions should be available to women to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children." and then I added a very bright and cheery, "THANKS!" Click. I wish I'd had time to think of a better answer, but that was mine off the fly.

Random Fact About Fiery #2- I don't give a rats arse about getting the mail. Some people compulsively check every single day (or have to because of the quantity they get). We have a post office box where our mail is delivered (no street delivery) and I send my daughter to check what's there about 3 times a month.

Random Fact About Fiery #3- I love sorting things and putting things in order especially books. Best job I ever had was as a used book store owner and dealing with the books we got in on trade- sorting, organizing, shelving. YAY!!!!! In fact, when I'm cleaning house and I find a deck of cards I always sort them by suit then by rank. You'd be appalled if I told you the method I use.... every time.... Red above, black below, bumpy on the left, smooth on the right. In other words, from top to bottom Hearts/Diamonds/Clubs/Spades. *snerk*

Random Fact About Fiery #4- I play the flute (and have since 5th grade) and love performing. But I can't bring myself to practice if I don't have a performance coming up. Yet I'm happier when I play. I even majored in music education at university but didn't complete the degree as I got pregnant with my son and didn't want to teach in a public school.

Random Fact About Fiery #5- I just found out that my parents could upgrade their internet service for about $45 a month. Fingers crossed that they say yes!!!!!!

Random Fact About Fiery #6- Every time I get on the computer my cat Neko comes to sit on my lap.

Bonus Fact about Fiery- several people are going to be surprised and possibly even disappointed that none of these facts were about sex. It was with great restraint that they were not. :P

Let's see... as to who to target as most of the bloggers I know have already been infected with this meme and I know that even on dialup. *rolls eyes* Yeah, I'm about 3 weeks behind the times.

And Sean- your meme about blogging's effect on me is next on my list. :)

XO- Ya up for it? Or are ya feeling all crotchity since Dash left?
Protium- Yes. I know. You can't be bothered. But I bet you can come up with some interesting bits about yourself.
Harry Nads- You can leave it here if you're so inclined. :)
T&A- gets a mention because I miss his blog like crazy and hope things are well in the friendly skies.
LaLibertina- who recently showed up again on Atheist Nexus, some of us knew her as EvolveIntoBirds. YAY!!!!
Richard- Put the brandy down and tell us about yourself. :)

15 comments:

Poodles said...

OMG! No Sex. I think I shall faint!

T T Eyes said...

What the hell is that phone call about, wanting to play a recorded message about abortion...huh..for your mum??? Are they just randomly calling anybody and everybody, ugh? I would be giving them a mouthfull too, good on ya!!!

Anonymous said...

got your message, must say I'm a little disappointed - No Sex! :)

What an odd phone call, your answer was fine, it left no room for debate.

A flute player, hmmm interesting, if it makes you happy why don't you practice more?

Half rabbit said...

I hope your upcoming performance goes well. Maybe everyone who reads this blog should petition you to practice and do a online concert exclusively for us. :)

Green-Eyed Momster said...

I'm so jealous about #3!! That's my dream job!!!

Seriously, I can play the flute too! I had a pretty one in elementary school and I played in a few talent shows. I was good at it but I didn't continue with it!! Seriously!!

Ditto what everyone else said!! Seriously!!
;)

Hugs!!

SouthLoopScot said...

OK, I'll bite. Yup, I'm back!

Richard said...

Wha...? I thought flute playing was about sex.

Richard said...

Six random things about me:

1.
I was born and raised as a Brit, but I love coffee way way more than tea. Sacrilege perhaps —go play a violin!

2.
Until I was 15, I loved swimming in swimming pools, lakes and rivers, so I became a competitive swimmer. Now the only swimming that is fun for me is in deep enough rapids, in big waves, or SCUBA diving coral walls. When swimming with my kids, I have to fake that I am having fun in pools and lakes.

3.
I've loved women ever since I met, Joy Alderson, the wife of Eric Alderson. He was a farmer who sponsored (by providing Dad a job) my family's immigration to Canada from England. Many other people of either sex had smiled at me, but when she smiled it was as if she was the whole World. Everyone who knew was amused, but I did not care. I was four.

4.
When I was thirteen I still had no idea what sex was, other than as a gender difference. Nonetheless, I had a dream of a red oval surrounded by a kind of haze, and it made me, for the first time ever, terribly aroused. Yes, it was one of those dreams. When I was fifteen I wanted to wantonly know, as carnally as possible, the body of the pretty 15 yr blond that was in my Confirmation Class. Every time a church service required recitation of The Apostles Creed, I thought of her and got aroused.

You know the A.C., it starts like this: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth..." Did I feel guilty? A bit, but I was ready to accept the consequences if we could just....

5.
I have seen a man accidentally break off 2\3rds of his very frozen right ear. He then cursed, picked it up and threw it into a wood stove. It sizzled for a while.

