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Made with help from ksarasara, christn7, schnuffichen, and whoever wrote this meme (which was so much fun that, yes, it was worth reposting). Thanks, guys!

(And hope my edits are okay...)

1. If you could rename yourself, what would your name be?

Huh. I don't know. I've had this name all my life.

Although... I have considered, from time to time, that it'd be nice to dump my last name and reclaim Treger, the one I would have had if not for crazy immigration stuff.

And it'd also be kind of nice to have a real middle name. And a non-hyphenated (heh, there's a bit of lexographical irony for you) first name. And maybe not be named after people who were dead before I was born. It's a tradition Mom loves, but which I find creepy and burdensome.

So... I don't know. I seem to be in kind of a "Mike" mood at the moment, whatever that means. How about Michael Charles Treger? That'll do until I find something with a cooler acronym.

But that's purely hypothetical. Don't start calling me Mike or whatever. 'Cuz I'll just look at you blankly, having completely forgotten about this. Like I said, I'm used to this name, for better or for worse.

2. What's your favorite bone?

The one attached to a nice, juicy BBQ spare rib.

(BTW, did you know that, according to the bible, women are made of spare ribs?)

3. Tell me one boring fact about you.

I have lived in New Jersey for almost my entire life.

Also, I am not lactose intolerant.

(Sorry, couldn't stop at just one...)

4. Use MS Paint (or the MAC equivalent) to draw a self portrait and post it in this meme.

Okay. Right. Time to break out my mad MS Paint skillz. (Which I totally just used today to make a custom shirt design to my niece's specifications.)

... Oh, wait. You mean I can't cut and paste actual pictures and clipart and crap? Dammit, there go my mad skillz.

Uhm... Let's see... bald, oval head, with maybe an interesting expression... How about...

(Thank you,

shortpacked.)

Oh, wait. No glasses. And besides, I don't generally wear green and purple. Oh, and I don't have eyebrows.

*sigh* Fine.

5. What did the aliens do to you when you got abducted last year?

Well, luckily, I got abducted by the nice aliens. They gave me Dippin' Dots (the ice cream of the future! ^tm) and then we

And when we got back, I had a whole new appreciation for the wonders of

The funny thing is that no one seemed to notice. Not even the thing with the platypus, let alone how the cows which had ensued managed to get the holes patched up. Go figure.

6. Choose five people from your Friends List. For each one, post a word or short phrase which you think they'll understand as uniquely theirs.

If you see one that you think is yours, post it to your journal with as much explanation and/or commentary as you're comfortable giving. Then post phrases for five of your friends so we can learn a little more about them.

Hmm. This isn't going to be easy. In no particular order:

1. Ultra Woman/Mom/Friend/Writer/Volunteer/Etc./Etc.

(What? That's a phrase! Only two words, technicaly. The /s make it okay! Really.)

2. Bella Che Deve Scrivere Più

(Blame Babelfish for the syntax. ;) )

3. (;

(More in the spirit of the meme, I think.)

4. Alice? Off with her head!

5. No pancakes? Chicken!

Now that you've read through all that, why not leave a comment? And when you do...

1. Pick up to five of my interests, and I'll tell you something about each of them.

2. If you read this, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a completely made up and fictional memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - it just has to be fake.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your LJ and be surprised (or mortified) about what people don't actually remember about you.

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HEY! Remember that time when the city was being overrun by giant mutated Pancakes and the only way to stop them was to fling Sporks at predesignated areas on their round and fluffy bodies? And you and I were the only ones with the spork-power to stop them?

Didn't we get a commendation medal for that or something? Or was that a $200 gift certificate to IHOP, even though there was pancake bits strewn about the city for 47 days afterward?

Good times, good times. I may never eat pancakes again!

Medal? I thought the prize was the Golden Syrup, which was the key to unlocking Level Six.

Whatever. "Use the Spork, Bruce. Trust your feelings. Uuuuussseee the Sppoooorrrrkkk...."

1. ok.

ninjas with nametags
kltpzyxm
shutting up mohinder suresh
robin hobb
baen books

2. well there was that one time...you remember that one time, right? yeah, that one.

the time we hung grilled cheese sandwiches from the street lamps in detroit. as i recall they were kinda hard to string up cuz the crusts kept breaking. would have been more fun if you would have stopped humming that annoying theme song tho, what was that anyway??

and then we went and had ice cream. how long we were in line, like an hour? hour and a half? i kinda lost track after you started with the turtle jokes. my knee hurt by the time we got thro line tho, otherwise i might not even have noticed. you were being pretty entertaining as always ;)

also...how did i not know you were from new jersey?

ninjas with nametags

That's something I came up with a week or two ago but never took the time to post about.

