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December 24, 2005

In which we are reduced to memes
Posted by Patrick at 12:30 PM * 146 comments

Resistance is useless.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: day laborer; punchcard-database operator; open-air-market stained-glass seller; science fiction and fantasy book editor

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Wind and the Lion; The Secret of Roan Inish; Raising Arizona; Richard Lester’s Three and Four Musketeers (which is one movie, really)

Four places you’ve lived: Scottsdale; Toronto, Seattle, New York

Four TV shows you love to watch: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Veronica Mars; Trauma: Life in the ER; any documentary written by Terry Jones

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Mexico City; Tucson; Vermont; Skye

Four websites you visit daily: Unqualified Offerings; Hullabaloo; The Sideshow; Firedoglake

Four of your favorite foods: Caviar; heirloom tomatoes; blue cheese; toast

Four places you’d rather be: London; Scotland; Rome; Istanbul

Addendum:

Okay, okay, as long as it doesn’t have to be the top four of anything, here’s the TNH list:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: fast-food slavey;* Assistant to the Director of Programs, Council on Foreign Relations; IBM 1110 input-output operator; Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Early Modern English proofreader

Four movies you could watch over and over: Chushingura (the four-hour version), Black Hawk Down, The Way Things Go, Steve Brust’s edit of Tombstone

Four places you’ve lived: Mesa, AZ; Cambridge, MA; Toronto; Brooklyn

Four TV shows you love to watch: Junkyard Wars; Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Trauma: Life in the ER; any documentary by Terry Jones or Ken Burns

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Scotland, Canyon de Chelly, Cape Cod, Gettysburg

Four websites you visit daily: Google, Wikipedia, Gmail, Amazon

Four of your favorite foods: citrus, broccoli, roast pork tenderloin, dead-fresh pecans

Four places you’d rather be: Sector General; Tuscany; Valabar’s; behind the wheel of my ‘88 Honda Civic Hatchback, going anywhere

Comments on In which we are reduced to memes:
#1 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 12:51 PM:

Cool! Maybe we should all join in here? Like, turn this comment thread into a kind of memetic petri dish, rather than spreading it all over the blogosphere like a nasty rash?

#2 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 12:59 PM:

I was thinking Charlie could take the "Which New Kids On The Block Song Are You" test.

#3 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 01:08 PM:

Who are "New Kids On The Block"?

#4 ::: Paula Kate ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 01:30 PM:

PNH, those are four of my all-time favorite movies, but not the ones I actually watch over and over, so I am curious: where would LA Confidential, Almost Famous, and Grosse Point Blank fall on your list?

(I should mention that the only reason the Lester Musketeers wouldn't make mine these days is that I saw the Three something like 30 times in the the theater - practically know it by heart.)

#5 ::: PiscusFiche ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 01:40 PM:

Charlie: The New Kids on the Block were a manufactured boy band from the 80s. Despite the fact that I fit rather neatly into the age range for their target demographic, I was completely and blissfully ignorant of them until one day when a classmate of mine, Angela, rushed up to me and said, "Did you hear that one of the new kids on the block died in a car accident?" (It was the whole shades of "Paul is dead", which ironically I did know about since I listened to my parent's Beatles records.)

And I said, "Oh, that's too bad. I didn't have a chance to meet them yet." Because I thought that she really did mean a new kid on the block, as opposed to New Kids on the Block.

My grasp of teen culture was best described as "tenuous".

#6 ::: Lizzy L ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 01:49 PM:

Okay, I'll play.
4 jobs: hospital worker, tax preparer, martial arts instructor, fiction writer. Not only are these jobs I had, I still have three of them.
4 movies: Sanjuro, The Magnficent Seven, The Godfather Part 1, Remember the Titans.
4 places I've lived: NY, NY; Cleveland, OH, Chicago, IL, San Francisco, CA.
4 TV shows: none. I stopped watching TV last April.
4 places I've been on vacation: London; Labarouche, France; Mexico (I can't remember the name of the village, we're talking 20 years ago. Yes, I know, that's only 3. I don't get many vacations.)
4 websites I visit daily: Making Light, Hullabaloo, Firedoglake, DailyKos.
4 of my favorite foods: roast chicken, smoked salmon, sauteed spinach with sesame seeds and seaweed, Gala apples.
4 places I'd rather be: none.

#7 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 01:49 PM:

"Where would LA Confidential, Almost Famous, and Grosse Point Blank fall on your list?"

Actually, all three of those fall on my "mean to see them, haven't done so yet" list. I'm pretty erratic about movies.

#8 ::: Lizzy L ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:10 PM:

Sorry, I gotta add another movie. (My friends who read this who know how few movies I see are going WTF?) I could watch The Lion in Winter forever.

#9 ::: Larry Brennan ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:13 PM:

Since I'm not actively blogging, I'll steal a bit of your bandwidth :-)

4 Jobs - Data Entry Clerk, IT Manager, Strategy Consultant, Tech Marketer

4 Movies - Diva, The Matrix, Star Wars (Ep 4 - the first one), A Fish Called Wanda

4 Places I've Lived - Brooklyn, Rochester (NY), San Francisco, Seattle

4 TV Shows - Good Eats, America's Test Kitchen, House, Farscape

4 Vacation Places - Berlin, Paris, Cozumel, Yosemite

4 Websites - Making Light (true, not flattery), Eschaton, Washington Monthly, Flickr

4 Foods - Chirashi, Roast Chicken, Cheesecake, Seared Tuna

Places I'd Rather Be - Berlin, NYC, SF, but I'm still happy in Seattle so there's no #4.

#10 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:18 PM:

Okaaaay ...

Four jobs: rag cutter, pharmacist, freelance journalist, senior programmer

Four movies: Doctor Strangelove, Ghost in the Shell, La Reine Margot, Nikita (the original version)

Four places I've lived: Leeds, Watford, Edinburgh, Halifax

Four TV shows I love to watch: none

Four places I've been on vacation: Istanbul, Venice, Kinlochbervie, New York

Four websites I visit daily: Google, The Guardian UK pages, The Register, Livejournal

Four of my favourite foods: oudekaas, marmite, bananas, sourdough rye bread

Four places I'd rather be: on the upper observation deck of the CN Tower, Toronto; Tranquility Base (with a space suit and a return ticket); the Arendts Nest pub, Amsterdam; on the upper deck of a 747-400 bound for, uh, anywhere interesting

#11 ::: Andrew Cory ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:31 PM:

Valabars: that’s the resturant Vlad is partial to? Or is that a real place?

#12 ::: Tim Walker ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:36 PM:

Raising Arizona! You've reminded me that I must either (a) get my VCR fixed, or (b) get the DVD of it for myself as a belated Christmas present. And aah, the isles of Scotland . . . can it have been ten years?

All the best to Making Light and the Nielsen Hayden duo for 2006!

#13 ::: HC ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:43 PM:

For those of us taking ideas for new movie watching - how does Brust's edit of Tombstone differ from the commercially available sort?

#14 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 02:47 PM:

What is/are oudekaas?

Four jobs: Laundry aide, camp counselor, office worker, fiction writer

Four movies: Hm, I don't watch many. Does LOTR count as one or three?

Four places I've lived: All in NY: Clifton Park, Albany, Loudonville, Scotia.

Four TV shows I love to watch: "Love?" Well, like: Good Eats, Farscape, Crocodile Hunter, Iron Chef America.

Four places I've been on vacation: Florida, Kentucky, the Bahamas, Tijuana Mexico.

Four websites I visit daily: The Rumor Mill, here, SFF.net, Eidenmyr.com

Four of my favorite foods: Chocolate, raw peas, corn on the cob, home-baked bread

#15 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 03:01 PM:

Oude kaas: species of aged Dutch cheese that virtually never makes it out of the Netherlands. Take a round of Gouda and imagine it gets darker and stronger and more evil until it's a virulent, radioactive orange colour, as hard as boot leather, and tastes of ... well, let's just say it's not subtle, okay?

I must go back to Amsterdam soon: visit Wynand Focking for some genever, stock up on radioactive orange cheese, and drink beer by the canals.

#16 ::: Will Entrekin ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 03:08 PM:

Okay, I'm game.
4 jobs: Commercial production assistant, substitute teacher, personal trainer, editor.
4 movies: Shakespeare in Love, Grosse Point Blank, Ocean's Eleven, Fight Club
4 places I've lived: I've only lived two. South Jersey and North Jersey.
4 TV shows: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Quantum Leap, Scrubs, The Muppet Show
4 places: Chicago, New Mexico, Aruba, Berlin
4 Websites: Making Light, Engadget, Neilgaiman.com, Overheard in New York
4 favorite foods: tuna sushi, pizza, rice, potatoes
4 places: never anywhere I'd *rather* be. Places I wouldn't mind going? Barcelona, the library, a dance floor, anywhere all my friends are.

#17 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 03:22 PM:

I don't have a blog. May I use yours?

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: fast-food cashier; graduate research assistant; tax preparer; reader for blind and disabled students

Four movies you could watch over and over: Casablanca; A Night at the Opera; The Gods Must Be Crazy; The Seven Samurai

Four places you’ve lived: Moultrie, GA; Cochran, GA; Cornelia, GA; Athens, GA

Four TV shows you love to watch: Mythbusters; Animal Cops; Firefly; Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

Four places you’ve been on vacation: USVI; Rocky Mountain National Park; Washington, DC; St. Augustine, FL

Four websites you visit daily: Making Light; Slacktivist; Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension; Google News.

Four of your favorite foods: Purple Calabash tomatoes, Moon and Stars watermelon, venison tenderloin, baklava

Four places you’d rather be: The Last Resort Grill; Live Oak Taekwondo; Maho Bay; onstage with the Town & Gown Players.

#18 ::: nerdycellist ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 03:36 PM:

4 jobs: substitute cello teacher, mortgage loan processor, bookseller, theme park zombie.

4 movies I will never tire of: Strictly Ballroom, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Original Star Wars Trilogy (it does so count as one movie!)

4 places I've lived: Eugene, Oregon; Kearns, UT; NYC, NY; Hollywood, CA

4 TV shows: At the moment? Serenity, Sharpe, Buffy, Farscape.

4 places I've been on vacation: Tombstone, AZ; London, Prague, Schaumburg, IL

4 Websites I visit regluarly: Making Light, Slacktivist, Defamer, Godawful Fanfic

4 favorite dishes (comfort food edition): leftover turkey breast on my grandmother's rolls, macaroni and cheese from Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles, deep dish Chicago pizza, a casserole involving swiss cheese, stuffing, chicken breasts and a can of soup. (I can't help it; I'm from the midwest)

4 places I'd rather be: right now? I'm quite content where I am, but at other times I'd rather be: at a good sci-fi con, visiting New Zealand or Ireland, on the deck of a tall ship on the ocean, on stage in front of hundreds of adoring fans. heh.

