meme Archives - Page 3 of 10 - Ramblin' with Roger

2018 in review: learn to navigate

What kept ’em goin’ was a great belief
That they had to learn to navigate
‘Cause the human race was special freight

This is that thing that Jaquandor does on December 31, but I do on January 1.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I saw this article that said that talking about making changes will make them less likely to happen. Why you shouldn’t share your goals – “Other people’s taking notice of one’s identity-relevant intentions apparently engenders a premature sense of completeness regarding the identity goal.”

Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

Did you attend any weddings?
Don’t think so

Did anyone close to you die?
Yeah, and I listed four of them a couple months ago. Since then, Katy Fletcher, who, among other things, was the primary cook of the Black History Month at church with her excellent Caribbean cuisine, died this fall.

What countries did you visit?
None, but my passport is in order, just in case

What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2018?
Less despair

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Help shepherd the merger between the Friends of the Albany Public Library and the Albany Public Library Foundation

What was your biggest failure?
Finding equilibrium

What was the best thing you bought?
A round-trip train ticket to see my friend Deborah

Whose behavior merited celebration?
A lot of people, actually, some of whom I mentioned on Thanksgiving, plus:
The comedians, including John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, the folks at Saturday Night Live
Those who helped the people dealing with the weather disasters
Those who helped the people dealing with the human-made disasters

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Supreme Court justice Brett “Bart” Kavanaugh
The federal government, generally
The GOP, generally, particularly in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and the ones in DC: “As John Nichols put it… in The Nation, the Republican Party is no longer a political ‘party’ per se, but a mere vehicle, a conspiracy for seizing and holding power on behalf of a tiny sliver of the wealthiest among us.”
The White House liars-in-chief, such as Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders
What’s his face and his family

Where did most of your money go?
The house, though we had no big projects

What did you get really excited about?
The idea of retiring someday

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Sadder, for sure

Thinner or fatter?
About the same

Richer or poorer?
Richer, marginally

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleeping, writing, thinking

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Brooding

How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve means singing at church, so that. Eventually, we go to the in-laws

Did you fall in love in 2018?
Sure

How many one-night stands?
Jaquandor: “Now, that’s not the kind of question a gentleman answers!” (Another stock response)

What was your favorite TV program?
CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning Saturday, JEOPARDY!, Grey’s Anatomy

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Don’t know if hate is the right word. Enraged with, perhaps. But oh yeah. I certainly loathe the behavior of a whole lot of people; see above

What was the best book you read?
A Lucille Ball book I haven’t written about yet

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Some CDs I bought on Amazon years ago have extra songs I had never heard before if I listen to them online

What did you want and get?
The new Hess truck – surprise!

What did you want and not get?
Clarification of what I’m supposed to do about Medicare if I’m not retiring yet

What were your favorite films of this year?
In reverse chronological order: BlacKkKlansman, Leave No Trace, RBG, Black Panther, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

What did you do on your birthday?
I took off the day from work and…that was nine months ago!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2018?
Fashion is stupid

What kept you sane?
I continue to argue the premise of the question

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Robert Mueller – he be stylin’

What political issue stirred you the most?
The way we’ve possibly eroded our environment permanently

Who was the best new person you met?
Some new church members

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse (Same as last year)

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
Lead Belly: “We’re in the Same Boat, Brother”
Lyrics:
Oh the boat rolled on through storm and grief
Past many a rock and many a reef
What kept ’em goin’ was a great belief
That they had to learn to navigate
‘Cause the human race was special freight
If we don’t want to be in Jonah’s shoes
We’d better be mates on this here cruise

Picture from Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ quiz

I’m told that, when I was in third grade, I got so angry because some kids were playing keep-away with my hat that I went home.

Big Bird I was going to pass on this quiz. But Ken Levine did it, and so did Mark Evanier.

Then the original Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, left ‘Sesame Street’ After Nearly 50 Years. What’s THAT got to do with anything? Those of you who spent time in the neighborhood know.

Available/Single? Neither. In the words of Bullwinkle J. Moose, “This time for sure!”

Best Friend? Either someone I’ve known since kindergarten or someone I’ve known since the first day at college.

Cake or Pie? Pie, clearly. It’s so flexible. Meat pies, fruit pies, pies for throwing, which I don’t do but this guy – buy his books! – does.

