Crazy Eight for ‘08 - 8 things About Me Meme
...and since this site/blog is in the early stages of its life/development, I think it's a good idea to share some random things about myself
Shashi Bellamkonda tagged me for this Meme, and since this site/blog is in the early stages of its life/development, I think it's a good idea (especially because I'm pretty sure most of my visitors have ventured here thanks to Twitter and thus are unfamiliar with my previous blogs, sites, writings).
8 Random "Christina Facts"
1. I have a near-photographic memory (it both intrigues/mildly freaks-out my psychiatrist) -- especially for information I consider nonsensical. If I read something once and find it even mildly interesting, chances are I will remember that fact basically forever. There are exceptions, and my memory is by no means perfect - but it is freakishly good -- especially for trivial/non-sensical facts. I'm really, really good at remembering numbers and statistics and dates of certain events.
2. My electronic obsession basically began at birth. I remember absolutely loving to play/use my Fisher-Price tape recorder and this thing from Playskool that I called my "computer" (it wasn't - it was a tape player that had buttons in addition to play/pause/stop that would correspond with correct answers in each tape/book combination. It's hard to explain - it was cool.) at a very, very young age. I got some money from my grandfather when I was 5 and bought myself a little 5" black and white Magnavox mini TV/radio for my bedroom. I almost got a Nintendo, but dropped the hint to my parents that it would make a better Christmas gift. We did get the Nintendo for Christmas in 1988 (and my older sister and I opened up the box before Christmas morning - well, she did anyway, she was the 12 year old - by stealthily cutting the tape at the seam to check the contents of the system and the games), so it paid off.
3. I love research. If a topic strikes me as interesting, I love to read up on it and learn as much as I can. I call this going into "research-mode" when I become obsessed with a topic and do tons of reading/research/tests in a concentrated period of time. Because of fact #1, I'm very, very fortunate that I tend to retain most of this information pretty much forever -- so remaining current and up-to-date on a certain topic doesn't require nearly as much energy as the first obsessive period. I would say that probably every single thing that I consider myself truly passionate about (film, television, music, technology, video games, political history, etc.) has been the subject of one of my "research-mode" excursions.
4. I was extraordinarily neat until I was about 16. Like, OCD level neat (if something was out of place, I would not be able to deal). Then something switched and I became a total, total slob. Like, couldn't open my bedroom door all the way my entire senior year of high school slob. Like, had to spend three days cleaning my apartment with my mom slob. Like, BAD. After the latest cleaning rampage this summer, I have gone out of my way to be as neat as possible. My apartment doesn't look like a show room (my parents house does look like a show room 99% of the time - my mom is always convinced it doesn't, but it does - it looks like a show room), but it is very tidy.
5. My decorative taste is a weird blend of Pottery Barn and total kitsch. Like, I love to have very clean, modern lines with lots of neutral color palettes (Pottery Barn, in essence - and Storehouse - my favorite furniture store ever - which is now out of business, but was amazing), but I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE kitsch. What do I mean by kitsch? I mean, Dwight K. Schrute bobble-heads from NBC's The Office. I mean an E.T. Furby, a 7' banana in my dining area and framed production drawings from The Simpsons and Family Guy (those are freaking badass). I mean spending $300 to get a Clueless poster framed above my sofa -- in a way that makes it look like an actual work of art (it's a huge double mat and the outside mat matches my sofa to a tee).
6. I love clothing and fashion with all of my being but I often HATE shopping for clothes. I think it's because I still have associative memories of the absolute hell that clothes shopping was in my early adolescence (when I was 4'9" and weighed 65 lbs in the 8th grade and had to shop in the children's department to get pants -- and this was before abercrombie and the whole tween market that emulated real clothes existed).
7. I think that on principle, I would be a vegetarian -- but I'm simply too selfish and I like meat far too much. I did give up meat once about 5 years ago, during National Beef Steak Month - because I thought it was gross to have a month dedicated to beef. I still ate chicken, but I gave up beef. I became anemic. My body decided to revolt against me going political.