#19 ::: Mary Aileen Buss ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 03:38 PM:

Four jobs: librarian, movie theater flunky, fast food cashier, research assistant

Four movies: The Princess Bride, The Muppet Movie, The Wind and the Lion, Dead Again

Four places lived: Atlanta; Chapel Hill, NC; Washington, DC; Casper, Wyoming

Four TV shows: Babylon 5, Beauty and the Beast, The Muppet Show, Stargate SG-1

Four places been on vacation: Palm Springs, Calif.; Toronto; St. Augustine, Florida; Edinburgh

Four websites: here, Unshelved, CNN, the National Weather Service

Four favorite foods: pizza, cherry tomatoes, quesadillas, anything chocolate

#20 ::: candle ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 04:02 PM:

What I like about this is that it makes my life sound way more interesting than it actually has been so far.

4 jobs: newsagent; civil servant (Ministry of Defence); educational software designer; lecturer in Roman history.

4 movies: The Princess Bride; My Dinner With Andre; Rushmore; East Side Story.

4 places I've lived: Bologna, Italy; Cambridge, England; Maynooth, Ireland; Salem, Oregon.

4 TV shows: Gilmore Girls; American Idol (sorry); The West Wing; M*A*S*H.

4 places I've been on vacation: Prague; Rome; Cairo; New York.

4 websites I visit regularly: Making Light; the Guardian (UK); Pitchfork; Goodplaya.

4 favourite foods: avocado; ricotta dura; (British) chocolate; but really I'm not at all interested in food.

4 places I'd rather be: London; NYC; Santa Monica; Milan.

Sorry to take up space on your blog...

#21 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 04:13 PM:

Four jobs: electronics assembler; landfill gate attendant; wholesale nursery inventory control; quality control of utility maps

Four places lived: Bay Area, Los Angeles, west Texas. (Two places in each....)

Four places been on vacation: Anyplace farther from home than fifty miles is probably a vacation

Four websites: Here; Recent Earthquakes in CA; APOD; soc.gen.medieval

Four favorite foods: dark chocolate; sourdough bread (with garlic butter if it's available); tamales; In-n-Out burger (grilled onions, please) with fries. Did I mention dark chocolate?

#22 ::: xeger ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 04:33 PM:

PiscusFiche wrote;

My grasp of teen culture was best described as "tenuous".

Heh. My grasp of popular culture is best described as "tenuous". For example, I'm still baffled by LA Confidential. I understand that it's supposed to be based on the Film Noire genre, but not having any background in said genre, I feel as though I'm constantly missing the punchline.

#23 ::: Linkmeister ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 04:43 PM:

"Theme park zombie?!?"

Where, pray tell, is that theme park?

#24 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 05:31 PM:

I'm just feeling kind of weird that half the places I listed as having lived in are other folks' holiday destinations, and vice versa ...

#25 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 06:01 PM:

The nice thing about this meme is that it isn't "the top four" or "the definitive four," it's just "four."

Oudekaas sounds like My Kind Of Cheese. Yet another come-hither emanation from the Netherlands. I'll get there eventually.

#26 ::: Claude Muncey ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 06:10 PM:

Hmm . . .

4 jobs: Dishwasher/fry cook; assembly line worker (aluminium windows and doors); radio news director; database programmer.
4 movies: The Shawshank Redemption; Babettes gćstebud; Shichinin no samurai; The Thing from Another World (Hawks).
4 places I've lived: Bossier City, LA; Oscoda, MI; Wiesbaden, Germany; Merced, CA.
4 TV shows: Good Eats; Iron Chef America; TCM; little else.
4 places I've been on vacation: London; Yosemite; southeast Alaska; Seattle.
4 websites I visit daily: Making Light; SFGate; Wikipedia; Whispers in the Loggia.
4 of my favorite foods: chili; Minneola tangelos; freshly baked bread; strawberries.
4 places I'd rather be: New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur; Seattle; Yosemite; Bartlesville, OK.

#27 ::: Marilee ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 06:11 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: ward clerk, secretary, consultant, senior scientist

Four movies you could watch over and over: Singing in the Rain, On the Town, Holiday Inn, The Divorcee

Four places you’ve lived: Kodiak AK, Whidbey Island WA, Guam, Tokyo

Four TV shows you love to watch: Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, NCIS, Firefly

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Inside Passage AK, Grave's Mountain Lodge VA, Olympic Park WA, Minicon

Four websites you visit daily: All About Beads, Kaiser Permanente, here, Google

Four of your favorite foods: mac & cheese, roast beef sandwiches, sushi, steak & cheese sandwiches

Four places you’d rather be: Seattle WA, Portland OR, Minneapolis MN, anywhere with cheaper cost of living, temperate weather, and a good Medicare plan

#28 ::: Sarah M ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 06:30 PM:

Teresa - I know this is a silly, silly point, but I really like the phrase 'dead-fresh pecans.' Obviously I know what it means, but the adjective 'dead-fresh' is just so vivid. It wants to be a contradiction, but it isn't. I like.

#29 ::: candle ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 06:30 PM:

I'm just feeling kind of weird that half the places I listed as having lived in are other folks' holiday destinations, and vice versa ...

Well, that's globalisation for you. Still, I don't imagine too many people will have been vacationing in Watford.

It's good to see somebody likes Dead Again. I've always felt vaguely embarrassed for liking that movie. I think maybe in England we are supposed to see Kenneth Branagh as overreaching if he tries to do anything other than Shakespeare.

#30 ::: ben ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:02 PM:

Oh, meat, I get to be one of the cool kids.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: newsletter editor, web developer, waiter, marketing canvasser

Four movies you could watch over and over: Star Wars Ep. IV, Spies Like Us, Braveheart, Naked Gun

Four places you’ve lived: New York, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego

Four TV shows you love to watch: Firefly, ER, Babylon 5, DS9 [No SF bias here, no sirree!]

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Seattle, Hoh Natl. Forest, San Miguel De Allende, roadtripping-all-over

Four websites you visit daily: BBC News, Metafilter, Slashdot, Google

Four of your favorite foods: smoked king salmon, flank bacon and tomato pizza, burnt ends, pho

Four places you’d rather be: Chicago, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Edinburgh, Australia (can't pick a city, sorry)

#31 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:05 PM:

Dead Again is a movie I might well have cited if I'd thought of it.

#32 ::: Bob Oldendorf ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:09 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: driver, movie extra, recording engineer, election inspector.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Diva (Hi, Larry Brennan!),Manhattan, Dogs in Space, Almost Famous. (Patrick, if you have a soft spot for ‘70s rock, you really do need to see Almost Famous, and soon.)

Four places you’ve lived: Huh: they all seem to be upstate New York. (Hello, Melissa Mead - we're practically neighbors....)

Four TV shows you love to watch: House, Numb3rs, Junkyard Wars. To make it ‘four’, I guess I’d have to reach back a bit and say, yes, Star Trek.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: The Lake District, Petroglyph Park, Monticello, Oak Ridge Tennessee (...hey, it was Open House at the old Manhattan Project buildings)

Four websites you visit daily: well, here, obviously; but to name three more: Iraq Coalition Casualties; Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal; Metafilter

Four of your favorite foods: bread, chocolate, spaghetti carbonera, scallops.

Four places you’d rather be: the Bay area; Nuwara Eliya; London; a good bookstore.

It's probably been covered in other threads, but this crew should add "favorite music", "favorite books".

#33 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:34 PM:

I don't know if I have a "soft spot for '70s rock." I think Rumours and Horses are both all-time great albums, if that counts. But I could live a long and happy life without ever again hearing some of the stuff that was popular between 1971 and 1977. Still, the signals that I need to see Almost Famous have now approached some sort of critical mass.

One of the variations on this meme included Four Albums You Couldn't Do Without. Keeping in mind that this isn't "the only four" or "the top four," my off-the-cuff answer this moment is:

Richard and Linda Thompson, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
The Beatles, Rubber Soul
Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um
The Waverly Consort, An American Journey

#34 ::: Robert L ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:37 PM:

You probably know a lot of this stuff, but:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: psychiatric aide, letter carrier, NYC taxi driver, production editor

Four movies you could watch over and over: Bedazzled (the original), The Third Man, Chinatown, The lady Eve

Four places you’ve lived: Chevy Chase, MD; Manhattan; Seattle; Málaga, Spain

Four TV shows you love to watch: (if I can): 77 Sunset Strip, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Sopranos, Shindig

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Cacapon State Park, WV; Paris; Chefchaouen, Morocco; Olympic National Park, WA

Four websites you visit daily: this one; The Sideshow; Curbed.com; Livejournal

Four of your favorite foods: pad thai, chicken en mole, smoked gouda, fresh sardines roasted on an open fire

Four places you’d rather be: Málaga, Paris, on the beach somewhere it's summer, Barcelona

#35 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 07:40 PM:

Oh, and to answer the question upthread about the Steve Brust edit of Tombstone: mostly it involves lingering over Val Kilmer's moments of menace (Steve still answers his phone "Iiiii'm your huckleberry") and fast-forwarding past any scene with Dana Delany.

#36 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 08:01 PM:

Valabar's. Vlad. Yes. In the latest book, each chapter starts with a short section describing one part of a memorable meal at Valabar's. You can't touch that manuscript without getting hungry.

Here's another way to explain Steve's edit of Tombstone: take out all the unnecessary bits with Dana Delany, but leave in the cool period theatre bits. Take out darn near everything involving the Earps' wives. What remains is a compelling movie.

#37 ::: petra ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 08:23 PM:

charlie, if the only old cheese you know is Goudse, you've missed out on some...

Oude Leidse is oude kaas with cumin, IIRC there's also a variation with cloves...

You really should try Old Amsterdam also, and i'm sure i'm forgetting stuff. There are cheese-stores with lots of variations, most supermarkets have a decent selection.

I'm a Dutch cheese-addict, i confess...

#38 ::: Michael Turyn ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 09:25 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Jewellery box and leather pouch goldstamper, bum nest mucker, teaching assistant, multimedia UI programmer.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Yojimbo, The Seven Samurai (full-length version), Peter Jackson's Gravity's Rainbow trilogy (director's cut), Dracula Has Risen From the Grave MST'd by Joel Hodgson & co..

Four places you’ve lived: Lynbrook, N.Y.; Pasadena, Ca.; Berkeley, Ca.; Watertown, Ma..

Four TV shows you love to watch: Futurama, Firefly, Weeds, Star Trek: The Next Generation (for the utopian communist bits that the Nuns warned me would "...make Ayn cry,").

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Casablanca, al-Maghreb; La Jolla, Ca.; New York, N.Y.; Oxford, U.K..

Four websites you visit daily: Plastic, wikipædia, slashdot, angryflower.com .

Four of your favorite foods: Indonesian fried rice (a Thai version of nasi goreng) à la Rod Dee, Brookline, Ma., with plenty of roasted pepper flakes and mouse-dung chilis in fish sauce; Toscanini's Chocolate #3 ice-cream; barely sweetened schlag; pho dac biet.

