Here's a job I'd love...

Explainer is looking for a new freelance writer (see job posting here). While I have a day job that I really really love (and would marry, probably, if I could) and I'm not a fit for the freelance job, still...I think it'd be hella-cool.

What is Explainer, you ask? Well, let me...er, explain. It's a regular column that appears on (in? what's the right preposition when a website is involved?) Slate.com. Explainer's tag line is "answers to your questions about the news." They take an issue from current events, and give you some of the story behind the story (today's column is about comments made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor for Sen. Obama).

I'm endlessly fascinated by trivia, and the more obscure the better. It's a running joke with Mrs. jtj3 and me--I'll whip out some obscure factoid, she looks at me and says "How do you know that?", and I invariably respond "I have no freakin' idea."

Like...well, here goes. Did you know that the first product in the world to have a bar code on it was Wrigley's Doublemint gum back in 1971? Or that there was no women's version of the Olympic marathon until 1984--and the first one was won by Joan Benoit Samuelson? Or that there were a total of 7 different shark models used in the filming of "Jaws"? Or...well, I could go on and on and on...

See, folks, not only do I entertain, but I inform. Think of me as your infotainment blog. Or your edutainment blog. Yeah edutainment. That sounds cooler.

Oh and for more answers to those questions that have always bugged you, you can't hardly beat The Straight Dope...check it out also!

More later...

King of the memes...

I had another meme tee'd up as a draft post, but didn't want to push it out just yet. But just today, one of my new bloggosphere friends, Heather, tagged me with a meme today. I feel honored to have been tagged, so here I go with another meme.

Here are the rules of the Meme:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog (DONE!).
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

With that, here are my 7 random and/or weird facts (thank God it's not 7 weird things...y'all would skeeve out...)

1: I was an AFS exchange student the summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school.

2: I am an introvert. I love people but I prefer non-verbal, non-contact interaction (i.e., email, IM, blogging, etc) versus verbal/contact interaction (going out with large groups of people, spending hours on the phone, etc.). I will email or IM someone all day, but I have trouble having a personal phone conversation longer than about 15 minutes.

3: I tend to get bored easily.

4: I'm very superstitious. I have certain rituals I repeat when I do things like run a road race, get on an airplane, etc. The repetition of these rituals always makes me feel better and more in control.

5: I have 5748 songs in my iTunes collection, and 1668 of those are country or bluegrass, which means about 30% of my collection is country.

6: I love fruitcake.

7: I don't fear being dead, but I am afraid of what will happen to me during the process of dying.

So, that's that. Who will I tag? Uh...well, I've kinda been tagging the regulars with memes lately, and I don't have a ton of blog friends yet, so here goes:

Rinz (my niece)
Dan (who is always a good sport)
Mike M
Wes (an absolute ROCK STAR over on Cre8Buzz)
Sue (er, sorry if I already tagged u this week I don't remember...)
Taj Wanders
Snowelf (ditto--in fact, she may have already done this one)

Whew...there. Enjoy. And if you don't like being tagged sorry...but try it, even if you just did a meme like 5 seconds ago, because they're fun. (C:

More later...