6.
I have been in a float plane that flew with the wind towards a cliff. At the last second the pilot, cursing, rolled the plane upside-down, & dove with the plane's belly facing that cliff. There was a 35-40 knot (60 mph) draft rising up a cliff face, and he used it to violent pull up and level with the little lake below so he could land into the wind. That is, he landed facing in the opposite direction he'd been at the start of the maneuver. The plane had a 16' aluminum motorboat strapped to one pontoon! Inside, our cargo floated up and then violently slammed back down. My work partner threw up.

Bonus:
When in my early twenties, on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park, Ontario, I was picking raspberries growing up from a huge pile of slash (tree debris from lumbering operations). I abruptly fell about 10 feet down a slope. I ended up on my back with my face less than a foot from that of a black bear. I can still see his/her mouth dripping raspberry juice saliva. The bear was unperturbed and kept eating raspberries, so I did too, until it and I were far enough a part that I felt safe to walk away.

T T Eyes said...

Richard, I liked all your random thingys, but number 5 intrigued me no end, how come the guys ear was frozen in the first place? I'm sure there is so much more to that story, do tell :)

Richard said...

When I was living in Northern Ontario, age eight (1059), I occasionally played with an Ojibwa Indian boy.

His home was two of those large billboard signs, standing about 15 feet apart. Straw bales insulated the 'rear' billboard. Each of the end walls consisted of stacked straw bales on the outside and rough cut planks on the inside (which also supported the straw).

The roof was, again, rough cut planks for a ceiling with more straw bales on top, covered with some sort of tarp or tar paper.

The door was a sheet of plywood cut slightly larger than the opening. There were a couple of 'windows' in the billboards, which were saw-cut openings covered with wax paper.

Inside, one end was a large family-bed 'platform' of straw bales, with furs and sleeping bags on top. The other end had a table, three small benches, a plywood counter with a basin and small water tank, a wood stove and wood pile. I cannot recall the floor.

Nails in the wall held clothing at the 'bedroom' end and pots, pans and utensils at the kitchen end. Of course, coats and such were near the door.

One day late in January I had gone to school, but the temp was -42 F degrees, and school was closed. Yay, a freeze day.

A freeze day is like a "snow day" only colder. Below -40 the school's wood stove could not keep the school warm enough for us kids to work, especially write.

I went to the Ojibwa boy's home to play.

The boy's Dad worked at the sawmill (and was missing three fingers). He was home that day, either off work, or on a different shift. Indoors, he was wearing a lumber shirt and down vest, jeans and warm boots.

I had not been there long when the boys parents began to argue. It turned into a screaming match, all in Ojibwa, punctuated with four-letter words that I could recognize.

Suddenly, the Dad just stomped out the door, and we could hear him angrily splitting firewood. He was out there in the bitter cold and light wind, barely dressed and with nothing above his neck. After what must have been 40 minutes to an hour. He came in with a load of wood stacked on his right arm.

As he entered the narrow doorway, he steadied the wood by tilting his head onto the top piece. When he dumped the wood onto the indoor woodpile, a piece of bark or protruding stub of a branch hooked his frozen ear and plucked most of it off. His still-angry wife wasted no time, yelling at him even more. Cursing, he picked up his ear chunk and threw it into the open door of the wood stove. As I said, it sizzled.

Us boys were very very quiet! I did not stay for lunch.

T T Eyes said...

Richard, thats an awesome story. I can hardly believe you were 8 in 1059 :o)

The place they lived in must have been verry cold in that kind of weather, my mind boggles because i just cant get my head around -42degrees sheeeitttt!!!

And just chucking the ear away like that, i guess he couldn't do anything else, just made me shudder, whilst mad wifey just screamed on.

I seem to have my own clear mental picture of you two little boys with mouths agape being very quiet and still in the corner as the story unfolded in front of you...thanks for that, i loved it :)

Richard said...

Thanks TTEyes.

We had a number of freeze days that winter, but one weekend day was -51 F deg. My Mum let us go out, but we could barely move for the clothes we had on.

My brother and I were out for all of half an hour. We spent most of that time peering out of our snow tunnel. We pretended we were Eskimos, and hoped our breath would warm up our 'igloo'. Of course, that didn't happen.

-40 was looking good.

T T Eyes said...

It fascinates me how people can live in such extreme conditions.

I've only seen snow once in my life, when I was about 20, on a day trip to a mountain just outside of Melbourne. I went with big expectations of being freezing cold, wore lots of clothes etc...but it was a sunny day and we actually were hot and I got very sunburned. We made snowballs and threw them around and I got one in the knee and it blew up like a balloon...a limpingly unhappy ending to a funny day.

Richard said...

"It fascinates me how people can live in such extreme conditions.

This is the great thing about Man's capacity to think in concepts and principles. We change our Environment to suit our needs... even with clothing.

That human power is the very thing Environmentalists seek to prevent, through coercive legislation.

evolveintobirds said...

Aw...I'm sorry I missed this! I had to completely wipe my computer a week or two ago and lost all my bookmarks. I've been very slowly going back and checking on all the blogs and just saw this today. I shall immediately go subscribe to your feed. :)