Blame Nicolette (yes, the other one, still). I’ve jumped on yet another bandwagon (hey: 101: I jump on bandwagons) and created a 100 things you might not know about me list. In fact, you might already know a lot of it if you actually know me personally. There may be some surprises, however. It’s hard for me to tell.
Another bandwagon: eatonweb. You a blogger? Then register, why don’t you?
Music in the room: I’m just a girl (No Doubt)
OK, so, who am I to resist a good (read: any) excuse to talk a lot about myself?
100 things about me that you might not already know
001 I have to lie flat on my back (in a dark room) to get to sleep.
002 I frequently dream in words instead of pictures.
003 I occasionally dream cartoons.
004 I once wrote a brilliant essay on Hamlet in my head while flat out with a fever – unfortunately, by the time I was in a state to write it down I had forgotten the salient points.
005 I like having my prejudices challenged.
006 I have become embarrassingly sentimental over the last decade.
007 I cry at “happy” things rather than “sad” things, death frequently leaves me unmoved, but a soppy story of an orphan finding a family, for example, has me in tears in seconds.
008 I have just realised getting to 100 may be more difficult than I originally anticipated…
009 I love chocolate, but I am quite picky when in comes to the type of chocolate I will eat (except when desperate, though even desperation couldn’t make me eat a Hershey bar).
010 I have become pretty immune to violence and human suffering on the screen, but a picture of a burning book makes me feel physically ill.
011 I hate crowds.
012 I believe in Mr. Right, despite all evidence to the contrary.
013 I love rollercoasters, but I can no longer go on rides that go round and round.
014 I used to be able to read while riding in a car. It is the one thing about my childhood self that I regret losing (before you ask: a lot of the rest is not yet lost, and so cannot be regretted).
015 I have met some of my best friends through the internet.
016 I like my own company and have a high tolerance for solitude.
017 I talk to my parents on the phone several times a week, voluntarily.
018 I talk to my brother on the phone about once a week – voluntarily on both sides.
019 I can barely stand going to visit my grandparents, which gives me such a bad conscience that I go more often than I would have had it been a “neutral” experience.
020 I am an intellectual snob, I am frighteningly intolerant of stupidity (my definition, of course).
021 I will actually ask people to call back later if they interrupt me in the middle of a particularly enganging part of a book or in a tv-show I really want to watch.
022 I tend to start yawning the moment I start talking on the phone.
023 I love walking on the beach, preferably in “bad” weather.
024 I don’t eat enough vegetables.
025 I could never be a vegetarian, because I could never give up bacon.
026 I firmly believe Sting is right: there’s no such thing as a winnable war.
027 I don’t think I’ve ever really been in love.
028 I have, however, been in love with the notion that I was in love a fair few times.
029 I don’t read newspapers.
030 I love quizes, online or otherwise.
031 I once sat a Mensa IQ test that gave my IQ as >155 (I had 40 out of 40 questions correct).
032 I will probably never sit an official IQ test again voluntarily, I wouldn’t trust my luck twice.
033 I love the Eurovision Song Contest. I wish it came around more than once a year.
034 I am the Queen of Procrastination.
035 I do not, as a rule, forgive and forget. I try, though.
036 I didn’t cry over my maternal grandmother’s death until about a year after it actually occurred, and then only after I’d dreamt of having a quarrel with her.
037 I once dreamt I’d given birth, and woke up with the most soul-shattering sense of loss I have ever felt.
038 I concluded from 37 that I would be lying to myself if I claimed I don’t want children.
039 I read Linda Lovelace’s biography (of Deep Throat fame) when I was 13. Not advisable, but the only lasting effect I can discern is a distaste for James Brown.
040 I read American Psycho a year ago. I do not want to read it again.
041 I firmly believe that children not reading will hurt them more than anything they can find in any book.
042 I wish I had paid more attention in French class at school.
043 I would like to learn to ride a motorcycle.
044 I like buying people gifts. When I fantasise about winning the lottery, the ability to surprise people with ridiculously expensive gifts figures prominently.
045 I would like to be able to play an instrument, the saxophone, for example, but I doubt if I have the aptitude, and I know I don’t have the stamina to stick at it long enough to find out.
046 I do not travel light.
047 I drink my coffee black, no sugar. I don’t dislike things like cappuchino and latte, but given a choice I would rather just have black coffee (or espresso). The only exception to this rule is Irish Coffee. I’ll have that anytime.
