100 Things About Karl, Part Four

It’s daunting, this 100 Things project. But I’m bound and determined to complete it. This is part four of a continuing series, each one listing 10 things about, well, me. While I could easily put together another 10 weird things about me, I’m going to go with a different theme: 10 talents.

1. I have a somewhat elastic voice and have always been able to do different characters and voices, including foreign accents. Bugs Bunny? You bet. Kermit the Frog? Got it down. But my girls’ favorite has always been “the baby voice.” It’s pretty much like Elmo, but when they were little girls, it cracked them up routinely. In fact, I had to do the baby voice a LOT, sometimes for hours. That’ll give the ol’ vocal chords a workout.
2. I’ve been writing for literally as long as I can remember. Crafting stories for just as long, I think. People often say that they can’t write worth shit, and yes, some of them are absolutely right. However, it’s like anything else. I think it’s best summed up thusly: it’s difficult to do something for decades and not master it.
3. I paint, too, but haven’t picked up a brush in over a year. I was looking over some of the 2HT archives earlier and seeing that much of the graphics – including pictures of my paintings – are gone. Which sucks because all those photos are on my old broken computer. Anyway, I really enjoy watercolors. Took a class a couple of years ago and got started with the brushes again…first time I’ve painted since high school. And THAT was quite some time ago.
4. I sing. Not professionally, of course, though I have made some money at it, thanks to the marvel that is karaoke. Won a few contests and even moonlighted as a karaoke host in Dallas for a while. It’s weird, because I’m a touch socially phobic (sometimes more than a touch), but I can get up and sing with no problem. Wasn’t always that way, of course. In the beginning, I was terrified. Thank God for beer and Jameson’s.
5. I’m pretty much self-taught in all things computerey. Most of it comes naturally to me now, but I’ve spent many an hour looking up online help, figuring things out, pushing buttons and clicking menus. I taught myself most every program I’ve ever used. I used to program my own web sites, using Notepad to handcode the HTML. Even though I CAN figure it out, I don’t want to any more. That’s why I hired the beautiful Karen to redesign this blog for me.
6. Because I’m self-taught in most computer stuff, I’ve often taught classes in various programs. Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer (ugh), etc. I’m pretty good at teaching, which is again weird to me since people kind of freak me out at times.
7. I know my 80’s music. Yes, I am a child of the 80’s. I graduated high school in 1984 and my personal theory is that we’re all fairly well-versed in any music that was big during our high school years. That’s because music is so key to us in those formative times. Plus, I was a radio DJ for 4 years during that time and so I know my shit. Now? Meh, not so much. I’m not into a lot of new stuff, although there’s plenty that I like.
8. I can draw, too. Fairly well, though I think it’s rather primitive sketching, at best. Mostly I love to doodle, but I used to draw cartoons and comic strips a lot. Comics are the best, I think, because you get to write the story AND draw it out. The ultimate in artistic expression as far as I’m concerned.
9. I probably have some innate musical gift, too, but I’ve never really explored that. I do know that I can rather easily sound out a tune on the piano, no music. I can’t read music, anyway. Does that count as another thing? Shit, guess not.
10. I have a built-in bullshit detector. I can smell it a mile away. If someone starts trying to feed me nothing but bullshit, I’m probably going to call them on it, even though I’m pretty much anti-confrontational most of the time.

Whew! That one wasn’t easy. I’ll add these to the list so far and that puts me up to 40. Out of 100. *sigh*

By the way, today is Reader Appreciation Day, as declared by someone I don’t know. I heard about this from my BlogHer buddy, Average Jane.

This sounds a lot like Valentine’s Day to me, in that it seems a tad weird to me to only expect love and appreciation to be expressed on that particular day. Still, I am somewhat a joiner (call it a character flaw) so I’m going to celebrate you today. That’s right, YOU.

I really do appreciate my readers. And I hope that I express that every day. I respond to every comment on my blog, whether it’s by e-mail or the blog’s comments section. I try to create a sense of community, introducing people to one another, and reciprocate by reading and commenting on as many blogs as I can. And I really attempt to write something readable every day, even when it’s one of those Debbie Downer posts where I wax depressic. I may be depressed, but I don’t have to be BORING about it.

And your comments mean the world to me, too. I have an open door policy, you know? Say whatever you want, feel free to swear or not swear, just speak your mind. And know that I’m probably going to be a smartass in return. That’s just me. But I get the feeling from most of you that that’s perfectly fine. That’s what I love about blogging, the general comaraderie and support that we lend each other. To paraphrase the philosopher Martha Stewart, “That’s a fucking cool thing.”

And because it’s Reader Appreciation Day (as again declared by someone I do not know), I’m going to have a little giveaway. See? Aren’t you glad you didn’t just leave after the Top 10 list?

I’ll give away two “Introverts Unite!” t-shirts to two random commenters on this post. One chance per person, please, though you’re always welcome to comment as many times as you wish.

Here’s a photo of one on a headless guy, and it looks fabulous. I mean, how great a shirt are we talking about here to make a headless guy look fantastic? Think how great it’ll look with your head on it!

INTROVERTS UNITE! t-shirt
by

karlerikson

Get this custom shirt
at Zazzle

A $17.95 value (plus I’ll take care of the shipping).

And this is probably a limited edition shirt because once I get off my lazy ass I’m going to redesign some new ones using the new blog graphics. While I recommend either the Navy (pictured) or the Brown, there are other colors available: Maroon, Dark Grey, and Deep Forest. Oh, and black. Sizes: Small, Medium, Large, XL, 2XL, 3XL.

Deadline: Midnight (Eastern Standard Time) Thursday, April 17. The moment we hit Friday here on the right coast, the contest is over. Then I’ll figure out a way to do a numbers in the hat thing, I guess. Have at it, kiddies. And thanks again.