In general I'm against doing these sorts of pass-it-on survey things. But this particular one I saw on a friend's facebook the other day, and it's open ended enough that I think I can do it on my blog and forgo the forward this to 25 friends part. It should also serve as a fun little exercise and remind me that I have some interesting things to tell.
Without any more ado, here are 25 Facts about me you may or may not know already!
1. My hands, in their natural state, smell like peanut butter. I'm about 70% convinced this happens because I ate a PB&J sandwich every day at school from kindergarten until about 9th grade. It's probably why dogs love licking my hands as well.
2. When I was 6, my mom was pregnant with my youngest sister. I wanted my mom to have a boy so I could name him Akeem after Hakeem Olajuwon, nee Akeem (and how he spelled it back then). In fact, I probably didn't care whether it was a boy or girl.
3. Also in my younger days, my grandparents lived in a more rural area of Texas. Every year around Easter time some people would sell dyed chicks, and my grandmother would always pick some up for us. Being 4 or 5, I gave them clever names such as Green Popsicle and Blue Popsicle (corresponding to their particular shades). Well, the survival rate of these chicks wasn't high to begin with, but one day Green Popsicle got through our fence and fell into the pool. In rescuing my pet from drowning, I broke its neck.
4. I was scared to death of being stranded in space after watching the movie Space Camp. And so of course my dad would threaten to send me to Space Camp if I acted up. Oddly enough, I wanted to become an astronaut only a few years later (once Jurassic Park killed all my dreams of being a paleontologist).
5. Being an anxious kid, I was also very frightened by the idea of losing my will. I was freaked out by and would refuse (and still do) to watch the following movies/shows again: the first Care Bears movie (evil book brainwashes kids into not caring), some dental PSA (plaque monsters brainwash kids into not brushing teeth), and an episode of Inspector Gadget where Dr. Claw brainwashes the city council.
6. Rounding off my childhood stories, at the age of 5 or 6 the local news did some special where they got young kids to perform as a chibi version of the New Kids On The Block. I was selected to be Joey I think. My mom was very angry with me when I refused to dance any more than just bouncing up and down, "embarrassing myself on TV." I just hope that wasn't my 15 minutes already.
7. When I was 17, the school nurse convinced me to try out for our school's mascot. We didn't have an active mascot anyway, so I wasn't heartbroken that they decided not to let me do it. Oh, my school was the Rebels. Yes, our mascot was a Confederate soldier. I was trying out to be a Confederate soldier. My racism is not just a recent thing! The mascot has since been changed to the Mavericks. As a consolation, they let me be the rival mascot and get tackled by the football team during the big pep rally senior year. It was quite fun actually.
8. In my junior year of high school, knowing that electricity takes the path of least resistance, I stuck some scissors around an exposed plug in a moment of boredom. The electricity went up one blade and down the other, leaving me perfectly unharmed. Oh but it was in a shower of sparks and it also melted part of the scissors and blew a fuse. I'd forgotten this story until I met some old friends at a wedding a few months back and they reminded me of my 10 years prior shenanigans.
9. Over a month I installed roughly 3600 pennies inbetween the fire-proof ceiling tiles in my college dorm. They were removed a couple years later because "they indicated to alumni that we did not take care of our surroundings," despite my claims of artwork. Of course, the stupid chalk lines that some high people drew on the fireplace couldn't be removed because they were "art."
10. At college, I directed, wrote, edited, and aired our dorm's propaganda movie for incoming freshmen 2 different years. I am ashamed of all the clips I made; they're pretty dumb and consist mostly of movie trailer parodies or legomation parodies full of in-jokes. I am rather proud of the editing, for what it's worth.
11. I spent the summer after graduating high school working computer sales for Best Buy in one of the less nicer neighborhoods of Houston. Unloading the truck is the most pain in the ass thing ever, and the worst item to unload is paper. Yes, paper was even worse than a 40" Wega TV. We witnessed a lot of creative attempts to steal things from the store (although the clientele succeeded more often than not).
12. There was a point in college where I was downloading and uploading so many music vids that I was in the top 10 bandwidth users for the college. At a science school, that's impressive. Later on, through an electrical fluke, if my computer rebooted it would take down the entire internet for 3 dorms.
