8 things about me

I have got my first meme!

A meme is something like a "thing to do" that bloggers send to each other. I don't know if Richard Dawkins really agrees with this use of the word meme. Some time ago I read the book The Selfish Gene, and if I remember well, he coined there the term meme as a kind of cultural counterpart of a gene. Some bit of information which passes quickly from human being to human being. For example, a catchy tune would be a meme.

Anyway, Mar nominated me to follow up a meme that consists in telling 8 things about yourself. And here they are:

(i) I'm a mathematician who can't count. My abilities for mental arithmetic are comparable to those of a peach. Most of the people think I'm joking ("Yeah, sure. But you're the mathematician! Ha, ha, ha!") but it's the awful truth.

(ii) I cannot stand when a picture is askew on the wall, or when the brace of a girl's top or bra gets twisted. I normally solve the first just by putting the picture right, the second one is somewhat more difficult to deal with...



(iii) There are some secret little rituals that I must do, otherwise my day is not good: using a certain spoon or mug for breakfast, sitting on the right side of the bus, crossing a certain street exactly on the same place, etc.

(iv) I never liked sweeties or candy. Chocolate, tarts and cakes leave me cold. Some say I am very lucky because of this. I realised as well that this distaste for sweet is the reason behind most of the meals I don't like. Incidentally, I can eat the most disgusting vegetables or legumes, as long as they are served with rice.



(v) The icons on my Windows desktop follow a clear organisation, and I get very upset if someone clicks accidentally on "Automatic icon organisation". I always close applications through the menu File -> Quit, and I never use the cross on the top right. Applications that can be closed only with the X make me nervous.

(vi) I grow Saguaro cactus for fun. One friend of mine brought me Saguaro seeds from Arizona. Some 20 of them sprouted, many survived, others not. When we moved to Austria some of the Saguaros came with us, and I gave the rest to friends and family to be taken care of. The Saguaro is the slowest growing cactus species in the world. Mine are now 5 years old and around 5cm high. In 30 years they might start flourishing and in 50 to 70 years they will start developing their characteristic arms.



(vii) I am a big Lord of the Rings fan, but I never was able to finish the books. The Fellowship of the Ring was OK, with The Two Towers I started to get really lost and bored, and I read The Return of the King skipping large passages (pages and chapters) to get to the end. I became a big fan later, thanks to a Tolkien Encyclopaedia. But I really never read the whole books.

(viii) I am trying to teach myself to play the piano for 4 years now. Although the progress is not really spectacular, I am still convinced that I can do it, if only I found the energy to devote half an hour a day to play...



That's it then. The rules say that I have to pass the meme to 8 people, but I don't really know that many bloggers yet. So, if you are reading this and find it fun, just do it! And please drop me a comment here, so that I know that there's someone out there...

Cheers!