Navel Gazing, tips tricks and suggestions
1. Using one adjective, describe your current living space.
Unincorporated.
2. Using two adjectives, describe your current employer.
Previous, generous.
3. Using three adjectives, describe your favorite hobby/pasttime.
Drunk, wet, carousing.
4. Using four adjectives, describe your typical day.
Investigative, systematic, proving, protecting.
5. Using five adjectives, describe your ideal life.
Small, rural, published, curious, well-fed.
1. What food do you like that most people hate?
Beets. I like beets. There, I said it.
2. What food do you hate that most people love?
Hate is such a strong word, hard to pin this down. I love food and will generally try anything and am pretty accepting of most things. However I really do not like bologna. Thanks to the Oscar Meyer commercials that I remember as a child, I can spell it.
3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?
Pamela Anderson. Forget the enormous breasts. She is just not a pretty woman. Too much work has been done or something, but there is something not right with her.
4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive?
Kathy Najimy maybe? Or John Malkovich in an odd way?
5. What popular trend baffles you?
Young people wearing those baggy pants. I just don’t get. Have you ever seen a guy with baggy pants walking down the street and trying to keep those things held up? It doesn’t look at all comfortable.
via Friday Fives.
1. What was your first Halloween costume?
I believe I was an Army guy. A soldier. Little GI joe. Either that or a hobo. I have memories of both but can’t remember which was earliest.
2. What was your best costume and why?
I went to a party a few years back dressed as Barney the Dinosaur in a violent hunting accident. I had a Barney mask and dyed a pair of long underwear purple. I sewed on a tail. Then I put a fake bloody arrow wound in my chest with the tip of the arrow hanging out. It was a big hit. I also went as a Jesus as an Elvis Impersonator. A Jesus wig and and a too tight jumpsuit and voila! The King of Kings was the King of rock and roll.
3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn’t give you a treat?
No. But I have gone trick or treating for drinks on Halloween. Trapsing from door to door with a cocktail glass asking for a cocktail. Quite fun and definitely not for the weak stomached or tee- totaller.
4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.)
Not really. I don’t generally go out on Halloween. It is an amateur night. I tend to not be at home either, as I hate answering the door for trick or treaters. So I guess the only real tradition is to not stay home and not go out.
5. Share your favorite scary story…real or legend!
Hmmmm. I don’t scare too easy. But I was always very frightened any time my Uncle Ray was in the room. He was a real drunk and tended be just a bit unkept and when he came in the room I trembled. Scary stuff.
via Friday Fives.
1. How often do you do laundry?
Usually a couple of times a week, meaning I do a load a day over the course of about two or three days. However, having said that, I am a bit behind so will be doing all the laundry this weekend. I must get cracking.
2. What’s in a typical wash load?
Well, I don’t sort the clothes. I have no elaborate system. In fact I despise laundry. So generally a load is a handful of clothes from the hampter tossed into the wash. I am a pretty cheap clothes shopper, so I have very few items that need to be treated with any kind of special care.
3. Front or top loader? Powder or liquid detergent?
Top loading washer, front loading dryer. The pair are full size stackables that you don’t see too often. I bought them from a lady who placed an add in the newspaper. I got a fairly new washer and dryer for a $100.00. And except for a few scratches and dents from some unfortunate moves, they work great, although the dryer is starting to be a bit slow.
4. Do you use fabric softener in the rinse cycle?
I use a fabric softner ball that goes in at the beginning. And then I use fabric softner sheets. I double soften. My clothes smell nice.
5. Dryer or clothesline?
Dryer. I don’t trust the clothesline – the weather in Colorado can turn in a second! And how many movies have you seen where someone like Ferris Bueller goes running through your yard and upsets your clothes. Who wants that. With a clothes dryer, it is set it, and forget it.
via Friday Fives.
1. Name five things in your refrigerator.
Mustard, half gallon of Super Food juice by Odwalla, left over Thai curry beef, Budweiser six pack remnants, tortillas.
