Yesterday, TripJax tagged me with the 7 Things Meme, but I was too tilted to even think about what I could write about…one good night’s sleep later and here it goes: A few days ago TripJax tagged me with the 7 Things… Meme…as I was a little tilted that night and went off to Cologne the following day, I didn’t have the time to do it…but now it’s done…so without further ado…7 (random) things…

1. Once upon a time, more than ten years ago, I was really into martial arts, Karate to be precise. I was pretty good too and I had some even better training partners – one of them has won numerous german and international titles by now. I had training instruction by the then reigning european champion. My specialty were Katas and although I liked Kumite it was the reason I finally quit, after breaking my wrist and almost missing some important stuff at school. I quit with the blue belt (5th Kyu). Karate taught me a lot about patience and self-control.

2. I’m always interested in learning new things. Because of that I’m considered “an expert” (aka the dude who knows something about that) in many areas, particularly in “the geek zone” (everything computer and gadget). That can be a blessing and a curse…if I had a dollar (euro) for every time someone starts a sentence with “Du wie ist denn das mit…” (Hey, do you know how …) I would be mighty rich…

3. Although my written english is considered fair to good by most people, my conversation skills aren’t up to par. The explanation is simple: written – plenty of practice via blogging and working as a mod (sitepoint.com, etc), spoken – no practice. The only time I had to speak english in the last few years was when I had to confirm my address and stuff with Neteller, lol. Oh well, I guess I’ll have the chance to do some brushing up once I finally hit Vegas in the future (after finishing my uni degree, see 6.), hopefully during a WPBT classic and/or the WSOP…

4. I’m a sucker for tv shows and original movies (not translated into german). My favourite tv shows (past and present) include amongst others: Charmed, Buffy, Angel, Dark Angel, er, Las Vegas, Heroes, High Stakes Poker, Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Cops, Pimp My Ride, “reality shows” (Hogan Knows Best, Osbournes, Runs House)…movies are too many to mention. Why do I like to watch the original version of shows/movies? Because most nuances and (inside) jokes are not translatable and so they’re usually translated with the german (language area) equivalent and tbh that takes away from the movies, a lot, at least if you are able to watch and understand the original (e.g. Die Hard “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.” – Stirb langsam “Yippee-ka-jee, Schweinebacke” = “Yippee-ki-yay, pig’s cheeck”…errm doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, now does it. There are many more examples, especially when there are references to current or recent events or persons and they’re totally replace with a german/european equivilant….not good…). …and by just looking at the number of shows I used to watch or watch now, it’s obvious I spend quite some time on the lazy boy, lol…

5. After quitting Karate (and table tennis before that), I picked up football (that’s soccer for the americans). It’s a pretty good way to clear your head after spending most of the day infront of some sort of screen and it’s a really good excercise (as you try to build enough stamina to play 90 minutes). While I’m only involved as a reserve these days (which means pretty rare appearances on sunday’s squad), I still train twice a week (Wed, Fri) and score my goals in training. Football is where my screen name came from, too. It consist of my real life first name (Ingo) and the word goal (Ingo(+)goal ), that’s why I don’t like it when people write about InGoal (as in goal keeper) as that’s not my position, I’m a forward/striker, damn it 😉
As for my team, I’m part of the second team of a club called FC Marbach and after dropping down to the lowest german league a few years ago, we managed to built our team back up. We finished third in the first year. Then second in the second year after the rebuild – we won the relegation match against the higher leagued team and moved up to the next higher league. Then we finished second again last year (we had the same amount of points, but score three goals less, so we didn’t win the championship) and lost the relegation match so we remained in the same league. This year, we’re fighting for the championship again (which would bring us close to our first team, which currently plays two leagues above us). There are two matches left and we’re one point clear in first position. Two Ws will secure us the championship, I just hope that we can pull it of this year as last year was such a disappointment (on top all year, than blowing it in the last three matches). Boy that would/will be a party…

6. Just like many other (poker) bloggers, I’m a software guy. I’m about to finish my university degree (my diploma thesis is about to start and after that I’ll have my degree) at the university of Stuttgart – yes, education at a german university is really lengthy thorough and rarely does anyone do it in less than 5-5 1/2 years. That being said, I really don’t like “coding” all that much, I know how to do it and I can do it, I just don’t like it. I rather do the whole conceptual (architectural) parts and client interaction and let some code monkey do his thing afterwards. Oh well, I’ve spent numerous stints in interesting companies during and prior to studying at university (DaimlerBenz, DaimlerChrysler, Bosch, etc) and started my own little computer (service) business seven years ago…combine that with my grades (which are in the 1.x level (1.0 = best) so far with only the diploma thesis to go) and I should have all the opportunities in the world…at least I hope so…

7. I drive a 1993 VW Golf III, 1.8GL (90hp) and while I like my car and it get’s me from A to B, I’ll probably get a new one once I’m (finally) done with uni. I’m thinking something with a Daimler-star on it (aka Mercedes)…oh well, maybe not, we’ll see…after all gas is getting more and more expensive over here (1l super (95 octane) = 1,4 Euro; 1 gallon = 3.785 liters; 1 gallon = 5,29 Euro ~ 7.12$) and public transportation is a good way to beat traffic and horrendous gas bills, at least during the day…then again, an old car with a bad exhaust gas rating is getting more and more expensive too (yes apart from car insurance and horrendous amounts of gas tax, you also pay horrendous amounts of taxes based on environmental impact your car has and you won’t be able to drive into most inner cities with a bad exhaust gas rating starting next year…), so I’ll need a new(er) car sometime in the near future anyway…

So, there you have it. I guess I should tag some other bloggers, but after looking through most of my blogroll, I couldn’t find anyone not tagged already…so I’m ending the tag-chain here, shame on me…if you’re reading this and you haven’t been tagged with this meme, consider yourself tagged and tell us your 7 Things (we might not know about you)…thank you 🙂