Kind of like high 5, but not. Thank you Mark Hawker for memeing me, & posting the rules (although feeling a bit Déjà vu on this one, wondering if black holes are really just meme collisions):

* Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
* 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 by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

[From SocialTech: Random 7]

Now, on to the 7º of Ein!

1. 1st º: Most people are familiar with my pseudonym of “Eingang” or “Ein” for short. Most people, however, don’t know that it comes one of my first trips to Switzerland where I saw “Eingang” posted on entrances to highways and parking lots all over the country. I discuss this more at length in the Evolution of Eingang and Cognomen Command blog entries on my personal blog. I strongly believe in the power of self-naming to control who we are and what we want to be.

2. 
   The Stargate Window Decoration

   Me Singing “Moonlight Shadow” (excerpt)

   2nd º: Although I’m very literal-minded and things can seem very black and white, ideal qualities in someone who is comfortable in dealing with computers, I also have a bit of an artistic side. I occasionally like to draw, write poetry, make handmade cards, and sing.

   
   Autumn Leaf

   Singing happens quite a lot when I’m happy. The other things when I have a lot of spare time or when I’m wanting to make something special for someone. This Christmas’s artistic adventure was making a stained glass plastic Stargate window decoration for someone as a Secret Santa gift.

   Last year I made different Christmas cards for almost everybody. Some used stamps. Some were drawn. Some were layered. Some used recycled Christmas paper. It was a lot of fun to do, but it can be fairly time-consuming unless you’re making multiples of the same card design.

3. 3rd º: Book storage is a problem many people I know have. I’ve solved it by storing my books in many different countries and many different formats. I have books stashed away in an apartment in Zürich (Switzerland), boxed up in Edmonton (Canada), and here in London (England). The vast majority of my collection is paperbacks, but I also have a sizeable number of electronic books (especially science fiction) and Audible audiobooks. I’ve been a member of Audible for five years. I especially love unabridged audiobooks for my weekly commute to the University of Sussex. They’re also good for sending me off to sleep. I set my iPod to deactivate after 30 minutes and start the current audiobook playing on very, very low volume. I usually only manage about fifteen minutes before I’m gone. It’s highly effective.

4. 4th º: I left home when I was sixteen prior to finishing high school. I was just starting grade 12, my last year of high school, when I left home. It took me another four years to finish that last year of school by distance education, night classes, and summer courses. Memo to kids: Be cool, stay in school! I did graduate with honours, but my way was a lot harder. I then self-funded my way through university, graduating with honours from honours computing and with a $32,000 NSERC post-graduate award, which I didn’t end up using. At one point in my undergraduate degree, I was taking courses from three different universities located in three different provinces of Canada in the same term. After graduating, I started trying to find a place to do a Ph.D. I’m still doing a Ph.D. now. I’ve pretty much well continuously been in school since I left home.

5. 5th º: In my spare time, such that it is, I run a random acts of kindness World of Warcraft (WoW) guild called The One. My primary character is named Elsheindra and she’s a healer; I’m not much into hack and slash. A guild is a collection of people who play together. The One has been together almost four years now. It’s relatively small, but we still have quite a few of our original members, which is quite impressive, I think.

   
   Elsheindra, night elf

   
   Mr. IBM in the Park

   While I’m confessing about World of Warcraft, I might as well admit that I met my current partner while running a multi-guild alliance together. We’ve been happily living together (that’s in real life, not virtual life) for two years. We bought a house together in London earlier this year, my first house ever, after a lifetime of renting. WoW and Plurk friends will probably know that I’m disgustingly happy with Mr. IBM (AKA Basil in World of Warcraft).

   Running The One is where I first started experimenting with Wikis. Atlassian was kind enough to donate a free license of their commercial, Java-based Confluence Wiki software for the guild to use. Although it’s been difficult to get people collaborating on content, it has been very interesting trying to adapt a Wiki to all kinds of purposes, like forums and private messaging. It’s given me an appreciation of the power of tagging and dynamic content display, too. I love things that tie my interests of community building with Internet technologies together.

6. 6th º: Although I like people and I seem to be an extrovert, I don’t actually like lots of people in the same place at the same time or very, very busy places. As a result, I tend to stay in my home a lot. I particularly dislike London train stations during the commuter rush, where the train stations become a seething mass of humanity. That’s way too many people for my comfort. I even have trouble with the local Sainsbury’s sometimes. I’m most comfortable in small groups of five or six people.

7. 7th º: I love soups. I adore soups. I figure you can never have too much soup (sort of like garlic, another favourite). If I’m cooking and it doesn’t involve soup, I think people are shocked. Some of my favourites include Spicy Bread & Garlic Soup and Thai Hot ‘n Sour Mushroom Soup. I’ve also posted recipes for Pistou Sauce, which goes good on French vegetable soup, and 10-Spice Powder. I am a person who has a crockpot and loves using it!

8. 8th º (bonus): I hate having my picture taken. I’ve always hated having my picture taken. I’m not sure of the reason for it. On the plus side, I don’t take pictures of other people normally either. Win-win, as far as I’m concerned!

Now comes the fun part: subjecting other people to this same adventure. I tag:

1. Tony Hirst
2. Martin Weller
3. Howard Rheingold
4. Jim Hendler
5. AJ Cann
6. Sarah Horrigan
7. Monty Paul