Sunday, December 21, 2008

Blog CPR. Or 7 random factoids about yours truly

Poor neglected blog who was meant to keep all my treasured thoughts & ideas and provided an outlet to vent, express & emote, why did i leave you unattended all this time? It's time to revive you with a meme that i pinched from jfox's blog listing 7 random facts about moi-self, which funnily enough happens to be one of my favourite subjects! How about that!?

So here goes:

1. I'm lefthanded meaning I join the ranks of the elite few who are have astounded humankind with their varying brands of excellence and brilliance. I think it's only natural that I would be a member of this club!

2. Whoever meets me, particularly if it happens to be during summer, would find out that I have a pathological fear of thunderstorms. This fear can sometimes affect my ability to do everyday things if a storm is brewing in the vicinity. If a storm is occurring, I try to find a place where I can huddle until the storm passes; if I ever become a homeowner and I have money to burn, I will invest in a bunker for this very purpose. Yep, i'm a freak.

3. Funnily enough and given factoid (2), I am a big fan of the BOM website and can spend hours checking out the weather radar. If there's a freaky storm on the way (irrespective on whether i live in that city or not), I will know about it and track it with the BOM radar (on loop, of course!). I also love weatherzone's lightning tracker function, it's sooooo cool....ok i'll just stop here.

4. One of my absolute pet hates is when drivers do not give me the acknowledgement wave when I let them through during heavy traffic or in narrow streets. I totally *love* the acknowledgement wave, they are in my opinion a vital element in a civilised society and not getting them makes me feel like I was robbed in some ways. When i don't get the wave from other drivers, little cumulonimbus clouds start forming above my head, ...which is kind of weird given point (2), but nevertheless this type of rudeness brings out the misanthrope in me (though I should point out, not enough to turn me into a road raging porkchop just to set the record straight).

5. Speaking of misanthropy, some human behavioural characteristics (see point 4) really bring out the curmudgeon in me, making me harbour really grey thoughts about humankind in general on some days. Kids though are ok in my books.

6. I love conspiracy theories. Love. Them. I am convinced that every historical event in the 20th and 21st century has been orchestrated somehow by someone to deliberately keep things going on a particular course. Once a conspiracy theory gains (relative) mainstream acceptance, however, I lose interest. For example, during the 2003 US-led war in Eye-rak, there was worldwide outrage on how it was such a blatant ploy to get american mitts on Eye-rakian oil. To me that just seemed too obvious, and therefore too boring, to be true. Alas even if i was to be proven wrong in the end.

7. I find eye contact to be a really confronting, intimate and sometimes even intimidating thing. This may sound counter to what I was saying in point (4) because being acknowledged, whether on the road or elsewhere, can be dependent on non-verbal cues such as eye-contact; however, when someone levels a pointed gaze at me for a period that may start to feel arbitrarily prolonged, I can't help but look away out of slight discomfort. Mind you, I also don't have time for people who don't maintain an acceptable level of eye contact with me when I am conversing with them - it's just plain rude and makes me highly suspicious (& dismissive - see point 5) of them! As a social cue though, I am pleased to say that I am learning new and interesting things about it, such as the fact that it is customary (well at least in Europe) to look a person in the eye when you share a drink with them and do the clinking of glasses thing...so ok, maybe i am the only uncouth and uncivilised one who didn't know you were supposed to do that.

Anyway, these are a few random factoids about me, if you want to vent, express & emote too then give it a go too.

3 comments:

jfox said...

yay, you're back! i've missed your posts serenity =)

curmudgeon? really? i'm shocked and shall quiz you at a later date....

you may also like this site:
http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/~rwardle/weather/Melbourne.html


[acknowledgment wave]
just in case...

Jonno said...

I like the random facts Serenity!

Fact 3. I went through this phase. The amount of rainfall is also an addictive sub-page of the site... Gotta love Mozilla Firefox. You just need to type in bom and it brings the site up!

Fact 4!!!! I can't agree with you more and it's a pet hate! I always ensure the wave back too to make sure their appreciation is acknowledged. I give the slight shake of the head and some mutterings under the breath if 'way' has been given without thanks. It's only common courtesy people!

Fact 7. Me too. I think 10 seconds straight is the limit before I have to have a 1-2 second look elsewhere...

thanh7580 said...

For once, someone writes things interesting that people may not necessarily know about them. Write facts like "I like blue" and "My favourite movie is Titanic" is rather boring.

I have a pathological hatred of mosquitoes. When there is one around, I have to kill it before I can sit still.

Who doesn't love BOM. We look at it at work all the time and say things like "you better start riding home early, the storms coming in about 10 minutes according to the radar images".

I used to not make much eye contact (being Asian I was brought up that way). But I've learnt more and more to make eye contact, to the point that I can stare at someone the whole time they are talking. I only do this to people who do the same back. Otherwise I will break eye contact regularly and look away for a quick second and then back.