Your Daily Dose (Maintain Safe Distance From Screen)

Here, an ACTION MEME, stolen from locopuff :

The first seven (7) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year (2009).
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix CD. It may be an autographed tritium contamination sticker (though probably not actually contaminated with tritium). I may draw or paint something, but I doubt it. I might bake you something and mail it to you. It could be a hunk of lead.  Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! [not me either]
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you.

Do you dare be tempted by the GIFTS OF FUNRANIUM!

In amazing bulletized format!

• The first piece of plutonium ever.
• The original plans to the HMS Bounty.
• William Smithson's (founder of the Smithsonian) letter asking Sir Joseph Banks, head of the Royal Society, to politely get him the hell out of his Napoleonic prison hellhole.
• The letter to Sir Joseph Banks laying out the impending mutiny of the South Pacific if he doesn't get rid of Governor Bligh.
• Some of "Doc" Ed Rickett's Sea of Cortez notes.
• The largest meteorite ever retrieved from Antarctica.
• The wind tunnel model/prototype of the Osprey VTOL (which actually works, unlike the real thing/Marine death trap).
• A life preserver from the Lusitania.
• A set of bombardier maps for the Dresden firebombing.
• The original of that famous picture of all the B-17's lined up with the guy waving from the cockpit of the first one.

That's all that comes to mind.  What have you held?

P.S. - Dear god, I've created a meme.  No longer am I mere memesheep; now I am the memeshepherd.

auroracita (or autoerotic, to those who suffer from brain leprosy and read things wrong) has meme'd me.  I give the disclaimer yet again, that I have never successfully finished The Hobbit, much less any of Tolkein's other works.  Do not hate me just because Frank Herbert created a far more engaging scope of plot for me than Tolkein's ever did.

The Meme:

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read 'em for school in the first place."

The List:

I have been meme'd by rick_day.  Enjoy the soothing music if nothing else.

I too submit to the Justify Your Interests Meme.  The interests of interest were:

1) Byzantium
My interest in the Byzantines is a big ball of other interests all rolled into one: church history, theology, Roman splendour & decadence, intrigue that makes the average soap opera look like Sesame Street, and most importantly, most people don't give a damn about the history of Byzantium.  I like knowing things other people don't especially when I feel they help me understand how the world works.  The modern world makes no sense if you ignore the 1100 years of Byzantium.  Christianity got its shit together, and then lost it completely and forever, at the command of their kings (AKA basileus from which the Slavic name Vasili and Basil come from).  The first caliphs cut their teeth against Byzantium.  Imperial and Patriarchal decree created states and borders in Europe that we are still fighting over (see Kosovo).

Most importantly, the Roman Empire didn't die when Rome was sacked it just finished sloshing the power to the East.  1000 years later, it sloshed back west again when Venice ordered Constantinople sacked.

Also, Byzantine histories are wonderful inspiration for my kind of D&D game.  There is a reason my players receive a tasteful hardbound leather notebook to take notes in and study of those notes is strongly recommended prior to each session.

2) Rugby

I can't stand most team sports, but rugby has always appealed to me in a way American football never did from the first time I saw it played in junior high school.  It is not...wussy.  The game only stops for blood.  You are not watching a game, it is battle.  I got the hang of the rules of rugby after hanging out in New Zealand during the '03 World Cup right after I got off the Ice.  I remain a casual Canterbury and All Blacks fan because of that.   

3) Urban Exploring

I like being places I am not supposed to be and seeing things I'm not supposed to see.  There is something very restful about wandering a derelict building/complex at night all by yourself or with a few friends.  For a short time, you own it.  Hidden away in places you'd never think to look, there are little treasures, like a Meritorious Service medal sitting inside the frame of a broken open wall or the amazing graffiti tucked amongst the gang tags.  Bring a camera to document the ruins, because progress will get the better of them soon and you won't be spy enough to go poking around in them when they become ruins again.

4) Radiation Related Accidents

This is my job.  It is also the dark side of Adventure Science in the Amazing Atomic Age.  In general, I am keen on all manner of stories where things go terribly wrong, but radiation mishaps are perhaps my favorite.  Such wonderful quackery and arrogance have been there from almost day one when Willi Roentgen radiographed Frau Roentgen's hand to check out the bones and her ring, giving her a skin burn in the process.

