Whispers from the Myth Teller

In this meme, people post random things about themselves and if you leave a comment or a Like (on Facebook), they give you a number and then you need to provide that many random facts about yourself.

My friend Alli K., in all her devious sweetness, gave me the number 15. Emily B. was nicer and asked for two, but  I'm hoping they all get covered in this list. Jeepers.

15 Random Facts about me

1. Although I live in Montreal now, I was born in Quebec city. Yes Mme. Marois, I am a part of the tiny Anglophone community that lives and thrives still in Quebec city.

2. I have only ever traveled across the pond twice: once to Ireland and once to France.

3. I am still very scared of the dark and I'm quite claustrophobic.

4. Growing up, I was a proud member of Boy Scouts of Canada. I was a Wolf Cub and a Scout, and when I was an adult, I was a Wolf Cub leader in groups in Quebec city and Sherbrooke.

5. Because my girlfriend Gail was a Jeannettes leader with Guides & Scouts du Quebec, I was also became a leader with the Jeannettes (girls aged 8 to 13) in Sherbrooke, Ottawa, and Montreal. I received my Guide Cross in 1992 and I still have all the scarves from the groups I've worked with during those years. Very happy memories.

6. Before my 20s, my metabolism was in high-gear and I used to be bone-thin. I remember thinking that I wished I could put on some weight. Be careful what you wish for. Now, because of a variety of medical issues, losing weight is especially difficult.

7. I've always been fascinated by ghosts and hauntings, so no matter how crappy it is, if there's a TV show about hauntings and ghosts, I will probably watch it. I have only done a couple of investigations personally. Orbs no longer impress me and I'm not convinced that EVPs should be considered hard evidence. I try to be open-minded, but I am a skeptic.

8. In my childhood years, I was a target for many, many bullies because I was small, skinny, weak, and easily prone to crying. This has left me with a profound sympathy for the underdog and I can sometimes overreact to perceived bullying, either directed at me or others.

9. I have one sister who lives in Ireland, one mother who lives in Quebec city, and one father who passed away in 2007. I also have a niece studying in Montreal, while my two other nieces still live in Quebec, one of whom is my goddaughter. I love these girls somewhat fiercely.

10. My first real acting role was in a high school play where I had the distinct memory of being on stage and hearing someone in the audience whisper to me "Hey... Hey Hickey. You suck!" Despite these blistering words of encouragement, I continued to act and direct plays until 1995 when I discovered storytelling.

11. I have been telling tales since 1995, I've been published a few times, I have won storytelling awards and competitons, and I'm currently hosting my own storytelling competition. I dream of becoming one of Canada's favourite storytellers and performing in various parts of the world.

12. I had to consult a bunch of these other meme lists to figure out what to put in here. Coming up with 15 facts is hard. Darn you, Alli K.

13. I've only ever gotten stoned once (when I was 37, funny story), I don't smoke, and I didn't start drinking beer until after I graduated university.

14. I've always been a huge nerd (shock and surprise). I collect comic books, adore Steampunk costumes and gadgets, play in LARPs (mostly in the spring/summer), play video games (mostly PC), I love animation (more 2D than 3D), and watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, and Mythbusters. I used to play tabletop D&D, but the rules frustrated me. I enjoy board games (Catan!) and Texas Hold'em poker.

15. I don't drink coffee, but I find a hot mug of tea to be comforting.

16. (because #12 was a cheat) When people find out I'm Pagan, I get the weirdest questions including: "Are you a demon?", "Do you drink blood before casting your love spells?", and my personal favorite: "Are you still Pagan or have you found a job?"

I've been waiting four years to do this.

Invent a memory of me and post it in the comments to this entry. It can be anything you want, so long as it's something that's never happened. Then post this in your journal so people can make up stuff about you, too. Or post this to your journal and see what people would like to remember of you, had the universe cooperated in making it happen.

When I'm working a contract like this, especially at the end of it, it usually gets a bit hairy (especially this particular client). This is the fourth time I've been back and the last three times, I swore up and down that I would not take another contract with them again. It's amazing (and depressing) the things I do for money.

So as this contract comes to an end, I'm trying to keep my eyes on the goal and not run screaming through the hallways. The goal is to complete this project as best as I can, take a bit of a break, finish off the Second Draft of the biography, and start networking/promoting like crazy.

Alot can happen in 6 months and I feel like I'm on the brink of something big. So here's a post I'd like to be writing six months from now. In six months, I'll report back and see how it's all going.


If you'd like to do the same, leave me comment with your Post From the Edge or a link to your Post on your own LJ.

Do you have a song that, when you hear it, makes you stop and take notice of it? You'll be walking down the street, driving in your car, or riding the bus when you hear this song and it stirs something inside you. You feel every note, you know every word, and still the song is as fresh and new as it was the first time you heard it. You close your eyes, your mind clears instantly, and you get lots in its music.

I was driving to work today and two of these songs came on one after the other. If I had had the opportunity, I might've pulled over to be able to listen to them.

• Thunderstruck -- AC/DC: There's something about how this song builds that gets my full attention every time. I crank the volume and get lost in it.


