Tell me that it's meme-olution/well, you know....

I got tagged by onlineguy: “Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about himself or herself. People who get tagged need to write a blog entry of their own as well as state the rule clearly. In the end, you need to tag 6 people as well and list their names. Don’t forget to let them know they’ve been tagged!”

Six weird things about me

Geeze, only six weird things? Plus also, isn’t this essentially my whole blog? My foremost hobby these days does indeed seem to be embarrassing myself on the internet….

Okay, let’s go for the oddest/ones I can think of (but bear in mind, they’re chosen by me, so you’ll get what I deign to tell you). And also, no fair IRL peeps adding their own…

1. I get obsessed with words and use them into the ground. Here is a calendar of recent word usage:

June 2006 Seriously
August 2006 Yes. Yes I do. (or variants on same)
September 2006 Ace*
October 2006 Dude, WTF?
November 2006 Awesome
January 2007 Groovy
February 2007 Kids (as in, “come on kids, let’s go!” except applied to people of all ages)
March 2007 Dude

While I haven’t stopped using any of these words/phrases, they are being toned down as a new word enters my everyday usage. What will it be next? I’m guessing “rad”.

2. When I was a teenager, my parents’ nickname for me was “Piles”, because I used to leave neatly organized stacks of things around instead of putting them away. Particularly true of books and paper, which dominated the landscape of my room for many years. Anyone who has worked with me (or lived with me) can no doubt also relate to this nickname. I argue that I don’t always know instinctively where something goes when I first receive it**, and it needs some ruminating time. Notably, this is a habit endorsed by PJ O’Rourke’s Bachelor’s Home Companion.

3. I have two birthmarks which are rarely seen, and to stop you all having lurid thoughts, I’m going to tell you why. The first WAS a massive boil-shaped lump on my head at my right temple. Mostly now, it is covered up by my hair. But when I was a little baby (and quite the bald-o), a woman stopped my mother in the street to say “Goodness me, aren’t you going to get that cancer cut off your baby’s head?”. Thanks must go to my mother, who ignored her, and as my head got bigger*** it flattened out, leaving a bald patch. The other birthmark (on my outer thigh) also used to be quite lumpy, but has now flattened out and has a slightly different texture to the rest of my skin. Of course, I’ve gone and evened it up now through my persistent scar that was the result of this injury.

4. I am, for the most part, a strident pragmatist. I think there’s something inherently paradoxical about this. But I guess I know, for the most part, how I would like things to be, and also how they are likely to be. This makes me weird for the most part in the company I keep – who are for the most part rampant idealists or dyed-in-the-wool pragmatists****. Some might say that you can’t achieve without idealism, and I agree that idealism is what drives most people. But I’ve also seen enough of how the world works to understand that most ideals are an ambit claim, rarely lived up to by realities (whatever your ideological/political stripe). Lo! How the cynicism shapes a nation.

5. Sometimes when I see “famous” people, I get the almost irrepressible urge to make fun of them to their face. For example, when I saw Ryan Heath in a conference scrum***** on Monday, I had to stifle my urge to run up to him and say “Dude, what is with your hair?”******. I resisted this temptation, because I am much more polite than that. Well, in real life, at least. And also, as one of my friends quite rightly pointed out, it would have made it a little bit more difficult to have an in-depth conversation about his book if I started our conversation by insulting him on his appearance.

6. I get dandruff in my eyebrows. One of my former work colleagues claims this is the result of failure to moisturise my whole face (because when you moisturise you naturally avoid your eyebrows). I am not sure if this is true, but it is quite perplexing. Also one might argue it negates me making any comments whatsoever on the appearance of others, including, but not limited to, Ryan Heath.

I’m quite pleased that this meme is not to be completed by Mr Fix. I’m sure he can think of many weirder things than this.

Also, I don’t know if anyone else is intrigued by onlineguy’s “mission”. I certainly am.

Tagging: Bevis (to return the favour), Killer Rabbit, I’m Not Craig, Snoskred, Meva and Mr Fromage


Footnotes-a-looza*******

* I had to stop using the word “Ace”, when I applied it to Grizzlewick and he said, “I’m not ace, I’m Grizzlewick”. Seems there was a child called Ace at his childcare, something which made my use of the word very confusing.

** Interestingly enough, the answer seems to be “the bin”. But I like to delay the inevitable by placing it in my fastidious pile first.

*** And who says it has stopped?

**** There are exceptions to this rule. You know who you are.

***** Not an actual scrum. Although, that would have been an innovative way to sort out who got a cup of tea first.

****** In writing this, I remembered that I actually DID approach Becky Thomas from the Mavis’s at one point and ask her essentially the same question (except with a more gushing tone). She was similarly unimpressed, despite my obvious ardour for her “do”.

******* As opposed to, say, "loser".