Saturday, November 15, 2008

Ten Random Things: the Bonus Round.

1) I played in a few rock bands in my dissolute youth (the 80s, that is). The bands were of varying quality, but it was fun and a real learning experience. We got a local government noise ordinance changed in the first band I was in (we were a bit loud).

2) I was a bird-watcher for about 10 years. I enjoyed tramping across woods and fields to get a glimpse of a bird I hadn't seen before. A birdwatcher's secret: you usually identify birds by hearing their songs, not by actually seeing them.

3) I was a member of the All-Ohio Youth Choir in high school. Nothing like singing the theme to 'Happy Days' in 4-part harmony! I enjoyed singing.

4) Italian food is awesome. It can't be beat. There is no such thing as too much Italian food.

5) I've read The Lord of the Rings 13 times. I used to read it yearly back in the day.

6) I was a classical music fan in my youth until Simon & Garfunkel lured me into pop music. Styx turned me into a rock fan. The theme song for Homecoming my senior year was Come Sail Away.

7) I taught myself how to play guitar. I started out just listening to songs and playing them back on an acoustic guitar without understanding the concept of standard tuning. It was rather creative until I learned how to play properly (that sounded bad).

8) When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut or an astronomer. I stayed up late and saw the first step taken on the moon by my astronaut hero Neil Armstrong. I took pictures of the TV screen to document the event.

9) I met Jesse Owens when I was a young kid. He was signing autographs at a car dealership if I remember right, a promotional thing. My dad took me up to him and told me what a famous man he was. He signed a poster for me.

10) When I was really young I carried around a yellow blanket, sort of like Linus on Peanuts. It got really ragged and my mom threw it out one day. I went on a crying binge until they bought me a new blanket- it was blue, it wasn't quite the same, but I carried it around a while. Then I decided the whole blanket scene wasn't cool.

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