MOTW - Monday - ViperJr

[LilyPad]

Congratulations Martin!! Going to start today as Monday and just be a day behind this week because of the tie

Tell us about yourself Martin!

[ViperJr]

Tell you about myself... Sure is harder than it sounds! Since I don't really know where to begin, so I'll just start from the beginning.

The third of December, in the city of Västerås, I was born. Me and my family lived there for 1.5 years and then we moved far up north, to the city of Umeå. We lived here for about three years, and the we moved far south again, to Lidköping. After that. we moved back to Umeå, and lived here for seven years. And then, we moved back south to a city called Örebro, where I lived one year. Then, at the age of 15, I moved by myself back to Umeå once again. And here I still live, although I've changed apartment 3 times since I got her alone. I've also moved within cities before, but that does not really count...
Anyway, now you know where I've lived, in case there are any swedes out there that actually know where all these cities are located

When I was about seven years old, my fascination for snakes started. I loved the little guys, even though it took me several years to actually see one in real life. I really wanted to have one at home, but since my father would rather burn down the apartment than live with a snake, I could not get one... After a few years, my interests expanded to lizards and amphibians as well, but my dad did not liked those creatures any better than snakes, so I had to wait... And waited I did, until I lived alone, at the age of 15. However, since I lived alone, with bills and food to pay for all by myself, I did not have the time or money for a snake. So it took me another 5 years before I finally got one, in the apartment I still live in today, at Sandbacka, Umeå.

When I was 18 years old, and was in the last year of upper secondary school, I fell in love with my classmate Marléne. We are still together and have been for over 2 years, and we live together. When we met, she have had many pets, but all of them had fur. Hamsters, horses, cats, bunnies etc. Although, after a year with me, she realized that amphibians and reptiles truly are amazing creatures. Today, I'm one of the lucky fellows to have my herpetology hobby shared with my better half. So far, we only have a California kingsnake name Eloph, a nameless mourning gecko (with 2 eggs!) and a red eyed tree frog tank all setup, hopefully with some frogs to enter the terrarium soon! But we're both wanting more animals, however our apartment is full. We need to move to a bigger place before adding more terrariums, and that will hopefully happen within a year.

In the 20 years (soon 21) I've lived so far, I've worked at a few places. So far I've done these things:

Dishwasher at a restaurant
Data controller at a drugstore
Kinder garden teacher (two different kinder gardens)
Checkout in a supermarket
An few other minor jobs, only a week or so
Right now I'm working at a huge provide of diary products, so I'm package products before they are shipped to different buyers.

These jobs have just been to get enough money to get through the month and are obviously not my dream job, hehe. I still don't know what exactly I want to work with, but it has to do with reptiles and/or amphibians. I'm thinking a lot about researching and helping with our local fauna, since the native reptiles (3 snakes, 3 lizards) and amphibians (8 frogs/toads, 2 salamanders) are all endangered, and some of the frogs are extremely close to extinction here in Sweden. Next spring, I'm taking a smaller course called Herpetology A, so that will hopefully sort some of my questions out. This fall, starting next week, I'll studying Japanese full time (while still working 2 days a week). I studied it for three years in upper secondary school, so I want to continue with it for a while longer. Not sure if I will ever need it though, perhaps working with amphibians in Japan

Hmmm... What else is there to say? I have four brothers and one sister. A younger brother at 14, me at 21, older brothers at 25 and 34, and the oldest of us is the sister, at 37 (she has 2 kids, which make me an uncle, aaaaw yeeeeah).


Some of the animals we WILL keep in the future, as long as we get a bigger apartment:
Tiger salamander (mavortium)
Japanese rat snake
Probably some sort of dart frogs, perhaps dendrobates auratus (birkhan line)

Animals that we most likely will get, but not for sure yet:
Tiger legged monkey tree frog
Australian water dragon
Rankin's dragon

Eerr, really hard to know what to write. I'm sure what I've wrote so far are really not interesting, but that's me! Lastly, bare with my poor English skills. English is my second language, so there will be several errors and poorly created sentences. The fact that the clock is 01:33 (am) does not make things better...

If you would like to see our quest for the Red eyes so far, take a look at this ill-written blog post. Beware, it's several parts.

http://www.frogforum.net/blogs/viper...es-part-1.html
http://www.frogforum.net/blogs/viper...es-part-2.html

Also, stayed tuned for an article I'm writing! Hopefully, if it's good enough, it'll be posted here and found in the article section.

[bshmerlie]

Martin it's really nice knowing a little bit about you. Hang in there brother...you'll eventually get those Red Eyes. Post a picture of yourself and your supportive girlfriend.

[LilyPad]

Firstly, for English being a second language to you...you write more clearly than most of the people I know who have it as their first language!! Seriously, you rock. Secondly, you are very interesting, don't think for a second you aren't! The more I learn about you, the more interesting I find you to be!

I can't wait for you to get your frogs!! Almost there Martin!!

[ViperJr]

Thanks a lot, both of you!
Cheri, I'll post a picture on picture day (Wednesday, right?) along with some other photos.

I've been trying to figure out what more to write, but it's hard, so I just leave it. If somethings missing, just ask a question later!

[Heatheranne]

Wow Martin, I would have never guessed English was a second language to you. I agree! You write very well.

It's nice to here about your life and actually get to know you a bit. You seem very motivated. And its awesome that your sweetie is supportive. I'm glad you finally got your snake and your going to love your red-eyes .

Can't wait to see pictures!