Drink of Choice? it’s seasonal. Right now, mulled cider. At other times, lemonade.

Essential Item You Use Everyday? My electric toothbrush.

Favorite Color? Well, duh. Green. Or maybe blue. No, definitely green.

Gummy Bears or Worms? I don’t HATE them, I just don’t see the point.

Hometown? Binghamton, NY

Indulgence? Probably this blog.

January or February? Probably February. Closer to my birthday. Also, it’s Black History Month at my church, which is a pain in the tuckus, but January involves PLANNING it, which is worse.

Kids and Their Names? Oh, The Daughter doesn’t mind being The Lydster, but HATES being referred to as The Daughter.

Life is Incomplete Without? Music. Even when it’s not playing, I often hear it.

Marriage Date? May 15, which we picked in honor of McDonald’s opening its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940.

Number of Siblings? Two sisters, both younger.

Oranges or Apples? Orange juice for drinking, Mac apples for eating.

Phobias/Fears? Trump in 2020.

Quote You Like? I’d rather stay silent and appear ignorant than to speak up and remove any doubt. That’s the way my late father said it.

Reason to Smile? A familiar piece of music when I suddenly hear something new. In general, learning something new.

Season? Paprika. Oh, sorry, spring, which, BTW, my birthday is the foreteller of.

Tag Three or Four People? Willie Mays, Art Fleming, Eleanor Roosevelt. And Arthur, but only if he wants to so he can make par.

Unknown Fact About Me? I’m told that, when I was in third grade, I got so angry because some kids were playing keep-away with my hat that I went home. I can totally believe it. What I don’t remember is the anecdote my friends all tell that I hopped a Crowley’s milk truck to get home.

Vegetable You Don’t Like? I was going to say Trumpettes, but let’s go with canned beets, which are also terrible.

Worst Habit? I am not a neat freak.

X-Rays You’ve Had? There was one on my left knee in 1994, one showing my broken rib in 2009, and the usual ones folks have.

Your Favorite Food? Spinach lasagna. It has spinach. It has lasagna. What more do I need?

Zodiac Sign? Pisces, like Luther Burbank, Maurice Ravel, and Willard Scott.

Here’s Caroll Spinney, as Big Bird, singing ABC-DEF-GHI Song.

A meme from SamuraiFrog: Myth Memers

I HATE it when I can taste coffee in tea water.

After SamuraiFrog experienced a lull in blogging – I missed him – he broke the dry spell with a meme. I’m in favor of that, because writing is better than not writing. Sometimes the meme will get you off the schneid.

1. Do you make your bed?

Almost never, and never willingly. When I was visiting one of my sisters back in the ’80s, she asked, “Don’t you like the feel of a newly-made bed?” And I said, “Not enough to make it.”
And if a bed is TOO tightly made, I feel like a mummy. I’ll undo almost any bed in one sleep cycle.

2. The first car that was officially yours?
Perhaps none of them.

3. Three grocery items you don’t run out of?
Eggs, milk, cottage cheese.

4. When did you start doing your own laundry?
Maybe in high school, maybe not until college; I just don’t remember.

5. If you could, would you go to High School again?
Oh, heavens, no, and I liked high school. I was President of student government, president of the Red Cross club, active in social justice actions, was on stage crew for the drama club.

6. Can you parallel park in under three moves?
No, driving in reverse confounds me.

7. A job you had which people would be shocked to know about?
Shocked? Can’t imagine. I was a janitor twice, once in Binghamton city hall, once in a department store in New Paltz.

8. Do you think aliens are real?
More than likely.

9. Can you drive a stick shift?
No, I remember the Okie screaming at me while I was burning out the clutch on her blue Volvo station wagon.

10. Guilty TV pleasure?
Old episodes of Law and Order, all three varieties, especially from the periods after I had stopped watching them. Actually, I had watched the original from season 2 until Jerry Orbach left, but the other two only sporatically.

11. Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
Too cold. When I’m too hot, I’m totally drained.

12. If the world ends do you want to be one of the survivors?
Depends on what’s left. And who.

13. Sweet or Salty?
Sweet.

14. Do you enjoy soaking in a nice bath?
I have, but I haven’t taken one in a very long time.

15. Do you consider yourself strong?
I vacillate on this. Probably stronger than I think, but not nearly as strong as I want to be.

