It's been a while since I've done a meme, but gryphons_lair tagged me, so....

Question Meme Thingee
Meme via gryphons_lair.

The Rules:
1. People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new, original question.
2. Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you. (Fat chance. I'll play, but I won't spread the infection.)

----

1. Make a list of 5 things you can see without getting up.
Many many books.
A gooseneck lamp.
A broken kitchen timer, the wind-up kind.
One of Gracie's legs. (She's under the chair.)
A framed print of Maxfield Parrish's Ecstasy

2. How do you style your hair?
When it's short, in the warm months, I sweep it straight back, no part. In the cold months, I let it have its own way, pretty much. (It's long and unwieldy enough, just now, that I'm really longing for warm weather to return....)

3. What are you wearing now?
Long-sleeved heavy plaid shirt.
Plain dark-tan pants, of some very soft and comfortable material.
Thick wooly tan socks.
The rest is none of your business.

4. What's your occupation?
I'm a professor of mathematics.

5. What do you hear right now?
Sly and the Family Stone's recording of "Family Affair"; not much else audible over that.

6. Who was the last person you hugged?
Probably my sister E., around Christmastime.

7. What are you thinking about right now?
Not much, really. This meme, as much as anything.

8. What did you do today?
Websurfed, went back to bed, got up and had breakfast, refilled the dogs' food and water, websurfed, read the paper and did the sudoku, went to work early to watch a job candidate's research presentation, worked on the prisms paper, gave a lecture on mathematics in the early 18th century, came home, had dinner, websurfed....

9. What song is stuck in your head?
None at the moment. Jimi was singing "Angel" there for a while.

10. If you came across $2,000 (or other currency), would you keep it or turn it in?
I hope I'd turn it in.

11. What was the last thing that you bought?
A bottle of tea from a vending machine.

12. If you could afford to go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Definitely some part of Europe I haven't been to; Spain, most likely, though I'd give some thought to Greece.

13. Where do you see yourself in five minutes?
Heh. Still websurfing.

14. Last book you've read?
The last one I finished was Shaman's Crossing, by Robin Hobb. I'm currently reading a history of the Habsburg Empire by Robert Kann and Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

15. What was the last movie you saw?
The recent remake of True Grit.

16. If you could have any profession, what would it be?
The one I've got. They pay me to do things I love to do; what's not to like?

17. Favorite food?
Hard to say; they're not linearly ordered. Pad thai, maybe.

18. What is one thing about you most people don't know?
The tip of my left elbow... isn't there; I shattered it and smashed the bursa horsing around in high school

19. What are you looking forward to the most?
Hard to choose between RenoVation, finishing the prisms paper, and teaching a graduate course in topology this summer.

20. Did you replace many questions?
None.

Oh, before I forget: I tried out the Typealyzer, which purports to do a Myers-Briggs analysis on the basis of what appears in a blog. Feeding it this address, I was surprised to be classed as ISTP, "the Mechanic".

I pulled out my copy of Kiersey and Bates to refresh my memory. It's been quite a while, but the last time I used their test I came out INTX (split decision on P/J on the last axis). K&B tell me that:

• ISTPs thrive on excitement; they crave some excitement each day, in the form of fast motion - racing, sky diving, or surfing, for example.
• The ISTP nature is most easily seen in their mastery of tools, tools of any kind, from microscopic drill to supersonic jet.
• One tool especially attractive to the ISTP is the weapon.
• ISTPs communicate through action, and show little interest in developing verbal skills.
• Possessed of artisan intelligence, ISTP is not in the least interested in the clerical, interpretive, and "science" curricula that abound in the 20th century school.

Oh, yeah, that's me to a *tee*. :rolls eyes:

I was tagged by windtear.

The rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Hmm, hmm. It took me a while to come up with six things that were even remotely interesting and that I haven't talked about much on LJ. Here they are:

( Six Things )

As I've said before, I don't tag, but if anyone cares to follow suit, feel free!

I thought I'd try this one, a challenge for y'all. These are lines from twenty-five songs, taken from the top of Playlist #1 on my hard drive. Two points for the song title; one point for naming somebody who sang it, two if it's the version I have. [No Googling, of course.]

1. "As far as I can see, this is heaven"
2. "We've been through so much together, we stand as one, and that's what makes it better"
3. "If I tell you, if I tell you now, will you keep on telling me?"
4. "Money, we make it, 'fore we see it, you take it"
5. "I guess when you met me, it was just one of those things" [?, "Come Rain or Come Shine", countrycousin]
6. "As I lay by your side 'n' hold you tonight, I want you to understand"
7. "Girl you're such a bad thing, standing there all alone"
8. "Deep down inside, I know I still love him, but he'll never know, I'll never tell"
9. "Green fields and rolling hills, room enough to do what we will"
10. "Up in the morning and out to school, the teacher is teaching the Golden Rule" [Chuck Berry, "School Day", mukhtar]
11. "We hear you're leaving, that's OK"
12. "I'm always somewhere that I never belong"
13. "Look out of my window, see the world passing by"
14. "Yeah I was livin' in St. Louis in the year 1955"
15. "There's a lotta strange men in Cell Block 10" [Johnny Cash, ?, neonnurse]
16. "Remember hallways you're waiting always to see behind the door" [The Lovin' Spoonful, "She Is Still a Mystery", neonnurse]
17. "When the Sun comes up on a sleepy little town, down around San Antone" [Doobie Brothers, "China Grove", whouseknecht]
18. "I've been thinking about our fortune and I've decided that we're really not to blame" [Moody Blues, "The Story in Your Eyes", whouseknecht]
19. "When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now" [Beatles, "When I'm 64", kikibug13]
20. "Hang it up, boys, yesterday's dreams and matinees"
21. "It's not that you're wrong, it's just that I am right"
22. "Sailing away on the crest of a wave, it's like magic" [ELO, "Livin' Thing", whouseknecht]
23. "Show me a river that's so deep, show me a mountain so high"
24. "Lately, love keeps keeping me awake at night"
25. "Running out of self-control, getting close to an overload"

Have at it!

I just ran the "Celebrity Collage" thingumbob that's been making the rounds, using my summer-morph photo. The number-one match?

Chuck Norris.

... he cocks an eyebrow, and memes do themselves!

(OK, so it was only a 62% match...)

Brett, at English, Jack, has tagged me with the Eight Facts meme.

These are the rules:
  1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
  2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  3. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog about their eight things and include these rules in the post.
  4. At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
  5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

( Eight Facts )

I don't go in for tagging, so I'll skip #4, but if you're reading this and want to play, feel free.

Me and lists again. This time, it's a list of the Hugo winners for Best Novel. I've bolded the ones I've read and italicized the ones I own.

( Hugo-winning novels )

So, well, I looked up my birthday on Wikipedia for Significant Events, as so many on my FL have been doing. I'm pleased (as a mathematician) to note that I share a birthday with Isaac Newton (New Style, mind you), and (as a dilettante linguist) also with Jakob Grimm. As a history buff, I suppose the best I can claim is Doris Kearns Goodwin.

On the "famous deaths" front, among the most prominent are Henri Bergson, Albert Camus, T. S. Eliot, and Erwin Schrödinger. Less famous, but of interest to me: Elizabeth Ann Seton, Gabriel Cramer, and Humphrey Carpenter.

Famous events? Not a lot: the landing of the Spirit rover in 2004, Nixon's refusal to hand over the Watergate tapes in 1974, Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" speech in 1965, the first successful appendectomy (1885) and the founding of the Fabian Society (1884).

I think I'm best pleased by the birthday list.

Since filkferengi insists,
( Five Guilts )