Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hooray for narcissism (kinda)

So, I was tagged in another one of those "reveal X things about yourself" on Facebook, but I've done so many of those FB quiz things out of boredom, I don't feel like cluttering my FB up with more of them. But I am still bored, so I'm going to do this here, for the thin air that may or may not eventually materialize into people. Kind of hoping you don't, Mr Thin Air, sir. Probably make them think I'm a bigger nut than they already do (which still wouldn't be the half of how nutso I am).

On the player now: Frank Sinatra - You're Awful

1. My paternal grandfather's side of the family, from which we derive our surname, slept around a lot. From his side of the family we have 54 countries which are considered "valid" when declaring bloodlines.

2. Conversely, my paternal grandmother's side of the family consists of only two countries: Scotland and Wales. Wales is only in there because when the King was on a rampage through Scotland razing everything in his path, we got the fuck out of there and lived in Wales for a couple of decades before returning to Fife.

3. I am descended of the Clan MacDuff, who were the Earls of Fife, and if the position still existed today I would have been 6th in line for it, but seeing as everyone else eligible died by the time I was 15, I could've become an Earl at 15. Also, I would've been a Viscount until that point. Sometimes I like to call myself an Earl, because c'mon, have you ever had a title of nobility? Greatest feeling EVER.

4. I am terrible at making decisions. I once stood in the local Genaurdi's for forty minutes debating whether I wanted to buy Honey Nut Cheerios or Peanut Butter Crunch.

5. I somehow manage to pick the most retarded pets from the local SPCA. My dog is just plain stupid. My one cat is the living definition of scaredy cat. My other cat has to have been dropped on her head as kitten. But I love them all and it's totally going to suck when they eventually die (though hopefully that's a long while off for all of them).

6. I kind of want to be given a funeral pyre on top of some ridiculously large building when I die, like the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower or something. It seems like a cool place to have a final service. Although I'm not sure any city would let you burn a dead body thousands of feet above their denizens.

On the player now: The Enemy - Be Somebody

7. I have only had the flu once in my life. My fever was never lower than 102 when I was sick and at its worst it hit 105. On that day when it hit 105, I sat down in the kitchen and had a three hour long argument with my fridge.

8. My diction is weird. It's a blend of the Norwich, Philadelphia, and Sheffield dialects, Scots, Latin, ancient Greek, and Japanese. How anyone can understand a word out of my mouth is beyond me.

9. I write crime fiction. So far unpublished but hoping to change that (to be fair I have yet to even complete a WIP of crime fiction, before this I wrote medieval fantasy, but that was way back in the day).

10. I consider myself a philosophical theist. A philosophical theist is someone who has pretty much the same mentality as a freethinker, but whereas freethinkers say there is no possibility for a deity because of lack of evidence, philosophical theists either take an agnostic approach and say we simply don't have the means to find evidence for a deity yet or they take the approach I take: blind statement that there is some form of deity (whether it be singular or plural). Philosophical theists also place no basis in religious tradition or organizations -- i.e. a philosophical theist could say Christians have the right idea about the nature of God, but the religion itself is wrong.

On the player now: Give Up the Funk - Parliament

11. I like to think if there is a form of deity, it's the ancient Norse ones. I dabbled in so many religions after I gave up Christianity, and the Norse were the closest to getting me, but I just can't dig the whole religion thing. Maybe some day I'll be praising Odin.

12. My first car was a 1994 Honda Accord. Originally my mom's, who took poor care of it, and then my sister's, who ran it into the ground. I was going to fix it up but it's just not worth it, so it sits in the driveway. Right now it's buried under a bajillion feet of snow thanks to the blizzards we got on Friday/Saturday and Tuesday/Wednesday. I have yet to get a second car, so I guess I shouldn't have said "was".

13. It amuses me that I'm sharing these semi-personal pieces of minutiae when just yesterday there was a discussion on Nathan's blog about authors' privacy and where to draw the line. Irony thy name be me.

14. My name uses the French/Italian spelling. NOT THE ENGLISH. You have no idea how crazy it makes me when people write my name with an H. I kind of want to thwap them with one of the pens I always keep handy (hey, I'm a writer. we never know when we'll need one).

15. I am studying Esperanto. It's very slow going, because like everything else I undertake, I get distracted by so many things. Actually I haven't done an Esperanto lesson in a week. Another one is not foreseeable in the near future.

16. When I'm home alone, I like to sing through everything I do. Sometimes it's simple singing narration of whatever I'm doing. Sometimes I break out into opera, though. This morning I sang Recondita armonia while cooking breakfast.

On the player now: Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma

17. I wish being a philosopher like Aristotle was still a valid job. I mean, I know he was a polymath and did other stuff, but the majority of the time I don't spend writing or distracting myself with games/TV, I'm pondering things about existence. Most of what I could come up with has probably already been said, but that would be the second best job in the world. Writing being the greatest, of course.

18. I play a lot of instruments. Bagpipes, ocarina, piano, violin, and trombone are the instruments I play most often. I suck at all but trombone and ocarina. Working on violin (I only just bought it this past December).

19. I have severe acrophobia. I'm also a herpetophobe. Those are the fear of heights and the fear of reptiles, respectively.

20. I am forever drawing and re-drawing the plans to my dream home. Generally it doesn't change much, but I like to keep it fresh in mind, should I ever have the money for it. It's pretty much just a big tudor house with a fairly simplistic and old fashioned interior, with every room perfectly suited to my needs. The largest room is the library, and even then I think I'd run out of space. I have over 300 books in my bedroom at present, and my collection shall continue to grow all my life.

21. I kind of want to go to the University of East Anglia for literature. However, much as I love the UK I'm not entirely sure I want to leave the US forever, and if I attend university in the UK I will end up living over there. If not forever, at least until I can afford to move back to the US, which will probably take a long time.

22. Near the top of my list of places I still have to visit is Dartmoor. Can you tell I'm an Arthur Conan Doyle lover?

23. Some psychologists think I have mild Asperger Syndrome. No across the board confirmation yet.

24. As a crime writer, I spend a lot of time devising ways to kill people. Sometimes this involves getting interactive. Once, while I was walking through how a killer would take out his third victim, I got so wrapped up in plotting the kill in the air behind this one girl at school (she had no idea what I was up to, bear in mind) that I followed her into the women's room without thinking about. I'm sure you can guess how this story ended.

25. Thanks to a variety of reasons, I pretty much became a recluse during middle school. Since I spend the majority of my free time at home not really talking to anyone, I talk way too much when I see my friends. I usually talk really, really fast and without pause, too. I pretty much stop to breathe only when I'm about to suffocate on my own talking.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, if there are any of you. I may totally ignore your question, though, if for whatever reason I don't feel like answering it. Usually this would only be if I feel it crosses some line, but sometimes I just get lazy.

Tah-tah for now.

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