25 Random Things About Me

It's going around facebook, and it's a good excuse for me to post something. Basically, you just write a list of twenty five random things about yourself. Those of you who read the blog probably know some of this already, and the rest of it is very, very random.

1. After connecting with my wife at a friend’s going away party, it took me two months to get the nerve to ask her out. Ten months later, I asked for her hand in marriage. Eight months later, last September, I said “I do.” I love my wife.

2. I became a Christian when I was in high school. I was baptized in the Atlantic Ocean on a high school youth group trip to Fort Lauderdale. I have been completely blessed with a wife, with good friends, with a great family, and with a church that help me to grow in my faith.

3. I have been to Europe twice. My favorite European city is Budapest. My wife and I are headed to Paris, Italy, and Brussels in September.

4. I am the kind of person that would fly to New York to go to a party to meet people he’s only met online. I have returned several times to the party, TARCon, where we rent out a bar in New York to watch the season finale of the TV show “The Amazing Race.” Racers, and hosts, join the party and drink and hang out with us. The folks I’ve met at this party and online have been some of the most interesting, most diverse, most welcoming folks that I’ve ever met.

5. I have lived in Detroit for ten years. Over this time, I’ve become a fan of many truly Michigan things – Vernors, Better Made Potato Chips (BBQ Flavor), Bell’s Oberon beer, the Tigers, the Pistons. But not the Lions.

6. I wrote my first novel in 2006, “Sequesterville”, in 30 days, during National Novel Writing Month. It is the story of the first ousted contestant of a reality TV show, sequestered in Budapest until the end of filming, who meets the father he never knew he had. I have let my wife read it, but it’s not ready for public consumption. I want to try again, taking the Shakespearian play “Julius Caesar” and setting it in modern-day Detroit.

7. My wife and I write a blog, “A Covenant Forever” (acovenantforever.blogspot.com). The name of the blog is taken from a line from a song that my sisters in law sang at our wedding, a song based on Psalm 111. For being an author, I don’t post to our blog very often – and being able to cross-post this list to our blog is a part of my motivation for writing it!

8. The other song performed at our wedding, “Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal”, is a Filipino love song.

9. Some words I pronounce as if I grew up on the south side of Chicago. Other words I pronounce as if I grew up in a very small town in the Midwest. I seem to lapse into that rural accent every time I try to pronounce any word in Tagalog, as evidenced by my telling her family “Mal-ay-guy-ang Pas-cowe” at Christmastime.

10. I am a fourth generation graduate of Purdue University, and a third generation graduate of Purdue’s school of Mechanical Engineering. My great-aunt was friends at Purdue with Amelia Earhart.

11. It is required for anyone named Bart to have at least a rudimentary understanding of The Simpsons. My five favorite Simpsons episodes are “The Last Tempation of Krust” (the Canyonero episode), “Itchy and Scratchy Land”, “Lemon of Troy”, “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” (the Sherry Bobbins episode), and “In Marge We Trust” (the Mr. Sparkle episode.) My back-to-back champion fantasy football team is named the Troy McClures.

12. One of my nicknames is Big Baby (or BB for short). A group of us were walking from a church service in the city to a local restaurant for dinner. I gave money to one homeless person, and quickly our group attracted several other homeless asking for money – the first and only time that’s happened to me. One of them, in his pleas, kept calling me Big Baby. The nickname stuck.

13. Both of my grandfathers fought in the Battle of the Bulge. My paternal grandfather was an officer in the 28th infantry division – the bloody bucket brigade. My maternal grandfather was a tank mechanic in the 1st Armored Division. They passed three miles from each other at one point in the battle.

14. I lived in Toronto for about six months while I was on a short-term work assignment. Except for the whole getting paid in Canadian and having to pay Canadian taxes thing, I wouldn’t mind living in Toronto.

15. I lived Cedar Falls, Iowa, for about two years, as I alternated semesters in school with semesters interning at a major manufacturer of green farm tractors. Life in Iowa is not for me.

16. I voted for Lamar Alexander in the 1996 Republican Caucus in Iowa. I saw a number of senior citizens wearing stickers saying “Dole – He’s One of Us!”, and I couldn’t help but thinking, “Yeah, he’s one of YOU.”

17. I totaled my dad’s Toyota Celica the Friday night before my senior prom in a one-car accident. My parents still let me go to prom, but I had to drive the family minivan.

18. I enjoy all sorts of foods, and all sorts of cuisines. About the only thing I don’t like to eat are water chestnuts.

19. When my wife and I were dating, I told her that I wasn’t that competitive. Turns out, I really am competitive - I just didn’t realize how competitive I really am. Combined with my wife’s competitive streak and her high intelligence, this can make for some very interesting games of Scrabble.

20. I generate more laundry than any man should. I know this will cause me to have to do the laundry once we have kids. I accept this fact.

21. I “ran” a 5K in 43:36. 14 minute miles. But I finished.

22. My coworkers have recorded the winners and losers of our lunchtime hearts game for the past year.

23. I watch Project Runway, not for the clothes, but for the crazy.

24. I can’t snap my fingers or whistle.

25. I had a traumatic fluoride treatment when I was a kid. As a result, I can’t eat artificial orange flavoring, including orange Starbursts.