Tagged! I’m It.

Well, I’ve heard of transposon tagging, but I’ve never personally been tagged by an ERV before. Yes, the ‘8 Random Things About You’ game has arrived! I feel so validated.

Here are the rules:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I am almost embarrassingly excited about the new Harry Potter book. I have it pre-ordered from Amazon and it’s due to arrive on my doorstep on the day it’s released.
2. My house is full of unread New Scientist magazines. I got a subscription when I left the lab 2 years ago, and it helped inspire me to start writing my own articles on this blog. But now that I’m spending all this time writing and reading blogs, I don’t have time to read New Scientist.
3. I hate melon. Every kind of melon. Yes, even water melon. I wish I could like it – it looks yummy – and I occasionally try a piece to see if I still hate it. I always do. I don’t even like eating other food that’s been stored in the fridge with a cut-up melon. My Grandma was the same way with cucumber and I think the two species are quite closely related.
4. I was extremely, painfully, shy at school. I was bullied quite a bit for being a “swot” (like the British for geek/nerd, but with slightly different connotations). Once, when I was about 14, I purposely got some questions wrong on a minor German test. When the scores were read out, I was relieved not to be at the top of the class where I would attract attention and verbal abuse. Instead, I attracted lots of cat calling and “you’re not so clever now, are you? Think you’re so great mumble mumble mumble” comments. Realising I was screwed either way, I never pulled that trick again. I kept my head down, studied hard, and got the hell out of there. At university I discovered beer, and a class full of people who thought being smart was a good thing, and I stopped being so shy. I think I’ve had the last laugh.
5. My favourite film should be Amelie. That’s what I tell people when I’m trying to sound intelligent. It really is a fantastic movie. But my actual favourite is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Whoever cast Sean Connery as Indy’s father is a genius. I also enjoyed The Prestige, mostly because I think cloning Hugh Jackman is a really really good idea.
6. My fiance is one of the (probably) very small number of people in the world who have their name in the acknowledgements of a scientific paper as well as in the credits of a movie. I can take partial credit for the scientific paper, but the movie was all his own work.
7. I used to be really quite decent at the classical guitar. I once did a very short solo in the middle of a group piece in front of around 1000 people (other students’ parents) and didn’t screw up. I would probably still be quite good if I wasn’t so lazy about practising.
8. One of my biggest regrets is that I never got to see Alan Shearer play for Newcastle United (yes, really). Every time I managed to get tickets (not often, due to price and the necessity of queuing at 5 am), he was injured. I had tickets for a game last Christmas when he was one or two goals away from breaking the all-time club scoring record. The game was cancelled 25 minutes before kick-off due to snow. We were already in the ground, and I got to see Big Al throw a snowball. I would have given anything to be there when he broke that record. Instead, I was back in Canada. I’m depressed now just thinking about it.

OK, who should I tag? Probably people who’ve linked to me in the past. That ought to teach them. I have to run off to work now, but I’ll be adding names to this post soon!

Here we go: Genomicron, Begley Web Log, Science Notes, The Divine Afflatus, Planet Atheism, A Blog Around the Clock, Everything and More, and Monkey Trials (the latter hasn’t linked to me, but I really like the blog) – you’re it!