Memes – the wretched beasts…
"Meme — Inbound, port side; single, low, slow. Warning Red; Weapons Free…"
Seems someone over here has some excess time on their hands and thought to tar Lex and YHS with the notorious “List eight habits or facts about yourself, then tag eight more people” meme.
First thought was:
But since the swordbearer is busy getting ready for a new crop of knobs, on further reflection (and lack of a ready topic for today), the editorial staff relented. So, presented here without further ado, my 8:
1. I was (am) a space nerd – to the extent that while growing up not only could I name every manned mission through Apollo, I could recall crew names, mission objectives and launchers. How bad was it? How many 7th graders do you know who could have told you in 1967 what the fuel was for the Titan II missile used to loft the Gemini astronauts, or had his cast signed by Pete Conrad (who remarked at the time he had signed a lot of things, but no casts until now). Oh, and for the record, the Titan fuel is a hypergolic mix of A-50 Aerozine (50/50 mix of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH)) and dinitrogen tetroxide (the oxidizer) – just thought you’d like to know.
2. I was an inveterate model builder and reached critical mass where all my shelves as well as my ceiling were populated with a collection of 1/72 and 1/48 scale aircraft that would put any museum to shame (were they of the full-size variety). Alas, my modeling is somewhat more restrained these days and lies mainly in collecting out of production Topping/Precise models.
3. My first flight was at age 2 in a Cessna 170. The bit, as they say, was set from that point on. Soloed before I had my learner’s permit – kind of odd having to be driven to the airport by your parents so you could launch on a cross country that would last the better part of a day and stretch over three states…
4. While today’s CGI-dominated sci-fi movies are fun, my favorites run in the 50’s and 60’s (original War of the Worlds, Fantastic Planet, When Worlds Collide, and of course topping the list, 2001). There are several other movies from the same time period I enjoy far more than today’s, including Twelve O’clock High, Seven Days in May, Dr. Strangelove, Casablanca, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. TV programs included Twelve O’clock High, Combat, The FBI, The Invaders, … hmm, I sense a pattern…
5. Books. We have books. Lots of books. A mover’s nightmare of books (moving up here from Tidewater 5 years ago, the movers were pretty upbeat about the load out – until they reached the library…). Recently have started downsizing anticipating smaller quarters when the scriblets move on – one local public library has a foreign policy section to die for now…
6. Computers – became immersed in the first micro-computer wave while at Monterey in 1982. A heady time it was with Apple II’s (and the occasional Lisa – but only the nuke guys could afford it w/their bonus), TRS-80s, Kaypro’s, Osborne’s, Heathkits, Epson’s, and homebrews. 300 bd dial up modems, several flavors of DOS in use and programs to match and copywrites? *cough*… Today the Scribe household is residence to no less than 5 laptops, a couple of desktop/fileservers and of course, all networked together, with the occasional Apple when yon furry-headed eldest son comes a calling.
7. I played clarinet from grade school to high school until I busted my wrist and other interests prevailed (including football, where we busted other body parts…). That same clarinet has been used by each of our three scriblets over the course of the last 15+ years while they’ve been in Symphonic and marching band. Two more years to go and I think it will be retired – until needed by a grandchild (none of which are remotely on the horizon – yet).
8. I took 5 years of Latin (counting Jr High and High School) – in public schools no less, and I’m not Catholic…ecce
Now the rules say to tag 8 others, and since we view such things as being almost (but not quite) like homework and being as how we were tagged late, most of the others I’d thought about have either already been so tagged or we risk visions of things best left unvisualized with others – hello Skippy-san 
… and yes, "it" is frozen over…
P.S. 9. I like Gustav Dore illustrations — watch these spaces for more 
😮 Be careful what you wish for-you may surely get it! I suppose I need to keep it SFW?