Rock and roll lifestyle has tagged me to do the nine quartets thingy, so I shall, because I love lists. I really do.
Four jobs I have had:
1. legal secretary at the law office of an auto insurance company - the nicest temp gig I could ever have imagined. The people were nice and fun, and the work was actually challenging much of the time. And I learned the truth about those "Have you been injured in an accident? Tell the insurance companies you mean business" lawyers: they're as dodgy as they look. Also I know how to subpoena someone. So look out.
2. organizer of math education resources at Western Illinois University (workplace of my professor parents)
3. cutterer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library. This is a term that means I assigned the very last digits to library call numbers.
4. piano accompanist
Four movies I could watch over and over (and by "could" I mean "do"):
1. Pillow Talk
2. Zoolander
3. Main Hoon Na
4. Mansfield Park
Four places I've lived:
1. Toronto
2. London (England) (but I was 5)
3. Nottingham (England) (but I was 10)
4. This is embarassing, but the only place I've really lived other than my hometown, where I lived from birth until going away to college, and here, where I went to college then returned to for round two of graduate school and have been living ever since, is the northwest Chicago suburbs. Sorry, suburbanites, but your area killed a little part of my soul. The only good thing I can say about it was that IKEA was nearby.
Four TV shows I love to watch (I'm limiting myself to things currently on the air):
1. The Simpsons
2. Masterpiece Theater
3. Malcolm in the Middle (when it's on after work, in syndication)
4. Sex and the City (when it's on when I should be going to bed)
Four places I've been on vacation:
1. Nova Scoita
2. Australia
3. Ravenna (it was only a day trip from Florence, but it rocked)
4. Normandy
Four of my favorite foods:
1. cinnamon almond french toast from the Original Pancake House (that's the OPH, not IHOP, you philistines)
2. the heel pieces of my grandmother's homemade bread
3. chocolate pot de creme from Radio Maria
4. pizza bianco from Jupiter
Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. Toronto, walking in Little Italy or Kensington Market
2. at Wendy's house
3. Mumbai, looking for movie stars and generally twirling about with delight at being, finally, in India
4. at work, oddly
Four sites I visit daily (this is hard, what with finally getting my Google RSS reader working and all - it's my meta-visit - so I'm going to say sites I visit really frequently):
1. gmail
2. the university library's online reference collection
3. NPR
4. BBC
Four bloggers I am tagging:
I never have anyone to tag. But if anyone who reads this wants to participate, I support you fully and will look forward to reading. Oh wait! I do have people!
1. Obi Wan
2. Accidental Fame Junkie
tag!
Sunday, January 29, 2006 10:57 PM
3 comments
3 comments
Believe it or not Beth, I just knew I was tagged! But I think I will like this one!
By 
Accidental Fame Junkie, at
January 30, 2006
All right, just completed it. But it was never-ending :-(
By Obi Wan, at
January 31, 2006
Hi Beth! Phew! I'm done with my tag and not only that I have tagged 4 others! :)
By Accidental Fame Junkie, at
February 03, 2006
the 8 things tag
I have been tagged by AFJ, who knows me from my other blog, Beth Loves Bollywood, but this seemed a better fit over here, so I'm moving it. You will forgive the Bolly-influenced tone.
The rules of the game are:
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.
First of all, let me say the word "lover" gives me the heebie-jeebies. Except in Bollywood or old-fashioned things. Outside of those contexts it makes me think of skeezy men. (This is not the fault of the word or of people who use it.) So I'm going to water it down a bit for my own purposes.
Second, I am going to copy from the 7 things meme, as there is some overlap, but I'll update it, as that one is three months old and we know how these things can change. Also the 7 things meme is "things that attract me to another person" and the more I think about it the more they are basically the same things, with that little often indescribable difference that causes you to fall in love. Or rise in love, if you subscribe to the Taal theory.
Third, I don't know enough people with blogs who would enjoy the exercise to tag anyone. But I will tell my non-blog friends about it and try to get them to do it over email instead.
