25 things about me
There's a silly "25 Things About Me" meme running around Facebook. I'm posting my answers here, they'll get sucked onto Facebook automagically. I could try to make some of you do it, but I won't.
1) In August 1999, I weighed 280 lbs. I put a photo of myself from 1999 up on Facebook to remind me what I used to look like. By 2001, I was down to 170 lbs. I hover above that now (more like 190-ish), but I'm trying to get back down to about 180. Many people did a double-take after seeing me for the first time after such a weight loss.
2) A lot of my friends are great bridge players, puzzle solvers and board gamers. At times, I end up feeling a little dumb playing around them, especially when playing bridge, attempting puzzles or playing board games. My mind doesn't always solve problems of this nature very quickly. But I seem to be a more natural programmer / debugger / software architect, and really enjoy it, so I've learned to accept my niche. Given that I can get paid for that niche, I'm okay with that!
3) I MMORPGd before it was popular. I played on 2-3 MOOs (MUD, Object Oriented) through my sophomore year of high school. I did this to excess, and it's out of my system. Every now and then I think about trying WoW, but I'm not that interested anymore. I'd much rather play a tabletop game.
4) ... and, speaking of, I play tabletop D&D, pretty regularly. Yes, I'm a geek. I primarily enjoy it for social reasons - it's fun to get together with friends and enjoy a good story.
5) I make decisions fairly easily, and rarely look back. I'm usually quite happy with "good enough," especially for the small stuff. I've purchased two houses, and neither took much deliberation on my part. I'm generally happy with my selections.
6) I'm fiscally responsible but not anal. I save, but I spend a fair amount, too. If I were trying to retire earlier, I might care more. As it is, I'm trying to enjoy life but still save enough to be comfortable later.
7) I like dogs much more than cats these days. I really appreciate the unconditional love. I love that I can just summon a dog to me at any time and they'll be one (usually Sherlock) right there, ready to give me love. A cat could generally care less. The whole time it took me to write this note, Sherlock was curled up in the corner of the room, watching.
8) I grew up in Dallas and spent about 5 years after college in Austin. I miss various things about Texas, like decent Tex-Mex and the friends I left in Austin. But the thing I miss most about Texas itself? Thunderstorms. I really, really enjoy Texas thunderstorms. The dark, ominous clouds. The pre-storm ozone smell. The lightning show. The torrential downpour. There's nothing even close in Seattle.
9) I am terrible about keeping up with my family. Luckily my mother is on Facebook (hi, Mom!), or I'd feel even more guilty.
10) I never thought of myself as a runner. See #1 - all the way through college I was never really active. I actually had a mental aversion for a while, just thinking "hey, I'm not a runner." A few years ago, my friends Jeff and Jonobie were doing the Austin Distance Challenge, and kept mentioning it during our D&D sessions. I decided to give it a try, and now I really enjoy it. I'm currently training for the Mercer Island Half-Marathon.
11) I have satin sheets. You're probably thinking it's for some sensual reason, like owning silk boxers. It's actually much more practical than that: dog hair brushes easily off satin. I need to optimize more of my house this way - in particular, I need to get rid of my current couch and replace it with, say, leather or something similar. Did I mention I have dogs, and allow them on the couch and the bed?
12) When I was younger, mainly due to my weight my weight, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Until I lost the weight, I was using a CPAP machine to get a good night's sleep. This was one of the many reasons I decided to lose weight - that, and a family history of diabetes.
13) You know how, in some video games, when you die and come back to the level, you're briefly untouchable? I wish I had that power when I walked into work. I really don't like talking to people for the first 5-10 minutes when I get to work - it takes me about that long to context switch into the work mindset.
14) I'm terrible about remembering what happens in books and movies. People will ask me if I've read a book. After I respond in the affirmative, they'll mention something in the book, and I'll draw a complete blank. I frequently remember scraps of books and not whole scenes, and keep a general impression (good, bad, indifferent). I can easily rewatch some movies over and over again and still enjoy them.
15) During our Honors Geometry class in 9th grade, our teacher made a comment that there were 28 ways to pluralize words in English. We took that as a challenge, and started making a list. We got well beyond 28 fairly quickly. I was recently curious how Dr. Keyton was doing, and I stumbled on our list of english plural forms. I still have many fond memories of that class! (And I still can't prove Steiner-Lehmus, though it's been a long while since I gave it any serious thought.)
