More Awards (and a Hidden Update)

And the awards keep coming...

I.  Stylish?  Me?

Tonja at Tonja's Musings graciously awarded me a Stylish Blogger award.  Thanks, Tonja! I really appreciate it!

For this award, I have to share about the last time I dressed up.

Well, I'll take "dressed up" as meaning in a full suit and tie.  You know, there was a time when I could have  just said, "today at work."  In the early 1990's, I worked for EDS (Electronic Data Systems) at the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan and I had to wear a suit each and every day.  One of the old jokes was that EDS used to stand for "Everyone Dresses in Suits" or "Everyone Dresses the Same".  Back then I was doing PC support, and so it was a lot of fun to get to crawl under desks connecting and disconnecting power cords and cables when I was wearing suit pants and a tie.  Thankfully, saner heads have prevailed in the business world, and now my 'work clothes' are pretty much khaki-based "business casual," with jeans on "casual Fridays". So now I only wear a suit when I'm out with the wife on a special social occasion.  It's been a while, but I believe the last time was for a special dinner with my wife  (the last wedding we went to was much more relaxed, so no suits involved other than on the bridal party).

Now I get to award five other bloggers.  Here are five of my favs who don't already have this award (as far as I can tell):

-- Jes at a sort of mental squint 

-- Gina at A Diary of a Writer in Progress  

-- Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic 

-- Nicole at  Write Me a World  

-- Christine Rains at her self-titled blog   

-- Plus, I'll also award L.G. Keltner at Writing off the Edge because of my next award:

II. Versatile Blogifyin'

As, I just mentioned, L.G. Keltner at Writing off the Edge awarded me the Versitile Blogger Award.  Thank you very much, L.G.!

For this one, I have to list seven random things about myself.  I just shared a bunch in my last post, but I'll try and come up with seven others...

1. I used to have to wear a suit everyday to work, but no longer do (hey -- that factoid from above can still count towards this list of seven, can't it? It's from the same post after all...).
2. I've yet to get a story published, but I think I keep getting closer all the time.  I'm currently working on a couple of requested revisions and resubmissions, so hopefully I'll have some positive news for you soon (see, this IS supposed to be a writing blog, so I see no harm in squeezing in a writing update disguised as a "random factoid", right? I even mentioned it in the title of this post).
3. The first record I ever bought was a 45-rpm record (any of you other olde pharts remember those?) called "Hitchin' a Ride." I was 10 years old and played that record a bazillion times.  And yet, I've never wanted to hitch-hike in my entire life.
4. The first movie I ever saw in a theater was at a Saturday afternoon matinee that my mom took me to back in like 1965 or 1966.  It was the classic horrible movie, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians".  
5. While I was too young to realize how bad that movie was (I thought it was awesome seeing the picture covering a WHOLE WALL!), it would have probably still qualified for "the worst movie I ever saw in a theater" for most of my life, until it was overthrown by the wretchedly horrible Tom Green movie, "Freddy Got Fingered" which I took my stepson to at his insistence in 2001 or 2002.  This is the only movie I've ever been to where there were signs in the auditorium warning you that you would NOT get a refund if you decided to see the film.  This movie made "Santa Claus conquers the Martians" seem like "Citizen Kane".  It's been over ten years and yet my eyeballs still burn.... 
6. My favorite off-shoot about being a Trekkie?  When I lived in the Detroit area, a good friend and I used to play "Star Fleet Battles", based on the Star Trek universe.  It was one of the best table-top strategy games ever.  The rule books (yes, there were multiple ones) took up a massive three-ring binder. 
7. My most favorite guitar solo/performance?  How about Jimi Hendrix doing "Machine Gun" with the Band of Gypsies, New Year's Eve 1969/1970 at the Fillmore East. None of what you might expect from Jimi live -- no behind-the-back, no playing-with-his-teeth, no pelvic-thrusts-into-the-amp.  Just a phenomenal range of emotional context -- from screaming, feedback-laced, take-your-head-off intensity, to soft, mournful, ethereal moments.   Simply amazing.

So there you go -- seven more tidbits about me.

Now, from what I've seen on L.G.'s and other blogs, I'm supposed to pass this award on to from 5 to 15 other bloggers.  Well, I like my list of five from above, so I'll double-dose them with awards:

-- Jes at a sort of mental squint 

-- Gina at A Diary of a Writer in Progress  

-- Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic 

-- Nicole at  Write Me a World  

-- Christine Rains at her self-titled blog  


Be sure to visit each of them and offer your congratulations  -- Twice!