Everything You Wanted to Know About My Panties... Sort Of

Simmer down now, class, it's not as racy as it sounds. This is yet another meme, this time thought up by the delightfully deviant Michelle Simkins, although if you believe her story, it was all Twitter peer pressure that made her do it. Something about goats and panties... We all knew it was bound to happen one of these days :-P

So Michelle tagged Suzanne, and Suzanne tagged me. So here we go!

What do you call your panties/underwear/undergarments? Do you have any commonly used nicknames for them?
Pantaloons! Just kidding. I just call them panties or underwear (under there!) Nothing fancy.

Have you ever had that supposedly common dream of being in a crowded place in only your underwear?
No, I don't think so. I've had dreams where I was inexplicably topless, but that's it. And I haven't had any of those types of insecurity dreams in a long time.

What is the worst thing you can think of to make panties out of?
Hair clippings. Hair splinters, anyone?? Yikes.

If you were a pair of panties, what color would you be, and WHY?
I would be lime green, because it is awesomesauce. Best. Color. Ever. For ANYTHING.

Have you ever thrown your panties/underwear at a rock star or other celebrity? If so, which one(s)? If not, which one(s) WOULD you throw your panties/underwear at, given the opportunity?
I have never thrown my panties at anyone. The only time I want my panties being thrown is if Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) is tossing them back to me after a steamy night of geek loving.

I mean, c'mon... Those boyish good looks. The suggestive way his double action revolver juts from his hip like that... Oh, sorry, what? Where was I...


You’re out of clean panties. What do you do?
Wash some? Seems like the smart thing to do...


Are you old enough to remember Underoos? If so, did you have any? Which ones?
I do know what they are, but I never had any.

If you could have any message printed on your panties, what would it be?
SLOW DOWN ;-)

How many bloggers does it take to put panties on a goat?
Four - Two to wrangle the goat, one to slip the panties on, and one to blog and tweet about it.


Tag Four People and tell them why you are being so cruel to them.

1. Dawn Sparrow because she's one of my crazy AQC/Twitter friends who has so far been spared from this silly panty meme.

2. T.L. Tyson because I think she's fun and awesome and needs to be introduced to the Twitter #goatposse

3. Darke Conteur because she needs to take time to do this so that I'll have time to catch up to her on the short story publications (yeah, right lol)

4. Kacimari because she's another AQCer who should get in on the fun! (UPDATE: Riley Redgate tagged Kacimari with the meme yesterday... so instead of me thinking of someone else to tag, she just gets to be extra special tagged!)

So go forth and answer the panty meme questions, and tag four more bloggers!

(As a side note, please read this hilarious response to the evil goat panty meme for a load of laughs.)

And that, my dear readers, is the end of the memes. I swear. Next person to tag me in a meme will be shot on sight. Or forced to put panties on a goat. I haven't decided.

Bring on the Memes!

I was tagged in two separate memes circulating around the blogs of my writing buddies, so I figured I should play along. This first one comes to you courtesy of Dean, who recently guest posted here about time management. You can read his meme answers here. Now I'm going to be a total party-pooper and not do the tagging thing at the end of this (I know, boo, hiss, groan, I'm soooo lame haha) because 1. I feel like 8 people is a lot, and 2. I'm willing to bet everything I can think to tag has already been tagged. But feel free to copy the questions if you want to continue the meme-tagging! You can copy the tagging questions from Dean's post. Without further ado, bring on the memes!

If you could go back in time and relive one moment, what would it be?

Hmmm, this is a difficult one. I guess I would say my wedding, which is a lot of moments rolled into one day. It went by so fast, that I'd love to go back and experience it again.

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?

I don't think I'd change anything. Every experience I've had, good or bad, has helped shape me into who I am today, and I wouldn't change that. I've learned from the bad stuff, so I can't regret them. That said, I'll pick a tiny thing: my senior year in high school I was seriously crushing on this freshman guy, but I never did much about it. So if I could change that, I'd go back and say "Hey, I really like you." It probably wouldn't affect much of my future (although you know what they say about a butterfly flapping its wings...) but it would've made another nice little memory of that time.

What movie/tv character do you most resemble in personality?

I honestly don't know. This might be a better question for someone else to answer about me. I always loved Daria, though. I think we're kind of alike in certain ways.

If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would it be?

The man who decided that the soap dish thingy should be in the middle of the wall in the shower, where the soap is constantly getting wet, instead of on the far wall, away from the spray. Didn't he realize that by putting the soap dish there, he all but guaranteed premature soap dissolve? Sheesh.

Name one habit you want to change in yourself.

I tend to be a bit indecisive, especially when faced with a multitude of choices. Sometimes it's good that I take my time before making a choice, but sometimes I really just need to get over myself and pick something already. Like when I'm out to dinner. Stick me in a restaurant with an extensive menu (it really doesn't even have to be that extensive) and watch me sweat lol.

Describe yourself in one word.

Easygoing

Describe the person who named you in this meme in one word.

Sweetheart!

