Tagged Again!

I'm finding it difficult to reconcile my avoidance of participating in silly Internet memes with my refusal to ignore a request for a blog post.

So I guess all I have to do is declare seven random things about myself that people are not likely to know, and pass it on. Ok, that shouldn't be hard.

SEVEN VARYINGLY OBSCURE TRUTHS ABOUT ME WHICH YOU MAY OR MAY NOT ALREADY KNOW BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THIS POST IT SHOULD BE ASSUMED THAT YOU DO NOT:

1. I have never bought anything from Starbucks. I don't like coffee or any products made of coffee. I don't like paying any more than I have to for something. I don't like being trendy. Put it all together, and no Starbucks for me.

2. I have nearly 2000 songs on my computer. I don't talk about music much, rarely go to concerts, and don't listen to much mainstream music, so people probably don't think of me as being into music. But I listen to it all the time. There is rarely a moment that I am near my room, in my truck, or at a computer without music playing. If I were to disable shuffle- which I never do- it would take just over 5 days to listen to all of it. The irony is, I never really listened to music at all until about 6 years ago.

3. I know how to fly an airplane. I don't have a license of any sort and only 2.1 hours of flight training, but I could get a Cessna off the ground- and probably back down- if I had to.

4. I have had a lot of unusual pets. Over the years I (or my family) have had, in no particular order, all of the following as pets more or less: guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, turtles, chickens, rabbits, chipmunk, chickadee, goats, sheep, and a variety of tropical fish (also a few cats and dogs).

5. I have spent more hours than I can count on a roof. Growing up I suffered the fate of being the son of a workaholic with carpentry skills. From the age of 4 up, I have helped build/repair/modify, to various degrees, the following: 2 barns, 2 houses, 2 house extensions, 1 church, 4 garages, and their respective roofs. Not to mention various ponds, ditches, dams, holes, basements, and other terranean works.

6. I've always been a nerd, but didn't always know what to do with it. From the day I learned to read, which was probably about age 3, I've been a sucker for knowledge. And I was fascinated by most of what I learned. The first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a dairy farmer, but from then on it was pure nerd- astronomer, paleontologist, chemist, roboticist, astronaut, and finally test pilot- which led me to #7.

7. I am a former US Air Force Academy cadet. This is common knowledge at home (though a few still haven't caught on to the "former" part), but I don't know if anyone in Florida is aware of this. Check out the archives from July 2005 if you don't believe me.

I tag: Alex and Kato.