kapgar

3-2-1-Contact!

I originally found this meme on Karla's Tales of a Texpatriate and then found an extended version on Kazza's site.  I'm going for the extended one because I like the #1 option. 

You know the rules... if you like it, steal it.  I'm not tagging anyone. 

Here goes...

10 Favorites

• Favorite color: blue - it was brown when I was a kid
• Favorite food: tough one... anything Katie makes or Texas Chimichangas from Eduardo's in DeKalb, IL
• Favorite song: wow... umm... I've got a few... The Police - "King of Pain," Van Halen - "Finish What Ya Started," Soul Asylum - "Black Gold," and Queen - "One Vision"
• Favorite movie: The Shawshank Redemption
• Favorite sport: was always baseball, but I've found myself much more passionate about football (the American variety) lately
• Favorite season: fall - and it was far too short this year.
• Favorite day of the week: any day that Katie and I both don't have to work
• Favorite ice cream flavor: chocolate peanut butter
• Favorite alcoholic drink: tequila - have yet to find a favorite brand, though
• Favorite word: excellent - does that identify me as a child of the 80s?
  

9 Currents

• Current mood: annoyed due to a headache and ridiculous "news" stories, but otherwise okay
  
• Current taste: anything, I'm hungry
  
• Current clothes: see "5 things you're wearing" below
  
• Current desktop picture: see my TUAW screen cap on Flickr
  
• Current hair color: what's left is brown
  
• Current time: 11:50 a.m.
  
• Current surroundings: my office
  
• Current annoyance(s): slow computer processing and my pounding headache
  
• Current craving: Subway or Jimmy John's... I could use a sub sandwich for lunch today
  

8 Firsts

• First best friend: Steve Pope in Lexington, KY
  
• First kiss: I don't remember, to be honest; but, for some reason, the memory of a girl named Krys in 8th grade is starting to form in my head (I don't remember if she kissed my cheek or my lips)
  
• First screen name: z917892 at NIU that I changed to "gurgi" when I figured out how to log in to the university's student info database
  
• First pet: a gerbil named Tippee (he had a white tip on the end of his tail)
  
• First piercing: a pencil through the palm of my right hand in first grade (the graphite is still in there)
  
• First crush: Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's and Elisabeth Shue of The Karate Kid
  
• First CD: Poison - Open Up and Say... Ahhh!!! and The Black Crowes - Shake Your Moneymaker
  
• First car: 1984 Chrysler LeBaron... totaled it a month and a half later
  

7 Lasts

• Last cigarette: never smoked; never even inhaled save for secondhand
  
• Last alcoholic beverage: Blue Moon beer at Old Towne Pub and Tavern last weekend
• Last car ride: this morning on the way to work
  
• Last kiss: this morning from Katie
  
• Last movie seen: in theaters - Just Like Heaven; on video - The Living Daylights (I still say Timothy Dalton is my favorite James Bond because he was the closest to Ian Fleming's vision in the books)
  
• Last phone call: this morning to the Copy Center on campus
  
• Last CD played: OnXRT Live From the Archives, vol. 8
  

6 Have You Evers

• Have you ever dated one of your best friends: no; but, like Kazza, I became best friends with one I dated and then married; and she's still my best friend
  
• Have you ever broken the law: yes
  
• Have you ever been arrested: yes
  
• Have you ever skinny dipped: hell no
  
• Have you ever been on TV: yes, a furniture store commercial when I was a kid and a Christmas special naming all Santa's reindeer from memory, and I still can - Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen (amazing how, as an adult, many of them sound more like the names of exotic dancers than Santa's means of holiday transportation)
  
• Have you ever been in love: yes, and I'm married to the object of this love
  

5 Things

• 5 things you're wearing: grey Russell mock turtleneck, khaki cargo pants, black socks, black Skecher Critics (fave shoes of all time), and Hanes boxer briefs (not a whitey tighty or boxer guy... I believe in the best of both worlds - the coverage of boxers and the security of whitey tighties)
  
• 5 things you did yesterday: woke up, worked primary job, worked secondary job, went home, fell asleep with my head on Katie's back between her shoulder blades (until she made me roll over)
  
• 5 things you can't live without: Katie, my iPod, my laptop, my digicam, my contact lenses (unfortunately)
  
• 5 things you can hear right now: heater, my boss down the hall, the keys clicking on my keyboard, iTunes (iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast), a printer printing in the background somewhere
  
