I’ve been tagged. These are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you (Richard).
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six unimportant things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
First, I want to apologize for not following the last two rules. I still have the same lame excuses from last time. Otherwise I’m happy to play along, so here goes:
1. I studied Russian in college because there were too many fluent Spanish/French speakers in the introductory Spanish/French classes. I alternate between seeing this as a shrewd academic move and cowardace. I would have studied German, the language of my ancestors (some of them anyway), but I’m intimidated by lots of letters strung together without spaces. For some reason the new alphabet didn’t bother me that much. My last Russian professor tried to talk me into accepting one of the slots to study in Moscow for a summer, but I turned him down. “It’d be a shame if you didn’t use your gift” he* told me.
Bonus note: I had to look up the word for “things” for the title of this post.
In my defense, Russian didn’t interest me THAT much. One of the things my father taught me was that it’s important to find a career that interests you. While I value the rounding that studying Russian (and other things in college) gave my little shoe-box of knowledge, I didn’t see it as a vehicle to a fulfilling career.
I actually gutted out five hours of French 1 my sophomore year; a misguided, attempted homage to my future in-laws. Sometimes I’m a quick learner, but the only thing I learned in those five hours was I was going to fail that class (something I wasn’t used to).
2. I couldn’t remember what “meme” meant until a few minutes ago.
3. I may be a direct descendant of one of the passengers on the Mayflower.
4. I ended up in the ER after trying to carry my girlfriend (now wife) on my shoulders. My neck has never been the same.
5. A recent project at work has taught me to hate Microsoft Access, which seems to be almost completely useless for more than a dozen concurrent users.
6. I’m uncomfortable with most dairy products. I’m not allergic, I’m just not a big fan. Don’t get me started on Parmesan cheese. It works better for me than ipecac. When someone puts it on their pasta I have to move to the other end of the table.
* I had a hard time taking him seriously, given my struggles with the mother tongue.