25 Random Facts about Drew

The current meme-du-jour seems to be this one, so here is my two cents… 25 Random Facts about Drew:

1. I was born October 23, 1967. Cusp of Scorpio & Libra, and contain positive and negative personality aspects of both of these astrological signs, if you believe in astrology.
2. I do not believe in astrology.
3. I was vomited on in elementary school by Kathy Baumgartner. She upchucked on my favorite maroon jacket, which gave its wear-ability to protect me. I still miss that coat.
4. I only started wearing socks in the last several months. Even in the coldest weather, I rarely used to wear socks. Exceptions: anytime I was dressed up (like in a suit) or when cooking in a professional kitchen.
5. I am most embarrassed when I forget someone’s name or (even worse!) call them the wrong name. I have a great memory for faces, but not so much for names. This makes for great situations where I’ve met a student when they were a freshman in college and then meet them again once they’re beginning their search for graduate education and I say, “it’s nice to see you again”. The student is impressed that I remember them, when in fact I simply recognized them. I would trade some of the facial recognition for better name retention, though.
6. My high school time was formative, just like everyone’s. I keep in touch with very few people from high school. I  don’t attend high school reunions. Despite this, I recall those days fondly.
7. I used to walk through the woods home from school. Those woods are gone now, but I am confident that I could still draw a pretty good map of them.
8. I love to play Frisbee. I used to play Frisbee for hours with my childhood friend, John.
9. My childhood friend, John, died in his mid-30’s.
10. During the summers as a child, I would go for weeks without wearing shoes. Would go everywhere (that allowed it) barefoot. The skin on the bottom of my feet was tough like leather.
11. I used to enjoy walking through the drainage & creek systems around my neighborhood. These were long creeks, connected by short (and some long) tunnels that we’d walk. If you were careful, you could walk great distances through the creeks without getting your feet wet.
12. My brother and I walked a REALLY long, narrow tunnel underneath Beechmont Mall (another article with pictures). It went from the north side of the mall, under their large parking lots, under Beechmont Avenue, and under Anderson High School. This solidified (dare I say cemented) an abiding enjoyment of exploring out-of-the-way, abandoned, or derilict places — urban exploration. Unfortunately, I do not get to do as much of this as I would like.
13. As a kid, I loved to build models from kits. I’d spend hours assembling, sanding, and painting them. Later, I used a Super-8 camera to make short stop-motion animation films with the models.
14. I have a recurring dream about an underground concrete area accessed through a secret door in an amusement park… This underground area is impossibly large, dark, empty, and should be scary. But in my dream, it’s not scary. This dream is probably informed by MZD’s HOUSE OF LEAVES, though it feels like I’ve been having this dream for a long time. Longer than the book has been out.
15. I had my ears pierced in college, but let them close up. Otherwise, no body modifications. I’ve been thinking about a tattoo for a while, but still haven’t committed.
16. Oranges are my favorite fruit. But it is difficult to find a good orange in this area. We had amazing fresh orange juice in Punta Cana that changed forever our perception of how good orange juice can taste.
17. Dead things freak me out.
18. I have run some form of communication technology for the last 20 years… From a Commodore 64 BBS to a BBS on PCs (all of these were called “The Cafe’ BBS”) through static HTML pages, PostNuke, Xaraya, and now WordPress… Technology has always fascinated me.
19. I built my own Personal Video Recorder (PVR). We almost never watch live television at my house any more. This is one of the coolest computer projects I’ve worked on. It has turned into a monster (in a good way) — from one proof-of-concept PC with a decent sized hard drive to a very powerful PC with large hard drives, two tuners (one standard-definition and one high-definition) connected to a NAS array with over 1 terrabyte of storage. When we were in Houston Texas for a friend’s wedding, we met the development team of BeyondTV (www.snapstream.com), the software that ties it all together. That was great fun.
20. I am very interested in true human interaction & connection, and will drop any book or technology to be with real people. I am the type of person who gets energized in large-crowd situations.
21. Online social sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, InCircle, etc) hold very little allure to me. Some of my colleagues in university development report great success in tracking down lost alumni via those methods.
22. I am a reader… I love reading, have an enormous book collection (my culinary book collection is nearing 500 titles), and have been a serial reader for as long as I can remember (a serial reader is a person who spends no time “between” books — think chain smoker, but with books instead of cigarettes).
23. I have never been interested in fashion. I wear clothes simply to avoid being cold.
24. I have a well-endowed sense of humor and have no trouble poking fun at myself.
25. I was born hungry and have remained so all of my life.