16) I was engaged at age 18.
17) I started playing bridge in high school. Four card majors, strong twos, traditional Goren. Yeah, baby. I learned better conventions in college, but was never that serious until after I graduated. And I'm still not nearly as serious as a lot of you.
18) I like driving. I hate commuting and I hate traffic, but I like driving. Some of my favorite experiences have been road trips. I drove from Austin to Seattle twice in the span of two months.
19) I take pleasure in debugging software. It's basically a little mystery to solve, and you're given a limited set of clues. In some cases, you get to run the scenario over again and look at it from other angles. In other cases, you're only left with breadcrumbs and you have to piece it all together from those. It's fun trying to find all the right clues, corroborate the evidence and figure out the root cause.
20) I would like to see a total solar eclipse one day, and I'd be willing to travel for it. I've been under one total eclipse, in Europe in August, 1999 (the same trip in which the picture linked in #1 was taken). The eclipse was supposed to visible in Stuttgart, but when my train arrived there, it was cloudy. I decided to see if I could avoid the clouds, so took a train south-east towards Munich. I stopped in a town a few minutes before the eclipse and it was still cloudy. I gave up at this point and just hopped on a train to Munich. The eclipse happened while I was on the train - it was actually pretty sweet, the conductor turned out the lights and all the stations were lit like it was dark. But I still have not stared up at the sun during an eclipse, and I would like to. It turns out, the clouds in Stuttgart broke during the actual eclipse. If only I had stayed! I've also seen two annular eclipses. They're neat, but I want the full deal.
21) I'd like to do more astronomy. I used to get out now and again in Austin to view the night sky, and own two pairs of binoculars that come in handy for doing so. Actually, one pair comes in handy for me, and one pair comes in handy to lend to people that are tagging along and don't have their own. Seattle isn't the best place for this, though! I used to really enjoy our high school astronomy club trips out to West Texas. I suspect I could do similar by going out to eastern Washington, but haven't really tried yet. Plus, I'm not sure if there's an equivalent of the McDonald Observatory area.
22) I'd also like to get back into hiking and camping. I'm an Eagle Scout and did my fair share of camping in high school, but haven't really done any since then. The most I've done in the past few years is to stay in a cabin at a park, which is hardly camping. As for hiking, it's tricky to find people willing to do longer hikes, and I'd rather not go alone.
23) I still haven't cashed my housemate's rent check from December. I find checks some of the most inconvenient things to deal with. That, and I'm a little lazy. Maybe a lot lazy at times. (In fact, right after writing this I discovered that my housemate has redacted the check and will deposit with an account transfer instead.)
24) When I get home, I almost always change out of my pants/shirt into a set of "wear around the house clothes," which consist of a shirt or sweater and either shorts or pajama bottoms. I do this just to get comfortable, even if I know I have plans later.
25) Someone commented recently that they liked the drunk Zach. Personally, I don't think I'm that different drunk - I think I'm more talkative and sillier, but not drastically different. Maybe I should work on being like that all the time. Talkative and silly, that is, not drunk.
1) In August 1999, I weighed 280 lbs. I put a photo of myself from 1999 up on Facebook to remind me what I used to look like. By 2001, I was down to 170 lbs. I hover above that now (more like 190-ish), but I'm trying to get back down to about 180. Many people did a double-take after seeing me for the first time after such a weight loss.
2) A lot of my friends are great bridge players, puzzle solvers and board gamers. At times, I end up feeling a little dumb playing around them, especially when playing bridge, attempting puzzles or playing board games. My mind doesn't always solve problems of this nature very quickly. But I seem to be a more natural programmer / debugger / software architect, and really enjoy it, so I've learned to accept my niche. Given that I can get paid for that niche, I'm okay with that!
3) I MMORPGd before it was popular. I played on 2-3 MOOs (MUD, Object Oriented) through my sophomore year of high school. I did this to excess, and it's out of my system. Every now and then I think about trying WoW, but I'm not that interested anymore. I'd much rather play a tabletop game.
4) ... and, speaking of, I play tabletop D&D, pretty regularly. Yes, I'm a geek. I primarily enjoy it for social reasons - it's fun to get together with friends and enjoy a good story.
