Post 10 Random Facts About Yourself

[Lemonvariable72]

Yeah. I came within a gnat's whisker of having something I'd written read by the great man himself. That would have been better than winning. Ah well.

Also: at one time, pre-alarm clocks, there used to be professional knocker-uppers. Their job was to go round to people's houses to knock them up.

.... That must've meant alot of abortions.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

1. I've met Ringo Starr, Sinead O'Connor, and Paddy Moloney.

2. I know three card tricks and perform them so ineptly that a distracted 6 year old can figure them out.

3. I prefer hot tea to iced coffee and hot coffee to almost everything.

4. I startle easily.

5. I sort my books by colour. Saves time.

6. Of the six best friends I had growing up, two have been murdered.

7. I can't bear squeaky furniture; chairs, beds, drawer pulls. Drives me spare.

8. I buy bizarre things on impulse. This is why I own a pair of stuffed barn owls and a t-shirt that reads 'Fuck The Muppets'.

9. I've had my nose broken five times. Then I learned when to shut up.

10. I've never stolen anything. Ever.

Boru

[MTL]

Very interesting!

I'm trying to think of things I haven't already bleated on about endlessly. Let's see...

1) I'm almost indestructible. As a child I used to throw myself on the floor in the playground, and as an adult I do wrestling moves on myself. I never seem to get injured.

2) I love roller skating. I used to do it all the time, but now I don't have anywhere close enough that's any good. I can still do it a bit even with ME, and it's one of the few ways I can feel a sense of freedom. I want to skate again soon!

3) I've never smoked a cigarette or tried any illicit drugs. I used to drink a bit of cider, but I've never been properly drunk.

4) I've never been in a proper fight. I used to do judo as a kid and even won a small tournament, with the use of just two moves. I used to be strong for my age.

5) I'm so different to both my parents that if I didn't look eerily like my mum I'd think I was adopted.

6) I spend a lot of time living in the past, thinking of the glory days of Asheron's Call where I was a monarch with over 500 followers; Magic the Gathering tournaments, particularly crucial mistakes at later stages; having loads of people to play Street Fighter with, and so on.

7) I spend a lot of time in my own imagination, pretending I'm in an ideal world of my own design where everything is absolutely perfect for me and everyone else. I'm also frequently imagining extremely violent scenes where a ninja who may or may not be me is slicing hundreds of people into pieces.

8) I believe I'll be with my wife for the rest of my life. She gets me and loves me in a way no one else ever has, and she makes everything worthwhile. We have our own ridiculous world of nonsense ideas and language, and bond through our deep love of animals.

9) It is extremely rare that I get angry. I refuse to argue with anyone in a shouting match. I stay calm, and I refuse to continue a conversation until the other person talks sensibly. The things that do make me angry are abuse to vulnerable people and animals, and if anything would ever provoke me into violence it would be this. I still doubt I would use any more force than necessary to stop the abuse.

10) My sense of morality is of utmost importance to me. If I ever do something I know is wrong, I feel a tremendous sense of guilt. If I've wronged someone, I can't live with it and I must confess and apologise. I'm always reconsidering my morality to see if it can be improved.

You're a saint, Rob....which is a remarkable feat, considering you're an Atheist.

Numbers 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10 make you sound eerily similar to many good little church boys I once knew.

However, I differ with you slightly, on Number 9:

I don't enjoy hurting people, per se,
but if I ever caught someone in the act of torturing an animal,
I'd afraid I'd rip off their arm and beat them with the wet end.

[MTL]

6.  Of the six best friends I had growing up, two have been murdered.

That's so terrible.  I'm so sorry, Boru.

[Whateverist]

I clicked the link to your Flickr page...there's one photo taken from what looks like a mountaintop.
Is that your view?  If Yes, I'm never speaking to you again.

 

Possibly pictures from my inlaw's house from before the government took it over.  They built the last house in a place called Duck Cove which is just north of Tamales State Park.  It will become part of either that park or the National Seashore.  We were lucky to have holidays here and visit frequently.  That is the only kind of second house I ever want, one where someone else lives there and does the upkeep.

I know hummingbird nests are TINY.  Like a ping-pong ball size.
but while I've seen hummingbirds, I've never personally seen a nest, IRL, first-hand;
(only in documentaries).

your pic of the nest, is that lichen on the sides?  If Yes, how charming is that??

