Tuesday, December 30, 2008

7th things you don’t need to know about me etc.

Hoo boy! Janet Clarey has tagged me with this meme. The trouble is the 'you don't need to know about me' bit is a danger zone for me. I have far too few no go zones in my conversation, and am likely to tell people stuff they neither need nor want to know about me. Especially now that I am working in isolation at home, and am therefore no longer in daily contact with the reining in influence of English colleagues!

Because this is not my first go at a meme of this nature, it's difficult to think of enough appropriate things.

I'll give it my best shot because, as Janet points out, it's a way to flesh out the person behind the blog, but I think I'll chicken out of the tagging seven other people bit... unless you want to have a go. In which case, tag - you're it!

  1. In high school, I was a sprinter - mainly 400m, although I was fairly useful over 200m and usually made the 4X100m relay team
  2. I played Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof many years ago and, my only regret about leaving the theatre world is that I am now unlikely to get to play Golde - a role I would have loved. I'm about the right age now, if anyone is casting - and I know the part well ;o)
  3. There is no limit to the number of times I can watch a favourite movie or read a favourite book
  4. I once had a car accident in which I fractured my skull in five places - I looked liked Rocky! My right eye was paralysed after the accident. The opthalmic surgeon prognosed (if that's a word) that my eyes would never quite work in concert again, and I would suffer double vision for the rest of my life. If you're observant, you can see that my eyes don't quite line up, but I only have double vision on the outer edge of my 3 o' clock to 5 o'clock range. If you ask really nicely, I'll let you run your finger along the jagged upper edge of my right eye socket ;oP
  5. I can't abide the sensation of being drunk, so I simply don't go there. I seldom drink more than a single glass of wine or cider, and I am at a loss as to why anyone would deliberately set out to get drunk
  6. I have been nominated for a Shorty award, even though I still haven't figured out what they are
  7. John and I got engaged 10 days after we met, and were married 9 months after that. It's the only time John has ever acted in haste! He is my complete antithesis, and we should be entirely incompatible. Nevertheless, we have been married for 20 years and are still going strong
So now you know.

9 comments:

Wendy said...

Cool! I played Grendel the Monster in college for a Shakespeare class. I think there is a videotape lurking somewhere in Blacksburg,VA of me wearing a green shag carpet.

Otherwise - in high school, the few times they put me on stage, I was the go-to person for "cranky lady cop" roles.

Guess I haven't changed all that much ;')

The upsycho said...

@Wendy I did a LOT of acting. I started my career in the theatre and still think it contributed greatly to my proficiency as a classroom-based trainer.

Jason Allen said...

I cut my teeth on stage mainly in Opera Chorus roles. I don't know you that well, Karyn, but if you love singing and being on stage, I would encourage you to try your hand at an opera chorus role - it is TONS of fun!

The upsycho said...

@jammasterjay If I am ever to come out of (ahem) retirement, it will be to play a role with some bite. I love to characterise. For example, incephalitis had me in hospital during the auditions for a stage production of Grease, but I wouldn't have touched the female lead role with a ten foot barge pole. For me it was Rizzo or nothing (Sing it with me, now: ♬ There are worse ♪ things I could do... ♫)

emapey said...

Karyn, as I wrote, you received my nomination for a Shorty Award for being a friendly contact since the explode.us network.

I am sad that so few twitters took the time to show their appreciation to their friends and contacts.

Many popular Twitters with 1,000 or 1,500 followers received less than 10 nominations!

Perhaps it is time to rethink the value of Twitter as a useful network.

The upsycho said...

@emapey And I sincerely thank you for the nomination, but I thank you more for the reason you nominated me. I am honoured to be thought of in such a positive way.

However, I went to the Shorty Awards site when I first saw mentions of it on Twitter, and just could not figure out what it was about.

I don't think that we should measure the usefulness of something by how many nominations people made. I don't think Twitter lends itself very well to awards. For example, if we were called upon to nominate people for the way they use their phones, would the number of nominations submitted (or the identity of the people thus nominated) change the usefulness of the phone as a tool?

For me, Twitter is a way of keeping in touch with people. A way of making discoveries. A way of substituting office chatter, now that I spend my days in less-than-splendid isolation. A way of getting answers to questions.

Awards don't really come into it.

emapey said...

Usually, for me it was only a way to say thank you for staying in touch with me.

Karyn, some nominations were to people for their work, such as Steve Hargadon (Classroom 2.0), Jane Hart (Top 10 Tools Lists), PDonaghy (Edubloggers Directory), LisaMLane (my favorite blogger), Claudia Ceraso (taught me everything I know about using Delicious for networking) and Gabriela Grosseck (great supplier of Delicious bookmarks)

I didn't nominate only online friends and contacts. These were mostly people I know for years. This is why I mentioned the Explode.us network. where I found my first friends. Many of them are still my contacts.

Why did Lizbdavis need to nominate herself (because she wanted to win an award for something), http://shortyawards.com/user/lizbdavis ?? She didn't have any contact or someone who appreciates her work?

The upsycho said...

@emapey Sadly, as soon as there are awards associated with something, it seems to cause unpleasantness. We see similar issues arising around the edublog awards.

Liz B Davis said...

I played Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream in High School. I still do some community theater, but that was a role of a life time. They are always doing Fidler somewhere. If you want to play Golde, I'm sure you could.

@emapey You caught me. Yes I nominated myself. I had no idea what they were so I figured what the heck. It was silly of me. I know you nominated me too. I thank you for that.