Happy 101 Sweet Friends!!

It's been too long since I've done a meme. Luckily, the Sweedish bee geek just tagged me for one: "Happy 101 Sweet Friends".

The rules seem to be that you list ten things that make you happy and then tag ten friends. The mathematician in me points out that that multiplies to 100, and wonders where the extra "1" came from. Maybe it's just the bonus happiness that's created by sharing happiness with friends. Anyway, here goes:

1. My adorable family! I feel compelled to add the qualifier that we're not perfect, but I feel like my husband and kids and I are good for each other.

2. Following up on #1 (as I've said before), I think the most wonderful thing about our modern society is that parents have the option to have few kids and expect to see them live to adulthood, rather than a situation where mothers expect to have a lot of kids (if they live long enough themselves) and have to watch most of them die (as most of human kind has had to deal with).

3. Trains. I just love trains.

4. Science!!! I'm not poetic enough to wax poetic about this one myself, but fortunately TMBG and the symphony of Science guys are on the job.

5. Problem-solving. This is related to #4, but not just an extension of it. I love to identify problems, analyze them, and try to come up with solutions. This is a big part of what makes humans so successful and adaptable (and I guess it's also what makes me an engineer IRL).

6. The Internet. I love the way it exposes people to ideas (and people) outside their familiar circle, and encourages them to think and write.

7. Outer Blogness and the rest of my Internet friends -- where would I be without you guys?

8. Travel. You can learn quite a lot about different people and places from books and the Internet, but there's nothing like completing the picture in person.

9. Swapping stories -- another item that makes us human.

10. Our wonderful world!

For the links, I'd like to bring in a selection among the newest blogs of Outer Blogness. (If you're a former Mormon and not yet a member of Outer Blogness and our community blog Main Street Plaza, please leave a comment.)

1. almost pretty
2. A Million Dead-End Streets
3. Don't Mind Me
4. Edith-Marie
5. Eliza R. Snitch
6. POLY MOM
7. Strange Violin Music
8. The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes
9. The Loathsome Joy
10. We Were Going to Be Queens

Carnivals!!!

There's a great new batch of carnivals out there for your reading pleasure!!

My favorite new one is the 2nd Skeptical Parent Crossing!!! This one finally allowed me to live out my secret fantasy of being ruthlessly chewed-out by a super-manly drill sergeant... ;^)

Then there's 28th Humanist Symposium, where Jeffrey Stingerstein has matched up a bunch of great new humanist articles with corresponding clever atheist quips!!! The homosecular gaytheist brings us the 104th Carnival of the Godless, and get that one while it lasts since the organizers are talking about discontinuing it!! Paul's analysis of the god-shaped vacuum deservedly made it to both (I'll add that I don't have a "god-shaped vacuum" in me, either).

Then, I was thinking of doing this meme that King Aardvark tagged me for, mostly because I think now is a good time to link to his blog and recommend his fun and fascinating epic adventures at Alpha Course. But I started on the meme -- and got to the question "5 things on my to do list today" -- and realized that I'd already already wasted too much time on the Internet today just reading the blogs in those carnivals and in my daily reader. :D

Blogging Meme!!!

Lynet has tagged me for the Five ways blogging changed my life meme. I've taken my sweet time answering this one because the change has been so dramatic that I hardly know where to begin. But I'll take a stab at it:

1. New Skillz: 1.(a) Writing, obviously. Regular writing exercise for a few years is bound to have an effect.

1.(b) The new skills that surprised me most, though, are the social skills I've developed. I've always liked parties (and especially holding dinner parties for friends), but aside from isolated social events I'd always though of myself as a shy, aloof, anti-social, introverted person. The kind of person who doesn't make friends quickly or easily.

Now, through blogging, I feel like I know everybody. I have gotten to know an astonishing number of fascinating people around the globe through their blogs, through their books and manuscripts I've read, and through email and chat conversations. I've even had the fun of meeting a few of my blog friends in person, and I hope to meet more. It's amazing!!! And I never would have guessed or predicted this would happen.

