I've Been Tagged ... Twice

Today (It'll be "yesterday" by the time many of you read this) in the comments section on my last post, I learned that blogger Heather Hunt, (who wrote a very kind review of Return of the Guardian King for Title Trakk, parts of which have been used by Bethany House at their site and also on Amazon and CBD) had tagged me for Eight Random Facts about Myself.

Tagging is a phenomenon where a blogger writes up a list of some sort like "Eight Random Facts About Me" and then tags eight other bloggers to write up their own lists on that subject. They each then tag eight more bloggers. Kinda like those email forwards that tell you to forward this to ten friends or else your computer will blow up, a dog will come out to pee on it (my most recent experience with those) or you will have bad luck forever -- but without the threats. This is the first time I've ever been tagged...

Oh, wait, I was tagged before, but it was only in the process of looking around at the others who were tagged with me today that I discovered Rebecca Grabill had tagged me a week ago Sunday. Or, should I say -- ahem -- bestowed upon my blog a "Thinking Blog Award." I think that could be a post in itself. I didn't know my blog thought. Why doesn't it write itself then? I'm going to have to look into this, because really, when I have those hard days and end up with the turnip head, I think it would be very helpful if my blog could carry some of the load...

But nevermind about that. I discovered this very nice nomination/award/tag and through that learned that all this tagging activity is, in fact, a result of blog memes. Or maybe it is a blog meme. Or blog meme-ing

Or something.

The word meme, though, caught my eye because I'd been reading about it in an article on Richard Dawkins a few weeks ago in Wired Magazine on the New Atheists (out to do away with religion -- yet another post.) It also caught my eye because it linked to Wikipedia where I could read more about these memes. (For some reason in the US the word meme is pronounced "mem") The word "refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes. Examples would be tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots, or of building arches. A meme, [said Dawkins], propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and diffusion -- analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene.

So these little cultural units -- blogger lists -- are now propogating themselves about the blogosphere. Thank you to Rebecca for the kind notice that my blog thinks, and also to Heather for the prompting to post Eight Random Facts about Myself. Eager to play, I wrote out my list before I realized I hardly read any other blogs (which is why I missed out for a week on the Thinking Blog post). Of those I do, most were also tagged along with me. Which means I can't tag them.

So that means I can't play, unless I start randomly tagging folks who comment here and that doesn't seem the thing to do (especially since there's a curious corrolation between them and the others who have already been tagged). But I do have this list I made, so I guess I will content myself with posting it without further tags (this, alas is the same fate that meets many of those threatening, cajoling, bribing emails that find their way into my inbox. They almost never get forwarded, I don't copy out all the names into a new message and add mine to the end and send it to ten friends and I don't care what threat an email hangs over me, I probably won't pass it on.

Do you have to post the tagging rules if you're playing outside the bounds? No.

Thus, without further ado, Eight Random Facts About Me:

1. I share my office with a bearskin (complete with head and claws) and a rattlesnake skin.

2. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and up again all in one day (Kaibab down, Bright Angel up -- something like 21 miles. I've forgotten the exact figure).

3. I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo and love it! My dream car. In fact, driving a Jeep was one of my criterion for a mate! My husband actually drove a Toyota Land Cruiser at the time. I decided that would do, but now that we've moved on to Jeeps, I'm happy.

4. I've had one of my favorite paintings accepted into the Rocky Mountain National Watercolor Exhibition in Denver and it sold. A bittersweet blessing, since I got the prestige of getting in but lost the painting itself.

5. I've been bitten by a grebe. Also a seagull and a scoter...

6. While we were homeschooling, my son and I dissected a cow's eyeball. The retina is really cool -- opalescent like abalone shell! I was quite excited, but he thought the whole thing was slimy and gross.

7. I once lived in an apple orchard and sold apples. Also made apple pie, apple butter, applesauce, apple bars, apple jelly, dried apples, apple bread, apple salad, apple crisp and during one very long day, gallons and gallons of apple cider.

8. I used to think mothering was the hardest job I ever did but now I think it's writing. I don't remember ever getting as drained from mothering and homeschooling as I do from writing. Or maybe I'm just getting old...

9. (Yes, I know it said 8, but I'm not following the rules, remember?) I think I have a broken toe. The fourth one on my left foot which I jammed full speed into the doorjamb about three weeks ago and is still red and swollen and hurts far more than it ought to when I move it wrong.

So much for that. But if any of you are inclined to post 8 Random Things About Yourself on your own blogs, even without being tagged, leave a comment so we can go read it!

Grace,
Karen