25 Things
I'm going to break the rules a bit and do this on LJ since it'll get sucked into Facebook automagically. And since I'm probably the very last one to do it, I'm not bothering to tag anyone else.
1) I'm a hardware guy. Most of my friends are software / science geeks, but I've always been a hardware guy. When I was around 10, I had a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine. For fun I'd disassemble it, reassemble it and start it up for a few minutes. I still have a bad habit of taking my toys apart to see what's inside.
2) I have a problem with claustrophobia. Things like watching a video of someone squeezing into a crack in a cave make me really really uncomfortable.
3) The first song I remember really liking is Popcorn. I still kind of like it.
4) I got my first computer in 1978. It was a Radio Shack (Tandy) Model 1 my dad got me for xmas. I befriended the geeks at the local computer shop who helped me upgrade it from 4K to an inconceivably huge 16K of RAM. Around that time I also had a SWTPC CT-64 dumb terminal and a 300 baud modem and spent a lot of time on CompuServe until they started requiring a credit card.
5) After several fast food jobs, my first "real" job was at the computer shop mentioned in #4. It was a local mom and pop place where they stuck me in the back room and had me fix Apple ][ computers. The owner taught me a few things and somehow I got really good a figuring out weird problems. I always used a can of Dow Scrubby Bubbles to clean the case and keyboard before returning the repaired machines.
6) I never much cared for dancing until Saturday night at Burning Man 2003 when a bit flipped in my brain and I learned to enjoy it.
7) I have a large group of truly amazing people whom I call my friends, but I am only really close with a few people. I'd like to change that.
8) I make my living selling junk on eBay. I've been self employed since 2003. I absolutely cannot imagine working for someone else ever again.
9) I find it easier to cook for 20 than for 2.
10) which is good because I have been having friends over for dinner on Sundays for at least 15 years. It started out with a few guys barbecuing and drinking homebrew. Now there are around 20 people at any given dinner. In this time, I have refined the manly art of cooking virtually anything on the BBQ. Even pizza.
11) I ran a BBS in college called the Dark Side of the Moon. The apartment I lived in became known as "the mOon" and the apartment complex eventually became Earth Orbit though I was long gone by then.
12) I'm a cat person. My first cat was named Max and would fetch a bottle cap if you snapped it across the room (one of the lasting skills I developed in college). I have 2 cats now, Lily and Sauren (aka Orange). Neither plays fetch, but I like them anyway. I didn't always like cats though and back when I had pet rats I actively disliked them.
13) In 1982 (?), my friend Mike and I drove my '69 VW Baja Bug from Orange County to Oregon and back. This was long before I had credit cards or a cell phone which made it much more of an adventure. Especially because the bug was a POS. We traded pot for car parts, crashed in generous strangers' living rooms and I drove the last 900 miles using a rope tied to the carburetor because the throttle cable broke and we had barely enough money for gas to get home.
14) I've owned a lot of cars. '69 MGB, '69 VW Baja Bug, '70 Triumph Spitfire, '77 Datsun Pickup, '6? VW Squareback, '77 Datsun 510 Wagon, '86 Toyota Supra, '86 Toyota PU, '94 Toyota Corolla, '96 Toyota RAV4, '00 Audi A4, '00 VW Golf, '05 VW Golf, '97 Ford F-250, '00 BMW M Coupe. I still have the F-250 and the M Coupe. My ex's still drive the RAV and the '05 Golf. I've also owned several motorcycles and a Vespa scooter.
15) I've rolled 3 cars, my highschool GF's Datsun B210 "Honeybee", the Baja Bug and the Datsun PU. I don't recommend this to anyone.
16) I built and ran a pirate radio station in college. It was 15 watts of glorious stereo FM. One of my proudest moments was walking into my favorite bar (Spike's) and hearing my radio station playing there. I only ran it occasionally, but after I left school, a friend ran it 24/7 until the FCC convinced him it was a bad idea.
