VirusHead Random 8
Jun
01
I’ve been tagged by my dear friend Grateful Bear for the “Random 8″ blog meme.
- Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
- Players should tag 8 other people and notify them that they have been tagged.
So here are 8 random facts about me, VirusHead, Heidi:
- I wish that I had thought of a different name for my site. “VirusHead” captured who I was, but not so much who I am now.
- I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar (I watched Stranger than Fiction last night, and loved it).
- I’m writing a vampire novel. I’ve got the background ideas and plot worked out, and I think the characters are pretty good. However, I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at pacing or dialogue. I think it’s going to be a while before I’m happy with what I’ve written. Now I sort of wish I hadn’t mentioned it to anybody (grimace).
- I am attracted to very precise descriptive language. I have the soul of a poet. If I don’t always find the words myself, I do appreciate when others have done so. Two of my favorites: E. B. White knew that his girlfriend would become his wife at the moment when she referred to dental floss as “tooth twine.” A couple of years ago, our son Ben complained when I turned on his light in the morning. Why? What’s wrong? “The light bites my eyes.” Exactly, of course it does.
- I have a very ambivalent attitude toward community; I am both repulsed by and attracted to being a “member” of a group. I see the benefits, and I long for them, but there is something inside of me that strenuously objects. This creates obstacles and problems, and I’m still not sure how to resolve them.
- I will take almost any opportunity to sing. I love to play with voice. My favorite recording was a version of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” in which I was pretending to be Susan Sarandon in Rocky Horror. It’s hilarious, or at least it is to me.
- I prefer wearing dresses to wearing pants or jeans, especially in the summer. I don’t like current fashions, and I’m always looking for beautiful dresses to wear. Unfortunately, I have had multiple surgeries on my feet because of a birth defect, and it’s really tough to find the shoes that I require (with little or no heel). In the summer, I can usually find sandals, but sandals don’t support my feet very well. I’ve grown accustomed to the pain in my feet, and can usually tune it out, but heels are out of the question. It looks odd to wear even a business outfit, much less the dresses I adore, with the shoes I have to wear. I can’t jog, and I’ll never sky-dive (to my regret), but at least I’m not in the wheelchair they predicted for me by age 35. If I have to wear goofy-looking shoes, it’s a small price to pay.
- I love hats. I wish there were a wider variety of hats that were socially acceptable for women to wear. I used to have an extensive collection, but these days I only have a few. I have a blue felt floppy hat (that faintly reminds some people of Tom Petty as the Mad Hatter in that “Don’t Come Around Here No More” video) that has a blue velvet sashy sort of band. I have a black hat with a fake pearl clasp on one side, out of which spouts a curly feather. I have the sort of New England roll-up and put in your pocket flowerpot hat that you really can’t wear in Georgia, but it’s great for camping. I have a standard woven garden hat, and a tan hat with a lacy veil. I’m not counting the various absurd ski caps… I dug up some photos. In chronological order:
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Your Hat Personality Is A |
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Now, here are the 8 I’m tagging (in alpha order!):
Filed under: Fun With Blogs, Personal, Photo, Viral, VirusHead, beret, community, dresses, guitar, hats, Language, meme, piano, random8, Stranger than Fiction, writing
Techorati Tags: beret | community | dresses | guitar | hats | Language | meme | piano | random8 | Stranger than Fiction | writing
Internal Tags: beret | community | dresses | guitar | hats | Language | meme | piano | random8 | Stranger than Fiction | writing
Todd HellsKitchen Says:
Ouch! You got me!
Well, it will have to wait til school lets out. Sounds like a good project for the dog days of summer… Wait! It’s already a Dog Day here inj Hell’s Kitchen and it’s only June 1.
I guess that’s Random Fact One. I hate the heat!
Have a great weekend Vi…
Posted on June 1st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Lord Matt Says:
Thanks for the tag. Come and look.
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 6:58 am
Darrell Grizzle Says:
Wow - what a great hat gallery! I’m looking forward to reading your vampire novel! Are you working viruses (virii?) into it? In the Southern Vampire novels by Charlaine Harris, the out-of-the-closet vampires explained their existence by saying they have a virus that makes them allergic to sunlight and garlic.
