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I've been tagged in what seems to be quite a charming game, that's doing the rounds, of getting to know more about one another here on Flickr.
Asked to share 16 random facts you may not know about me, here they are:
1. I grew up on a farm in South Africa where I still cherish my most fondest of memories. We had the whole barn filled with hay and everything, plus 2 dams that resided on either side of the house.
2. I won a Willards Cheese Curls painting competition when I was 12 years old and earned the nickname 'Chip' for years to follow.
3. It later became Hunter. Which is my second name. (It was going to be my first name, with Lee as my second but for some reason a cousin of mine shared Lee and so my folks thought they'd be original and chose Craig as my first name instead. I knew 10 Craigs by the time I left high school.)
4. I procrastinate.
5. I pay a lot of attention to the geometry of everything. I have, many times, walked into a room where every step I take avoids intersecting with any imaginary adjacent or parallel line that's created by the nearby objects and furniture on the floor. This especially includes floors with tiled carpeting. (don't ask)
6. I have good aim. In the all-boys high school I attended, every kid wanted to be on the shooting team, but they made tryouts for only one additional placing every 3 or so years. I made it. There were nearly 400 of us who competed for it at the time. Subsequently, it's helped in other ways though: playing pool, darts, 1st-person shooter games and winning teddy-bears at fairs. In my other life, I was a sniper. ;)
7. I have a script for the most awesome movie ever. (But it's impeded by fact no. 4)
8. I've had 3 near-death experiences. One involved a car stopping on the edge of a cliff (driver was asleep at the wheel), the second involved myself falling off a cliff (I landed on the only tree sticking out of the rock-face) and the third involved a taxi bus hitting me while crossing the road. (If you know anything about South African minibus taxis, you'll know that this one's a miracle on its own.)
9. I also have two scars. One behind my left ear at a very young age from a kid who threw a lead pipe at me in a playground and one above my left eye-brow from an attempted surfing accident. Incidentally, two of my front teeth are also false. They were severed when in junior school by a kid who tripped me while running in gym.
10. Surprisingly, I've never broken a bone in my body.
11. I was obsessed with magic as a kid. I believed my parents couldn't afford to get the magic set I wanted, so I used to collect my own tricks, as well as invent new ones. Today I can't remember a single one of them. Not even a decent card trick.
12. Lasagna and trifle are the only meals I'll still go so far as having thirds of.
13. I was once visited by a ghost. It happened about 10 years ago and tormented me for three to four nights. It tried to visit me once a few years later but I know how to drive it away now.
14. I secretly dig chick flicks.
15. I have a major fear of snakes. My first encounter was at the age of 4 when a mole-snake slid over the back of my legs in long grass while playing hide and seek. Since then I fear of finding one in my shoes.
16. I want to be known for creating at least one truly amazing thing but I fear I'm running out of time.
O-mikuji are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. After making a small offering you choose one randomly from a box (a little bit like fortune cookies).
The o-mikuji is scrolled up or folded, and unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it. It includes a general blessing which could be anything from a Small Blessing to a Great Curse... bit of a lucky dip really.
The o-mikuji predicts the person's chances of his or her hopes coming true, of finding a good match, or generally matters of health, fortune, life, etc. When the prediction is bad, it is a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine grounds. A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree and the verb 'to wait', the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer. In the event of the fortune being good, the bearer has two options: he or she can also tie it to the tree or wires so that the fortune has a greater effect or he or she can keep it for luck.
(Thanks Wikipedia)