25 Things About Me You May Not Know, or Even Want To

January 19, 2009 · Posted in Memes

This silly meme did rounds in the Facebook and I wasted valuable time dodging work and doing it. So, why not paste it here too, when I’m at it.

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Instructions: Write 25 things about yourself that others might not know, then tag 25 people on your friends list and ask them to do the same. But I won’t pester anyone with this, join the party if you like.

1. After the high school and before my university studies I did half a term of car mechanic and metalworking school, the basic course of a restaurant chef school and worked in a psychogeriatric ward as a patient assistant.

2. I have mild synaesthesia. Numbers, letters and weekdays have pretty consistent colours, pure and clear sounds have colours and shapes and I sort of feel them on my tongue. This makes playing theremin interesting.

3. I play theremin in two bands, Älymystö & Radiokatve.

4. I love animals, although I’m allergic to most furry things. I steadfastly ignore it and play with the cats and the dogs and what have you until my eyes bleed. I’ve had fish, a lizard, a snake and plenty of rats as pets.

5. I feel weird and a little bit lost if I go to sleep without reading a few pages of a good novel while lying on the bed.

6. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t do an exchange student year and I’ve never actually lived abroad.

7. I’m a hobbyholic – I get interested in new things all the time and I just have to try them. Lately I’ve tried to limit it and concentrate on a few things at a time.

8. My initial reaction is to like everybody and I think people should almost always be given the benefit of the doubt. I live by the creed “one should never assume as malice anything that can be explained by ignorance, thoughtlessness or incompetence”.

9. I went straight from being slightly underweight to being slightly overweight around the year 2000.

10. I was unemployed for a couple of years when I was living in Tampere, right after graduating from high school.

11. I used to do a lot of martial arts when I was younger. During the time I was unemployed I had at times nine training sessions per week. This has left me with a plenty of busted joints and a memory of being in a really good shape once upon a time.

12. I like cooking and baking and find them extremely relaxing.

13. I have a .22 pistol and I do some target practice now and then. My plan is to start doing practical some day in the future.

14. I love turning over rocks, finding interesting bugs and critters in ditches and streams, chasing lizards and so on. When I cease to be fascinated by things like that, I’ll jump into a grave voluntarily. Cause – game over man, game over!

15. I dream of making my living by writing fiction. Maybe some day.

16. The summer cabin is my fortress of solitude. I like skiing, fishing, ice-fishing & doing yardwork with minimalist equipment (ie. handsaws, axes, scythes etc. instead of chainsaws or other power tools).

17. I have a BA on computational linguistics, but apart from a two-year stint as an university researcher I haven’t really worked in the field.

18. I used to have positively legendary hangovers, which turned out to be a variety of migraine.

19. I’ve studied Japanese and Hungarian for a couple of years in the university, but because of the lack of use both of them are well below conversation level currently. I’ve also studied the basics of a ten or so other languages (French, German, Latin, Hebrew, Polish, Sanskrit, Gaelic, Spanish, Russian etc.), but don’t really have any skill in them.

20. I get irritated easily, but it fades fast. Making me genuinely angry takes real effort and after that I can be bitter and petty for a long time.

21. I haven’t been jealous of anybody since my teens. Jealousy is just lack of self confidence, it has nothing to do with love and caring.

22. I used to do a lot of amateur astronomy when I was younger. I still check for halos pretty much automatically when I step out.

23. I learned to read at the age of four, apparently very suddenly – I just sat down at a table and started reading something out aloud.

24. If I was given a choice to either do a bungee jump / parachute jump or shoot myself in the foot, I’d probably blow my toes off.

25. I’m not easily disgusted by blood, guts, dirt, rotten stuff or other such things, but I can’t stand squashing insects, maggots etc. The bigger they are, the worse the ick-reaction. I’ve tried to get rid of the previous by eating and cooking meals made out of insects, namely crickets and mealworms. Both of which are actually quite tasty.