16. Something people do, physically, that drives you crazy?
Talk on their damn devices, phones and whatnot, and almost walk into me on the sidewalk. Or worse, walk between cars and I almost hit them with my bike.

17. Something you do, physically, that you are sure drives everyone else crazy?
My daughter thinks I’m too loud, especially when I laugh.

18. Do you have any birthmarks?
Not that I’m aware of.

19. Favorite childhood game?
Pinochle or SCRABBLE.

20. Do you talk to yourself?
ALL the time. I try not to do it when others are around. Although who would know? They’d probably think I was on some miniature device. I started a short story about that…

21. Do you like doing jigsaw puzzles?
Depends. I get impatient early on, but as it begins to come together, it becomes more fun. I seldom do them alone.

22. Would you go on a reality show?
No, they hurt my brain.

23. Tea or coffee?
Tea. I never learned to like coffee. And BTW, I HATE it when I can taste coffee in tea water. Separate carafes, PLEASE.

24. First thing you remember wanting to be when you grew up?
Either a minister or a lawyer.

25. No matter how much money you have or don’t have, what are you an absolute snob about?

Like Alvy Singer, the Woody Allen character in Annie Hall, I don’t go to movies late. Not only might I be missing something important, but I can’t see when the lights are down, at all.

Emergency blogcast system

Camping was something I HAD to do as a kid

This is a test of the Emergency blogcast system. If this had been an actual emergency…

As some of you know, my blog transitioned from one carrier to another the last week of March. I’ll get into more details soon – probably on my 12th anniversary, coming up in May. But the bottom line was that:

1) The blog was down over 24 hours right after the spring equinox, which meant…

2) I got far fewer comments about my ABC Wednesday post – about my amazing now-teenaged daughter! – than I have in years

3) I got NO responses to my most recent Ask Roger Anything, for which you are supposed to, you know, inquire about stuff from me. You still can, BTW .

This means that I had to make a cataclysmic decision. I’m going to:

Do a Facebook meme

Hey, it’s fast.

Learn 40 things about your friends and let them learn 40 things about you.

1. Do you like blue cheese? I can eat it, but like it, not so much.
2. Have you ever smoked cigarettes? Maybe 25 in 1977.
3. Do you own a gun: No.
4. What flavor Kool-Aid? Haven’t had it in years. Probably grape when I was a kid.
5. What do you think of hot dogs? Most of the ones I eat tend to be turkey. I like them when they’re cooked outdoors on a grill.

6. Hamburgers? Please, If it’s not too late, Make it a CHEESEBURGER.
7. What is your favorite movie? Probably Annie Hall.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water. Then mixed orange juice and cranberry juice.
9. Can you do a push-up? Probably not.
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Not my thing. All I have is the wedding ring.

11. What is your favorite hobby? Is singing in choir a hobby?
12. Do you have ADD? Possibly. And I’m good at subtraction too. But don’t ask me about Birthday probability.
13. Do you wear glasses? I have for decades.
14. What was your childhood favorite TV show? TOUGH! Perry Mason. Or The Millionaire.
15. Name your current thought? Worrying is highly overrated.

16. Current worries? See #15
17. Name three things you did today – work, blog, created world peace
18. Current hate? the current regime’s policies
19. Favorite place to be? I’m really getting into sleeping. I’d had such difficulty, and the noise machine helps a LOT.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? In Oneonta for First Night with the in-laws.

21. Where would you like to go? Everywhere – Italy, France, UK, Japan, Do one of those DNA things and add some more.
22. Name three drinks you drink regularly. Iced tea, water, hot tea
23. Do you own slippers? Yes, but I’m not sure where they are.
24. What color is your shirt? Red checks.
25. Do you like sleeping in satin sheets? Never tried ’em.

26. Can you whistle? Yes. Anyone Can Whistle.
27. Where are you now? Not quite here.
28. Would you be a pirate? Sure, the Pirates are probably my favorite MLB team not based in New York State.
29. Favorite food? Lasagna
30. How many different states have you lived in? two, both 2-word states starting with the letter N

31. Do you have a passport? Yes. Just in case.
32. What’s in your pocket? A very folded $1 bill, coins, a plastic spoon, keys
33. Last thing/person that made you laugh? Peter Shickele, who discovered PDQ Bach
34. What’s your favorite animal? Cats
35. What’s your most recent injury? My left knee

36. How many TVs in your house? 1 that works to get TV, 1 that the Daughter uses for DVDs
37. Worst pain? Broken rib
38. Do you like to dance? Not a whole lot.
39. Are your parents still alive? No.
40. Do you like camping? No. It was something I HAD to do as a kid, and putting up the tent was something I sucked at EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Also hated the bugs.