5) Bartending

Many things about it really.  First, it is chemistry you can drink and I make some tasty things.  Two, sitting behind the bar is a comfortable place to be at a party; the party comes to me when I am slinging booze and usually doesn't wander all that far away.  I can hold court telling stories, hearing tales, and all the while vaporizing small chunks of liver.  This leads to the last bit, Three, in vino veritas.  The drunk are less likely to lie, or at least less likely to do it convincingly. 

I was the bartender for South Pole Station and I still miss it.  I do my best with what I've got.

6) Despotism

First off, it is another bit of my interest in the Byzantines.  Despot was a title Manuel the First  granted to his son Alexius.  Eventually appointed foreign rulers within the Byzantine sphere ruled as despots in their Despotates.

However, it is of more interest to me because I think it is the default human government when you move beyond the family group.  Other governments require much more work or are just rule by fear and intimidation but dressed up real nice like.  When things break down, start looking for despotism...but that's also the tools you have to work with to make something more.  Montesquieu was a believer in the enlightened despot, that it takes that absolute authority to enact the reforms necessary to improve the lot of the people.  The problem is convincing despots to be enlightened, to stay enlightened, and to go away when the reforms are done.  Good bloody luck.  Blood is important.

*bold those you've read
*italicise started-but-never-finished
*underline those you own but haven't gotten to yet
*add three of your own
*post to your livejournal


There are a great many things I boldfaced that I am ashamed to have hit ctrl-b for.  There are many more I am not ashamed to have left on the library shelves at all.  

Stolen from robyngoodfelloe

Put your entire MP3 collection on shuffle, list a lyric from the first 20 songs that play, have your friends identify the songs. No cheating by googleing the lyrics.

1) Sunday Morning, 9am.  I saw fire in the sky.
2) Last week I had the strangest dream.  That everything was exactly as it seemed.
    The Postal Service "JFK"
3) Things on your chest  you need to confess
    Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus"
4) Now he's got no legs at all, both shot away by a cannon ball.
    Boiled In Lead "My Son John"
5) We learn dances, brand new dances, like the nuclear bomb.
    Iggy Pop "Nightclubbing"
6) You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold.  You say you want the story to remain untold.
    U2 "All I Want Is You"
7) Hit me baby, hit me strong.  Get the straightjacket off your tongue.
8) Beside the platform the train pulls in.  A hundred wheels of completed spin.
9) Sing a song of Rule Britannia.  Sing in praise of Britain’s boys
10) Gonna take you down.  Deep down, to the front line.
    A3 "Woke Up This Morning"
11)  Hey, let ‘em do it again, yeah.  Hey, said you were my friend.
12) The country where I want to be, if only trekking or camping, or just watching TV.
    Monty Python "Finland"
13) Ladies and gentleman, Harry’s Harbour Bazzar is happy to present under the big top tonight, Human Oddities!
    Tom Waits "Lucky Day Overture"
14) Yes I’m lonely, gonna die.  If I ain’t dead already, girl you know the reason why.
15) We all go down for the sacrificial moment.  Crucifixion nail stain the bed of the holy.
16) I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad.  I got sunshine, in a bag.
    Gorillaz "Clint Eastwood"
17) Worship the ground you barely walk on.  You give of yourself but your angels are gone.
18) Other people's problems they overwhelm my mind.  They say compassion is a virtue, but I don't have the time.
19) I put my faith in god and my trust in you.  Now there's nothing more fucked up I could do.
    Nine Inch Nails "Wish"
20) If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high, you'd laugh and say 'nothing's that simple'.  But you've been told many times before.

Good Luck.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 103.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

"As early as the 5th century BC, the Romans showed a hard headed grasp of the day to day relations of one citizen to another.  For long there was no distinct profession of lawyer and judge, separate from that of lawmaker, as today."

Ancient Rome, Nigel Rodgers

It's all twistedcat's fault.  Cannot...resist...the meme.


My Personality

Neuroticism	43
Extraversion	61
Openness To Experience	84
Agreeableness	11
Conscientiousness	65

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