Four places you’d rather be: Tom Harkin's presidential inauguration (January, 2001), Luna City (a few versions), an orbital in The Culture's sphere of influence, at a desk the first day of my first job in over two years and my first good one in five.

#39 ::: Randall P. ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 09:41 PM:

I'm not sure anyone cares, but this is fun...

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Creative Director, Teacher, Walt Disney World Custodian, Projectionist in old, small-town, single screen theater

Four movies you could watch over and over: Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach Version), Amelie, The Bourne Identity, Moulin Rouge

Four places you’ve lived: Tahlequah, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; Shanghai, China; Toronto, Ontario

Four TV shows you love to watch: The Amazing Race, The Long Way Round (Ewan McGregor's motorcycle road trip), Threshold, Daily Show

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Lhasa, Tibet; Kashgar, China; Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand; Cairns, Australia

Four websites you visit daily: Engadget, BoingBoing, Defamer, Digg

Four of your favorite foods: French Fries; donuts from Morgan's Bakery in Tahlequah, Oklahoma; Spicy Beef Salad from Thai House Cuisine in Toronto; My wife's enchiladas

Four places you’d rather be: Whereever my wife and daughters are; Costa Rica; Disneyworld; the future

#40 ::: grackel ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 09:57 PM:

4 jobs: press room killout boy, picture framer, religious studies instructor, electrician
4 movies: The Third Man, Children of Paradise, Wings of Desire, One Eyed Jacks
4 Places: Jerusalem, Stillwater, OK, San Francisco, Tucson
4 TV shows -no TV so add Apocalypse Now, The Grand Illusion, La Strada, The Sheltering Sky to movies (is this cheating?)
4 vacations: Turkish Mediterranean coast, 4 corners, Humboldt County Ca, Big Sur
4 websites: Crooked Timber, Hilzoy&Katherine, NYTimes, SFGate
4 foods: roast chicken, any lamb, dry salami w/olives; fresh local tomatoes
4 places: Istanbul, South Island New Zealand, British countryside, Tuscany

#41 ::: grackel ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 10:03 PM:

I dunno if Peter Jackson's Gravity Rainbow trilogy will ever come up to the level of Ridley Scott's version.

#42 ::: Magenta Griffith ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 10:39 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: library aide/technician, bookstore clerk, accounts payable clerk, graduate teaching assistant.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Wizard of Oz, Dogma, The Big Sleep.

Four places you’ve lived: Silver Spring, Md, San Francisco, Berkeley, Minneapolis.

Four TV shows you love to watch: Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Futurama.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Seattle, London, Quebec City, Bermuda. (The latter two as a kid, and probably didn't appreciate them fully.)

Four websites you visit daily: LiveJournal, DailyKos, Making Light, StarTribune. (local newspaper)

Four of your favorite foods: Chocolate, shrimp, asparagus, lamb.

Four places you’d rather be: San Francisco, Seattle, London, Ecotopia.

#43 ::: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 10:51 PM:

Ridley Scott left out the Disgusting English Candy Drill scene, so Peter Jackson rocks.

#44 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 10:57 PM:

Peter Jackson had the wisdom to put Jon Singer on staff for the Disgusting English Candy Scene. QED, A Living God Exists.

#45 ::: mary ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 11:14 PM:

I can't resist.
4 jobs: A&W Rootbeer drive-in cashier, soda-jerk at Denton's Carnation, Wendy's table cleaner/ketchup bottle filler, Bank of America statements clerk
4 movies: Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, As Good As It Gets, Jurassic Park
4 places I've lived: Benton Harbor, Michigan; Tempe, Arizona; San Francisco; Alexandria, Virginia
4 TV shows: Firefly, Lost, Monk, Rough Science
4 vacations: Paris; London; Dublin; Bodega Bay, California
4 websites: Atrios, Daily Kos, washingtonpost.com, nytimes.com
4 foods: moosetracks icecream, popcorn with melted butter, french bread with brie, acorn squash
4 places I'd rather be: Bodega Bay, California; Dublin; lying in the sun on a white-sand beach; sitting in front of a stone fireplace in a mountain lodge

Question for Michael Turyn: mouse-dung chilis in fish sauce?

#46 ::: Larry Brennan ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 11:21 PM:

I'm relieved to discover that Valabars aren't Viking candy bars.

And I, too, would have listed Dead Again had I thought of it. I particularly like the unsubtle I, Claudius reference at the end.

#47 ::: Graydon ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 11:36 PM:

Four jobs you've had in your life: paint mixer, farm laborer, drill instructor, apprentice cabinetmaker

Four movies you could watch over and over: I'm not sure I've seen four movies twice.

Four places you've lived: Toronto, Kingston, Perth, Ottawa

Four TV shows you love to watch: Don't have a television.

Four places you've been on vacation: Fort Erie, ON; Pittsburgh, PA; Drumheller, AB; Agawa, ON

Four websites you visit daily: Questional Content, CBC, Slacktivist, Talking Points Memo

Four of your favorite foods: candied ginger, wild boar, venison, apples

Four places you'd rather be: Isig Mountain, Shakespeare Island, Heathwill Library, elm-woods in the spring time

#48 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2005, 11:45 PM:

Four artists I'm fond of: Hokusai, Goldsworthy, Fragonard, Kandinsky

#49 ::: Janet McConnaughey ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 12:02 AM:

With Randall's disclaimer, because this is fun,

4 jobs: college town pizza joint waitress (I was a terrible waitress, but the owners were lovely); apartment swimming pool lifeguard/pool manager; typewriter attachment (job title was "news dictationist"); reporter.

4 movies I could see over & over: West Side Story; Singin' In the Rain; just about anything the Marx Brothers ever did; Douglas Fairbanks in Zorro.

4 places I've lived: Santa Rosa, Calif., when it and I were small; Washington, DC and suburbs; Bloomington, Ind.; New Orleans.

4 TV shows: um ... I'm watching Firefly on DVD.

4 vacations: Arkansas, from the Louisiana line to the Ozarks and back; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; NYC; Chapel Hill, NC.

4 daily websites: Google, Books & Writers (formerly The Literary Forum - and I'd be there even if I weren't on staff); here; Miss Snark

4 favorite foods: Only four? Dear, dear. Chocolate cheesecake, Thai chicken & coconut soup, barbecue (anything, any variation, just about), pork chops with onions and apples.

4 places I'd rather be: I donno about rather be, but I'd love to see the rest of the states, and the rest of the world. Four places? France, England, Japan, the States. Okay, so sometimes I cheat.

4 books I reread: Pride and Prejudice; Little Women; Finn Family Moomintroll; Bitter Lemons.

#50 ::: Jeffrey Smith ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 12:23 AM:

Things that struck me as I thought about my answers to the list:

"Four jobs" is the same as "every job." (Soda jerk, three weeks; letter carrier, three months; bookstore employee (eventually assistant manager), four years; college lab technician, 33 years.)

"Four places you've lived" would have to be four addresses in Baltimore. I think I've lived in nine (ten if you count that one house changed addresses while we lived there). For the past 32, I've been living at the address on my birth certificate.

Glad to see some love for Junkyard Wars. Are they still making those? (Not that it really matters; I've got dozens on tape that I haven't watched yet. Friends tease me that I probably haven't finished Hill Street Blues yet, but I have, I have finished Hill Street Blues. I've even finished Homicide. But not Northern Exposure, or Deep Space Nine...)

#51 ::: nerdycellist ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 12:38 AM:

Like Candle said, the four jobs makes me sound much more fascinating than I actually am.

The theme park zombie was at the "Fright Fest" at 6 Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL. It was an horrible experience, best typified by the evening a zombie friend and I spent trying to interact with patrons while simultaneously attempting not to be set fire to by aforementioned patrons.

And also, I was in my early 20's, and there was Boy Drama that made being immolated seem the preferable option.

But hey, I got paid for it!

#52 ::: Linkmeister ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 12:58 AM:

Jobs: newspaper carrier, high school janitor, teletype operator, IT manager

Movies: Mad Mad World, Casablanca, McClintock, LOTR

Places I've lived: Washington DC suburbs, Japan, Tucson, Hawai'i

TV Shows: None in particular. At the time, Hill Street Blues

Vacation: Oregon, London, Switzerland, New Mexico

Websites: here, Atrios, Hullabaloo, Michael Bérubé

Foods: Enchiladas, burgers, asparagus, corn

Places I'd rather be: London, Edinburgh, Arizona, or right here in Hawai'i

#53 ::: Lucy Huntzinger ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 01:11 AM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: graphic artist, paralegal, film production assistant, barista.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Pride and Prejudice (1995), 42nd Street, The Fellowship of the Ring. No fourth.

Four places you’ve lived: Seattle, San Francisco, New York, London

Four TV shows you love to watch: Mystery Science Theater 3000, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No fourth.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Quito, Reykjavik, Kyoto, Nairobi

Four websites you visit daily: Livejournal, Cute Overload, Go Fug Yourself, Flickr.

Four of your favorite foods: olives, cheese, sourdough bread, crab.

Four places you’d rather be: Whistler (skiing), Vienna (walking), Tokyo (shopping), New York (socializing).

#54 ::: Sam Kelly ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 01:50 AM:

Picking and choosing a bit here, since I don't do television, and hardly do films.

Four jobs I've done: theatrical costumier's flunkey, lighting designer, graduate student in nanomaterials engineering, research psychologist.

Four books I re-read over and again: Persuasion (Austen), Tam Lin (Pamela Dean), The Thought Gang (Tibor Fischer), The Curse of Chalion (Bujold).

Four songs I wouldn't want to be without: Richard Thompson with 'A Heart Needs A Home', Tori Amos singing 'Imagine', Pops with 'What a Wonderful World', the Dixie Chicks with 'Amazing Grace'.

Four poets I always come back to: Rudyard Kipling, Adrian Mitchell, Brian Patten, and Anne Stevenson.

Four places I've lived: York, Colchester, Snowdonia, and the middle of nowhere, Home Counties (all in the UK).

Four websites I visit daily - Firefox loads up with Gmail, Livejournal, the forums for my MUD, and Bloglines.

Four places I'd rather be: London, Glasgow, anywhere my friends are, and that hell of a good universe next door.

#55 ::: Lucy Kemnitzer ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 02:03 AM:

Four jobs: tapestry reweaver, line worker in a vegetable freezing plant, leather embosser, teacher of academically at risk high school students

Four movies: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Me and the Colonel, Everything is Illuminated, Pee Wee's Big Adventure. I would put 1931 Dracula but I thought I should put one movie made recently because I don't avoid new movies and I didn't want it to look as if I did.

Four places I've lived: El Sobrante, Philadelphia, Pine Ridge, San Francisco (not including where I live now)

Four TV shows I love to watch: "Heaven's Wedding Gown," The Daily Show, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, um, well, I don't watch much TV on a regular basis so I'm not sure what I really like, I just bump into things mainly and then forget what they are, but I followed Northern Exposure pretty closely at the time.

