25 Random Things About Me

(slightly edited from the version I posted on Facebook)

1. I never wear a watch. Everyone else around me always has one and there are clocks everywhere you go. What do I need one for? Besides, they irritate my wrist.
2. I don’t really have a cel phone either. My wife has one. I have a work Blackberry I take home once in a while. I don’t get that many calls and if I need to call someone, everyone else around me has cel phones already. Just like watches. And cel phones have clocks! It all fits together…
3. I love the song “Rush, Rush” by Paula Abdul. I’m not ashamed of it either.
4. In 4th grade I found an error in a state-wide standardized test. In 6th grade I found an error in our geometry textbook. In 11th grade I stumped the chemistry teacher when I showed her a contradiction in the material. These might be my proudest academic achievements.
5. Pete Townshend is God. I get very irrational about this subject.
6. I have many food hang-ups, but melted cheese is the worst. Not only do I dislike melted cheese, the sight of it literally makes me nauseous. It’s so repulsive looking to me my stomach does bad things when I look at it. In 2007 I found something I could eat a Mexican restaurant, that was a big step for me. The sole exception to this is Pizza. Pizza, gods most perfect food, is allowed to have melted cheese on it. But even there, it should be cooked and solid, not a gooey stringy gelatinous ooze pretending to be food. Excuse me, I have to sit down and not move for a few minutes.
7. Two of my all-time favorite movies are First Blood and The Accidental Tourist.
8. I am too easily satisfied. It robs me of ambition.
9. I don’t smoke. But I kind of enjoy secondhand smoke. I hate the ridiculous laws against smoking everywhere. Secondhand smoke is not that bad for you. It just isn’t. Get over it people.
10. I’ve kept my blog, www.muttrox.com, going for almost four years. I’ve managed to do it without blogging about work. Too bad, work is such a goldmine of material. I like getting a paycheck too much though.
11. I’ve worked with the guy who went on to make the X-box, and played Ultimate Frisbee for a couple summers with the guy who created Guitar Hero. I can finish Ultima II: Underworld better than anyone in the world. I really loved my year in the gaming industry, but I’m glad I’m out of it also.
12. To this day, I have a really hard time staying up past midnight. Unless it’s poker. Then I’ll go until the sun comes up. This drives my wife crazy.
13. Growing up, I was very little. Pathetically little. Medically dangerously little. In every play I was always the kid at the top of the pyramid or being thrown around. I spent most of my childhood being urged to eat more. Now I have a normal grown-up body, I have a hard time resisting extra helpings and sweets. I was trained for decades to eat as much as I wanted and more.
14. My best friends have usually been tall kids. I wonder if it’s been to compensate for my own height.
15. I get along with practically everyone. In high school I didn’t really have my own clique. I hung out with kids from a lot of social groups.
16. I read thousands of science fiction and fantasy books growing up. I now hate virtually all of it. I keep trying new authors, but so much sucks. Fantasy in particular is just as formulaic as romance or mysteries. If you can’t guess the next plot twist, you’re not trying.
17. I’m old enough to root for the crafty aging vet against the young gun in sports.
18. I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. It’s where the “Shot Heard Round the World” happened and the Revolutionary War started. I hate it when people from Concord, MA try to claim the honor. They may have had the first formal battle, but the first shots were ours. You can look it up. So get over it Concord, you lose!
19. I love teaching my kids science. Blowing their mind with the reality of the world is incredible.
20. I once tried to put blonde highlights in my hair. There was a bad reaction, and my hair turned bright white. Not blonde, not yellow, not gray. Bright stop-traffic ow-my-eyes-hurt nuclear white. My family and my wifes all blamed her. Everyone already knew I was idiotic enough to do something like that, but she was supposed to know better and keep me from doing it.
21. I get less religious every year. But I have more appreciation for those who truly are.
22. In school, I was a talented artist. In 11th grade I switched to playing guitar. I think I’m exactly as talented a guitarist as I was an artist. I even have the same style – very good at producing a quick interesting work, very bad at finishing a piece and repeating anything the same way twice. If I ever concentrated on my writing I think I’d be exactly as talented a writer as I am a guitarist.
23. I have to grit my teeth whenever I’m around anyone people with thousands of emails in their inbox or dozens of icons all over their desktop. How can anyone live like that? But I have no problem throwing dirty clothes all over the bedroom floor.
24. I still can’t believe I live in Georgia. We read about some crazy county that won’t teach evolution, and stop and realize that it’s our state now. My wife moved here to do her PhD and I followed. By the time she graduated, we had a child, a house, and I had a career. We’ve been here almost ten years now, and I don’t see us going back.
25. I like Facebook, but the friend list gets out of control way too fast. I have over 15 people who I won’t accept their friend request. Not because I don’t like them, I just want to keep my list down a little. I think there’s 15 people who are mad at me.