13. Jaywalking (that Jay Leno bit) came to our school on Ditch Day, but it was run by Ryan Seacrest trying to see what we would do for $5. In a desperate attempt to get on TV, I fashioned a mummy suit for myself out of duct tape. One of the producers loved it, but was unable to convince Ryan Asscrest or the other producers as it didn't fit with the theme.
14. For a Caltech prank we invaded dinner during prefrosh weekend. The plan was to invade by land, sea, and air. As the naval component, I hid in the hot tub under the cover while the waiters ate their dinner, while the students ate their dinner, waiting for the musical cue to jump out and take our head waiter hostage. I was in the hot tub for over 2 hours, but it was worth it. The next three dinner invasions got even more elaborate, but i paid the price and had old chicken tenders and spaghetti poured on me as penance.
15. I am quite competitive with video games, in the sense that I will refuse challenges. Games I've been challenged to beat in a weekend and accomplished: God of War 2, Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (this game is lame so I cheated though). Games I've been challenged to complete in one sitting: Super Mario World (< 1.5 hours), Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past (< 5 hours), Donkey Kong Country (<1 hour). But even more than performing stupid challenges from my friends, I refuse to lose to a crane machine.
16. I had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand the summer after 7th grade. Problem was, 2 weeks after the return was my Bar Mitzvah. I wasn't allowed to go because I had to study. I hold this over my parents (1/2 jokingly) to this day. One day I will make it down under.
17. I wrote and colored a short-lived webcomic called PassFailStudios. It parodied mainstream comic book storylines and characters. We submitted the strips one year to DC and Marvel during their talent search, and did not get called back. But we didn't get sued either! Looking back on it, the writing was pretty crude and relied too heavily on being offensive.
18. I can no longer sit in a science lecture, talk, or seminar without falling asleep. The talker can be entertaining, speaking on a topic of genuine interest to me, and I will still sleep for 5 minutes. It's probably subconscious, but science is my soporific.
19. I've broken my left wrist twice as a kid. No, not because of that, but each time was while playing football. The first time, I broke it while on vacation with Florida. I did not tell anyone my wrist hurt, so I simply tried never to move my left hand. Two weeks later, my mom grabbed my wrist after picking me up from school, and I screamed out in pain. Time for cast!
20. I've never seen snow. Real snow. In my lifetime, it has "snowed" 3 times in Houston while I've been present. By "snow" I mean there are a few white flakes that melt 5 feet above ground. I've seen ice and slush, but never true snow. I'm trying to go as long as possible because it seems wet, cold, and boring, but I may plan to go to Japan in winter to see the white countryside.
21. I can now add 4 1-digit numbers really, really fast. Why? Because when I'm driving I add up the license plate numbers of nearby cars to see if the sum equals 21. I blame my aunt who introduced the idea to me, based on our mutual love of blackjack. If a car does have 21, I get excited yet angry because the driver don't realize the good luck at his disposal!
22. I'm a sucker for spicy food. I will usually try to eat as spicy as I can. I tried tackling the "Special Number 2" ramen at a local ramen joint one day. It is the highest of their 9 levels of spiciness, and if one finishes it under 30 minutes you get your picture on the wall. Done with the solids and about 2/3 done with the broth, my GI tract decided to go on strike. I refilled my bowl with spicy ramen. It doesn't feel any better coming up. Also I have a really weak stomach and tend to puke easily, but that's more an issue with alcohol.
23. Fun House came to Astroworld one summer. I got to be on it! Sadly it was just an exhibition and not for television. That summer I also won some Nintendo tournament at Astroworld like the one in The Wizard. Did I get national fame? No, I got a koozie. Movies and TV have always lied to me, yet keep falling for their empty promises!
24. My senior year of high school I was elected to go to an Acheivement Summit in Austin. Many famous people (in their various fields) were present, including several Nobel Prize winners. I had dinner with Ehud Barak and George Lucas. Basically I learned that George Lucas is kind of an ass but physicists are quite nice. Perhaps this summit influenced my decision to go into physics, and I'm no longer 100% sure I should be thankful for that.
25. I went to Math Camp the summer after freshman year. Math Camp. What more fun way to spend the summer than doing 10 hours a day of number theory? But it was fun. I made some great friends there that persist to this day. The most memorable part though? On July 11th the 7-11 next to our dorm sold slurpees for 11 cents. I spent $1.76 that day. That's what math drives me to do to myself. No more math camp for me.
Holy crap that was hard to do and took way too long.
A long, loooong hiatus
17 years ago
