Les Bonnes Choses

At this point I have been tagged a sufficient number of times that I can justify getting on this bandwagon. Really, these are 25 things I would have eventually revealed in my blog anyways, but over a longer period of time. So without further ado, here are 25 random facts about me, selected using the interval between beta particles emitted through the radioactive decay of Cæsium-137.

0) This one's free. I should actually be marking introductions for the distance studies course I am teaching. Instead, I am writing this list.

1. Let's get this out of the way: I am a geek, as you probably could tell from my preamble. However tests have confirmed that I am a cool sort of geek, as opposed to the socially awkward sort of geek. For example, I (used to) play Dungeons & Dragons, but then, so did Vin Diesel. My uncle Dave is the one who got me into it in the first place, and I always thought he was cool.


2. I am a horrible sleeper. I take forever to get to sleep and often wake up throughout the night. I can't get to sleep if I'm hot, but this reverses somewhere in the middle of the night, and by morning I am burrowed under the blankets.


3. Some of you might know that I met Rebecca in the first grade. We both knew how to read already, so we used to read under the teacher's desk while the other kids were learning their alphabet or whatever. What none of you know, including Rebecca, is that I thought Rebecca was kind of cute in fourth grade. But in fourth grade, you don't really know what the hell to do about it. It will be amusing when Rebecca reads this.


4. I also thought Natasha Mosler was cute in fourth grade. Rebecca did know that already though.


5. I never told anyone in my family I liked girls for a very long time. My dad's side of the family are brutal teasers. Uncle Bob and papa were especially bad. No way in hell was I going to give anyone any ammunition, so as far as anyone knew, I didn't like girls until I dated Marianne in 12th grade. Until that point, I think my sisters speculated that I might be gay.


6. A few summers ago, CBC Radio One aired a show entitled The Gayest Music of All Time, hosted by Sandra Oh. I was amused to find that about 90% of those songs are in my Mp3 collection. There's nothing wrong with ABBA. Sometimes you just wanna dance.


7. I like disco and funk. In fact, I am an awesome disco dancer. The secret is: the tackier you dance, the more amazing you look.


8. I drink alot of tea. No, I mean ALOT of tea. I drank at least a liter and a quarter of tea today, for instance. The only person I know that drinks as much tea as I do is John.


9. John, of all my friends, is probably the most similar to me. If he ever does one of these 25 facts things, half of his entries will probably apply to me too.


10. I like to do unexpected things just to keep people on their toes. No, seriously. I strongly believe that nobody should think that they have everything all figured out, so I like to inject a little error into the system. Anyone that does any modeling would understand.


11. I often think I have everything all figured out.


12. I used to want to be a writer. I kind of still do. I'd like to write a science fiction book one day. My favourite high school English teacher thought I would be a good writer, as did my 1st and second year university English teacher.


13. Even though I'd like to write a science fiction book, my favourite writing style is satire.


14. I have tinnitus, and sleep with a fan running, pretty much every day of the year. The fan is sometimes used to keep me cool though (see #2), even in winter.


15. In general, I like knowing how to do stuff. It bugs the hell out of me when I need to do something but don't know how to do it. Not that I don't like relying on other people -- no, I don't like relying on other people. Sometimes other people are busy, or find you irritating. So yeah, I like to know how to do it myself, just in case.


16. I refinished my basement myself. Or at least, mostly myself.


17. I knew I wanted to study psychology in 11th grade. My friend Daan's dad was a clinical psychologist. It was either that or psychiatrist, but psychiatry involves med school, and the prospect of working with cadavers and being on call for 36 straight hours in residency made me take the psychology route. Before high school, I wanted to be: an architect, dentist, and paleontologist. I never wanted to be a fireman or astronaut.


18. After taking a second year clinical course, I realized I was not interested in clinical psychology. Instead, when Albert wrote the word CAT on the chalkboard and said that we could not help but to read it, I got into cognition.


19. When I was little, I liked The Incredible Hulk. My grandparents had some old, ripped purple jeans, probably that my uncle Dave had outgrown, that they used for rags, until I co-opted them for playing the Hulk when I visited.


20. This is a Miranda-type story: One day when my mom went to pick me up from the nursery school, she was told that I had been terrorizing the other kids that day by jumping up on the table, ripping off my shirt, and roaring at them like the Hulk. I do not do this anymore.


21. I used to live in a storage closet when I lived in Toronto with Brad, Ed and Mike. The closet was just a bit narrower than the width of my futon mattress (it fit with the edges slightly curled up), and just a little bit longer (allowing me to use a Rubbermaid container as a dresser/table). I felt like a vampire everytime I went to bed. I really liked that period in my life.


22. I applied to grad school in 1998 and didn't get in. UCSD ignored my application, Northwestern wrote back to say I was missing some documents (which were sent in the same envelope as my application, so they lost them), UIUC completely lost track of me until 5 days before their open house when they called to invite me down (I had tonsillitis at that time, plus was hardly prepared to make a last minute trip). Someone at Carnegie-Mellon had agreed to take me on until one day in March, when she wrote to say she was going on sabbatical, and reneged. I gave up on becoming a psychologist that day. I have since interviewed at UCSD and Northwestern for postdocs.


23. That day, Brad took me out and bought me a consolation Gin & Tonic, saying he thought I'd probably like it. I did. In fact, G&T has been "my drink" ever since.


24. I like to cook. That's related to #15, but I do take some pride in it. One of the most offensive things anyone ever said to me was when a woman I worked with in Toronto said something to the effect that, as a male, I could only be capable of cooking hot dogs and Kraft Dinner. She said other stupid things too on different occasions.


25. I am quite nostalgic, even for things I have never experienced. In grade school, I took out every last book in the library about pioneers and "the olden days", some of them multiple times. One of my favourite places is Upper Canada Village. If I had a time machine, I would probably visit Victorian England quite a bit (even if it was full of cholera). But I'm also nostalgic for things in my own life. It would be neat to be able to re-experience my life. It's been generally pleasant, so far.