That 25 things about me meme
Feb. 3rd, 2009 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetSo here we go.
1.I'm philosophical rather than religious. Intellectually, I can't bring myself to believe in anything that resembles a 'god' as defined in any of the major religious traditions. I'm culturally Anglican of a reasonably austere sort. I love Anglican cathedral music but a mere whiff of incense is enough to turn me into a candidate for a commission in the New Model Army. On occasions this strength of feeling has rather surprised![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lemur_catta. Despite my atheism I find theology quite fascinating.
2.As far as the philosophy goes, I'm a more a Stoic than anything else. I think life is pretty awful much of the time but we owe it to ourselves and others to do with it what we can. I think Marcus Aurelius would approve.
3.Politically I'm of the left. I'm socially liberal and economically egalitarian. That said, I'm not a fan of simplistic state driven social programmes; welfare capitalism if you will. I used to believe, with Gramsci, that only a politically and culturally hegemonic working class could change the system fundamentally. Any prospect of such a thing arising died with western industrialism and I have yet to see a credible alternative. Right now, for all its faults, social democracy seems a whole lot more attractive than propertarian kleptocracy.
4.I'm obsessed by books. I read for at least a couple of hours every day and live surrounded by books ranging from very beautiful works of art to mass market paperbacks. The worse my eyes get the more I appreciate decent production values.
5.I learned to rock climb because, although I loved hill walking, I was really scared of heights. I still won't go anywhere the edge of a roof but soloing an easy rock route or climbing roped in even the most exposed places really didn't bother me. I use the past tense because I haven't done any serious climbing for several years and rather doubt that I will again. When I was climbing regularly, my leading standard was nearly as high as my seconding standard. I think that's pretty unusual.
6.I was faced with a dilemma at age 15. My two main academic interests were mathematics and history and I was pretty good at both. It wasn't, in those days at least, particularly practical to do double maths and history 'A' levels so I decided that I could probably keep up the history on my own but would need more than self study for the maths. That's why I have a maths degree and a library full of history books. I think I was the only person at my school ever to win the fifth form history prize and not take history at 'A' level.
7.For the longest time I was convinced I was small. This was actually true as a kid. My birthday is in August so I was always one of the youngest in my class at school plus I was a bit of a late developer who couldn't carry any weight despite mountains and food and a lot of time on the weights. At 20 I was the height I am now (about 1.84m) but weighed less than 75kg. It wasn't until somebody backed off from a fight when I was in my mid 20s that I realised I was taller than most people. It retained the capacity to surprise me for a very long time. Only a few years ago I was genuinely surprised to be subbed into a second XV game to “add some more physical presence out there”. Admittedly by then I was a bit bigger; maybe 90kg.
8.I think I must have been a pretty boy as a youth because I was always getting hit up by older homosexual men; notably by a Welsh curate and a professor at Stuttgart University. My virtue remained intact.
9.I have very large hands. I can pick a basketball up one handed.
10.I think, with Viscount Slim, that courage is the greatest of the virtues because, without it, the others are worthless. No truly good deed was ever done through fear.
11.In my long lost and not very successful cricketing days I batted left handed but bowled right. Leg spin and top spin for what that's worth.
12.I'm allergic to penicillin. Unfortunately I discovered this while back packing and camped some hours from the nearest road.
13.I've been temporarily blinded twice. The first time was when I was knocked off my motorbike in Durham. I dragged the bike off me and off the road, sat down on the slate windowsill of a chippy and my sight went for about five minutes. The second time, was after a car crash and I can distinctly remember knowing it would be OK because it had happened before. I still have the scar from the cut I got on the face in that one. I had 24 stitches.
14.The last time I was chucked out of a pub for being under age I was 13 but I was not permitted to buy a bottle of wine from a supermarket in Detroit at age 28 because my British passport didn't amount to proper ID.
15.I twiddle my thumbs when I am bored.
16.I had never lived with a cat or, indeed, anything more exciting than a hamster or a goldfish until we got Leelamayee Bengal about ten years ago. Now of course I am a certified crazy cat person.