Oh and this: One of those memes on FB directs one to pick the sentence on the fifth line on page 56 of the nearest book. I did this once and page 56 was left “intentionally blank”! “In the typical sample of a political poll, the laws of probability dictate that 95 times out of 100 the reported results will be within 2.5% of what would have been found if the entire population were interviewed.”

Q is for Quiz thing

Rode in the back of police car?

I’m much more prone to do one of those quiz things when I’ve gone three or four days without blogging, which happens periodically when I am away at a conference or the computer doesn’t work.

This is a way to ease back into the blogging habit, the rhythm.

From Facebook, where one is supposed to put an X if you have done it, but I found that boring. It’s called Bucket List, which I REALLY thought was inane.

But still, I play along. “You’ll be surprised at the responses.” Yeah, right.

Fired a Gun – my grandfather’s rifle, when I was about seven. Knocked me on my keister.
Been Married – more than once.
Fell in love – more than once.
Gone on a blind date – I don’t believe so.
Skipped school- in 12th grade, to go to some antiwar demonstration. In college? Several times in the latter period.

Watched someone give birth – the Wife gave birth to the Daughter.
Watched someone die – my mother. And I hadn’t realized it.
Been to Canada – several times, most recently in 2011.
Ridden in an ambulance – just once, when I was 19.
Been to Hawaii – no. And I was invited. 1995.

Been to Europe – no, and I want to.
Been to Las Vegas – no, but I’m not hankering to do so.
Been to Washington D.C. – several times, most recently in 1998, I think.
Been to Nashville – yes, for a conference.
Visited Florida – at least twice, Orlando and Miami, both for conferences.

Visited Mexico – at least twice.
Seen Grand Canyon in person – no, and I’d like to.
Flown in a HELICOPTER – no.
Partied so hard you puked – yes. But it’s not hard partying, it’s changing liquors.
Been on a cruise – no.

Served on a jury – no. Called at least four times, appeared twice, went through voir dire once.
Been in a movie – no.
Danced in the rain – of course.
Been to Los Angeles – no. Anaheim is as close as I’ve gotten.
Been to New York City – MANY times, most recently in 2013.

Played in a band …in high school – I was a percussionist for one concert. Found it extremely difficult to wait for 30 or 40 measures, not seeing where everyone was.
Sang karaoke – never, actually.
Made prank phone calls – No, and I find doing so really annoying.
Laughed so much you cried – sure.
Caught a snowflake on your tongue – of course.

Had children – one.
Had a pet – several, but a large gap from my 20s to my 60s.
Been sledding on big hill – sure
Been downhill skiing – no.
Been water skiing – no.

Rode on a motorcycle – on the back, once or twice.
Traveled to all 50 states- only 30.
Jumped out of a plane – no.
Been to a drive-in movie – yes, as a child.
Rode an elephant …at the circus– no.

Rode a Horse – yes. First time: June 9, 1976.
Been on TV – locally several times. Twice nationally.
Been in the newspaper – many times.
Stayed in the Hospital – at least twice.
Donated blood – about 150 times.

Gotten a piercing – no.
Gotten a tattoo – no
Driven a stick shift vehicle – tried mightily, but no.
Driven over 100 mph – no.
Been scuba diving – no.

Lived on your own – for years.
Rode in the back of police car – yes.
Got a speeding ticket – no.
Broken a bone – yes, a rib.
Gotten stitches – a few times.
Traveled Alone – yes, for a couple of weeks in 1998 most recently.

Here’s another: Every answer must start with the last letter of your previous answer. “It’s fun. Who doesn’t love a game of Scattergories? Come on! Try it!!!”
Name – Roger
Animal – Rhino
Girl’s name – Olive
Color – Ecru
Movie – Until the End of the World
Something you wear – Denim
Drink – Mead
Food – Dill pickles
Item in the bathroom – Soap
Place – Poland
Reason to be late – Drinking

ABC Wednesday – Round 19