6: and tag you're it

The fabulous Suzanne Tobias, of Notes for My Kids' Therapist, tagged me in the latest blogger game making the rounds in Wichita and elsewhere. In typical fashion, I've put this off as long as I can, so here we go:

Here are the rules:

* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Write 6 random things about yourself.
* Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
* Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
* Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. Childhood pets included a dog named Puppy and cats named Kitty and Cat. And yet I went on to a career working with words. Go figure.
2. I like Wizard Rock — grassroots music inspired by the "Harry Potter" series. I was introduced to the all-musical-genres fan-based phenom last year by my teenage daughter (who has amassed a large collection of tunes by bands such as The Whomping Willows, Draco and the Malfoys, Obliviate! and The Hermione Crookshanks Experience). The Girl appears to be outgrowing her obsession for songs written from the perspective of fictional characters, but I'm still hooked. At least on mother-daughter roadtrips, we can agree on the playlist, and it doesn't include German Techno Scream anymore. Ugh.
3. When I was in sixth grade, I was a Safety Patrol crossing guard on the corner of Murdock and Edgemoor in Wichita, in front of what a short time later became known as The Otero House when four members of the family were killed by serial killer BTK. I grew up to direct my newspaper's coverage of the investigation after he resurfaced, and to lead a team that wrote the definitive book on the case.
4. I once crashed through a jungle at night without a flashlight to view Halley's Comet from the top of an ancient Mayan observatory. (Crawling up the pitch-black no-room-to-back-up double-helix stone staircase, which was covered in years of who-knows-what, was a very Indiana Jones moment.)
5. I am the world's worst penpal. If you write me a letter, chances are extremely high that I will eagerly write you back but never mail it. (Exhibit A: I packaged a Christmas present for mailing to a dear friend in the mid-1980s and still have it in a closet.)
6. My personal motto is: Take the Initiative to Make Things Better.

And now, who to tag? I think it shall be...

Dan, Lou, Andi, Daniel, Ron, Martha

Fun with words

Pop art, poetry and technology merge in Wordle, an applet that allows users to create a "beautiful word cloud" from a blog, RSS feed or copyblock with one click.

Fun to do, but even more interesting to people watch: The gallery includes everything from love poems to a master's thesis.

The results are in

The informal survey of Twitter users (see post below) yielded some interesting stats:
— 9 in 10 of those responding said they had volunteered this year.
— 1 in 4 volunteer on a set schedule
— 3 in 4 volunteer as events or their heart moves them

Tweeples were most likely to split their time between:
— Mentoring and
— Sitting on boards and advising organizations
Half of the respondents chose those activities.
Next most-popular was political action — which makes sense, given that this is a presidential election year.
That was followed, in descending order, by:
— Fundraising
— Tutoring
— Faith promotion
— Other, which included: feeding the homeless through a church program, working in the arts, being a Compeer match, collecting items for battered women at the holidays, and working with at-risk kids at school (I'd likely have put that under mentoring or tutoring, but for the respondent it didn't seem to fit those categories so OK)

How often do the responding Tweeples volunteer? We are split:
1 in 3 volunteer monthly
1 in 3 volunteer randomly
1 in 5 volunteer weekly
and a very small set volunteer yearly (at the holidays) or never.

Why do Tweeples volunteer? Lots of motivations. Here's a sampling:
— "I believe in the causes."
— "I believe in humanity."
— "I makes me feel good, and I have skills to share."
— "To give back."
— "I am blessed with a little money and a little time — happy to help others."
— "Sense of civic responsibility inherited from my grandfather."
— "I think there could be a revolution, parents' overall inability scares me these days, the future is delicate."
— "To make a difference in the community."
— "Why not?"

Thanks to all who participated!