Don't ever talk to a Meme. You can't get them to shut up.

Avast ye. I hath been well and truly tagged for the "post six random factoids about yourself and tag six others" meme. Lest the gods of the blogosphere strike me down with scurvy or cause my X-Box 360 to break, I shall comply with their wishes.

The rules for this meme are:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

I've been tagged by GDad. The chain must not be broken. (So sayeth Stevie Nicks.)

Here are the six random factoids that you may or may not want to know about me.

• I thoroughly enjoy drenching my french fries in tartar sauce when I eat them. I started this in the early 90's when a coworker exposed me to the wonders of dipping my McDonalds french fries in Big Mac Sauce. Once, I was at Frisch's Big Boy and thought the same "special sauce" rule applied so I asked for some on the side to dip my fries in. Turns out their "special sauce" on the Big Boy is tartar sauce. If you don't love tartar sauce, and you love Frischs Big Boys, you should be aware of what you're eating. And yes, mayonnaise is in your favorite Deviled Eggs and the Easter Bunny isn't real.
  
  
• Secretly, I enjoy the subversive humor that can be found in SpongeBob Squarepants. I find that in a nearly Autistic or Asperger-ish way, it is on some higher level of consciousness that borders on genius. My prediction is that someday it will be revered on nearly the same level (but slightly below) Warner Brothers cartoons. Feel free to mock me for this statement.
  
  
• When I was in the fourth grade, I won a local spelling bee and got to compete at the district level. It caused no end of torment by my peers. It taught me the American way of striving for your best then doing your best to cover up your best so your work didn't look better than your neighbor's best (read: mediocre).
  
  
• When I retire, I want to expatriate to Canada. (The country I should have been born in but wasn't.) If the Republicans win the 2008 election without John McCain as their front runner, I may retire early and take up novel writing or blogging full time about my toenail fungus treatments.
  
  
• My mother died of skin cancer in 1996. It was totally preventable and resulted from one of those moles that were of irregular shape and size and changed color over the years. Had she had it removed when it first popped up, she would probably right now be bouncing my daughter on the knee she had the baseball-sized tumor removed from. So, if you have a mole, get it checked out. Knowing is half the battle.
  
  
• When I was fifteen years old and a Sophomore in High School, I was asked out of the blue to the Junior/Senior prom by an eighteen year old Senior. It's the only time in my life that I could have been considered a "playa" or a "mac daddy." We had an enjoyable (and chaste) evening at the prom, followed by a whirlwind three or four month relationship based on cuddling, kissing, and mutual googly-eye making. She eventually dumped me one Saturday at a local air show when she told me she was going back to her ex-boyfriend (also a Senior.) After graduation, her ex-boyfriend then re-boyfriend eventually went into the Marine Corps and had his brain surgically replaced with Marine Corps regulations and took on a steady diet of what I imagined to be saltpeter, cigarettes, and macrame. In my collateral-damage-post-breakup depression and (chuckle) angst, I drowned my sorrows in cheap root beer and Infocom text adventures. The Leather Goddesses of Phobos would never again look me directly in the eye.
  

Here are the six (okay, five) friends and Bloggers that I am tagging for this meme.

• Pink Wool from Pink Sheep - Pinkwool is an old friend from High School who manages to juggle two kids (without dropping them thank goodness), gank pallys in WoW while drawing aggro, and make some kick-ass Macrame of her own. She'll probably butcher me for how I referenced WoW and Macrame. Watch the comments for the fireworks.
  
• Elfination - I met Elf in college, and I've always admired/feared how she can face the world with razor-sharp wit, slightly tilted head, a sardonic smile, and her arm firmly outstretched with her middle finger pointed rock-straight to the sky. If you want to discuss world politics, molecular biology, Firefly, kittehs, and obscure mesopotamian legends in one sitting, Elf's your girl.
  
• The Caffeinated Librarian - After reading about CL in the Blogs of Note, I started surfing her site, subscribed to her feed, and found that we had several things in common: Heroes, Harry Potter, and good music. Now, I mostly hang around and offer up the occasional half-witty(or witted) comment. Along the way I get exposed to literature and other things I normally wouldn't have otherwise paid attention to. (Anthony Bourdain for one...) Sorry CL, I know you got tagged not too long ago for a similar meme. Please forgive me, but my social circle is small. :)
  
• Chewing Through the Restraints - My good friend and soon to be professional Hypnotist. I admire his ability to look at the structure of society and find the point of critical failure that is invisible to us, yet foolishly obvious after he points it out. I can only hope to osmose a fraction of his world view into myself someday.
  
• Footnotes to the Human Species - An ever-changing and evolving work in progress inspired by the twisted imaginings of H.P. Lovecraft. I could only hope to write half as well as this guy and have it turn out a quarter as dark and macabre. He manages to examine the human condition as it squirms around in its own filth, then picks it up, polishes it, and takes you along for a damn good ride during the process.