"Meme" is Bloggerese for "Filler"

I don't have much to say except that I finished Chapter 5 Part 2 last night and am already in the planning stages of the next section... though I'm not sure if it should be "Chapter 5 Part 3" or "Chapter 6 Part 1"... maybe I'll write it first, then decide where it goes. Faithful Worst Luck reader Dana Marie of Green Duckies even read it while I was making my last edits (as did someone else who went on about Kept and his theory that Devonric has done internet porn); in honor of her devotion, I have lifted a meme from her website in order to fill out this blog entry. Like her, I did this meme a year or so ago, but the answers do change from one moment to the next... and even if the answer is the same, I will naturally say it differently.

31-derful Questions!
(with apologies to Baskin-Robbins)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 10:40 a.m. I woke up a little before ten, though, and just lay there thinking and stretching and yawning and enjoying not having to go anywhere. It was lovely!

2. Diamonds or pearls? Why can't I have both? But if I have to choose, I'll take the diamonds. Girl's gotta sparkle!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Uhhhh... shit, I haven't been to the movies in eons. The last movie I saw in a theater was Kinsey, way back in early February.

4. What is your favorite TV show? I'll have to go with DM on this... CSI, the original. I really like all the characters, I am in love with Greg Sanders (played by Eric Szmanda) and would happily marry any of the men on the show (with the reserved exceptions of Dr. Robins and Captain Brass, who nevertheless would do in a pinch), and I love the mystery-solving mechanisms of the show.

I don't care for any of the other CSIs, there are too many actors who bug me... David Caruso of CSI: Miami and Gary Sinise of CSI: New York both make my skin crawl and always have.

My uncle, who's a retired policeman who has actually worked as an evidence technician, pointed out to me all the things that are wrong with that show: like the way the forensics team goes around talking to suspects, which simply isn't done; or the one crime-lab having every piece of multi-million-dollar equipment known to forensic science just lying around the office. Maybe they do it different in Las Vegas than in Oakland, with their much higher municipal budget?

5. What did you have for breakfast? Bread-and-butter, a favorite that is definitely not on my diet... but then I'm not really on my diet. On the other hand, it was twelve-grain bread with Fleischman's, so it wasn't as bad for me as it could be.

6. What is your middle name? Eugene... I try to keep it on the down-low, though, OK? I know I can trust you.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian, probably. I love Chinese food, and I love "California Cuisine" (which, like Postmodernist Deconstructionism, can't really be defined, but you know it when you see it), and I really quite like good ol' Murrican cooking like meatloaf and mac-and-cheese and chicken-and-dumplings. But my favorite restaurants are Italian restaurants, and my favorite food-words to say aloud are Italian words (gnocchi Bolognese, fettucine alle vongole, bistecca puttanesca, etc.) so I'll go with that.

8. What foods do you dislike? Avocadoes, celery, boiled greens, endive, fried oysters, items from what I call my Grandmother's "Texas Dirt Farmer Menu" (the aformentioned boiled greens along with black-eyed peas and cornbread... I don't object to these latter two in and of themselves, I just don't like the way Grandmother cooks them), and any part of an animal that wasn't a muscle (with the single exception of foie gras)... I once left a Chinese restaurant because I found "Pig stomach with blood cubes" on the menu; a traditional peasant dish, but I simply couldn't remain in the same building with something so lurid.

9. What is your favorite chip flavor? It's a toss-up between salt-and-vinegar Lays and lime Lays. I bet they'd taste really good tossed together, too.

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I don't have a favorite at the moment... but in the car, my "Happy Songs" iTunes playlist is in the CD-player:

1. "Get Happy" - Ella Fitzgerald, The Harold Arlen Songbook
2. "Queer as Folk Theme" - Murray Gold, Queer as Folk Soundtrack (British)
3. "South Of The Border" - Keely Smith, Keely Sings Sinatra
4. "It's Raining Men" - The Weathergirls
5. "Comes Once in a Lifetime" - Carol Burnett
6. "Goody Two Shoes" - Adam Ant
7. "I Am Woman (Dance Mix)" - Jessica Williams, Trick Motion Picture Soundtrack
8. "The Lonely Goatherd" - Julie Andrews and Children, The Sound of Music
9. "Walkin' on the Sun" - Smash Mouth, Fush Yu Mang
10. "Groove Is In The Heart" - Deee-Lite
11. "Funiculì, funiculà" - Luciano Pavarotti
12. "Walking on Sunshine" - Katrina and the Waves
13. "Old MacDonald" - Ella Fitzgerald, Whisper Not
14. "I Am What I Am" - Respect, Queer as Folk Soundtrack (British)
15. "Long As I'm Here With You" - Sheryl Lee Ralph, Thoroughly Modern Millie
16. "A Little Less Conversation" - Elvis Presley & Junkie XL, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits
17. "Here's to Love" - Renee Zellweger & Ewan McGregor, Down With Love Soundtrack
18. "Big Spender (Wild Oscar Mix)" - Shirley Bassey, The Remix Album
19. "Rock Lobster" - The B-52's