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 11:29 am
VirusHead Says:
Todd- aren’t you out of school yet? Why so late? hey - supercool gravatar you’ve got going there, but I love the eyes one too.
Lord Matt - Great post! We’ve got a vampire thing going here… Let me know if you want outside eyes and/or a proofreader.
Darrell - I like Harris too - the characters more than anything. And she makes me laugh. I read roughly a book a night, and 2-3 per week are usually vampire books. Sometimes I get hold of a bunch at once - I got about 8 Laurell K. Hamilton books for fifty cents apiece about a year ago, and read them straight through from earliest to latest. I’ve been reading every vampire book I could get my hands on since I was a teenager.
I’ve been playing with all of the overdetermined meanings of the vampire figure for many, many years now. It’s really amazing to me how much variety there is on this one theme. One whole chapter of my dissertation was on vampires and communion, and a version of that was published a few years before the dissertation was finished. The viral theme runs through a lot of vampire fiction (in various ways).
Yeah, lots of speculation on blood, spirit, sex, death, immortality - and networks especially. Maybe I enjoy them so much because I was a jehovah’s witnessess (their blood theology is a bit unusual), or maybe it’s just me…
I’ve read all of Charlaine Harris’ books, Chelsae Quinn Yarbro, Laurell K. Hamilton, L. A. Banks, Kim Harrison, Kerri Arthur, Michael Romkey, Barbara Hambly, Sherrilyn Kenyon. Dan Simmons is pretty amazing (see Lovedeath in particular) but it may be an acquired taste. Of course Anne Rice, and lots of others, too. I like some of the cross-genre work where vampiric elements appear in other kinds of fiction. Strangely, I’ve never really enjoyed many vampire movies. It’s all in the imagining, not the seeing. And I’ve never dressed like a goth or participated in any “Masquerade” types of games, although I do favor a vampire for Halloween.
Even when I was working on my MA, and reading mostly philosophy, theology, and ethics, I was reading vampire stuff too.
I was having a really hard time forcing myself to read Karl Barth’s “Epistle to the Romans.” This important book is is much longer than the biblical book it was commenting on, and it is a truly tiresome read. I much prefer Kierkegaard or Heidegger or Buber. I could even get into reading Kant, which I’ve seen described as comparable to chewing broken glass - as a reading experience. I’ve struggled through Levinas, and Derrida - but Barth was too much for me.
So I made a deal with myself, and allowed myself to read so many pages of the latest Anne Rice book for every same so many pages I read of Barth. That way, I read two books faster than I could have read the one. Strange synchronicities emerged in the reading-together. The insights and questions that came to me then eventually led (in changed form) to the dissertation - years later, and in a completely different sort of program. Sometimes it pays to read the very thing you most resist reading.
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Gerald Says:
Tagged, huh?
Okay, this seems like good clean viral fun, so I’ve joined in - take a look.
Unfortunately, I’m so new to the blogosphere that I don’t actually know eight people with blogs. Still I’ll do what I can.
“Can’t Stop the Signal” and all that…
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Gerald Says:
…. oh almost forgot- Loved the hats!
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Rosei Says:
I loved the answers and mainly the pics!!! It seems that I can access your blog now, which is great!!!
Good weekend, Heidi
Posted on June 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
JollyRoger Says:
OK, you got me to talk a little bit about myself. But if it should happen again, my next 8 will be 8 good reasons I despise Chimpy
Posted on June 3rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Don Thieme Says:
What a fabulous list! ! !
The only thing that throws me for a loop is the bit about the “sort of New England roll-up and put in your pocket flowerpot hat that you really can’t wear in Georgia.” Que?
Posted on August 24th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
VirusHead Says:
I don’t have a photo of it. It’s a greyish-blue hat. It’s made of a material like feels a bit like felt - it resists water. You can roll it up and stick it in your pocket. When you put it on, it looks like those old flowerpot hats (lit, like a flowerpot on your head). But you can also create a brim, and bend and shape it any way you like. It’s a very versatile hat, but it’s better for fog and drizzle than for sun. I’ve never seen anyone wear them in Georgia, where I live, but only in New England (I grew up in Massachusetts, and spent time hiking and wandering in New Hampshire and Maine).
Posted on August 24th, 2007 at 9:22 pm