Things You Don’t Know About Me (The Reprise)

February 17th, 2008 • Click to view Related Articles
Filed Under: Link Love • Listmania • The Essence of Me • The Lighter Side

Donna Cutting, aka “Gal Morale”, recently tagged me for the “16 Things You Don’t Know About Me” meme.

This particular meme is one of the favorites of the blogosphere - ever since I can remember there has been one of these floating around, with an ever increasing number of “things” to list. (the first one I was ever tagged for only asked for 5).

Consequently, I’ve pretty much put out there all my quirks and idiosyncrasies for the world to see. What I haven’t done is put them all in one post. So, here they are, the

“18 Things You Didn’t Know About Me Before I Started Blogging, Unless You Haven’t Read My Blog Yet and Then These Are 18 Things You Really Don’t Know About Me”

(I think that qualifies for the longest title for a blog list in recorded history!)

  • I still have my wisdom teeth - all four of them. That means I spend 20 more seconds per day flossing (add that up over 42 years and I’ve spent 85 hours on this task).
  • I was a pyromaniac in First Grade - we actually had the police called on us when we lit a few fires in a neighbors back alley (that was scary to have the police pull up on our playground - I got scared straight!).
  • I like to “combine” my food on the plate. I’m the opposite of those folks who can’t have their food touch each other. I love multiple flavors and textures on the same fork. Shepard’s pie is like a dream come true for me.
  • I have a weird ability to spot and buy women’s handbags that my wife just loves (and no ability to get any other kind of purchase right). One of these naturally born talents I guess :-)
  • My middle name is Joel - maybe I should go with “TJ Starbucker“?
  • When I was a kid I wanted to be a navy pilot and fly with the Blue Angels - I went as far as painting my bike the Blue Angels colors (along with the number #1) and doing maneuvers “in formation” on the local playground. The problem - it really wasn’t a formation since I was alone (I had a good imagination!)
  • In 8th Grade I wrote, directed and starred in our class play that we presented in front of all our parents and relatives, based on several Cheech and Chong comedy albums. I still remember the looks on people’s faces when we did takeoffs on “Basketball Jones” and “Up His Nose“.
  • I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper - I leave it up to you to determine if any of that experience made a difference. :-)
  • In 1988 I was lucky enough to achieve a sports “trifecta” - I attended the Super Bowl, World Series, and the NBA finals between January and October of that year, when I was living in Los Angeles.
  • One of my biggest “brushes with fame” was in 1987 when I had dinner with Greg Kinnear, when he was working for the “Movietime” channel (now E!). He now stars in the Oscar nominated “Little Miss Sunshine” (excellent movie, by the way).
  • My favorite color is blue - you need to see my closet; I think blue out numbers all other colors combined by 2 to 1.
  • Starbucker is not my real last name. I bet you didn’t know that….. :-)
  • I’m currently on a gluten-free diet - not because I have Celiac’s disease or a true gluten intolerance, but because I wanted to keep my immune system strong with all my traveling. How does gluten figure into that? I don’t have enough room on this post to explain- ask me at the next SOBCon.
  • Here is a “sublist” of three jobs I have taken on in my career:
    1. Ear piercer - now THAT was an experience - I actually pierced the ears of a two month old child - at age 17!
    2. Garbage collector - I spent three summers behind one of those compacting trucks, tossing bags and cans into the back. We could cram 13,000 pounds in one of those trucks, and I lifted half of it each time. Great weightlifting program, but you smelled pretty bad afterwards. Maybe the gym was better…. :-)
    3. Disc Jockey at a disco - Ask me to do my “disk jockey” voice sometime. My wife just loves it…….not.
  • As an undergraduate in college I won an election for President of the Student body by standing in front of the Law School library on election day, exactly one foot beyond the “election violation zone”, and begging total strangers to go over and cast a ballot for me. People still think that I bribed those people to get their votes, but I didn’t. All I said was I would make sure we’d keep enough beer at the campus pub. Gotta know your constituency!
  • My favorite movie comedy of all time is “Animal House“. I’ll throw in a bonus and add that I was in a fraternity in college about the time the movie came out, so I can shout out “Toga, Toga, Toga” as well as anybody, and that I’ll sometimes throw this immortal line out at a staff meeting - “What? “Over”? Did you say “over”? Nothing’s over until we decide it is!”

    • Thanks Donna for the chance to reprise these lists. And I hope that all of you enjoyed getting to know me and my “quirks” a little better.

    Happy Presidents Day!

    There Is 1 Response So Far. »

    1. Comment by Donna Cutting on 21 February 2008:

      Thanks for taking me up on my tag!! From Gal Morale, who does also have all her wisdom teeth, but does not like Shepards pie because she doesn’t like mashed potatoes.

      :-)

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