1. Under considerable peer pressure (from an unnamed 8-year old living in my home and a 5-year old named after a quaint Southwestern city), I joined the masses and purchased the High School Musical soundtrack with my iTunes gift card I received for my birthday. If you happen to be the one who gave me the gift card, I hope I haven't let you down and that you'll consider another donation. But, if you don't want to subsidize the cheesy Disney teenybopper scene you may want to reconsider - especially given my poor track record (Yes, I did buy the sound track to High School Musical 2 with the remaining money on my gift card and a few of my own hard earned cash.
Wow, I feel like I just stepped out of the confession stand.
2. I used to love creating digital art with my 1980s mac. Back then digital art was a lot simpler. It was created using MacPaint and it consisted of clicking pixels on and off and zooming in and out. Most of my pieces of "artwork" were based on some pewter figurines I have of various characters from some fantasy world (no I'm not a D&D player, although I did wear a bit too much black in high school and the Smiths were once my favorite band). If I can hunt some printouts down maybe I'll post them later.
3. I was nearly a history major as an undergraduate, until I got married as an undergrad and realized that I needed to make a living when I graduated - so, I switched majors to Economics and graduated a year earlier (since it was such a short major) and got a job that paid twice as much. Don't worry, I repented, went back to school for enough years to more than make up for my missed year as an undergrad and got an academic salary job :)
4. My friends gave me the nick-name of Speedy Gonzolas in elementary school. I like to think that it had more to do with my running ability than my height, although the fact that I was the second shortest kid in elementary school doesn't bode well for that hypothesis.
5. Many of you know that I lived in Siberia, Russia for a couple of years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. However, perhaps fewer of you know that while I was a missionary my companion and I were nearly attacked by robbers. Two men came knocking at our door (on the first floor of the building) late at night and told us they were policemen and needed us to open the door to speak with them. Having lived in Russia long enough I knew to be suspicious, especially given that one of them was standing at the entrance to the building making sure nobody was coming by. When they couldn't show me any proof that they were cops I shut the door which had been chainlocked shut and bolted it shut all the way. Right after doing that the man at the door started kicking it off the hinges. The first kick broke the deadbolt and regular lock right off. The second kick knocked the chainlock right off. Fortunately, my companion (who was about 6 feet tall, although he was about as skinny as Twiggy) had retrieved a frying pan as a weapon while I was talking to them and made his way to the other side of the door in time to push it shut after they broke the locks (I think he'd seen one too many Disney movies). Meanwhile I had dialed the real police from the entryway and was acting like I had them on the line, although i was really just waiting for them to pick up - all this while my knees were literally banging together while shaking. The would-be robbers apparently got scared off when they realized there were 2 of us and perhaps thought the police would be there soon, so they ended up leaving without a confrontation. All-in-all it made for a nice story that I made sure and tell only after I'd returned home - mainly so my mother would still sleep at night for the next year.
6. Wow, 6 interesting things. Now it's getting tough... Ah hah. Got it. What does "shakmatt" mean? Well, since you asked, it is checkmate in Russian. You already got the russian connection. I also like playing chess (although I'm not particularly good at it). I started using shakmatt as a username for that purpose and it kind of stuck. Now there's not going back, even if it does mean getting called Matt on occasion.
7. I used to be a nationally ranked tennis player. I peaked (compared to my peers) at about 12 years of age, so don't expect much from me now. I still play on occasion, but mostly get frustrated because I haven't played consistently enough to get back up to the level I was at, but am hoping to rekindle the flame one of these days. My tennis experience payed off well in High School when I taught lessons to the neighborhood youth and made some decent money - even if it did result in me getting heat exhaustion on occasion and required me to hide my laughter and look stern at the 8-year olds who thought it was funny to hit the ball over the high school tennis court fence into the busy street next to it.
5 comments:
And I thought I knew you...reading this was awesome! I'm glad Maren tagged you and I'm glad you didn't tag me! :) It's you who I owe my love of Ultimate, fried egg sandwiches w/the yoke broken, the Housemartins, Wheat Thins, "I'll Follow the Sun," my ability to play Les Mis on the piano, and my love for "Anthem," which I recently heard for the first time in ten years. You also taught me how to say Priviet. What a cool brother.
Consider yourself tagged. I'll make it official and visit your site :)
Well, that just killed all hope of others commenting on this post.
Hi Derek,
What does it mean to be "tagged?" I'm a little behind the times. You forgot to mention the time when you were playing T-ball and you were playing in the outfield. During an inning you ran toward the bench and all the mothers asked me what you were doing. I had no clue. You just ran by all of us, raced into the bathroom, came out smiling, and jogged back to right field. Guess that's why you became a tennis player! Love, Mom
Thanks for digging that one up mom. I also failed to mention the times when I wasn't so successful at reaching the bathroom when playing my long tennis matches :)
So maybe Rob Howe isn't the only one who has a secret (or maybe not so secret) love of HSM I and II. Or maybe that living in with a house full of girls turns one into a fan of the East High Wildcats.
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