Tagged by Kate

I’ve been tagged by my friend Kate. It appears the rules are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

As a result you now get to read these seven random things about me ((Aren’t you lucky?)) :

1. I’m worried about how good of a parent I am. Not for anything specific I’m doing wrong, because I could fix that. Hopefully this is one of those “if you’re worried about it, you don’t need to worry about it” type of things where a truly horrible parent wouldn’t give it a second thought.
2. When things at home get well beyond crazy and I can’t think straight ((with three daughters this does happen from time to time)) I close my eyes and chant “I’m a hermit. I live alone. None of you exist” until I feel calm.
3. I listen to audiobooks/podcasts in the shower. I have for years. I have a shower CD/Radio unit, which is now usually used to listen to the iPod via an FM transmitter. You might think this would slow me down, since I’d get involved in the story and just stay in there, but the opposite it true. I used to drift off and loose track of time in the shower. Now I’m much more aware of the passage of time and it keeps me moving.
4. In the PC vs. Mac battle I choose Unix. No I don’t run Linux on my desktop ((Not exclusively anyhow. I have a KVM switching between Fedora, Mac OS, and Windows XP)) . Although Mac OS X is my current desktop of choice, I’m fine as long as I can run bash, grep, sed, and awk on a decent terminal ((preferably with X11 support, and Emacs if I’m lucky)) .
5. I still don’t know my addition and subtraction tables. Seriously. My brain does not do the memorizing by rote thing. By now the tricks I taught myself to get around this deficiency are so ingrained that seeing most numbers written out I instantly have the answer, but it’s not because I know the answer. ((In something only marginally related, I used a Venn diagram for something at work the other day to optimize an algorithm. I guess it’s good that I know how, but it’s the first time I’ve ever used them outside a classroom.))
6. I have a strong dislike for public restrooms dating back the time a large drunk man ((In my memory he’s more of a giant, but I’m sure he was just a man.)) busted in a stall door on me when I was a kid. Apparently it never occurred to this guy why the stall was locked until he saw me sitting there, which he and his buddies thought was totally hilarious. I did not. If there is a personal hell, mine is a bathroom stall with a busted lock in a high traffic restroom.
7. My most recent form letter rejection from John Joseph Adams, assistant editor of The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy was nearly identical to my previous letter, with one exception ((aside from the title of the work)) : Instead of the familiar “Dear Mr. Penney”, it started with “Hey Jay”. I don’t know what, if anything, I should make of that, but I choose to see it in a positive light ((please allow me my illusions)) .

And here are the folks I’m tagging (but don’t feel obligated):

• Bohemian Delilah
• Matt Dursin
• Kris Johnson
• Holly Lisle
• Chris Miller
• S. William Shaw
• trillian1117