Amanda Gravel: Meme Killer
So, PR superstar and friend Sandy Kalik recently tagged me with the “8 Random Things” meme. I saw it flying around in tons of blogs lately and honestly expected it to die before I got tagged, but here we are, memin’ it up.
Since I’m a brat, I’m breaking the rules. I used to get those silly chain letter emails that were like, “Scroll down to see if your crush will fall in love with you!” And then you’d scroll down for like, 20 minutes and get to the bottom where you were slapped with some ominous message that if you didn’t send this on to 10 people, no one would ever love you. I don’t think I ever passed one on, and I didn’t become some social pariah with no friends or boyfriends.
Meme gods, I laugh at you. Honestly, though, I’ll tell you eight random things about me, but I’m not tagging eight more people to do the same. I don’t think anyone will really mind. Right? I am Amanda Gravel: Meme Killer.
Maybe you didn’t know:
1. I hate soda. Despise it. No Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Orange, Grape, Cherry, whatever. It’s all disgusting and the bubbles hurt my mouth.
2. Scary movies legitimately give me nightmares. When I was 16-17, I had a night-light in my bedroom because I had been so scared of the movie Red Dragon. Thanks, Ralph Fiennes.
3. I have my license, but haven’t driven a car in about 2.5 years.
4. I went to an all-girls Catholic high school and graduated in a class with 78 other chicks in 2004. We had no uniforms–sorry.
5. I will never order a steak in public. Ever. The thought of it gives me anxiety. I eat meat and like steak, but I just cannot order it in public. Don’t try to make me, because I won’t do it.
6. When I was in the 6th grade, I didn’t watch TV for a year in exchange for $365. My parents made a bet with me, and it was all or nothing–if I watched TV on the last day, I would have gotten $0. It was so hard! I actually made it the whole year, too. I guess $365 seems like a lot of money when you’re 12.
7. I have a thing with numbers. I heart even numbers and dislike most odd numbers, other than 5. I like 5 because it divides 0-10 in half and I visualize 5 as creating two halves. Prime numbers are the worst, because nothing goes into them–they’re mathematical rejects in my eyes. Odd numbers that are squares, like 9, 27 or 49 aren’t as bad as other non-square odds, because I can visualize the number as a four-sided shape, thus giving it some evenness… I maintain that I’m not crazy.
8. When I was little, my dad told me that adults grew wings at night and flew around whenever they wanted. I believed him and couldn’t wait to grow up.
Did you learn anything new about me?
RIP 8 Things Meme.
10 Responses to “Amanda Gravel: Meme Killer”
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I like 9.
The numbers that are multiples of 9 have digits that add up to 9.
09
18
27
36
45
54
63
72
81
90
Take any numeric transposition and subtract it from itself and you get a multiple of 9.
32-23 = 9
76-67 = 9
93-39 = 54 (9*6)
41-14 = 27 (9*3)
9’s a funny number.
Yes. I learned a ton about you.
BTW - I do have wings and I do fly at night.
> Odd numbers that are squares, like 9, 27 or 49 aren’t as bad as
> other non-square odds, because I can visualize the number as a
> four-sided shape, thus giving it some evenness… I maintain that
> I’m not crazy.
There’s actually a global conspiracy of prime numbers. Each night, the prime numbers in your room come to life, and surround you, chanting.
The ringleader is, for reasons I’ve never fully understood, 733.
The intention is that they will take over all the major numbers in your life. You’ll find that you can only watch prime-numbered TV channels. You’ll look at your bank balance and discover it’s a prime number. You’ll end up living in a house with a prime number on the door AND a prime number of bedrooms.
Against the power of the primes, the square numbers are powerless.
Look… you believed the “adults have wings” thing - you’re BOUND to fall for this :-)
You’re not crazy, Amanda. I think a lot about numbers, too.
I do find even numbers more comforting than odd ones, perhaps because we know they have factors and it keeps them grounded.
I also like palindromes — 252, 7996, 825528, etc. — and numbers like 22, 33, and 44.
So if you’re crazy, I am, too.
As for the $365 bet, well done! Wonder if I should try that with my 13-year-old daughter? And would Internet video count?
And another thing: I’m not a soda guy, either. At all those pizza-and-soda parties as a kid, I felt left out. I didn’t like either (I do eat pizza now). I remember studying abroad in Spain and order a Coke for the first time in my life (probably because I didn’t know what any of the other drinks were!). Now *that* was strange.
I have to say the ‘not watching tv for a year’ is a very impressive task.
I don’t get you at all on the steak point… steak is good and the eating of it - and obvious defeat of the bovines - should be celebrated.
On the other hand, I get you completely on the numbers. Numbers and math have always just flowed through my mind. Do you remember those little multiplication tricks they taught you in third grade or so? I do.. and I’ve gotten them so embedded into my brain that they’ve become first nature to me. Some of it seems so fast now that people think I have the stuff memorized.
I’m not one for those chain letters either. In fact, I abhor them. Especially those that come with “If you don’t send this to ten persons, you will have bad luck for ten years” or something like that. And those religious chain letters as well. I believe that we all have our own way of understanding our faith or our lack of it. By the way, I think your random number 7 is so adorable!
The all-girls school thing didn’t surprise me. Oh wait, it’s cause I was there, sitting next to you on the green cement floors from 1972.
P.S. I thought the easter bunny came in through the dryer and left through the washing machine, so there’s nothing weird about you thinking adults grew wings at night.
13) Aha. So you did already blog this. My bad :-(
1) The real question is, what did you spend the $365 on and was /that/ worth it? (Or did you save it?)
77) Haha. It’s awesome when parents tell stories like that to their kids.