It would be great if my twitterpatee (oh, alright, twitterpate with an aigu over the final e, but no double e, if we are following French properly) had the following:
1. true warmth, kindness, and consideration for other people (and this really is number one) (and it is compulsory)
2. willingness to be goofy
3. interests and enthusiasms - these don't have to be the same as mine, but having some topic, some hobby, some subject that makes him go "oooh! that's interesting!" or "I want to learn more" is so important - no mental couch potatoes
4. fondness for the Simpsons
5. desire to make his home/living space look and/or feel like himself
6. my 7 things meme #6 says "good grammar" but that's just an initial attraction thing - for this list, I'm changing it to "enjoyment of words," because I love reading - and talking and writing
7. book smarts - this makes me a snob, I suspect, but it's been true my whole life, so I figure it's important to me for whatever reasons, noble or not
8. and, in keeping with this blog, an appreciation of Bollywood. He doesn't have to love it, but if he would watch with me from time to time and then listen while I ramble on, that would be really nice - and if he enjoyed it, that would be swell. Or maybe just an appreciation for what I appreciate about Bollywood would suffice. He gets why I like it and doesn't find it insurmountably weird that I like it as much as I do. Yes, that will do, I think.
Of course, some of these demand to be shared and/or reciprocal - I put #1 on there because that's how I try to be because I think it's pretty much the point of life in general. And if he'll watch Dil Chahta Hai for the umpteenth time with me, I'll do the equivalent.
They also are a remarkably Bollywood-free set of hopes, given my pop culture diet lately - no literal arm-flinging required. Figurative, though - that's a must, at some point. It doesn't have to be from across a crowded engagement party the very first time you meet, though.
The thing is, you can make lists until the cows come home, but in my experience they won't matter one teeny tiny jot when someone good comes along. And if you're lucky and brave, you'll give it a whirl anyway, and the ways he derivates from what you thought you wanted will just challenge you to figure out why you thought you wanted them.
Huh. I seemed to have veered off of the person and on to the relationship. Anyway, my point is that if someone really interesting and funny and kind enters your life, you don't drop the whole thing just because he doesn't like dogs. You just lend your dog to a friend for the afternoon and then pet him extra and give him a new chew toy when you pick him up later. ("Him" the dog, not the guy. Probably.)
The rules of the game are:
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.
First of all, let me say the word "lover" gives me the heebie-jeebies. Except in Bollywood or old-fashioned things. Outside of those contexts it makes me think of skeezy men. (This is not the fault of the word or of people who use it.) So I'm going to water it down a bit for my own purposes.
Second, I am going to copy from the 7 things meme, as there is some overlap, but I'll update it, as that one is three months old and we know how these things can change. Also the 7 things meme is "things that attract me to another person" and the more I think about it the more they are basically the same things, with that little often indescribable difference that causes you to fall in love. Or rise in love, if you subscribe to the Taal theory.
Third, I don't know enough people with blogs who would enjoy the exercise to tag anyone. But I will tell my non-blog friends about it and try to get them to do it over email instead.
It would be great if my twitterpatee (oh, alright, twitterpate with an aigu over the final e, but no double e, if we are following French properly) had the following:
1. true warmth, kindness, and consideration for other people (and this really is number one) (and it is compulsory)
2. willingness to be goofy
3. interests and enthusiasms - these don't have to be the same as mine, but having some topic, some hobby, some subject that makes him go "oooh! that's interesting!" or "I want to learn more" is so important - no mental couch potatoes
4. fondness for the Simpsons
5. desire to make his home/living space look and/or feel like himself
6. my 7 things meme #6 says "good grammar" but that's just an initial attraction thing - for this list, I'm changing it to "enjoyment of words," because I love reading - and talking and writing
7. book smarts - this makes me a snob, I suspect, but it's been true my whole life, so I figure it's important to me for whatever reasons, noble or not
8. and, in keeping with this blog, an appreciation of Bollywood. He doesn't have to love it, but if he would watch with me from time to time and then listen while I ramble on, that would be really nice - and if he enjoyed it, that would be swell. Or maybe just an appreciation for what I appreciate about Bollywood would suffice. He gets why I like it and doesn't find it insurmountably weird that I like it as much as I do. Yes, that will do, I think.
Of course, some of these demand to be shared and/or reciprocal - I put #1 on there because that's how I try to be because I think it's pretty much the point of life in general. And if he'll watch Dil Chahta Hai for the umpteenth time with me, I'll do the equivalent.
They also are a remarkably Bollywood-free set of hopes, given my pop culture diet lately - no literal arm-flinging required. Figurative, though - that's a must, at some point. It doesn't have to be from across a crowded engagement party the very first time you meet, though.
