Thursday, December 15, 2005

101 things

following up on cari's idea, i really thought - "hey, let's let it go and see what people think."

i have already received some comments.......

1. I have 2 tattoos
2. I have more piercings than just my ears
3. my first bike was a KIA
4. my fist car was a 1978 toyota corolla that I damaged the door the first time I drove it.
5. I am an Eagle Scout
6. I played the trombone in high school marching band
7. I got a music scholarship to college for singing.
8. I have never ridden a motorcycle, but have ridden a scooter.
9. I have seriously injured myself with power tools while at home alone
10. I have injured myself with tools and not told anyone so not to worry them.
11. I hide things in the walls when doing house projects. Things like current news clips, a cell phone, a harry potter book…..
12. there is not a bible in our main bookshelf. The only bible I know we own is in a box in the basement
13. when I was a kid, I had all the original star wars trading cards, but no toys. My friend stole them from me.
14. I have few really close friends
15. I am extremely insecure about how I look
16. I do not own a functional suit
17. I have an artificial eye. My real one never grew and was eventually removed when I was 12.
18. I had a heart murmur upon birth
19. I lived in a round turret room for 3 years
20. I have lived in Vienna Austria, Yerevan Armenia and Kirovakan Armenia for extended periods of time.
21. I was in the Peace Corp in Armenia.
22. I had no idea how to teach, but was an English teacher
23. I went to class drunk once and taught the kids the English words for body parts – leg, knee, mouth, ear….
24. I have met Gale Harold (Queer as Folk fame.)
25. I saw Pearl Jam before they became Pearl Jam – they were called Mookie Blalock
26. my first CD was Pearl Jam 10
27. I have paid more than $150 for a pair of jeans
28. I don’t wear a watch
29. I went to the first Lollapalooza concert in Enumclaw Washington in 1991. My wife was also at the show. We met 5 years later.
30. I have made out with a Morman.
31. I have never been officially arrested, but have been inside a secure jail cell (fingerprinting)
32. I have an FBI record.
33. I applied for a job with the CIA
34. I protested nuclear bombs the same day as a test in the Nevada Desert. I was detained, but not arrested.
35. I have never been to Las Vegas.
36. I have been to Monaco and Monte Carlo (twice)
37. I convinced Germans that I was Austrian with my superb language skills.
38. At one time, I could get by in three foreign languages – Russian, Armenian and German. German by far the best.
39. I was able to use my limited skills in Russian (6 months of classes) to purchase a bottle of Stoli Vodka from a street vendor for less than $1 the first day in Armenia.
40. I bought a 4x4 truck that did not have a front driveline.
41. I have never been to Asia
42. I do not own a gun as I am scared I would actually use it to hurt someone else.
43. I have been so angry with my neighbors that I have secretly plotted in my mind nefarious things to do to them. (sorry, no details.)
44. I once skied for 11 days straight in Austria. On day one, I got a bloody nose on the kiddie run, but by the 11th day, I was doing the black diamond.
45. I got stuck in the snow once with friends for 10 hours before we called for help.
46. I don’t have any friends or acquaintances from high school or college in my life now.
47. I am a very light sleeper and make up scenarios of people breaking into my house when I hear bumps and noises.
48. I live in a house that was built in 1890.
49. I sometimes feel I am tethered to my smart phone and want to throw it across the room.
50. I was once accused of being a slave to computers because I was the only person at the party with an email address (1995)
51. My first real job was doing yard work for Burgerville, I was 15.
52. I visited East Berlin and East Germany when it was communist.
53. I have seen Martin Luther’s 99 Theses in Wittenberg East Germany
54. I was raised a Lutheran, am baptized and confirmed, but currently do not go to church, not even for the holidays.
55. I consider myself spiritual, but find it difficult to worship any one belief.
56. I am part German and part Swedish.
57. I can’t eat oysters cooked, but love them raw.
58. I wear mismatched socks on a regular basis because I am lazy with laundry.
59. I have purchased new socks and underwear instead of washing what I have – again laziness.
60. I have donated brand new clothes to goodwill because the first time I wore them, someone close to me made a comment that made me insecure.
61. I once contemplated suicide because I had mis-trimmed my hair and thought I looked like a dork.
62. I wear braces and had jaw surgery to fix an overbite
63. My first pair of glasses were for safety instead of a prescription.
64. I had a crush on my brother’s wife before they started dating. I was angry with him for dating her at the time. They’ve been together now for over 10 years.
65. I never liked my sister’s first husband but never told her that until it was too late.
66. I sometimes lie to my mom to get out of family functions.
67. I never had a girlfriend in high school.
68. I drink alcohol almost every night
69. I started drinking whisky in the 90’s because I felt it was what I was supposed to be drinking at that age.
70. I never read comics as a kid and now visit the comic book store on a weekly basis.
71. I have been known to sleep walk and eat cheese – sometimes referred to as a sleep cheese eater.
72. The best sushi I have had is mackerel.
73. I feel the job I have now has to do with my personality and not my technical skills
74. I fought kids a lot in grade school to get attention.
75. I was suspended the last day of classes in middle school for a fight, but they couldn’t contact my parents. I stole the letter out of the mail a few days later.
76. I almost asked a girlfriend to marry me one week before she decided our relationship was over. That was the first time someone broke up with me.
77. I have dropped trow at a gay club on stage to get beads for Mardi Gras
78. I worked at McDonald’s for 18 months in high school. I even received an award for it.
79. I played on the undefeated McDonald’s softball team during that time.
80. I wrote a 66 page senior thesis for my history degree on the decolonization of India.
81. I met a friend of my parents who is Jordanian and worked indirectly for Yassar Arafat at the time and lived in Geneva
82. I give dog food samples to homeless dogs in downtown when I can.
83. I am proud of my wife every single day of the year.
84. I have three dogs – Chihuahuas.
85. I have two cats – both strays.
86. There are three different animals buried in our yard that we know of.
87. I have been party to a lawsuit against an individual and won.
88. I like top ramen, but don’t eat it much.
89. My favorite movie is Die Hard with Fight Club a close second.
90. No person close to me has ever died. The closest I have come to grieving is when my cats and dog have died. I am scared for the future.
91. I got a crush on someone one week before I was to be married.
92. I don’t know my paternal grandmother’s first name.
93. I almost became a US Marine, but was sidelined due to item #17. I even got a letter of support from then Senator Packwood.
94. I sometime smoke cigars and love them.
95. I voted for Jesse Jackson in 1988 for president.
96. I met Wesley Clark in 2005. I was his Oregon campaign coordinator during the 2004 attempt.
97. I visited the World Trade Center in 2000.
98. I watch the OC, but never watched 90210
99. I have bank accounts open in foreign countries. And yes, there is money in them.
100. I have a tough time remembering people’s names – even those I work with or are close to. I sometime have to rely on name plates or other people introducing them.
101. I was married on a beach in Kauai at sunset. The rain let up and the clouds broke at that moment. I was the only person wearing shoes.

