Get To Know Me Tag

Here are some interesting questions I’ve answered to help you get to know more about me. I found most of these questions from other lists online. If you like, you can try and answer these questions for yourself.

1. What is your favorite childhood memory?

I have a few, but some of these I have discussed in other blog posts (if not this blog site.) One Christmas memory stands out from when I was a junior higher. The youngest of my older brothers, Dan, was a college student at the time. I took a metal shop class that year and gave him a personalized desk organizer I had made in metal shop as a Christmas gift. I also got very creative with the letter I attached to it, supposedly a letter from Santa. It started out something like this, “Mrs. Claus, the reindeer and I have had a conference, and we decided that you deserve this.” Then, I proceeded to list his sins which included smacking his little sister on the behind and singing punk songs like “Smash Your Face.” Dan is the clown of the family, and the “Smash Your Face” song was his self-penned funny response to “Bang Your Head.” He read the letter out loud to the family and laughed until he cried.

2. Have you ever been to Europe?

Yes, I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of college teaching English in Debrecen, Hungary. That trip also included a little weekend in Vienna, Austria. The next summer, I taught English for three months in Riga, Latvia and also enjoyed a little weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. At the end of that summer, I spent a week traveling to different cities in western Europe, including Paris, a town in Normandy Beach, London, Brussels and Bruges, Belgium and Bruhl, Germany.

3. Who is your favorite male YouTuber?

I like several, but I’ll say Brian Hull, because I’d really like to share his fun stuff with you. Brian is a voice impressionist who does impressions of characters from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and such. He even has some videos where he does his impressions at Disneyland or Universal Studios while conversing with the characters.

Other YouTubers I like are Caleb Hyles who sings Disney, Broadway and other fun things, Julien Neel who makes multi-tracking acapella videos where he sings all four parts, and some other crazy guys like Dude Perfect, who do all kinds of trick shots, Crazy Russian Hacker and Mark Rober who does crazy science experiments.

4. Who is your favorite female YouTuber?

I really enjoy Malinda Kathleen Reese and her Google Translate videos. In her videos, she sings songs that have been translated back and forth in multiple languages with hilarious Mad Lib style results. Here, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” which was a bit sexual, becomes an innocent song about a nerd who just likes geometry and biology. There are a few random references to “loins” though. Watch for the “gradually watermelon” part, which became a catchphrase for her T-shirt merch.

I also enjoy Bailey Pelkman, a sweet singer who sings covers of many popular songs and some others who have been mentioned in previous posts such as Erutan, a medieval/Celtic style singer, the Mona Lisa Twins and Harp Twins.

5. Who is your favorite stand-up comedian?

Brother Dan introduced me to the genius of this crazy comedian, Tim Hawkins. He has hilarious but clean comedy, and I think I have probably seen all of his videos. In this short clip, he explains the differences between boys and girls.

One fun thing about Tim Hawkins is that he incorporates a lot of music in his acts. He plays guitar, does a bunch of song parodies and is pretty good at impersonating different singers and their voices and styles. Here, he sings a song perfect for coffee lovers.

6. Which sport is your favorite?

This is an interesting one. I like watching Olympic sports, and I’m probably like a lot of other women when I say that my favorite Olympic sports are gymnastics and figure skating. I guess I like “pretty” sports including some that have been debated as to whether they are even sports at all, such as cheerleading and synchronized swimming. I seem to like ones that are visually interesting and have some sort of acrobatic element to them, so I enjoy watching the diving in the Summer Olympics and skiing and snowboarding in the Winter Olympics. Also, some of the Extreme Sports like stunt biking, parkour and other things are interesting for similar reasons, and I sometimes look into these things for my mystery adventure stories, since they seem fitting for adventures.

7. Did you ever slip in public?

My worst slips on ice were in the seventh or eighth grade. This was at a time when most kids walked to school. One winter school day, the sidewalks were extremely icy. Looking back on it, I think they really should have cancelled school. Also, at this time, it was not trendy to carry a backpack or book bag, so I was carrying a big pile of school books in my arms. I completely wiped out in front of a neighbor’s house, and my books went scattering everywhere. Just as I had gathered them up again, I wiped out a second time. The neighbor came out of his house to check on me.

8. Can you spell your name in Chinese?

No, I can not. However, one of my good friends, Iris, is from Hong Kong, and another good friend, Jeannie, is from South Korea. One time when the three of us were together with our friend, Adrienne, Iris wrote my name out for me in Chinese and Jeannie did the same for me in Korean. They both wrote on the same slip of paper which I still have hanging in my room. If I really wanted to study the paper, I probably could learn to write my name in Chinese … and Korean too.