2. It eats all of my free time: I'm starting to think that blogging is a form of O.C.D.

2.(a) I get up at 6 a.m. every morning so that I can have time to check my stats and reply to comments before work. I'm proud to report that my hit counter has recently passed 500,000 hits, half-a-million. (Note that that doesn't include hits on my articles on other blogs, but I am including every click on every page of Exmormon. I figure that if after reading one page the reader liked it well enough to click to the next page, that should count for something, at least in my own personal accounting. :D )

2.(b) Even though I I only post a few times a week, I still spend all my free time on it. When I'm commuting on the train or just walking around town, I'm generally composing blog entries in my head. Or reading a book (which I will no doubt review on my blog). Or reading a fellow blogger's book or manuscript and contemplating it (which I may or may not blog about, depending on the author's preference). Then, to relax when I get home from work, I grab a beer and skim the hundred or so new blog entries that have shown up in my google reader since the day before, selecting a few of them to read carefully and reply to.

Actually, even before blogging came along, I used to analyze different subjects and ideas obsessively and compose elaborate essays in my head. But I never used to bother to write them down because who's going to read them? I'm glad that blogging has given me the motivation to write.

2.(c) Naturally, the things I used to do with my free time, I don't do them anymore. I would be spending an hour or so a day on German verb drills, but that's an hour or so that I just don't want to cut out of my blogging time. Also, I'm less ambitious at work these days: to be the star requires a certain amount of thinking about problems from work on your own time at home, and I just don't care enough anymore to think about work anytime except when I'm physically there. Also, there are fun arts-n-crafts things I'd like to be doing with my kids (like making up puppet shows like my mom did with me as a kid). I haven't done as well on that as I'd like to, but I'm planning to make an effort to do better.

I probably shouldn't be posting all this since now everyone will think I'm insane. Next thing I know, people will come and stage an intervention. ;^)

Then -- by coincidence -- UneFemmePlusCourageuse tagged me for the Where would your eight homes be? meme. I imagine the idea is to tell you where my eight fantasy homes would be -- if I were to stop wasting all my time blogging and make some money instead. ;^)

1. Paris, France. I know it's cliché, but it's a really pleasant city, and incredibly convenient for visiting friends. It's so central for train and plane travel (and tourism in general), that it's easy to get people to visit if you have an apartment in Paris to invite them to.

2. New York, NY, U.S.A. Same reason.

3. Bordeaux, France. This was the one place in the world where I most felt at home, and (after seven years there) I was sorry to leave.

4. Zurich, Switzerland. My job is here, and so is my husband's, so it's rather convenient to have a home here. Also, it's an incredibly beautiful city and a nice place to live.

5. Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A. That way I could see my family all the time, and my kids could see their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then those guys could organize all the arts-n-crafts and puppet shows for the kids, etc., and I could stop feeling guilty about it. ;^)

6. Provo, UT, U.S.A. Haha! Just kidding!!! :D

After that, I'd just like to tour the world -- not necessarily settle anywhere else. I'd like to visit India and other parts of Asia, Africa, various islands, more of Europe, and everywhere else! We'll see how much of that actually ever happens.

I don't feel like tagging anyone in particular today, but if either of these memes interests you, please go with it!!! And if you do the first one, don't forget to link back to the originator of the meme.

Atheist 13

For fun, I'd like to do a little meme this morning which I saw here and here.

Q1. How would you define “atheism”?

Absence of belief in the existence of god(s).

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?

This is a tough one, but I'm going to go with Mormon.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?

Newspeak

Q4. What scientific endeavour really excites you?

Naturalism, especially observing amphibians in the wild. My little Nico loves Biology. This morning he tore me away from my Internet habit to show me a series of fossil crustaceans -- screenshots he'd taken from his current favorite David Attenborough D.V.D.

Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?

I'd like to see more emphasis on charity and volunteer work. Belief in God makes it easier to say "I have no choice but to donate 10% of my income," but if you know that you have to rely on yourself, you often say "I have to be sure I'm providing for my family's future first, and we'll see what's left..." But we have to make it a priority to think about humanity's future.

Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?

What? Whatever happened to becoming a Biologist???

Q7. What’s your favourite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?

That atheism is a ("fundamentalist") "religion" which requires just as much "faith" as belief in God. If you have to call atheism a religion in order to discredit it, then religion has already lost. (See It takes a lot of faith to believe that!!!)

Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?

I don't think my views are terribly controversial within the atheist community. However, the one topic that consistently generates controversy and disputes when I post about it is this one.

Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favourite, and why?

P. Z. Myers. Yeah, I know he's not on the list, but he's my favorite of the scary "new atheists". Of course Dawkins scored some points with me when he performed that hilarious rap video...

Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?

I'm not really interested in deconverting people. I'd just like to encourage critical thinking in general.

Now name three other atheist blogs that you’d like to see take up the Atheist Thirteen gauntlet

I don't feel like tagging anyone. Anyone else who'd like to do this meme (or has done it), please feel free to link to your post in the comments. :D

This is just to say...

This is just to say
I poured the last of the Prosecco
into my glass
from the bottle which
you probably would have liked
to finish yourself
Forgive me
Do you still
want to cuddle?

And now a bonus verse for BiV:

This is just to say
I wrote about booze
for your meme
about church
to capture the spirit of it
in my own terms
Forgive me
So naughty
and so fun!

Now, I haven't been tagging people for memes lately, but this is kind of an unusual one, so I think I'll pass out some tags. First, I'd like to tag all of the Nonbelieving Literati, because one little poem parody should be simplicity itself for these brilliant lit types. Then, I'd like to tag everyone involved in the Carnival of Elitist Bastards, for the same reason. Also, I'd like to tag Greta Christina and Trey -- as my wedding present. ;^)

Finally, I'll tag MathMom because I think she'd get a kick out of this game.

FYI, here's the poem (by William Carlos Williams) you're supposed to spoof:

This is Just to Say
I have eaten the plums
that were in the icebox
and which
you were probably saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
They were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Googl-oetry (search query poetry)

Through the magic of the Internet, the technique of making collages out of "found objects" can now be applied to poetry!!! The Exterminator followed by Ordinary Girl have created some astonishing poetry out of search queries that have led people to their blogs. Poetry is not my strong point, so this meme is a bit of a challenge for me, but it looked like so much fun that I had to try it!!!

Since my blog is currently going through the constellation of sexuality, my poem today is a comic-erotic poem. I was hoping to make a limerick, but the medium of search queries has its limitations... ;^)

Every line below is a (completely unedited) search query that led someone to my blog with the past few days!!!

looking for sexiest blog

nude beaches
topless beaches
unsuspecting photos of topless beach goers
moms at the beach topless here's some pics
is it wrong for my 5 year old to go topless
can you go topless in egypt

france male nude beaches
handsome men in kilts
photos of naked male bodyworker
men in kilts with no underwear

whale sex parts
picture of whales mating
studies about sex on the first date
is it ok to have sex on the first date

funny naked people
comic nudity
tucson topless sunbathing
nude beaches in nj pics
topless sunbathing in slovakia
topless beaches in new jersey
functioning democracy new jersey

sexually aroused look in his eye
men just can't help leering
people naked in the shower
topless/nude older women
promiscuous women
france public sex
sex mit der ex
masturbating public sex stories
why does porn lead to masterbation

mormon girls
byu chicks
naughty mormon girls
sex at byu
my first sexual experiences
post mormons
cultural mormonism
mormon sexuality
mormons virginity
any scrapbooking companies not owned by mormans?

an atheist's story
erotic atheists
intimate spirituality
atheist waiting until marriage to have sex
it takes a lot of faith to be an athiest
believe in love. believe in magic. hell, believe in santa cl

I was almost kinda hoping not to get tagged with this one...

It says "no cheating," but when I first saw the book meme going around, I was tempted to preemptively cheat by moving an interesting book into range, just in case. But I didn't do it, so I guess now that I've been tagged I'll play fair.

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123
3. Find the first 5 sentences
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people

Here it is:

Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them.

Have you guessed what book it is?

It's the NIV Study Bible. Like a typical atheist blogger, I have a drawer full of scriptures handy as a reference while blogging. As a cultural Mormon I normally prefer to quote the King James, but this one happened to be on top. And I don't have any other books closer because I don't read for pleasure at my computer desk -- I do it in a comfy chair or in bed.

So there you have it, folks!!

I don't feel like tagging anyone today. If you like this meme, consider yourself tagged!!! :D

Blogroll Meme

A few weeks ago, I got tagged for the seven weird things meme. I tried. I racked my brain on that one, but for the life of me, I couldn't come up with seven weird things about myself. It was weird. Unfortunately, that only makes one weird thing, so it wasn't enough to complete the meme.

Fortunately Greta Christina has tagged me with a meme that's a little less challenging:

Pick three blogs from your blogroll that you think encapsulate the unique nature of your blog.