2. Name five things in your freezer.
Hatch green chilis, orange juice concentrate, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, loaf of bread, Bomb Pops.
3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.
Vinegar, orange glow, trash can, rubber gloves, soft scrub.
4. Name five things around your computer.
CD coasters, checkbook, pencil sharpener, fingernail clipper, remote control to the tv.
5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet.
BandAids, Prylosec, Claritin, Tylenol, multivitamins.
via Friday Fives.
1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?
Football and hockey, professional open tennis and the last two or three years I have been sucked into watching playoff baseball. It is a whole different game in the playoffs.
2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?
I am a Colorado Avalanche fan. Have been since they moved to Denver. I am a Bronco fan. It is the way of my people. I have been a Bronco fan for nearly 40 years. I cheer for the Rockies but don’t really follow them and I cannot name you one member of the Denver Nuggets basketball team.
3. Are there any sports you hate?
Professional wrestling and the genre – cage matches, ultimate fighting and those kind of mindless things. I see no need. NASCAR and auto racing in general can also be added to that list.
4. Have you ever been to a sports event?
Been to a few Bronco games and a few Avalanche games. In Germany while in the Army I went to a soccer match. Ole’, ole’ ole.
5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?
I wrestled. I was on the seventh and eighth grade wrestling team and then wrestled in high school for my freshman and sophomore year. And I really sucked at it. I blew. It was terrible. I spent virtually all my time with my face slammed down on the mat. You really do need to have a killer instinct to wrestle. I do not have that go-for-the-jugular attitude.
via Friday Fives.
1. What vehicle do you drive?
2000 Ford Taurus. The Old Man Car, affectionately referred to as the ‘OMC’ by friends and family. But it is roomy, comfy, handles well, doesn’t do too badly with gas, despite being a V6 and has a pretty good sound system. For when I commute to work, I must rock.
2. How long have you had it?
February of 2002. It is the replacement vehicle after my sister rear ended me in my 1998 Ford Escort with a Ryder Truck. There is never anything good about moving.
3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?
The 10 CD changer deck in the trunk.
4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?
There is this annoying short circuit in the windshield wipers – not enough of a bother to spend a couple of hundred bucks to fix it. As a result, the wipers will strike up at errant times and for no particular reason.
5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?
I am not a car horse kind of guy – but there is a new Ford Mustang coming out – either the 2004 or 2005 – that is one of the sexiest things I have seen in a long, long time.
via Friday Fives.
1. What size shoe do you wear?
A 9 or an 8 1/2 depending on the width. I have a pretty narrow foot.
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
Sixteen? I think it is about 16 pairs. Is that too many for a guy? I was told once that guys’ are supposed to only have three pair.
3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)?
Casual loafers and Bass Men’s clogs – perfect for the office or home. Get a pair now at your local retailer. Offer not valid with any other discounts.
4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite?
My Caterpiller® brand tennis shows. Real roomy and comfy and they are funky looking. What more can you ask for?
5. What’s the most you’ve spent on one pair of shoes? About $110.00 for a pair of civilian Desert Storm Army Tanker Boots from Corcoran. The company that makes the Army’s boots made this pair of suede tanker boots with lots of straps and buckles. They are pretty cool. I really should get them resoled.
1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why?
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. There is a spirit and an energy of the common man and a thread that is woven through his music. As he matured from his first album in 1973 through to his most recent album in 2003, I feel as a listener that I too have matured, I too have conquered my fears and faced my dreams. And I don’t care what naysaying roommates and friends have said in the past – he is a good singer – expressing the drama and agnst in his songs as no other. Plus the man can play a wicked electric guitar. He is Rock and Roll. A review a few years back said once that Bruce never wanted to be the biggest star in the world, he just wanted to win the battle of the bands contest, night after night after night – and that about sums it up best.
