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One of the things I’ve realised is that many people don’t actually *know* me, some of that’s deliberate, but that if I don’t start really connecting with people, all of the advice I give people about working with their community is going to be pretty hollow.

So, here’s how this one’s going to work.
For this first set of 25, I’m going to tag five people and then for the next set, I’m going to use people that have commented on the post.  Once a week on a Sunday, I’ll post em and we can see if we can’t all get to know one another – y’never know whom you might meet

The 25 things

1.  My real name isn’t Kai.  My real name doesn’t even contain, legally, Kai, and though I’ve been threatening for years to change that, I’ve never gotten round to it.  My name is very girly, and I never felt it suited me, so I changed it, post breakup from the father of my kids.  I have a whole circle of friends that get very confused when people use my ‘real’ name (though, I’m not interested in sharing it in public )
2.  I am 32, and I’m a Scorpio.   I’m a very typical Scorpio too.   whether that’s an aspect of the fact that I’ve got a strong personality, or whether it’s because of something else, I’m not sure.
3. I don’t actually buy into a lot of the ‘hippy’ stuff that we call ‘New Age’.  I used to, and then realized most of it was probably my positive mindset.  I still wear stones and colors that I like, but because I like them, not because they ‘vibrate and heal my aura’.
4. I own two limited companies in the UK.
5. I love birds of prey.  Especially owls and falcons.
6. I hate writing right now.  Just hate it.  I’m tired and burned out and sick of my dissertation, and want it over with, and that’s sad.
7. I’ve been in Uni for a year extra than most of the peers I started with.  That last year was a bit hit and miss really.
8. I am a closet linguistics geek.  My main interest is a field called ‘Forensic Linguistics‘ and I had a paper accepted for publication on it recently, but declined because I realized I could make the findings better.  They liked that idea.
9. I own 220 domains – 98% of which are mine.  I hold some for other people, but not many.
10. My natural coloring is red hair, hazel eyes and very pale skin – but in the last few years I’ve started going a very pale honey brown after living in a part of the country.  I dye my hair more vivid red because people seem to ask less questions about how ‘natural’ it is.
11. My favorite books aren’t probably publishable as a list because they make me look *really* bad.  In that number are several books that are, or have been banned in the past.  Transgressive literature isn’t so much something I like as something that I learn from.
12. Socially speaking, I’m a bit of an idiot – I don’t get a lot of the social stuff that goes on around me, and am very direct when people piss me off or put me in a poor situation.  I also get very annoyed when people use others for their own gain, and often see it long before others do – while I’ve been told in some cases it’s just how it is.  But socially, I’m horrible at new situations, and even worse at understanding why something doesn’t work.
13. I love to code.  But I’m not very good at it, and do a lot of what I do from trial and error.  I know the very basics of PHP but most of what I’ve learned isn’t from reading books on coding, it’s from reading code.  Again, back to the linguistics aspect of my mind, but I get on very well with code once I understand it.
14. I have several pen names – one of which, including my back catalog is up for sale to another writer.  He’s more passionate about it than me and just as good a writer, so….
15. I sleep on my stomach because I’m scared that I’ll be choked to death.
16. I love sci fi.  I used to call it my guilty pleasure but now I just call it my pleasure.  But I don’t get on with shows like ‘Andromeda’.
17. I can be very closed minded when I want to be – then realize what I’m doing and fix it.  Sometimes years after the fact.  Most of the time, once you’re in my bad books, that’s it.  You never get back into my good books.
    Conversely, if you’re my friend, you can get away with just about anything once.
18. I really don’t get on with people that believe they are the font of all knowledge.  I hate it when people think that’s what I am too.
19. I knit.  I don’t do it often, but I do knit.  I also cross stitch like a pro.
20. I am currently playing a rogue trader in my beloved’s 40K tabletop game.  Maeda is a bitch and she’s keeping it pretty well covered so far.
21.  I dislike cooking with a passion.  If I could live without food, I think I would.  But I love to make meals for friends.  Just don’t like cooking for myself much.
22. I was on Seroquel from May or so of last year until 2 weeks ago.  There’s a very good reason that I’ve stopped, but we’ve not gotten there yet, so I can’t talk about it .  I am an outspoken mental health advocate on my ‘award winning‘ site.
23. I dislike, intensely, being the centre of attention, though, time and again, I put myself ‘out there’.
24. I feel like I’m a fraud….oh, most of the time.
25. I am bipolar, have a touch or at least aspects of aspergers, and have an unspecified personality disorder to do with self esteem.