I Want YOU (to leave a comment on this entry specifically, because I am ever the curious one)
Monday, July 6, 2009 A short while ago, Notquiteawake, in a bid to see how many actual readers she had, asked everyone to answer a few simple questions in the comments, which gave me an idea.
I have one of those fancy schmancy counters that tells me things like that 38.2% of you have your screen resolution set at 1280x1024 or that 0.25% of you are from Finland, but I'd like to see all your shiny faces for once, because what my counter doesn't tell me is who you are. Hello, person from North Carolina who apparently stayed on this site for 17 hours, 2 minutes, and 50 seconds! Say hi back! Do you like cats? I like cats, too! Let's go get a sody pop together.
So, here's what I want you to do:
1) If you are already actually on this website, AWESOME, and if you are reading this is in a feedreader, click on this entry's title and come on over. We'll wait, because you're cool.
2) Answer the following three questions in the comments section:
a) What is your website url?
b) Where are you from in real life?
c) What strange belief/idea did you have as a child?
I'll even leave the first comment, because I am a setter of good examples.
See? It's easy, and now I can go and visit your websites and roll around naked in my, for once, overstuffed comments section. I'm curious about who you all are.
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PS. I totally won't roll around naked in my comments section. To do that, I'd have to print out all the comments, and we haven't had any printer ink around these parts in at least five years.
PPS. I just realized that I could leave a picture of my naked boobs in the comments section in lieu of actually rolling around naked, but I generally keep those puppies to myself, and I have family members who may not want to be smacked in the face with my awesome rack.
PPPS. No, even if you are not family, I will not smack you in the face with my awesome rack. This is not that kind of website.
Reader Comments (215)
a) My website url is www.schmutzie.com
b) I hail from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
c) When I was a kid, I thought that virgin wool sweaters came from sheep that had never had sex, and I wondered how they could be absolutely sure that certain sheep had never had sex, and how did that affect their wool, anyway?
1. No url. Not a blogger.
2. Dry-as-a-bone Edmonton. (Praying to the rain gods).
3. Strange belief: if I thought about every scary thing I could imagine before going to sleep, I wouldn't dream about those scary things. I had to be very specific, though, like "vampires in black capes, or red capes; monsters in my closet or under the bed" etc.
a) http://kdiddy.org
b) Pittsburgh, PA, USofA
c) I believed that inanimate objects had souls, so I always felt bad kicking balls or playing with a new toy over an older one. I thought I hurt their feelings.
I obeyed your tweet, and for that, thank you for not sharing YOUR puppies. I have my miniatures of my own to tend ;).
a) http://www.pensieve.me
b) You mean now or at birth? Currently, Chattanooga, TN; at birth, Athens, GA.
c) When I was little, I was CERTAIN I was going to die from lock jaw, so for YEARS--YES, YEARS--I slept with my thumb and forefinger in my mouth to keep my jaw from totally clamping shut. I really should've talked to someone about that....
I might just have to copy this idea....you mind???
:)
a) What is your website url?
>>http://www.secretagentmama.com
b) Where are you from in real life?
>>NE of Atlanta GA (but I was born and raised in suburban Buffalo, NY)
c) What strange belief/idea did you have as a child?
>>I was Wonder Woman!
Robin, copy away. I did!
a) My url is http://daisybones.com
b) Charleston, WV, USA
c) I thought I was crazy, possibly schizophrenic, because I narrated my life in my head. I summoned all my courage to tell Mom, sure she'd have me taken away in a strait jacket. She shrugged & said: "I'll buy you a journal."
a) No url
b) Saskatoon, SK
c) There was a really gigantic flood when I was quite young. My family was supposed to be going to a party & my Mom didn't want to go because of the storm. My sister, Dad & I were waiting in the car when my Mom came out & in a desperate voice asked if the records were in the car.