It's like this... Ninjas are supposed to be these deadly assassins. But in comics and movies and stuff, they always end up being cheap cannon fodder. They've trained all their lives to be superior martial artists, but some shmoe can take them out by the dozen just because he is a named character. Even some idiot henchman with nothing more than a costume, a name, and a gimmick is worth at least a dozen of them in terms of slowing the good guys down.

Their anonymity was supposed to make them fearful shadowy assassins, but in this day and age, it just makes them faceless and cheaply replacable.

So, to turn them from ineffective losers into the most formidible fighting force film has ever seen, all you need to do is to turn all the ninjas into named characters. They'll have the training and weapons and everything, but they'll also have the advantage of names.

Hence: Ninjas with nametags. The ultimate fighting force.

kltpzyxm

Mxyzptlk is a villain (of sorts) from Superman. He's an extradimensional "imp" with magical powers. The only way to banish him is to trick him into saying his name backwards: kltpzyxm. I figured I'd make things a little easier for Superman by putting the word in my profile. That way, if Myxie happens along, there's a chance he'll be surprised by it, read it out loud, and banish himself.

shutting up mohinder suresh

Mohinder Suresh is the single most annoying character on the otherwise incredibly awesome TV show Heroes. He's prone to giving long, stupid expository speeches which make no sense to anyone but him (and, apparantly, the writers). I'd like to just see him shut up for once. Or, better yet, forever.

robin hobb

Is the author of some of my favorite books. Fantasy novels that take place in a very interesting world filled with richly developed characters. (Except, unfortunately, for her latest series, which takes place in a new world and is pretty boring.) Check out Assassin's Apprentice (the first book she published under the name Robin Hobb). It's really cool. If you like it, there are 8 more books in the series.

baen books

Is the publisher of some neat fantasy and sci-fi novels that would otherwise have never seen the light of the bookstore shelves. Nowadays, they've become much bigger and swamped with submissions, but back in the early days, they were small enough that they could actually afford to read the random manuscripts people mailed them. And some of them turned out to be quite good. More turned out to be only reasonably good, but still worth publishing and worth reading. A couple of my favorite authors got their starts that way.

Moving on to the memories...

I was kind of surprised that it was the crusts that were the trouble. I would have expected a lot more difficulty from the cheese than we ended up having.

The theme song was, unfortunately, the one from Mario Brothers, which has been prone to get stuck in my head ever since I read a webcomic where the characters were singing it in public.

Turtles are fun. Not as fun as penguins or platypi, but fun. Especially when you mutate them and turned them into "Heroes on the Half Shell!"

Sorry about the knee, but glad I could distract you somewhat. And hey, the ice cream was totally worth the wait. We needed it after all that grilled cheese hanging. Which was also totally worth it when the thing with the birds started happening.

also...how did i not know you were from new jersey?

I have no idea. I think I've mentioned it before. I know it's in my profile.

Why? Is there some significance to that fact?

now i want to write a story with a ninja as the main character. but wait..hasnt that already been done? something called batman?

kltpzyxm. what a name. i'd hate to have to say it out loud either direction. good thinking tho, maybe i'll put it in my interests as well. superman can use all the help he can get.

skipping the rest cuz i need to be elsewhere, i'll jump down to new jersey. for some reason i thought you lived either in florida, or on the west coast somewhere. i now have two friends in new jersey, i may have to come out there sometime. (am headed that direction in the fall but slanted more towards boston... same general direction from here.)

Batman Begins, yes. But the more traditional Batman isn't a ninja. He's a martial artist who wears a dark outfit and hides in the shadows. Uses some ninja techniques. But he's a lot more than that. He's a scientist, an engineer, a detective, a master of disguise, an escape artist, etc. And he was never part of any ninja clan. Was not raised from birth to be an assassin. He also doesn't fight in the ninjitsu style. He has his own style, which he put together after studying a wide range of fighting techniques.

(There was an animated series episode where it shows that he studied under a samurai sensei, and makes a point to distinguish himself from the ninja villain of the ep because samurai have a code of honor, but ninjas don't.)

OTOH, there was a story (started out as a comic book and exploded out from there) about a group of heroic ninjas. Who happened to be mutated turtles.

There are a bunch of others. The Power Rangers went through a "ninja" phase for a while there. And there were the Ninja Gaiden games. And the American Ninja series of movies. And... well, like I said... plenty of others. I'll stop now.

My point, though, was that ninjas, when used en masse by the bad guys, turn into cheap cannon fodder. Just like the stormtroopers from Star Wars, who started off as scary warriors, but, as soon as they were faced with a named character, started getting mowed down by the dozen. Give them names and identities, and... *poof* suddenly, they're very effective.

Happened with Elektra from the comic books. Martial artist in her spare time. As a hobby. Put on a costume, got a name, and started kicking major ninja butt. Now she leads The Hand, the deadliest ninja clan in the Marvel Universe. Guys who trained all their lives specifically to be the deadliest assassins in the world. Who are so dedicated that, upon defeat, their bodies evaporate into smoke. And yet this spoiled rich girl who learned martial arts as hobby is their deadliest fighter. Because she's a named character and they aren't. If she'd only give them all nametags, and maybe let them add some "pieces of flair" or something to personalize their costumes, she'd have an unstoppable force.