17.I have really appalling eyesight. My contact lens prescription is L +9.5 R +10 and I still need reading glasses! This does make t easier to understand why I was a much more effective rugby player returning to the game in an era when disposable contacts were available. My school and just after years were played under circumstances where a guide dog would have been handy.
18.My knowledge of movies before I metlemur_catta was essentially nil. I had seen the odd Fellini and Bergman movies at school as part of some sort of film appreciation thing but I had probably been to the cinema once on the ten years before meeting the lemur. She put me on a movie watching crash course. Now I, too, can be a boring film buff.
19.I once played bridge against Omar Sharif.
20.One year in Durham they had this auction thing for charity. One could donate against the name of whoever you liked and the biggest 'collector' got chucked in the river (in January). I won. It is said that one Viscount Whitelaw made an unreasonably large donation. I did swim across the river and back for the admiring throng. It was bloody cold.
21.Sue Slipman once threatened to cut off my balls with a blunt pair of scissors for foiling her Euro-Stalinist designs.
22.I came to terms with my own mortality a long time ago. I've had more than my share of near misses. I don't fear death but I'm really not comfortable with the idea of dying. The process seems to be spectacularly unpleasant for many people.
23.Work has taken me to thirteen different countries over the years. It has also taken me to all sorts of places in the US and Canada that sensible people never go. I've seen far more of the US thanlemur_catta who is a Merkan.
24.I've always liked to have decent recorded music playing gear around. I bought my first real hi-fi system when I was still at school, using phones because I couldn't afford the speakers I wanted. I bought them the following year and I still have them. Right now they form the left and right front speakers in a 6.1 channel home theatre set up bought with the money I made on my stock when IBM bought LGS for about four times what it was worth.
25.In my career my current employers have at various times been acquired by EDS, IBM and now Hewlett-Packard. I don't think any of these deals created shareholder value though I guess the EDS/HP one is still in the fairly early stages.
1.I'm philosophical rather than religious. Intellectually, I can't bring myself to believe in anything that resembles a 'god' as defined in any of the major religious traditions. I'm culturally Anglican of a reasonably austere sort. I love Anglican cathedral music but a mere whiff of incense is enough to turn me into a candidate for a commission in the New Model Army. On occasions this strength of feeling has rather surprised
lemur_catta. Despite my atheism I find theology quite fascinating.2.As far as the philosophy goes, I'm a more a Stoic than anything else. I think life is pretty awful much of the time but we owe it to ourselves and others to do with it what we can. I think Marcus Aurelius would approve.
3.Politically I'm of the left. I'm socially liberal and economically egalitarian. That said, I'm not a fan of simplistic state driven social programmes; welfare capitalism if you will. I used to believe, with Gramsci, that only a politically and culturally hegemonic working class could change the system fundamentally. Any prospect of such a thing arising died with western industrialism and I have yet to see a credible alternative. Right now, for all its faults, social democracy seems a whole lot more attractive than propertarian kleptocracy.
4.I'm obsessed by books. I read for at least a couple of hours every day and live surrounded by books ranging from very beautiful works of art to mass market paperbacks. The worse my eyes get the more I appreciate decent production values.
5.I learned to rock climb because, although I loved hill walking, I was really scared of heights. I still won't go anywhere the edge of a roof but soloing an easy rock route or climbing roped in even the most exposed places really didn't bother me. I use the past tense because I haven't done any serious climbing for several years and rather doubt that I will again. When I was climbing regularly, my leading standard was nearly as high as my seconding standard. I think that's pretty unusual.
6.I was faced with a dilemma at age 15. My two main academic interests were mathematics and history and I was pretty good at both. It wasn't, in those days at least, particularly practical to do double maths and history 'A' levels so I decided that I could probably keep up the history on my own but would need more than self study for the maths. That's why I have a maths degree and a library full of history books. I think I was the only person at my school ever to win the fifth form history prize and not take history at 'A' level.
