First perfect number meme

Stu has tagged me with a YARFAM (Yet Another Random Facts About Me) meme.  I responded to two of those last year, and two more the year before – but then, I am one of my favorite subjects, so I’ll give it another round.  This time, instead of 5 or 8 the magic number is 6.

First, the rules:

OK, on to step 3, trying to avoid everything I’ve said before:

1. I love languages, both human-to-human and human-to-computer.  I’ve formally studied French, Hebrew, and Greek — and informally learned about a lot of others.  The evolution of language particularly fascinates me.  I taught myself every programming language I know, which comes to somewhere around 30 or 40 (depending on how you divide them up, and how you define the terms “know” and ”language”).
2. A long walk does me good.  It clears my mind, and has been known to shake off a hangover, or even a cold.  My usual daily quota is 3.5 miles, but even after 9 or 10 miles, I feel invigorated rather than wearied.
3. I like to have friends, but I like to keep them at arm’s length.  I don’t know why, but I can reveal more about myself on this blog than I can in person.  I sometimes think that if I met one of my blogfriends in meatspace I might be embarrassed, from having shared too much.
4. I’m not a huge fan of Motown music (it’s OK), but the song I most identified with when I was young was “The Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson.  Somewhere along the way, though, I learned to shake off self-pity and seize the day.
5. I’ve been gainfully employed almost continuously since I took over a local paper route when I was 12.  I used to run the 4 miles on foot to deliver to 24 customers in rural Virginia.  I didn’t make much money, and what I did make went to support the family — but I became a pretty good long-distance runner as a result.  I’ve also worked in the tobacco fields, an auto parts store, a hardware store, clearing brush from under power lines with a bushaxe, insulating apartment buildings, short-order cook, computer operator, programmer, R&D analyst, manager, director, and finally consultant and blogger.
6. Three things about which I have highly ambivalent feelings:  politics, medicine, and religion.  In each case, I can’t help but think that there’s something of value there — yet I’m highly skeptical of all the present day manifestations thereof.

Step 4:  (Again, trying to avoid collisions) I’ll tag Joanna, John, Eastwood, Martin, Preston, and Rusty.