Here's how I'd like to interpret this: I'm going to pick three blogs that are very different from one another but which illustrate different goals I have for my own blog.

1. Thoughts by Sister Mary Lisa

From the start of my blogging days, one of my goals has been to build up and nurture a community of former Mormons online. SML -- despite being a relative upstart compared to my several years of blogging -- has done an excellent job of this. She has a warm personality and a talent for reaching out and drawing people into the discussion.

You can see this from her recent series on fear in which she invited guest posters to explore what they'd do if they were free of all fear (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), and inspired a number of people on her blogroll to write their fear-free fantasies as well (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) and posted her own here.

I'm glad I got to meet her in real life.

2. feminist Mormon housewives

I hesitate to highlight these ladies because, well, in faithful Mormon circles it can sometimes be seen as a bad thing when the apostates like you and approve of what you're doing. SnarkerNackle has already claimed that half the readership of fMh is "DAMU".

But fMh has done an excellent job of demonstrating that that being religious doesn't mean taking marching orders from the religious right nor does it mean being closed-minded and afraid to hear the perspective of those who are different. To me, it shows strength of conviction to be willing to host some of the discussions they've hosted. Also, as a mom, I can relate to some of their topics (though not so much the ones about the temple or why women don't have the priesthood -- I'll let them worry about those topics amongst themselves).

I like to encourage atheists to do the same in the other direction: to be willing to befriend and have civil discussions with believers. By that I don't mean constantly rehashing the "Does God exist?" debate, but rather be willing to move past that question and talk about shared political goals such as building a sustainable society for our children. As I said in my passionate secularism, I don't favor a strategy of saying "We can't discuss politics until after I've talked you out of your irrational faith." Some issues just can't wait that long.

Some other bloggers who are working in this same direction are Hemant the friendly atheist and Mike the emerging Christian.

3. No More Hornets

The exterminator's blog illustrates a couple of additional goals I'm shooting for in my blogging: (1) talk about books and literature, and (2) keep the discussion light and fun.

Actually, he was kind enough to post his New Year's Resolutions, some of which match my own:

• Don’t publish philosophical space-fillers on No More Hornets. Most philosoblogging, even that with which I agree, is mental masturbation masquerading as deep thinking.

I'm halfway with him on this one. I hope to ask interesting questions and encourage people to see things from new perspectives and think about new ideas. But all of that without taking myself too seriously... ;)


• Challenge other atheists whenever they make statements not supported by evidence. Also, challenge other atheists whenever they say stupid things. Expect to be challenged myself.

Absolutely!! For an atheist, evidence and sound reasoning should be the bottom line, and I don't hesitate hold atheists to that standard.


• Always be honest, because tact is overrated.

Weirdly, I feel like I don't have a problem being honest and direct and tactful. The two don't really seem to conflict for me. So I've found a second weird thing about myself -- I'm on my way to finishing that other meme!!! :D


• Don’t waste time reading modern screeds about atheism, by atheists, for atheists. Older books and essays are great for their literary value and historical interest, but no atheist writing being done today can make a difference in my own god-free life. I don’t need to have my atheism bolstered. Anyone who does need his or her atheism bolstered is a closet theist.

I completely agree with this one. I haven't bothered with the "new atheist" bestsellers because I've been an atheist for like fifteen years. So I've already spent plenty of time contemplating the subject, and really it's not that complicated to begin with.


• Remember what David Hume said: Truth springs from argument amongst friends. So I'll never shirk my duty to disagree with a pal. It’s intellectually dishonest to “play nice” all the time.

So true. I'd rather be constantly challenged to see things from new angles rather than get stuck in a group-think feedback loop. As far as "play nice" is concerned, it depends on your definition. For me, criticism and disagreement can be expressed in a civil and constructive manner without necessarily watering down your point. In my comments (both on atheist blogs and believers' blogs), I'm not shy about expressing disagreement. Yet (I hope) my comments are generally fairly nice.


• Find some way to earn a living through my atheist writing.

That would be cool, but I feel like (for me at least) it's a totally unrealistic goal. Since I'm pretty sure this hobby will never bring me fortune, I'm willing to settle for fame instead.


