All these years I thought my chinese zodiac sign was the Boar. Same as Dad's.

After years of eating in chinese restaurants, those menu placemats with the zodiac animals printed on them fooled me.

I was reading an astrology book and it turns out even though I was born in 1983, according to the chinese calender I was actually born in the year of the Dog.

Here's a little description from haktanir.org:

Dog individuals are the most humanitarian and the least materialistic. These are the givers in life, prepared to sacrifice their own dreams, ambitions and desires for the sake of others. Dogs strongly denounce injustice and wrongdoing, generously giving useful and effective advice to those around them. They accomplish goals quickly, their successes the result of hard work and intelligence.

The Dog never really relaxes - his heart and mind are always jumping. He is an introvert who rarely shows his feelings, stubborn in the extreme and knows what he wants. Frequently cynical, he is feared for his acid remarks. He gives the impression of looking systematically for faults in everything he touches. This is because he is the world's biggest pessimist and expects nothing out of life. They are respected for their views and trusted by all who come to know them. Dogs find it difficult to adapt to change. They have a tendency to become wistful and nostalgic about the past.

Whatever his career, it will have in him a spokesman whose ideas will be profound and often original. The three phases of the life of the Dog are all marred by uncertainty: anxious childhood, difficult youth, middle-age defeatist before the work is to be done, and an old-age full of regrets for not having done enough. Romantically, Dogs gives the impression of being cold fish because they're anxious and doubt their own feelings as they do those of others. In fact, personal relationships for the Dog are the most important things in life.

Which, I think, fits me much better than the Boar, now that I think about it.