Monday, March 27, 2006

I have no post, so I must meme

Right now I'm stumped... Ebb tide, no juice, no ideas, no enthusiasm; it's too nice a day to be of so grey a mind, so I'm going out to rollerblade fall down lots while the weather is nice. But I will leave you with this: the Three Things Meme.

Things you do when you’re -
Sad -
1. mope; 2. sleep; 3. think about how much worse things could be instead.
Bored -
1. mope; 2. sleep; 3. take epic walks (we're talking on the order of five miles or more).
Happy -
1. write; 2. seek out friends for good long talks (usually over a meal); 3. sing (poorly).
Angry -
1. kvetch; 2. write (but much less productively); 3. cuss. (As Twain wrote, "When angry, count four. When very angry, swear.")

Places you’ve been -
1. South of the Border. The kitschiest place on earth.
2. NYC. A collective salute to the City that Sleepeth Not - I've actually gotten a chance to do a fair amount of neat stuff in the city: Broadway, Central Park, the Intrepid, a couple of nice restaurants, a concert, and even Windows on the World, before the end.
3. Down the Shore. I've never stayed in a bed and breakfast or anything like that, but I've been able to hit a lot of the landmarks: Ocean City, Ocean Grove, Red Bank, "Sleazeside," Jenkinson's, Wildwood, and the Sodom by the Sea itself, Atlantic City. If you're in shouting distance of the Jersey Shore, you ought to take advantage and check out the sights.

Places you’d like to be -
1. Nassau Coliseum. I've seen the Islanders play in the Garden, the Meadowlands, and in Philly - but not in their own arena.
2. My own home. I've yet to earn my way out of shared living arrangements. Some have been much nicer than others, but it would still be pleasant to have my own front door before much longer.
3. In print. I think that this is closely linked to #2.

What’s the last thing you -
Watched on the tube - I saw the Sopranos last night. This brings my total number of episodes to six. It's not bad stuff.
Heard on CD/radio - currently listening to one of the many PC mixes, a 60/70 pop blend, as it turns out. The last three songs were Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat," Van Morrison's "And it Stoned Me," and the Bee Gees' "Nights on Broadway."
Read in the news - the FEC affirms that blogging on political issues is protected speech. (w/t to the Coalition, as usual)

Three memories -
1. I was very small, maybe five or six. I was in the car with my parents driving home from someplace or another, and bawling my eyes out, unconsolably, for reasons long forgotten. But I remember the song on the radio - Barry Manilow, "Looks Like We Made It." That's why I held silent while Sheila and company had their little Manilowpalooza - they brook no guff on this topic, and I am stuffed with guff. It's not Barry's fault, but he happened to be the soundtrack to the first abject misery of my conscious life. Them's the breaks.
2. I was there when my brother took his first steps - from me to our mother, and then back again. He was the happiest kid in the world.
3. Our arch-rivals, the Mad Surfers, had the better of us one day. We were down 9-2, just getting mugwhumped. With ten seconds left, one of their players gets the bright idea of calling time-out, in order to pull their goalie for an extra attacker. "We never get to practice that sort of thing," the little snot told me in the handshake line. "The next time we play, you'll need that time-out," I shot back. We met in the league championship the next month. Final score - Rockets 3, Mad Surfers 1, with 26 saves for your humble narrator. Hells yeah.

Three favorite things -
1. Reading. There's a reason I didn't list this in the first section, "things you do when ____." I'm always reading, regardless; the real surprise is that for all my consumption of printed words, I'm not that well-read compared with my peers.
2. Sports. Grew up watching, and going out to run around with whatever ball was in season at the time. Another real surprise - for all my running, jumping, dribbling, and passing, I'm not all that coordinated. I get by more on reflexes and practice than I do on raw skill.
3. Music. The radio was on all the time. Mom tells me that, as a wee tot, I would stand in my playpen and bob up and down in time to whatever was on. My favorite is reported to have been Paul Simon's "Kodachrome."

Three pastimes -
1. You're reading it right now. Some of you have also read more conventional examples of my favorite pastime.
2. Games - board games (including a few I've invented), computer games, games of chance and skill, more conventional athletic contests... I'm a competitve creature.
3. I'm dating right now - six months and counting. Pastime seems like a poor choice of word for it, actually. Blessing is obvious, and adventure is accurate but a little deceptive if you don't know me well. I have an imaginative and romantic turn of mind that turns errands into quests and day trips into fantastic journeys. Come to think of it, that's probably why I'm always writing and singing... But whatever you call it, I'm happy.

Three reasons I’m not tagging anyone –
1. It never works, anyway.
2. I'm going to assume that people either already have their subject matter for the day and won't need the nudge, or will like the idea and do it on their own.
3. Time's a-wasting. As I said before, I have falling down to do.

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