VirusHead

Photo Challenge

The beautiful Beverly has tagged me for a photo challenge. Here are the rules:

1. Open the 4th photo folder of your computer.
2. Choose the 4th photo of that folder & publish it on your blog.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Challenge 4 bloggers to do the same.

And now the 4th pic in my 4th album ~ DRUM ROLL PLEASE . . .

Steve and Pat

This photograph captures something essential about (John’s older brother) Steve and Pat, and looking at this really makes me miss them. It was taken a couple three years ago (as they say here in Georgia) when most of John’s side of the family met for a few days of fun and sun at a beach house at the Alabama Gulf Shores. We all had a really fun time, despite my trying to turn them on to Lewis Black (hee hee).

Don’t you just get a smiling feeling inside looking at their faces?

I play, but I don’t vector anymore. So – hey, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad. Don’t let that stop you! If you’d like to play, please comment with your post link. I’d love to see some photos, I just don’t want to pressure ya!

The highly successful Facebook meme “25 Random Things about Me” has now – for good or ill – made it into the major news media. Time, Salon, and newspapers like the New York Times and the Boston Globe have all carried stories on the trendy epidemic and how it’s vectored.

It’s only a variation of the memes bloggers have been playing with for more than five years now, but considering the viral theme I think it’s kinda neat that I’m third on Google.

25 Random Things about Me - Virushead

I give up. I’ve been totally inundated by requests from my Facebook friends to post this meme. I’ve done “random things about me” posts before, but as Darrell points out, they were posted too long ago now to use as an avoidance mechanism. So, here are 25 new ones:

1. I am fascinated by faces. The mindful, authentic, observant face-to-face encounter might be the essential ingredient in most relationships – and certainly the test of most ethics and “values.” The very definition of pathology for me is someone who can look you in the eye, see your soul, and then still hurt or kill you.
2. I’m not adjusting to getting older very well. When I look at my face in the mirror, it doesn’t look like me and I feel a bit alienated and depressed. But at the same time, I love to see the changes in the faces of people I love. This last year, it was an amazing experience to go to my high school reunion and to see the faces of people that I’ve known since I was a child. The recognition-within-difference really touched me very deeply.
3. I do miss some aspects of other times and places in my life, but overall there is more kindness and caring and love and meaning in my life now than ever before. Sometimes that kind of stuns me.
4. Sometimes the only thing that will motivate me to attack my list of things to do is the prospect of being rewarded with some time alone in which I’m not required to do anything in particular. I’m a fierce guardian of that dreamtime – no obligation, rich imagination. My thoughts travel on their own -and mix up and ferment and rearrange and become resonant and meaningful. Not only is this ultimately the source of every major insight I’ve ever had, but without it, I wouldn’t be me to myself. My secret world is the heart of who I am.
5. I love to socialize, but it totally exhausts me. This is partially because I tend to overcompensate in various ways for my introversion. Later, I usually feel that I’ve not listened enough to others. I curse this recurring and almost irresistible urge to try to be amusing and likable and clever. It takes a lot of energy, I’m not very good at it, and I know that I should just zip it a lot more often than I’m able to do.
6. I’m still looking for my ideal pair of shoes – the shoes that don’t hurt my feet, that look gorgeous but have a heel of less than an inch, that are strapped or tied over my incredibly high arch and don’t let my tiny heel slip out, but that are wide enough at the front not to smoosh my toes or put pressure at the widest part. These mythical shoes would be perfect for any occasion and any outfit. I could wear them with jeans or a cocktail dress. Let me know if you find them. I suspect they have to be black.
7. I can’t let go of my books. I have too many, but I can’t let go of them. Even the Karl Barth.
8. My spiritual beliefs and practices are at once so eclectic and yet oddly inflexible that I doubt I’ll ever be a member of a religious community. I have the strangest things on my alter.
9. I’m almost absurdly grateful when I feel like someone I like “gets” me.
10. I miss the kind of cheerful feminism represented by such songs as Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” and the tv theme song for Wonder Woman. Although I love the angry music and the whiny music, too, I wonder what happened to that soaring sense of confidence.
11. My energy level is never very predictable. I never know how productive I’m going to be. I work in very efficient spurts, but then I’m overwhelmingly fatigued. This can be measured in hours or in days. When I feel exhausted, I tend to become a bit reclusive. I still think of the couple of weeks that I had to be on corticosteroids (for systemic poison ivy) with a lot of fondness, because it gave me just enough of that little extra adrenaline boost to let me feel like I imagine many people do most of the time.
12. I like to take a walkabout from time to time. I love to travel alone. I used to disappear into the woods for a week, but that’s neither possible nor even really desirable anymore.
13. It’s kind of predicable – and I don’t blame anyone for rolling their eyes – but our son Ben really is the most beautiful sweet smart amazing kid ever. I hope he continues on his own path – just the way he is already doing.
14. The greater percentage of what I write is still never read by anyone but me.
15. I would prefer to die in a manner and a moment of my own choosing. Skydiving would be the ideal, and although I don’t have to ride down on a missile like in Dr. Strangelove, I can understand the appeal.
16. I love the moon, and I love to sing to the moon and to the night sky, especially if the songs are actually about the moon and sky and stars. Some favorites: Sister Moon, Sting; Fingernail Moon, Annie Lennox; Sisters of the Moon, Fleetwood Mac; Goodnight Moon, Shivaree; Stars, The Weepies; Galaxy Song, Monty Python; In the Deep, Bird York; Small Blue Thing, Suzanne Vega – and for some reason, Strawberry Fields.
17. I’ve finally come to terms with the reality that I’m never going to be a Jungian analyst, a comparative mythologist, a well-known poet, a best-selling novelist, or an accomplished singer. I doubt I’ll ever play the piano like Tori Amos.
18. I love paranormal romance novels – especially those involving vampires or fae. John (the hubby) is amused by this and often teases me about my “porn collection.”
19. I don’t often wear perfume, but when I do it’s usually either a vanilla-musky Must de Cartier or a combination of lavender, mandarin, lemongrass, and bergamot. One drop of either is enough to alter my experience of the world for hours. I hope other people like it too, but that’s not really as important.
20. I have twice had the opportunity – and twice refused – to swim in the Mediterranean.
21. I deal with melancholy much better than I deal with anger. You can try to make me depressed if you must, but don’t piss me off. I’m not easily angered at all, but hell hath no fury like a Heidi-grr.
22. The thing that most infuriates me is the sense of powerlessness I feel when I want to somehow make everything all better for someone who is suffering. I can be very empathetic, but at a certain point I feel like a minor prophet waving my fist at the sky. That’s when I most need a little alone time to breathe and reorient myself.
23. When I was younger, I used to be petrified – really petrified – that the people I love would be killed. I had nightmares about my brothers (most of all my brothers) and other relatives, and my son and husband, and some of my dearest friends, and even a couple of my teachers. The worst part of the dream was always that they might have been saved if only I had done one little thing differently. After my Dad died, these nightmares went away. I don’t know why that happened, but I’m grateful.
24. I do often dream about my Dad. He’s different in my dreams than he was in reality, but it still helps – or maybe that’s why it helps.
25. I don’t know whether or not I can still pet a fuzzy honeybee until it goes to sleep in the palm of my hand. I haven’t seen one of those bees in years. I miss the lilacs too.