7.For the longest time I was convinced I was small. This was actually true as a kid. My birthday is in August so I was always one of the youngest in my class at school plus I was a bit of a late developer who couldn't carry any weight despite mountains and food and a lot of time on the weights. At 20 I was the height I am now (about 1.84m) but weighed less than 75kg. It wasn't until somebody backed off from a fight when I was in my mid 20s that I realised I was taller than most people. It retained the capacity to surprise me for a very long time. Only a few years ago I was genuinely surprised to be subbed into a second XV game to “add some more physical presence out there”. Admittedly by then I was a bit bigger; maybe 90kg.
8.I think I must have been a pretty boy as a youth because I was always getting hit up by older homosexual men; notably by a Welsh curate and a professor at Stuttgart University. My virtue remained intact.
9.I have very large hands. I can pick a basketball up one handed.
10.I think, with Viscount Slim, that courage is the greatest of the virtues because, without it, the others are worthless. No truly good deed was ever done through fear.
11.In my long lost and not very successful cricketing days I batted left handed but bowled right. Leg spin and top spin for what that's worth.
12.I'm allergic to penicillin. Unfortunately I discovered this while back packing and camped some hours from the nearest road.
13.I've been temporarily blinded twice. The first time was when I was knocked off my motorbike in Durham. I dragged the bike off me and off the road, sat down on the slate windowsill of a chippy and my sight went for about five minutes. The second time, was after a car crash and I can distinctly remember knowing it would be OK because it had happened before. I still have the scar from the cut I got on the face in that one. I had 24 stitches.
14.The last time I was chucked out of a pub for being under age I was 13 but I was not permitted to buy a bottle of wine from a supermarket in Detroit at age 28 because my British passport didn't amount to proper ID.
15.I twiddle my thumbs when I am bored.
16.I had never lived with a cat or, indeed, anything more exciting than a hamster or a goldfish until we got Leelamayee Bengal about ten years ago. Now of course I am a certified crazy cat person.
17.I have really appalling eyesight. My contact lens prescription is L +9.5 R +10 and I still need reading glasses! This does make t easier to understand why I was a much more effective rugby player returning to the game in an era when disposable contacts were available. My school and just after years were played under circumstances where a guide dog would have been handy.
18.My knowledge of movies before I met
lemur_catta was essentially nil. I had seen the odd Fellini and Bergman movies at school as part of some sort of film appreciation thing but I had probably been to the cinema once on the ten years before meeting the lemur. She put me on a movie watching crash course. Now I, too, can be a boring film buff.19.I once played bridge against Omar Sharif.
20.One year in Durham they had this auction thing for charity. One could donate against the name of whoever you liked and the biggest 'collector' got chucked in the river (in January). I won. It is said that one Viscount Whitelaw made an unreasonably large donation. I did swim across the river and back for the admiring throng. It was bloody cold.
21.Sue Slipman once threatened to cut off my balls with a blunt pair of scissors for foiling her Euro-Stalinist designs.
22.I came to terms with my own mortality a long time ago. I've had more than my share of near misses. I don't fear death but I'm really not comfortable with the idea of dying. The process seems to be spectacularly unpleasant for many people.
23.Work has taken me to thirteen different countries over the years. It has also taken me to all sorts of places in the US and Canada that sensible people never go. I've seen far more of the US than
lemur_catta who is a Merkan.24.I've always liked to have decent recorded music playing gear around. I bought my first real hi-fi system when I was still at school, using phones because I couldn't afford the speakers I wanted. I bought them the following year and I still have them. Right now they form the left and right front speakers in a 6.1 channel home theatre set up bought with the money I made on my stock when IBM bought LGS for about four times what it was worth.
25.In my career my current employers have at various times been acquired by EDS, IBM and now Hewlett-Packard. I don't think any of these deals created shareholder value though I guess the EDS/HP one is still in the fairly early stages.
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Date: 2009-02-03 09:54 pm (UTC)Also, I can't resist raising my eyebrows at your very large hands...
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