I want to know what you’re thinking, there are some things you can’t hide …
Tell me something interesting about you, your life, your relatives and friends, your job, your past or how your brain works. Interesting, by your definition.
Prepare to be conversed with!
I have taken belly dancing lessons.
How do you like them? My friend teaches classes and performs on a fairly regular basis – it has been a treat to watch her grow into a really great dancer.
I did a little photo shoot with her a few years ago, too, and that was totally fun. :)
The lessons were about four years ago-and it was fun. My friend Lauren talked me into it. I practice the moves for exercise occasionally.
I strongly dislike metal eating utensils. When given the choice, I go for plastic. If company wouldn’t think it strange, I’d get rid of all of our nice silverware and go for plastic. If a metal utensil touches my teeth when I eat, it is a struggle for me to finish my meal. Stainless bowls or coffee mugs? Forget it. I think I’m just overly sensitive to the smell, taste and sound of metal… even thinking about it right now gives me goose bumps.
The other day, I had accidentally left a little bit of a chocolate bar (dark chocolate toblarone!) in the car all day. It was melted, but I couldn’t just leave it there! So I sucked the chocolate out of the aluminum, but not before it touched my teeth. With fillings. *shudder*
Yeah. Ouch. That made me shudder as well.
chopsticks could be your friends! not too many metal chopsticks around.
I’ve started dating my scuba instructor.
Whoo boy! Is it because he’s great at holding his breath, or because he (or she) clearly keeps active? :D
Srsly, how did that come about? Was it kind of inevitable, or did someone work up the courage to ask the other out?
Ha! I think he looks rather nice in a wet suit. ;) He is very active, and I would assume he has great breath control. ;)
He made me laugh. A sense of humor is huge for me. We were joking around in class, and a few of us went out after class one Tuesday. Him and I stayed after everyone else left, just talking and playing darts. He asked me out for that Saturday, but due to scheduling shenanigans we got together on Sunday. It was awesome. I saw him last night, and will see him on Friday and Sunday. This makes me happy! We have a LOT in common, and I have to admit…I really enjoy making out with him. Normally I don’t care for making out. But with him…yes please!!
Well, rock on. :D
It’s funny, how some people like making out and some do not. I hope it works out for you!
Yea, it’s weird. Very few people have I enjoyed just making out with. But with this guy, I’m totally into it.
*blush* for example, last night we made out for probably about 2 hours!! That is unheard of for me!
Rowr. My fiancee would say, “Too much waiting! Let us move to the Main Course!”
Well, we’ve only been out a few times. Gotta keep him wanting to come back for more! What’s that expression…”why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”
*chuckle* I’ve never been very good at the traditional dating games – if I want to get together with someone and they want the same, and there’s no contravening reason not to, I see no reason to wait.
Of course, I also don’t “mark someone down” for agreeing to something I wanted, and my interest in commitment doesn’t have anything to do with sex. *grin* Probably part of being brought up by women, maybe.
(Does anyone remember my “hammer” post the other day? My feminine upbringing would be one of my hammers.)
Essentially the interest is there on both sides, I just want to make sure it’s not a one night stand sort of deal. I like this guy, and want him to stick around!
That’s awesome!
I think making out can be awesome. Doesn’t even have to lead into sex.
I am an award winning nerd rapper.
Srsly?! What award, and what did you rap about?
Yeah, I saw and a few others posting about making up a nerd rap for this twitter/internet thing called “Colorwar 2008“.
Apparently, at summer camps, they do a thing at the end of the season where the camp is separated into large teams named after colors and they hold various competitions. So that inspired ZeFrank, who is internet famous for being internet famous, to create something similar.
So anyway, I saw people on my f-list posting about it and I started to wonder what I would do for a nerd rap. Then I couldn’t sleep and I ended up submitting one which landed me second place.
It was just about my general nerdyness and I had to include the word “bacon”.
That’s totally sweet.
I’ve been hit by lightning.
Well THAT explains everything!
Just kidding. :)
What were the circumstances? Any scarring?
You figured all along something had to be up, eh? =)
Brief version:
part of an Artillery Observation Party. Basically your job is to
go climb up big hills or other good vantage points, then
direct artillery fire down on the enemy.
a hill overlooking an artillery range when a Certifiably Insane
Thunderstorm starts.
trucks (like, seriously guys, dangerous), but the exercise
marshalls tell us to stay put. (“You guys are in the Army!
What are you, some kind of wimps or something?”)
We take down our radio antenna and try to make ourselves small.
sitting in it.
jumped six feet straight into the air directly from a sitting
position. Guy next to me has his legs start to convulse.
beeline for the trucks.
but doesn’t actually need any treatment. (He did have massive
bruises on each butt cheek where the lightning entered and exited.)
No lasting injuries for anyone, thankfully.
Despite this, I still love a good thunderstorm.
Am I insane? You be the judge.
Only emotional, and nothing compared to what you guys all inflict on me. =)
I’ll post my interesting thing, too.
I’ve got a few CDs here at work, and one I haven’t heard in awhile (years, until just now) is Audioslave.
Anyway, the song I am the Highway has come on, and I strongly remember leaving what was, until 30 minutes previous, my apartment, and hearing this song. It became an emblem for me, a touchstone in a bad break-up that helped me recenter myself.
