steepholm: (Default)
steepholm ([personal profile] steepholm) wrote2008-01-23 12:01 am

The meme of 10 weird things

I was tagged for this by [livejournal.com profile] altariel:

Rules: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names.

Somehow I haven't the heart to tag anyone else, but do join in if you'd care to!



1. I can wiggle my ears independently and roll my stomach, and a Vulcan salute comes easily to me, but am not asked to do any of these things as often as you’d think, or I’d (secretly) like.
2. Although words are my profession and I love etymology, I am a monoglot. It shames me, and I’ve often tried to learn languages - Welsh, Latin, Esperanto (all the useful ones) – but to no avail. Words, yes; language, no.
3. I share a birthday with my paternal grandfather and Robbie Burns. It’s also the Feast of St Paul’s Conversion on the Road to Damascus – which may mean that, had I been a Catholic, my saint’s name would have been Conversion. But probably not.
4. I am addicted to puns, and one of my long-term projects is to lure children’s authors onto the Clifton Suspension Bridge, photograph them, then put the photos in a Flickr album with a title involving some pun on the word ‘Abridgement’. So far I only have two in my collection, but I think it ought to be fairly easy to nab [livejournal.com profile] gerald, as she lives five minutes’ walk away. It’s sheer laziness that I haven’t tried yet, really.
5. I have an MSc in computer science and, having spent a fun four months writing a program for a natural language parser, very nearly went into programming as a profession.
6. Instead I spent 18 months as a technical author, before I fled screaming. My magnum opus was a handbook for a program to help structural engineers with reinforced concrete detailing. (Which was more horrifying – the boredom of the job, or the fear that it might start to seem interesting?)
7. [Edited to subtract: I may add another one later...]
8. To my mind, a garden isn’t complete without fruit trees, running water, and honeysuckle. There’s a haiku in that, somewhere.
9. My second name, Cadman, is the surname of my maternal grandmother. When my mother was a child they were were occasionally visited from the States by her great Uncle Sam Cadman, who was always preceded by a trunkful of ecclesiastical vestments. My mother, understandably, thought that this august figure must be the Uncle Sam, and was very careful to be quiet when he was praying.
10. I have officiated at the funerals of five goldfish, three gerbils, two guinea pigs and a hamster. Whatever next??

[identity profile] sartorias.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
I snerfled tea at the image of Uncle Sam

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
I only just found this Wiki page! My mother always told me he was a former-day Billy Graham, and it seems she spoke the truth. Now I wonder whether she told the truth about the other Cadmans too (but that's for another post...)

[identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
independently of each other, as in one at a time? Cool! I can only do both, although there is some inequality of movement.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 09:22 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, independently - that is my proud boast! I do seem to be left-eared, though, as well as left-everything else. That ear wiggles with a freedom of movement and a certain brio the other can't quite match.
jadelennox: Senora Sabasa Garcia, by Goya (fencing: fleche)

[personal profile] jadelennox 2008-01-23 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
I'm the same about languages. Love them, and after one semester each of Spanish and ASL, three of Arabic, 5 years of French, and *13* of Hebrew, I'm still incredibly monolingual.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 09:25 am (UTC)(link)
Frustrating, isn't it? I studied German for seven years, and even got a good grade, but I could never had held a conversation in it, and a couple of years later had forgotten almost everything.

[identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 07:30 am (UTC)(link)
I can't pick up other languages either. French, German, Latin, Russian - no use. I hope that when we do meet I get to see the full ear-wigglin', stomach-rollin', Vulcan-salutin' show.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
To see my stomach-roll you would probably need a fairly strong stomach yourself, but if you're up for it, sure!

[identity profile] gair.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Ee, I haven't introduced you guys yet, have I? I am always too selfish when there is an [livejournal.com profile] altariel in town. But next time!

[identity profile] shewhomust.livejournal.com 2008-01-23 11:15 am (UTC)(link)
Ellen Phethean tells me that not only does she share a birthday with Robbie Burns, so does Virginia Woolf. You too, eh?