Happy Holidays!

8 Things...

Oh, blah, Lillie got me. I'm never sure how to handle the tagging part of these things. Mostly because, while I have a goodly bit of friends I -could- tag, most of them are outside of a context where they know me as Elisha and therefore it would only confuse the heck out of them. But, intrepidly, I press on...

Here are the rules:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 things about Elisha Paklena (or her RL counterpart, which is how I'm treating these facts):

1. I never successfully learned how to swim. This is because I almost drowned in a pool when I was 4. It instilled a great fear of deep water in me that I am only now beginning to force myself to work my way past so that I can go a step further and learn how to sail.
   
2. I can't stand peaches. The smell gives me head-splitting headaches.
   
3. I was in the US Army for a grand total of 44 days before being medically discharged due to a bad fall down the stairs at barracks that resulted in severely hyperextended ligaments in my left ankle, nerve damage and compressed cartilage in my left knee, and general squishedness in the L5-S1 area of my spine. Now twelve years later, usually the only result I see (other than #8 below) is my knee and ankle ache a lot. I shouldn't wear heels either but I'm not going to stop.
   
4. I am one half Mexican, one sixteenth Cherokee, and everything else is a varied mix of Northern European descent.
   
5. I am the youngest of four siblings.
   
6. I have lopsided earlobes. See http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Life/genetics_puzzle.html In my case, my left earlobe is attached and my right is free hanging. Supposedly this is statistically rare.
   
7. I did not invent the feline character most people know me as, but it was inspired by me, and even somewhat named after me, by my friend who used it to entice me to roleplay one of his family members on a MUCK. I agreed, but only if I could take the basic character and make it my own.
8. I have meralgia paresthetica in my right thigh, and also to a very much lesser degree in my left. Usually it doesn't bother me much unless I'm wearing clothes that are tight around my hips and thighs. It is believed this is a longer-term aftereffect result of the same reason I was discharged.
   

I need to think of who I am going to tag. I'll edit this post when I do.

Ow, owowowowow.

The full video that contains the below illustrated nightmare can be watched at http://slcn.tv/sail-02dec07 at the end of the second race. For reference, mine is the dark-hulled Tako with wood deck and blue sail.
Fault for instigating this mess goes squarely on me for ignoring Rule 10, which of course is the only one that SYC counts in these races. I should have tacked to cross behind Lar, the fastest escape from what was about to unfold. I didn't. Instead I managed to turn to parallel him to his leeward. Somehow I managed to not actually collide, but it didn't really make things much better for whoever it was who had been behind me (whose name I forget at the moment).

MarkTwain White quips that if this had been a more strictly scored regatta, we'd be in a protest room for half an hour. Luckily, it was not, but even still.... ow.

Can someone help me walk through this and tell me what exactly would have happened if it had been more strictly judged?