100 Things About Me Meme
Ok. I hate this meme. I've put off doing it for the last x years that I've had a blog. I just didn't see the point of jumping on that knitter's bandwagon.
But I keep thinking of witty things to write so I'm going to put down a few things.
1. Mapgirl is my nickname.
2. I introduce myself at parties by this nickname, since the party hosts usually call me by this name when sending invitations.
3. My real name is only used by business associates and people who knew me in college.
4. When you meet me in person, I will expect you to call me mapgirl.
5. It started out as a nickname on IRC.
6. And then my friends from IRC would call me this in person when we met for drinks.
7. And it's snowballed from there.
8. It is derived from studying, what else? Geography.
9. I am Korean.
10. I am short.
11. I like kimchee with rice and cold pork. I could eat that every day for lunch.
12. I prefer pig to chicken.
13. Drives me nuts to eat lunch with my Muslim friend at work because he doesn't eat pork. We have to select restaurants that serve both, which is hard to find. So we almost always just have chicken.
14. I am vain.
15. I am vain about being thin.
16. I am blessed with good genes for metabolism.
17. I am blessed with poor genes for teeth.
18. I have beautiful hair.
19. I like to hack it off and give it away to charity.
20. I feel like that makes up for being so damned vain about it.
21. Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry is one of my favorite stories.
22. If you don't understand what 21 has to do with 19, I demand that you read the story.
23. By far the best version I've heard is by Barbara Budd from As It Happens. Unfortunately, because it is a copyrighted work, you cannot listen to the CBC archives for it. You'll have to listen at Xmastime for it to play on the radio.
24. When I hear it, it makes me cry.
25. I cry a lot. I am a cry-baby.
26. Don't get me started on Hallmark specials.
27. I don't own a TV.
28. Someone asked me once and I realized, I've never owned my own TV. It always belonged to someone else.
29. My favorite TV shows are The Simpsons, Sopranos, and old sitcoms.
30. I've thought about being a librarian.
31. I've worked in a library in college.
32. Best part of that job was reading all the daily newspapers.
33. I love books.
34. My favorite incentive at work was gift cards to the bookstore.
35. I won a prize in physics in high school for building a speaker from a styrofoam cup.
36. I was more highly motivated to win than the other students. The prize was a gift certificate to the school bookstore.
37. Some of the boys were mad that I won because I am a crappy physicist.
38. I have good craftsmanship, and that's why I won. My sh*t is well-built. 'Engineered' some like to say.
39. But my knitting and spinning is full of flaws.
40. I can do a good job, but often it's not worth the effort if it's only for me.
41. But if it's for someone else, I'll go nuts and make it perfect.
42. But I rarely make things for others since it involves going bonkers.
43. Once I was told that I would get nothing and like it.
44. That's my philosophy for buying gifts.
45. I rarely give material gifts anymore.
46. I find gifts cause me to accumulate crap I did not want or need.
47. I prefer not to burden people with the same.
48. So I call them or send an email to acknowledge them.
49. But I won't buy a present, unless it's the just right thing to send.
50. I am someone who buys practical gifts.
51. I'll get you a blender if I think you needed one.
52. That's one reason why I stopped giving gifts. People didn't like what I was sending.
53. I've never been mugged.
54. I should have been mugged for all the walking I do at night in scary places.
55. I carry pepper spray.
56. I consider myself 'street smart' sometimes.
57. I think I'm rather foolish though.
58. I love adrenaline.
59. But I am not an adrenaline-junkie.
60. I take calculated risks.
61. I am a fire performer and safety.
62. I cringe when I see people misuse fire arts at Maryland RenFaire.
63. I enjoy talking like a Pirate.
64. Yarr... It's true matey.
65. I have pictures of myself on a Spanish galleon in RenFaire garb.
66. I look smashing.
67. I need a cutlass to complete the outfit.
68. I am dorky enough to get one.
69. I enjoy science fiction.
70. I enjoy classical literature.
71. I enjoy chick-lit fluff sometimes, but find most of it is poorly written and frankly insufferable idiocy.
72. But I loved Bridget Jones' Diary. It seems to rise above most of the genre. Partly because of her neurotic behavior, and the insanely funny plot twists.
73. I love good movies.
74. I'm not a huge fan of video games.
75. I like tennis.
76. I was a fan of cycling during Greg Lemond's heyday, but I am disillusioned by the doping.
77. It breaks my heart to admit that because I really had my belief in cycling shaken up by someone who is a good friend and rode competitively. His stories make me very sad for the sport.
78. I met this friend at work because I was wearing a T-Mobile jersey pin on my cap.
79. I've always hated Lance Armstrong. He was an arrogant bastard as a junior out of Texas when I was following the sport. I don't care if he got cancer. I think he's that much of a jerk.
80. I begrudingly give him respect after hearing from a competitive cycling friend tell me that he personally saw Armstrong lap the entire field of racers at a race they both attended.
81. I've met a Nobel Prize winner. But I was so little, I don't remember it.
82. I met a second Nobel Prize winner. That was pretty cool to stand next to history.
83. In six degrees of separation, I can make the link to Kevin Bacon.
84. One of the best live speeches I ever heard was Hillary Clinton at Wellesley College in 1992. She was amazing and inspiring.
85. I've only been to one inauguration. (They're effing cold in January!)
86. I only remember hearing Maya Angelou while I was there. She was brilliant.
87. I used to be in marching band.
88. I think group and team activities like band and sports are good for kids.
89. I miss team sports a lot.
90. I am competitive.
91. I use harrassing voices when playing darts, Scrabble, and backgammon. But only to family and close friends. Part of the fun is the side game of harrassment.
92. I don't like gambling in casinos.
93. I am usually game for dollar bets and stuff like that.
94. I sometimes have insomnia.
95. I have it right now.
96. I love Hello Kitty, but My Melody is my favorite of all.
97. I bite my nails, but not to the quick.
98. I grow my nails out long.
99. I love a good pedicure.
100. I am not a vegetarian. My people eat dog. (I don't know why, but people think I'm so crunchy-granola that they assume I don't eat meat. It's very weird, but I'm not really that crunchy.)