Set sail with Cap'n Jak

Who is your favorite teacher?  Why?  Can you remember and tell about a special teacher?

What makes a person rich?

Being named "richard", and choosing a snappy nickname?

last seen at the VOX blogs of Jaime and blogginginthewind

Copy the list and highlight the things you've done.
Give your readers MUCH more than they ever wanted to know about you!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (nothing cool-- I studied instrumental music for years but was rather hamstrung by classical training)
4. Visited Hawaii (Island of Oahu-- Waikiki, Pearl Harbor, Waimea Bay/North Shore)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you could afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (Mount Adams south side)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (I suppose woodcarving counts)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort (also helped build a snow house)
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon (the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane is not long enough)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (of the moon, solar eclipses were only partials)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31.Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (no-- only Mennonites and German Baptists)
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (hah, I wish!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving and snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (not sure on this one)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (technically, yes)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (Impossible for me.)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (nope, only a piston-driven small plane as a co-pilot)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar (I shall have to try it-- given I like anchovies and oysters, I might like it)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (cracked right pinky finger)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (been on a motorcycle yes, driven a motorcycle yes, one that was speeding, no)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (writing a book yes, published it, no)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (I wish!)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (and the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Tao Te Ching)

86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (do fish count?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous (a few members of the Wolfgramm family a.k.a. The Jets)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (I'm the father of two-- that counts :P)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit (declined)
98. Owned a mobile phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

'Twas the night before Christmas... How are you spending this Christmas Eve? Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions you're excited about?

For a time, I grew very depressed during the December holiday season.  I was having a hard time resolving eager childhood memories with contemporary worries about providing for a family of my own.  Part of that was wrestling with mental health; the departure of sunshine makes it worse.  Another part was wondering how I would afford gifts.  Yet another was simply adjusting to new traditions.

We kept one of them; perhaps we will squeak out enough time to do it tonight, and that is to go see the Christmas lights people have put out, primarily what is called "Christmas Carol Lane" here.  Since we live much closer to it, and the weather has been worse this year, maybe it is all we will go see.  It is reliably enjoyable; to put it simply, that neighborhood simply puts up wooden cutouts of various Christmas carol favorites, usually with an open book containing the musical notation to the song.  There is usually artistic renderings of characters involved in the carol, or cartoon favorites.  Usually there are plenty of lights in various colors, although the home that does Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" puts up all blue lights along with a humoresquely drawn picture of the Vegas-era Elvis.

But we have started a few new traditions that have helped cheer me up.  One, this year, was a holiday bread made with eggnog and candied fruits.  I must say that it is a much better alternative, IMO, to the famously overwrought fruitcake.  Here's the recipe, as written for bread machines, from the Better Homes and Gardens Best Bread Machine Recipes: For 1 1/2- and 2-Pound Loaves:

• Canned or dairy eggnog (1/2 cup / 3/4 cup)
• water (1/4 cup / 1/3 cup)
• egg (1 for either size)
• margarine or butter, cut up (2 T./3 T.)
• bread flour (3 cups / 4 cups)
• sugar (2 T. / 3 T.)
• salt (3/4 t. / 1 t.)
• ground nutmeg (1/4 t. / 1/2 t.)
• active dry or bread machine yeast (1 1/4 t. 1 1/2 t.)
• mixed candied fruits and peels (1 1/4 t. / 1 1/2 t.)
• eggnog glaze - mix 1 cup sifted powdered sugar to about 1 or 2 T. of eggnog

Add ingredients according to manufacturer's directions (for me, it was more or less add liquid ingredients, starting with water, before dry ingredients).  Measurements are listed for 1.5 and 2 pound loaves respectively.  Select the basic white bread cycle.  Drizzle baked and cooled loaf with the glaze.

Another favorite tradition of our home is filling the stockings.  We choose some sort of sweet citrus fruit for the toe, add mixed nuts in the shell, and maybe hard and/or chocolate candy.  My daughter already knows about Santa, as some of you may remember (see Santa Unmasked) but this year she asked to write a letter to him anyways.  Cute :)

My parents usually host a meal on Christmas Day.  This year, thankfully, it will be relaxed with mostly sandwich fixings and an agreement that we can come and go as we need to (we'll see).

