I’m sorry to say I’m just getting around to responding to Cari’s post in which she tagged me. Herewith are 10–nay, 12–random things about me.

Ten Random Things About Me

1. I was born in Huntsville, Alabama, known as the “Rocket City.” Growing up, I heard rockets being tested nearly every day.
2. I sang alto for years, until I took voice lessons. Now I’m a mezzosoprano.
3. When I was 3 years old, I amazed my pediatrician by telling him about igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. My mom thought all kids did that.
4. At about age 8, I cataloged any book around the house I could get my hands on, making check-out cards for them in little pockets in the back and labels on the spine. (Remember: olden days, before computerized libraries.) Yeah, becoming a catalog librarian was kinda inevitable.
5. I was a charter member of the Star Trek club (“ASTRA”–Area Star Trek Readers Association) organized in my high school. Um, yeah, I had a command uniform with the little skirt, made for me by my grandmother from the official pattern. Dang difficult to make, too! And I wrote a script for a Star Trek movie, with me as the Vulcan captain. Not sure if we filmed any of it.
6. I own two real swords (a hand-and-a-half longsword and a basket-hilt rapier) and one decorative one. I would own more if they weren’t so expensive. I adore medieval weaponry, and would have an archery range in my backyard if my husband and friends didn’t insist I’d put someone’s eye out.
7. I got accepted into the creative writing class in high school with a truly awful murder mystery short story that hinged on verde being Spanish for green. I’m not sure I wrote much worthwhile in that class, except for a poem called Solitaire that my brother set to music and peformed on guitar.
8. One of my all-time favorite TV shows is Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Look it up, it’s way awesome, and heavily influenced other horror TV, notably X-Files. Darren McGavin was more than just the (marvelous) dad in A Christmas Story.
9. My favorite outdoor activity is visiting cemeteries, the older, the better.
10. I’ve played the following pen-and-paper roleplaying games, roughly in order, during two periods of my life: 1977-1986: Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition & Advanced), Metamorphosis: Alpha, Gamma World, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu (still my favorite), Middle Earth Roleplaying Game (MERP), Rolemaster, Gangbusters, Empire of the Petal Throne, Pendragon; 2002-present: Dungeons & Dragons (3rd edition, 3.5, 4th edition), d20 Modern, Space:1889, GURPS, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mutants & Masterminds, Unknown Armies, Pendragon, d20 Call of Cthulhu, Conan the RPG, Pathfinder. I’m pretty sure I forgot some.
11. I have a comics pull list at a comic book store in Cahaba Heights.
12. My first computer was a Kaypro II. I paid about $1500 for it in 1984.

Well, I think my geek cred is pretty well established by that list. I did go a little over, but those last two seemed to round it out nicely.

Thanks for doing this, Cari!