Four places I've been on vacation: Bishop, Point Reyes, Mt. Lassen, Los Mochis (I don't get out much)

Four websites I visit daily: Stories VI yahoo group, Dominic Luka's stories, here, google

Four of my favourite foods:kasha, buckwheat udon, buckwheat pancakes, those japanese peanut crackers especially the ones with squid in them. Well, they aren't my favoritest, but they're the ones that came to mind.

Four places I'd rather be: Rather than what? Okay, Point Reyes, the White Mountains, Pacific Grove, Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Four songs I'm thinking about right now: Paul and Silas, Hard Times Come Again No More (thank you Patrick for reminding me), Good King Wenceslaus, Bawbie Allen.

#56 ::: Mitch Wagner ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 06:00 AM:

Four jobs you've had in your life: Journalist, busboy/dishwasher, camp counselor, security guard. Journalism is the only job I've had as an adult, the others were in high school and college. Journalism is also the only job I've ever been good at.

Four places you've lived: East Northport, N.Y.; Cambridge, Mass.; San Francisco; San Diego.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Let's make that four movies I have watched over and over: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, My Favorite Year, Wonder Boys, and Nobody's Fool.

I could definitely see Tombstone again. We loved it and have seen it a couple of times already. I kind of like Dana Delany, but I agree the Earp wives are useless.

And The Godfather and definitely Groundhog Day.

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch: Gilmore Girls, Related, The Sopranos, Rome, and Deadwood.

Or, an alternate list: Deadwood, Deadwood, Deadwood and Deadwood.

Four Places You've Been On Vacation: Columbus, Ohio (here now), New York. Oh, wait, does visiting family and friends not count? Okay then: the U.K., the Poconos Mountains, Niagra Falls, Los Angeles.

I travelled so much on business during the 1990s that I'm afraid I haven't travelled much for pleasure during that time or since.

Four Websites You Visit Daily: Well, of course, I spend hours and hours on the Web every day, but I don't think I actually have four Web sites I visit every day. Just one: Google.

I'm an editor for InformationWeek, and I don't even visit that site every day--I don't visit it on weekends or holidays because usually nothing's changed.

If you rephrase the question to "several times a week," then I'd add IWK to the list, as well as my own blog and Wikipedia, to bring the count to four. Oh, and also the Internet Movie Database. that's five. I'm sure there's more than that.

Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Burritos, pizza, buffalo-flavored chicken strips and, um, burritos and pizza.

Four Places You'd Rather Be: In bed, asleep. Freakin' insomnia. Freakin' jet lag. I was dozing at my sister-in-law Marge's yesterday, and I expect I'll be dozing tomorrow. Later today, rather. She's going to think I'm a heroin addict. Other than that, I'm where I want to be.

#57 ::: Mitch Wagner ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 06:25 AM:

Correction: I was actually an excellent camp counselor. Hard to live on $100 a month though.

#58 ::: Hilary Hertzoff ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 11:42 AM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Only three paid jobs - Sorting books for the Ohio State Library booksale, a seasonal job selling Nutcracker souvenirs (nice Jewish girl that I am), and my current job as a YA librarian

Four movies you could watch over and over: Muppet Treasure Island, Noises Off, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Pleasantville

Four places you’ve lived: NY (Long Island and Westchester County), Ohio, Indiana

Four TV shows you love to watch: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Amazing Race, Press Gang, Wonderfalls

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Minneapolis; St. Petersburg, Russia; Boston; Toronto

Four websites you visit daily: Here, Television Without Pity, My Yahoo, Boing Boing

Four places you’d rather be: A good used bookstore, travelling the world, playing with my rabbit (he's asleep), here

#59 ::: Paula Kate ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 12:44 PM:

Four jobs you've had in your life: Bank teller, technical writer, telecomm manager, director of web site development.

Four places you've lived: San Bernardino, Buena Park, Sherman Oaks, Studio City (twice), all in California.

Four movies you could watch over and over: LA Confidential, Almost Famous, Grosse Point Blank, Gladiator
Honorable mention: Silverado, Tombstone, Little Women (the Winona Ryder one).

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch: Deadwood, My So-called Life, Carnivale, Deadwood.

Four Places You've Been On Vacation: Big Sur, San Francisco, Cambria. Mostly I stay home (a treat).


Four Websites You Visit Daily: Making Light, my LiveJournal friends page, Amazon, my Wikipedia watchlist.


Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Heirloom tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, freshly stir-fried string beans, really good wild salmon, baked potatoes (real butter, fresh sour cream, dead fresh ground black pepper)


Four Places You'd Rather Be: No place more than here, in my little house, next to the Christmas tree, with Glen and the cats and my online family.

#60 ::: Mitch Wagner ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 01:07 PM:

I'm seeing a lot of "Almost Famous" here on the movie list, and it's a fine choice. Time for me to see that again, I think.

#61 ::: candle ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 05:46 PM:

Damn! Dead Again, Wings of Desire, Little Women, Northern Exposure... can I start again?

Albums: Frank Black, Teenager of the Year; Skinny Puppy, Too Dark Park; They Might Be Giants, Lincoln; Mountain Goats, Full Force Galesburg.

Books: The Alluring Problem (Enright); The Magician's Doubts (Wood); Impro (Johnstone); Operators and Things (O'Brien).

#62 ::: PiscusFiche ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 05:52 PM:

My list:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life (in order): theatre concessionaire, pet store clerk, package designer, Flash animator


Four movies you could watch over and over: Grosse Point Blank, Hackers, Lawrence of Arabia, The Shawshank Redemption

Four places you’ve lived: Utah; Calgary, Alberta; Raleigh-Durham, NC; San Francisco, CA

Four TV shows you love to watch: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Brisco County, Jr.; Max Headroom; Six Feet Under

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Sedona, AZ; Moab, UT; Sandy Eggo, CA; Augusta, GA

Four websites you visit daily: Dooce.com, Penny Arcade, dictionary.com, Weboggle

Four of your favorite foods: poutine (fries, gravy, and cheese curds--a Quebecois dish that is arteriosclerosis in a bucket), mango juice, zucchini bread, navratan korma

Four places you’d rather be: New York, London, Australia, and whereever the monkey is.

#63 ::: PiscusFiche ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 05:56 PM:

Oh, and following Teresa's lead:

Four artists I'm fond of: The Pre-Raphaelites (Too many to name, so I'm clumping them in one clump), Dave McKean, Edward Gorey, and Artemisia Gentileschi.

#64 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 10:19 PM:

Teresa said:

Valabar's. Vlad. Yes. In the latest book, each chapter starts with a short section describing one part of a memorable meal at Valabar's. You can't touch that manuscript without getting hungry.

In point of fact, I can't touch most of Brust's books without getting hungry. The only exceptions that come to mind are "Brokedown Palace", "Agyar", and "To Reign in Hell".

Many of my favorite authors are obsessed with food. I can't read "The Wind in the Willows" without hot tea and buttered toast. And don't get me started on "Prince Caspian" with eggs, bacon and mushrooms all frying in the same pan.

Artists--oh yeah, I'm all about some Hokusai. Andy Goldsworthy makes my neck hair stand on end. I love his work, but it's so...eerie? Numinous? Unsettling. It scares me. I worry that the Seelie Court might be lurking behind a tree waiting to grab me.

Also Albrecht Durer and Margaret Bourke-White. I like this one, for example.

#65 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 11:01 PM:

:Waves to Bob Oldendorf: Hi, neighbor! Which part of Upstate NY?

Looks like I missed a couple:

4 places I'd rather be: I've been home for Christmas, so nowhere.

4 books I reread: Only 4? May I cheat a bit? LOTR, anything by Lois McMaster Bujold or Terry Pratchett, The Once and Future King, Robin McKinley's The Hero And the Crown. (also The Blue Sword and Beauty.)

#66 ::: Janet McConnaughey ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 11:39 PM:

Melissa - you hadn't missed the four books; it just seemed an appropriate addition.

I reread all of your choices, too. Not to mention just about anything by Patricia McKillip. Did I mention A.A. Milne? :)

#67 ::: Paul A. ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 11:52 PM:
It's good to see somebody likes Dead Again. I've always felt vaguely embarrassed for liking that movie. I think maybe in England we are supposed to see Kenneth Branagh as overreaching if he tries to do anything other than Shakespeare.

On the contrary, after seeing his Hamlet, I'm all in favour of anything that keeps Branagh as far away from Shakespeare as possible.

 

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Cashier in corner shop. Librarian's assistant. (In the sense that I came in after school and did odd jobs. But I got paid, so it was a job.) Administrative assistant in a nursing home. (See previous note, except that it was all-day holiday work rather than after-school, and I didn't get paid.) Web developer.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Dead Again. The Incredibles. Mononoke Hime. The Wrong Trousers.

Four places you’ve lived: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Perth, Western Australia. Um... Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia. (Same place, new local government boundaries.)

Four TV shows you love to watch: Doctor Who. Pie in the Sky. Justice League. Rumpole of the Bailey.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Rottnest Island. Sydney. Albany. Margaret River.

Four websites you visit daily: Arthur, King of Time and Space. Paul Gadzikowski's Sketchbook. Livejournal. News From ME.

Four of your favorite foods: Crisp green apples. Real jelly babies. Roast potatoes. Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches.

Four places you’d rather be: Can't think of any, right now.

Four books you re-read: The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers. Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart. Hellspark, Janet Kagan. Stranger at the Wedding, Barbara Hambly.

#68 ::: Bob Oldendorf ::: (view all by) ::: December 25, 2005, 11:55 PM:

Melissa Mead: :Waves to Bob Oldendorf: Hi, neighbor! Which part of Upstate NY?

Guilderland. The book collection got too big to move.

#69 ::: Paula Kate ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 03:46 AM:

I love the first three-quarters of Dead Again, but I dislike the reveal. Watched it many times though.

#70 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 09:08 AM:

Bridge of Birds???!! Where did I put my copy?

#71 ::: Faren Miller ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 10:43 AM:

Paying Jobs: teaching assistant at UC Berkeley; editor at Locus; writer (well, I did get a little advance on the novel); part-timer for Locus

Movies: A Hard Day's Night; old Margaret Rutherford films; The African Queen; LOTR (collectively)

Places Lived: San Jose CA; the East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville); Prescott AZ

TV: King of the Hill; Futurama; Nature; any Grand Slam tennis tournament

Vacations: Yosemite, Yellowstone, San Diego, New York NY

Websites: SFGate (San Fran. Chronicle); NY Times; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Making Light

Food: coffee yogurt; bread; sauteed scallops; waffles with maple syrup

Places I'd Like to Go: to see friends and relatives in the Bay Area, Richmond VA, and Australia

Bands/Musicians: Beatles, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Richard Thompson (still); and one current example: Wilco, now that they have that psychedelic guitarist

Artists: Caspar David Friedrich, Georgia O'Keefe (desert pix, not the smarmy stuff); Andy Goldsworthy; Frank Kupka

#72 ::: Richard Anderson ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 10:54 AM:

Four jobs: street sweeper, cannery tomato peeler, land economist, magazine publisher.