• 5 things you do when you're bored: blog, watch movies, read books, surf Web, wander around aimlessly and make those around me quite nervous
  

4 Places You've Been To

• Lots of places in America with my faves, outside Chicago, being San Francisco, Kauai, and New Orleans
• Canada
• Mexico
• Grand Cayman and Belize (very brief day trips)

3 People You Can Tell *Almost* Anything To (in no particular order)

• Katie
• Katie
• Katie (not very original answers, I know; but that's how it is)

2 Choices

• Black or White: Black
  
• Hot or Cold: Cold, but it is also dependent on circumstances; I don't want it to be cold when I'm on a beach, but I don't want it to be hot on Christmas morning
  

1 Wish

• I'm going to have to agree with Kazza on this one... I wish that I could fly

Cause to me everyday is Halloween...

This is it, folks... The All Hallow's Meme.

And please be honest in your answers.  We're all friends; we won't report each other to their respective authorities.

I'll list all the questions first, and follow up with my own answers below the list.  That way, you can copy and paste the questions to your own blogs or in my comments without having to clear out my answers and, thus, waste a bunch of time.

1. Do you prefer "trick" or "treat"?  Please explain.
2. What year did you quit trick or treating?  How old were you then?
3. What was your favorite costume?  Did you make or buy it?  How much did you spend on it (money or time)?
4. What are/were your five most favorite things to receive when trick or treating?
5. What are/were your five least favorite things to receive when trick or treating?
6. Have you ever been chased by cops or unruly mobs of costumed children on Halloween?
7. What's the worst thing you've ever done on Halloween?
8. What is your biggest Halloween disappointment?

And, now, my answers...

1. Definitely "treat."  As much fun as tricks may be, they never have the longevity of treats.  Just ask my brother who packratted Halloween candy for as long as a decade or even more (the only reason it was finally thrown away was because he left for college and my parents trashed it - probably danced a little jig afterwards).  Also, once I got in high school, tricking required no specially designated day.  Treating still did.
2. 1996 (21).  I actually quit back in 1992 when I was 17.  But, one year in college, some friends and I decided to go around the campus and surrounding neighborhood for kicks before getting trashed at a frat party.
3. I had two and my mom made both.  One was me as Perseus from Clash of the Titans; a costume that was remade for my college Halloween escapades as well.  Came complete with toga, cape, winged sandals (yes, he had Pegasus in the movie; but a papier maiche horse was a bit too much work), Greek warrior helmet, sword, shield, and Halloween candy bucket made up to look like Medusa's severed head.  Sorry, at six years old, I wasn't nearly as studly as Harry Hamlin back in his heyday.  The second was Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi.  My mom sewed up a big old, black, hooded cloak and then painted my face in grey with black lines to look like his Imperial mangledness.  You'd have to ask her how much was spent.  I really should ask her if she has pictures.
4. Tootsie Rolls, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Atomic Fireballs, and caramel apples.
5. Change (I always wound up with just pennies), Double Bubble, candy that was opened and split up (cheap bastards... and my mom always threw out the opened stuff), coupons, and anything non-candy.
6. Unruly mobs of costumed fellow classmates, yes.  Egging and other food-based ambushes are not recommended for those with social aspirations.
7. I've done so many bad things, I can't quite remember if they happened to fall on Halloween or not.  But I'm sure there were a few instances of egging, whip creaming, and TPing.
8. Aside from being deemed by society to be too old to trick or treat, I hate the fact that Katie and I spent four years in our apartment and never had a single trick or treater come to our door.  We even bought candy.  Truly sad.  I hope that changes this year in our new place.

Hey, cut me some slack, it's the first meme I've ever written so I'm sure it's not terribly original.  Nor should it be terribly terrible, though.  I just hope you have some fun with it and laugh about the memories.

Do feel free to share.

Awooo... werewolves of London...

I think I'm going to tackle a couple of memes in the next post or two.  Nothing that I've been tagged with, but ones that I've either read on other blogs or am going to develop on my own.  I, also, don't plan to tag anyone with them. But, should you feel so inclined, feel free to steal them anyway.

The Halloween Movie Meme (courtesy of Johnny C.)
List your top-five Halloween or horror flicks:
Yes, I did post my list in his comments, but I figured I would copy them here with some expanded commentary (as I'm known and reviled for).