comment's welcome.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brett! Items 9 and 10? What?! Wow! Scary!!!

It was fun coming up with the list, wasn't it? Thanks for sharing it, what a great list!!!!

Yu said...

Hey, what a great list!

But I think you are the person that I find who can help me to improve my English because you are an English teacher. For the first step, my e-mail address is sleepy_yuci@yahoo.com
Next, can you please give me your e-mail address through my e-mail. Then, please help me to give me some explainations and include one or two example on each language styles.

• Simple passive forms
• Infinitives of purpose: to, in order to
• Modals – could (ability), can (permission)
• Present perfect
• -ing verb form after like, enjoy
• be interested in
• used to & wanted to + verb
• Defining relative clauses
• Modal will with future reference
• Conditional sentences (1 & 2)
• Present Progressive with future reference
• Comparative and superlative of adjectives
• Reported commands in the past
• Adverbs of frequency and manner
• Constructions with it and until
• Indefinite pronouns: everyone, everybody, etc.
• had better, would rather
• Phrasal verbs
• Reported speech
• say and tell
• Verb –ing as subject or object
• Conjunctions: although, so, but, because
• Modal should + Passive Perfect
• Past Passive
• Modal could, may, might + Perfect Progressive
• Present Perfect Progressive
• Future Perfect
• Should have + Past Participle
• Needn’t have + Past Participle
• Relative clauses, defining and non-defining
• Which, whose
• Adjective as noun
• Subordinators: wherever, whenever
• Reflexive pronouns
• Be supposed to, be likely to + verb
• Double object verbs
• As if + clause
• Participial phrases
• Modal will, could, should + Passive infinitive
• Phrasal verbs with give, come + in the Passive Indirect commands
• Indirect questions with if and wh- questions
• Modal could + Perfect Conditional with Past Perfect (Third Conditional)

LeLo said...

Wow. Totally awesome. Brave man!!!!

geeekgirl said...

That list is awesome. Sounds like you have had a very interesting life.

Anonymous said...

102 You write one hell of an entertaining blog....

Since I started reading it, I am finding myself wanting to flip off Hummers!

Quimby

Anonymous said...

# 83 moved me to tears!