Cough, cough mememememememe

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6am...6.05am...6.10am...6.15am

2. How do you like your steak?
Still mooing and attached to a live cow. I haven't eaten beef in YEARS...when I did it was a butterfly cut filet mignon, rare to medium rare.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Er, 'Notes on a Scandal', I think.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
'Have I Got News For You', just in case you've not been paying attention!

5. What did you have for breakfast?
Plain oatcakes and coffee. I like to dunk them and suck the coffee out. Gross, huh?

6. What is your middle name?
Delilah, Daisy, Dianne, Dorothea, Dahlia, Drue, Doorknob, Destiny's Adolescent, Diamonte

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
I love Thai food. I really like good pub grub, too.

8. What are your favorite chips?
Chips=french fries here...but my favourite crisps are Walker's Tomato Ketchup

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment?
Maximo Park's newest.

10. What kind of car do you drive?
Peugeot 206, Renault Megane

11. What is your favorite sandwich?
Avocado, Cheddar, Mayo & Apple on thick wholemeal bread

12. What characteristics do you despise?
hypocrisy mostly.

13. What are your favorite clothes?
My jeans, a white shirt, Converse

14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go?
The Lake District - I've not been yet.

15. Favorite brand of clothing?
Probably Levis.

16. Where would you want to retire?
Cornwall.

17. Favorite time of day?
Too difficult to answer...I have lots of favourite times in a day.

18. Where were you born?
OKC, OK.

19. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Cricket, believe it or not. I don't understand it at all, but watching the bowling is amazing!

20. Who do you think will not do this meme?
Um....um....

21. Who do you expect to do this first?
Ummmmmm....

22. Pepsi or Coke?
Neither. Ginger beer.

23. Beavers or Ducks?
Definitely ducks...I love mallards.

24. Morning or Nite Owl?
Barn Owl.

25. Pedicure or Manicure?
Umm, Manicure.

26. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?
I'm going to finally meet with some friends I've made here in Outer Blogness...how cool.

27. What did you want to be when you were little?
A dolphin.

28. What is your best childhood memory?
Swinging on the swings at Gossett Park during an especially HOT summer, whilst singing the 'Titanic' song at the top of my lungs with my cousins, sister and auntie, and then going to get Braum's ice cream or a slushie.

29. Ever been to Africa ?
No, but I just got invited to Morocco today...for a wedding next February...how odd is that?

30. Been in a car accident?
Yes, going up north of Boston the car I was riding in hit some ice and we spun into the side of another car who had hit the same patch and was spinning, too. We were going so slow (20 mph, I'd say) that it was just a matter of a big crunch and then we were sent off onto the verge. It wasn't scary, at all...

31. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday.

32. Favorite restaurant?
Terre a' terre, in Brighton.

33. Favorite flower?
Iris or peony.

34. Favorite ice cream?
A really nice vanilla or a really nice chocolate.

35. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Subway.

36. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
Zero, both tests I've taken.

37. From whom did you get your last email?
my mom.

38. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
I've got a rather low limit but probably Selfridges.

39. Bedtime?
11pm

40. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?


41. Last person you went out to dinner with
Jay, Em and Cameron Diaz -- don't ask how we scored that one!

42. What are you listening to right now?
The whir of my computer's fan

43. What is your favorite color?
Green

44. How many tattoos do you have?
None

45. How many are you sending this meme to?
All of you who want to play.

46. Favorite magazine(s)?
Guardian Weekend, Elle Decoration,

47. What time did you finish this meme?
2128

48. How old were you when you got married?
Wow, this is really going to date me, here!

49. How old do you want your kids to be when they get married?
I haven't a bairn in sight...though I do have a wonder pup and if she feels ready for the commitment then we'll stand beside her, even if she is only 12.

Gotta Getta Meme Results

1. If you could empower one woman in one way, who would it be, and what way would you empower her?

I am going to be quite selfish and say: ME. I would like to have the power to fly. Actually, I'd like to empower a few of my women friends with money - money buys time, options and security...oh, and plane tickets.

2. Which celebrity would you like to see dress in drag?

Can I just rephrase your question and ask which celebrity I'd most like to see half-dressed in a nun's habit? I suppose the serious answer to your question is: Fiddy Cent. I think he'd secretly like it.

3. If you could catapult yourself to any place and time, where would you go, and why?

To the Year 3000, just to see if everybody bought Busted's seventh album. Or, maybe just 1000 years into the future, just to see what we've made of ourselves or whether we're a footnote in history and the chimps have taken over.

4. Paper or plastic?

Paper's pretty but plastic's fantastic! Yeah, I don't know why I said that really...


5. Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?

Neither. Logan's Run is my choice for sci-fi/fantasy because it's camp and has a quite creepy ending, or at least it seemed that way back in the 1970s.

6. Chocolate or vanilla?

Both, in every way, shape and form.

7. You've had a good life. What are the three moments/accomplishments in your life you're proudest of?

Hmm. I'm proud that I truly try to think for myself these days. I really dig evidence-based knowledge.

I'm proud to have been part of a que*r youth movement, in Boston, in the early 90s - it was an exciting (but still quite tricky) time to be out.

I'm proud that I've seemingly cracked having meaningful relationships in my life - I think there were points where I could have gone down more destructive paths and I've managed to rein it in before folly took over and destroyed my universe.

8. What do you miss most about New Mexico? And why?

I miss Hatch green chile. Nothing is more quintessential to New Mexican cuisine than this ingredient - it's in everything savoury, for good reason!! It brings back all the tastes of childhood for me whenever I managed to lay my hands on some. By the by, green chiles do taste lovely on pepperoni pizza.

