The 8 Random Things Meme

The rules:

1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.



Tagged by Kay at The Gimp Parade

Eight Random Facts:

1. I have extremely eclectic musical tastes, including light Italian opera, country, rock, Celtic, Broadway, and Pakistani rock. About the only thing I won't listen to is rap.

2. I own hundreds of books located at both my parents' house in Kansas and my apartment in Louisiana -- and I doubt I've even read half of them.

3. Thanks to the encouragement of my friends Anita, Jonikka, and Kevin, I took up creative writing again seven years ago as a way to exercise the other half of my brain. I currently have several fan-fiction pieces (for the TV series "Highlander," "Doctor Who/Torchwood," and "The Sentinel" as well as one for the Harry Potter universe) and a couple of originals -- none of which are anywhere CLOSE to being completed.

4. I wear a rhinoceros ring on my right hand. I've had it so long (more than thirteen years) that the flesh of my finger has formed to the back of the ring. People often mistake it for a hippo when they just glance at it.

5. Pesto is mankind's greatest culinary invention. Hummus is #2.

6. I have at least a half a dozen different types of tea in my cupboard. I love trying different kinds.

7. Since I've been home this Summer, I've become addicted to the Japanese program "Ninja Warrior" on the G4 channel. It's good that I can watch episodes on the channel's website, because I don't get it on my cable lineup in NOLA. I have a crush on regular contestant Makoto Nagano -- great body, adorable smile. ::swoon::

8. I have an octopus stuffy on my desk in the graduate student office that my friend Sarah got at this year's Zulu parade. She tried to grab it when it was thrown, but a tourist snatched it away from her. Sarah pleaded with her: "My friend LOVES octopuses! Please let me have it for her!" She traded her an entire garbage bag full of beads.

I tag:
1. Kim
2. Suz
3. Jennifer B.
4. Stacie
5. Michelle
6. Sarah
7. E
8. Jennifer W.

(you can just do it in my comments section if you want)

Pontchartrain Waterspout

Today I received a series of pictures from our departmental secretary at UNO. Apparently they had a good-sized waterspout yesterday. These pictures were taken (by whom, she did not know) from the top of the Engineering Building in the southern third of campus looking NNE toward the lake (FYI -- the lake is 25 miles by 40 miles in size). I received a total of eight pictures.

Pic 1 in the series




Pic 4




Pic 7




Pic 8

Ancient Language

Your Score: Akkadian

You scored

You are Akkadian, a blend of the incomprehensible symbols of the Sumerians with the unwritable sounds of the early Semitic peoples. However, the writing just doesn't suit the words and doesn't represent everything needed, so you end up a schizoid mess. Invented in Babylon, you're probably to blame for that tower story. However, crazy as you are, you're much loved and appreciated, and remain actively in use by records keepers long after schools have switched to other languages.

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Random thoughts swirling in a sleepy mind

How many people can actually get away with not being present for the conduction of the majority of their dissertation experiments due to a numb bum?

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the news sprung on me by one friend. A sudden change of things for me, though not for her, but it's taking me time to adjust. I worry that she will take my lack of exuberance as disapproval. It is not -- it is just a new way of thinking about her and the life she has chosen. My lack of familiarity with that new life contributes.

What am I going to do when I go back to New Orleans and no longer have the Sleuth Channel to give me daily doses of Thomas Magnum?

Totem adventures. First was being two feet away from an Indian rhinoceros, which is my favorite of the five species. Then it was getting to feed and touch a black rhinoceros, an indescribable experience.

I need oxygen at night because I drop below 85% saturation when I'm sleeping. This is news I don't know how to feel about, especially coming a little over a month after losing an old friend with my same MD type who had more respiratory problems than I was aware of. A friend who was only a year younger than me. By "ordinary," able-bodied standards, I am still a young woman, but by spinal muscular atrophy standards, I am an old lady. There's a niggling thought, one that comes at night when I can't sleep or when dark thoughts are driven by spiking hormones, that this is how the end begins. I have started looking at books with lung-strengthening information, and in the meantime I periodically stop during the day to take deep, chest-expanding breaths. If you don't use it, you lose it -- and I have things to do.

"Pan's Labyrinth," though excellently done, should never ever be watched when one is hormonally vulnerable. It's freaking Shakespeare in Spanish.

When already depressed by my menstrual cycle and "Pan's Labyrinth," maybe finishing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was a bad idea. Oh well, what's done is done.

I'm going back to NOLA in two weeks. Where has the time GONE???

My cousin getting ready to welcome his third child. Another wee one for me to spoil.

Hopefully rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will inspire my Muse to actually help me write on Nay's story. Or reading Anita's or Jonikka's story posts. I really MISS writing creatively.

I've resigned myself to the fact that there are people I just will not be able to see this trip home despite being here longer. It makes me sad (two in particular), but you just can't do anything about heart catheterizations or flu or boss stress or parents with broken hips and gout or greedy oil companies charging stupid prices for gas.

A&W root beer is so damn good.

I'm going to finally see "Order of the Phoenix" and "1408" -- both this weekend. Still haven't seen "Pirates" III -- dammit.

Narcotics play a number on your bowels. Good thing there are dried apricots in the world.

I sometimes could use Dumbledore's Pensieve, you know?

A Dream Come True

Yesterday, I went to the Sedgwick County Zoo with Lynlee, Pax, and Rolando. There was tons of fun all around, about which I will blog in detail later, but I had to share my two most exciting moments.

1. Seeing the three-day-old baby of Bebe II and Eugene, the black rhinos.

2. Feeding Katie, Bebe's and Eugene's previous calf (3- or 4-years-old).

Yes, my friends -- I GOT TO FEED A RHINO!!! And pet her. And talk to her. And look into her beautiful brown eyes. And feel that prehensile upper lip gently nibble my hand. And see every detail about her, from her rough skin to the alfalfa clinging to her great horn.

I still get goosebumps thinking about it.