1.  The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen
Hopefully, by now, it's the version that nearly everyone has seen.  I can't imagine a movie ever coming out that scares me like this one still does.  Even if I know what's coming up, I still jump out of sheer anticipation.  And, damn, if that cut SpiderWalk scene doesn't terrify the bejeezus out of me.  See it, love it, fear it.

2.  Stigmata
I really didn't expect much of this movie as it is a modernized horror flick and it stars one of the Arquettes, but it was damn good.  And freaky.  It's all about a woman in New York City who spontaneously bursts out in physical manifestations of the scourging of Christ.  Just promise me one thing, you will rent the director's cut and watch the extended version.  The non-theatrical ending is much better than what people saw in the theaters.

3.  An American Werewolf in London
This is the ultimate werewolf flick, hands down.  Two young men from the U.S. go backpacking across England when they are attacked by a werewolf.  One dies while the other starts showing symptoms of slowing turning into a wolf himself.  Yes, by today's standards, the special effects may seem like they are lacking.  But if you are a film buff and like to see how special effects have evolved over the decades, this is a must see as it is one of the finest examples of Rick Baker's make up work ever.

4.  Halloween
In my mind, no character from a slasher flick can even compare to Michael Myers.  Well, except for the sheer physical presence of Kane Hodder as Jason Vorhees (too bad his scripts weren't better).  And, as pointed out in the film Scream, Jamie Lee Curtis is the Queen of Scream.

5.  Evil Dead
Campy?  Check.  Bloody?  Double check.  Just plain cool?  In spades, baby!  The King of B-Movies, Bruce Campbell, stars as "Ash" Williams, just a guy out with some friends for a night of drunken debauchery in a cabin in the woods.  Of course, plans start to go astray when they uncover the Book of the Dead and open it for a little read.  There are two sequels for this film -- Evil Dead 2 and The Army of Darkness -- and I highly recommend the latter for laughs and thrills.

I will give honorable mention status to films like The Shining, The Others, The Sixth Sense, and Scream. 

What are your faves?

Oh, and SJ at Chronic Listaholic did a Top Halloween Songs meme.  I would replicate that one here, but my choices would be almost exactly the same as hers.  So just read her list.

Back tomorrow with a homegrown (read: I made it myself) Halloween meme.

8-6-7-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-3-0-ni-yee-yine.

Johnny tagged me with this meme just before I left for Florida and I never got around to finishing it... until now.  Having read this one so many other blogs, I think it is called something like "10-5-365-1" or some such name, but this one seems a bit different because it has a series of "fivers" after the rest of the regular meme.  So, here goes...

10 years ago: I was in the beginning of my junior year of college at Northern Illinois University, working at the front desk in Grant Towers North, and I was the Hall Council President.  I had just moved off floor 3C for 6C and it was a big change not being on a non-alcohol floor anymore.  In about two months, I would be turning 21 and we all know what that means... my habits would soon be legal!!!!

5 years ago: I started my job at Aurora University.  Hard to believe it's been so long.  I was also in the midst of planning my wedding to Katie.  Actually, before she kills me, she was planning the wedding, I took care of the honeymoon.  She did pretty much all the grunt work.  You all know me, credit where credit's due.

1 year ago: We were seriously contemplating moving out of our apartment in Geneva, Ill., and finding a house, townhome, or condo.  Of course, we had been "talking" about it, per se, since we moved in to the apartment.  But, around this time, Katie got really gung ho about the real estate listings in the newspaper.  Did I think anything would actually happen?  In all honesty, no.  But, two months later, we had an offer accepted and were just waiting a few more weeks to close on the place.

Yesterday: Katie and I were still sleeping at this exact moment.  In a bit, we would be waking up, watching a few of our TiVo'd shows, and then going to Borders and Panera to do some homework and have some lunch.  Okay, she was doing homework, I was playing Sudoku and reading a new book about the conflict in Rwanda (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch).  Damn fine book that I bought for my trip to Florida but only got through a couple chapters.

5 songs I know all the words to: I'm going to try to cover several genres and time periods here as I know the words to far more than just five songs.

• Tears for Fears - "Mad World" (but, I prefer the Gary Jules version)
• Public Enemy (w/ or w/o Anthrax) - "Bring Tha Noize"
• Poison - "Fallen Angel"
• Kenny Rogers - "The Gambler"
• The Replacements - "Can't Hardly Wait"

5 snacks: Oh so many to choose from...

