I'm late to the party, as per usual, but I decided to do my own "Grim List" and post 10 things about me.

<---------me

So, here it goes:

(1) I’m pretty passionate about everything. I generally tend to either “love” or “hate” something (at least in the moment), and there’s not much middle ground.

(2) I have two questions that I tend to ask people that I will potentially be good friends with, just to see if we'll “click,” and those two questions are: [1] Which Fieval movie do you prefer: An American Tail or Fieval Goes West?; and [2] Do you prefer Reese’s Pieces or Peanut Butter M&Ms? For people who don’t answer “An American Tail” and “Peanut Butter M&Ms,” I then head into the relationship more skeptically (although a few of said people are now some of my closest friends, for what it's worth).

(3) I want to die in space. If there was an asteroid coming toward Earth and they needed volunteers to go on a suicide mission to blow it up, I would volunteer. This is not because I’m heroic, but because I want the view of Earth from space to be the last thing I see before I die.

(4) I love dinosaurs. I’m an paralegal in real life, but if I could go back and re-do my life, I’d be a paleontologist. It seems like a nerdy field, which I love, plus, <3DINOSAURZZZ<3.

(5) I'm a gamer. Video games are like interactive books, and for me, they provide the same level of “escapism” enjoyment as books do. Story-driven games appeal to me the most, so I prefer RPGs, but that includes pretty much any kind of RPG (although my absolute favorites are Strategy RPGs). My top series is the Fire Emblem series, and every time a Fire Emblem game comes out, I get ridiculously happy. I also love quirky Japanese games like the Gyakuten Saiban or Ace Attorney series (which is how I got into the law field for my profession to begin with, hah), and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, etc.

(6) As the years go on, I'm getting more and more introverted. I’m not sure if this is a result of being more comfortable with being by myself, or being less comfortable being with people. (Probably a little of both.) I hate going to places where there are a lot of people or big crowds.

(7) I’m not good in romantic relationships. For one, I have huge commitment issues. Also, I can’t imagine ever liking someone so much that I’d want to spend as much time with them as is required by being in a serious relationship.

(8) My favorite foods, in no particular order, are: steak, pizza, nachos, and peanut butter. (Yep no healthy foods make my favorites list, though pineapple is close to being there.) My favorite saying is: "Every pizza is a personal pizza if you believe in yourself."

(9) I want to live in Scotland one day. I did my study abroad there in college, and I’m convinced that it’s the most beautiful country in the world. I also thought the people there were, for the most part, pretty damn awesome.

(10) I love 80’s music (as cheesy as it is), and I love karaoke. Put the two together, mix in some alcoholic beverages, and I’m in heaven.

Edit June 2015: 21 More Quite Random Things About Me

After the great idea Grim started, I've spent three days thinking of things that are worth sharing. Not sure if I succeeded in finding 10 interesting things though, but please, see for yourself!

1. I really like the colour Orange, people often assume it's a sort of patriotism (since I'm Dutch and orange is the national colour; that is convenient though, because that means there are a lot of orange things for sale =) ) but I just really like the colour. It puts the best features from both yellow and red together, and never fails to make me feel happy.

2. At the moment I'm living in two different countries. My college is in Belgium (the Dutch-speaking part fortunately), so on weekdays I live there, but in the weekends I return to my parents('s home) in The Netherlands.

3. Speaking of College, I attend the classes from Biomedical Science (and I'm in my final bachelor year) an I'm training to be a Medical Researcher. I get extremely frustrated and annoyed by people who assume I actually wanted to be a MD but somehow failed to get in to Med School, because that's just not true. I never wanted to be a doctor, but people don't seem to think that's a possibility. They therefore think Biomedical Sciences is less than Med School. But it ain't, believe me. It's just a different focus on certain subjects (I don't need to know in detail what medicine is given to a certain disease; but it's more important that I know what is exactly happening in a cell in a certain disease). OK, sorry for the rant, but it is just that ever since I started, I've had the feeling that I somehow have to defend myself for choosing BMS over Med School, of course to people who know nothing about either.

4. I really like to travel to different cities and explore them. More than once I've actually fallen in love with a city. Like: Berlin, London and Hong Kong.

5. I can get really fanatic watching the Olympic Games, Winter or Summer doesn't really matter. Especially now the Dutch speed skaters have done such an incredibly great job, capturing most of the medals =). I feel very proud, even though I can't even skate on ice myself. But I even like watching weird sports I didn't even know existed like the Mogul Skiing, that's a weird sport. It's the same with the World/European championships Soccer, but at least I've once won the city tournament indoor soccer for girls aged 10-12 with my team =)

6. I never read Harry Potter before I was fifteen (in 2008), because my parents are not exactly fantasy fans and I therefore didn't think I would like it. But I'm very glad I did read them, I wouldn't have wanted to miss these books!

7. When I was younger I watched a lot of Air Crash Investigation. So much so, that I'm now afraid of flying. I'm not completely terrified and I will fly, but it's really stressful and I always feel sick the day before flying. When I went to fly for the first time, I was so scared I might not return, that I phoned all my friends to say goodbye in case I wouldn't make it back alive. (They laughed at me)

8. For years now I've had a certain idea for a story. In my head I've been working on it, creating scenes and everything. But as soon as I start the actual writing, it's not good. I won't give up and give it another try soon.

9. Last term I had a class on communication skills (Oh, how I had been looking forward to that day - Uhmm, not). After the presentation I was forced to give I got the comment I talked like a machine gun. Apparently I talk in salvos, I say a lot in a short time and then a break (most likely to breathe). When I told this to my friends they all agreed that I indeed talk in this way. (So, Beware!)

10. Although I always said I wouldn't need an eReader, I've bought one yesterday. I got a lot of ebooks lately (mostly from netgalley) and reading on my laptop just isn't nice, so I decided I needed an eReader. I've bought a very beautiful Kobo Glo (Black), because most of my bookish friends have them, and they are all very happy with it, so I hope I'll be as well. Yesterday there was some stress as I couldn't figure out how to put my books on it, but all is well now.

This is my 10 for the Grim List Icebreaker. I'm writing this after I completed the list... and the number of I's and the me, me, ME's! kinda make me feel vain but with a sort of freeing feeling too. This was lots of fun... thanks for getting this started, Grim!

*** My apologies beforehand, I ramble and I ramble (it got really bad at the end with a gigantic wall of text but I promised myself not to delete! Also, please ignore my terrible sense of humour and my repeated use (or misuse) of exclamation points and ellipses. ***


1. I met my husband online in 1996. We spent 2 years long-distance before we moved in together. 6 years down the line we decided to get married and have been for 9 years. 18 years... who says Internet relationships don't work out? :P

2. We don't have children because I was born with a defect that would make pregnancy extremely dangerous... so instead we have a cat who is so vocal he could pass as a wailing baby. He's a Bengal that loves drinking out of the faucet and knocking on doors by way of sneaking his paw under the crack and pulling repeatedly. We have to stuff the crack under the door to our bedroom in order to sleep peacefully.

3. Once upon a time I used to breed fish. Mostly Guppies and Mollies because it's so easy (they are the rabbits of the water world). After a while I got curious if I could create a hybrid so I put on my mad scientist gloves, placed a Guppy female and a new-born Molly male into an isolated tank... and after several months of waiting (the Guppy had stored 7 batches worth of sperm and the Molly male had to fully develop), the one and only batch of hybrids were born. They are still alive today (about 2 1/2 years old) but they are infertile. They decorate my main tank and they do so with crazy neon colours that are so difficult to photograph. >_<