8. I'm a habitual talker. That's probably one of my biggest social flaws -- I talk far too much. I try to keep it in check - but it's difficult. I also speak very, very, very quickly -- I actually enunciate all my words -- but I speak quickly nonetheless. It's because my brain is always running a million miles a minute and I wind up speaking as fast as I'm thinking. It's one of those things that I know annoys other people, but I can't always prevent myself from doing.
11 people have left comments
victor said:
some of this sounds like my kid brother-- he talks a mile a minute, but he doesn't really enunciate that well. and the Clueless poster? that's awesome!
ShashiB said:
Wow- Photographic memory - thats a excelent skill to have and I love the psrt about being a good researcher. That shows in your tweets - I can be sure of the sugestion you give.
Great post. thanks for responding.
Mostly Lisa said:
i think if we were any more similar, i might start believing in twins separated at birth theory.
first, i have the same near-photographic memory. when i was at my academic peek, i could read my text book once and recall the pages and re-read the sections i needed during an exam. i could also recall a long stream of number that i'd only looked at for a few seconds. the sad thing is, i think i've peaked with my full abilities. since finishing school my mind is mushier and i watch too many movies and use my memory to remember the lighting set-ups or what other roles the actor has played, or what films my fav directors are working on.
i had the same play school recorder. i taped cartoons with it. not sure why but i liked listening to them. and my dad was a computer professor, so i've played tetris on every Mac computer since the Apple SE.
and i spent 4 years researching early infant speech development. and at the time i loved it and knew basically every thing on the topic. but there are so many things to learn other than baby grunts, so i decided not to pursue my Phd and instead work at home for myself and do supercool multimedia stuff. hooray! pjs all day!
LindaSherman said:
I as glad to meet you at last night's TweetUp and a great pleasure to be able to come here and get to read about you.
Bob K Mertz said:
There are few few times that I run into someone that scares me by the things they say because I swore I was the only person that could possibly say or think those things...... this appears to be one of those times!
8 Lies You Can Tell Yourself to Make Things Interesting, Part One « fysigunk.us said:
[...] Things You Didn’t Know About Me.” It’s been done very well by my friend Christina Warren, and Marina Martin tagged me to do my own version of the list. The problem is, I’m not really [...]
John Hood said:
Although I don't share a photographic memory - a severe head injury, at primary school, possibly precluded that skill! I too was bought a portable tape recorder in my childhood! An Hitachi. I started recording off television, my favourite television shows, and listening to the sounds back without the picture (mentally envisaging a different version). I would narrate stories and record conversations and sounds. It became a form of education via entertainment...
Sean said:
Wow - you want to help me write my blog? This is like reading my own about page (except maybe 4 - I was always a slob ;)). Especially number 8; I'm actually kind of quiet but when I do talk I talk really really fast, especially after 6 or 7 triple venti espressos . . . . the spoken word just isn't fast enough to get it all out!!
You have a kick ass site and are no doubt a most excellent, kick ass chick. Keep it up.
Sean
Jim Gleeson said:
I have a freakishly strange olfactory memory. I can remember anything that I smell and usually have the ability to remember when and where I was when I first smelled it. I keep lobbying for scratch and sniff textbooks, but no one seems to listen. I also have been into electronics. When I was 1 and a half years old...I crawled under a car and dismantled the engine. My parents would have been furious except that at 1 and half you are exceptionally cute...even covered in smudges of oil. I am not fond of research. I like to pontificate on subjects I know nothing about. As far as neatness goes, it seemed like futility to me early on. The battle against entropy is one of those that goes on no matter how "neat" you are. I am a guy so I am more like vintage second hand stuff meets the 1st century as in decorations.
Patrick Burleson said:
Ran across your site from a Twitter reference. I wanted to comment that you seem like my female mirror. I love using my photographic memory for things like playing trivial pursuit. People hate playing it with me because I know things during that game I have no reason for knowing. But sometime in the past I must have run across whatever fact is being checked and I just pull it out after "seeing" the reference in my head. I could just about read the page.
Keep up the posting. Oh, and I read TUAW, but I never notice the author name in my feed reader, I usually don't care. Sorry. Well, I can always tell a Erica Sudan post, but that's for other reasons.
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