And here are the old ones:

• 8 Random Facts about VirusHead – December 2007
• VirusHead Random 8 – June 2007
• 5 Weird Things about Me – July 2006
• Meme Me Me – November 2005

Binkee at I Love/Hate America has tagged me with a photo meme.

So, this was interesting. The sixth photo in the sixth folder is actually a photograph of my husband John and his first wife Paula. Click for the full-sized photo.

John and Paula

This was probably somewhere in the time frame of 1979-81. I’ve always liked this photo. It’s a good one of both of them.

Rules of the game:

1) Go to your Picture Folder or wherever you store your photos in your PC.
2) Go to the 6th folder and pick the 6th picture.
3) Post this on your blog and the story that goes with that picture.
4) Tag 5 bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and telling them about the tag.

Three out of four ain’t bad – I encourage anyone to participate, but no pressure.

Things I’ve done are in bold.
Things I am indifferent towards or actively would like to avoid are crossed out.
Things in normal type face are things I’d like to do.

I got this version from Quod She.

• Start my own blog
• Sleep under the stars
• Play in a band
• Own a cell phone
• Visit Hawaii
• Watch a meteor shower
• Give more than I can afford to charity
• Visit Disneyland / Disneyworld
• Climb a mountain
• Sing a solo
• Bungee jump
• Participate in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony
• Teach myself an art from scratch
• Adopt a child
• Purchase real estate
• Had food poisoning
• Visit Parliament / Capital Hill
• Grow my own vegetables
• See the Mona Lisa in France
• Sleep on an overnight train
• Have a pillow fight
• Hitchhike
• Take a sick day when you’re not ill
• Build a snow fort
• Hold a lamb
• Go skinny dipping
• Run a Marathon
• Been on television
• Ride in a gondola in Venice
• See a total eclipse
• Watch a sunrise or sunset
• Hit a home run
• Go on a cruise
• See Niagara Falls in person
• Visit the birthplace of my ancestors
• See an Amish community (nope, only Shakers)
• Teach myself a new language
• Have enough money to be truly satisfied
• See the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
• Go rock climbing
• See Michelangelo’s David
• Sing karaoke
• See Old Faithful erupt
• Buy a stranger a meal at a restaurant
• Visit Africa
• Walk on a beach by moonlight
• Be transported in an ambulance
• Have my portrait painted
• Be arrested
• Go deep sea fishing
• See the Sistine Chapel in person
• Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Go scuba diving or snorkeling
• Kiss in the rain
• Play in the mud
• Go to a drive-in theatre
• Be in a movie
• Visit the Great Wall of China
• Start a business
• Take a martial arts class
• Visit Russia
• Serve at a soup kitchen
• Sell Girl Scout Cookies
• Go whale watching
• Get flowers for no reason
• Donate blood, platelets or plasma
• Go sky diving
• Visit a Nazi Concentration Camp
• Bounce a check
• Fly in a helicopter
• Save a favorite childhood toy
• Visit Quebec City
• Eat Caviar
• Piece a quilt
• Stand in Times Square
• Tour the Everglades
• Been fired from a job
• See the Changing of the Guards in London
• Been on a speeding motorcycle
• See the Grand Canyon in person
• Published a book
• Visit the Vatican
• Buy a brand new car
• Walk in Jerusalem
• Have my picture in the newspaper
• Read the entire Bible
• Visit the White House
• Kill and prepare an animal for eating
• Had chickenpox
• Save someone’s life
• Sit on a jury
• Meet someone famous
• Join a book club
• Lose a loved one
• Have a baby
• See the Alamo in person (I might have when I was five, not sure)
• Swim in the Great Salt Lake
• Been involved in a law suit
• Been stung by a bee
• Ride an elephant

Totals:
Did: 51
No Thanks: 9
Would Like: 40