17) I very nearly got a top secret security clearance, but quit the job that reqiured it before the process was completed. I knew I wouldn't be at that job much longer so I told the FBI interviewer about pretty much every law I'd broken figuring they'd refuse me for sure. Turns out they appreciated my candor and are refuse people who try to hide that stuff. I recently found the transcript of those interviews. I used to be a lot more interesting...
18) I was born in Alegany, NY and lived in Cheektowaga and Tonawanda before moving to California in the late '70's. In Tonawanda, we used to ride our bikes to the Erie Canal and Niagra Falls. In CA, I've lived in El Toro, Encinitas, San Luis Obispo, Leucadia, San Marcos, Sunnyvale and now Alviso.
19) I was a Boy Scout, but was in it more for the camping than the merit badges. Horse riding at summer camp left me with a lasting negative impression that lasted until a few years ago.
20) I've been arrested twice. The first time I was a minor so that's off the record now. The second time they nabbed me for DUI in the hospital the morning after rolling my third car (see #15).
21) I'm kind of a pyro. Fortunately that's cool these days what with Burning Man and the Fire Arts scene. That seems to have mellowed into a fascination with light sources of any kind. I have 3 different color laser pointers in my living room and things that fluoresce under those wavelengths set up as targets.
22) I work with high power lasers on a regular basis. I've done some pretty stupid things with them, but managed so far not to hurt myself or anyone else with them. Well, not counting a couple of incidents with the hair removal laser.
23) I haven't traveled as much as most of my friends, but I have been to Russia and China on business trips. In Russia I got a tour inside one of their first nuclear plants. It was shut down for refueling, but I still wish I'd been issued a dosimeter.
24) I had a pet rat named Floyd who lived in a 3 storey rat condo I built under the rabbit cage in the back yard. He constantly chewed holes in his condo to escape, but when I called his name he'd come out of hiding and climb up my pants and shirt to sit on my shoulder.
25) It's kind of depressing how hard it has been to come up with 25 interesting things to write about myself.
1) I'm a hardware guy. Most of my friends are software / science geeks, but I've always been a hardware guy. When I was around 10, I had a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine. For fun I'd disassemble it, reassemble it and start it up for a few minutes. I still have a bad habit of taking my toys apart to see what's inside.
2) I have a problem with claustrophobia. Things like watching a video of someone squeezing into a crack in a cave make me really really uncomfortable.
3) The first song I remember really liking is Popcorn. I still kind of like it.
4) I got my first computer in 1978. It was a Radio Shack (Tandy) Model 1 my dad got me for xmas. I befriended the geeks at the local computer shop who helped me upgrade it from 4K to an inconceivably huge 16K of RAM. Around that time I also had a SWTPC CT-64 dumb terminal and a 300 baud modem and spent a lot of time on CompuServe until they started requiring a credit card.
5) After several fast food jobs, my first "real" job was at the computer shop mentioned in #4. It was a local mom and pop place where they stuck me in the back room and had me fix Apple ][ computers. The owner taught me a few things and somehow I got really good a figuring out weird problems. I always used a can of Dow Scrubby Bubbles to clean the case and keyboard before returning the repaired machines.
6) I never much cared for dancing until Saturday night at Burning Man 2003 when a bit flipped in my brain and I learned to enjoy it.
7) I have a large group of truly amazing people whom I call my friends, but I am only really close with a few people. I'd like to change that.
8) I make my living selling junk on eBay. I've been self employed since 2003. I absolutely cannot imagine working for someone else ever again.
9) I find it easier to cook for 20 than for 2.
10) which is good because I have been having friends over for dinner on Sundays for at least 15 years. It started out with a few guys barbecuing and drinking homebrew. Now there are around 20 people at any given dinner. In this time, I have refined the manly art of cooking virtually anything on the BBQ. Even pizza.