Four movies: Badlands, The Magic Theater, Breaker Morant, 400 Blows.

Four places lived: Long Barn, CA; Watertown / Cambridge, MA (the town line ran through our living room); San Francisco; Truckee, CA.

Four TV shows: Hullabalo a Go Go (okay, so it's been off the air for 40 years), The Daily Show, The Office (Brit and American versions), anything with Mario Batali cooking.

Four vacation spots: Ambergris Caye, Belize; the Big Apple; Dillon, MT; the environs of Helen, GA.

Four website I visit daily: Just my own, mostly to scrub it of Russian porn and gambling URLs. More irregularly: here, and the blog of a college buddy turned comic-book writer, Jeff Mariotte.

Four foods: Dungeness crab, avocados, sauteed sweetbreads, any cheap cut of meat braised for more than two hours.

Four places I'd rather be: I'd rather be in Saturday, which is the day after my upcoming deadline.

Four records for the proverbial desert isle:: Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, by Brian Eno; Then Play On, by (Peter Green's) Fleetwood Mac; Decade, by Neil Young; Retreat From Memphis, by the Mekons.

#73 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 01:17 PM:

Bridge of Birds was great. Has anyone read the seqels? I haven't been able to find them.

#74 ::: bryan ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 01:33 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: XML/Standardization expert?(my current, don't know that it has a title), programmer, I don't know, laying concrete moulds and moving them outside after they were set?, data entry for U.S government forms.


Four movies you could watch over and over: Wings of Desire, Pulp Fiction, To Have and To Hold, The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Four places you’ve lived: SLC, Utah; San Francisco, CA, Copenhagen, Denmark, Eugene, Oregon.

Four TV shows you love to watch:I don't watch TV, but I guess it would be Futurama since I have all those seasons on DVD, BlackAdder for the same reason, Fawlty Towers for the same reason, and Barney Miller cause I would have that on DVD if I could find it around. But as you will note, I have nothing current since I haven't watched current TV for several years.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Wind Rivers, Wyoming, London England, other than that I've never really been on vacation. I don't like vacations much.

Four websites you visit daily: This one, Del.icio.us, hackaday, Make, Google.

Four of your favorite foods: Nachos, BBQ Ribs, Kung Pao Chicken, Tandoori Chicken.

Four places you’d rather be: Bahia Brazil, Amsterdam, San Francisco.

#75 ::: jane ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 02:17 PM:

Late to the party, but health matters insisted:
Okay, I'll play.
4 jobs: editor, storyteller, writer, mom/grandmom
4 movies: Truly, Madly, Deeply; The Court Jester; Robin and Marion: Galaxy Quest.
4 places I've lived: NYNY, St Andrews Scotland, Hatfield MA, Westport, Ct.
4 TV shows: Law & Order, Buffy, Angel, StarGate
4 places I've been on vacation: Scotland, Australia, France, Wales.
Four websites you visit daily: This one, Surlalune Fairy Tales, Ink Blog, Read Roger

4 of my favorite foods: Chicken Marsal, Chocolate Cake, Hazelnut Meringue, Carrot Soup
4 places I'd rather be: St Andrews Scotland, the Highlands Scotland, Edinburgh Scotland, and anywhere my grandkids are.

Jane

#76 ::: Lin Daniel ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 02:20 PM:

4 jobs: merchandise tagger, secretary, keeper of technical data for a small paging company , chief data wrangler for legal publisher (I didn't write the programs, I made the data go thru them properly)

4 movies: Any Pixar movie; American President; Quigley Down Under; Muppet Movie

4 places I've lived: More than four places but all within Los Angeles County.

4 TV shows: Gilmore Girls; Stargate SG1; Stargate Atlantis; Mail Call

4 places I've been on vacation: Winslow, AZ; Vancouver, BC; Las Vegas, NV; Salt Lake City, UT

4 Websites: Making Light, Astronomy Picture Of the Day, Web Sudoku, Recent Earthquakes

4 favorite dishes: chocolate, potatoes in any form but instant, salsa!! (my mother-in-law once said I'd eat dog if it was covered in salsa), ice cream

4 places I'd rather be: Vancouver, BC; Flagstaff, AZ; anywhere along coastal CA north of Santa Barbara and south of San Francisco; any place of moderate temperature, hi-speed internet access, decent variety of ethnic foods, and Starbucks!

The books issue came up recently, as we are packing the house in preparation for having the hard wood floors properly refinished. The books that got left out were all the Lackey, Bujold and Weber, some reference books and most of our collection of "for Dummies" books.

#77 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 02:57 PM:

As for the sequels to "Bridge of Birds" (Eight Skilled Gentlemen and The Story of the Stone), I read at least one of them a long time back and it was good, but not as good as the first.

They're available used; try amazon.com.

#78 ::: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 02:58 PM:

Paul A: I knew Paul Gadzikowski well during his Chicago years, though I visit his Web site but rarely. Perhaps you know that he's joined Livejournal these days as scarfman.

Melissa: Alice Bentley published an omnibus edition of Bridge of Birds and its two sequels, illustrated by Kaja Foglio. The title is The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. I think she sold out, and she is no longer in the book business, but you can still find a copy here or there. ISBN is 0966543602. There was a trade paperback edition, and a fancy limited-edition hardcover. Or you can fish around looking for used copies of the original paperbacks.

#79 ::: John M. Ford ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 05:42 PM:

Late to the party again.

Four jobs: Hospital orderly, computer consultant, slushreader, copyeditor.

Four movies: Adventures of Robin Hood, The Court Jester, Keaton's The General, Duck Soup.

Four domiciles: Bloomington, IN; Brooklyn Heights: Philadelphia (University City); Minneapolis.

Four TV shows: Trauma (pattern here), Good Eats, Iron Chef (the Japanese version), any history show with Tony Robinson.

Four vacations: San Francisco, Sydney, north Wales, Leningrad.

Four websites: King of Zembla, Hullabaloo, The Agonist, present company.

Four favorite dishes: Bouillabaisse, German chocolate cake, dim sum, salmon-skin handroll.

Four places I'd rather be: Since I am visiting friends in Elise's company, nowhere, but in the more general sense, London, Paris (St. Germain), San Francisco, Ireland (Co. Wicklow).

#80 ::: Shawn Bilodeau ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 05:53 PM:

Also late to the party...and another member of the NY Capital District contingent. (Off Western, near the State Office Campus.) *waves to Bob Oldendorf and Melissa Mead*

Four jobs (outside my chosen profession): butcher, mainframe printer operator, librarian, MRI builder

Four jobs (in my chosen profession, programming: 3-D solid modelling, heavy machine tool automation, automated fingerprint identification, build engineer

Four movies: Empire Records, Leap of Faith, The Princess Bride, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Four places lived: McGraw, NY; Solon, NY, Troy, NY; aboard the USS Robison (DDG-12)

Four TV shows: Farscape, Buffy, NCIS, Law and Order: CI

Four vacation spots:Paris; London; Munich; Ballygally, NI

Four website I visit daily:Making Light, Web Sudoku, My Friends Page, Sluggy Freelance

Four foods: Cream of Turky Pot Pie, Baked Purple Potatoes, Pizza, Lobster Bisque

Four places I'd rather be: Any place warmer and drier than here.

Four records for the proverbial desert isle: True, by Concrete Blonde; Yes, I Am by Melissa Etheridge; The Gypsy by Boiled in Lead; Workshop of the Telescopes by Blue Oyster Cult

Four books to read and re-read: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny; A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny; any of the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout; The Lensman Series by E. E. "Doc" Smith

#81 ::: Lizzy L ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 07:37 PM:

Four songs that can get me up on my feet and either shakin'or croonin' anywhere, anytime:
My Girl, All Along The Watchtower (Hendrix version), Here Comes the Sun, Up On Cripple Creek

Four CDs I would not want to do without:
The Best of The Band, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers original motion picture soundtrack, Beethoven, "Pastoral" (Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell) Judy Henske; High Flying Bird

#82 ::: Paul A. ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 07:41 PM:

Bill: Yes, I did know, but thanks for mentioning it.

#83 ::: Bob Oldendorf ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 08:38 PM:

Shawn Bilodeau: ...and another member of the NY Capital District contingent. ...*waves to Bob Oldendorf and Melissa Mead*

Putting on my deerstalker cap: Shawn, you sound like an RPI N-ROTC.
We should arrange a ML meetup at the next Albacon.

#84 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 08:59 PM:

I wasn't going to do this, but what the heck....

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Actually, I've had only four. First: file clerk/general gopher at a real estate firm. (One thing they had me do was match their cancelled checks against their computer-generated list of checks. This required concentration while providing no intellectual stimulation whatsoever. May I never be that bored again.) Second: counter-person part time at The Other Change of Hobbit. Third: bakery counterperson/handler of takeout orders/general gopher at a restaurant/bakery. Fourth: Production person at a copy shop. (This last has expanded to include inventory management and keeping the books using QuickBooks.)

Four movies you could watch over and over: Casablanca, Star Wars (the original, aka ep. IV), Monty Python and the Holy Grail...not sure if I have a fourth. Maybe the LOTR trilogy.

Four places you’ve lived: Berkeley, Oakland, and Pleasant Hill. (Pleasant Hill is somewhat east and north of the others. Didn't stay there long.)

Four TV shows you love to watch: Doctor Who. Firefly. Early Buffy. Inu-Yasha.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Hawaii, France, Israel, Alaska. (Most of these I didn't go to on my own, but went along with my family as a kid...)

Four websites you visit daily: Making Light. Hitherby Dragons. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Ricochet Robot.

Four of your favorite foods: Stuffed spinach and mushroom pizza from Zachary's. Fried salmon skin sushi roll. Jambalaya. Ravioli from Genova Delicatessen (this last all too apt to give me acid reflux in recent years, alas).

Four places you’d rather be: Can't think of any, right now.

#85 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 10:00 PM:

Hi, Shawn! :waves:

Thanks, Bill Higgins and Lila.

#86 ::: Terry Karney ::: (view all by) ::: December 26, 2005, 11:26 PM:

I can't watch Blackhawk Down all that often.

In fact, I think I've seen it twice, once before the desert, once after.

It was a very different movie the second time, and exactly the same.

#87 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 12:10 AM:

David Goldfarb: Zachary's stuffed pizza, yes! (Had one of the chicken versions once, I think the tarragon chicken. My sister lives just up the hill from the end of Solano.)

#88 ::: Paula Helm Murray ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 12:35 AM:

Four jobs: Library assistant, regulatory assistant at a Vet vaccine manufacturer, project coordinator at an ad agency, database manager at a tradeshow publisher (in content).

Four movies: The LOTR, all Harry Potter, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a collection of non-western John Wayne movies (bonus=old Bishop’s Wife, with David Niven, Cary Grant nd Loreta Young, I’ll probably watchit once more during the extended holiday season).