• Cheese - slices, string, cubes, chunks, curd, cottage... I truly don't care
• Pretzels - twists, sticks, braids, checkerboards, rings... see above declaration
• SunChips - original only, thank you
• Fruit - blueberries are always preferred
• Yogurt - blueberry is preferred, again

5 things I'd do w/ $100 million dollars:

• Pay off any and all debt I have (within reason, of course - some debt always looks good to creditors)
• Go on one helluva European tour with Katie
• Buy a Subway Sandwich Shop
• New cars for Katie and me
• Never work again or use the money to buy my way in to being a professional movie reviewer (would Ebert fire Roeper for the right amount of money?)

5 places I would run away to:

• Montana (dunno why, just always wanted to; never even been there to justify this desire)
• San Francisco
• Kauai
• Australia
• Ireland

5 things I would never wear:

• Fur - just not my look
• Three-piece suits to work - unless I was being paid an obscene amount of money
• Propeller beanies
• Leather chaps
• An Emmitt Smith jersey - neither Cowboys nor Cardinals

5 favorite TV shows: I didn't know if this should be current or all-time favorites, so I'm doing both...

• Current - Scrubs, Lost, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy - all kinds of good watercooler sorts of shows
• All-Time - Quantum Leap, Battlestar Galactica (the original), Seinfeld, Cheers, Family Guy (pre-return to TV; while I do like some of the new stuff, the old episodes are still the best)

5 greatest joys:

• Katie
• Movies
• Showers - baths just aren't me
• Walking into our house and realizing it's ours (until we default on several payments and the bank repossesses it, thus proving that it's never really ours until it's paid off)
• Blogging - sad, isn't it?  But I just love doing this

5 favorite toys/games:

• My iPod - natch!
• Our PowerBook
• Our DVD Player
• My workbench area in the garage
• Our Sony digicam
• Honorable mentions - the TiVo (soon to break the top five), GameCube, my old Superman action figure, Rubik's Cube, GeoMags, Sudoku puzzles (another quick riser on the list)

5 favorite movies:

• Shawshank Redemption - first movie I've ever purchased multiple editions of on DVD
• The Empire Strikes Back - finest piece of sci-fi ever made
• Tombstone - get the Vista Series DVD set, if you can find it; well worth the money
• Office Space - I am really looking forward to the special edition later this year that will supposedly have a deluxe box available at Best Buy with all kinds of goodies including the red Swingline stapler
• Real Genius - still waiting for a better version on DVD

Most of the people I interact with regularly have already been tagged with this meme, so I'm not going to worry about naming anyone to tackle it.  However, if you'd like to steal it for your blog, by all means, do so.  Or, if you only did the first part (pre 5's) and would like to try the final several categories, steal those by themselves.

A se7en nation army couldn't hold me down.

I knew as soon as I read this meme on Blogography that I was eventually going to get nailed with it.  Surprised it wasn't Dave himself who did it.  But it was still stuck to me by SJ.  So, here goes...

Se7en things I plan to do before I die:

1. Have kids.  Helps to be alive to do this.
2. Tool around Europe and Australia with Katie.
3. Have some movie reviews published in a newspaper or magazine and not just my Web site.
4. Buy a motorcycle.  I'm sure Katie is saying "over my dead body" right about now.
5. Be league champion in both fantasy baseball and fantasy football.
6. Rebuild a muscle car ('69 GTO preferably).
7. Strengthen my Spanish speaking ability and learn another foreign language.

Se7en things I can do:

1. Write what I consider to be fair movie and book reviews.
2. Love my wife.
3. Enjoy life.
4. Understand, for the most part, what is being said when I watch Telemundo.
5. Cook.
6. Paint and do some minor work around the house.
7. Learn just about anything that someone is willing to teach me.

Se7en things I cannot do:

1. Stand Tom Cruise and Kate Cruise right about now.
2. Work on a car other than to check fluid levels and change tires.
3. Tolerate spiders.
4. Vote Republican (for the moment; gimme McCain and that could change).
5. Listen to or look at pictures of Britney Spears.
6. Drive stick shift (I'm in the same boat as you, SJ).
7. Afford to buy a new Mac... yet.

Se7en things that I find really attractive in the opposite sex:

1. Sense of humor.  Katie has a great one.
2. Eyes.
3. Lips and kissing ability.
4. Athletic ability (don't need to be a world-class sprinter; just willing to be active).
5. Voice.
6. Legs.
7. Breasts (Katie insists I'm a "boob man").