8. Do you like poetry?

I do like poetry. My favorite poet is Robert Frost, but I also like sonnets by Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and romantic poetry from Shelley and Keats. I can’t say that I read poetry often, but I enjoyed studying these poets as an English major. Sometimes, I have gone for a hike, packing a snack and a poetry book, then enjoying both treats together once I was into the woods. It seemed fitting as a lot of poetry is nature-oriented. Of course, the Psalms are also poetry, and Psalms is probably my favorite book of the Bible.

9. Which flower is your favorite?

I became interested in orchids after seeing impressive displays in greenhouses at Longwood Gardens, New York Botanical Gardens and even at Duke’s Farm in my local area. Pinterest seemed to understand this about me before I did and kept recommending more and more orchid photos for my Flowers board. There are so many interesting varieties of orchids. Some of my reading has piqued this interest as well. I read a book called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, which dealt with true crime, someone who illegally obtained the flower from protected land and some crazed collectors. Also, Nero Wolfe, the private investigator in Rex Stout’s mysteries, is an orchid grower and connoisseur.

10. Are you a foodie?

I am probably a foodie by some definitions. I am pretty open to different kinds of cuisine, am almost constantly finding new recipes and have developed a somewhat sophisticated palate. I am really aiming to eat healthy, so I’m hoping to be a healthy foodie. Sometimes, “foodie” is meant to refer to a kind of food snobbishness. I don’t think that fits me as well. I can still handle some down homey, not so gourmet fare.

11. What song did you listen to last?

Above is the song I listened to last. The song is, apparently, from a Bollywood movie, and there are clips from the movie worked into the video. Neither the violinist nor the song were familiar to me until a few days ago when it showed up in my YouTube recommendations. I think it showed up because I follow other violinists on YouTube and because I’ve enjoyed the Bollywood dances on Wii Just Dance games. For some of the latter, I was curious enough to look up the songs and see the performances in their original context. I’ve never actually seen a full Bollywood movie.

12. What was your most awkward moment while visiting someone’s home?

Here is another junior high story. Maybe, that is just the period when awkward things happen. A good friend of mine had me over for dinner with some of her extended family, not just her immediate family whom I knew but some aunts and uncles also. We had chocolate cake for dessert. As I was eating my dessert, I saw what looked like a big piece of unmelted chocolate in the center frosting layer. I put the whole piece in my mouth and quickly discovered it wasn’t chocolate at all but a piece of metal. I knew the metal was in the cake by some terrible mistake. I was a shy and introverted kid, and I was afraid of making a fuss over it and embarrassing the aunt who had made the cake. I don’t remember how everything unfolded, but soon, everyone knew what happened. Apparently, a part of the mixer had fallen off into the cake. One of the uncles was not afraid to make a big fuss and proceeded to tell me that I should wear the metal piece on a string around my neck, and when anyone asked, I could tell them the story about how I almost died. I thought this was rather funny, but I was afraid to laugh, because I don’t think he was intending to be humorous.

13. What is your favorite dessert?

I really enjoy chocolate and coffee flavors, so I like a really chocolatey dessert, something with coffee flavor like tiramisu or a combination of both such as a mocha cake. I also really enjoy cheesecake.

14. Do you like history?

I do. I’m not sure if I was always conscious of liking it when I was in school. I wasn’t fond of memorizing dates, but I’m glad now that I did and have successfully memorized a lot of important historical dates. I also have memories of struggling to copy down outlines in a high school history class and keeping up with the lecture at the same time. I do remember enjoying reading about Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII in school. This kind of interest in royal history has stuck with me, and I enjoy watching history period movies on royals or reading books about them.

Now, I can enjoy learning about history in my own way and might watch a historical film or read historical fiction or non-fiction. I like antiques also and watch “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers” on History Channel. The guys from these two shows, (Mike, Frank, Rick, Corey, Chumlee), are known in my house collectively as “the guys,” as in “Can we switch to History Channel and see if ‘the guys’ are on?” Sometimes, there are other guys on this channel like “Swamp Men,” but those aren’t the guys.

15. What’s the most silly thing you’ve done in public?

This anecdote deals with Question 2 and my time in Hungary. During my time there, we visited a large public fountain outside one of the universities. Our group of seven teachers was accompanied by our translator, Edouard. Some of us had a desire to walk through the fountain, but we were hesitant. We realized it was a little bit goofy and didn’t want to commit a cross-cultural faux pas and be labelled as “crazy Americans.” When we expressed all of this to Edouard, who became a good friend to us, he jumped into the fountain first and led the way. We couldn’t be blamed if a native Hungarian took the lead. So, all seven of us paraded through the fountain, led by our kindly Hungarian friend.