Got Tagged Yet Again

Mr. Popularity that' s me folks got tagged about two weeks ago by Laura from Under The Sheets-Shh. The tag this time was to tell 10 honest things about myself.

I initially told her that I would be more than happy to do so. But, after giving it some serious thought, I came to the sad realization that I was, tapped out for honest things to say about myself as it pertains to the real world.

However, being sound of mind and acid of tongue, I didn't want to go back to her and say, "Sorry Laura, I can't do your tag." That's not my style nor is it part of my character. So I proceeded to spend the last couple of weeks thinking about how I was going to complete my chosen task.

After giving thought about doing a fictionalized version of this thing and discarding it, I came up with the idea of doing it as it pertains to my life in the chat rooms.

So without further ado, here are few fun filled (if not downright strange) honest things about myself as it applies to chat rooms.

1) I have four official chat room personas, plus one other persona that got purged: My original name {suspended indefinitely}, Cedar Mountain, Da Bishop, and Georgie B. The one that was purged was called "Baby Gooey".

2) I have made a combined total of about 16,000 posts in the chat room forums, which is the equivalent of making about 450 blog posts.

3) I am known for telling like it is and frequently getting hoisted up by my own petard for doing so. Which is the main reason for getting one persona suspended and one persona purged, plus sitting out a three day suspension to boot.

4) I have made more than my fair share of enemies in the chat rooms. Last count was that I had about one dozen insulting threads made about me in the past two years. Also, I gathered in the past five months two trolls, one of which followed me to my blog and forced me to institute the concept of "comment moderation" to my blog. The other I picked up about two weeks ago and is making a attempt to trash me and my book. If he/she keeps it up, I'll probably have to write a post thanking it for the marketing/publicity campaign he/she is doing for me.

5) I currently hang around the chat rooms, not so much for the topical material {which quite frankly sucks}, but for the multitude of friendships that I have cultivated over the past two years.

6) Contrary to a lie that refuses to go away, my first novel is not about anyone who I met in the chat rooms. I wrote my novel about one year prior to my entrance to the chat rooms (which I can back up with solid proof).

7) I have been around the chat rooms for so long that I can go to an obscure thread somewhere in those forums, and have at least one person remember me from some place else, under some other name.

8) I did my writing boot camp in the chat rooms. Whereas everyone else in the blog world has gotten their particular writing training doing it the traditional way {schools}, mine was gotten through the chat rooms. In the real world, you can practice and hone your craft until it shines. In the chat rooms, you are challenged by a 4,000 character limit/750 word limit. Thus, you are perpetually writing flash non-fiction/flash fiction for the masses, which is much harder than it looks. Because of my particular writing training, I believe that the transition to the blog world went much more smoother than if I had simply started up a blog without any basic training whatsoever.

Unfortunately, I'm only able to come up with 8 honest things about myself as it pertains to the chat rooms. Since the tag called for 10, I will now attempt to come up with two other honest things about myself.

9) I am pathologically punctual to every single thing in my life. I grew up in a family where being "on time" was/is an obscene phrase. So I overcompensate for it, which has on occasion, irritated my wife or has left me with way too much time on my hands.

10) I practice OCD as it pertains to food safety. After suffering through two particularly nasty bouts of food poisoning in my life, I currently drive my family to distraction with my pitching out of food that is less than two days past date.

And now you have it, ten honest things about myself. Which I'm sure that my current troll will somehow try to weave into future posts about me in the chat rooms, which is due to the fact that this person, even though they dislike me, will visit my blog for material.