Meme-Tagged
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Bryan at A Walk in Hachioji tagged me. So now I’ve got to post this according to the rules, or something bad happens. (You know, like the dying child ends up watching a pet shop burn to the ground instead of meeting his favorite basketball athlete. Or my hair falls out. Or I’ll fall victim to some freak accident. You know the drill.) 
So as the rules say, I should also list the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog. (Optional, apparently.)
Seven Random Facts
1) I have difficulty sleeping in beds made tightly, and frequently kick out the blankets to create a warmer cocoon for myself. I also rarely sleep with sheets in non-summer months (during which I sleep with little else).
2) There are loads of things I like to learn how to do, and even how to critique, without ever intending to do them for myself. The population at large does this kind of thing when we view reality shows based on talent. But I sometimes actively seek out instruction on things I’ll never do. Building things, cooking things, hacking things together from spare parts. I don’t know why I do that. But I do. It’s a form of entertainment to me.
3) Because of my placement, I rarely see other foreign people. Will lives on my island, and it’s uncommon to see him more than twice in a month. People on the mainland see me so infrequently that I usually have a new haircut each time we meet. (Not that I change styles. Just that it’s been freshly cut. I’ve never been an adventurous style person.) Even though I’m an English teacher, it’s not bizarre to go for weeks without speaking a word of English out loud. (During test times, mostly.)
4) I once spent a spring vacation in a converted prison in Skien, Norway.
5) When I was younger, my siblings and I discovered that peanut butter goes nicely with hot dogs. That was adventurous eating. It was good. Nowadays people still think it was a bit too adventurous when I tell them about it. The most recent non-Asian “fun” food combination I tried was shrimp scampi in a chocolate fondue fountain. Not a winner.
6) I should be dead. At least once. In spring of 1995 I was in a major car accident. The medical folks and investigators told us that everyone in the car (my entire family) should be dead. None of us died due to the accident, though my father passed away shortly thereafter. It was pretty scary stuff. Since then I’ve been in 2 more accidents. None were my fault - I am a pretty good driver, if I do say so myself. And, I do, obviously.
7) When asked what I thought would be a good name for my soon-to-be-born baby brother, I wholeheartedly (and sincerely) suggested that we name him Pinocchio. No joke. Really did. Thank goodness my parents took my lobbying efforts with the appropriate pound of salt. I was a strange child.
Ok, and my victims will be…
Clay (the Hopeless Romantic)
Megan (Constantly Baffled)
Greg (On the Run)
Chuck (Nicole)
Mayumi K (Osaka-ben)
Harvey (Japan Newbie)
Thomas (Nihon Hacks)
And I will continue the trend thus far of not announcing the tag, and hence completely ignoring step five. Victims, feel free to do the same. 
Ah, Monday.