2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why?I think at present anyway it would be Jim Morrison and the Doors. They are so overplayed and I just don’t get it. Sure it is kinda cool that they didn’t have a bass guitar, but really, there isn’t much there when you give them a listen. Maybe it is the imbalance between the deep over poetic lyrics of Morrison against the pop beat organ sound of Mazerak, but it just rarely works for me.
I am not a big ColdPlay fan, but in all honesty, I only know two of their songs and haven’t given them much of a critical ear. I just know that when the latest Coldplay hit song hits, I tend to change the radio station.
3. If your favorite singer wasn’t in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person?
Yeah. In fact, to quote from an other VH1 source, during the Warren Zevon documentary made to accompany his last album he described Springsteen as being exactly the kind of person that you would have wanted him to be. That is pretty high praise and perhaps a lofty goal for all of us to aspire to – to be the kind of person that people would want us to be.
4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show?
And yes, you all expect me to give yet another accolade to Bruce (seven days until he plays Invesco!!) but I will instead give this honor to Slim Cessna and his Auto Club, a local Denver Cowboy Punk band that for many years has set Denver audiences on fire with a rocking, idosyncratic stage act the ignites the passions and majesty of rock and roll – plus a few songs about the Devil and redemption thrown in for good measure.
5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from dowloading free music?
I have downloaded a ton of music in the past and from time to time still dig around on the P2P networks to find a live acoustic version of a song that I may not have heard before. And that is the major plus to the downloading P2P movement – giving listeners a quick and easy access to little heard before acts and songs. The RIAA and the music industry missed the boat on digital music and the power and presence of the internet. And instead of reacting to the new demands of music consumers, they remain hell bent on legislating their business model into law rather than reacting to naturally progressing market changes.
1. Is the name you have now the same name that’s on your birth certificate? If not, what’s changed?
Yup. And nothing to add really, either. Just Roy. Not short for anything. No nicknames.
2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be?
I have made peace with my name. Kind of old school and usually the only Roy in the room. And a neat bit of historical-familial symmetry with it. I have my great-grandfather’s middle name and my grandfather’s middle name. It fits together nicely.
3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?)It started with my grandmother. And if you have spent anytime with me at all, you know that most of my stories begin with the sentence “It all started with my grandmother . . . “ Mom wanted to name me Ian Allen Nall. Simple, three letters and the initials spelled the first name. And I would have had great hair and been better looking and all those dreamy things that happen to you when you have a soap opera name to carry through life. But, you see, my birth was surgical. And while mom was sleeping, my grandmother named me, vetoing any votes put forth by mom and dad. (see above )
4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why?
Names are such a personal thing. But I do have a hard time with some of the biblical names. I mean, really, who would want to be named Uriah? That is a name that just doesn’t roll off the tongue. Some of the ethnic names, the names from the hood probably need some work. I remember a pregnant girl who worked for me once. She was thumbing through a book of baby names wondering what to call her daughter. I suggested Propecia. And then had to spend another 20 minutes talking her out of it, since a girl really doesn’t want to go through life named after a male-pattern baldness medication. And can we talk for just a second about nicknames -you don’t get to give yourself your own nickname!
5. Is the analysis of your name at kabalarians.com / triggur.org / astroexpert accurate? How or how isn’t it? From
kabalarians.com: Your first name of Roy has given you a practical, logical, analytical approach to life and a great deal of patience. You enjoy working at anything of a mechanical or technical nature, and believe that what is worth doing is worth doing well. When you are interested in a project, you concentrate all your thoughts on it and do not appreciate being interrupted. This name creates a deliberate and methodical way of thinking and speaking; it takes you time to learn but, once you have mastered a subject, you do not forget it. You are very systematic in all you do and do not like to see things out of order; however, there is a tendency for you to be too fussy. There is a seriousness to your nature which could cause you to worry over your responsibilities, especially when confronted with change and uncertainty. This is close, although I am not that deliberate and methodical – I am more a polyphasiac in my approach to life.