- In the words of Holden Caulfield I’m not going to start with David Copperfield crap like where I was born and what my parents do and all that.
- Only to say if circumstances were different I might have been called Sebastian.
- I’ve lived and worked on 3 continents.
- Visited 6, only Antarctica remaining.
- Never lived in the country — either city or suburbs.
- If money were no constraint I’d live in Switzerland.
- When I was young I fantasized I was an alien who was stranded(?) / stationed(?) on Earth and working for some spy outfit.
- And was a compulsive list maker.
- And a horder. Still am, to an extent.
- My grandparents owned a toy shop. So toys? Not bothered.
- Up to the age of about 10 and around once every 3 months I’d take all the tins out of the kitchen cupboard and rearranged them. In categories.
- My parents used to get all sorts of blank forms (like bank deposit forms or passport application form) and I’d fill them out for fun.
- I’m good at filling forms. Really good. Fast too.
- One summer vacation I pretended I was the principal of a school and designed a complete daily timetable for the teachers and classes in the whole school. Using paper, pencil and ruler.
- Another time I designed uniforms — formal, normal and battle — for a futuristic army. Each rank had its system of stripes and stars.
- The summer when I was 14, I watched, and taught myself to understand, test match cricket. I love cricket but I don’t follow it a lot anymore.
- I’m petrified of, and therefore utterly hate, dogs since being chased by one when I was 13.
- We used to have a cat, she’d follow us when we went out for a walk.
- I often wish I was left-handed.
- I wonder what it’s like to be autistic.
- I organize my bank statements, utility bills and assorted paperwork in a 4-drawer filing cabinet at home. Alphabetically.
- I’m obsessively punctual.
- I spend a lot of time in office lobbies, train stations, restaurants, waiting. And waiting.
- I was described as “very Swiss” by a Swiss.
- Some might take it as an insult but it was meant to be, and graciously accepted as, a compliment.
- I wear swatches exclusively. [update: don’t wear a watch anymore]
- I like wearing t-shirts, polo shirts, jeans, cargo pants and sneakers.
- Black or navy socks only, except when doing sports.
- I twisted my knee in a skiing accident, had to be hauled down the slope in a sled, and how own a pair of purple crutches as souvenir.
- I don’t like going to the doctor’s, most times I just take a painkiller.
- I get nagged a lot.
- I can cook pretty well.
- I don’t drink coffee.
- I drink 2 cans 1 can of Diet Vanilla Coke Coke Zero at lunch. [update: trying to cut down, one can of coke zero once a week]
- I usually bring my own lunch to work.
- I always have chewing gum at work, but I never take it at home.
- I prefer salads without dressing.
- I take my steak rare and plain, with just a little freshly ground black pepper.
- I’ve eaten snake, crocodile, kangaroo, ostrich and pig’s brain, amongst other bizarre foods.
- I don’t eat skin, including chicken skin (even on wings) and fish skin.
- My favourite whisky is Highland Park.
- I did the Kentucky Bourbon Trail on my own, sneaking the samples back to the car until I got back to the hotel.
- I can drive pretty much any car comfortably, stick or auto, on either side of the road.
- Took me a long long time to buy and own my own car.
- I used to work in investment banking but not as a banker.
- I traded a private office for a nice corner with view.
- I have also had a desk hidden next to the emergency exit and I could hear the flushing sounds of the Ladies behind the wall.
- I have a long array of letters after my name.
- I’ll stop showing off now.
- I find that if I believe I’m good at something, there’ll always be someone who does it better.
- I don’t answer my phone unless I recognise the number.
- I always have a disposable mobile phone number (prepaid card) that I give out, my personal mobile number is for family and friends only.
- I never listen to voicemail.
- I’m a fairly early ebook adaptor–imagine the amount saved on overseas shipping.
- I read lots of Christopher Isherwood when I was around 17 and never realized he was gay.
- I have 2 complete sets of David Eddings’ Belgariad.
- I read a lot of books when I was young, went through a phase of not reading a lot, and now read whenever I have time
- I wrote over 100 poems/lyrics over a 4 year period in my late teens/early 20s. Most of them are pretty embarassing to look at in the cold light of day.
- I own a grand total of one anthology of poetry.
- I’ve never kept a diary.
- I completed nanowrimo every year since 2004, except 2007.
- I had one copy of the 2004 nano printed, for my own fun. Did the formatting and designed the cover, using a photograph in my own collection.
- I can’t draw.
- I’m an okay photographer.
- I can read sheet music but I’m hopeless at playing and I can’t remember tunes or lyrics.
- I have zero music street cred.
- I first registered this domain name in 1997 (or 1999, I can’t remember, hee). I own 5 domain names (I think).
- I designed my first website on Claris Homepage v3.
- It was hosted at xoom when it was a free webpage provider.
- I stopped working on the site for 3 years.
- I’ve used Macs since forever.
- And will do so forever.
- I bought a PC laptop, but that’ll be for backup, checking browsers and IM’ing. [update: don’t have it anymore.]
- I’m self taught on excel, photoshop, pagemaker, indesign, html and css.
- Before May 2005, the total number of people I’ve met on the internet was 2, both of whom I’ve met in person.
- Since May 2005, that number has exploded exponentially.
- I can’t sit still for any length of time.
- I hardly ever remember my dreams.
- I sleep with a small pillow tucked under my knee, to help support my knee and feet.
- I go for regular foot reflexology massages, painful during the treatment, but afterwards for a few minutes it feels like I’m walking on clouds.
- I’ve often wished I were more spiritual and introspective.
- I vaguely know about the festivals of Candlemas, Beltane, Samhain but I don’t celebrate them because I don’t feel a connection with them.
- I started running in 2008, when I saw a pic of me looking way too fat.
- My first marathon was 10-10-10 at Chicago.
- I don’t cross my 7s.
- Blue pens, never black.
- A picture of my hands once appeared in the New Scientist, holding a separating funnel.
- I received GBP60 for a photo I took that was published in a magazine aimed at retirees.
- I’m a member of the mile high club.
- I never voted.
- I pay my credit card bills and taxes on time and in full.
- I paid off my mortgage in 10 years.
- I’m indifferent to almost everything and everybody.
- I’m fairly happy in my own skin.
- I can happily stay home and not go out or talk to people for lengthy periods of time.
- I get claustrophobic in crowds.
- I avoid smoke, noise and public places.
- I don’t like people.
- I swore I’d never do this 100 things thing.
- But it looks like I did it anyway.