John's Blog

I always say that I hate memes, but inevitably when I get tagged I just go with the flow and participate. Besides, I haven't seen too much else that's worth passing on these days (and it gives me an excuse to post a Jeri Ryan picture) so here goes:

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:
1) Visit the islands in Hawaii that I didn't see. Might as well revisit Maui as well.
2) Go to China. Had this trip planned as a honeymoon, but this little incident known as Tiananmen Square caused us to come up with a "plan B".
3) Run another marathon. I always wanted to do the NYC one, but then again I always wanted to watch the ball drop in Times Square and I got over that. I have fond memories of The Marine Corps Marathon in DC, but the knees haven't been cooperating enough recently to consider either one.
4) Get a "real" hobby; blogging doesn't count.
5) Do a cross country tour on a train...better hurry while they still exist.
6) Tackle some of the "manly" projects around the house that entail using power tools or building stuff, and not always hiring someone else to do them.
7) Visit all 50 states, live in at least one more.

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1) Snap my fingers.
2) Draw a picture. I do a mean doodle, but I'm limited to straight lines.
3) Look in a mirror and see who is really there.
4) Perform in a way that is contrary to my core beliefs and values.
5) Tolerate fools easily.
6) Put up with petty whining, life is too short to sweat the small stuff.
7) Avoid making the smart assed remark. Just the other day I was in a meeting where the topic of corporate realignment was being discussed. The question was ask "what will happen to the people being displaced?" and the answer was that "they will be absorbed by the company". I thought that I had whispered "You mean like to suck the life force out of them?" to the person next to me. I'm told it was not a whisper. Perhaps I should add "learn to whisper" to the last list.

Seven Things That Attract Me To...Blogging:
1) Never really attracted to blogging, just tried to on a whim and it just got to be a bad habit. Another bad habit that I should probably quit. I do worry that my blogging habits resemble an OCD, but this post proves that I really don't have to post in groups of five. At least I hope so.
2) It keeps the bookmarks in my browser manageable. Before blogging I just bookmarked everything.
3) Gives me a place to rant when the mood hits me.
4) Exposes me to a wide variety of opinions.
5) It's sort of like a more literate, but slower paced version of IRC.
6) Love getting comments.
7) Makes wasting time a more pro-active and justifiable experience. I'm not surfing because I'm bored...I'm surfing because I blog.

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
1) Freaking
2) Pinhead
3) Chelsea; NO! (usually to curtail a barkfest or her new favorite bit of naughtiness, the toilet paper harvest.)
4) Lame-o
5) What-the-F? (yes, the uncensored version)
6) Asswipe
7) Piece-o-crap

Seven Books That I Loved:
1) The Grapes Of Wrath
2) Catcher In The Rye
3) Welcome To The Monkey House
4) A Confederacy Of Dunces
5) The Stand
6) The Death And Life Of Great American Cities
7) The Da Vinci Code

Seven Movies That I Watch Over and Over Again:
1) The Godfather
2) Pulp Fiction
3) Airplane
4) Reservoir Dogs
5) The Final Countdown
6) North By Northwest
7) Joy Luck Club...and it's not that I want to watch it (or don't think it's a great flick) but it's on the list because the wife forces me to watch it. It's at the top of HER list. For fun, I sometimes hit the mute button and have her recite the dialog since she knows every line!

And I'm not tagging anyone...feel free to run with this if you wish.