25 THINGS ABOUT ME

The most recent internet meme going around is to post twenty-five oddball facts about yourself.

Go on, read more than you ever wanted to know:

1. When I was in the fifth grade I checked out the book The Way Things Work by David Macaulay in order to help me build a go cart that would navigate the drainage ditches and pipes in my neighborhood. I had the dream of cruising around underground like the ninja turtles. I never accomplished that dream.

2. The summer between my second and third grade year of school I beat all ninety-nine levels of Mario Brothers for the Atari 2600. At the time, it was my most significant achievement, but nobody around me really understood what I had done.

3. In junior high I thought that I could pay for college by collecting comic books. I'm glad that I didn't pursue that plan. Even if I would have stuck to it, it wouldn't have worked. Except for the most collectible first printing of certain comics, the value of most comic books decreases over time.

4. In high school I earned 793 NFL points at speech tournaments, but it was mostly due to stubborn determination. I hardly ever won a trophy.

5. In college I worked at a herpetology museum. At that job I once scooped poop from the cage of a gaboon viper, the snake with highest venom yield of any snake. Had I been bitten, blood would have coagulated in my brain and I would have died. I also handled four foot rattlesnakes with a three foot hook. I had to quit that job because I smelled like snake musk every time I went to class.

6. Last year I saw the librarian throwing out a copy of The Way Things Work. She said it was too old to keep in the science section of a library. It made me feel old.

7. After working at the herpetology museum, I worked at Rollin's cafeteria. I would leave smelling like burgers, fried eggs, and pizza. Since my previous job was the herpetology museum, I didn't really care.

8. I've read every book by Donald Miller. The coolest book that I've ever purchased was an original UK paperback version of Prayer and that Art of Volkswagen Maintenance. I found it at SKS bookstore in Singapore.

9. I once rode a train from Chennai to New Delhi.

10. In New Delhi, some beggars once intentionally put monkey droppings on my shoe and tried to get me to pay them to clean it off. I didn't pay.

11. In the fourth grade I had a pet crawdad. I force fed it meal worms. Eventually my mom persuaded me to release it back into the wild.

12. When I was in second or third grade, I had a baby sitter that encouraged me to memorize the first verse to "Paul Revere" by the Beastie Boys.

12. He also had me memorize "Fat," "Weird" Al's parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad."

13. I now own every "Weird Al" album except two. Most of these albums are on cassette. And I've also been to two of his concerts.

14. I once hiked for ten days straight in New Mexico. A few years later, I canoed for a week straight in Minnesota.

15. My family's first computer was a 486DX2 66mhz with 8MB of ram. It had a 2600 baud modem.

16. I upgraded it to 16MB of RAM and a 14.4 modem. I thought that my computer was fast.
My current computer is approximately 20 times faster and has twenty times more RAM. I think that my computer is kind of slow.

17. The hiking trip and the canoe trip were possible because of Boy Scouts. I am an Eagle Scout.

18. I've gone deer hunting twice in my life. I've never killed a deer.

19. I know more about Singapore food that any other "ang moh" that I've ever personally met. Every Singaporean over the age of 20 that I've ever met knows more about Singapore food than me.

20. I once taught an eighteen year old student that had a tattoo of a pig's head superimposed over a Confederate flag.

21. I'm not sure what I taught that student.

22. I've hiked almost a dozen peaks in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet.

23. I run the Linux operating system on my computer. Every time I hear people talking about expensive software prices and computer viruses, I secretly smile to myself. Linux is immune to most computer viruses. It is also free.

24. It took me almost a week to set up Linux on my computer, but it has been running properly for almost four years.

25. I've started writing a few books, but I haven't finished them. I guess deep down inside, I'd rather have the instant satisfaction that comes with blogging.