So Dwight over at the Mighty Houston Chronicle tagged me this morning, and now I have to respond or I will lose my license to blog. Dwight also tagged John Whiteside, Claus Valca, and Kyrie “Wait, Wait, Don’t Mo Me” O’Connor.

The subject of today’s tag: eight random things about me. Here hoes…

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I used to be able to play a pretty decent rendition of Joplin’s original arrangement of the Maple Leaf Rag. Sadly, I haven’t practiced in years and have forgotten most of it. Maybe I should spend a few hours now and then with my piano. (I’ll have to have it tuned first.)

Despite the fact that Shiner Bock from the Spoetzel Brewery is a Texas tradition along with Lone Star and St. Arnold, and in spite of the fact that its rival Ziegenbock was created by the giant “King of Blands” Anheuser-Busch company… I think I prefer the taste of Ziegenbock. Another beer I like: Fat Tire.

My first true love was the 1968 Triumph TR6 that my Dad owned. He let me drive it because, I believe, I was willing to do the work to keep it running. I put a new alternator in that car, a new water pump, a new clutch, new brakes, and had to replace the head gasket. The toughest job on a TR6: the oil change. Getting the gasket to line up with the metal filter cover was a nightmare! But I loved that car, and still believe there has never been a better looking roadster than the Karmann-designed TR6.

I have Libertarian leanings. Please don’t tell the IRS.

In high school, I was the editor of our school’s yearly literary magazine and had several poems published in it. Over ten years ago, as part of a self-motivated effort to teach myself HTML, I converted the entire issue to HTML. I even scanned the photos and tried to match the layout of the print version as closely as I could. I did a pretty decent job and still keep a copy online. No, I’m not going to tell you where to find it.

One of the most finely crafted novels I have ever read is Carl Sagan’s science fiction novel Contact. Forget the movie, that abomination with Jodie Foster, you have to read the book. In addition to the more fully developed plot, the book is full of subtle foreshadowing and symbolism… most of which I missed the first time I read it. Contact may have been Sagan’s only novel, but he did a superb job.

I really love maps and aerial photos. I used to have USGS topographic maps of the Flint River taped to the wall of my room. One time I saw a cool 8mm film camera that could ride on the nose of an Estes hobby rocket. I wanted one, but couldn’t afford the rocket. For a long time I was interested in kite aerial photography, but never found the time to get started in it. I’m really in love with Google Maps and the USGS National Map Viewer. I sometimes create my own maps.

It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I learned the difference between sushi and sashimi.

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Now I have to tag four others:

• Cindy the Squipper, who sometimes pops in here to comment about socks and Sperrys.
• Robert Nagle, who probably has too much else to do, but tough.
• Natalie, who I met at An Inconvenient Truth last year. She probably doesn’t know I have been stalking her reading her blog.
• Leigh Ann, who is the most consistent blogger among my sibs.

TAG! You’re it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 7:47 pm and is filed under Miscellanea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.