I’VE BEEN TAGGED
Posted by anthonynorth on November 11, 2007
Okay, I’ve been tagged. Had to happen one day.
The culprit was One Poet 4 Man.
Here are the rules.
Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random facts about yourself.
Tag 7 people at the end of the post,and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged by commenting on their blog.
Random Facts
1. My father was born 5 years before the Titanic sank, and his father in the year Charles Dickens died.
2. I left school at 15 and have no qualifications whatsoever. Hence, I’m self-taught.
3. Apart from 2 published books (long out of print) I’ve written well over 2,000 essays, blog posts and stories and have a pile of over 1,000 publisher’s rejections.
4. I’ve been married for 30 years and have 7 children.
5. I’ve had chronic fatigue syndrome, in varying degrees, for 25 years.
6. Apart from writing and family, my most fulfilling time was 9 years in the Royal Air Force.
7. The most weird time of my life was when I was lead guitarist in a local rock band. My hair was over a foot long and I looked great in my purple velvet loons. Jimmy Page had nothing on me – except he could play better.
Here are the people I apologise to – had to tag someone. It’s the ‘system’.
Irregular Bones
Diamonds and Rust
Lexiphanic
The Naked Soul
Alvin Lim
Honestpoet
David b-log
BEYOND THE BLOG 
Anita Marie said
Hi Tony
Somebody tagged me with this back in May or June…it was actually a lot of fun- I mean if you just sit down and write the first thing that pops into your head the ‘tag’ is fun.
Here’s what I came up with.
http://animoscrypt.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/eight-little-things/
renaissanceguy said
Tony,
Do you still play the guitar?
anthonynorth said
Good morning Anita Marie,
Jack the Ripper a woman, eh? I have my own take on that on the Crime page, above.
I must admit I’ve been a bit of a spoil sport with tags/memes. I’ve been memed twice before and ignored them – apologies to the senders.
Maybe I was being too serious, but for many years I tried to write what publishers wanted and still had no luck, so I vowed I’d always write only what I want to in future.
And then, of course, there’s the implication of the ‘meme’. It was hi-jacked by Richard Dawkins as the smallest component of the transmission of culture. So should I give in to fundamental atheism? 🙂
Hi Renaissanceguy,
Occasionally I pick up an acoustic, but not very often, I’m afraid. If you’re interested, I write more about this time here:
lexiphanic said
My pleasure Mr. North!
That was my inaugurate tag. I now feel special. 🙂
anthonynorth said
Hi Lexiphanic,
Having visited your blog often of late, you are a deep thinker. That makes you special well before you were tagged 🙂
tobeme said
Tony,
I found it. I was looking on your other site. Thanks for the tag, however I gracefuly decline. I have been tagged many times and it would be unfair to others if I accepted yours. Thanks for choosing me though. BTW – there is no such thing as a random choice, ha.
anthonynorth said
Hi Mark,
That’s fine. I’ve refused before, myself. I like Alvin’s take on it. He did the tag and then declined to choose others. I must admit, I’ve done it once. I doubt I’ll accept again.
Sorry, folks. I’m not a killjoy really.
No such thing as a random choice, eh? How do I answer that? Are we talking about fate, or maybe the will of God, or it could be in the stars? Some argue optimism or pessimism channels a path that is inevitable, or maybe it is psychokinetic energies defining the world as we go through it. And we must not forget the importance of Jungian Synchronicity.
You may not agree with the order here. I just placed them sort of random 🙂
thedesktop said
Holy crap! You’re like some type of writing superhero. I knew you were good at this blogging thing, but with chronic fatigue syndrome, that makes it even more impressive.
anthonynorth said
Good morning Thedesktop,
Sometimes blogging can be quite humbling. Thank you.
I suppose, over the years, I’ve got the process of writing down to a fine art, or maybe well oiled machine. The Tony On and Diary of a Writer posts are the true blogs, written within a week of posting – I always keep a surplus for days when my energies fail me. Hence, it only takes a minute or two to post.
My longer mystery/history essays, etc, are drawn from over 20 years of writing and research. Hence, they don’t take as long to do as you might think.
As for writing and researching itself, it only began when I came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, for something to do at first, I suppose. So the two go hand in hand.
I surround myself with hundreds of reference books, so topping up on a subject is quick, and I’ve learnt, over time, the ability to write a piece only once, no editing or re-writes. Hence, researching, writing and posting a Diary post can take as little as 30 minutes.
And comments like yours are the fuel that makes it all worthwhile.
diamondsandrust said
Hi Anthony,
You know what a great computer expert I am.It seems I shouldn’t be insulted at all by the fact that you tagged me!
Could someone explain the game to me.
anthonynorth said
Hi Diamondsandrust,
No insult at all! Quite a few people love these tags, although I confess I’m not one of them (apologies for being a spoil sport again).
I’ll visit your blog with more details.