With Or Without

I have been tagged to make a blog post. It's to be a list of things I can't live without. I first saw it on Nettie's blog. She tagged MadCarlotta who tagged me. Just about everyone of the regulars over at the Museum of Hoaxes forums who has a blog has been tagged. Luckily I know several people with blogs outside of the MoH. But we'll get to that later.

Now I will say that I am happy to be doing this. Thanks for getting it passed around the Museum, Nettie. Even if other people grumbled, I'm not. I was hoping to avoid detection and miss getting tagged to force me to do it, but I was probably going to take it and do it anyway.

I've tracked this a few people backward from Nettie and I'm not seeing any hard and fast rules. It just seems to be "list things you can't live without". That can apparently be any number of things. Some of the others from the Museum of Hoaxes have set some guidelines and I'm going to use those. I'm also going to impose a couple more on myself so I don't get redundant from what some of those others said.

First, no people. Second, no life-giving essentials. None of the items can be things like air, food, or shelter. Third, nothing medical. This kind of falls under the previous rule for items like medicine (which I don't take anyway), but I am also using it to include corrective lenses. I couldn't see well enough to survive without glasses or contacts, but I'm not listing them. And fourth, nothing that is used in getting or maintaining any of the previous three rules. So I won't be listing my car because I couldn't get to work without it. And I won't be listing my job because I couldn't afford my house, food or medical needs without it.

So here's my list:

1) My memories. I have been fortunate to live a very good life (so far). I have loving family and friends. I have a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter. If I suddenly lost my memory I would still have those things I just wouldn't remember them. Or our past together. That would be a terrible thing. Many of those memories cheer me up when I'm sad, make me laugh even when I'm not and always make me smile.

2) Pictures. Especially those taken since my daughter came into my life. They are memories given a physical form that I can share with other people. That I can tell stories about them while showing them off. They are irreplaceable.

3) Games. I'm a gamer at heart. Always have been. Ever since the days of the Atari 2600. It doesn't matter if it's computer or console gaming. If I didn't have gaming to help me escape every once in a while I know I wouldn't survive. (I could include pencil and paper role-playing in here, too, but it's been soooooo many years since I've done any of it I can obviously survive without it. Though many computer games can probably be attributed to getting me through these many years without pencil and paper D&D.)

4) Movies. Like games it's another form of escapism. But instead of me controlling and being actively involved in the story I just get to be absorbed into it. Depending on the movie I can think a lot or I can just go without over-analyzing it. It can be a well done cinematic marvel that I lose myself in or it can be a cheesy, hokey piece of schlock that I laugh at and make fun of. It can be anywhere in between. It can stir emotions both good and bad, strong and weak. I have never met a movie that I didn't like on some level (though there have been a few that were at the very outside edge of the lowest level).

5) LEGO. I love LEGO. If I had the money I would buy every set and piece I could get my hands on. I love the simplicity and complexity all rolled into one. I love following the instructions to put the sets together into forms that are so familiar. I love trying to find the pieces I need in a large pile of bricks to build the vision that only I can see until I give it form. Yet another form of escapism for me, yet I haven't done nearly enough with them lately.

Honorable Mention: Books. Mentioned by some others on their blogs so I decided to leave it off mine as much as I wanted to put it on. But I wanted to try to come up with my own five more.

Now who shall I tag (or 'ping' if you will)? Let's see...

Accipiter write: Ha ha ha! Hardly anybody knows about my blog, and I never update it anyway, so I can just sit back and laugh at you all being pinged!

Oh. Well then I guess Accipiter gets tagged!

I will also tag Murphyz and aki2403. (That blog may require you being a member of the forum to see. If so I apologize.) And, because he hasn't updated his blog in almost four months, I'm going to tag cokebaby.

Lastly I'll tag my old friend Pollyanna Pickles.

I would tag my Mother, but whenever she gets these kind of things she leaves the tagging open. She doesn't name anyone and just lets people do it if they want to. So, mom, if you want to do this go right ahead. But I'm not officially tagging you for it. Same goes for you, Grandma.