It helped remind me that I can’t seek to fix or hope to correct someone’s issues – people are who they are, and we each need to own ourselves and our actions, and let go of the actions of others.
“I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway
I am not your carpet ride, I am the sky
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning
I am not your autumn moon, I am the night”
I find Ugg boots attractive, and think they go well with pretty much anything.
I”m not famliar with them. What do they look like?
Uh, I’m a certified ham radio operator…
Really! Back in the day, my grandma taught me morse code.
I am too. General class. Passed the test shortly before they eliminated the Morse requirement.
That’s pretty cool.
My grandmother gave me lessons, and one day she gave me a “final exam”. I was to read back something she was sending me via morse code. She wrote “Your ass is grass and I’m the lawnmower” – I was pretty young, though, and too shy to say “ass” to my grandma. :D
Interesting about my family: My father is married to his stepmother, making him his own stepson.
That’s…. unusual.
Seriously! From what I’m told, my father and his stepmother didn’t get a long at all when he was growing up. Apparently she kind of hated him. He moved away to Texas for a long time and then moved back to MI when he was in his early 40s. After being back here for a few years he took up residence in a trailer on their property because he had nowhere else to go. The stepmother vehemently opposed it, but was overruled by her husband.
Not long after he moved there his father got sick and died…cancer, I think. Within 3 months my father had married his stepmother. I have no clue what happened or how things are now. It’s pretty messed up.
Well, I’m a Shaolin monk. I’m not sure “interesting” is the thing that pops to many people’s minds at first, but it’s certainly fun for conversing about. ;)
Okay, then here’s another one about me: I’ve visited the Shaolin Temple. I’d clarify by saying “the original one,” but it’s been burned down and rebuilt so many times that isn’t strictly true.
Are you directly affiliated with it?
AWESOME! Congrats on that! Do you have pics? (Not for proof; just for fun!)
It’s a pipe dream of mine to see it one day (even though much of the traditional practice was moved to the temple in Taiwan, and the “original” temple repurposed for wushu & tourism at the behest of the government — it’s still THE TEMPLE, woot!).
I’ve never been, and since my Chinese is barely conversational I’ve never spoken with anyone from there, but “officially” yes, I’m affiliated with it. The temple I study at is accredited by the Shaolin Order, and my Sifu is a recognized Master (*he’s* been to the Temple, I’m pretty sure — I know he studied at the one in Taiwan for a while too). I’m taking the official program at my Temple for the turning-out of Masters to run future Temples (which HELL YES I would do, if I get good enough!), so yup, actual official Shaolin Monk.
Which I really expected to brag about a lot more than I do. Mostly I keep my mouth shut, because it feels like saying “OMG UBER UBER UBER NERD RIGHT HERE, STRAIGHT OUTTA WU-TANG MOUNTAIN YO”, and yeah, nerd-cred it the one thing I probably don’t need more of. But privately? GODSDAMN, is it cool. ;)
Sure. I don’t post pics of myself here, so you aren’t going to see an image of me in their courtyard, but here are some from the Temple. Short version: my wife and I went there with our Tai Chi school in 2004, for an international Wushu tournament that had a Tai Chi division. Yes, it was a huge promotional opportunity for the Chinese government. Along the last 20km of the bus ride (80 buses!) the roads were lined with students from the various schools in the area; there are, well, a lot. So…
First, the gate to the Temple itself; if you read Chinese, you can easily verify this. ;-)
Their training methods are hell on trees:
Young monk and onlooker:
Some of the demos on the way there, just for kicks (shot from bus windows):
I think that’s enough, or Sken will ban me.
Phear my banhammer!
Heh, WOW, those are great! I’ve seen pics of the Temple before, but never of the training or the Wushu tournament(s). Congrats on the trip (and the tournament, which I’m sure was pretty fun — since I don’t do Wushu, I’m pretty unlikely to get to see one of those, but I give it FULL points for looking cool) — what an awesome thing to have done!
Thanks for sharing!!
While talking, I have trouble remembering exact words. This is not so much of a problem when I’m trying to remember a verb, because I can usually substitute something similar (think “leaping” for “hopping”), but for nouns, often nothing will do except the exact word.
Sometimes I’ll put a placeholder word in its spot instead. But only if I’ve known the person I’m talking to for a while. I just need to get the sentence out and then I can go back and try to remember the word. The placeholder word is often gibberish.
lol.
We’ve had amazing, thunder and lightning with pouring down rain every afternoon for the past week.
My favourite part was curling up in a blanket and having a nap on our porch while nature threw its best screaming hissy around me. With the sound of rain and the little bit of misty wind, it was like a white noise cocoon.
I, too, am a fan of circumstances like that. Kind of amazing how one can kind of let go of the violence around you and just “be”.
I really do have a love/hate relationship with Detroit. Sometimes, I just want to escape. But, the love part is just as strong…not because it’s my hometown…What I like best is, strangely enough, the character of the place, especially the way it drastically changes from one part of the metro area to the other.
Of course, my feelings toward the weather is just pure hate. I’m not one of those people who likes changing seasons. I just like it warm. And, it’s been depressing around here these days. That’s one for the minus column.
(Incidentally, I was never able to feel the same way about Lansing. It was a fine place to be when I was in college, but I got sick of it after that. Don’t miss it at all.)
Lansing is a very, very, boring city.