I got tagged. It happens, nothing to be worried about. I found enough excuses not to obey that I was able to delay this moment for almost 2 weeks. But now I feel pressed to go.
The rules
- Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged.
Seven things
1. I was a shrimp.
I’m rather not a very spiritual guy and I have serious doubts regarding all religious concepts, but one thing is damn sure. I was a shrimp. I don’t know how, or why, but in previous life (or pre-previous) I had to be a shrimp.
Some people feel they can think like a cat. That they can easily switch their thinking and understand other sex. I have similar feeling about shrimps. I can think like a shrimp… of course it’s impossible for me to explain that to you because you cannot, so trust me. Shrimps are smart.
I feel some concept of emotional response whenever I see a shrimp, I find them uterly cute and innocent, I easily impersonate, I feel I understand how they spend their lives, I never, ever eat them and I tend to think of people who it them as being cruel. For safety and sanity reasons I have a simple rule of not eating anything that has amoung of “legs” different from 2 or 4 and in case of seafood I’m limiting my food to fishes.
It causes several issues while hanging out with my Mum who loves shrimps.
2. I used to have very long hair, was superskinny, dressed only black and played guitar in a power metal band
When I was thirteen I was absolutely sure I will be a heavy metal guitar star. I didn’t miss any Iron Maiden concert, had every Running Wild, Manowar, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian album and was suprt skinny. I don’t know how to explain that but I was the kind of a “too tall too skinny” kind of kid. I could not how someone could do sports and get a bit of muscles ever and what for.
Although I dress a bit differently now, I cut my hair and listen to different music most of the time, I still love to play heavy metal, and I definitely would prefer not to miss an oportunity to go for another Manowar concert or finally get to Blind Guardian one 🙂
3. I love irish/celtic folk culture, scandinavian mythology and good fantasy.
I love to read Tolkien and polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski (who’s first part of the sage just hit the shelves for english speaking readers, and the game The Witcher based on his world received really warm welcome being the first solid polish game for PC. Console version is in works).
And I really mean in. I read a lot of books, I try to watch all the fantasy related movies, when I was fourteen I chose a nickname that somehow stayed, I play celtic/irish folk on a guitar, I play feadóg, I can do a small talk in Sindarin – elvish language from Tolkien, I know how to handle a sword or use a bow (I’ve been in a brotherhood) and the only part that is missing is that I don’t ride horses. Once I lear this, I’m switching to being a knight.
4. I wrote a book when I was sixteen. And a dozen of poems.
They were a mixed bag of fantasy and drama. I’m really proud that exactly one year later I was able to recognize a pure example of teenager graphomania in my work. Well done, gandalf, you’re not an ego-maniac!
5. I’m a city boy.
If you ever watched my favorite series – Northern Exposure – you may remember challenges of a New York city boy in a small town in Alaska. I go through that all the time. I was grown in a world where the source of milk is a grocery store, not some wild animal. I received decent education, so I recognize a chicken from a pig, but you’d have to be there to understand my surprise when by the age of nineteen my friend explained me that nuts are growing on trees…
And don’t get me wrong, I was a scout. I know a lot about survival in the wooden environment. I can set up a tent, find wood in a forest (yup!), ignite a fire or shower in a river. Just don’t expect me to know all those little sneaky details about how exactly cow is different from its male equivalent and what are those different forms of farm creatures that runs around when your in a village. Or types of flower. Or trees. I recognize green ones and bald ones.
6. I train martial arts. UFC kind of stuff.
So, please, avoid commenting the amusing coincidence of this with pact nr 2. I do train MMA in a pretty raw form. It all started when I was 18 and I spent literally 18 hours per day in front of the computer (rings a bell?). It caused me to start looking less skinny and it definitely wasn’t a favorable way of loosing your skinny status. The decision was to find “some sport” around my office and the nearest thing was Karate Kyokushin club. It was a fascinating experience, because the idea of hitting somebody in a face during recreation time wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for at the beginning, but you know… you’re getting used to it 😉
In fact, I became addicted and went for trainings aproximately 5 or 6 times per week with two or three hours of training per day for around 1,5 year. I did it all only to realize that the better I get the more constrains there are. Traditional martial arts are made of them – don’t do this, hitting like that is forbidden, you can’t block this way, clinch is forbidden, no choking… c’mon! Is it a fighting sport or a game?
So I started extending my scope of interests to Brasilian JuJitsu and boxing and finally met a guy who pointed out that there are training clubs where people fight without all those bounderies. And he didn’t have to repeat twice. Since then I’m doing MMA on all levels, I’m doing stand fight, ground fight, submision wrestling, bjj, I like thai-boxing, kick-boxing, boxing… everything. I’m an amateur, so I don’t get into “show me how good you are” kind of competitions, but I enjoy training and fighting, so if you want to spare, come to my club.
Oh, and because people are becoming confused at this point. To do MMA you don’t have to be a mindless meatmade tank. MMA requires different kind of intelligence (yes, there are many kinds, not only mathematical), reflex, speed and stamina, but gives you a lot of joy that is on the very opposite side of the universum from computer science and social science which makes it a perfect place to relax from former two.
I promise you that nobody from my club would ever mob anyone on the street. What’s interesting is that such kind of people are not used to hard and long training, technique, and they cannot survive in a friendly atmosphere of MMA clubs. So what they do instead is that they spend a lot of time on body building and then use quantity methods to attack in a bigger group. Don’t mix those two groups please 🙂
7. I used to play in youth theatre and was a journalist.
When I was 10 I joined a youth theatre and played there for 6 years. Majority of my interpersonal skills, emotional inteligence, auditorium management, role taking comes from that time. I also found that to be the most inspiring and motivating environment a child can find. I have a strong belief that being in such environment has a great impact on the maturity and ability to maintain child in yourself and self-reflection skills. I recommend parents considering sending their kids for such thing. It was amazing 6 years of my life that shaped a lot of me.
Then I led an air show for teenagers in Radio WaWa for three years and did some internship in polish TV as a journalist. Ultimately I spent a year leading a TV show about computer games when I was eighteen. Its name was “Gamebox”. This one gave me even more confidency at public speeches, but it confirmed that I have a huge problem to act in front of camera when there’s a scenario I have to follow. I so much prefer live dynamic performances.
8. I have ADHD. Twice
If you didn’t notice yet, I love to do things. Any things. And a lot of them. I love to play soccer, read books, fight MMA, dance irish, code, learn elvish languages, study sociology, swim, sail (oh yea, I’m sailing for 8 years now). Except of that, I’m inline skating, biking, playing RPG games, passionate about Mozilla project, I translate software, do work on volunteer communities motivation models, hack Linux (I’ve been using Gentoo for years) and does some basic gymnastics. People tend to tell me I have too much energy and it takes me a concious effort to synchronize with the energy level of the group I’m in. So if you recently spent some time on a small talk with me and it was calm and relaxed, please appreciate how much effort I had to put in this. Thanks! 🙂
Oh, and I write eight points when asked for seven. Don’t give me more coffee! My energy level is violating European Union standards.
Next people
I find it really hard to find people not tagget yet… so let me think about it a bit more 😉
