100 Facts - Pt. 2

The final 49 facts:

1. I hate yardwork. If I could just pave my lawn and paint it green, I'd be a happy man.


2. I have two good friends that I've known since we were 13 and we're still doing things together. That's been 30 years.


3. We just went to a Dodgers/Braves game last weekend..


4. I met Burt Ward, who played Robin in the '60s Batman series, when I was a preschooler (before preschool was invented). He was a jerk, even to small children.


5. I'm old enough to remember toys being made of wood and tin and having sharp edges.


6. I am a firstborn. The upside is that we're fairly responsible, generally speaking. Most U.S. presidents have been firstborns. The downside is that we feel responsible for everything. This comes from only having adults as examples and from always being expected to take care of our younger siblings - even if we were only six ourselves.


7. I have extremely eclectic tastes in music. I get this from my parents. As a child I could hear Chet Atkins, Jimi Hendrix, Dolly Parton, Seals and Croft, David Bowie, Martha and the Vandellas, Conway Twitty, Ennio Morricone, The Mamas and the Papas, Jim Reeves, The Bee Gees, Lawrence Welk, Earth Wind and Fire, Pink Floyd, Willie Nelson, and Beethoven - all in one weekend. Even if I don't particularly like something, I can usually appreciate it.


8. Except for rap.


9. And speed metal.


10. When Elvis died, I considered becoming a living tribute artist ("impersonator" is so passe). I was 12. But I was pretty good at it. Or so our dog thought. The cat was ambivalent. But cats always are.


11. I am a cat person.


12. But I love dogs, too.


13. I'm pretty serious about voting. I've only missed a few votes (and no elections that I can recall) in 24 years.


14. I am a populist. That's (very broadly and not entirely) a social conservative and fiscal liberal. At least that's what my American Government textbook said.


15. Spelling was always my highest score on standardized tests, usually around the 98th to 99th percentile. I am pretty anal about spelling. But the older I get, the worse my typing becomes. It's very frustrating.


16. When I gave my wife her engagement ring and we finished dinner, I realized that I'd left my wallet at home in all the excitement. I left her there at the restaurant as I ran home to get it. She LOVES telling this story.


17. Especially because it was at Pizza Hut.


18. You have to understand how I was raised. We couldn't afford to eat many places that weren't fast food. The closest we came was Quincy's. Pizza Hut was considered an absolute luxury. Feeding five people for more than $20 was a burden.


19. I never saw the inside of a Steak and Ale, a TGI Friday's, or a Red Lobster until I was in my 20s. They were considered "rich people" places.


20. I try to remind my middle class friends who will listen that this is still true for MOST Americans. Just because your peers do something, that doesn't make it normal for everyone.


21. I love Cracker Barrel. Since my wife was raised by a Connecticut girl, she never learned how to make or appreciate Southern food. If I want it, I have to get it there.


22. I find it odd that many of my friends my age have parents that are around 80. Mine are barely in their 60s. My grandparents are in their 80s. I suppose that's a benefit of being firstborn, too.


23. I never finished college. This surprises most folks. I don't know why. Should I be breathing through my mouth and dragging my knuckles?


24. This post is giving me ideas for my next main blog post.


25. I am a Mac user. End of conversation.


26. I hate onions. But I love onion rings. Discuss.


27. While on two weeks annual training at a naval hospital, I was handed a bottle of fluid and told to take it to the lab. The lab tech informed me it was the residue of an abortion. They had to make sure everything was removed to prevent sepsis. I was pretty upset, to put it mildly.


28. Thankfully, later that week I was asked to observe a live birth. Hands down, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. And ladies? Hats off. Especially if you had an episiotomy.


29. No, I have no problem discussing such things. It's all incredible to me.


30. Our cats' names are Oliver and Misty.


31. However, they think their names are Buddy and Li'l Bit because this what I call them all the time.


32. I was in Cub Scouts for about a year. I think I made Wolf.


33. In high school, I was photographer for the newspaper and (by extension) the yearbook.


34. I was good but my photography teacher was told by the yearbook sponsor that I took too many pictures of girls. He responded, "He's a 16-year-old boy!"


