the-eldest-woman-on tagged me with one of those things; this one is to say 5 nice things about yourself. It turned out to be harder than I expected, but I’ve been thinking about it for a few days, and this is what I’ve come up with.
1. I’m a good sailor. Put me on a sailboat and I can get it where it’s supposed to go better than most other sailors, and way better than any of you landlubbers.
2. I’m a good bird-watcher. I can identify the large majority of North American birds (north of Mexico) to species visually without a field guide, and for birds that a) live in Southern California and b) vocalize I can do it with my eyes closed.
3. I’m wrote an O’Reilly animal book. This won’t mean much unless you’re a geek, but I am so it makes me happy. My cover animal was a proboscis monkey. I didn’t get to choose it, and when my editor told me what it was going to be she was afraid I wouldn’t like it. She needn’t have worried. I /love/ being the author of the Ugly Monkey book.
4. I’ve become more rational in recent years. I’ve learned more about critical thinking and bias, and have managed to root out some silly ideas I used to believe in. I’m better at spotting bogus claims, even when they or the people advancing them happen to be congenial.
5. I’ve recently (within the last few years) begun making my bed pretty much every day. I used to have to do that as a kid, and I guess I resented it, because once I got old enough to not have to anymore I stopped. The thing is, though, it turns out to be worth doing. It only takes a few seconds, and then all day you get to bask in the smug glow of being someone who made his bed. I credit Tumblr for that change, specifically, the unfuckyourhabitat blog.
Not tagging anyone. I don’t think I’m qualified.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/YM5fXG.
