Tagged with the five things meme

Wow. A whole month of not blogging… and called out by one of my favorite people, Nancy White, and, in a sense, asked for five things that people may not know about me. It’s left me thinking about who I might be in the sea of changes that have happened to me and been inflicted by me over the last couple of years. A good time of year to consider these changes i suppose…

1. I was brought up as a lobster fisherman (among other things). Through the different lives I’ve had the pleasure of living there’s been this thread, both the real and the imagined, of the crack of an outboard motor at 5 o’clock in the morning, the feeling of a crab trying to clamp down on my wet, plastic gloved fingers and the fingernail sunrise. I miss the life I’ll never have on the water… probably far more than I would have enjoyed the real life that could have been.
My parents still fish lobster every spring. And one of the highlights of my year is heading back to my hometown and getting my hands all slimey and scratched dragging lobster traps in. It may or may not be ‘in my blood’ but there’s something about the smell of the beach that reminds me of beer.

2. I like to grow things. This is the first tomato I ever grew. It survived all of about ten seconds after this shot was taken. The foregrounding was there for compensation.
3. I get obsessed with statistics. This is something about myself that surprises me… my research methods are almost entirely qualitative, and i have an inherent distrust of all things that are measured by numbers. My fascination, I guess, is in the idea that counting is actually a profoundly spiritual activity. In order to count something, we are making very precise decisions about things that are ephemeral. It’s always an epistemic journey for me, and, I guess, not very quantitative at all.

4. I’m committed to buying a bottle of scotch for the folks at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 someday. No single group of folks that i’ve never met are responsible for giving me such enjoyment.

5. I’ve always been terribly attached to the idea of acquiring a nickname. Never gotten one, and, in the endless scenarios that play out in my whirley twirley excuse for a brain, I’ve worked out any number of reasons as for why that is. None of which i can currently remember. Due to my other problem. Can’t remember anything! 🙂

Now… upon whom shall i impose the meme… My first choice is my long time partner in crime, Mr. Jeff Lebow, who, everytime he talks about his past comes out with another dinger. I’ll also tag mr. jarche, um… some new people here… mmm… Mark Leggott my new boss, Jen Maddrell and um… Just for the ultimate challenge… bon.