Me me me, let's talk about me! Or, There's two "me"s in "meme."

[bironic]

So theninth tagged me to do the meme where you list seven random facts about yourself, but you know what? I'm bored this week (sloooooow at work) and a little lonely, and I like you guys and I like talking about myself, so how about you ask me stuff? I reserve the right to pass if the question's too personal, but you can always ask another. Yeah? And then if you like, I'll ask you something back.

...

Oh, I give in. Here are three random facts about me—two copied from a recent comment over at cryptictac's, and one I've been saving up in case a meme like this came 'round again. shut up.

1. Most of the time, if I can't remember a word, it starts with "con-." This makes me suspect that there are tiny areas of the speech centers of the brain responsible for particular morphemes.

2. I still sometimes work on years-old Mary Sue stories in the privacy of my hard drive.

3. If I'm reading a story and someone blinks, winks, nods, shakes or jerks their head, grimaces, shrugs, smirks, squints, raises their eyebrows, snorts, etc., I do the same thing before I've realized it. Like some kind of above-the-chest reader's Tourette's.

4-9. Here are six random facts from the last round.

Comments

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

3. I totally do that too!! I also mouth along the dialogue in a story (or even say it quietly out loud). Sometimes, if characters start crying, I will find it in me to cry with them. This is why I do not like other people in the room with me when I read. lol

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Heh. If I actually made noises when story characters did, I wouldn't be able to read fic at work, and that would be bad. Thankfully it's just the facial tics, which can be hidden. The crying thing I think is different -- that's an emotional transmission instead of mimicry, at least for me.

[petrichor-fizz.livejournal.com]

2: I have an unfinished Mary Sue story that still haunts me sometimes. While it didn't get much feedback, the feedback it DID get was positive. I can't bring myself to write any more, though, in case somebody finds out and smites me.

3: I do pretty much the same thing, especially if the author describes the facial expression in detail. Sometimes I do it with hand gestures too. Actually, thinking about it, it's possible that I only do this when the character is Wilson. That's probably not good.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*SMITE*

:D Most of my Mary Sue stories, fanfic and original fic, will never see the light of day the Internet. The last one I finished was in high school, a Deep Space Nine fic, and people had great things to say about it, but it's like the definition of a Mary Sue story and thus embarrassing to think about now. Is/was yours fanfic?

3. It seems this is far more common that I thought! How comforting!

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I do number three, too! OMG! I'm so excited to hear that other people do this! It's why I don't like reading when other people are around.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I had no idea this was so common. Imagine all these fanfic readers twitching in their seats across the world. :)

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

Too bad it's only above-the-chest. Otherwise reading porn would be hilarious.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*laughing* Now I have this image of a bunch of fanfic readers sitting in their desk chairs humping the air. Thanks for that.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

1. I've heard that often when a word's "on the tip of your tongue" and you can't remember it, it's because it bears less similarity to other words you know, and hence the connections to it aren't as strong, making it harder to retrieve. Which doesn't really seem to apply to your 'con' thing, but might support your suspicion *g*.

Me, I've always had a problem spelling 'emperor' which I think I've wrestled into submission now, but I'm still staring at it RIGHT NOW thinking 'is that right? It looks weird'. I can never quite tell which way the second 'e' and 'o' should be. And then I couldn't bear it and googled it just to make sure XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I used to screw up "emperor" all the time too, until I made myself remember, somehow, that it's "em per OR." And still, I paused just now when I typed it, even though it was right there in your comment.

I've heard that often when a word's "on the tip of your tongue" and you can't remember it, it's because it bears less similarity to other words you know, and hence the connections to it aren't as strong, making it harder to retrieve.

Hm. I hadn't heard that before. Does that mean the word you're trying to think of is unusual within your vocabulary, or that it's not close to what you think the word is that you can't remember? Because it's still true that if I'm trying to think of a word (and the "con-" test fails), half the time it doesn't start with the letter I think it does.

[magdalenrose.livejournal.com]

Or it's semantically similar to a word you're thinking of - e.g., you want to say "educate" but all you can think of is "elucidate" - and so the word you're thinking of blocks the retrieval of the word you want.

Despite multiple spelling bee championships, I've never been sure if I'm spelling "mischievious" correct - and I think it's one of those annoying "it's different in the UK and US" words.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Just jumping in here to say that my spelling confidence is being shredded b/c the LJ spellchecker is American and it hates all those extra "Commonwealth" u's. I'm so paranoid I actually keep dictionary.com open on my sidebar at all times...

[purridot.livejournal.com]

BTW I think American spelling is lovely and hassle-free -- my problem is with LJ's constant "Are you sure that's how it's spelled? Are you sure? Are you SURE?" that is stressing me out...

What LJ really needs is "brain checker" to make sure you say what you are actually trying to say...

[zulu.livejournal.com]

AND ZE QUESTION IS: What is your work?

Dang, I am boring. Oh well. Ask me stuff if you like.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

#2 - LOL! I have a whole set of OCs that I "write" stories about in the privacy of my imagination. It's totally comforting b/c no one will ever be able to read it as it's not written down so it can be as melodramatic as I like (which is VERY MUCH SO :-)

#3 - If I'm reading a death!fic, I'll put on sad music so that I feel the angst along with the characters... Très macabre, I know!

