A cool memelicious thing about you, not me

[womzilla]

I got this from my sister-un-law, trueheart:

I know little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. I've read your user info, or we have something else in common. Some of you I know a little and look forward to getting to know over time.

I'd love it if every single person on my friends list would volunteer a personal nugget of information that might be evidence of a defining trait. Yes, even those people who think I know them reasonably well. Then post this in your own journal if you like.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I try never to say or write that I "believe" something.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure what to write, but this sparks one for me:

I always try to say or write that I "believe" things that I believe to be facts.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

it can take me weeks to buy a garden hose (have you seen all the choices? oy!) but important decisions about my life i tend to make fairly quickly.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

When I see a tired or stressed-looking person on a bus or train, I always wish I could just reach out and rub their back without any of the social implications that would have.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I can't not read text. That is, if there's something with text on it within eyeshot, I read it. Books, newspapers, cereal boxes, signs, graffiti, tattoos, other people's paperwork, bumper stickers, t-shirts; you name it, I read it. I can also read upside down, as long as it's a relatively standard typeface.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

That's one of mine, too.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I tend to hate songs with "Hey!" in the lyrics.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Jude?

You've got to hide your love away?

[schulman.livejournal.com]

I used to scrub manatee bones for the government.

I liked it, except for the smell.

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

I was talking to my mother about the novel I'm currently writing, and she jokingly asked me, "So what are you going to do with your millions when you publish it and become the next JK Rowling?"

I shrugged and said, "Oh, I'll probably buy a little cottage up in Killarney [a tiny northern Ontario town we spent many summers in] and write more books."

She just stared at me for a moment, long enough for me to look at her with a puzzled expression.

"When you were a very little girl," she explained, "I asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up. You didn't even stop to think before you said that you were going to live in a house in Killarney and write books."

It's comforting to know that I always knew exactly what I really wanted. :)

[jayspec.livejournal.com]

I'm so afraid of losing my mind later in life that I'm studying Mandarin Chinese now to combat it.

[swimmingotter.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to differentiate between "lie" and "lay". No matter what Jenna said, or how many times she corrected me, even now I can't figure out when to use each word.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, me too. And never mind the various permutations (laid? lain? layed? aieee).

Also, despite a generally good memory and repeated explanations from the wise and wonderful rahirah, I never remember the difference between a second cousin and a first cousin once removed (I suspect that this is because I don't really *care* about the difference, I just think I *should*).

[sraun]

I am a dog person - currently we have two and a half Shih Tzus (as my wife puts it) - Macguyver, the prize-winning former showdog; Precious, the former puppy-mill mom; and Josie, the half-Shih Tzu half-some terrier, who was surrendered with a couple of cats (hence her name).

[serenityseeker.livejournal.com]

Shih Tzus are wonderful creatures!!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

My eyesight has been so bad for as long as I can remember that I've always expected to wind up blind. In the meantime, I look and look and look ...

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I'll mention here the one that astonished you recently: I don't mind about spoilers concerning fiction, and often even like the info, but I don't want to hear choice facts from a newspaper article I haven't read but intend to.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

One fear has profoundly influenced the way I live my daily life: the fear of being stuck somewhere with nothing to read.

(Finally friended you, after knowing your spice for ages.)

[supergee.livejournal.com]

You have reminded me of another nugget. I have known and mostly liked Eric Raymond for many years. (That's not the weird part.) Early in our relationship, a group of us went to a con hotel for a meal and were told we'd have to wait a few minutes. Eric pulled an sf paperback out of his back pocket and began reading. I said to myself something like "This man is a geek. I want to be one too." I believe I have succeeded. (Of course I was already off to a running start.)

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

I am a mathematic illiterate. Being unable to find a useful purpose for it in my youth I was unable to justify learning anything beyond basic addition and subtraction
Verbal S.A.T. 760
Math 230.

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is a defining trait, but it surprised Georg so it may surprise you as well:

I almost never listen to lyrics. I could listen to a song hundreds of times and still couldn't tell you what it was about. I don't really care what the words mean; for me the voice is another instrument like a guitar or whatever.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I can't snap my fingers. Haven't the faintest idea how it's done.

I can, however, make the sound of one hand clapping, which most people can't.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I could try to explain it to you, if you like.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I sometimes feel guilty when people mishear me, not for having mumbled, but for not having said what they thought I said. When I used this detail for a character in my first (and so far, only) published short story, the editor queried it and said it didn't make any sense.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I almost never say "always", "never", or "I'm certain" without some kind of qualifier. Often when expressing certainty I'll use percentages: "I'm 80% certain" or "I'm 95% sure".

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Corollary to the above, that I meant to mention but forgot: If I do say "I'm sure" with no qualifier that means that I'm really really sure. I'm not necessarily right, of course, but I'm really sure.

[drelmo.livejournal.com]

Nugget #1 (not defining trait): I pronounce the word "during" as if it were spelled "deering". This linguistically localizes me to central rural Kentucky. If I tell you I know the word "skosh", meaning "a small amount" and derived from Japanese "sukoshi", returned to the US by servicemen during Korea, you can further lock me down to within a short radius of Fort Knox. (Fort Campbell is too far west.)

Nugget #2: I don't hold grudges. Once expressed, I forget anger, unless or until the stimulus is reapplied.

[(Anonymous)]

That's funny as all getout. We say "skosh" and
we're from Adaburg/Oboro. Maybe blame it on one
Uncle who was in Korea and passed it along to
ever'body else. I was amused to find that
when I say "during" in my head like how
I talk when I'm relaxed, it sounds very
much like how you spelled "deering" only more
"deern". I have a feeling I say it that way sometimes,
and other times not. Like, "Deern church,
Aint May kep clickin' her false teeth an
it was drivin' me crazy." However,
"Wow, durn that storm, I thought
f'sher the ruf was gone cave in." Something
about the vowels that follow after, or if
it's the first word or who knows whut.

But, do any of your folks
say "larapin"? As in, "That
was some larapin good coffee"?

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960815

Oh, and, none o' ya'll know me. I was just passin'
through and got all excited. Sorry. : P

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

I made my first computer program on a brand new KIM-1 single board computer at the age of 8 (1974)... I did my first original program at 10. In between was a lot of hacking at other peoples stuff.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

I used to fantasize about nuking Hampton, CT.

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

I once killed a rattlesnake with a hammer. I had to, because our neighbor (a minister, tsk!) ran over it and broke its back, then just drove off and left it in the road. This happened on the road up past our houses, and the hammer was the only useful snake-killing implement I had in my truck at the time.

[paleogrrl.livejournal.com]

If a business has spelling or grammatical errors on its signs or in its advertising, I'm not very likely to spend my money there.

[serenityseeker.livejournal.com]

It's always been very, very important to me that people think I am a kind person, I don't care if they like me as long as they perceive me as kind/thoughtful.

[boxofdelights]

I have a bad temper. Very few people know this, even people who have known me in person for years, because I have spent a lifetime learning to restrain it.