I've been “tagged” sort of, by Jill at The Perlman Update (who writes because it's cheaper than therapy). She was tagged by Earth to Danie, who was in turn tagged by a friend in the Netherlands. I read Jill because it’s also cheaper than therapy:-) I don't have much to say about myself but I'd like to give this a try for Jill...
One: I Heart Books: I was a bookworm before I knew there was a name for it. Some of my contemporary favorites are: Einstein’s Dreams, Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, Book of Embraces, Refuge, A Sand County Almanac, The Coming Anarchy. I enjoy the Robert Parker series and almost all of Carl Hiaasen's stories. They can be an expensive habit, since we like carting them around as we move. But some of my best friends are books. I know - weird.
Two: Western Sci-fi Pick: I'm a big fan of Firefly and Serenity. Does this make me a browncoat and a nerd? Firefly, the series is set in the year 2517, after humans have arrived at a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Created by writer/director Joss Whedon, the series was canceled by Fox after only eleven episodes to my utter dismay. A good series to study on what makes people follow their leaders.
Three: Eating Lamb: I learned to eat lamb in Turkey although I still wrinkle my nose at mutton. My favorite lamb dish is called tandir kebab, cooked in an underground brick oven. The best one I’ve tasted was prepared in Konya, a city in Turkey also famous for the tomb of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the Persian mystical poet commonly known as "Mevlâna" and founder of the Sufi Mevlevi order (famous for The Whirling Dervishes). I have tons of pictures but they’re now in storage somewhere, not to be seen again until who knows when.
Four: Favored Fruit: Mango, a fruit that belong to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous species of tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. I like mine green, sour and spicy, preferably the Mexican variety.
Five: Night Owl: I can stay up until 2 am but don’t ask me to get up at 6:00 am because I get bitey and cranky; not only that, my head is not quite screwed tight in the early morning, and as a consequence, I can’t remember anything before 9 am especially without a bucket of dark coffee to fire me up (a mild impairment generally, unless one has to speak at an 8:00 am meeting). I suspect that I am a night owl anywhere on earth, and elsewhere in the solar system and outer planets. I did not realize that this condition actually has a nice name, Delayed Sleep-Phase Syndrome - sounds like a dream, doesn't it?
Six: The Way I’m Wired: My Strengths Finder 2.0 results indicate strengths in the following themes: achiever, intellection, strategic, learner, input. How much of me can anyone actually change? Maalesef, not much. Beyond a certain age (and I’m long past that age), nothing much could be rewired in my brain. My best managers used my strengths to their advantage. A few worse ones, made me sit still in a corner with duct tape on my mouth (you get the idea).
That's it!
I don't feel comfortable tagging anyone at this time, so I'll take a page from Jill and just recommend the following blogs for you to check out, if you are so inclined:
Political Humor
Baghdad Observer is written by Leila Fadel, the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered the war in Iraq for Knight Ridder and now McClatchy on and off since June 2005, as well as the 34-day war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006.
Global Voices Online
Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.
Marc Andreessen
Silicon Valley "whiz kid," successful entrepreneur, startup coach, blogger, investor, and a multi-millionaire software engineer best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape, the browser; also co-founder of Ning, a platform for social-networking websites.
Freakonomics
Their book Freakonomics has sold 3 million copies worldwide. This blog, begun in 2005, is supposed to keep the conversation going. Has six other recurring guest bloggers in addition to the two author. They always have a different take, so its often fun to read.
Author of What our Mothers Didn't Tell Us and the recent Washington novel, Amanda Bright @ Home. Recently she writes about aging: “In my case, I look fine for a 45-year-old. I'm a tired 40-year-old. I'm a haggard 35-year-old. But I'm an astonishing 50-year-old. Go on, check the seams: the jaw-line is pillowing slightly so no intervention there; there are crinkles at the eyes, topography on the forehead. I defy you to detect signs of insurgency.” She cracks me up with posts like this and her presidential IMs. And don't miss her plug for netpets :-)
