The Vanity Seven

Stupid memes. (That link tells you what the hell a meme is, if you’ve been lucky enough to avoid learning.)

Does anyone else hate them as much as I do? Then, wouldn’t you know it,  some person you like and respect is all, “Hey, I totally tagged you for the meme!” When that happens to me,  I go off in a corner and mutter about how I’m going to have to unfriend the oh so likeable Dan and Audrey, or that good natured Peter, and that is going to suck for me,  mostly, because they have plenty of fine friends who are much less surly.

The annoyance meme I’m crabby about today asks that I dig through my archives and find posts that fit each of seven categories. It also requires that I be somewhat vain and show-offy. Um. Okay then.

Memes.  Bah,  humbug. Here’s your seven posts, damn you.

Mmmm. Shiny. (Beautiful)

Every now and then I take a decent photo or two; they come out okay. But I’m a writer, and writing can be pretty too. I really like this tiny piece about raccoons, sadness, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Class president, of course. (Popular)

Turns out if you whine on and on about how much it sucks to love writing, people will flock to said whining. This is not behavior you want to reward, people. It’s just not. Here’s a bit on Vincent van Gogh and crappy pay.

Actually, any time I drag out the old soap box and shout in square about webby, write-y things, I draw a crowd.  Probably, it’s my insane hair, but it could be my shouting. Or, you know, that “Wow, that’s some crazy. I should look away, but I just can’t!” reaction. Whatever it is, it pulls them in.

You, Nerd’s Eye View, are a moron. Also, I hate you. (Controversial)

I don’t even want to link here because really who wants to relive the  haters? Not I! But I wrote a thing some time back questioning digital rights and disclosure policies and it was a blood bath. A blood bath, I tellya. Wait til I write that thing about buying Facebook friends and how I think that’s so not kosher. That’s going to be fun! (I kid. Or do I?)

OMG, thank you! (Helpful)

I was in Bellingham, Washington some time back on a press trip and again with friends.  I documented the daylights out of what we did there and  I’m often sending this to visitors and then,  they say, wow, thanks! I also have a lot of usefulness on Hawaii, just ask if you want to see it.

Well, that was unexpected! (Surprise success)

Whoa. This story about an Austrian who sat out WWII in a POW camp in Texas got picked up by WGBH Boston. The short version is that I sent them a link to this post in response to a podcast I’d heard, and they emailed me back IMMEDIATELY to ask me if they could record it for their show. That happened. Really.

Hello? Is this thing on? (Under-appreciated)

Honestly, the fact that you’re here at all stuns me. This isn’t false modesty, I promise. I tend to think that Nerd’s Eye View is more over-appreciated than anything else. So rather than claim that things are underappreciated,  I’ve picked something at random that I rather enjoyed writing.  Plus, what are you doing here?

Enough about me. What do YOU think about me? (Pride)

I’m annoyingly self-congratulatory about the writing I did in Antarctica. I tried really hard to capture the absolute wonder of being there, of the lethargy of seasickness and the spectacle of icebergs and of how utterly overwhelming it all was. I wrote both for TravelWild, who, for some crazy reason decided to send me there, and for my own blog. The work I did has clear voice and it’s genuine, it doesn’t sound like shilling for the tour company. I think I did some of my best work there, but I especially like this piece on hitting the seventh continent and how that felt.

Meme over.

If you want to do this, go ahead. But I’m not going to tag anyone. Dan, Audrey, Peter, you guys, jeez. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone, you know.

And now, in penance for all this vanity, I’m going to be nice for the rest of the day. That’s not easy for me. I hope you’re happy.

Bah. Humbug. Memes. Bah.

(Wanders off, muttering, to get more coffee…)