• Still haven't found what I'm looking for -- U2: similar to Thunderstruck, the build-up of this song draws me in. I'm a child of the 80's; go figure.


• Canned Goods -- Greg Brown: specifically from his Live One album. It reminds me of spending summers as a kid at my great aunt's cottage.


• Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song -- David Wilcox (the American one): I've known of Chet Baker, but I've never gone out of my way to hear his music. This song makes me want to discover Bakers' music.


• Nighthawks at the Diner -- Tom Waits: the whole album is an experience, but the story of Big Joe and Phantom 309 gets me every time.

What are your five perfect songs? These pieces of music should be a few years old (it's too early to say how new music will affect you a few years from now) and state why you think they strike such a chord in you.

By an odd coincidence (group-mind still seems to be in effect), I was fulfilling the following meme last week (pinched from the_exclamation. But since I had gotten a late start of it, I propose to re-issue it to you all. And if it had been issued to you already, so what? More good can be distributed to the world at large.

=======the_exclamation writes:================
You do want to make the world a better place, right? Chances are, if you read this column, then the answer is Yes.

So I have a proposal for you. I have a plan to accomplish this, and I am going to put it into motion. With this plan, in eight days, that is by end of day next Sunday, I will have made the world a better place, simply by following this plan.

I will tell you my plan, and pledge to see it through, and post the results here next Monday morning.

And I would like you to respond to this column and take the pledge with me, then describe your results in next week's column (Note: just post it back in this journal eight days from now).

Now I warn you: What I am proposing is not going to be easy. It may even meet with resistance, from persons who might misunderstand your actions.

These people are precisely the reason this is necessary. They need your help.

So, are you with me? Are you going to do the same thing I am, and together we will make the world a better place?

I knew you would. So here's the plan:

It's Sunday morning. I pledge that, by Sunday evening next week, I will have done something nice for five strangers.

Five in eight days. When you think about it, five acts of kindness in more than one week is an appallingly low number.

But as I cautioned, this is not going to be easy. Those people I mentioned above, the ones who might - I'm not saying they will, mind, I'm saying they might - misunderstand your actions? They have learned that when people appear to be nice, it's usually because they've figured out how to turn it to their own advantage. Strangers cannot be trusted.

Many people have received this message. And it is the wrong lesson. It leaves out the good. Harmful behaviour, in this sense, is like the drop of chocolate ice cream in the vanilla, changing the colour of everything.

But the thing we must always keep in mind is the power of inertia. Just as things annoy you more easily when you're already cranky, so does a feeling of joy cause you to shrug off minor unpleasantries for the irrelevancies they are, and celebrate the simple things around you that you might otherwise take for granted.

So I'm going to do something nice this week for five people I don't even know. It can be anything: Compliment their hair, let them pass first in a checkout line, offer them my seat on the bus. Five people. Anything at all, no matter how small.

The only criterion is they have to notice. They have to perceive that a stranger did something he was under absolutely no obligation to do - for them. And even if they're not immediately appreciative, somewhere down the line they might do something nice for someone else, because you stemmed their negativity by the tiniest fraction, but it was enough.

And if you've been paying attention to these columns you will have realised I expect that, through doing nice things for people, we will stay positive, and make ourselves happier as well. Yes, I'm shamelessly maniupulating you into being happier; I admit that.

So maybe those hypothetical misunderstanders above do have a point about all of us standing to benefit.

'course, when you make the world a better place like that, everybody benefits.

( Pictures of my LJ Friends )


Try out this Meme

Brought to you by BearPodcast.

Note: a couple of my friends have put this up on their LJs, so if you've answered it already, thanks!

I have a friend who is writing his master's thesis in Economics on the topic of "bads"--that is, goods which are bad for you. Part of his research involves a survey on smoking. Behind the cut below is a 44-question survey that I would like you to fill out. All of the questoins are yes/no or one word answers.

( Read more... )

When you have completed the survey, you can email it to Wailoo.Todd@ic.gc.ca If you're especially brave or helpful, you can cut and paste the survey and the address into your own journal and pass this along to your friends list. Thanks again.

In honor of concordantnexus's birthday, click here to see what his LJ would look like if he were a redneck:

Redneck ConcordantNexus: Fry mah hide!

The irony here is that, although I like Woody Allen films, I only like them when he's not in them. In fact, I'll refuse to see a Woody Allen film if he moves from behind the camera at all.

Woody Allen Your film will be 60% romantic, 37% comedy, 36% complex plot, and a $ 29 million budget.

Be prepared to have your life story shot entirely in New York City -- though lately Woody's been loving shooting in London. Also, your music soundtrack is all jazz from before 1949. Filmography: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Everyone Says I Love You, etc. Woody has released one film per year consistently for the past 35 years. For the past 15 years he's been trying to make films like his older, funnier ones, just like characters in his Stardust Memories film suggest throughout. Regardless of his personal life, his films are American classics.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 74% on action-romance You scored higher than 67% on humor You scored higher than 34% on complexity You scored higher than 10% on budget

Link: The Director Who Films Your Life Test written by bingomosquito on Ok Cupid