Four domiciles: Leawood, KS (KCMO suburb), Miami, Florida, Lawrence, KS, Kansas City, MO.

Four TV shows: Good Eats, Iron Chef (the Japanese version), space programming on Science channel, prehistory on the Science Channel (Incuding homo evolution and prehistoric beasts).

Four vacations: Jackson Hole, WY; a London/Paris/Rome/Athens tour in college; New Orleans Worldcon; the most recent Worldcon trip which included London, Dublin (both Margene and I were in tears as we left Dublin… will be back for sure), Glasgow.

Four websites: Present company, my LJ friends, Two Lumps (actually a M/W/F cartoon), Boing Boing

Four favorite dishes: Spicy Tuna Rolls, homemade macaroni and cheese, apple crisp (there’s one of those down in the kitchen right now, made today), cream of tomato soup.

Four places I'd rather be: London, Dublin, County Leitrim, Midlands in England. But here is actually pretty good, I have my own domicile and comforts here. I’m a creature of habit and I’m sure if I moved to Ireland I’d set up my own nest there too.

#89 ::: Paula Helm Murray ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 12:40 AM:

And I'm the only person I personally know who did NOT move in my formative years -- when I was four we moved from a small, shapeless tract house in Prairie Village,KS, to a Very Nice house in Leawood, KS, and I basically went to Elementary School, Junior High and High School down 103rd Street. (each a bit further from home, until I started driving, I rode the bus to high school but walked to the other two.)

#90 ::: Julie L. ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 05:04 AM:

Four jobs: jewelry trade-show assistant, printshop hand-collator, security aide at the National Air and Space Museum, Big Pharma chemistry research lab-slavey.
Four movies: Dangerous Liaisons, Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen (awkwardly retitled as "Samurai X: Trust/Betrayal" in US release), Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil.
Four residences: McLean VA, Newark DE, Edison NJ, San Bruno CA.
Four TV shows (currently on air): The Daily Show, Good Eats, Mythbusters, Full Metal Alchemist.
Four TV shows (on DVD): Vision of Escaflowne, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Buffy, The Muppet Show.
Four vacation spots: Llanymynech, mid-Wales; Wedgeport, Nova Scotia; Zamboanga, the Philippines; Melbourne, Australia.
Four daily websites (besides here): Orcinus, Wikipedia, eBay, Livejournal.
Four foods: maple candy, tea, Reuben sandwich, pho with beef tendon and tripe.
Four places you’d rather be (other than vacation spots): 1996; the Bush/Cheney impeachment hearings; the blue-skinned shell of Winifred Burkle; an Arrogant Worms concert.

#91 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 06:20 AM:

No, Paula, you're not the only one who didn't move.

#92 ::: julia ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 06:44 AM:

If the list for favorite movies you may not have seen yet is still open, Comfort and Joy (Bill Forsythe's next film after Local Hero) is a delight.

#93 ::: Carrie S. ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 08:35 AM:

Four jobs: Secretary; retail clerk; dorm desk guard; library assistant
Four movies: The Bourne Identity; X-Men; Far and Away; Unbreakable
Four places: Irwin, PA; La Jolla, San Diego, CA; Studio City, LA, CA; Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh, PA
Four TV shows: Firefly; Battlestar Galactica; What Not to Wear; aany show where they put people in a historical setting--1900 House, the Iron Age thing, et cetera.
Four places you’ve been on vacation: Atlantic City; Maine; Cooper's Lake; Washington DC
Four websites: Making Light; String or Nothing; The 20' by 20' Room; The Metaverse
Four of your favorite foods: oil-popped popcorn; skipper's linguini (the world's least kosher food!); pomegranates (alas, pomegranate season is once again over); white rice with butter
Four places you’d rather be: The post-Change Willamette Valley at Dun Juniper; home; a bookstore; a library

#94 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 08:53 AM:

Paula: I lived in the same house from first grade through my graduation from high school. I walked to elementary, rode the bus to middle school and rode to high school with my mother the English teacher. (And yes, I know you referred to people you know personally. Um, I've been to Lawrence KS to visit a friend on my way to Colorado....)

#95 ::: Shawn Bilodeau ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 09:54 AM:

Bob Oldendorf - Putting on my deerstalker cap: Shawn, you sound like an RPI N-ROTC.

*laughs* Very good! But only for two years, at which point I decided that I'm not constitutionally constructed to having people tell me what to do, nor to telling other people what to do. At which point, the Navy and I parted ways.

We should arrange a ML meetup at the next Albacon.
That sounds like a lot of fun!

#96 ::: Sandy ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 10:51 AM:

oh dear.

I'm not sure I've had four jobs.

And I have Remembered Trauma associated with Bridge of Birds.

more later.

#97 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 11:38 AM:

Carrie S.-I loved 1900 House too. They did an Iron Age one? How many are there? I've only seen 1900 House and Manor House.

I only lived in one place as a kid too, and I still haven't gone far from there. (I had to use college and overnight summer camp to come up with 4 places.)

Yes, it looks like someone should make ML ID badges for Albacon this year.


#98 ::: Claude Muncey ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 12:19 PM:

But, Julie L. is it really true that the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga?

#99 ::: Carrie S. ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 12:31 PM:

They did an Iron Age one?

The BBC did; I don't know if it was the same people who did 1900 House.

There was a Colonial America one, and an Old West one, and probably some others.

#100 ::: Tim Kyger ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 01:02 PM:

Resistence *is* useless. *sigh*

But first: Teresa, you were a *UNIVAC* 1110 I/O operator. Not IBM. Shame! :-;

4 Movies: 2001, Godfather I, Casablanca, House of Games.

4 Places Lived: Las Vegas (native), New Lexington, Ohio, Tempe AZ, and Dayton.

4 TV Shows I Watch: ER, the neo Battlestar, the Soup, and House.

4 Websites I Visit Each Day: This one, NASA Watch, Instapundit, and Little Green Footballs.

4 Favorite Foods: Pizza, cheese fondue, cheese enchilladas, and chocolate ice cream.

4 Places to Be Other Than Where I Am Now: The South Pole of Luna, Earth's South Pole (I'd like to see it), London, or in my '88 Fox driving somewhere -- anywhere -- with the radio on 11.

#101 ::: punkrockhockeymom ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 01:58 PM:

I am a lemming. A late, late lemming, but a lemming nonetheless.

Four jobs: attorney, retail asst. manager, telemarketer, respiratory therapist

Four movies: The Princess Bride, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Two Towers (yes, that one in particular, although I liked all three), and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Four places lived: Detroit, Michigan; Ferndale, Michigan; Taylor, Michigan and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yes, I know.

Four TV shows: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Law and Order (any incarnation), Angel, and Sex and the City. Yes, I know. Guilty Pleasure. It's a shoe thing primarily and I don't watch uncritically.

Four vacation spots: Boston, MA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL.; Greenville, SC; and (upcoming) Vancouver, B.C. No, we haven't been on a lot of vacations. Yet.

Four websites I visit daily: Making Light, The Corpuscle, Whatever, and Pandagon.

Four foods: pizza, sushi, all manner of spicy shrimp dishes, and spicy chicken ramen noodles

Four places I'd rather be: San Francisco, New York City, home with my family, or at the (er, any) bookstore

Four records for the proverbial desert isle: Tori Amos, Boys for Pele; Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth; and The Cure, Disintegration and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

Four books to read and re-read: The Stand, by Stephen King; Deathbird Stories, by Harlan Ellison; any (or each) volume of The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman; and Skin, by Kathe Koja.

#102 ::: punkrockhockeymom ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 02:19 PM:

Paula:

You're not the only one. While I moved in my formative years, I don't remember it, so I don't believe it counts. My parents' first house was in Detroit, but when I was one year old we moved to Taylor (just downriver of Detroit). We stayed there until my folks moved us to Hillsdale, MI when I was 20, in 1990.

#103 ::: Frank Baron ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 02:27 PM:

4 jobs: worm picker, farm field hand, youth counselor, retail store manager

4 movies: The Princess Bride, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Harvey, The Big Lebowski

4 places lived: Oshawa, Ont., London, Ont., Vancouver, BC, Cephalonia, Greece

#104 ::: Frank Baron ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 02:32 PM:

Ack! It ate the rest of my list. I'll try again.

4 tv shows: Trailer Park Boys, Six Feet Under (only in 3rd season here), Buffy, St. Elsewhere

4 vacation spots: Montreal, Bahamas, Florida, Europe

4 websites: Absolute Write message boards and Google. Don't think there's two others I visit every day.

4 foods: perogies, souvlaki, ribs (as long as I cook them), fresh walleye fillets (ditto on the cooking thing).

4 places I'd rather be: Greece, my cottage, someone else's cottage, beside a stream.

#105 ::: Chad Orzel ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 02:55 PM:

I'm another one who can barely manage four places lived without being ridiculously specific about it (all told, I have six: DC suburbs; Tokyo suburbs; Schenectady area; Williamstown, MA; and Whitney Point, NY).

I'm no better with jobs: physics professor, postdoc, grad student, undergrad research assistant, undergrad TA, and a couple of weeks one summer spent fixing up slum apartments for my mother's boss (who owned a couple of buildings on the side). Unless you count odd jobs and babysitting.

Web sites visited daily: Mixed States, Washington Monthly, In the Pipeline, Book Slut

Re-Watchable Movies: Midnight Run, Highlander, This Is Spinal Tap, Miller's Crossing

Re-Readable Books: Startide Rising, Songs of Earth and Power, The Face in the Frost, Good Omens

Essential Albums: Copper Blue by Sugar, Gentlemen by the Afghan Whigs, Too Far to Care by the Old 97's, Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices.

(These are slanted a bit to minimize overlap with other comments, but they're all fair statements.)

#106 ::: Lizzy L ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 03:03 PM:

Ooh, Julie L., can I come too -- to the Bush/Cheney impeachment hearings? I've been really, really good this year...

#107 ::: John Farrell ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 03:13 PM:

Hmm.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: fish-monger, big Boston restaurant maitre'd, reporter for union newspapers, associate producer for local ABC affiliate

Four movies you could watch over and over: A New Leaf, the entire LOTR trilogy, Branagh's Henry V, The Cowboys

Four places you’ve lived: Boston, Milton, Weymouth, Scituate (all Massachusetts--local boy)

Four TV shows you love to watch: Fraser, Combat, Star Trek, The Prisoner

Four places you’ve been on vacation: London, Tuscany, Mexico, Montreal

Four websites you visit daily: Cosmic Variance, Panda's Thumb, The Corner, Amy Welborn

Four of your favorite foods: Swedish Meatballs, Mandarin Crispy Chicken, Fried Eggplant, Veal Chop

Four places you’d rather be: Sligo, St. Thomas, London, Rome

And sheesh--how about favorite cocktails: Beefeater Gin & Tonic; Sauza Hornitos Margarita; classic Seven and Seven; and Boru Vodka martini (or cosmo)

#108 ::: Doug K ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 03:17 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: lieutenant, office of Chief of Staff Intelligence; cubicle denizen (software programming); cubicle denizen (R&D software); cubicle denizen (software tech support)

Four movies you could watch over and over: Wings of Desire; A River Runs Through It (one of a very few movies that was better than the book); Babe; LOTR, which actually drove me to buy a DVD player so I could watch it again and again.