For some reason all this tension & sense of urgency & my own fears about the storm led me to believe that if you had records in your car during a storm you would be perfectly safe! I was way too old when I finally realized this was not true at all.
a) http://redstapler23.blogspot.com
b) Ventura, California, the most beautiful spot in the USA
c) I thought my dad could call ahead and control the stoplights, because my mom told me he could. Bonus: I also thought the word "doubt" meant the sound high heels make on hard floors.
a) my website is marybeth494.blogspot.com but my blog name is Cats, Books, Life is Good
b) I'm a Jersey girl - born & bred (NJ)
c) I thought if I wished hard enough, I could become part of the books I read. I still wish I could enter a few of them:)
a) http://www.noshowmo.net
b) Richmond, Virginia, USA
c) When I was a kid, I believed that my dad somehow knew how to make traffic lights change from red to green. He would always tell us right when our red light was about to turn green. It wasn't until I was 25 and had been driving for 10 years (!) that I remembered he used to do that, and figured out he was just watching the yellow lights from the other direction.
1. No url. Not a blogger YET
2. St Thomas,Ontario. Home of life sized Jumbo the elephant statue.No I'm not kidding.
3.When I was a kid my imaginary friend Pete told me to cut my long beautiful hair and I did. Ended up with a pixie cut and everyone thought I was a boy.
1. www.ohmyseven.com
2. I was born in Michigan, but I live in Medford, Oregon now, by way of California. I've lived a few places.
3. When I was little, I believed that my name (Brooke) was too masculine. I therefore decided that the day I turned 18 I was going to change my name. To "Aquamarina." Because that's better.
1. http://hardtobehuman.blogspot.com
2. Dayton, Ohio, USA & vicinity (Beavercreek, to be specific)
3. I thought that eleventeen sounded like a number that had to exist somewhere, somehow.
1. http://marymelindasworld.blogspot.com/
2. Seattle
3. I haven't had my coffee yet, so I can't think of childhood beliefs, it hurts to use my brain.
a) lecturesoneverything.blogspot.com, which is really not as defunct as it seems.
b) Regina, SK. Same as you! Wow!
c) I had a book as a child, with a story that changed nearly every time I read it. Then one day it stopped changing, and I was very disappointed. Not really a strange belief because this really HAPPENED, but this is what I'm giving you.
d) kdiddy: I *still* feel the same way.
Hello!
I'm at http://www.fluidpudding.com, I'm from St. Louis, and I used to think it was perfectly acceptable to refer to my eighth grade English teacher as "Mr. Eunuch." Sadly, he didn't feel the same way.
a) mikeraburn.wordpress.com
b) Raleigh, North Carolina
c) I was convinced that the people in the TV could see me. Every time The Brady Bunch came on, I ran and put on a shirt (normally optional in Florida), so Marsha wouldn't see me laying on the couch half-naked.
www.nothingwitty.com
Meridian Idaho!
When I was a child I was terrified of volcanoes, (because we have so many in Idaho?) cobra snakes (Don't you know they can magically teleport from India?) and tornadoes. I'm still afraid of tornadoes, even though we really don't get them here in Idaho either.
1) The only site I spend much time putting content on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayayarai
2) Saskatoon
3) I believed my stuffed animals came alive and went off and had little parties after I fell asleep.
a) my websites are
www.exurbanis.com/about and
www.sendoutcards.com/debbierodgers
b) I was born & raised in St. Thomas, Ontario but the life sized Jumbo statue wasn't there then.
Since 2003, I have been very happily settled on the North Shore of Nova Scotia, just outside the village of Tatamagouche (site of the second season of "The Week the Women Went")
c) When I was a kid and heard people say "spring is just around the corner", I thought I could see it if I triked down to Southwick Street.
a) www.magpiemusing.com
b) raised in one NYC suburb, lived in NYC for a long time, now living in another NYC suburb
c) i didn't know that you could pay cash at department stores - because i only saw people (like my mother) using charge cards.
I too may steal this idea.
