read it and learn, people :-)
Okay, this is actually article number 44, but I had a couple early on that were completely ignored and I meant to do this when I hit 42 anyway, so let's just all pretend that this is my 42nd article and in keeping with the grand (if somewhat irregular) tradition of making big fat lists of facts when you get to an interesting number of posts, I hereby present the following big fat list of 42 facts about me.
I:
1) am left-handed to a fault.
2) am left-footed, too.
3) ...and left-eyed, left-eared, left-nostriled, and probably even left-kidneyed and left-lunged if anyone were ever to check for it.
4) skipped a year in high school. (11th grade.)
5) took the math classes that I needed to achieve that feat from my dad, who was a math teacher for all of 6 months in the early '60s.
6) am the second of 4 siblings.
7) have the cutest baby in the world, thanks mainly to having a really cute woman too.
8) went to Carleton College in Northfield, MN.
9) graduated with a degree in Math.
10) graduated late due to being 6 credits short at the end of my senior year.
11) am probably one of the smartest people you'll run across.
12) am nevertheless aware of the large number of other people who are smarter than me (many of whom I went to college with).
13) can recite "Jabberwocky", "Father William", and "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from memory.
14) am a big SF geek.
15) am also a big grammar snob.
16) worked in a bookbindery for a year after I graduated.
17) love wordplay, puns, and jokes.
18) can crank out limericks pretty readily.
19) believe in Sturgeon's Law ("90% of everything is crap").
20) place myself in the other 10%.
21) tend to read authors in large streaks once I decide I like them.
22) don't care at all for horror movies.
23) have a pair of oversized solid black contact lenses. (23mm diameter; average lens is 14mm; average eye is about 26mm visible width.)
24) ... which I won't wear anymore because they're too old now and I haven't maintained them properly for a while. (I could post pictures, though.)
25) have been to The Netherlands, Belgium (just passing through), France, Spain, Canada, and Mexico.
26) would happily spend every vacation I can in Paris.
27) could stand to lose about 30 pounds.
28) play a lot of table tennis, at organized official tournaments and competitions.
29) play ultimate frisbee every summer.
30) play a lot of frisbee golf every year. (Not in winter but any other time of year is good.)
31) amassed (with my brother) a large collection of "The Man from UNCLE" books when I was young, which our parents burned while we were at camp one year.
32) feel very strongly that books are to be cherished and protected. Never burned.
33) once littered in a National Park.
34) am not snobbish about the game being called "ping-pong" instead of "table tennis" (although "ping-pong" is a registered trademark of Parker Brothers).
35) absolutely HATE it when people use "I" instead of "me" improperly.
36) enjoy doing crossword puzzles, riddles, and logic problems.
37) other than my 1 year at the bookbindery, have worked with computers my entire professional life.
38) had just over half of my college tuition paid by IBM.
39) was put on academic probation my freshman year and charged with plagiarism.
40) make cheesecakes (from scratch) occasionally, which have been received with uniform enthusiasm and praise.
41) don't really understand why many people get so flustered by the mere presence of a bee.
42) consider the Beatles to be the greatest band ever.
Any questions? 