Question: What would Lord Byron think of House?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, ask me something easy, why don't you? I think Byron would approve of House's bluntness and drug use and admire the way he won't let himself be defined by his leg (though, like House, he'd couch it in scorn). And, um. He'd get a kick out of House's metaphors and condescension. And they could "go brood in a dark corner" together for a little while, until House told him to grow up and get over himself and Byron would say he's a pale and mixed-up descendent of his great heroes. Okay, straying from the topic. But after that great chat you & Elynittria & I had way back when, one of my persistent long-term plot bunnies is to do a House/Wilson/Byron/Shelley gen (or PG-rated slash) piece where they're all at a table in a pub together, so I'll probably figure out a better answer for you whenever I get around to writing that.

2. Oh, yes, there are written OCs/Mary Sues and then there are fantasized OCs/Mary Sues that dare not be put down on paper! In our minds, there is no censure for melodrama etc. -- and thank goodness for that.

3. Not macabre -- getting in the mood.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

I have a whole set of OCs that I "write" stories about in the privacy of my imagination.

I used to have Mary Sues that I "wrote" about in my mind to pass the time, but eventually I discovered that I enjoyed "being" fictional characters even more (i.e., imagining elaborate, probably excessively melodramatic h/c plots from the POV of a particular character that I loved, without any self-insertion into the scenarios). Now I only daydream about my Mary Sue characters on rare occasions.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

I do #3 also. What's worse is that I also do it while I'm writing. I can only imagine what I must look like when I'm really engrossed in reading or writing something.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Our office has security cameras bolted to various corners in various rooms. I face away from the one in our area, but sometimes I wonder too what the tape would look like if it caught all my expressions as I read stories throughout the week.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Your hair is like mine! When I was small my mom cut it to just above my shoulders, so it turned into the little blonde girl!afro which I always thought of as "the popcorn haircut". Last year I thought I'd finally give it a try again, what with short hair "looking more adult" and new people in uni not knowing me yet.

I am not doing that again. *whimpers*

Question: what do you want someone to ask about you so you can reveal a tiny little tidbit you've never had the opportunity to? (And what would the answer be?)

Ask me something if you like.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee. Like Little Orphan Annie hair? Cute, in a horribly embarrassing way. (I know. You know I know. We can be Foreman and Wilson in the conversation in Wilson's doorway when he was on speeeeed.) I hadn't figured you for a blonde. *attempts to reconstruct roga mental-image*

what do you want someone to ask about you so you can reveal a tiny little tidbit you've never had the opportunity to? (And what would the answer be?)

Oh, boy, that's actually a tough one. I didn't have an ulterior motive when I asked, so I'm not sure what it would be. There are some things I'm holding onto that I'd like to "confess" one day, but I need an excuse to do it, and this doesn't count! Let me get back to you on that...

I have a boring question for you, if you're willing: Are you originally from Israel, or did you move there from somewhere else?

[synn.livejournal.com]

When my hair is long enough, if I put curlers in it, then I get banana curls in the morning. Like shirly temple. Scary, no?

I don't have a queston, but I'd take a memory if you had one you wanted to share ^..^

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I... can't picture that. Well, maybe on those photos of you as a kid when you had really long hair. Please indulge whilst I pat you on the virtual head.

A memory, she says...

I remember one day in our old house, where we lived until I was eight, my dad whispered instructions in my ear and then led me down the hall to where my mom was in the kitchen. She came to the doorway where the kitchen met the living room/hallway/entrance in our split ranch and crouched down in front of me (because I was small, y'see) when I said "come here," and then as ordered, I reached up and rubbed her eyebrows backwards. Which it turned out was something she hated, which my dad knew very well, and she spluttered and backed off and we all laughed. I felt a little bad afterwards, not having known, and perhaps a little used (though I didn't think of it that way until many years later -- poor pawn-me!), but it was still funny.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Two questions:

1. What's your favorite poem (from any time period)?
2. Do you slash Byron and Shelley? (Will you slash them? Please?)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

1. Philip Larkin's "Aubade" grabbed me the first time I read it and still feels as familiar as if it had been drawn from my own mind. I'm sure other poems will take its place at the top of my list, eventually, either as I grow out of my views on death or as I simply read more poems by more people.

What's yours?

2. Hee! I haven't yet, maybe only because I wasn't into slash when I took Romantics courses in college. Mayhap I will slash them, one day -- there's that plot bunny I've been nursing since, oh, December, with Byron, Shelley, House and Wilson that could go either way (gen or slashy).

[bell]

How's your grad school research/applying to going? :D (you can ask me something too)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Horribly! And it's my fault completely, for not having the guts and/or energy to keep on top of things. So it's September and I'm still at my job. But I've downloaded a few applications, and I plan to write emails to people at various universities inquiring about their experiences, and I'm still perusing websites now and again for jobs. Any change would be a good change at this point, I suspect. Boo inertia.

Hm, question. I asked you the big one over at your LJ the other week about where you are, so let's see... How about: What have you done lately that you're proud of?

[asynca.livejournal.com]

Uh. Sorry for gate crashing your LJ.

But AMEN to the secret Mary-Sue fics!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

How dare you come by and chat?!

May I ask if your Mary Sue(s) is/are for fanfic or original fiction?