Awordz! I Has It!

Thanks be to Mauigirl of Mauigirl's Meanderings

Now for the addictions meme. I am to list five addictions in my life. That's easy.

1) Taking Myself Seriously

Like many intelligent folk, I have a habit of reading serious books, watching serious movies, using words with more than five syllables to accentuate my point of view, and waxing nostalgically about grad school. Fortunately, this temptation is tempered by the fact that I have never visited a third world country, do not know the ins and outs of Ethiopian food, and do not fluently speak a foreign language.

2) Obsessively Using Wikipedia

Before Wikipedia, one had few tools at easy disposal to fact-check talking points or confirm the names of obscure pop culture figures. What I love about Wikipedia is that many topic pages are so obsessively cross-linked that one can start out at say, World War I, and end up reading about the history of peanut brittle.

3) Orange-flavored candy

Since I was a child I have always loved the taste of citrus fruit, but have a particular weakness for anything orange-flavored. Such products include orange jelly beans, orange-flavored chewing gum, marmalade, orange tea, Tang, and the like.

4) Differently-designed guitar strings

Most conventional guitar strings are manufactured similarly, with a nickle or steel center, which is then wound with copper or brass for a bright tone. Some guitar strings are made without the shiny coating, making the sound produced muddy and less resonant. Others are wound heavily with brass, creating a more immediate, high-pitched twang. Depending on how the strings are put together, what material is used, and in what proportion these ingredients are used, the sound varies considerably from brand to brand.

5) Being Annoyed at Certain People on Public Transportation

Riding public transit allows a person to see all the best and all the worst qualities in humanity in one convenient location. For every person who sits quietly, shuffling through his/her iPod playlist, text messaging another person on his/her cellphone, or reading a book, there are always several riders with no sense of privacy. These people air shockingly honest confessions via cell phone conversations or fail to supervise their children while they run haphazardly up and down the car.

I probably should lighten up and stop being so grouchy, but then I'd fail to have an outlet to feel smugly superior or to vent my frustrations.