11) I ran a BBS in college called the Dark Side of the Moon. The apartment I lived in became known as "the mOon" and the apartment complex eventually became Earth Orbit though I was long gone by then.
12) I'm a cat person. My first cat was named Max and would fetch a bottle cap if you snapped it across the room (one of the lasting skills I developed in college). I have 2 cats now, Lily and Sauren (aka Orange). Neither plays fetch, but I like them anyway. I didn't always like cats though and back when I had pet rats I actively disliked them.
13) In 1982 (?), my friend Mike and I drove my '69 VW Baja Bug from Orange County to Oregon and back. This was long before I had credit cards or a cell phone which made it much more of an adventure. Especially because the bug was a POS. We traded pot for car parts, crashed in generous strangers' living rooms and I drove the last 900 miles using a rope tied to the carburetor because the throttle cable broke and we had barely enough money for gas to get home.
14) I've owned a lot of cars. '69 MGB, '69 VW Baja Bug, '70 Triumph Spitfire, '77 Datsun Pickup, '6? VW Squareback, '77 Datsun 510 Wagon, '86 Toyota Supra, '86 Toyota PU, '94 Toyota Corolla, '96 Toyota RAV4, '00 Audi A4, '00 VW Golf, '05 VW Golf, '97 Ford F-250, '00 BMW M Coupe. I still have the F-250 and the M Coupe. My ex's still drive the RAV and the '05 Golf. I've also owned several motorcycles and a Vespa scooter.
15) I've rolled 3 cars, my highschool GF's Datsun B210 "Honeybee", the Baja Bug and the Datsun PU. I don't recommend this to anyone.
16) I built and ran a pirate radio station in college. It was 15 watts of glorious stereo FM. One of my proudest moments was walking into my favorite bar (Spike's) and hearing my radio station playing there. I only ran it occasionally, but after I left school, a friend ran it 24/7 until the FCC convinced him it was a bad idea.
17) I very nearly got a top secret security clearance, but quit the job that reqiured it before the process was completed. I knew I wouldn't be at that job much longer so I told the FBI interviewer about pretty much every law I'd broken figuring they'd refuse me for sure. Turns out they appreciated my candor and are refuse people who try to hide that stuff. I recently found the transcript of those interviews. I used to be a lot more interesting...
18) I was born in Alegany, NY and lived in Cheektowaga and Tonawanda before moving to California in the late '70's. In Tonawanda, we used to ride our bikes to the Erie Canal and Niagra Falls. In CA, I've lived in El Toro, Encinitas, San Luis Obispo, Leucadia, San Marcos, Sunnyvale and now Alviso.
19) I was a Boy Scout, but was in it more for the camping than the merit badges. Horse riding at summer camp left me with a lasting negative impression that lasted until a few years ago.
20) I've been arrested twice. The first time I was a minor so that's off the record now. The second time they nabbed me for DUI in the hospital the morning after rolling my third car (see #15).
21) I'm kind of a pyro. Fortunately that's cool these days what with Burning Man and the Fire Arts scene. That seems to have mellowed into a fascination with light sources of any kind. I have 3 different color laser pointers in my living room and things that fluoresce under those wavelengths set up as targets.
22) I work with high power lasers on a regular basis. I've done some pretty stupid things with them, but managed so far not to hurt myself or anyone else with them. Well, not counting a couple of incidents with the hair removal laser.
23) I haven't traveled as much as most of my friends, but I have been to Russia and China on business trips. In Russia I got a tour inside one of their first nuclear plants. It was shut down for refueling, but I still wish I'd been issued a dosimeter.
24) I had a pet rat named Floyd who lived in a 3 storey rat condo I built under the rabbit cage in the back yard. He constantly chewed holes in his condo to escape, but when I called his name he'd come out of hiding and climb up my pants and shirt to sit on my shoulder.
25) It's kind of depressing how hard it has been to come up with 25 interesting things to write about myself.