• Remind myself often that blogging is fun. Despite what I’d like to believe when I’m in Grandiosity Mode, I’m not going to change the world through my rants on No More Hornets. I might get a handful of people to laugh once in a while, or to think about something in a slightly new way. That’s great. But I’m not posting because I have any compelling atheistic mission. So if the writing process isn’t enjoyable, why do it?

That's my blog to a T. My only point of disagreement is the part about "remind myself" that blogging is fun. I don't need any reminder. There's pretty much nothing on the planet I'd rather be doing. Instead I have to remind myself to step away from the computer occasionally so I'll have some experiences to write about. ;)

So that's it for today's blogroll meme!!!

Everyone I've linked to above (not just the three numbered choices): consider yourself tagged!!!

(Except Exterminator, who perversely enough selected me for this same meme after I'd already planned he would be one of my choices. That's what I get for letting myself get behind on blogging....)

Evolution meme!!!

The evolution meme has finally arrived at Letters from a broad!!! (via Godless on the Wasatch Front)

In this meme, I explain how my blog has evolved, in five steps, giving examples.

1. The Utah Valley Monitor days: Some may recall that this blog started out as a column in a student paper called the Utah Valley Monitor (which I was invited to write as a BYU alum). That's where I got my crazy URL that I have never bothered to change. So from the beginning this blog was written with the idea of having a Mormon theme and audience, thus as light, friendly communication between Mormons and atheists. Most of my primary topics (motherhood, living in France, book reviews, Mormonism/ex-Mormonism) trace back to my earliest columns. Here's a blog entry that really captures this stage: Cultural Mormon.

2. The RfM period: While this blog was still an archive for my column (before the Monitor went belly-up), I used to like to read and post to the popular "Recovery from Mormonism" message board. (Just for fun -- it's not like I felt like my Mormon past was something I needed to "recover" from...) There I discovered that some other exmos (like JLO/substrate and Sideon) also had blogs, so we linked together to form a little network called "Outer Blogness." For a while, then, I was writing posts tailored specifically to the RfM audience. A good example of this was cults vs. cult-like behavior where I thought I'd have a little fun with the RfM'ers by challenging their beloved stance that Mormonism is a "cult".

3. The "digging through the archives" days: (This was actually more-or-less concurrent with the RfM phase.) I figured that my blog was a good place to post the "best of" projects I'd done years earlier including mathematical artwork, a childhood novel, a Student Review article on "Why I Hate Church", naked comics, and me on Star Trek.

4. The "enter politics" wave: For a long time, I'd been deliberately avoiding controversial political issues because, well, I wanted everyone to like me. After a while, though, I got bored of that stance and decided to dive in and write about politics even if some readers may disagree with me. A good example of this would be my first porn-and-feminism article yes means yes.

5. The novel-goes-live!!! Before starting my Utah Valley Monitor column (see #1 above), I had just finished writing my novel Exmormon. From the beginning of this blog/column I talked about the novel and promoted it here. Then one fateful day I decided that I am so addicted to in love with blogging and the Internet that I would like to give it my first-born novel, as a serial. So, since the beginning of this year, I've been illustrating and posting my novel little by little on its own site here. So far we're on part 3, and having a great time with it. (Luckily it has nine parts, so it won't end too quickly...)

So that's my story! I guess now comes the tagging part. Unfortunately it's a little tricky to find someone who hasn't already done this one and is in the mood to do it. I'm kind of tempted to tag Sideon since his blog covers the same time period and has had some related evolution (plus the last time he tagged me for a meme, I didn't quite get around to doing the meme, oops...). Then, while I'm at it, perhaps some of the other charter members of "Outer Blogness": La, Notamormon, Gunner, Eric, plus some other early members Rebecca, Mason is free and Bull.

Persepolis

If after seeing Persepolis viewers stop reducing Iran to bearded fanatics, if they see the inhabitants of this country as human beings exactly like them and not as abstract ideas (Islamists, terrorists...) then yes, I'll feel I've succeeded.

When I first saw the trailer for this film -- with the Muslim girls in a car daring each other to take off their veils and the like -- I knew I wanted to see it, and the above quote (by the writer Marjane Satrapi? It was unattributed in the ad I read, translation mine) clinched the deal: I had to go off my cinema-fast and take the time to go out and see a grown-up movie.

