Charlie Brown never learns (tagged)
Image by gurana
Explored 4/12/2010.
View On Black.
I was tagged by the tireless Mr. Sharp waaaay back in the beginning of the year. I’d put it off because I had something in mind that I wanted to do for it, and it would probably require warmer weather. So I had been kicking this idea around for a while now. I went out, bought a football (Craig, see that thing I’m holding up there? That’s a football 😛 ), and got back home as quickly as I could to catch the light. Now, you may notice that I’m not one for self portraits… as a photographer, I feel that I’m a horrible model and don’t take direction very well. That said, I’m going to give myself a pass on this one. While none of the shots turned out as I wanted, I attribute that to the fact that I got this done in three takes (background, and one for each character) because I took my son out with me and he wanted to play. If I were to do this over, I’d spend more time on poses and facial expressions.
“Rules” of the game, as I understand them: If you’re tagged, post a pic tagging 10 others and list 10 random things about yourself. No pressure to participate at all. Personally, I prefer to adopt the theme of my tagger… but there’s no way I can come up with 10 injuries in my lifetime that come close to Craig’s. I mean, I’ve broken my nose a couple of times, and burned my hand pretty badly, but that dude has held his own eyeball in his hand… So I’ll just do 10 random things, no theme per se.
I first broke my nose playing “follow the leader” on bikes. I was in the third grade. I ran into a tree. When I came to, I went inside and called my dad for a pick up. I must not have made it clear how badly I was hurt and bleeding because he walked the two blocks thinking I just needed him to carry my bike home. 21 stitches on my nose and eyelid. Scars are not as noticeable anymore.
I played a couple of years of lacrosse in high school. Never made it past the freshman or JV level. Unlike many of the other guys, I had never played before. Like a lot of things during that time of my life, I didn’t take it too seriously and didn’t put the work in that would have been required to advance.
I started reading outside of the “children’s literature” section fairly early. I started out with classics of the sci fi/fantasy genre such as Dune, Hitchhiker’s Guide ‘trilogy’, LOTR… These days, I tend to stick to non-fictional books on science and math.
I once attended a 2600 “meeting”. It really wasn’t a big deal. I’m no hacker, but even if I was, my feeling is that calling yourself that is kind of lame. However, I did hang out with guys in that community. One guy, a friend from high school I hadn’t seen in a while, chose the MD2600 monthly meeting as a place to meet up. I’m not sure what I expected, but there was little/no technical talk. It was really just a social gathering… most of the talk seemed like the kind of thing “Comic Book Guy” would be interested in.
Somehow, I’m told, my lineage traces back to a Thomas Woolner RA, a sculptor and poet of Suffolk…. Apparently he was a founder-member of the pre-raphaelite brotherhood. Charles Darwin named a feature on the ear after him, based off one of his sculptures. Darwin dubbed it the “Woolnerian Tip”, though it’s now actually known as “Darwin’s tubercle.”
Aside from Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee, I also share my birthday with one of my Aunts. She separated from my uncle a while ago, and we don’t keep in touch that much. HOWEVER, she got re-married on the exact same day as I got married AND she delivered her newest child on the same day Newbie was born… which just so happens to be my maternal grandfather’s birthday.
My wife is a Labor and Delivery nurse. This was kind of a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I feel I was better prepared than many first time dads when she was pregnant with Newbie. A curse because I’ve heard of some pretty tragic things that weighed constantly on my mind throughout the pregnancy.
I once left a perfectly good party to find a White Castle. Me and three friends drove up from Baltimore to New Jersey to find the closest one. Since I had to pick my wife up from work in the morning, we were on a time limit. We were about to give up and turn around when we saw one that the GPS didn’t pick up! We stopped, ordered crave cases, left, and got back to pick my wife up at 7:00 a.m. without incident. I was a little disappointed.
I have a record collection… you know, those vinyl things from back in the day? These things were never the primary format in my lifetime, but at some point in my early teens I inherited some records from one of my aunts, and I happened to have a record player/8-track at home. Over the years, I added a couple dozen to my collection. My parents are remodeling their house, and they’re telling me I have to take them in or lose them… they may be the subject of a photo sometime in the near future.
On the advice of Ferris Bueller, I once licked my palms in order to fake being sick so as to play hooky… Kind of pointless, as it’s not like I would’ve been left at home to my own devices should it have worked. Not only did it not work (my parents never checked my palms!) but ironically I did end up getting sick… probably from licking my palms.
