Eeek. I got tagged. So, here are the standard rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.
Now for the eight facts. Uhh, this’ll take some thinking, I think. I keep having to suppress the urge to slip in facts that are related to my life but not really about me.
1. I’ve been playing tabletop roleplaying games for about 20 years. One time when my aunt asked what book I was reading and I replied that it was a book for a roleplaying game she cut me off and turned away (apparently this was not a ‘worthy’ pursuit). Regardless, it’s one of the most fun and imagination-expanding hobbies ever, and is one of the ways in which we spend time with some of our best friends!
2. When I was 31 a doctor’s office receptionist asked if I needed an adult to sign for me. She thought I might be under 18.
3. I’m very short; I’m not even an inch over 5 feet tall. Somehow this tends to surprise people who know me from online; I remember someone in Warcraft when I was playing a troll warrior saying he was sure I was some sort of tall Amazon.
4. I attended both MIT and Harvard. Before you find this impressive, realize that I dropped out of MIT after less than two years, and left the Boston area before I could finish my psych degree at Harvard. Taking night classes at Harvard was awesome though because the profs knew we were there because we wanted to be, unlike many of their daytime students, so they enjoyed teaching us and this enthusiasm made their classes more fun. They also gave us less homework because they knew we had jobs.
5. I am an extreme introvert in real life—although less so than I used to be.
6. I have five (5) diagnosed mental disorders—some biological and genetic in origin, some experience-based, ranging from bipolar disorder and ADD to PTSD. Despite this I get on pretty damn well, partly because of the miracle of modern medicine, partly because of the support of wonderful family and friends, and partly because of sheer stubbornness.
7. Every single day of the last more-than-10-years I’ve considered how lucky I am to have my now-husband. Like many women I long had the tendency to date people who were like my father, even if they didn’t seem like it on the surface, and I was extremely lucky to finally break free of that and find someone amazing, kind, thoughtful and helpful, with more integrity in his little finger than anyone else I can think of. I don’t talk about him much here because I think it should largely be up to him to decide how much gets said about him online, but suffice it to say that he’s awesome. Ladies, you can be jealous: he does the dishes and vacuums!
8. Let’s be honest: our cats rule the household, particularly Selene, whom we refer to as our “tyrant queen.” We have a morning ritual: while I’m eating breakfast she’ll sit on my right knee. When I’m done eating I’ll gently put my fingertips on her sides. If she doesn’t jump down at that (which she almost never does), then I pick her up and hold her on my shoulder for our morning cuddle. If I’m in a hurry and forget to do this she gets testy.
And yes, that title of “tyrant queen” is despite the fact that she’s an adorable little ball of fuzz that weighs barely more than 7 lbs:
Okay, now for the tagging. If any of you don’t want to meme, just pretend I didn’t tag you. 😉 Scott, Melmoth (because who could be more hilarious?!), Bildo, Cynthia, Cereal Girl, Chessack, Aaron, and female-gamer. I’ll drop you all the requisite note after breakfast. 🙂
I played— before I even read your post, so it’s interesting to see how similar some of our random things are now that I’ve read yours. We too are ruled by our kitten, and I didn’t mention Jennifer because… well, I mention her so often that it’s a “fact” that everyone already knows.
Scott: Funny how the cats always run things, isn’t it? What’s that saying? Ah yes… “Dogs have owners; cats have staff.” 😀
A sister of mine might be headed to MIT for grad school soon. She tells me MIT is hard as hell for undergrads, but not so bad for graduate students.
I played too, though I only did five facts. Some of ’em were probably too general, so it’s fitting that I couldn’t isolate the article when I searched for it and had to include the “Grice’s Maxims” post as well. Anyway, since I’m short 3, I’ll post those here, just for you. I’ve already talked about my Asperger Syndrome (autism) in a blog before, so I won’t include that, but most of funny quirks are probably related to it (such as #6).
6. I play games in single-player mode that everyone else plays only in multiplayer after the first couple weeks. Diablo 2, Star Wars: Battlefront, RTS games, shooters… and yes, I solo nearly all the time in MMOs. This is why I understand the value of dynamics in games, though it probably also means I should never be in charge of designing raids.
7. I can snap my fingers like a drumroll. Most people only use their middle fingers and their thumbs to snap, but I have big hands and can snap (though not as well) with my ring fingers as well. Combine this with my experience in drums, and the result is that I’m a crazy-good finger snapper. =) I can snap without using my thumb, too. The thumb is only used to build up pressure.
8. I was hoping New Orleans would be completely submerged by hurricane Katrina. That’s horrible, i know! But how cool would it have been to tell people I was born in a modern-day Atlantis? Seriously, imagine the city where you were born being completely wiped off the map, aside from the occasional tourists scuba-diving to see “The Lost City”.
Aaron: Heh, I can relate to being bull-headed. The fastest way to ensure I never do something is to try to require or push me to do it.
Aye, MIT for grads isn’t bad. (I used to work in the medical decision-making group at the lab for computer science there, for about five years, and before that the theoretical physics department, so I’ve seen a lot of the interactions between profs and grad students.) Since they’re involved in professors’ research, professors care about them and are interested in them. Okay, to be fair, some professors are interested in the undergrads too, but they usually get told to take research sabbaticals. Lest you think I’m being cynical, I saw this happen on multiple occasions.
Your #7 is just plain cool. *grin*
Crudski… I’ll get to this one tomorrow probablty, Heather. 🙂
I’ll play along. Have to do some serious thinking 🙂
As to your MEME(s) – show off! at 31 you’re looking like 18!
I consider myself to be an introvert also those not extreme 🙂
Bildo: Muahaha! Consider this revenge for the one you tagged me for ages ago, particularly since that was the meme that got me memeing.
Cynthia: lol, I put that down more to being short and shy than anything else. Although I did inherit a rather rounded, smooth face from my mother, which has similarly kept her seeming younger than she is, so that’s probably part of it too!
I just remembered I was supposed to comment here so you would know I took up the challenge. Heather, I really appreciated the way your eight things are very revealing and personal. I’m just working up to that, my blog is anonymous, so I did a mini photo essay. It’s about me but it’s also about the pretty pictures. I hope you like…