25 Things – Keeping it Real (Part 2)
1. I like writing/blogging. I’ve been doing it ever since Xanga became a big thing. It mostly started out of protest the pervasiveness of Xanga. Now I do it as an avenue to share my thoughts
2. I think thinking. I like being educated on issues. I like to have an opinion about issues; if I don’t have one, I won’t say anything. I’ve started reading a lot more of the NYTimes and Wall Street Journal Editorials because of this. I want to know the issues but also the responses from various viewpoints.
3. I like technology. I’ve been programming since middle school with BASIC from my 3-2-1 Contact Magazine. My first program was a text-based linear adventure program. I think it was because my mom is a programmer that I got into it.
4. I’m frugal. I don’t see the value in spending money in things that are temporary. I have a hard time spending money on food and clothing, things that will be gone soon. However, I save my money and spend on things that will ‘last’. I always make sure I get good parts for my computer. My motto is, if I’m going to be spending a lot, I better make sure it’s good. This also reared its head as I started purchasing some camping equipment.
5. I play video games. I used to competitively game from high school up till freshmen year in college. I enjoy a good story-driven FPS or a RTS. I was in multiple leagues/clans for Team Fortress Classic. TF2 tempted me to get back into it but I don’t have the time. I ‘threatened’ my parents to buy me Half-life for Christmas otherwise I was going to pirate it over my 56k modem. Other games I enjoyed in my youth were Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, Red Alert, Jedi Knight, Worms 2, CS (Beta), Warcraft 2, and Starcraft.
6. I used to play Magic the Gathering throughout middle school. I sold all my cards in either 7th or 8th grade and made back all the money I spent on it. I still play whenever I go home but we usually draft or I borrow a friend’s deck.
7. I have a unique sense of humor. It stems from my friends according to my ex-coservant. I love quoting movies, tv shows, or literature (Bible) whose situation fits the one at hand.
8. I had a pen-pal for about 14 years. She moved away when we were in elementary school and we’d write each other off and on. Our paths crossed in Maryland/DC. I need to look her up again. It’s my turn to write.
9. I’m a globetrotter. I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, England, France, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, China, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and other various US states. I’d like to go to somewhere in South America and Antarctica before this life ends. Then I’ll have been to every continent.
10. I played soccer from 3rd grade to 10th. I always wanted to be Left Wing but kept on playing defense. I closed out my ‘career’ playing Sweeper – the defensive captain. I quit playing because my team was ‘racist’ against me. The goalie and I were the only non-Hispanics. You can’t blame the goalie so they’d always blame me whenever anything bad happened b/c they wouldn’t want to blame each other. Playing Ultimate reminds me of my soccer days.
11. I did pole vault in high school. My highest jump was 13′. I loved falling from that high. I’ve almost killed myself, my coach, and my future generations while pole vaulting.
12. I wasted my High School career. All of high school was spent trying to get into a good college. I ended up at University of Illinois. (jk, it’s a good school). I wish I could go back and redo High School. I’d focus on having more fun and ‘living’. It is an interesting story about how I ended up at the U of I though. God used my laziness to bring me here.
13. I naively thought I’d be BFF’s with my childhood friends. Now we’re scattered throughout the country. I email my friends back at home every work day. We send on average, 100 emails to each other a day.
14. I’m a Yankees fan from birth. I remember going to my first game as a little kid (6-8 y/o). Steve Sax stole 2nd base and he became my hero. Upon leaving the stadium, I saw a stuffed animal bunny dressed up in a Yankees uniform and I wanted him. I cried until my dad bought him for me. I think it cost $16 (1989) which would be $27.24 in today’s money. I named him Steve Sax. He’s my favorite stuffed animal and sits above my bed at home to this day.
15. I’m not very musical. I never played an instrument growing up. I started playing guitar 4 years ago. I felt it was a necessary skill to be a good small group leader.
16. Contrary to ‘popular’ belief or what I may say at times, I do enjoy leading a small group. This is my 4th small group at CFC. I’m not very good at it but I do try.
17. I’ve never broken any bones. I’m sprained both my ankle and I did get a black eye from being in a ‘fight’ with a girl. Lose – lose situation for me.
18. I’m apprehensive about cutting things with knives. It’s because in 3rd grade (I think) I dressed up as Rafael, the Ninja Turtle. I was trying to carve a sai for myself and ended up slicing my finger. It hurt. a lot.
13. My favorite TV show growing up was Transformers followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I have a collection of Transformers at home that are not allowed to be thrown out. They’re the original die-cast metal ones. They aren’t worth anything because I played with them and probably 80% of them are broken in one way or another. I would look at the Transformers’ catalog for hours a day and never get tired.
20. I’ve only ever paid for 3 hair cuts in my life. Once in China, the other before standing in a friend’s wedding, and the other 4 weeks ago cuz I was really lazy and wanted to try out a real barber shop. It’s always been my mom or myself who have cut my hair. One time I let a small group member try and cut my hair. I figured, how bad could it be? I needed to ask a friend to try and save my hair so I wouldn’t have to shave it off.
21. Running is in my blood. I was a sprinter in track before I committed to pole vault full time. I hated running though. Somehow I started training for a 1/2 marathon (13 miles) 2 years ago until I got sick in Kenya. I’m thinking about doing a 10k at the end of the summer.
22. I drive stick. My parents bought me my current car before I started working in Maryland. They bought me a manual even though at the time I couldn’t drive stick. I was upset with them for it, primarily b/c I didn’t want to ruin a new car. Now I want all my cars to be manual. It’s so much more fun than an automatic. I’m a fairly safe driver. Partly is my aversion to tickets but also I want to be a safe driver for my family. I also want my kids to learn to be safe drivers from watching me drive.
23. I was a top secret government agent at one point. I’d tell you more but then I’d have to kill you. Seriously.
24. I’m a home owner now and do enjoy it. I enjoy fixing things around the house and taking care of the yard. I hated mowing the lawn growing up. I would recite verses to myself to deal w/ my anger at mowing our steep lawn in the blistering summer days. Now I somewhat enjoy a nice yard and have plans to do landscaping over the summer. I also enjoy fixing things around the house. I’m learning to be a handy man.
25. I hate bandwagon jumping. I hate doing things b/c everyone does them. If everyone else does something, it makes me not want to do it even if I had wanted to at first. Reason why it took me so long to do this.