A) No blog of my own, I just read everyone elses.
B)Columbus, Ohio, USA
C)I believed that every song my dad sang was his original creation. When I heard one of his songs on the radio I just assumed the beatles stole it from my dad.
a)www.doahleigh.com
b)Grand Rapids, MI
c)I believed that I had to be married to have sex. Ha!
1. my blog is http://angstontheplanks.wordpress.com
2.I'm from Georgia
3. When I was a kid I had a tiny box of "worry dolls" from Guatemala or someplace. Every night I'd assign each doll a problem to solve. I believed they'd eventually make me popular and pretty and get me A+ in Geometry. Damn things never worked though. I failed geometry twice.
a - http://sassy-red-head.livejournal.com
b- Ottawa Ontario
c- I used to wish upon the first star of the night, every night, for AA batteries. That lasted about 5 years.
1. Don't have a website.
2. Sacramento, CA
3. I thought oral sex meant the people involved were verbally discussing the act. I guess that would be aural sex?
HELLO I AM MR. ALLCAPS. I EXPERIENCE EVERY MOMENT TO THE FULLEST AND I LIVE IN A BUCKET BEHIND THE SAFEWAY.
No. I am www.thepalinode.com from Regina, Saskatchewan. When I was a child I had a Tourettish response to asymmetry. For example, if I brushed up against something with my left shoulder, I would have to find something to touch my right, or I would start twitching. Eventually I started to incorporate patterns and numbers, to the point that I would need to repeat an action sixteen times (four sets of four, for some reason - immensely satisfying) to calm the compulsion.
http://psychicgeek.com
Dartmouth, NS, Canada (may show up as Halifax)
When I was five years old, my family moved from the east coast to the west coast. I thought that I had dreamed my former life.
1. www.sweetsalty.com
2. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
3. Strange and entirely unjustified belief: that someday, maybe someday, I would have an awesome rack.
a) http://igivetoyou.blogspot.com (and a few others)
b) From: Winnipeg; Living in: Calgary
c) Reverse fear of heights - that I might fall UP into the sky.
a) My website url is www.inabottle.org
b) I hail from the Ocean View neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia.
c) When I was in kindergarten (so about 5) I fell and tore a hole in my tights, leaving a large open circle over my knee cap. My friends and I searched all over for the missing part of my tights until recess was over.
a) www.misszoot.com
b) Born in TN, Currently living in AL
c) I thought my stuffed animals would get their feelings hurt if I left them behind on the weekends I went to my Mom's. So I took turns bringing them so no one would feel left out every weekend.
What can I say? My Mommy Guilt started very early on
1. www.whoknewthiswasthehardpart.blogspot.com
2. Hurst, TX; a suburb of Dallas
3. Mmmm. . . I was a pretty weird kid. One thing is I always thought people where watching me. Kinda like I was on a TV show. Wow, can you believe I wasn't on meds until 25?!?
a) www.okayfinedammit.com
b) Wisconsin
c) I believed that God was inside my cat, and spoke to my cat accordingly. (Good thing that cat lived a very long time.)
d) I am always here, though I'm a shitty commenter. I love you huge.
A) Sorry blog site not working( i someone realized i am crazy and blocked me out)
B) I was born in Moose Jaw and right now I live in terrace bay Ontario. Right on the shore of superior. On Wednesday i am moving back to Regina.