The thing is, you can make lists until the cows come home, but in my experience they won't matter one teeny tiny jot when someone good comes along. And if you're lucky and brave, you'll give it a whirl anyway, and the ways he derivates from what you thought you wanted will just challenge you to figure out why you thought you wanted them.
Huh. I seemed to have veered off of the person and on to the relationship. Anyway, my point is that if someone really interesting and funny and kind enters your life, you don't drop the whole thing just because he doesn't like dogs. You just lend your dog to a friend for the afternoon and then pet him extra and give him a new chew toy when you pick him up later. ("Him" the dog, not the guy. Probably.)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:08 PM
2 comments
2 comments
The thing is, you can make lists until the cows come home, but in my experience they won't matter one teeny tiny jot when someone good comes along.
I totally agree with this! I used to think grammar was like THE most important thing but then I met this super nice guy whose grammar wasn't that cool but I decided to give him a chance anyway because you can learn grammar, but you can't learn to be a nice guy!
By Accidental Fame Junkie, at
January 19, 2006
Well said! I think that's an important distinction - and it makes me want to re-think my list with it in mind!
By Beth Loves Bollywood, at
January 19, 2006
a serial response to Sex and the Single Girl (1962) by Helen Gurley Brown
A blog with the name "Pies Men Like" was bound to meet up wtih this book sooner or later. I have known about SSG for years - dating to surreptitious peeking at Cosmo in high school - and as a lover of early- and mid-twentieth-century advice manuals for girls and women, I'm glad I finally have my hands on one of the masterpieces. My interest was recently re-piqued by an old episode of This American Life in which they played part of an LP by Helen Gurley Brown. She said she had too much material to fit in SSG and so put out the record to continue the good work. The segment they played was advice for men on how to have an affair and included "don't drink all your girl's booze" and "don't let her spend her birthday alone, even if you have to lie like heck to get out of your house to do it." I mean, that's how you should treat any person in general - that's just being kind (except for the part with lying).
So far I am so enchanted with the book that I keep hopping from bit to bit, plucking pearls of wisdom as I go. But I need to settle down and do an organized, thought-out response. So I shall, a chapter at a time.
This SG is tired enough to be unable to go beyond a page or two tonight, so let's take a look at the table of contents.
1. WOMEN ALONE? OH COME NOW!
2. THE AVAILABLES: THE MEN IN YOUR LIFE
3. WHERE TO MEET THEM
4. HOW TO BE SEXY
5. NINE TO FIVE
6. MONEY MONEY MONEY
7. THE APARTMENT
8. THE CARE AND FEEDING OF EVERYBODY
9. THE SHAPE YOU'RE IN
10. THE WARDROBE
11. KISS AND MAKE-UP
12. THE AFFAIR: FROM BEGINNING TO END
13. THE RICH, FULL LIFE
We won't get there for awhile, so you should know now that chapter 8 does indeed have recipes in it. If it has a pie, I will flip out. That pie would have to be an absolutely foolproof man trap, if both food editors and HGB decree it attractive to men. [flips through book] There is! There is pie! It's in a set of recipes for a dinner "for him" and is called chocolate angel pie. This throws off the whole fruit filling theory, but still. Pie! Damn.
So far I am so enchanted with the book that I keep hopping from bit to bit, plucking pearls of wisdom as I go. But I need to settle down and do an organized, thought-out response. So I shall, a chapter at a time.
This SG is tired enough to be unable to go beyond a page or two tonight, so let's take a look at the table of contents.
1. WOMEN ALONE? OH COME NOW!
2. THE AVAILABLES: THE MEN IN YOUR LIFE
3. WHERE TO MEET THEM
4. HOW TO BE SEXY
5. NINE TO FIVE
6. MONEY MONEY MONEY
7. THE APARTMENT
8. THE CARE AND FEEDING OF EVERYBODY
9. THE SHAPE YOU'RE IN
10. THE WARDROBE
11. KISS AND MAKE-UP
12. THE AFFAIR: FROM BEGINNING TO END
13. THE RICH, FULL LIFE
We won't get there for awhile, so you should know now that chapter 8 does indeed have recipes in it. If it has a pie, I will flip out. That pie would have to be an absolutely foolproof man trap, if both food editors and HGB decree it attractive to men. [flips through book] There is! There is pie! It's in a set of recipes for a dinner "for him" and is called chocolate angel pie. This throws off the whole fruit filling theory, but still. Pie! Damn.