Today you will either have the longest day of the year,
or the shortest, depending on where you are. What will you do to
celebrate the solstice?
Submitted by Jack Yan.

1.  I really like oyster and anchovy pizzas.  Yes, I have blogged about it, and yes, I have gotten interesting responses.
2.  I don't know how many have actually said it was weird, but I really like mashed rutabagas at Thanksgiving.  (Thanks, Mom Q.)
3. My first year in college-- junior college (but it's a 4-year university now)-- the Grey Poupon commercial with the slogan "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" was quite popular, and I was actually asked that sometimes.  I considered carrying around a jar in my jacket so I could pull it out, offer it, and reply "But of course", just like in the commercial.
4. I have snorted and made pancakes with purple Kool-Aid.  Yes, I actually posted about this one too on a "Random Things About YOU!" thread on the forums of my Runescape clan.  I thought it would amuse the kids.  (I think they were amused, after I satisfied their curiosity by answering a few questions.)
5. I have found great amusement in people's reactions to the hair on my head and face.  Same first year in college, when a dorm mate insisted I needed to get a haircut, I promptly had my hair shaved down to the skin on the sides.  Some other dorm guys suggested I stiffen it up into a mohawk, but I kept it skater messy or pulled back into a pigtail.  I've also shaved my head a number of times.  I do it now only as a summer haircut or for Halloween costumes (see earlier posts) but I always find great ribald delight in my mother complaining about it.  She'll complain even when it grows out to close-cropped, and so I'm doubly amused when my grandmother (her mom) compliments me on it.  If you know either of them personally, you'll appreciate the humor.
6. I drank a bowl of salsa at a church dance years ago.  What a mixture of boredom and nervousness will do to me!
7. I blew a gasoline fireball in high school, burned half my face, and went on my first date with the bandages still on.

What did your parents do when you were a child that mortified you?

Oh good God-- do you REALLY want me to answer this one?

I'm sure the author is asking about quirks and idiosyncrasies about their parent's behavior in public, more especially when it seemed uncool or very less than hip.  But for anyone that's grown up in a dysfunctional family, they'll know that there's usually a facade of normalcy that usually crumbles in private.  As behaviors become worse and more damaging, the more secret they tend to be.

And see, I didn't see the title first.  "Embarrassing" is a fairly innocuous word.  But to go overboard then with a word like "mortified", well, sorry, that's the first thing I thought of-- that thing that seemed normal to me until trusted friends told me very specifically that it was not.

It's mentioned here, but it's certainly not public.

Crossposted to LJ, to show the users have had it good with Writer's Block questions that are much better written as of late.

Clothing, dinners, make-up, or gadgets... We all have things we like to splurge on. What do you think you buy too much of?

After a slew of very materialistic-sounding posts by The Much Maligned Company Among Tech Professionals (no, I don't feel like mentioning their real name in my blog again), we get something that's half-heartedly less so.  But the question seems relevant and fair enough.

I think meals out to eat is the one I tend to splurge most on.  Earlier this month, we went to a pizza restaurant-- a chain called Round Table, if you've heard of it.  The dough is made from scratch, and so it's not cheap, but it was one of the few places we could go that had playground equipment AND wasn't a burger joint.  Restaurant chain pizza may not be the most healthful (easier to do that if I make it myself), but it tends to be a little healthier than the typical fare at a burger joint.

I can't justify many meals out-- the changes in the economy spur my family to make more frugal choices-- but where we live in an apartment and don't have an enclosed outdoor area, this is one of the few times I can be out and the kids can run around fairly wild and free.  If it's not Round Table, it's a place like Chuck E. Cheese (more often, actually).  Family was wont to chide me for that until I explained that I restricted my daughter to a few tokens a shot, and ensure that she'd spend some time running back and forth just to get them.