About

Some snippets about me…

1. I grew up on a fifty-one-acre farm where we had horses, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, guinea hens, trout, dogs, cats, and varioius other pets… but no cows.
2. In high school, I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins.
3. I never skipped a single day of high school and was a straight-A student.
4. I skipped a LOT of classes in college… and was NOT a straight-A student.
5. I never drank alcohol to any notable extent before my junior year of college.
6. All my romantic relationships, except for two, lasted approximately nine months.
7. I really like bacon, but don’t eat much of it.
8. In high school, I was on the varsity cross-country team and the varsity swimming team.
9. I learned how to fence during my senior year in high school and was on my college fencing team.
10. Monkeys creep me out a little bit. Apes do not.
11. My wife and daughter are the two most important people in my life, hands down.
12. I taught ballroom dancing with Arthur Murray Dance Studios for four years and competed in pro dance competitions.
13. I sang my first solo in church at age four (I think… maybe three) and continued to perform through high school and college.
14. Ever since my dad brought me a magic trick home from a business trip, I’ve been collecting and performing magic tricks and have shelves of magic books.
15. I think my dad was the coolest person in the world.
16. The spinning swings ride at amusement parks scares the crap out of me.
17. I like cold weather much better than hot weather and I love snow.
18. I’ve been an atheist essentially since age thirteen.
19. In college, I performed with an International Folk Dancing group for two and a half years.
20. I went to Penn State for chemical engineering, switched to business, then switched to English, which is probably where I should have started.
21. I used to work in commission sales for an in-home food service company, selling ground beef for thirteen dollars per pound (no kidding).
22. I find it very, very easy to relate to my daughter… and children in general.
23. I’m a registered Independant voter who agrees with some ideas from Republicans and some from Democrats, but not all from either.
24. I’ve spent two days on the sets of Stargate:SG-1 and Stargate:Atlantis hanging out with the cast and crew. It was loads of fun both times.
25. I love animals and would have tons of pets if it wouldn’t be the cause of a divorce.
26. My favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride.
27. I like science fiction, probably because of reading Dune by Frank Herbert and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester when I was young.
28. I bought my first computer in 1983 for $3,300 (the original Compaq portable) along with a 9-pin, dot-matrix printer that cost $700 (Okidata Microline ML-92). I’ve been working with hardware and programming ever since.
29. I like weekends with no plans.
30. My eyesight is probably my most acute sense, even though I now wear 1.25 reading glasses.
31. I like debating, but not arguing.
32. Aikido is my favorite martial art.
33. In can pretty much fall asleep (on purpose) anytime, anywhere within about five minutes, but I’m not narcoleptic. That ability seems to be genetic (on my father’s side) and it makes my wife jealous sometimes.
34. I successfully completed the forty-eight-hour Penn State Dance Marathon two times.
35. I love watching movies and still love going to an actual movie theater.
36. I quit smoking cold turkey back in 1998 and haven’t had a cigarette since then.
37. I used to also smoke a pipe and still love the smell of (unburnt) pipe tobacco.
38. I wonder what the best way is to instill a love for nature in my daughter.
39. I’ve always loved the mythical quality of Tibet and have always wanted to go there, but I’m afraid that the reality of going there might shatter the wonderful image that I keep in my mind.
40. My sense of humor is a pretty even hybrid of both my parents’ senses of humor.