25 random things

I've been tagged. I'm supposed to write 25 random facts or whatever about myself.

1. Between my freshman year of high school and the end of undergrad, I studied Spanish, Portuguese, French, Latin, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean for various lengths of time. My degree is in Mandarin, so I guess you could say that I'm a linguist. I really miss actively studying languages.

2. When I was a baby, I choked on water (I think), turned blue and almost died. To this day, I still have problems with liquids going down the wrong pipe, and end up choking at least once or twice a month. I probably just need to slow down.

3. I've dieted like crazy over the last six years or so. If you took the absolute value of my weight gains and losses, it would probably be over 300 lbs. I just need to lose weight and learn how to keep it off.

4. I'm very particular about the order in which I do things when I get ready in the morning: brush teeth, shower, weigh myself, put deodorant on, shave, and so on. If I deviate from this order, like shower before brushing my teeth, I usually end up forgetting to do one or more things.

5. I always put my socks on before I put my pants on, unless I've already worn the pants in question once.

6. I won a photo printer in a drawing at the office a few years ago. It's pretty cool, but I've never used it. The little lady seems to like it a lot, though.

7. On one of our first dates, the little lady and I were walking on the hill at the south end of the BYU campus (Maeser Hill?). It was dark, and a deer jumped out of the bushes. I pushed her in front of me to make sure that I wouldn't get hurt. There's nothing like a little "every man for himself" in a relationship. And she didn't even dump me.

8. Our first date was dinner in the Red Lantern Chinese buffet, near BYU. I think she was nervous (either because I made her use chopsticks, or because it was our first date, or both), and didn't end up eating very much. We also went to the same place the first time our parents met.

9. How did we meet? I was Becca's supervisor. "Want a promotion? How about a date?"

10. I originally planned on majoring in biochemistry when I started college, with the intent of eventually going to med school. I dropped the idea after talking to my doctor uncle, who advised me to find something else to do if I only cared about the money. Good advice--money was really all I was thinking about at the time. I do sometimes wish that I had a job where I really made a difference in people's lives, though.

11. I love teaching/training people, but prefer to do it one-on-one or in small groups. It's hard to give people individualized training and attention when you're dealing with a large group.

12. I've often told people that have worked for me that they know they're doing a good job when they no longer need to talk to me at all during the day. That might sound rude, but what I really mean is "When you're competent enough to have earned my trust and to be able to make decisions for yourself, then you don't have to ask me questions any more, and we can each focus on our own work."

13. I've always been a collector: stamps, rocks, glass, sports cards, Garbage Pail kids cards, books, CDs, and watches are just a few of the things I've collected.

14. When I'm in Hawaii, I love to order Portuguese sausage and rice for breakfast at McDonald's. Not your typical breakfast, but then, I never really cared about only eating certain foods at certain times of the day.

15. I became a much happier person when I stopped hating myself for liking heavy/death/speed/thrash/whatever metal. When I was in high school, I used to tell people I'd someday stop. These days, I listen to it more than ever.

16. When I was in Hong Kong, the police knocked on my door one night. They were looking for some "kids" that had been spotting pedestrians with a laser pen and then dropping bags of rice and saimailo (a grain used to make a certain drink) out the window (I lived in a high-rise building). I truthfully told them that no kids lived in my apartment, and they left. My roommates and I stopped dropping stuff out the window for a while after that.

17. I was hit by a car while riding my bike home from my grandparents' house when I was in seventh grade. I don't remember much, but I do remember that I kept asking about the state of my brand new bike while my dad and the paramedics were helping me out. It was a purple and yellow Centurion Ironman, and it was damaged beyond repair. I wasn't able to find another like it when my dad took me to get a new one. That still bums me out when I think about it.

18. I love Star Trek. LOVE it. I own almost every Star Trek DVD that's ever been produced--probably more than 150, by now. But, I would never go to a Star Trek convention or dress up like Captain Kirk or whatever. I think that stuff is totally lame.

19. One of my biggest regrets in life was turning down an offer to study Latin at Pomona College (one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges) for only $100 in tuition my senior year of high school. I turned it down to spite my high school Latin teacher, whom I did not like. Talk about stupid.

20. Becca is the only girl not of Asian descent that I ever dated. Cue the "yellow fever" jokes.

21. I'm fascinated by apocalyptic ideas and scenarios, like nuclear war. I used to have dreams about such things all the time when I was younger, but not as much now. The closest thing I dream about now is witnessing a plane crash. I have that dream a lot.

22. I love coats and shoes. I have more of either than Becca does, I think. Kind of weird for a guy, but I enjoy the variety.

23. Even though jeans are permitted in my office (either on casual Fridays or if you have a "casual sticker"), it took me almost four years of employment before I finally wore them, having previously deemed the idea completely unacceptable. I now wear jeans multiple times per week since I'm in a phase of fashion laziness.

24. When I was in 10th grade, I read the entire world history textbook on the first night of school. Man, do I love history.

25. I've long had an obsession with words, grammar, spelling, etc. My siblings still make fun of me for reading the Spanish dictionary on a regular basis when I was in high school.

I tag:

Becca
Holly
Terina
Abish
Meredith
Kalola
Casey