Tag - 5 things you don’t know.

The deceased chain letter and email forward has been reincarnated to blog tagging. This round seems to have picked up some steam. I got tagged from Trose. He may call himself a D list blogger, but that means I’m totally off the grid. Much like the rest of Seattle the last couple days.

So here are my 5 fun facts:

1. My grandpa could have run a front for the Iowa mafia, but turned them down
Who would have even guessed there would be such a thing as the Iowa mafia…let alone that they would need a front. Still. It would have been sweet if I was a card-carrying member of the mafiosa. I wish I could have gotten the full story from him before he was sleeping with the fishes.

2. like Todd, i also was a waiter for many years.
That all came to a crashing halt when a customer at chili’s found a handle from the mashed potato machine sticking out of his side and loudly and intensely complained. I laughed, he got madder, I realized my subservient days had to be over.

3. I was a pipsqueak when I was young.
I had to sit on phonebooks to take my driver test because i was so small (no, i didn’t pass it the first time. let the hazing begin). Until i turned 21, my license had me at 105lbs 5′4″ - which at the time was even a lie to make me seem bigger

4. Most interesting brush w/ fame was when Prince’s car ran out of gas at my bus stop in 4th grade.
It was a white convertible with a purple top. He was just getting home - 7am-ish - and asked us to use one of our parents’ phones. i didn’t know who he was at the time, but I think he may have been the only person at the busstop who was smaller than me.

5. I proposed to my wife through a website (noraanddarren.com)

Since I don’t even have 5 regular readers, let alone 5 that have blogs, it’s going to be tough to tag 5 people.
1. Chase
2. Marshal
3. Jeff
4. John
5. my most frequent visitor: random dude from torrence, ca that shows up in logs

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Ding Dang Dong by Nora Dalasta with Alexis & Glenda Disselkoen

This was my engagement gift from TheWife - then TheFiancé. I particularly like the “spontaneous combustion” line.

In the spirit of this year’s election I think a post on Democracy is only appropriate.

The Wife is a 2^nd grade teacher. This story takes place while we were still living in Chicago and she was teaching at Everett Elementary.

Classroom pets are a wonderful idea. I remember our two albino rats in 4^th grade very well – they were the highlight of the year. So it was with great enthusiasm that I endorsed the adopting of a rat as  a classroom pet.

With a rat comes a lot of responsibility. Who takes it home for the weekend? who cleans the cages? when are the specific playtimes? But one of the biggest responsibilities is naming it. The naming of an animal, human, inanimate object, should never be taken lightly. With parenting you don’t have a majority – thus you have names such as Rebel Snodgrass, Placenta (poor child), and 3 sons named after their dad’s favorite hobbies; Hunter, Trapper, and Fisher (I really knew these guys). But with a classroom pet, you have the benefit of a democracy - and we all know democracies always make the best choice.

So The Wife left it up to her very able 2^nd grade electorate to select the name for The Rat. Of course many names were put forth and with enough petitions they made the ballot. There were many appropriate names, including an odd one that was laughed at by others – “Nine Tails,” but after the vote, one name definitely had the majority. No hanging chads, no recounts necessary. “Steve” was the winner. The Rat was to be named “Steve.” Personally…I have never heard of a better name for a rat. They did good.

But…alas…Room 7 was about to learn a hard lesson in “democracy.”

When counting the votes at home, The Wife decided that the boy who suggested “Nine Tails” should also have his day in the sun. The election was rigged. Nine Tails was declared the winner. Nobody knew any different, no recall was called for. If only Steve could speak he may have objected…but he’ll never know now.

So, sorry kids. You’ve learned a hard lesson in democracy. Room 7…or “Classroom Florida” did end up enjoying the rat despite the name.

R.I.P NineTails “Steve”
2004-2004

I was rummaging through an old hard drive and came across my collection of text files (where I used to keep stuff before I discovered basecamp)

There were lots of really bad puns of course among other random tidbits. The one below made me chuckle again & although I don’t like those kind of hypothetical interview questions, I may have to give this one a try next time I have to interview a candidate.

***********
The system will ask you four questions which rely on your common sense to answer them correctly.

Q1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

Q2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
Wrong Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

Q3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend, except one. Which animal does not attend?
Correct Answer: The elephant, since it is still in the refrigerator.

This tests your memory.

OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your abilities.

Q4. There is a river you must cross, but it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You swim across. All of the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting!

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

*********

I also ran across a pretty large text file of palindromes. my favorites out of that archive:

• Senile felines (too fitting for those evil things)
• We panic in a pew (i relate)
• Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo (great composition of contrary and vivid images)
• Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog (being italian i approve)
• UFO Tofu (potential band name)

If I had three wishes, I know one would be to have Little Superstar under my desk at work, and then when I push play on my old 1987 boom box he would pop & lock for me.

Hi Darren,
I’ve been working my way through articles and photos to update the Archive and Galleries, so slowly I hope to be adding to both of these sections. In the meantime, I’ve made a few small additions this past weekend. You’ll find one new article so far in the Archive, as well as a few new Updates.
…
In addition, the VCR alerts for September have been updated. Past the Bleachers will be repeating on Lifetime Movie Network (this is different from “regular” Lifetime), and don’t forget RDA’s second appearance on Stargate Atlantis in the episode appropriately titled “The Return”, now scheduled for September 22nd.

As always, you’ll find the links on the What’s New page.
Thanks for visiting!

Kate
Richard Dean Anderson Web Site

HUH? How’d she know I liked McGyver?? Kate, as long as you’re sending me unsolicited emails about RDA I’ll give you a really quick SEO hint - frames are not hip anymore. McGyver would be coding his site in CSS using nothing but notepad.exe and a toothpick.

Sometimes having a generic gmail address doesn’t pay off.