my first bloggy award! (honk! honk!)

 
Very exciting and totally unexpected. Here is the charming badge/award:

And here are the requirements:

1. Thank and link the award giver.

2. List 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass it on to as many as you like.

So...

First

HUGE thanks to the ever-entertaining and charming Bub at I'd Like To Hold A Tarantula (what biologist can resist that title?). Love her posts. Not especially biology-related, but a thoroughly engaging and entertaining dip into another's life-pool. I really enjoy her "voice."

Second
hm. this will take some pondering. 7 things about moi.

uh...
1. I don't always find talking about me super interesting...

2. The first moth I caught was the Polyphemus when I was a kid and I almost LOST MY MIND. HUGE, spectacular, AMAzing moth almost as big as your (3rd grade) head. Really, I'm surprised I didn't have a stroke.

Photo courtesy of the Illinois State Museum, taken by Dr. Everett Cahsett

3. I believe (but do not know) that I have A.D.H.D. and borderline hypoglycemia. Answer to both is good nutrition, external ways to make my life structured and productive, yoga/exercise and plenty of water and rest. Not super good at doing all (any?) of those things, so am a pretty variable person on many levels. Ask anyone who knows me well. Esp. poor Bear, be he ever so patient, and happy to feed me.

Recently visited 2 friends who have known me for years (and spent many consecutive hours with me). They (not knowing each other terribly well) agreed with each other that I am more dependent upon food for mood/energy than almost anyone they know. The sole exception for one friend was a man who was officially hypoglycemic. Oh, goody.

One "symptom" I read on a long list of ADD-ish traits that made me laugh out loud was "prone to excessive talking." This is the only thing I ever got in trouble for in school. And more than once.

Hence, biobabbler.


4. I am a compulsive counter. And pattern seeker. In unbelievably boring ways.

 The only source/credit I could find for this photo (on tripadvisor.com) was "explorers2" 

Once, I told a new friend in college about this and he said, what do you mean? "I mean, every time I walk up the flight of stairs to this apartment, I count them." "But, why? That so BORing."

Like I didn't know this.

I didn't know much about compulsive behavior (fairly common companion to ADHD) at the time, so didn't say "That's the point. I don't want to, I have to."

BTW, the staircase in our home has 14 steps.

Trust me.

Other things I count (whee!):

• The number of steps I take between scored line on the side walk that goes all the way down into the ditch (ooh, RIVETing). The lines that just cross the top of the sidewalk do not count.

• The number of seconds I can count in the spaces between telephone poles while driving, but ONLY that space where there are not telephone poles on BOTH sides of the street. If a sign or something else appears (even big litter) on either side, it doesn't count, and I have to either suspend counting, or start over.

• Nothing. Just think "1, 2, 3, 4; 2, 3, 4; 3, 4; 4" in my head. Over and over. See, that way I count 1 once, 2 twice, etc.

Now, don't you WISH you lived in my head?

However, unlike David Sedaris, one of my favorite writers (Me Talk Pretty One Day is a RIOT, especially if you've taken French), I do not have a compulsion to lick light switches repeatedly. In public places.

For that, I am grateful. =)

5. I am easily amused. And typically happy. And in constant awe of nature.

Huge, gigantic gifts that I am aware of and grateful for.

6. I freakin' love blogging. And words. And writing.

Before I started this blog, I'd been what I called "blogging to nowhere" for months. Writing entries onto a Word doc that I stuffed down into my computer.

Then a relative called me, out of the blue, and said "I think you are a good writer. I think you should write more. I want you to start a blog."

?

Then she said the MAGIC words that flipped the switch for me:

"It can be anonymous."

?!?


I don't know why that was important to me, but it was. Shyness? Ingrained computer-stinginess-about-personal-information-due-to-EARLY-computer-training? Who knows.

Anyhow, once that was established, I was IN.


7. When asked on Facebook to substitute a cartoon character for my facebook picture that is most like me, I chose:

(don't know where I got this picture, but it's Tigger, as in Winnie the Pooh, the amazing series of stories and characters among those my family worshiped during my childhood.)

Not because that is how I want to be perceived, but because I've been told, on numerous occasions, by different people, that Tigger is how I am perceived. All my friends agreed with my selection.

Allllrighty, then. Done with biobabbler-navel-gazing (phew!)


Last Task
This will be fun. =)

Okay. Now, I realize it's totally hard. I'm picking a half dozen (from among the gillions I follow).

The bloggers I'm going to give this award to are...  (click below to heighten the drama)


Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds by Seagull Steve

Not only an amazing name for a blog, but this guy goes to SERIOUSLY far flung places to see birds and relates his experiences in a very entertaining way. R rated, as you might guess from title. Just got back from the furthest flung of the Alaskan archipelago that reaches toward (but not within view of!) Russia.


Bug Girl's Blog by Bug Girl
Subtitle: Entomology. Gardening. Ranting. Nerdery. How am I supposed to resist that?!? PLUS, she had a clip from Eddie Izzard (Genius of the 21st Century) on bees? I ADORE E.I. Adore. LOVE this site. She may be too busy/popular/etc. to care about the award, but I'm sendin' it.

Count Your Chicken! We're taking over! by Johnny Nutcase
A roving field biologist who gets out a LOT and is a GREAT photographer and fellow enthusiast for all things biological. Delightful. Trust me. Go.

MOBugs by MOBugs
She's an amazing photographer (seriously AWEsome bug shots) and I learn SO much about bugs from her site. She actually posts information about bugs in addition to their names and how "cool" they are! She's also very generous re: bug-clues when I am bug-clue-less. =)


NatureID by Katie
Because she is more disciplined that I'll EVER be re: seeing and photographing and then REALLY figuring out what she's observed. Her site is super organized, has 50 million useful links, and she's very helpful. You can learn a lot there.

Tern Island Times by Peter Leary
Another Far-Flung blog, but he lives there. Lives WAYYYY out in the Hawaiian Islands (on Tern Island, go figure), and posts amazing pictures of LOVELY creatures. And you get to see what life is like out there, living for the animals, ships arriving every 6 weeks or so, etc. Always interesting.

So, there you have it. Award received, bowed to, and happily bounced back out into the world.

xo

biobabbler