It’s a new year and I have to catch up on a few things. But first things first. Anne and Libby tagged me for the blogging meme, and though I’m not a particular fan of making people answer a set of questions or share random tidbits, I thought I’d give out 11 random facts, answer 11 questions (randomly picked from Anne’s and Libby’s lists), and ask 11 questions of my own, but instead of tagging other bloggers, leave it up to everyone to decide whether to answer the questions or not. Feel free to ponder them in your quiet little corner, shout your answers from the rooftop or blog about them. It’s entirely up to you.

In case you do want to continue the blogging meme, here are “the rules”.

• Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
• Share 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
• List 11 bloggers.
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated.  Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you.

11 random facts

1. This is blog post 201, but I wished it was already a much higher number.
2. I’ve been living in New Zealand for 1,323 days (minus the ones that I’ve been travelling overseas).
3. I love taking photos of benches and uploaded 1,143 so far. That is 7.6% of all my currently uploaded photos. The benches can be very ordinary or artistic, but they cannot have a living human on them. I usually curb my taking-bench-photos enthusiasm when walking with others, and I also do not ask people to briefly vacate a bench so I can take a photo (or glare at them menacingly).
4. Living in a far-away corner of the world, I realized that time zone differences do make it difficult staying in touch with friends beyond tweets and Facebook updates.
5. I took a photo that represents a saying to the T and am happy that I stopped at that designated photo spot for something else.
6. I used to have a computer screen garden that I couldn’t take to New Zealand. The screen was even called “Tulip”. I received it as a gift from historians for facilitating Moodle sessions.
7. I wish I could improvise on the piano.
8. (Marching) Band was an awesome experience with a band director who was an avid Star Trek fan and a cool assistant director who both challenged us to try new things and enjoy the music.
9. I’m not good at translating from English to German since I don’t use software in German and thus don’t know the conventional terminology.
10. I enjoy browsing music on Jamendo because if I like it, I can use it in videos / photo slideshows.
11. I’m grateful that I have a job that I love and that I can go to work smiling.
12. Bonus fact: I hate it when people I don’t know want to connect on LinkedIn (or other networks), but don’t give a reason.

Answers to 11 questions from Anne and Libby

1. Red wine or white wine? Or beer?
   None of the above.
2. What or where is your favorite place? Why?
   One of my favorite spots is in the Marin headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and just sitting there watching the weather change, the bridge change moods and see the city in the distance.
3. Pure unadulterated coffee or with white fluffy stuff in it?
   More white than black to take away the bitterness when I have to drink coffee.
4. What is your favourite song / piece of music? Why?
   Similarly to the favorite place question, this is a tough one, as I like a bunch of very different songs for different reasons. The one that has been high in my top 10 over the last 12 months is Beck’s Reimagining of Bowie’s Sound and Vision. I love the arrangement and the performance. It’s been recorded with special equipment so that you get the feeling of being present at the performance, and you can control the view of the performers thus also changing your listening angle. If you check it out, definitely watch the “Making of” videos as well. They’ll allow you to appreciate the 360° performance even more.
5. What is your favourite sport or physical pastime?
   Recreational easy-going volleyball
6. Who do you look up to within education?
   George Siemens because of his ideas around changing education and the way we learn, acquire knowledge, and connect.
7. WordPress or Blogger? Or something else?
   Of course WordPress as you can see. 🙂
8. What would be your most favourite holiday?
   Summer, sun, not too hot, beach, hills / mountains, great weather for taking photos, as few tourists as possible, freedom not to make too many plans.
9. How much time do you think you are ‘connected’ every week?
   Not enough because I hardly ever have Twitter open during work hours unless I’m tweeting work-related things as it’s too distracting following up all the awesome links. And then in the evenings, most of my network is fast asleep.
10. What would you be doing if not teaching?
    As I don’t teach in the school sense, I’m already doing something else, but Myers Briggs once told me that I’d be a librarian, and I could imagine that esp. with the teaching elements, facilitating learning, knowledge acquisition…
11. What is the best moment you have had as an educator?
    There is not a single defining moment, but any moment when course participants have a lightbulb go off in their head and make connections between things we cover in the course and aspects of their life / work / studies.

11 questions of my own

Disclaimer: These questions are pretty much random, they do not have a hidden agenda or try to establish a sound psychological profile. I hope some make you think and ponder your answer. Others might make you shake your head and wonder why I’m asking the question.

1. What is Dunbar’s number? And be honest if you had to look it up. 😉
2. What’s your favorite place in the city / town / village you live in at the moment?
3. Do you prefer instrumental music or vocals and why?
4. Name 3 movies that have left a mark on you over the years.
5. Monologue or dialogue?
6. Why did you start using Twitter (or your favorite microblogging service)?
7. How do you cope with change?
8. What do you collect?
9. What is the most challenging aspect of presenting for you?
10. What is the most enjoyable aspect of presenting for you?
11. When you choose to share something, why do you do it?

And now it’s over to you.

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