Satrapi's goal was the first thing that came to mind when I read Johnny's "What's your issue?" meme (seen also in Vernal) asking what issue you're most passionate about. My primary issue is to try to convince people to make the effort to see other human groups (foreign nations, ethnicities, etc.) as ordinary people, more like "us" than different. I don't think I've done a terribly good job on this (I have a list of planned posts that are eternally coming up but never ready to post...), but as a first step I'd like to recommend this excellent film. And when I talk about recognizing the humanity of ordinary people in Iran, this is not to be mistaken for "taking their side against our people" in the case of armed conflict. What I'm talking about is trying to see more than just the guys with the guns (on both sides), and how seeing a bigger picture affects the types of conflict resolution strategies that are possible.

Persepolis is a story of revolution, political upheaval, and religious oppression, yet all of that is the background for the human story that takes center stage. Marjane is a lively, bright kid (later teen and adult) growing up the best she can under rather extreme circumstances. It shows what it's like to be an ordinary person forced to wear a veil and what it's like to go about your daily business in danger if you speak out (and even if you don't). In a realistic way it shows her conflicted feelings about her identity as an Iranian woman.

All of that description probably makes the film sound like a typical foreign "watch it because it's good for you, not because you want to" art film, and I'm sorry to make it sound that way because it's fascinating and it's funny in places in addition to being exciting and dramatic. Part of me wants to call it entertaining, but I'm dancing around that word because of the horror and violence of the film. It is quite the opposite of the typical "entertaining" movie violence we see these days (visually graphic, emotionally distant) because even though the visuals are simplistic cartoons, you know that the violence being portrayed is very real.

Still, Marjane's courage -- and that of her mother, grandmother, and others in the story -- makes this a story of hope for humanity pushing up through the cracks of terrible circumstances.

meme of eight

I've been tagged by Greta Christina to tell you eight wonderfully random tidbits about my tiny self!!! It's an honor to have been tagged by a real pornographer (just one step removed from Susie Bright herself!) since -- as you know -- we love to talk about porn here at "Letters from a Broad..." but really it's all just talk. ;^)

Here are the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

(Actually, the rules seem very similar to the rules of most memes, except for the fact that the rules must be explicitly posted first. Maybe it's just stricter than the average meme...?)

Anyway, here are eight random things about me:

1. I'm under an absolutely insane deadline for a project at work, and it's really, really cutting into my blogging time. I keep saying I'm going to cut back on blogging, and lately it has become a sad reality. Because I hate it when my real job cuts into my hobby of following a hundred million blogs. Normally just because you don't see hits from me on your stats, it doesn't mean I'm not reading your blog -- think RSS -- but lately I haven't been doing even that. On the other hand, when my project at work is done, it's going to be amazingly cool.
2. My cousin is going to be visiting me in a couple of days. (Not Aerin, a different cousin. In fact we have a lot of cousins.) I'm psyched to have the opportunity to get to know my cousin better. I'm not sure I've ever met this cousin except during one family reunion fifteen years ago when she was a baby. But her family is cool.
3. I'm madly cleaning my house this weekend so that my cousin won't think that we live like cave-people. ("But we do live like cave-people!" protested my husband when I told him that.) I'm hoping to get the house up to the level that normal people's houses look like at their worst. From there I can apologize for the mess. I wish I were exaggerating, but anyone who knows me knows that tragically I am not exaggerating at all. Not even a little bit.
4. Okay, maybe a little bit. But not very much.
5. The charm on my keychain is a 1 gig USB memory stick. I'm not really a gadget person, but this thing is really convenient -- I use it all the time!
6. When I was in grad school, I used to keep a copy of Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World in my office on the shelf with my math books. I'm not a lesbian or anything, but it was a great conversation starter.
7. I used to go by "Carrie" until I was 21 years old. Now it's weird for me to think of myself as Carrie. I still like the name, but it make me think of "me as a kid" -- someone who isn't quite the same as "me, now." On the other hand, I'm perfectly happy to answer to chanson.
8. I've only see two movies on the big screen (in the theater) within the past 5+ years. Those movies are Cars and Shrek the Third. The next one will be Ratatouille.

OK, now for the tagging part. Unlike Greta -- who politely asked people's permission before tagging them -- I'm just going to pick eight random people off the top of my head right now. Let's shoot this one into Outer Blogness:

Floating in the Milk, From the Ashes, Lemon Blossom, Todd, Sister Mary Lisa, Equality, Aerin, and -- while we're nepoting, my BIL Mike.