Beyond Metamora » Randomtastic

15 from Fiction, follow-up

mwkelley — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:32:11 +0000

As if there was any doubt that I’m my father’s son, last week my dad sent me an email with his own [15 from Fiction] list in reply to mine. His included Tristan Ludlow from Legends of the Fall, Kilgore Trout, James T. Kirk, and Hermann Hesse’s Siddharta.

You may draw your own conclusions. My conclusion is that my dad rocks. <3

~MWK

I was hoping to write more tonight, but I just spent the last hour jotting off some lengthy emails to friends and I’m getting pretty tapped-out. Maybe I’ll pickup the chain of thought here on Weds or Friday.

Meantime, here’s a glance at the latest batch of new photos that I tossed up on Flickr last night:

15 from Fiction, a list-meme

mwkelley — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:35:40 +0000

“Be your own fiction. After that, the story almost writes itself.”

I usually avoid these but I have time to burn tonight, and I enjoyed this challenge much more than that nonsensical “BBC” list of 100 books that’s floating around. Thanks, Justin D.

The Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Name fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, etc.) who’ve influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Then, if you’d like, tag fifteen friends on [Fb] (including me, please. I’m interested in seeing what characters you choose.)

Mine:
1. Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker’s Guide)
2. Jack Duluoz [Kerouac's literary alter-ego] (Desolation Angels, etc)
3. Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
4. Legolas (LotR)
5. Yakko Warner (Animaniacs)
6. Encyclopedia Brown
7. Pippi Longstocking
8. Usagi Yojimbo
9. Ed Bloom (Big Fish)
10. Kaylee Frye (Firefly)
11. Kurt Wagner [Nightcrawler] (X-Men)
12. Randy Waterhouse (Cryptonomicon)
13. John Locke (Lost)
14. Radical Edward (Cowboy Bebop)
15. Shelley Winters ([Scary Go Round])

honorable mention:
Bugs Bunny, The Doctor, Arkady from [FreakAngels] [also: KK, Karl], Rob Gordon (High Fidelity), Cool Hand Luke, Guy Noir

commentary: #1-3 should be obvious. Small-town dreamers turned hapless, seat-of-pants adventurers after falling in with marvelous friends? Yeah. (4) Legolas was a tough choice; Aragorn is my hero in the novels, but in the films there are subtle– and a few not so subtle– moments where Legolas really shines. (5) I realized again just a couple weeks ago (while talking with Monica T) that Animaniacs likely had a bigger influence on my sense of humor than any other single source.

(6,7) Encyclopedia Brown and Pippi Longstocking were my grade-school literary heroes. (8,9) Usagi Yojimbo & Ed Bloom are the guys I want to be when I grown up. (10) Kaylee was another toughie. All nine of those characters are so fun and relatable. But Kaylee is the person on that crew whom I would most like to be. (11) Kurt’s my favorite X-Man– for many of the same reasons as Kaylee, oddly. (12) I’ve said it before: Randall Waterhouse is the finest nerd in fiction. (The rest) You figure it out.

Shelly and Ed were late-adds when I was nearing the end and realized I hadn’t named very many women. Looking back over the list though, the biggest bias that jumps out is that these characters are 100% white people. Well, okay, I guess Usagi is Japanese and technically a rabbit, and Radical Ed is fairly post-racial, but the rest of these dudes– much like the rest of my Facebook friends list– are very, very white. Not saying that’s particularly strange or unexpected. Just interesting. I guess one take-away is that it’d be healthy for me to read about and emulate a more diverse array of people.

Also, no Star Trek characters on there? Or video games characters? Huh.

Woo! Earthquake!

mwkelley — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:54:41 +0000

I woke up at some ungodly hour this morning with the vague sensation that– just before I’d woke up– my bed had been rocking horizontally, back-and-forth, as if somebody had bumped into the headboard. The building is old and prone to strange vibrations— fridge compressors kicking on, doors slamming, street sweepers rumbling by outside– but …
[read the rest]

Non-update update 3

mwkelley — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:34:59 +0000

I know, I know. Sorry to be so flaky, but I am legitimately busy here. It’s Saturday morning and I need to go to work in about 10 minutes…

Legs… aching. Need sleep.

mwkelley — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:07:37 +0000

Okay, so I promised a real update tonight. But that was before I worked all morning and then decided to walk to Fairhaven and back (about 5 miles roundtrip). It’s a nice walk, but gawd am I tired now. Gimme 12 more hours…

Update of sorts

mwkelley — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:11:49 +0000

Oh man, more than a month without an update? Sorry. Things are great. It feels like my head is finally starting to stop spinning. But September is going to bring some new challenges (and, hopefully, opportunities) for me. I’ll post a better update tomorrow night.

Back but not quite

mwkelley — Mon, 21 May 2007 20:09:59 +0000

So things aren’t coming together exactly as I’d hoped. Still lacking internet. Give me another week, please, to get stuff together.

Whiteout

mwkelley — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:09:51 +0000

What’ve I been up to lately?

New laptop. 36 inches of fresh snow in the last 7 days. Nuff said.