Month: April 2002

Once more with feeling (but not much), here’s the Friday Five:

1. What are your hobbies?

Reading, writing, captioning, acting silly with the Monty Python Society, and to a lesser extent photography.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what?

Dust mainly.

3. Is there a hobby you’re interested in, but just don’t have the time/money to do?

I have the time and the money, but not the patience and discipline, for jogging or any other exercise. Which is a shame, because I could stand to lose some weight and I genuinely enjoy jogging.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity?

Not as often as I should be trying to. I’ve only been paid twice for my writing, and once was for first prize in a sixth grade limmerick contest. I need to remedy that. I need to write more, submit more, and try to get this webzine idea off the ground.

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to?

The Penn State Monty Python Society. I was, for my first three years at Penn State, a member of the Science Fiction Society, but in my senior year evening classes made that impossible, and I’ve never gone back — although I keep meaning to. I’m also an Eagle Scout with silver palms.

My boss took me to lunch today, which was sort of nice, though unexpected. Then I went and acted silly at this year’s Monty Python Society Mall Climb, which was fun, though a little exhausting. And then I got back to my car to find a parking ticket waiting for me, which was annoying, though not altogether surprising. And that, more or less, was my day. How about yours?

And I call myself an English major… “You scored 4 out of a possible 15. ‘[Your] wit’s as thick as Tewsksbury mustard’, and your answers a veritable comedy of errors.” Well, happy birthday anyway, Billy boy.

It’s also the birthday of novelist Vladamir Nabokov. I heartily recommend Pale Fire and Pnin, two wonderful books. And I wonder, as I once did here, is it possible that, Nabokov created the smiley emoticon even though he died in 1977? He wrote: “I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile — some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.” 🙂