35. I was only on the newspaper because of my 10th grade AP World Lit teacher. She saw a comic strip I was working on for my own amusement and recommended me to the paper's editor. I would never have submited any work on my own. I still have a problem with that. I always think I wouldn't make it. I'm afraid of failure and success. That's a fun combo, let me tell you.


36. My grandfather's first name was Junior.


37. It's also my dad's middle name.


38. I never understood the mania over Krispy Kreme doughnuts that swept the land ten years ago. I grew up on them. They were as plentiful as air in Alabama. They were just doughnuts. Now Yankees treat them like they're freakin' ambrosia or something.


39. I love visiting historic places. The Washington, DC, area is like Mecca for me.


40. I spent all day alone at Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia once. I can still vividly recall standing in a line of trees where General James Longstreet waited to attack a Union position. I tried as much as possible to put myself in his shoes and feel what he may have felt. He'd just force-marched thousands of men down from Virginia during a blazing hot summer. He was still depressed and angry over the fact that he'd been overruled by Lee at Gettysburg and had lost that battle. Two of his young daughters had died of yellow fever a few months earlier and he was away at war. Now he was facing death himself. Then I opened my eyes. Great experience.


41. Having such an experience is impossible without already knowing those facts about Longstreet. This is why history is so important to me!


42. I haven't taken a real vacation in 8 years.


43. I liked penguins before they were fashionable.


44. I like astronomy, even though it's never been fashionable. The enormity of it is simply breathtaking sometimes.


45. I like several so-called "chick movies" and shows. The deciding factor is usually wit. Jane Austen is terrific. The Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility rocks. Gilmore Girls was one of the best shows ever made. The dialogue was brilliant.


46. Of course, Lauren Graham being smokin' hot didn't hurt.


47. That 16-year-old boy isn't quite dead yet!


48. I cry whenever I run over an animal.


49. I still have my Man Card.

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100 Facts - Pt. 1

1. I have lived virtually all my life in one county in one state. Except for a stint in San Diego as a baby (it was my dad's home port in the Navy) my home address has always been in Madison County, Alabama.


2. I was a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy Reserve.


3. Having said that, I have never been outside the continental United States.


4. I have been to or through Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, and California. That's 17 states.


5. I collect (and read!) books on or by Theodore Roosevelt. I currently have more than 40 and a few were printed during his administration (1901-1909).


6. Same thing for C. S. Lewis, although I have no copies from his lifetime (1898-1963). Current count: 60.


7. I know all those dates by heart. Dates are extremely important to me and they must be as accurate as possible.


8. Actually, that applies to all historical facts and trivia.


9. I am a pack rat. Especially books and magazines. My study is like the Dead Sea. Stuff flows in but it doesn't flow out (except to the garage).


10. I was Student Council Representative of the Year my senior year of high school. It was just because I was the only rep with perfect attendance. Meaning I had no life.


11. I lettered in cross country my junior year.


12. I try to read a book every two weeks.


13. However, I always ending up reading four or five books at once, at varying speeds, and end up taking a month on most of them. But it averages out!


14. I have been a huge fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide since 1973.


15. Same notation for the Miami Dolphins. But not as nearly as obsessive.


16. Dan Marino is my favorite athlete of all time. He was heart-stoppingly exciting to watch.


17. I am also a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. This mystifies everyone I know since I have no association with L.A. But I picked all my favorite teams when I was a kid and the Dodgers were red hot and highly visible in the late '70s.


18. This leads me to another fact. I have no stomach for people who switch favorite teams every several years. Real sports fans are not fairweather fans. Unless you have a child who starts to play for another team (and maybe not even then because he/she won't play for them forever), you are not allowed to switch allegiances.