11. What type of car do you drive? I am proud to drive a 2002 Ford Focus SE (there's a picture of my sweet Miss Jane in the column to your left)... I was pleased to hear recently that Ford Motor Company has told the American Family Association to go bugger itself, and made the AFA back down without budging an inch on its nondiscrimination policies or its sponsorship of gay cultural events and support of gay rights. Yay, Ford!

13. What characteristic do you despise? Intentional Ignorance, and its inevitable outcome, Complete Lack of Empathy (which in turn lights the way to Crime and Cruelty).

14. Favorite item(s) of clothing. I love a full-length beaded evening gown with furs and jewels... but my real favorite clothes are a ringer-tee and shiny basketball shorts, which are what I'm wearing now.

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Can I just say "Europe" and sort out the actual itinerary later?

16. What color is your bathroom? Blue and white and pink, mostly. The tile on the floor and walls are antique white with navy blue insets; the tile in the bathtub is white veined with light-blue; the paint and porcelains are all antique white (and by "anitque white" I do not mean the modern color Antique White, but rather white things which have mellowed with extreme age, to which we had the paint carefully matched); the shelf-liner is pale aqua green; the towels and things are mostly rose-pink, but we also have some towels in sage and some in a blue-green-white stripe. The rugs are dark pink, the shower-curtain is white with green leaves and pink roses, and the curtains are light rose-pink and ruffly (and I hate them).

17. Favorite brand of clothing? Most of my clothes are from the Gap, but I prefer Ralph Lauren for men, women, and home, the couture and the prêt-à-porter, even the Polo and Lauren licensed brands (I just can't afford any of it).

18. Where would you retire? Here? And barring here, anyplace with lots of hot naked guys, a beach-front gay resort or something? I look forward to one day being a Dirty Old Man.

19. Favorite time of day? Tea-time (that's four p.m. for my non-Anglophile friends).

20. What was your most memorable birthday? My 24th; my mother gave me a large check for my birthday, so I bought a fabulous new gown and took all my friends out for drinks and dancing at a club that used to be in San Jose, Club St. John, where there was a huge and fabulously mean comedian at the piano-bar. We drank champagne and had a delicious time. Then we went to Denny's for breakfast.

21. Where were you born? Fort Ord, CA... but it's not there anymore.

22. Favorite sport to watch? Wrestling. Preferably nude erotic domination wrestling, but I'll take regular Greco-Roman/Freestyle without complaint. Hell, I'll even watch professional wrestling, so long as the sound's off.

23. What fabric detergent do you use? Tide. I don't know why. I frequently wonder how Grandmother came up with her brand preferences, but we have always used Tide.

26. Coke or Pepsi? Coke by default, I just don't like Pepsi... but I don't really care for colas all that much. Actually, I'm getting where I don't like soda-pop anymore. I love Stewart's Key Lime soda, and various sparkling mineral waters (especially Pellegrino), but in general I prefer juice, lemonade, or iced tea when I need a refreshing beverage.

27. Are you a morning person or night person? Night-time is when I come alive... which makes it difficult to sleep when I have to be on the same nine-to-five schedule as the rest of the world.

28. What is your shoe size? Eleven in men's, thirteen in women's.

29. Do you have any pets? Sadly, no. But I want a pug.

30. What did you want to be when you were little? A butler, or a tap-dancer, or a magician.

31. What is something that you would like to do, but have never done? Live in somebody else's body for a little while. Like maybe Brad Pitt (aside from the fun of touching myself all over, and seducing half of West Hollywood, it would afford me the sterling opportunity to slap the shit out of Angelina Jolie).

?

Well, that was fun, as always. And it took up enough of my day that I can go do something else without feeling like I ought to be here writing something. So I am going to go wash some dishes and then lay down and read a little while. Or maybe I should put in one of these low-impact aerobics tapes I found when I was cleaning my room, and see about twisting off a few unsightly pounds... yeah, that's what I'll do!

And you, unless you're doing something more important (though I can't imagine what), can go read the latest installment at Worst Luck (which, incidentally, is the first of over five million things that come up if you search "worst luck" at Yahoo! [though it comes up #29 out of three million at Google... I'd better work on that]).

Too-tiddly-oo!