Tagged.

I have been tagged with the "eight random facts" meme, by the author of the fascinating blog bradshaw of the future - a blog I've been meaning to highlight here for some time, so more on that in another post. 

For now, on to the meme.  I'm finding it a challenge because in a way, Geek of All Trades itself is a collection of random facts about me.  So I have to find eight facts that haven't yet made it into Geek of All Trades posts, or cannot be deduced from reading them.  I hope they are at least somewhat interesting.

Rules (edited for brevity):

1. Post these rules before giving the facts.
   
2. Then post eight random facts/habits about yourself.3
3. At the end of your post, choose eight bloggers to tag and list them.
   
4. Leave your tagees a comment telling them they're tagged.
   

Facts:

• It is entirely possible that I could recite along with the actors every dialogue from Cold Comfort Farm.  Also Howards End, and perhaps also Breakfast at Tiffany's.

• When I was in my twenties, I couldn't wait to turn 30.  Now I am well into my 30s and I can't wait to turn 40.  I also greet each new gray hair as a welcome, long-awaited guest.

• I went through a period of several years in which I frequently dreamed about witnessing a plane crash.  In the typical dream, a low-flying airplane would enter my field of vision from behind me or from the side.  It would fly across my field of vision and then be obscured by a tree, hill, or building.  Then I would hear the crash and see the explosion from behind the object that obscured the airplane.  The dreams are much less frequent now.  During that time I was also afraid of flying, though I did so when I had to.  I had not been afraid of flying at all before this, and I am not now - the fear went away on its own.

• I am the laziest, most irresponsible, most undisciplined person I know.  David says that this is only so because my friends and acquaintances are all extraordinarily highly-motivated people.  Clearly I need new friends.  Also  I am a perpetual dilettante and serial obsessionist.  Or maybe I just have the attention span of a gnat.

• According to one of my early baseball memories, on or near my birthday one year I went to a game at Yankee Stadium with my dad at which catcher Rick Cerone hit a home run.  I can't identify this game from the data at Retrosheet though.   It might be this game, if my dad took me to night games when I was in third grade.  Rick Cerone didn't hit that many home runs, and that is the only one he hit any time at Yankee Stadium any time near my birthday.  It's possible that I've conflated two memories - one of going to the stadium on my birthday, and another of Rick Cerone hitting a home run. 

• I'm on my second career now, and frequently fantasize about what my third will be.  If I could be a professional student, I would.  I sometimes dream of going to graduate school in linguistics, but I am afraid that the transition from avocation to vocation will kill my passion for it.  I think I will probably end up teaching - I'd teach just about any subject to just about any students, provided they want to be there and are eager to learn.  I would also be very happy as an editor, but it seems that fewer and fewer employers want to pay people to edit things. 
  

• An acquaintance of mine who is an aspiring filmmaker made a ten-minute documentary about me for her filmmaking workshop.  If I am feeling particularly exhibitionist, and if she gives me permission, I may just post it for all of you to see.

• I put up my first website in late 1995 or early 1996.  It is long, long gone, but portions of it can be seen via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  For a while I had a Natalie Merchant fan page on that site, which was gone before the Internet Archive existed, so it's lost to posterity.  Still, in that tradition, I recently started a third blog, called Sounds Like Power, which is a fan blog devoted to Shabana Azmi.  Le plus ca change ...

Passing along the tag:  I am not sure I can think of eight who have not already been tagged, but I will try.

The Real Charlie:  My friend Charlie, who writes about beer, traffic, morbidity and mortality, and his daughters, among other things.

While She Naps:  My friend Abby, who writes about the magnificent soft sculptures she creates while her two daughters (who happen to be the same as Charlie's two daughters) are sleeping.

Desi in Boston:  My friend Amit, who writes about all kinds of things.

Darkstate:  My soul-mate David, who doesn't write about anything, but perhaps this tag will kick-start him and get him blogging again.

Was Watching: Steve, whom I got to know when I was a moderator on his now largely defunct NetShrine discussion board, is a very ardent and loyal Yankees fan who is unafraid to go out on a limb with his unique and creative ideas about baseball.  I hope he will respond to this tag by posting some interesting Yankee-related facts about himself. 

Well, that's pathetic - I can only think of five.  The trouble is, I think, that most of the blogs I read are by people who don't know me and who couldn't really be bothered to respond to my dinky little tag, like Susie Bright or Language Log.  But if I think of anyone else I'll come back and update the post. 

Comments

[WasWatching.com]

Thanks (?) for the tag! LOL.
I'll try and respond to the challenge soon.

[John]

thanks for playing!

[affestadiepof]

Very interesting blog. What do you think of my sincere boom Wanna good joke? What do you get when you cross an elephant and a skin doctor? A pachydermatologist.