Cirocco Jones

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot sometimes.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever).
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession

1. There is a beautiful poster made by Despair.com, with a penguin bravely spreading its little wings against a blue blue background, and the caption "Until you spread your wings, you'll never know how far you can walk."
   
   
   
   I actually find this very hopeful, in a semi-cynical way. It tells me that even if you fail to accomplish Thing A, which is what you really wanted to do, you may yet discover that in fact you're pretty good at Thing B. Which you maybe didn't want to do as much as you wanted to do Thing A, but hey, it's better than finding out you can't do either A or B.
   
   What's ironic about this is, this very post is an example of it. I didn't want to describe the penguin; I wanted to have it onscreen. I'd made an icon out of it for my livejournal many years ago, but lj icons don't translate into Facebook, so I decided to upload the icon to photobucket and link from there.
   
   I don't know why, but I couldn't upload. It just refused to go, no matter what I renamed it, no matter how I reformatted it, no matter what I did.
   
   All righty, then, thought I, let's just link to the poster itself, on Despair.com.
   
   Well it seems Despair.com finally realized that people go there and just download their brilliant posters (probably to make icons out of them) and don't buy their stuff, so now you can't see the actual posters. You get a tiny little version that you can't enlarge, to give you an idea of what the thing looks like, and you get the text underneath. You want to see it actual size? Buy it.
   
   Fiddled around with despair.com, trying to get around this.
   
   Finally gave up.
   
   Decided to celebrate how, in discovering how useless I am at showing a single damn poster, I learned to appreciate my descriptive abilities. And my ability to create a pseudo-penguin using two ovals and a few squiggles on Microsoft Paint.
   
   Yeah, that's it. ::ahem::
   
   
2. 
   
   The boys and I will be in the next black belt testing done by our school. This a big deal. We'll probably end up going to special Black Belt classes, will put in lots of hours assistanting, will have to write essays, pass rigorous physical tests, and be required to memorize everything we've spent the last five years learning in order to spit it out on command.
   
   Also, I just had to re-make our icon. The boys are almost as big as I am now, and at least one of them will surpass my height in the next few months. Our last icon, that I made when we got our red belts, doesn't show the current state of things. See?
   
   

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot sometimes.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever).
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession

I think this is supposed to mean "five people who mean a lot to you." But what the heck, I decided to list five people whose names have become synonymous with something. And therefore have a lot of "meaning."

::obligatory lame pun groan::

1. Judas
   
2. Einstein
   
3. Jezebel
   
4. Napoleon
   
5. Mother Teresa

If this had been more than five people, I would've included Milli Vanilli, just because they were funny even before they became a byword for lip-synching ;)

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot sometimes.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever).
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession

1. I can speak three languages, and (sort of) read a fourth. And also: Das Auto ist blau.
   
2. I go by my middle name because I hated my first name when I was a kid.
   
3. I can bend my left pinkie backwards until it touches the back of my hand. It's kinda gross.
   
4. My family doc thought I was anorexic when I was twenty. I thought I had some kind of wasting disease.
   
5. I was in labour less time with two kids than most women are with one.
   
6. When we got married, we walked down the aisle together. Although technically it wasn't an aisle, but a path to a gazebo.
   
7. I often dream of visiting Antarctica, the Shetland Islands, and Iceland. Then I remember that I don't like cold very much.
   
8. My cat's name is Jehovah. We once had another cat, named Shiva. And Justin has decided that when he gets a kitten, he will name it Apollo or Athena.
   
9. I've tried to give blood three times. They won't let me try again :(

So this meme's been making the rounds over on facebook. Late to the party, but here goes:

1. I speak English, French and Spanish, and have learned to (very haltingly) read Portuguese. Keep thinking some day I'll buy language immersion software so I can learn to understand and speak it too. Oh and I took a Sign Language class when I was a teen. Don't remember most of it.
   
   
2. I wanted to be called Violet or Cindy when I was a kid. No idea why.
   
   
3. I am heterozygous for brown eyed genes. I only know this because my younger son has blue eyes.
   
   
4. I've learned to say I was "raised as" an only child. I have three younger brothers and one younger sister, the eldest of whom is sixteen years younger than me.
   
   
5. I have many aliases. My Chilean birth certificate says one thing, my Canadian Citizenship card says another, my Queen's diploma says something else, and my driver's license and teacher's certificate have errors (driver's license gives me a random middle initial that I believe was the result of a blot on the application form, and my teacher's certificate calls me Zimena.) I've also got two online names, used an alias when I volunteered at a crisis centre, have had a series of nicknames, and for many years was called "wench" by one of my closest friends in high school.
   
   By this point, I think the only names I've never been called are "Violet" and "Cindy."
   
   
6. Both times I was pregnant I wished for a quiet, shy, artistic little girl. Both times got the exact polar opposite. Ever so glad I did :)
   
   
7. I was an atheist as a child, then agnostic for most of my adult life, then back to atheist after my mom died. It's not a 100% certainty, though. I'm not really sure enough to say with certainty that there is no God; just that I personally don't think He exists.
   
   
8. I have been to every continent but Antarctica.
   
   
9. You know outing yourself? Someone I'm very close to has, I think, unintentionally inned himself, by being monogamously married to a woman for many years. Most people who know him would be surprised to learn he's bi, even though he's never made a secret of it. It's just somehow never come up. Ever.
   