Four places you’ve lived: Johannesburg, South Africa; Cape Town, South Africa; Winston-Salem, NC; Sacramento, CA

Four TV shows you love to watch: Don't watch TV much, but enjoyed MASH.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Karratha, Australia; Malawi; Paris, France; North Pole, AK

Four websites you visit daily: Google; here of course; slowtwitch.com; atrios

Four of your favorite foods: wild salmon that I caught myself (doesn't happen often); my wife's pastichio; anything my sons cook for me; funky European cheese, instead of pasteurized American pabulum

Four places you’d rather be: I chose where I live now (emigrated), so I'm quite happy here in CO. Ideally I'd move all our families here too so we wouldn't have to travel to Australia and S. Africa to see them..
A friend used to wear a t-shirt saying "I'd rather be right here, right now" which I think is a good statement of intention.

Melissa, the first book of The Once and Future King is wonderful, definitely one of my re-read forevers; but it gets so sad after that I can't bear it. Not a book you hear much about anymore.

#109 ::: Clifton Royston ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 04:05 PM:

OK, I'll bite.

4 jobs: Used book store cashier, software engineer, founder/CEO of small company, contract programmer/consultant.

4 movies I can watch repeatedly: Casablanca, Seven Samurai, Yellow Submarine, FotR

4 places I've lived: Tokyo (as a child); Chicago; Nuku'alofa, Tonga; Honolulu

4 TV shows: Hmmm. I avoid watching TV to the point that I had the cable shut off and still haven't hooked it up again. I'll instead list:
4 TV shows I watch on tape/DVD: Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Mr. Show, Lain

4 places I've been on vacation: Fiji; New Zealand (North Island); Disneyland; t.b gathering in the middle of a field vaguely near Taos, NM

4 websites I visit daily: Google News; Boing Boing; NY Times; Making Light (most days)

4 of my favorite foods: asparagus; risotto; buttered toast; dark dark chocolate

4 other places I'd like to be other than right here comfortable at home: Most of Europe (still have never made it); the SF Bay Area; Arunachal Pradesh; Earth orbit (under the right set of assumptions.)

#110 ::: Sylvia Li ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 04:33 PM:

Four jobs I’ve had in my life: candy counter clerk in Eaton's; long distance operator; computer programmer; newspaper editor

Four movies I could watch over and over: North by Northwest; The Wizard of Oz; A Christmas Carol (the Alastair Sim version); Shakespeare in Love

Four places I’ve lived: Winnipeg; Hamilton; Toronto; Plainfield NJ.

Four TV shows I have loved to watch: Zorro; The Saint; Hawaii Five-Oh; Firefly

Four places I’ve been on vacation: New Orleans; San Francisco; Yellowstone National Park; Hong Kong

Four websites I visit daily: Google; Daily Kos; Doonesbury; For Better for Worse

Four of my favorite foods: Split-pea soup; fresh Philippine mangoes; roast lamb; Belgian chocolate

Four places I’d rather be: On the space station; at a Minicon dead dog party with Ellen Kushner singing a sea shanty; playing with my two grandchildren; riding a slow boat along the Li River between those incredible karst formation mountains.

#111 ::: candle ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 04:45 PM:

Melissa, the first book of The Once and Future King is wonderful, definitely one of my re-read forevers; but it gets so sad after that I can't bear it. Not a book you hear much about anymore.

I actually had the opposite reaction. I thought the first book was just a lot of messing about, and that the later books were far better (until we get to the Book of Merlyn). My conclusion was that I liked Malory more than T.H. White. I'm currently testing this by attempting to read the Morte D'Arthur (with modernised spelling, admittedly).

Paula Helm Murray: County Leitrim? May I ask why?

#112 ::: Sandy ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 05:14 PM:

And a three degrees of Internet moment:
"The 20' by 20' Room" hooks into a bunch of people I know. . . huh.

#113 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 06:12 PM:

"Melissa, the first book of The Once and Future King is wonderful, definitely one of my re-read forevers; but it gets so sad after that I can't bear it. Not a book you hear much about anymore."

I first read it in my teens. The change in tone struck me, and my reaction was along the lines of "Is this what growing up means?"

#114 ::: Richard Anderson ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 06:50 PM:

Thank you, John Farrell, for raising the issue of cocktails. I can't resist posting this excerpt from My Last Sigh, by Luis Bunuel. Apologies to the copyright police...

"To provoke, or sustain, a reverie in a bar, you have to drink English gin, especially in the form of the dry martini. To be frank, given the primordial role played in my life by the dry martini, I think I really ought to give it at least a page. Like all cocktails, the martini, composed essentially of gin and a few drops of Noilly Prat, seems to have been an American invention. Connoisseurs who like their martinis very dry suggest simply allowing a ray of sunlight to shine through a bottle of Noilly Prat before it hits the bottle of gin. At a certain period in America it was said that the making of a dry martini should resemble the Immaculate Conception, for, as Saint Thomas Aquinas once noted, the generative power of the Holy Ghost pierced the Virgin's hymen 'like a ray of sunlight through a window--leaving it unbroken.'

"Another crucial recommendation is that the ice be so cold and hard that it won't melt, since nothing's worse than a watery martini. For those who are still with me, let me give you my personal recipe, the fruit of long experimentation and guaranteed to produce perfect results. The day before your guests arrive, put all the ingredients--glasses, gin, and shaker--in the refigerator. Use a thermometer to make sure the ice is about twenty degrees below zero (centigrade). Don't take anything out until your friends arrive; then pour a few drops of Noilly Prat and half a demitasse spoon of Angostura bitters over the ice. Shake it, then pour it out, keeping only the ice, which retains a faint taste of both. Then pour straight gin over the ice, shake it again, and serve.

"(During the 1940s, the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York taught me a curious variation. Instead of Angostura, he used a dash of Pernod. Frankly, it seemed heretical to me, but apparently it was only a fad.)"

I suppose it might be appropriate to list four favorite bars: Bix's, Specs, and the Uptown in San Francisco, and any bar near a trout stream.

#115 ::: Paul A. ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 08:16 PM:
the first book of The Once and Future King is wonderful, definitely one of my re-read forevers; but it gets so sad after that I can't bear it.

I go further than that: the stand-alone edition of The Sword in the Stone is one of my re-read forevers, but I so disliked the changes made to the version that forms Part One of The Once and Future King that I never got around to reading Part Two.

#116 ::: Lucy Kemnitzer ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 10:24 PM:

I moved twice, but my kids never did unless you count three months in a motel after the Pretty Big One, and they walked to school. My daughter walked to preschool through the first quarter of 12th grade, when she slipped a disc and had to be driven everywhere: my son, K-10th grade when he dropped out. Then they both went to college in town, too, and sometimes my son walked from college to home (5 miles downhill to town, uphill to the University).

So no, not everybody moves.

#117 ::: Janet McConnaughey ::: (view all by) ::: December 27, 2005, 10:51 PM:

Stacy & David Goldfarb - I had to think to get up to four jobs; the first two were college part time or summer, and the second two were for the same employer. Any more and I'd've had to include babysitting and algebra tutoring. I think both paid 50 cents an hour, though the tutoring may have gone as high as a dollar.

#118 ::: Lois Aleta Fundis ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 03:00 AM:

Four jobs I’ve had in my life: department store clerk (Kaufmann's, Downtown Pittsburgh); worker in a factory that made women's handbags; babysitter; reference librarian

Four movies I could watch over and over: Local Hero; Casablanca; Buckaroo Banzai; Much Ado About Nothing

Four places I’ve lived: North Huntingdon, Pa.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Perth Amboy, N.J; Weirton, W.Va.

Four TV shows I have loved to watch: Maverick; The Bob Newhart Show; St. Elsewhere; The West Wing.

Four places I’ve been on vacation: Houston, TX; Coudersport, PA; Toronto, ON; Linesville, PA.

Four websites I visit daily: My Yahoo; LiveJournal; Making Light; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Four of my favorite foods: Chocolate milk; French toast; French onion soup; cherry pie. (A balanced diet!)

Four places I’d rather be: Somewhere on a warm, sunny beach (with sunscreen); a humongous library where I can just read and not answer questions from patrons; with my family; at a baseball game (Pirates winning).

(Crossposted to my LiveJournal.)

#119 ::: John Farrell ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 09:42 AM:

Richard Anderson, thank you and Happy New Year for posting that exquisite selection. I'm buying that book right now!

Here in Boston, I have to say I'm partial to two bars: the one at Lock-Ober's and the one at the Palm in Copley Place. After that, any truly Irish pub in the greater Boston area (The Blackthorn in Southie, for example, or Matt Murphy's in Brookline Village).

#120 ::: Richard Anderson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 11:04 AM:

John, I'm sorry to say I don't know Boston's bars very well. Back in the late '70s, I spent a couple of years in grad school in the area. What comes to mind are Father's 6, where it was nearly a sure bet that one would hear the shattering of mugs as a fight broke out (management switched to plastic mugs within a year or so, and no doubt things improved a couple of years later when the drinking age rose from 18 to 21), and my first Irish bar, which I think was called the Plow and Stars, on Mass Ave, where nonregulars like myself would usually be hit on to contribute to the IRA. (I don't know if our quarters made it across The Pond or merely into the bartender's cash register.) There were also a few clubs and bars that my friends and I visited for their live music -- the Rat, Cantone's, some tiny place in Central Square, the Palms. I went to Lock-Ober's once, but only for dinner with visiting family, and at that point my interest in bars, saloons, taverns, and other drinking establishments wasn't even nascent.

#121 ::: John Farrell ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 11:17 AM:

Richard, I am happy to say that the Plough and the Stars remains--indeed thrives. In fact, when I worked for Reader's Guide back in the 90s, it was a regular hang out.

I also remember the Rat--and it might still be there in Kenmore Square if it hadn't been for a major fire 5 or 6 years ago, almost next door if my memory serves, that precipitated a major renovation of the entire block and sadly, swallowed it up.

That said, there is a nice new French bistro there that makes up for it....

#122 ::: Julie L. ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 12:06 PM:

is it really true that the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga?

*befuddled look, followed by Google* I have no idea, since iirc most of the primates I saw there were members of my extended family. No tails in sight, though. Any recs of novelty albums that would have that song?

Meanwhile, my first (very indirect) exposure to TH White was a storybook of the Disney movie of The Sword in the Stone; I still remember the point at which I turned back a few pages to compare two lines of text and decided that the strange new word "Indeed" must mean the same thing as "yes"-- a more useful learning experience than the first time I read Watership Down, from which I concluded that a lorry must be some type of large animal that could pull wagons and such.