19. This is one reason why, when the Houston Oilers moved just up I-65 to Nashville, I did not (like many did) drop my team for the Titans.


20. My first favorite baseball player was Rollie Fingers. Solely for the moustache.


21. I hate, loathe, despise, and detest hunting.


22. And fishing.


23. I'd rather just walk, sit and watch the wildlife, take photos or read a book when I'm outdoors.


24. The first book I ever finished in a day was a Hardy Boys book, "The Cabin Island Mystery." I never read another Hardy Boys book after that. I assumed I had outgrown them!


25. I will never read a full-sized novel in a day. I like to read them in real-time, like I'm watching a movie. I feel like people who speed-read fiction cannot possibly be getting all the intended meanings, allusions, and emotions out
    of the book.


26. I love the students I work with and I am pretty cool with most of the slang they use nowadays. But I really get hung up on misuse of the word random. It is used not just interchangeably with but instead of perfectly descriptive words that have nothing to do with randomness such as spontaneous, silly, weird, and arbitrary. This drives me nuts.


27. I love to eat breakfast for dinner. You can taste it better then!


28. Plain M&Ms.


29. Peanut butter should have its own food group.


30. Bacon, too.


31. I ALWAYS have a song stuck in my head. Always. All day long. Even if I know only the chorus or a snippet of a verse, I will have it stuck in my head for days or weeks at a time. Whenever you see me, stop me and ask what song is in my head at the time. There will be one. Right now, it's "Anyway" by Martina McBride.


32. For the past two weeks it's been Bono's cover of "I Am the Walrus."


33. I hum a lot. A LOT. I hum very loudly in noisy places like malls and supermarkets.


34. Yes, I always sing along with the radio or CD in the car.


35. I also get words and names stuck in my head, usually complex or odd-sounding ones.


36. Before you ask: Thrombolytics.


37. This month, I will be married 20 years.


38. How did we make it? We CHOSE to. It's really that simple. Extremely challenging and seemingly impossible sometimes - but it's always that simple: "This is the choice I make."


39. I have seen Superman: The Movie (the original Christopher Reeve film) more than 45 times. 30 of those times were when I was a teen.


40. Yes, I say the dialogue along with the movie. "Do you know why the number 200 is so vitally descriptive of both you and me? It's your weight and my IQ. Now think, people, think!"


41. I have 160 Star Trek books. If I read one every quarter starting today, I would finish them when I'm 82.


42. I always wanted to believe I could be Captain Kirk. I fall into leadership positions (usually by default) and I am a big picture kind of guy. But I always feel I'm in way over my head, I avoid confrontation at all costs, and am a terrible disciplinarian.


43. I always felt more like Spock inside: The smart, analytical, emotionally repressed but faithful right hand man.


44. It goes without saying that I never dated in high school.


45. I was only one pound over the minimum weight requirement for entrance into the Navy. I gained 15 pounds in boot camp. Haven't stopped since.


46. I wanted to be an artist. That's my primary talent. I am especially good at colored pencil. Haven't touched it in years.


47. I make corrections to administrative web pages for a living.


48. I now channel my creativity into leading our church's drama team.


49. Any kid of yours who comes to me and says they want to pursue a career in the arts will be encouraged by me. If you don't want them to hear that, if you want them to get a nice, dependable desk job making $80K a year, then keep them away from me. But when they hit their 40s and feel miserable, I'll have little sympathy for you. Just let them try now and if they fail, they've got 50 years to fall back on something else. They can get over failure when they're single a lot easier than regret after they're locked into supporting a family.


50. However, I think that in our entertainment-saturated culture too many kids (especially girls) want to be actors nowadays. Only a handful actually have the talent for it. Even fewer the drive for it. I've worked with scores of teenagers on our team and while lots of them were good, I've only seen maybe three or four who even had the potential to make it.


51. I'm not stupid enough to say who those are.