Things you might be interested to know about me

Well, aside from the fact that I can't decide whether to treat the post titles as proper titles with appropriate capitalisation or write normally, I thought I'd share a few things that spring to mind that people might be interested to know about me. Maybe you know me and you already know about them. All well and good. Maybe you'll be surprised by something I list or perhaps you'll say you know at least forty other people that share the same thing. Whatever, it's my list and you may make of it what you will.

1. Cotton wool freaks me out. I mean, it seriously freaks me out. I don't like the texture, I don't like the sounds it makes when you tear it or rub it off something or anything like that. Some people consider it weird but it's a very real thing.

2. I have a surprisingly selective sense of smell. What in hell does this mean, you might be wondering? Well, my sense of smell is abysmal for the most part. Usually, if someone asks me if I can smell something the answer is no. Things I can smell are normally very pungent and/or I don't like them. Onions, especially if microwaved, are something I can't stand raw or partly cooked so of course, I seem to be able to smell them. Plus they do the whole making me cry thing to the point where I can hardly open my eyes and it looks as if I've been bawling my eyes out. Yay!

3. I am somewhat afraid of dolls and ventriloquist dummies (the people sort, not animals). It's the eyes, I just can't look at them. Well in terms of ventriloquist dummies, it's probably the whole face with that fixed grin and- *shudders* I once cleverly chose a film for us to watch at home called "Dead Silence" because I knew it was about ventriloquist dummies. I wanted a horror film and I knew it'd freak me out. It succeeded because it damn well stuck in my brain. I can't get rid of it, it's horrible because I still have a sort of perverse fascination with it. Clearly I hate myself.

4. I am an alien that has arrived on this planet by accident. Seriously though, that's what Asperger's is like. Everyone else seems like they should be aliens but yet they fit into the environment so obviously you're the alien because it's the only thing that makes sense. In my eyes, most people are unfathomable. I can't read facial expressions very well although I can learn them for specific people eventually. Also I can't pick up on tones well either so I can't always pick up on sarcasm, irony, etc. That's the tip of the iceberg but I'll probably discuss my Asperger's at some point in the future.

5. I don't like skirts and dresses. To my knowledge, I have not worn a dress since I was about 8 and my willingness to wear skirts died about that time too. I had to wear a skirt for school for 9 years after that but I avoided wearing skirts for the most part until I was forced to wear one for my Confirmation (totally pointless ceremony all things considered) and I only own one skirt now. The origins of the skirt in question is a mystery and if I wore it, my brain has blocked the memory as being too painful.

6. I know a lot about cats. I've owned quite a few cats but I also had an obsession (Asperger's, yay!) with factual cat books from about the age of 7 until 9 or 10. As a result, I know a fair bit about cats from the average gestation period (56-63 days) to the fact that the O gene causes a ginger coat in males and tortoiseshell coats in females in normal circumstances. Yes, I am that cool. I also identified a family friend's cat as being pregnant without having seen the cat before. I am that good.

7. I really like sci-fi. Surprise! Yeah that isn't anything new to be honest as I had a whole post concerning the origins of my love of sci-fi. I've watched a ridiculous amount of sci-fi shows and I'm getting good at reading it too. I'm a very big fan of Isaac Asimov's robot stories.

8. I know Pi to about 20 decimal places. Why do I know this? Because why not? I sometimes do things just because I can. To be honest, I was supposed to be studying and my brain had the bright idea to learn Pi because it was a distraction from what I was supposed to be doing. I probably could have learned more but I got bored/distracted again.

9. I can't swim or ride a bicycle. What?! You can't do these things? Everyone can do them! Yeah, well guess what? I can't, end of story.

10. I've never seen any Star Wars films. Yeah, that's another one of those things that everyone but me has done. I have not watched Star Wars because... well, I don't have a good excuse but I suppose I'll get around to it at some stage. Along with the other films I want to see.

11. I really like the Sims. I don't know what it is but I seem to derive great pleasure from controlling the lives of (virtual) people. What does that say about me?

12. I once wrote a play about Stargate SG-1 and designed a video game of it. It is immensely cringeworthy in hindsight but I wrote a play, designed a set, tried to work out how to stage the thing and chose a musical accompaniments from pop CDs my best friend had. I also designed a number of mission levels and worked out fun things you could do if you didn't want to go off killing aliens. I had lots of ideas as a child.

13. I used to make clay models of animals. They weren't very good, I was 8 at the time but I made pigs and what not that could serve as pen or pencil holders by putting depressions in their backs. I can't even stand the feel of clay anymore.

14. I met a ghost when I was 3. I had a Victorian gentleman called George in my bedroom over in England who I told my mum was sad. Turned out he'd hung himself in that room when he'd lived there.

15. I'm an only child. I'm fairly sure I mentioned this before but maybe you missed it? My mother wasn't supposed to be able to have children but I happened along just before she turned 40.

16. I really love board games. I used to have loads of board games that I played on my own because I didn't have anyone to play with me.

17. I adore everything to do with space. I've always been fascinated by different planets, by stars, by the size of the universe, all that jazz. When are we going to go live on the moon?

18. I know the capital city of Taiwan is Taipei. I fact successfully drummed into my head by my dear uncle Paul.

19. I had a racing snail. It had a black and yellow shell, the snail itself was pink and its shell was maybe an inch in diameter. I liked that snail.

20. I'm interested in mythology. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Celtic, no matter what culture it's from I'm interested. I have a good few books on it.

21. I'm useless at keeping plants alive. I try really hard but I either love it too much and give it too much water or I forget to water it and it dies of thirst. Poor plants.

22. I used to call one of my uncle's Auntie. I assumed that he was my Auntie too because his wife was and they thought it was cute so I wasn't corrected until after I screamed it in public.

23. I couldn't pronounce the letter L properly until I was about 5. I used to love reciting Baa Baa Black Sheep which inevitably used to end something like "And one for the yittle boy that yived down the yane".