#123 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 12:37 PM:

I'll play:

4 jobs: nurses aide, fast food cashier, Kelly Girl, clerk typist

4 movies: The Wind and the Lion, The Wicker Man, Brigadoon, 1776

4 residences: Langley AFB; Wichita Falls, TX; Richmond, VA; Columbus, OH

4 TV Shows: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; The Wild Wild West, Highlander, Magnum P.I. (Honorable mention to Xena, Warrior Princess)

4 Vacations: Great Britain, Hawaii, Williamsburg VA, San Francisco CA

4 websites: NOAA, Making Light, Recent Earthquakes/Volcanoes, Google

4 favorite foods: Chocolate, Smithfield Ham, Eggnog, Fruitcake (my great-grandmother's recipe)

4 albums: Soundtrack for _The Wind & the Lion_; anything by John Williams, Deuter's Sunspirit,
1776 (Original Broadway Cast)

4 Re-read books: Harry Potter et alia, Patricia Kennealy's Keltia books, Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, Rosemary Edghill's Bast books


#124 ::: Richard Anderson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 01:44 PM:

I'm impressed that The Wind and the Lion has shown up on several of the posts upthread. I saw it back in the day on a double-feature with Logan's Run. The latter had top billing, but was far less impressive than the former. Gonna have to rent it, for old-time's sake...and for what I remember as John Milius's somewhat romantic take on gunboat diplomacy....

#125 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 02:14 PM:

Re: The Wind and the Lion

Did you catch Sean Connery's costume reference to this film at the end of _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_?

Also, in the soundtrack John Williams quotes the Raisuli theme over the Indiana Jones motif when Connery rides out of Petra...

#126 ::: Richard Anderson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 02:55 PM:

No, Lori, I wasn't aware of the connections btwn the two films. But wasn't Milius a USC film-school contemporary of Speilberg's? Sounds like the same sort of in-joke that happened in Apocalypse Now, with Harrison Ford's character wearing the name "Lucas."

#127 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: December 28, 2005, 03:45 PM:

Don't know about Milius, though it wouldn't surprise me.

Just before Connery kicks his horse into high gear he ties his handkerchief over his head so that it looks like an Arab man's headdress...

I know Williams has a sense of humor, he quotes the theme from "Well of Souls" (Raiders of the Lost Ark) in the sequence of finding the entry to the "Chamber of Secrets." ("Snakes, why did it have to be...")

#128 ::: debcha ::: (view all by) ::: December 29, 2005, 03:00 PM:

A belated contribution:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Papergirl; admissions clerk for hospital; temp; professor of engineering (plus a whole bunch of research/school type jobs to get to that point)

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Shakespeare in Love, Brazil, Dr. Strangelove

Four places you’ve lived: Ajax, ON; Toronto, ON; Bhopal, India; Cambridge, MA (I haven’t lived in nearly enough different places…)

Four TV shows you love(d) to watch: Sports Night; The Simpsons; Firefly; Veronica Mars

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Algonquin Park, ON; Luxor, Egypt; Paris, France; Lake Chelan, WA

Four websites you visit daily: BBC World News; Collision Detection; BoingBoing; NY Times

Four of your favorite foods: Roast suckling pig; sun-warm cherry tomatoes, straight from the vine; roasted potatoes and garlic cloves; Chinese buns from Yung Sing Bakery, Toronto

Four places you’d rather be: On the Marin Headland overlooking San Francisco; in a tiny café near the Sorbonne; twenty metres below the surface of the ocean off the coast of Fortaleza, Brazil; halfway up a mountain, any mountain

Four records for the proverbial desert isle: David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; Bryan Ferry, As Time Goes By; Massive Attack, Mezzanine; The Dresden Dolls, The Dresden Dolls

Four books to read and re-read: David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest; J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age; Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen

Four artists that are significant to me: Attila Richard Lukacs; Jacques-Louis David; eBoy; Gaston Lachaise

Four of my favourite drinks: Homemade limeade; Laphroaig; CC Manhattans; Hendrick’s gin, on the rocks, with cucumber.

And what seems to be the new addendum:

Four Boston bars that I love: River Gods, Middlesex Lounge, The Miracle of Science, Delux

#129 ::: Michelle K ::: (view all by) ::: December 29, 2005, 04:29 PM:

bryan,

Season 1 of "Barney Miller" is out on DVD, but that's it. And Season 1 has been out for a couple of years.

I know this because "Barney Miller" was one of my Dad's favorite shows, and I got him the first season for his birthday, and am waiting impatiently for the rest to come out.

Especially since I've almost finished giving him "MASH" on DVD. (We just got my mom the first four collections of "All Creatures Great and Small" for Christmas--I thought she was going to actually squeal in delight when she opened them.

#130 ::: Melissa Mead ::: (view all by) ::: December 29, 2005, 07:58 PM:

More new questions, more new answers:

Four records for the proverbial desert isle: The soundtrack to Wicked, "" Les Miz, the complete version, "" Lion King, the Broadway version...Several tie for 4th. (Scarlet Pimpernel, Seussical, Civil War, The Secret Garden, Once on this Island...)

Four artists that are significant to me:Michaelangelo, Davici, Renoir...um, still thinking...

Four of my favourite drinks: Hot chocolate, raspberry or mint, my dad's eggnog, lemonade, straight iced tea.

Four Boston bars that I love: The only bars I like are chocolate. ;)


#131 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: December 30, 2005, 02:02 AM:

I've noticed a couple of people put Brazil in their "Four Movies" category. I just have to boggle. I mean, I've seen Brazil, more than once even. I agree it's a great movie. But I can't imagine watching it "over and over" without having to kill myself.

(Time Bandits, now, that's a different story.)

#132 ::: bryan ::: (view all by) ::: December 30, 2005, 02:54 AM:

I was thinking about this yesterday, I'm sure I have much more than 4 movies or books that I could watch or see forever, therefore any question about it really has to do with what mood I'm in at the time. Ask me another time and the answer might be quite different. I've sometimes thought that most online quizzes and stuff like this is not meant to actually enlighten about the person answering but to give that person the chance to proclaim their uniqueness while at the same time taking part in a community.

#133 ::: Mr Wiki ::: (view all by) ::: September 20, 2007, 12:14 PM:

Jobs: reverting, copyediting, reporting, wasting time.
Movies: Animal House, Caddyshack, The Godfather: Part II, Fight Club
Places I've lived: Here, There, Over, Under
TV Shows: 24, Prison Break, Naruto, All in the Family
Vacation spots: Under, Over, There, Here
Websites: Wikipedia, Slashdot, ESPN, Google
Foods: Pizza, Beer, Sausage Omelette, Peanut Butter Sandwich
Rather be:There, Here, Over, Under

#135 ::: Mary Aileen doesn't think so ::: (view all by) ::: September 20, 2007, 04:19 PM:

Looks too on-topic to be spam.

#136 ::: Serge ::: (view all by) ::: September 20, 2007, 04:34 PM:

It's the 2-year gap that got me wondering.

#137 ::: Mary Aileen ::: (view all by) ::: September 20, 2007, 07:27 PM:

Good point, but there've been equally long gaps on other threads. Maybe he found it by Googling.

#138 ::: bryan ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2007, 05:27 AM:

spam is in the list of four favorite foods for me. I love the spammy goodness. SPAM!

#139 ::: flowery tops ::: (view all by) ::: December 24, 2007, 07:18 AM:

Four jobs you've had in your life: nurse, propagandist, embroiderer, scientific research slave.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Tampopo, The Village, A Knight's Tale, Marie Antoinette.

Four places you've lived: Sydney, Port Moresby, Canberra, Johannesburg.

Four TV shows you love to watch: Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Gossip Girl, River Cottage.

Four websites you visit daily: ML, Google, Yarnstorm, Mollygood.

Four of your favorite foods: bacon, pumpkin soup, potato chips, nougat.

Four places you'd rather be: Earthsea, Antarctica, Tilba Tilba, Uppsala.

Four Books I love: Wilderness Tips, The Birthday of the World, Home Comfort, Freezeframes (Hmm, guess I really really prefer short stories to novels).

#140 ::: calgary irish pub ::: (view all by) ::: March 20, 2010, 07:35 AM:

Interesting!!!
Four movies you could watch over and over:Titanic,pearl harbor,Armageddon,platoon
Four places you've lived:Scottsdale,Hawaii,Mexico,London
Four websites you visit daily:google,yahoo,facebook,twitter,
Four of your favorite foods:fried chicken,pizza's,steak,bacon
Four Books I love:tell me your dreams,bloodline,stranger in the mirror,man of my dreams...


#141 ::: abi ::: (view all by) ::: March 20, 2010, 07:39 AM:

Before anyone worries about spam: link stripped, content kept. Just in case the poster actually cares.

#142 ::: Jan ::: (view all by) ::: June 01, 2011, 05:20 AM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: ghost writer, virtual assistant, tutor, businessman

Four movies you could watch over and over: Facing the Giants, Letters to God, Every Child Is Special, Three Idiots

Four places you’ve lived: Valencia; Naawan; Iligan; Cebu

Four TV shows you love to watch: Grey's Anatomy; 700 Club Asia; Lost; Prison Break

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Kibawe, Dipolog, Malaybalay, Dunque

Four websites you visit daily: Aldax Moulds, gmail, twitter, facebook

Four of your favorite foods: roasted chicken, grilled pork ribs, fruit salad, pasta de tuna

Four places you’d rather be: Brisbane; London; Ireland; anywhere (as long as I'm in a mission trip)


[Moderator edit: reduced the spamminess, corrected the spelling of the poster's own website, left the content. obXKCD -- AS]

#143 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: June 01, 2011, 10:50 AM:

abi, your obXKCD link goes to this thread, rather than to an xkcd comic.

#144 ::: albatross ::: (view all by) ::: June 01, 2011, 11:39 AM:

I love the fact that despite the broken link, I know exactly which XKCD cartoon abi means....

#145 ::: Lee ::: (view all by) ::: June 01, 2011, 12:03 PM:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: computer programmer; file clerk; maintenance dispatcher for a university/hospital complex; jewelry artist

Four movies you could watch over and over: Lord of the Rings; Branagh's Henry V; Murder on the Orient Express; Mr. Holland's Opus

Four places you’ve lived: Detroit; Merritt Island; Nashville; Houston

Four TV shows you love to watch: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Bones (first 2½ seasons only); NUMB3RS; Eureka

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Washington, DC; Toronto; Los Angeles; western national parks, including but not limited to the Grand Canyon

Four websites you visit daily: LiveJournal; Making Light; Dreamwidth; Facebook (for versions of "daily" that include "not too busy with other stuff")

Four of your favorite foods: steak; cheese; dark chocolate; fresh ripe peaches

Four places you’d rather be: New Zealand; Canada; a blue state; visiting friends in India

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