Se7en things I say the most:

1. "What'd I do now?"
2. "I love you"
3. "Literally, figuratively, and everything in between."
4. "Yeah, okay, whatever."
5. "Bite me."
6. "English speak well very I."
7. "Sunset Racquetball and Fitness Center.  This is Kevin.  How can I help you?" - although the frequency is down quite a bit from what it used to be.

Se7en books I love:

1. Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.
2. Gates of Eden by Ethan Coen.
3. Different Seasons by Stephen King.
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
5. Dune by Frank Herbert.
6. Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance by Peter Stark.
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Se7en (minus four) people I would like to see answer these questions:

1. Johnny C at A Mind Awake
2. Kazza
3. Carol at Shopping for Sanity - might have to e-mail her this one; not sure how involved in the blogosphere she is anymore.

Too damn many books.

I was recently tagged by Carol with a book meme.  It's taken me a couple of days, but I'm finally getting to it.  So here goes...

THE BOOK MEME

The Number Of Books I Own
Only about 150 actually.  I'm a big proponent of recirculating books so I'm constantly trying to find used book stores to sell my old books to.  Of course, they close down more readily than frozen yogurt stands these days, so my resale outlet opportunities are quickly dwindling.

Last Books I Bought
I picked up five or six books from a used book sale at our library this past weekend.  I don't remember what all of them were, but I do remember it included Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight and Leonard Mosley's Hirohito, Emperor of Japan.  Katie just went out and picked up hardcover copies of the three Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books.  She finished reading all three in only about a week's time.  And I'm sure we will be heading to Border's pretty soon to place our pre-order for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Last Book I Read
I just finished reading Leander Kahney's Cult of Mac and I wasn't entirely impressed.  It could've been so much more.  C'est la vie.  Maybe I should write my own.  I'm now reading Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted.

Five Books That Mean A Lot
This is not an easy question to field, but I'll see if I can get it...

• Ethan Coen's Gates of Eden - I love short stories and this is a spectacular collection of them.  Plus it holds sentimental value for me in that it was the book I was reading when Katie and I started dating.  She slipped a note to me in the book that I found when I was on a staff retreat while working at NIU.
• Stephen King's Different Seasons - Again, one of the finest collections of short stories (actually, novellas) around especially since we all know King can't finish a novel to save his life anymore.  Also sentimental in that Katie tracked down a hardcover first edition of this book for me as a grad school graduation gift.  Sadly, I still haven't finished it.  I need to sit down and read The Breathing Method.  I've read the other three a few times each.
• Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy hardcover compendium (I'd link it but Amazon doesn't list it) - It's a really nice black hardcover collection of all the Hitchhiker stories in one book.  The cover is gold embossed and it just looks beautiful on my bookshelf.  Even with the title typo on the spine of the book.  They spelled "Zaphod" with an i so now it's "Zaphoid."  Go fig.
• Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - this one was recommended to me a couple years ago by my friend, Juliette.  I finally remembered to pick up a copy in April 2004 while on a business trip in Washington, D.C.  Never before have I found a book that managed to tackle modern religion with such wit, brutal honesty, and reverence all in one fell swoop.  I have recommended this book to more people than all other books I've recommended combined. 
• Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Also known as Blade Runner.  This is the first, and so far only, PKD story I've read and I loved it.  A very surreal tale of a man who hunts android replicants in the future.  What makes it special is that this is a copy of the book printed in the 80s with the Blade Runner movie cover on it and it belonged to my friend Stephen who, despite owning this book for the better part of his life, thought enough of me as a friend to give it to me.  It's in good hands, Gundark.

One Book That I Would Like To Burn
Sorry, but I've got two...

• L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought
• Michael Berg's The Way: Using the Wisdom of Kabbalah for Spiritual Transformation and Fulfillment

These two books, and their various permutations, have transformed far too many people in the entertainment industry into self-righteous assholes.

SJ at Chronic Listaholic added some questions to her version of this meme.  I really don't want to add more questions to what is already a long meme, so check her answers out (scroll down to 6/9/05).

People I'd Like To See Waste Some Time On This Meme Nonsense
I don't have anybody to pass this to in the Blogging universe.  All my friends have already been tagged with this one.  I'm one of the last to get it.

Wait, after looking a little more carefully, I can hit Kazza with it.  Tag, you're it.

Betcha didn't know I was such a good Eugooglimagizer

This is another interesting blog that wasn't sent to me, but after reading it on a couple other sites, I wanted to do it anyway.

