The personals

Thursday Threesome:
Onesome: The Good. Read a good book lately? Recommend a recent read - as well as your favorite book of all time.... Gad. I'm only in the middle of four different books right now (Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Return of the Mucker", Steve Allen's "Meeting of Minds", P J O'Rourke's "Give War a Chance", and Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World"), not counting the bedtime stories I'm reading to my kids ("Pioneer Germ Fighters" for the ten-year-old, "The Dry Divide" by Ralph Moody for the fourteen-year-old) and web-type references ("Cascading Style Sheets for Dummies", shut up Andrea*). I never used to do that. I used to refuse to open a second book until I'd finished the first. Perhaps I'm getting scatterbrained as I get older. I hear people do that sometimes.

...What was the question?

Oh, yeah, the book to have when you're only having one: "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A Heinlein.

Twosome: The Bad. Was it so bad that you couldn't watch anymore? Tell us about a bad movie - did you leave or suffer through it? (Videos can count, too) I've never walked out on a movie. Call me an optimist. I always hope it'll get better. I was sorely tempted to walk out of Opie's "Grinch", but I had kids with me. (Just because a thing can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Am I the only person who thinks a "key party" reference is out of place in a Dr Seuss story?) I didn't walk out of "Dumb and Dumber" either, though if any movie is well-named, it's that one. I almost asked for my money back (which is really absurd considering it was a free pass "promotional" screening).

Threesome: And The Ugly. And then things turned ugly.... Oh, have a day (or date) seem to go so horribly wrong it can only be described as "ugly"? Tell us all about it... Well, there was the time we went out to a 7:30 movie, got lost, and got to the theater in time for the 9:30 show. (That was the Gil Gerard "Buck Rogers" feature, and that dates us, doesn't it?) Or there was the time we went out to a movie and the wheel of the car fell off. We had the tow truck take us to a repair shop near the theater, walked to the movie, and arranged to have a friend drive us home. (That was the first run of Disney's "The Fox and the Hound", which wasn't worth the trip.) And there was the time when, right after I dropped my daughter off at school, the wheel of the car fell off. (Different car, years later.) Leaving me sitting in the rain with a broken car. On my birthday.

Actually, I suppose those are merely annoyances, and don't really approach true ugliness.

The Friday Five:
1. What are your hobbies? Sleeping. Sleeping is good. Computers, obviously. Reading (see above). Radio theater.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? I collect anything. I'll buy little doodads and whatnots for no reason other than they amuse me. I couldn't say what it's a collection of. Although I do have a few thousand comic books in the attic. Why, just the other day I bought a tin box in the shape of an old Coca-Cola vending machine. (The kind where you can see the bottles through the door. Yes, kiddies, before cans, they used to sell cola in bottles.) And a Gyro Wheel, which is... Well, I'm not sure I can describe it. Take a look. I used to have one when I was little, and I just discovered that they still make them.

Why, behind me on the bookshelf right now sits a 10" Kermit, a kids' meal Princess Amidala, a Bullwinkle beanie, and a 4" Iron Giant (which I guess would make him an Iron Midget). There's also Esmeralda (from Disney's "Hunchback"), Megara (from Disney's "Hercules"), Mulan (from Disney's ...well, you know), and a Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl candy dispenser. And Princess Fiona (who probably beats the crap out of all of them when I'm gone, since she's twice the scale of the rest of 'em). And an assortment of cows, of course.

3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do? Music. I'd like to have more time to play piano. (Pause while everybody who knows me asks, "You play piano?")

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity? Successfully? No. But we're trying: See radio theater, above.

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to? Myriad, an APA (amateur press alliance). ARTC (see radio theater above). That's about it. Used to be real big into the Society for Creative Anachronism.

* After all, I just found a real use for it: To make the darned <blockquote> command do what I expect it to.