9. If you had a motto, what would it be?

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione

10. What would be your final message to a loved one?

I'm tempted to use Spike Milligan's epitaph as my final message, just for a laugh, but I have to say that it would probably just be, 'Ta, it's been great.'

11. Which way is up?

Every which way...

Up is not down, unless you live in the southern hemisphere. Out is not in unless you're in Brighton. New is not old unless you live in the States. One is not two unless you're a Virgo.

12. How would you like to be remembered?

I'd like for people to remember me as a lucky bastard...

Six Words...

Pomp has issued a challenge for her readers to try and describe themselves in six words. I've decided to try and rise to the challenge.

Fickle, Skeptic, Open, Determined, Loyal, Gentle

Thanks for the challenge, Pomp. It's a task that's a bit more difficult than I first imagined because equally I am:

Student, Lover, Friend, Dreamer, Fighter, Worker

and I:

Rant, Prune, Argue, Laugh, Drink, Read

That's eighteen, huh? Ah well, eighteen is lucky in Judaism (no, I'm not) so maybe I'll stop here...

Aitch-Em-You-Kay

Gotta getta Meme C*mpetition

Okay...every blog I've been to in the past three days has had a meme posted. That's fine, it seems that, like monkeys washing fruit, people take inspiration from others/are tagged by others into completing a meme.

Therefore, I'm holding the FIRST EVER (and maybe last) "Youyoutotomeme" c*mpetition. I would like for everyone who reads this blog to submit 3 questions to me. I will randomly pick (dice throw or something like that) one of your 3 questions to answer...honestly. I will answer 10 questions and since I think that my readership only extends to three or four of you, I may end up answering ALL of your questions. However, and this is the good part, I love prizes. I think that c*mpetitions without prizes are rubbish, however, British quiz shows (almost all of them are played sans prizes) are brilliant so I'm willing to amend that thought...but, I digress. This competition will have a prize. It will be a '5-star prize' because rubbish prizes are, well...rubbish. The best question of the c*mpetition will be selected by an independent and non-biased jury, comprised of: my boss and her best mate. How's that for objective?

Wanna play? Go on then and submit your questions in the comments area of this post. I'll run this for a week and next Tuesday will be Q&A session for yours truly. Also, could someone recommend a good way for me to give out the prize without stepping on anyone's privacy (mine included)?

I'm sure that I'm probably breaking all sorts of rules by running some sort of c*mpetition without a license, so shhhhhh! Don't tell.

Googling the 'Tinsel Effect'

Right then, on we go. I Googled 'Tinsel Effect' and the competition I have for naming my theory is from a scientific paper published in Washington state for the International Society for Optical Engineering proceedings series, in 2000, observing what happens when:

"2-(2'-hydroxy-5'-methylphenyl)-5-chlorobenzotriazole (TINC1) compound belongs to class of compound in which after UV excitation intramolecular proton transfer reaction takes place in solid state at room temperature. Newly created proton-transferred form fluoresces in the red range of the spectrum. Microscopic study of micrometer size fluorescing crystals gives an opportunity to observe guiding and amplification of spontaneously emitted light. Maximum of light traveling along the crystal is shifted towards high-energy range. We called this transfer in needle of spontaneously emitted luminescence as TINSEL effect Taking into account the total internal reflection phenomenon, qualitative explanation of TINSEL effect was done. TINSEL gives new possibility of application TINC1 as homogeneous core fiber."

I've tried to understand the abstract of this paper. I've lifted the extract from French website and so it may be a direct translation from English to French, and back into English - or perhaps I just haven't a clue as to what the paper actually entails. It seems that whatever happens in this chemical reaction, exactly, the resulting fluorescent red glow is probably quite a lovely spectacle to behold. Who knows, it might be as exciting to glimpse as chucking a bit of pure sodium (Na) into H2O and watching the sparks fly! Anyway, I'm sure that if anyone in the realm of science or industry reads this blog and feels strongly that I should change the name of my burgeoning theoretical position (and or blog), then I shall. Until that time, I will continue to compete with the only other non-commercial use for the words 'tinsel effect' as a free patent for a process for producing viscose hoses by precipitation, as well as a few thousand other commercial sites advertising tinsel-based products.

So much for the research aspect of this project. Onward and outward...

What is the tinsel effect?

What is the tinsel effect? I don't know if exists outside of my own head. I'll have to Google it later and see whether it matches the dictionary inside my brain. I doubt I've coined a new term or made up something original, but I needed a name for my blog and since I'm late in jumping on the blog bandwagon, all the other good names were taken...or at least the good ones that came to my mind.

The tinsel effect is what people do to cover up the things they (myself included) don't want others to see. Similarly, a Christmas tree or a store window can be covered in tinsel to the point that you can only see the tinsel. The tinsel effect might also be used to describe what we do to cover up the truth about things. False optimism and blind allegiance are strands of tinsel. Lack of critical thinking about subjects is another strand of tinsel. Dishonesty for the sake of preserving someone's feelings is tinsel - although I still do a bit of tactful truth-bending, at times. All these tactics we use to make ourselves feel better, all the while we're neglecting the substance underneath. The store window without tinsel becomes another shop selling possibly unnecessary items (except for Muji, in which all the items are probably unnecessary but highly desirable). The Christmas tree without tinsel becomes a plant that probably would have been nicer to look at in a garden or in the woods. I'm not trying to be pessimistic here, but separating the tinsel from the object underneath is quite liberating - I believe it returns a basic, more truthful identity to that object. I don't have any answers with this blog and I'm sure that philosophers have explained the Tinsel Effect in more eloquent and accurate terms. This is my blog and I'm just trying to see what's under the tinsel. Thanks for reading.