It's called Googlimage and the point of it is that you are supposed to answer ten questions and type those answers into the Google image search engine.  Then you compile the resultant images together for all to see.  I used Photoshop to come up with my nice little image bar.

Here are the questions...

1. Where did you grow up?
   
2. Where do you live now?
3. What is your name?
4. What is your grandmother's name?
5. What is your favorite food?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your favorite song?
8. What is your favorite smell?
9. What is your favorite shoes?
10. What is your favorite number?

Here are the images I came up with...

And now the reasons behind these photos (as best I can figure them out)...

1. That is the city hall in Rochester, N.Y., where I was born.
2. Ironically enough, not only is this a building in Geneva, Ill., where I now live, but it is the library that I frequent.
3. Two Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon minimates figurines that I reviewed for a friend's toy review website are what came up when I Googled my first and last name.  Go fig (no pun intended).
4. Apparently, my grandmother (Katherine Kurtz) is the author of several fantasy/sci-fi novels.  I had no idea... You holdin' out on me, Nano?
5. Mac and cheese, baby!
6. I searched for a "black and tan" as my favorite drink and I got a black and tan Jack Russell Terrier.  Cute little bugger, though, ain't he?
7. "Gypsy Road" (by Cinderella) was one of the only songs I could think of at the moment and this is a shot of what is known as Gypsy Road at Wind Cave National Park.
8. I can't explain why, but I am always relaxed by the smell of my wife's powder fresh deodorant, so I looked up "powder fresh" and actually got an image of my wife's brand of deodorant, no less.
9. My Skechers Critics in black nubuck.  I love these shoes.
10. The number five a la The Ten Things You Didn't Know About the World Bank.  Ummm... okay.

This is a really fun exercise.  No, you don't have to go and compile the images the way that I did.  But answer the questions and search for them.  It's pretty interesting.

I've been meme'd - what hell hath I wrought?

Recently, Dave (of Blogography fame) was hit by another blogger named Neil with a meme.  Many fellow bloggers know what a meme is, but I know I have a few readers who are not bloggers and would likely appreciate an explanation before they run away banging their heads against all solid objects on the way.  Here you go, courtesy of Wikipedia...

In casual use, the term meme often refers to any piece of information passed from one mind to another.

If you'd like to read more, check out the full entry.

In lay terms, it's like one of those e-mails you dread to receive from a friend asking you to answer all these personal questions and then send on to ten (or however many) people as well as sending it back to the person that initially sent it to you. 

For bloggers, it takes on a whole new meaning because we post the results on our sites for hundreds to read (in Dave's case) or 5 to read (in my case).

Dave did this meme about ways to deal with anxiety on his site and hit up the requisite five people afterwards.  I mentioned that the next time he does one of these, he can tag me.  When that comment went out, SJ of Chronic Listaholic took me up on the offer to Dave and tagged me with my first meme.

Here it is...

List five things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal, and then tag five friends and ask them to post it to theirs.

1. Watch comedies that I know far too well on DVD and can recite line by line - usually Office Space, Fletch, Johnny Dangerously, and Ghostbusters will do the trick.
2. Write in my blog.
3. Mentally plot the death of the person or object that has caused the stress/blood pressure/anxiety level increase in the first place.  This is typically plotted out in such extreme detail that, by the time I'm done, I've forgotten what the target of my rage is and I wind up feeling better.  Ignorance truly is bliss.
4. Log on to the Web and read about the exploits of really stupid people.  Hollywood news, Darwin Awards, or other completely ridiculous headlines (may require registration - but it's free) typically help in this capacity.
5. Create a new playlist on my iPod and take it to the gym for a workout.  I find that following up a workout with some time in the sauna can relieve almost any stress.  Try it.

I know it says five, but I do have one more...

1. Playing disc golf.  Even though it is more fun with friends, I have played alone.  That's when you can replay shots and get away with it.  Always a bonus.

The catch is that I now need to find five other bloggers that I can send this on to.  I've got plenty of Web-enabled friends, but only a few that have blogs.  Dave's already done this one.  So has SJ.  However, SJ recommended that I tag Mark, so I shall.  I'm going to tag Carol as well and see if she'll play.

That's all I've got in terms of people to send to at the moment.  Hopefully as more people discover this site, I'll find more victims... er... "friends" with whom I can converse on such meme-ical topics.

If you'd like to respond to this meme and don't have a blog, feel free to do so via the comments link below.