   
10. I make most of my kids' Halloween costumes.
    
    
11. I've worked at a maximum security prison. Spent a few months locked into a room with murderers and rapists, was told my desk was right underneath Paul Bernardo's cell, and still felt safer there than in most high schools ;)
    
    
12. When the Queen's Birth Control Centre was planning to change its name to be more inclusive of non-heterosexuals, I was a volunteer and voted for our name to become the Sexual Health And Guidance centre, just for the initials. We became the Sexual Health Resource Centre instead. Boo.
    
    
13. My most precious material possessions are a set of diamond earrings I got from my parents when I graduated from high school, and a set of pearl earrings I got from my mother-in-law when I got married.
    
    
14. I have written approximately 950,000 words of fiction. Not a single one will ever be published.
    
    
15. When I was a waitress at Swiss Chalet, the manager once pointed out to all the other waitresses that I had the "perkiest bow," and urged them all to copy my technique. I decided that I did not want to be a waitress any more.
    
    
16. I am still bitterly disappointed at my countrymen and women over our Toonie. For non-Canadians, that's a two-dollar coin, so named because our one-dollar coin has a loon on the back, and is called a Loonie.
    
    I mean, seriously, people. We had a chance to call one of our coins the Doubloon. And we picked Toonie instead? ::facepalm::
    
    
17. I have no body modesty whatsoever and would be perfectly content to wander about the city in the altogether if it wasn't illegal. And too cold, for most of the year.
    
    
18. I have eaten cow's tongue, goat meat, bull testicles, some giant rodent, pig's feet, chicken feet, and sheep brains. Most were pretty good. Brains were gross.
    
    
19. When I was a kid, every time somebody discovered I could speak Spanish and said, "Say something in Spanish!" I would respond with, "Que quieres que te diga?"
    
    
20. Both of my children had the same due date.
    
    
21. I don't like ice cream or Coke/Pepsi.
    
    
22. I learned to ski in the Atlas mountains. Loathed skiing with all my heart until I was a teenager.
    
    
23. I own two lipsticks and two blemish-hidey thingies. They come out for choir concerts, dates, and job interviews. I had a makeup kit with a wide array of cosmetics for a few years, never used it, and eventually donated it to a women's shelter.
    
    
24. I have been able to recite a four-minute long poem by Roald Dahl since I was ten.
    
    
25. I played Frederick in the Pirates of Penzance production of my elementary school. First and last time I've ever soloed.

Snagged from several people:

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

Yeah, still working on my paper. ::sigh::

But I'm taking a slight silly-break to do a meme, 'cause memes can make it all better for a few minutes at least. This one's simple: first sentence of your first lj post for every month this year:

January: So, the vidrecs I mentioned yesterday:

February: So, I've had this horrible, horrible song in my head for about 48 hours: Dennis Leary's "I'm An Asshole."

March: It's like I'm a harbinger of doom or something.

April: Because I've had a crappy day and not much desire to dive back into the whole Death Thing right away, here's something that made my day, from Florence King, courtesy of mynuet's lj:

May: OK, who has any idea where that quote is from?

June: I just wrote the following e-mail to sales@1877garbage.com.

July: How the mighty have fallen.

August: ( Police hunt on in Western Canada for Ontario pedophile and two missing boys )

September: To do list, of interest to nobody but myself

October: Not that it's been a terribly busy week - in fact, it hasn't - but I've been at my mom's house going through stuff and it's been a bit harder than I thought it would be.

November: Daniel is in the shower, very softly singing

December: Link from stephantom: Law and Aurors

Both The first from sidravitale, the second from shiningmoon ;)

One word, no explanation:
1. Yourself: Jim.
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: Married.
3. Your hair: Brown.
4. Your Mother: Deceased.
5. Your Father: Pilot.
6. Your Favorite Item: Books.
7. Your dream last night: None.
8. Your Dream Home: Here.
9. The Room You Are In: Study.
10. Favorite Colour: Green.
11. Your fear: Cancer.
12. Where do you want to be in ten years?: Here.
13. Who you hung out with last night: Family.
14. What You're Not: Rich.
15. Your Best Friend: Partner.
16. One of Your Wish List Items: Health.
17. Your Gender: Female.
18. The Last Thing You Did: Type.
19. What You Are Wearing: Shorts.
20. Your Favorite Weather: Warm.
22. The Last Thing You Ate: Jellyfish.
23. Your Life: Good.
24. Your Mood: Chipper.
25. Who are you: Me.


1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain.
Doña Ximena, from El Cid, which I really should read some day. Although in Chile Jimena/Ximena is as common as Susan or Karen here, so it's not like that's the only place my parents had ever heard the name.

2. Do you have your children's names picked out already? If so, is there any significance?
I had my daughter's name picked out when I was little: Julia, for my mom. Never had a daughter, so I never got to use it. We settled on Daniel's name while I was in labour. Settled on Justin's name around when we found out he was going to be a boy.

3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been?
Rodrigo. Yes, I am eternally grateful to my vagina.

4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why?
I did rename myself, when I was 13. I had gone by my legal first name, which is conveniently the same in the three languages I speak (English, Spanish and French), but which I (inconveniently) deeply loathed. Went to my middle name, which baffles most people in Canada, though I made things a bit easier on myself by changing the spelling from the original Ximena to Jimena. Didn't really feel like having people call me Ex-ih-minna for the rest of my life.

When I was a kid I also wanted to be called Violet or Cindy. B'zuh?

5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do w/ your name constantly?
JimEEEna instead of Jim-enna. Was never a big deal until the year I worked with a pompous tool (and blistering idiot) who insisted on calling me JimEEEna despite numerous corrections, then got mad at me when I finally corrected him in front of other people. Oh, and I didn't much appreciate the minister at my mom's funeral calling me that either throughout the whole ceremony, especially after Chris corrected him a couple of times.