Meme for the fuck of it. Day Two.

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever)
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession.

1. I have been told by the instructor of a university class in critical thinking that I have a "paranoid mind." It is true. I am very good at seeing faults/flaws. While it makes me a pretty darned good proofreader, it also means I'm a big ol' hairsplitter by nature.

2. I am by nature a very lazy person. It is only through sheer stubbornness that I fight this latent sloth and get stuff done. I'd rather sit on my ass than go exercise, but if I don't get off my ass and get myself in shape, no one else can do it for me.

3. I can be very stubborn. Once I get started on a project, I can gain a singleminded focus that will keep me from doing anything else until it is done. For instance, I rearranged my room for hours and hours yesterday without taking any sort of break. I forgot to eat, too.

4. I suspect I'm a tiny bit OCD. I used to do everything in 8s when I was a kid, and occasionally will count everything I'm doing (I'm 973 paces from my gym job). I cannot sing just a part of a chorus to a song. I must complete it, or it just feels wrong.

5. I cannot smell or taste the sourness in old milk unless it is so far gone that it's all clotty.

6. I was a homely kid, and still think I have a homely face.

7. I don't like asking people questions about themselves, because many of the times I have, people have assumed I was being nosy. Instead, I will tell anecdotes about myself in the hopes that this will encourage them to tell me something comparable about themselves. However, this gets misunderstood by some people as me being self-centred. I also hate asking for favours or to borrow anything.

8. I have many acquaintances, and very few friends.

9. I think chickens, kittens, and pigeons are hilarious.

Wishes and Horses Meme

A Christmas Wish list meme is going around, and I think it's interesting to see what people want. It says rather a lot about what makes certain folks tick. I'll make my own list, and in the comments, I hope you will make yours. I'm not particularly interested in seeing things that are there for the oh-shiny! effect (like a brand new game station with all the peripherals or whatever), but stuff that you really want, or really need.

And maybe, just maybe, you will see something on my list, or someone else's list, and you can help make that wish come true. Maybe not now. Maybe months from now. And that would just be fantastic. And whether or not you celebrate Christmas is entirely irrelevant.

1. Although I am a dance soloist, I am certainly not averse to working with other people. I'd love to have someone to bounce ideas off, and to work on performance pieces with.

2. I have always loved textiles, but ever since learning to knit, I am developing a bit of an obsession with yarn. I am particularly interested in handcrafted yarns, whether they are handpainted or handspun, so long as they are in beautiful colours. Most recently, I have a hankering to knit a blanket in black and a rich chocolate brown, but haven't been able to find sufficient quantities of soft, bulky yarn in those colours at prices I can afford.

3. So many of you are amazingly creative, talented, and skilled craftspeople and artists. As a craftsperson and artist myself, I understand the time, work, and materials that go behind these creations, and would be honoured to own some of your creations.

4. Although I work out regularly, it would be that much easier to push myself harder if I had a workout buddy. You don't have to be in shape, but you need to want to be. And you need to be committed to working hard at this goal.

5. Attend my classes at Chris Walker's Fitness right across from the Farmer's Market in downtown Kitchener. I teach belly dance on Monday nights at 7:30, and fitness bootcamp classes on Thursday nights at 7. If you take my classes, you help keep me employed at a job I find meaningful, you support an independent local business, and you get in better shape.

6. I've wanted to get back to academic pursuits since moving back to Ontario. Part-time courses would be lovely, but so would a study buddy who wanted to independently work/discuss with me some of the seminal writings: stuff like the writings of Plato, Machiavelli, Christopher Marlowe, Sappho, etc. I miss the intellectual stimulation I had in university.

7. A digital SLR camera. I love photography, and would really like to improve my skills, but I can only do so much with a point-and-click camera. I want to be able to do light painting again, and I just can't do that with what I have now.

What about you? What do you want, need, crave? Share with us!

Question

If I were to make a cookbook with my favourite tried and tested recipes, would you be interested?