Why do you blog? Answer in one sentence.

"I write in order to find out what I know" - Patricia Hampl

Who am I tagging?

Nobody! Because I'm a party pooper. I usually don't even participate in these types of things (but how could I turn down a nice guy like Dean?) Seriously, like those email chain memes and stuff. The buck most definitely stops with me. Sorry :-P But I have another meme coming up that I may tag a few people for, so stay tuned!

Meme The Second:

Are you hot?

Totally. It's like 80 degrees in here right now. :-P

Upload a picture or wall paper you are using at the moment.

I don't have any wallpaper on my computer, so here's the most recent pic I took with my phone.

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

Umm... I think it was about a week and a half ago? I had it on a salad.

The Song(s) you listened to recently?

Già il sole dal Gange, Nel cor più non mi sento, Come raggio di sol, and a few other Italian arias. I want to audition for a choir, so I'm trying to pick a song for the audition (refer to the indecisiveness I mentioned above lol)

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

That I really wish Blogger would stop messing with the font and formatting and just do what I want already and stop making me go into the html to fix stuff!

Do you have nicknames?

Jen, J.Lo, and jello

A Writer's Guide to Successful Blogging, Part 2

Today's Successful Blogging topic is all about time management. You can get so sucked into blogging and social networking that you lose sight of what you're supposed to be doing in the first place: writing! Or, you can be such a good little writer, churning out word after word, that you kinda neglect your blog until it has tumbleweeds and cobwebs. How do you find the time?

One of the best features to take advantage of (on both Blogger and Wordpress, as well, I'm sure, as other blogging platforms) is advance post scheduling. You can get your post(s) all set up and ready to go, then schedule them to post at the desired date and time. So if you have a particularly productive day where you hammer out four posts, you can schedule them and have extra time later on. This also helps with my second point:

Pick a schedule and stick to it. Even if it's just "I'll post on the first Monday of every month", that's fine. It gives your readers something to look forward to. I know, I know. Believe me, I know what you're thinking. But do as I say, and not as I do on this one, mmkay? Maybe one of these days I'll take my own advice here haha.

To finish up this post, I've invited Dean C. Rich, writing friend extraordinaire from AQC, to tell you how he's found the time to blog. He's quite the busy man, and he's only been at this blogging thing for about a month and a half, and he's doing well. Check out his blog for a new time management tip every Thursday.

Take it away, Dean!

J. Lea Lopez has become a great cyberfriend. I met her in the forums and Wednesday night chat sessions at Agent Query Connect. I am honored to be a guest blogger on her blog.

I’ve set up a blog of my own, and I have a very full plate. I have three children at home, one is a dancer, two sons in show choir, and all three play instruments. My wife works full time and I am a general manager working 60+ hours a week. So yes, I have a very full plate.

J. Lea and a few others at AQC suggested, no scratch that, urged, well no not urged, insisted on members setting up a twitter accounts, and a blogs. (Oh Dean, you make it sound like we were cracking the whip! *wink*) You must have a platform. I thought no way can I do a blog, twitter, write, and keep up with my professional life and family life.

However, as a writer you need a platform. You need to be involved in a writing community. AQC is a great place to start.  (I will blog about that on my own blog another time.) The community taught me to twitter. They got me to blog. Slowly I am building a following. I was very hesitant to blog, but my friend J. Lea really helped me get started. She suggested I build the blog but not tell anyone about it until I was more comfortable. So I hinted to my friends at AQC that I was working on it, and I even managed to build some anticipation to the “unveiling” of the blog. Twitter went from 10 AQC friends to over 100 followers. My blog now has 13 followers, seven are friends I’ve made from AQC, but the others have just arrived. So I will say I’ve some success with my blog and twitter. I am making some great friends doing this. (And if I may interject again, Dean, with his 13 lovely followers, consistently has more comments on his posts than I did at that stage. Or even now, with 68 followers. Ahem. Just sayin'. :-P)

I know J. Lea has already talked about auto post, (this works great for me!) I like routines. Routines help me get so much done! The ebb and flow of the week gives me a few windows to write for my blog.  It also helps to post a schedule on the blog. This makes you accountable to your readers.  Accountability is important, it introduces self discipline, and forces you to make a commitment to your blog, and your readers. (Eventually you will gain readers.)

My goal is to post at least one item a week. To achieve my goal I decided to be true to the blog's theme, Time. So for me the only thing that is an absolute with my blog at this point is Thursday’s Time Tip. I must post a time tip every Thursday. Although my blog has room for other things I am committed to posting once a week. Eventually I may post themes on other days of the week, but I've left that open right now. I do have plans to expand the blog in the future.  I currently have slots for tips on writing, excerpts on my work, as well as essays from my life, a get to know you type thing.

The important thing is to make up your mind to do something, then build a way to make it work.

15 minutes for twitter a week. 20 to 40 minutes a week to write at least one post for the blog. Auto post will make it happen at the same time every week. Find a rhythm, a routine, stick with it and some level of success will come your way.

Happy blogging!