It's like life on Finchley Road all those years ago. You wait ages for the No. 13 bus to take you to Oxford Circus, and along come three in a row. A week ago I'm complaining sotto voce about never having been sand-bagged or meme-tagged, and now it's happened twice. No. 1 in time will take a little more thoughtful consideration. But No. 2, from the Blue Girl, shouldn't be too hard. Eight Random Facts About Myself.

(But before we go there, this reminds me of that awful game they play as an ice-breaker at management-training type thingies, where you have to tell your "partner" three things about yourself, only one of them isn't true, and you have to guess which one, and this is supposed to help you bond because you share all this intimacy. And what I learned was that my partner actually played the cornet, not the trombone, which is what she said she played. Or something.)

  1. I have been to a management training course. I enjoyed it. I learned stuff. And then I came back from it, and a friend wised me up to the truth about the MBTI, and now I keep my thoughts about that mostly to myself. But the other stuff I learned has stayed useful.
  2. I used to be an evangelical rationalist, but now I no longer see any need to spend my time telling people they believe a load of twaddle. Funny, they'll believe all that, but they won't believe me. So I keep my thoughts to myself. But frankly, I'm appalled at some of the company I keep.
  3. My brain these days is like my tummy was when I was little. It has compartments. So, just as I could always manage pudding even though I was full of main course, I can think about (and do) blogging even when I'm too tired to think about (and do) other kinds of work. I'm sure it never used to be like that.
  4. I've shed 7.1 kg over the past year, and it didn't hurt a bit. My hair is longer than it has ever been. Two facts for the price of one, but I choose to lump them under "physical appearance," which is so important for a blogger, don't you think? I'm not sure the two are linked. I am sure that if I shaved my head tomorrow I'd probably have shed 9.1 kg.
  5. I'm still learning stuff about myself. Like, if I don't do it now, I'm unlikely to do it later. At least, not much later. And in the same vein, when I'm procrastinating, I'm thinking. I really am. And somehow, when I'm done thinking, I'm magically done procrastinating too. (This is probably the 30-second version of what the 1st tag will get.)
  6. Is any of this stuff verifiable? I mean, are these facts about me, or opinions about me, or both? That's the kind of thing I sometimes worry about.
  7. Perhaps I'm kidding myself (see above) but I believe I am actually quite good at what I do. I'm just not very good at doing it if it doesn't interest me.
  8. Hey! We're up to Number 8. And this is the really sad part. I don't think I know 8 bloggers to tag, not least because they've all apparently been tagged already.

Colleen bit on her cyanide tooth rather than pass on the last (and first) meme I infected her with, so she's out of the running. The Viscount has probably been tagged. I know Neddie must have been, and I don't hang around with A-listers like Blue Girl does. Other people who might be tempted, like Luigi and various others (Rebsie?), don't have outlets for their personal ramblings. So unless The Viscount and -- who? -- BioPolitical decide to play, this meme fails to reproduce in me.

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