048 I also don’t like having anything with my coffee. I’ll have cake and eat that first, then drink the coffee, or drink the coffee first, then eat the cake.
049 I have eaten haggis and liked it.
050 I go to the movies or theatre by myself.
051 I am quite good at giving the impresssion of knowing more than I actually do. This is not always a good thing.
052 I still have no idea of what I’m going to be when I grow up.
053 I consider it as proof that I’m not really a grown-up that I still (at 28) somehow expect people to find me precocious.
054 I am better at spend money than at saving them.
055 I resent having to spend money on stuff like having my hair cut. If it wasn’t so impractical I’d just let it grow and never set foot in a hairdresser’s again.
056 I like rain better than sun.
057 I have lost the ability to sleep in. If I sleep past about ten chances are I’ll wake up with a splintering headache, regardless of when I went to bed.
058 I never get up the first time the alarm goes off unless I have an early flight or an important exam.
059 I do not eat fresh tomatoes.
060 I like practically every alchoholic substance except beer. I prefer English cider, Scotch single-malt whisky and real Champagne, though.
061 I wish I could afford to get into the habit of having Champagne every day.
062 I don’t enjoy going out unless it is possible to sit down and talk without shouting (which rules out nightclubs and most bars).
063 I am good at keeping secrets, I can actually remember the times I have (unintentionally) revealed someone else’s secret, and in both instances I was not actually aware that it was a secret.
064 I tend to assume the most innocent explanation for anything to be the truth. Hence I am not a good source for gossip.
065 I would have liked to go to sea. It is impractical for several reasons, though: A. I live in the wrong century, B. I am the wrong sex and C. Where would I keep my books?
066 I am a cat-person, but I like dogs.
067 I see beauty of some sort in practically everything in nature, one notable exception is cockroaches.
068 I read, therefore I am.
069 I like long coffee breaks.
070 I have an almost-slipped disk in my lower back.
071 I once watched The Sound of Music nine times in one week (I was 13).
072 I don’t like telephones. Unless I know the person I’m phoning, and also whoever is likely to pick up the phone, very well, I can put off phoning people for days, months or years, depending on the actual urgency of the call.
073 I have been to a reception at the Icelandic presidential residence, Bessastadir, and spoken to the President at the time, Vigdis Finnbogadottir (I was 12).
074 I have walked in the crater of a volcano that had errupted two years prior to my visit.
075 I won a prize in a drawing competition when I was around ten. The theme was “what I want to be when I grow up”, and I drew myself as a librarian. The moral might be that I actually had more self-awareness when I was ten than I did at the stage where I actually had to start chosing what to study.
076 I am usually early for everything, and I hate waiting for people (not a good combination).
077 I absolutely adore the concept of drag-queens. I can’t quite picture actually dating one, but then I suppose the majority of them wouldn’t want to date me anyway.
078 I have fallen completely for the Harry Potter trading card game from Wizards of the Coast. I don’t actually play it, I just collect the cards.
079 I love swings.
080 I sometimes wish I were Harriet Vane.
081 I think I am becoming addicted to my online diary.
082 I know I’m addicted to e-mail.
083 I sometimes read trashy romance novels to relax.
084 I have considered trying my hand at writing trashy romance novels, figuring it might be a pleasant way to make money.
085 I have been online since 1993.
086 I search for the correct word in vain more often in Norwegian (my native language) than in English.
087 I like riding in cars because it makes me relax completely. For the same reason, it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have a driver’s licence.
088 I have seen less than 50% of the Star Wars movies currently out (August 2002).
089 I am the eggman, I am the walrus (sorry, couldn’t resist).
090 I am a gadget-freak, limited only by a budget that can really only deal with one obsession (books).
091 I only ever use Ibuprophen-based painkillers, as no other painkiller I’ve tried has any effect on me whatsoever.
092 I find one 400mg Ibuprophen tablet helps me more than two 200mg tablets. I think the reason for this must be purely psychosomatic. However, it presents a problem, as only 200mg tablets are sold without a prescription in Norway.
093 I prefer UNIX to Windows (so why haven’t I started using Linux?).
094 I like baking cakes more than eating them.
095 I couldn’t stand the taste of potatoes up to the age of 25. Now I seem to be eating them all the time, as if to make up for all the lovely potato- dishes I’ve missed (mmm, baked potato, mmm, fat english chips, mmm, potato gratin).
096 I like making lists.
097 I use a packpack for a handbag.
098 I am more amused than annoyed by spam.
099 I do not like marmite.
100 I don’t think I would like to live to a hundred.