... And, as usual, I got caught up in stuff and went on about that much longer than intended. Also, as usual... "oh well."

kltpzyxm isn't his name. It's his name backwards. The original name, Myxzptlk, was created for the comic books, and was deliberately chosen to be unpronounceable, just to make things more fun. Used to be pronounced on the old Superfriends cartoon as "mixel-plick," but I think the more common/semi-official pronunciation is "mix-yez-pit-lick." And, in reverse, it's "kill-typ-zee-xem."

Anyway, as for my location... I live in NJ, but my grandfather spends the winters in Florida. The west coast of Florida, to be precise. We usually shuttle back and forth to see him (leaving someone to care for him while we're gone), but we couldn't line anyone up this year. So we spent the whole winter down there, and I ended up talking about that a fair amount. So that's probably it.

Oh, and Boston is beautiful. Not sure if you're going there or just in that general direction, but I recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance.

i thought i responded to this. luckily i save comments i havent dealt with. the plan was, pr/will and i were going to a spot just outside of boston, in september. due to his dad being a jerk, it may or may not happen now. but that was the plan. i have been there before and loved it.

also i really liked your answers. i was all set to call you mike, but...really diggin' the castle!

ALSO. wow i'm really together today. i was totally going to help with settng up the meme, i just forgot. sorry...

Not too late! I can make a new post!

(And I see you reposted already! Dang. Now I'll have to come up with more answers... Well, that'll give me something to do tonight. *g* )

*makes repeated mental notes to think of something fascinating for a second post* maybe my problem right now is there's just too many notes (ignore OT amadeus reference). i cant find anything in the tons of mental paper. i keep meaning to think of something for ya, but the instant i close this window it's gone.

lol, know the feeling. And don't worry about it. If you come up with something, great. If not... there are better things to rack your brain about, no?

OMG I love the self portrait! ^______^

1. Hmm, you have several weird interests but I can't bring myself to asking about them. It would ruin their magic somehow :P Though do tell me about the word "spelunking", if you find it that interesting. XD

2. I still remember our trip to Disneyland. And I've got that picture we took outside Cinderella's castle, next to Goofy, wearing our matching Pocahontas shirts. I never knew you liked Pocahontas!

See ya,
Anna.

OMG I love the self portrait! ^______^

Thank you. I'm strangely proud of it. ;)

1. Hmm, you have several weird interests but I can't bring myself to asking about them. It would ruin their magic somehow :P

lol, aww.

Though do tell me about the word "spelunking", if you find it that interesting. XD

I just like the sound of it (click the little red speaker icon here). It's a fun word. It refers to the hobby of exploring caves.

2. I still remember our trip to Disneyland. And I've got that picture we took outside Cinderella's castle, next to Goofy, wearing our matching Pocahontas shirts. I never knew you liked Pocahontas!

Well, to be honest, I never saw the movie. But it was a cool shirt. And I'm a sucker for Disney stuff. And, well... sometimes it's just fun to match.

As for Goofy... I had to make him feel better. (Not that I don't like him - I do!) I still feel bad for him after my niece's first trip to Disney, back when she was barely old enough to talk. She just saw him and freaked out. "Don't like Goofy!" Perfectly happy to see Minnie Mouse, but... "Don't like Goofy!!" Poor dog.

Hey, remember that year we spent working on Elvis Presley's political campaign? And how he almost got beat by that guy from TV who always seemed to have unlimited amounts of gold lying around? I wonder whatever happened to him.... Last I recall, he said he was going to take his campaign somewhere where they'd be more receptive to it ... where people would see him for the darn nice guy that he was. Ha, like that would ever happen. He didn't exactly inspire warm and fuzzy feelings, that one!

(Oh, and greetings from your 1. fan. ;))

lol, yeah. Good times!

I wonder whatever happened to him...

I heard he was run over by a DeLorian. Sad, but these things happen.

(Oh, and greetings from your 1. fan. ;))

You've been talking to Sara Kraft? How is she? I haven't seen much of her lately...

(Unless, of course, you're referring to something you're supposed to be posting about... ;) )

2. Bella Che Deve Scrivere Più

That's me, isn't it? *g* Not sure about the "bella", but there's no doubt I should write more. *g*

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring this, but I'm going away for a couple of days and I still haven't packed anything. I'll think hard about what to write and will post as soon as I'm back. :)

Not sure about the "bella"

As I recently explained to someone else... It's my blog, therefore I am right. Sorry, but you're just going to have to deal with it, bella.

Anyway, have a good time on your trip! And I'll look forward to hearing something from you when you get back. :) Thanks for dropping by. :)

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