The View From The Foothills

Pokéthulhu: Gotta Catch You All.

I’ve been memed by Heather at The Practicing Catholic, and I must say I’m in good company. Being a spoilsport I’m not going to tag anyone else (hey, I’m on vacation!) but I will respond to the meme-ing. The rules are:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag six fellow bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the six blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Obviously I’m not going to do 4 or 5. Anyway, here goes: six quirks:

1. I cannot abide the thought of eating crustaceans. I say they are giant bugs, and I say the hell with them. Most people I know applaud this attitude, as it leaves more for them.

2. I have no real taste for poetry. I enjoy light comic verse (i.e., Lewis Carroll) but serious poetry generally leaves me cold. In my world (software development), communicating clearly and concisely is the most important thing. Whether my lack of taste for poetry is a cause or a symptom, I dunno. I generally regard this as a personal flaw.

3. I have no real interest in travelling to foreign countries. I’ve twice been to Australia on business; in the past I’ve had opportunities to fly to Germany and Korea on business. I’ve been glad to decline. Please note, this is no reflection on Australia, Germany, or Korea; and if I had the funds to fly First Class (or even Business Class) I’d possibly feel differently about it.

4. I like peanut butter more than most people. I suppose that really ought to be “more than most people do”; but it might possibly be true either way.

5. I have never seen an episode of Lost, 21, or any of a number of other shows I hear people enthusing about. I stopped watching TV about the time I got out of college. I started watching again when my kids were really small, because it’s something to do while holding an infant; but when my eldest announced that he couldn’t get his homework done because he had to watch his cartoons, I said, “Oh, really? I can fix that!” and disconnected the cable. It’s been that way for about three years now. (We don’t watch broadcast TV, either.) I’ve seen about half of the episodes of Firefly, though, since a friend of mine has them on DVD.

6. I have never been seriously drunk. Scratch a computer programmer, find a control-freak; I don’t like the feeling of not being able to control my limbs.

There you have it. Six things you didn’t need to know. But now they are in your head, and you won’t be able to get rid of them.

I was tagged for a meme, which almost never happens, so here’s some Random Stuff about Me.

Da rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Here are six random things about me.

1. I played the accordion for several years, but I recovered.

2. A homeless lady once tried to pick me up in a pizza joint on Hollywood Boulevard. (She didn’t succeed.) My friend and I didn’t realize that she was probably homeless until she left the place with a big trash bag of stuff.

3. Most poetry leaves me cold, but I’ve had “Jabberwocky” memorized since I was eight years old.

4. I play the recorder when the mood takes me.

5. I’ve been to Orlando maybe ten times in the last few years, but I’ve never been to Disneyworld (or any of the other theme parks, for that matter).

6. The first computer I ever used stored programs by punching holes in paper tape. (I was in high school, and my dad built it from a kit.) My friend and I used to save the punched-out holes in those little plastic 35mm film containers. We’d take them to high school football games and sprinkle them in the hair of the people sitting in front of us.

Now, let’s see. I tag Happy Catholic, Phil and Lars at Brandywine Books, Jaquandor, Ian, and Captain Yips.

Technically I ought to leave a comment on each of these blogs, to say “Tag, you’re it!”, but frankly we’ve got a babysitter tonight and they are here. Time with Jane trumps blogging. Ciao!

A meme I’ve seen about: put your iPod on shuffle, and write down the first 10 tunes that come up. In the mood to go the extra mile, I did 20 instead. I used iTunes on my laptop instead, but here they are:

1. “Long Lankin”, by Steeleye Span. (Beware the moors!)
2. “Rotten Peaches”, by Elton John.
3. “Country Road”, by James Taylor. (A churning urn of burning funk.)
4. “Don’t Stop The Dance”, by Bryan Ferry.
5. “The Rest of the Night”, by Warren Zevon. (And his hair was perfect!)
6. “Starman”, by David Bowie. (Ziggy played guitar…)
7. “Earthrise/Return” by Mannheim Steamroller.
8. “Tower Hill”, by Clannad.
9. “I Just Wanna Know”, by Steve Taylor.
10. “Spotted Cow”, by Steeleye Span.
11. “Jingo”, by Santana.
12. “Fermanagh Highland/Donegal Highland/John Doherty’s/King George IV”, by Altan.
13. “Create in Me a Clean Heart”, by John Michael Talbot and Terry Talbot.
14. “Little Triggers”, by Elvis Costello.
15. “Pretty Girl”, by Eric Clapton.
16. “Stage Fright”, by The Band.
17. One movement of a recorder concerto by I’m not sure which composer, with the solo part played by Michala Petri.
18. “Where Do You Hide Your Heart?”, by Amy Grant.
19. “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime”, by the Weavers.
20. “We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang”, by Heaven 17.

On odd selection; apparently iTunes was in a mostly quiet mood. I can’t otherwise explain the absence of at least one track by Jethro Tull and The Who, respectively. And these aren’t the tracks I’d probably have picked to highlight any of these artists. (As if I’d have wanted to highlight Heaven 17 in the first place; that last track is from a compilation of New Wave hits I bought in a fit of nostalgia. This is not the track for which I bought it.)

Via Happy Catholic, here’s a new tool for getting those unsightly marks off of your computer screen.

From the sublime to the ridiculous: John C. Wright has written a lavishly illustrated post on The Beauty Contest Method of Choosing Sides.

…that blogging was mentioned in scripture. But there, right at the beginning of Psalm 144, I find this:

Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.

And, of course, what else does a blogger rely on but his fingers?

I’m especially pleased by that last score….

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages. Kudos to Deb-Bud for this one.

According to Lars Walker,

I know for a fact that every time a pagan deity materializes or the space-time continuum is violated in my neighborhood, the police put me under surveillance.