C) When i was little i had a he-man tricycle with plastic tires. After a month of doing skids on the drive-way the front tire went flat. My father told me not to ride on the flat side. and i was certain there was a way it could be done. I gae up after a few weeks of arm-straining effort.
a. no web site =(
b. NE Atlanta, GA USA
c. I think I've blocked the most interesting thoughts I had a child. I did reason for a long time that the acidity in Coke would counter act the grease in the fries at the fast food places.
a) http://filmat11.wordpress.com
b) Currently in Socorro, NM
c) I grew up in San Diego and I used to obsessively worry that someone was going to kidnap me and then put me in the shark tank at Sea World.
a. no URl, not a blawwger, just a devoted reader
b. Seattle Wa
c. I truly believed that at some point in my life I would be called upon to remember a license plate for a random car so I would memorize them. I don't, anymore.
a) Don't have a website.
b) Originally from a small town in Va, but now live in Bristol, TN, USA.
c) I thought I had to keep track of every different state license tag when traveling.
a) http://missbanshee.typepad.com
b) Dirty Jersey
c) I was absolutely convinced my dolls and stuffed animals were alive. I once demanded from my mom how they could see without moving their eyes. I would not take "they're not real" for an answer and threw the biggest fit possible.
1. www.fruityfantastica.blogspot.com
2. I'm in Prince Albert. Another Saskatchewanian. Hee.
3. When I was about seven or eight, someone bought me a necklace at Klondike Days with a red stone pendant. It was KOOOL. I was pretty sure that someone was going to recognize my intrinisic movie star qualities whenever I wore that necklace. I already had the title of the movie worked out: The Kid With the Red Stone.
And now you know something about me that no one in the world knows. Amongst all of my other stellar qualities, I instictively knew when to keep a good idea safe from my sister's mockery.
a. I'm at www.foodinjars.com
b. I currently live in Philadelphia, PA, but am from Portland, OR.
c. As a kid, I had lots of nightmares. My mother, in a moment of sheer genius, told me that if you sleep with something handmade, you were protected from nightmares. Then she presented me with a handcrafted teddy bear. The nightmares stopped almost immediately, because I wholeheartedly believed her. I was in my twenties when I finally realized she had made it up.
a) No url. Tried and failed. I do have several hundred notebooks full of doodlings and ramblings, though.
b) I'm typing from Arlington, Texas - home of the Texas Rangers, Six Flags Over Texas, and (now) the Dallas Cowboys. I have also called the following home at one point or another: St. Louis, MO - Houma, LA - Little Rock, AK - Richmond, VA
c) My grandmother had me fully convinced until I was 12 years old that she had a trio of goblins living in her basement. They were responsible for any and all "mischief" that occurred - things that went missing, people and objects falling down for no reason, power outages and blown fuses, pies burning, bad weather, you name it. And I was an honors student.
a) URL is http://averagejane.blogs.com
b) I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, USA
c) When I was a kid, my parents frequently said that they would put in a swimming pool "when we get rich." It took me years to realize that they were joking and that getting rich wasn't the inevitability that they made it sound like.
a) I sort of deleted it!
b) At the moment... The Westcountry, England... originally the North East coast of Ireland.
c) several... I was convinced that the people in the evening news were saying goodnight to me... if I practiced enough whilst watching fred astaire movies that I would be able to dance with him (despite the fact that it was the 1970's) and most bizarrely of all I was convinced that my Mum had given my cat to the people on the kids show Blue Peter (she'd actually given the cat to my Grannys cleaner!)
A) www.sprogblogger.com
B) Brooklyn, NY after Castle Valley, UT after Mesa, AZ
C) I believed that my bike was magic and could fly anywhere in the world if only I could pedal fast enough.
a) sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com
b) the cornfields of Iowa
c) In elementary school, I thought I could fly. And for years after, I was still convinced that I was some sort of god or wizard and that someday I would figure out how to fly again.
a) What is your website url?
www.danielletodd.com
b) Where are you from in real life?
Burlington, Ontario
c) What strange belief/idea did you have as a child?
I was born sceptical, so I didn't really have many far fetched ideas as a kid. I did believe in ghosts though.
a) not a blogger just a voracious blog reader.
b) Akron, OH in the midwest where everyone is chubby from eating cheese
c)If you ate watermelon seeds, a watermelon would grow in your stomach. And my brother's ears were always dirty and my grandma said he was growing potatoes in there. Of course, we believed her.