As seen here and Facebook (which I can’t link to because you’re probably not friends with my friends, and if you are, you already saw their stuff). On Facebook you’re supposed to tag 25 people, and they’re supposed to then do their 25 things thing.  Maybe I’ll post this on Facebook as well, who knows.

1. 1. I’m type two diabetic, through a mixture of genetics and too much pizza, your guess as to which has the greater effect is about as accurate as modern science’s best guess as well.  I was diagnosed in 2005.
   2. During university (or as it was when I started, polytechnic) in Sheffield, I would sometimes drink 7-12 cans of regular ice cold coca cola a day.  This in no way contributed to #1 above, really, no link at all.  During periods of revision or ‘last minute finalisation of essays’ (i.e. writing 3000 words from scratch in 2 hours), cola consumption could exceed this limit.
   3. John Hughes, John Landis, Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis basically formed my entire view of the universe.  Later in life, Kevin Smith simply confirmed it all to be true.
   4. I prefer savoury tastes to sweet tastes.  This isn’t to say I don’t like sweet stuff, but on the whole I enjoy savoury tastes more.  Despite the claims of the first GP I spoke to after being diagnosed as diabetic, my diet does not contain a lot of sugar, it consists mostly of savoury, sour, and umami tasting foods.  I stopped taking sugar in my tea in my early teens, and while I enjoyed jellies I always prefered the sour ones (clearly off limits now thanks to #1).  Note to America: By jellies, I don’t mean jams, I mean these.
   5. Clearly I enjoy food (as evidenced by my weight and #1), I most enjoy food which has a strong taste and I often find myself craving chilli based foods.  I am not afraid of some heat in a food product, but I prefer there to be a strong flavour to match it.  If I’m making home made chilli it’s not usually hot in a chilli sense, but it is often salty and has a very strong spice flavour.
   6. I spent several years at university associating strongly with Garfield for various reasons, but not least because he liked lasagne.
   7. I have absolutely no idea what blood type I am.
   8. I firmly believe that a technical skill is less important than the ability to understand problems and apply related knowledge.  If you have the ability to look at something, understand it, and apply related knowledge you can learn any technical skill worth knowing.
   9. I can’t sing, I can’t write music, I can’t play back music that I hear on a musical instrument even if I know technically how to play that instrument (keyboard and tenor horn as a child), I can’t dance, but I have exceptional rhythm and can hold a beat like the universe depended on it.
   10. I believe the phrase “sarcasm is the lowest form of wit” is actually irony.
   11. I could stand in front of 1000 people and talk about a topic I picked up 2 days ago and sound confident but I couldn’t start a face to face conversation with any one of those people about something I’ve been doing for 25 years.
   12. The music of my youth was Madness, Queen, Eurythmics and Adam and the Ants.  I still love the first three, but I don’t rate Adam as much any more.
   13. During an assembly at school when I was around 10, our head teacher explained that not everyone could be good at everything.  We were all different and had different strengths and skills.  I decided there and then that it was clear I would never win a race around our school playground with anyone else due to my weight and lack of physical prowess, however, I would be able to beat everyone else by running diagonally across the playground since I knew that distance was shorter than the length of the other two bits of that triangle.  I decided that maths would be where I excelled and was pleased with myself.  Seven years later I gave up A level maths because it was too hard, and discovered I could neither win a foot race, nor beat people at maths.  I resigned myself to knowing how to use an apostrophe (even if these days, lazy fingers and lazy proof reading mean I get them in the wrong place too often).
   14. I have never had a driving lesson and hence can’t drive.
   15. I used to own (when at university) a long black rain coat, which I loved dearly.  I also had a pair of jeans which stopped at the knees, because they had worn out, formed holes, and the bottom sections had fallen off.  When combined (coat and jeans), with the coat buttoned up, the bottom of my legs were visible but naked.  I used to go out dressed like this.  It scared people.
   16. I’m a negative person.  I don’t just believe your glass is half empty, I think you’ll find it has micro-fractures and is currently leaking water.  Soon it will be entirely empty and you won’t have had time to drink any of it.  I don’t always think negativity is bad, if that were the case the electron would really suck.  However it obviously has to be managed.  I find I’m very good at spotting the flaws in solutions, designs, plans, theories and ideas.  This doesn’t always sit well with the owners of those intellectual objects.  It doesn’t really make them any happier to realise that I’m equally negative about my own ideas, theories, plans, designs and solutions.  However, when I learn to channel this skill correctly and couch my comments in happy-talk, it usually leads to better solutions, designs, ideas, theories and plans.  Usually.  If you find me pissing on your bonfire too much, just remind me, and I’ll try and keep it under control.
   17. My bladder capacity appears to be immense.  This is due to a combination of factors.  A lot of cola and beer while at university, a distinct and deep hatred of shared urinals, general laziness and a propensity to end up sitting somewhere that means I have to ask people to move if I want to stand up and go to the toilet.
   18. I was virtually teetotal until I went to university, but it didn’t last long.  The first real drink I had was Newcastle Brown Ale.  It made me so ill I vowed never to drink again.  Until the next evening.  I didn’t really choose to be teetotal until university, I just wasn’t ‘in’ with the kind of kids at school who went out drinking and so never got invited out.  I don’t necessarily regret this, I’m just letting you know.  You know.
   19. If it hadn’t been for the debt of being at university and because I’m basically really lazy, I’d probably still be in higher education in some form or another.  However, the company I worked for in my third year placement on my degree asked me to come back when my degree finished, assuming I passed, and I’m always happy to fall into the easy option.
   20. Despite my mother smoking all the time I lived at home, I don’t smoke.  I did smoke a few cigars during one particular year (1991-1992 I seem to recall), but just stopped one day.  I don’t seem to have the kind of personality that gets addicted to things.
   21. Although I engage heavily in several hobbies which appear initially to demand a superb imagination (roleplaying, live action roleplaying, reading, etc.), my imagination basically sucks.
   22. I love debate.  I find discussing ideas fun.  I totally respect the fact that other people believe different stuff to me, and will happily debate it until it gets dark and then light again with no intention of changing their mind, and every intention of maybe changing mine.  However, because I am somewhat intense when presenting my current belief on any particular topic, most people think I’m trying to change their minds, get frustrated or angry at me and then shut up and move on.
   23. I am generally uncomfortable with physical contact, but try hard to ignore it.  This doesn’t mean I don’t want you to hug me, I do, just that I’ll probably look uncomfortable for the first five seconds and that I probably won’t initiate the contact.  I’m getting better.
   24. My self image is a cross between Neo (The Matrix), Clint Eastwood and Egon Spengler.  The reality is clearly a cross between John Belushi, Bill Hicks and Raymond Stantz.
   25. Despite the fact that I don’t recall every verbalising to my mother or sister that I love them, I do in fact, love them.