Yeah, they really are gorgeous little things and I also like the lichen.  If click back on that photo you'll find one somewhere near there that shows the nest better.

I've never seen nor heard of a Mesia.  Gorgeous.
Do they have a pretty song?

Distinctive at least.

https://youtu.be/1IHD88hKKOs

---

It's nice to live on a flyway.
I live near some major bodies of water, (near Toronto, Great Lakes)
so I get to see lots of birds,
and Night Herons are one of them, as well as Great Blue Herons and White Morph Herons.

Last couple of summers I was pleasantly surprised to even see a couple of Sandhill Cranes.

When I was growing up, you never saw birds like that around here;
but since they've made an effort to clean up the Great Lakes since the 1950s
the bird varieties have been astonishing.

We now get to see Bald Eagles, wild turkeys, Mute Swans, Kingfishers (they are funny little birds),

and in recent years, quite a few Orioles...which are really neat birds with colourful plumage,
who build distinctive "hanging" nests.

we have lots of hawks of course, and Peregrine Falcons, and of course Canada Geese;

and recently I heard a pair of Great Horned Owls late at night, hooting up a storm in a tree in my backyard.
And my window was closed, and the TV was on.  But I still heard them.

I love birdwatching.

---

Sounds like you're in a much richer environment for birds than I am.  Would love to hear Great Horned Owls in my backyard, though I'll bet they're messy.  We don't get Peregrines but there is a Cooper's or Sharpshinned hawk that plies the garbage bins for the bakery across the creek for rats.  One of these once hit a Mourning Dove in my backyard just as I opened my backdoor.  Looked like a pillow fight.  There are Red tail hawks in the hills but no Eagles, bald or otherwise.  The only place I've seen an Oriole was in Hawaii.  I used to keep weavers and they would make nests somewhat like you describe for the Orioles.  Of course Orioles are much bigger birds and much more brightly colored.  I've not really gotten into bird watching in any sort of formal way but I like seeing and trying to identify birds in my garden and on walks.

I have to tell you, though, I didn't really understand this sentence:

" Given my mother, it was hard to believe that there was anything about sex which was appealing to women. "

To say my mother was prudish would be an enormous understatement.  But it wasn't in a disdainful way, more like revulsion.  But I got to work through all that and it turns out my mother was missing out on some pretty good stuff.

[Thumpalumpacus]

1) I once managed an adult video store for six years.

2) I detest green peas.

3) My favorite colors are maroon and hunter green.

4) in addition to my writing and being a musician, I won a small cash scholarship in high school for my art, which was mixed media pen-and-ink/colored pencil. I promptly spent it on cigarettes and, uh, other smokables.

5) When painted into a corner with an ultimatum, I will most often choose what the other person does not want, because I'm an obstinate sonofabitch.

6) I've lived in four countries and six American states.

7) I hated high school, but loved college.

8) According to the US Air Force, I was an expert marksman.

9) I love to cook. All fresh ingredients, no polysyllabic crap.

10) I got my half-my left ear bitten off in a fight back in 1989 with a guy who thought I was schtupping his wife -- a cousin by marriage. I'm Texan enough to have a knock-down drag-out brawl, but I'm not Texan enough to do my cousin, even a cousin by marriage.

[Thumpalumpacus]

CL: Pants in England means underpants! What you call pants, we call trousers.

Oh hahaha! I had no idea. Here we call them panties. Yes, I do wear panties.

POIDH

[Thumpalumpacus]

Lol, what?? What else would "pants" be called in other english speaking countries??

They form a base layer to ladies garments a part of lingerie, knickers perhaps would a term you are familiar with. Americans and us, we almost share a language, almost. You should have seen my wifes face the first time she heard an american lady refer to her "fanny", pure gold.

My recent girlfriend was English, I can attest to the truth of Wilde's bon mot, "The English and the Americans, two peoples separated by a common language."

[Thumpalumpacus]

6.  Of the six best friends I had growing up, two have been murdered.

Probably not something you want to adm -- er, post online.

[Catholic_Lady]

Oh hahaha! I had no idea. Here we call them panties. Yes, I do wear panties.

POIDH

whats that