25 Random Things About Me

This is copied from my facebook account:

1. I hate chain letters, pyramid schemes and such
2. but I like memes
3. Which is why I'm breaking the rule on this meme and not tagging anyone (you're supposed to tag 25 people).
4. I play guitar
5. I speak German fluently
6. I speak Esperanto good enough to communicate.
7. I'm actively learning Chinese on my own (ni hao!) using a book I bought in Shanghai.
8. I'm semi-actively learning Farsi (Persian) - I have a teacher
9. I've learned a bit (minimum: alphabet, numbers) about a lot of languages, including Ukrainian, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, ...
10. I started learning these languages before seeing an article, where scientists say that learning a new language when you are older adds about 2 years to your life. :-)
11. I have a tendency to stay up way too late - this tends to reduce life expectancy.
12. I write programs I want in my non-existent spare time
13. Though I read a lot, I am not a fast reader.
14. I currently have no TV, and haven't had one for most of my life. It's a choice.
15. I call family (in the U.S.) pretty much every Sunday, sometimes talking for hours.
16. I am taking Jiu Jitsu (yellow/white belt) - except my health keeps getting in the way (currently nursing a probable broken toe)
17. I found out it can be fun to read and give constructive criticism to beginning authors, like my sister.
18. My office is pretty much the messiest place I know right now (I can see several defunct computers, monitors and printers right now)
19. I once wrote an astrology program and a numerology program, though I do not believe in either (I got paid for it).
20. I don't really believe in Tarot either, but I do readings, and they tend to be frighteningly accurate. :-(
21. I used to drink way too much beer in college - until I stopped drinking altogether.
22. I almost always carry a pen in my shirt collar (you can see the clip under my beard in my profile photo)
23. I carry my watch on my right hand, even though I'm right handed.
24. I wear my wedding ring on my right hand - a German tradition that most Germans don't follow any more: most wear it left like they see in American movies now.
25. I have two copies of a water color painting of the river and city where I live, one hanging in my office, one at home, painted by a good friend I haven't seen in a over a decade.

Photo Meme

PerpetualBeginner tagged me!

Rules are as follows:

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.
3. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
4. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

I am not going to comply entirely:
- My sixth folder has one single picture in it
- Aside from having an aversion to chain-letter like schemes, I don't know 6 bloggers.

I am also not going to show the one picture in folder 6, though I will describe it: it is a picture of a cute little girl and her two middle-aged temporary foster parents sitting at a table. It was taken on the 25th of May, 2007. This is the little girl that the German foster agency was planning on having us parent for permanent foster care. That is, until a doctor said she needed to be institutionalized. Putting up the photo would likely break a German privacy law or two, so I won't.


This picture is the sixth picture from my seventh folder. It was taken on the 10th of June, 2007. We were visiting my sister, PerpetualBeginner, and her family during our Summer vacation. We all went out to a local reservoir, where we had great fun hunting for fossils and skipping stones. This was an attempt to photograph a fish. If I recall correctly, the fish is actually in the photo, but I certainly can't find it now.