5) I make decisions fairly easily, and rarely look back. I'm usually quite happy with "good enough," especially for the small stuff. I've purchased two houses, and neither took much deliberation on my part. I'm generally happy with my selections.
6) I'm fiscally responsible but not anal. I save, but I spend a fair amount, too. If I were trying to retire earlier, I might care more. As it is, I'm trying to enjoy life but still save enough to be comfortable later.
7) I like dogs much more than cats these days. I really appreciate the unconditional love. I love that I can just summon a dog to me at any time and they'll be one (usually Sherlock) right there, ready to give me love. A cat could generally care less. The whole time it took me to write this note, Sherlock was curled up in the corner of the room, watching.
8) I grew up in Dallas and spent about 5 years after college in Austin. I miss various things about Texas, like decent Tex-Mex and the friends I left in Austin. But the thing I miss most about Texas itself? Thunderstorms. I really, really enjoy Texas thunderstorms. The dark, ominous clouds. The pre-storm ozone smell. The lightning show. The torrential downpour. There's nothing even close in Seattle.
9) I am terrible about keeping up with my family. Luckily my mother is on Facebook (hi, Mom!), or I'd feel even more guilty.
10) I never thought of myself as a runner. See #1 - all the way through college I was never really active. I actually had a mental aversion for a while, just thinking "hey, I'm not a runner." A few years ago, my friends Jeff and Jonobie were doing the Austin Distance Challenge, and kept mentioning it during our D&D sessions. I decided to give it a try, and now I really enjoy it. I'm currently training for the Mercer Island Half-Marathon.
11) I have satin sheets. You're probably thinking it's for some sensual reason, like owning silk boxers. It's actually much more practical than that: dog hair brushes easily off satin. I need to optimize more of my house this way - in particular, I need to get rid of my current couch and replace it with, say, leather or something similar. Did I mention I have dogs, and allow them on the couch and the bed?
12) When I was younger, mainly due to my weight my weight, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Until I lost the weight, I was using a CPAP machine to get a good night's sleep. This was one of the many reasons I decided to lose weight - that, and a family history of diabetes.
13) You know how, in some video games, when you die and come back to the level, you're briefly untouchable? I wish I had that power when I walked into work. I really don't like talking to people for the first 5-10 minutes when I get to work - it takes me about that long to context switch into the work mindset.
14) I'm terrible about remembering what happens in books and movies. People will ask me if I've read a book. After I respond in the affirmative, they'll mention something in the book, and I'll draw a complete blank. I frequently remember scraps of books and not whole scenes, and keep a general impression (good, bad, indifferent). I can easily rewatch some movies over and over again and still enjoy them.
15) During our Honors Geometry class in 9th grade, our teacher made a comment that there were 28 ways to pluralize words in English. We took that as a challenge, and started making a list. We got well beyond 28 fairly quickly. I was recently curious how Dr. Keyton was doing, and I stumbled on our list of english plural forms. I still have many fond memories of that class! (And I still can't prove Steiner-Lehmus, though it's been a long while since I gave it any serious thought.)
16) I was engaged at age 18.
17) I started playing bridge in high school. Four card majors, strong twos, traditional Goren. Yeah, baby. I learned better conventions in college, but was never that serious until after I graduated. And I'm still not nearly as serious as a lot of you.
18) I like driving. I hate commuting and I hate traffic, but I like driving. Some of my favorite experiences have been road trips. I drove from Austin to Seattle twice in the span of two months.
19) I take pleasure in debugging software. It's basically a little mystery to solve, and you're given a limited set of clues. In some cases, you get to run the scenario over again and look at it from other angles. In other cases, you're only left with breadcrumbs and you have to piece it all together from those. It's fun trying to find all the right clues, corroborate the evidence and figure out the root cause.
20) I would like to see a total solar eclipse one day, and I'd be willing to travel for it. I've been under one total eclipse, in Europe in August, 1999 (the same trip in which the picture linked in #1 was taken). The eclipse was supposed to visible in Stuttgart, but when my train arrived there, it was cloudy. I decided to see if I could avoid the clouds, so took a train south-east towards Munich. I stopped in a town a few minutes before the eclipse and it was still cloudy. I gave up at this point and just hopped on a train to Munich. The eclipse happened while I was on the train - it was actually pretty sweet, the conductor turned out the lights and all the stations were lit like it was dark. But I still have not stared up at the sun during an eclipse, and I would like to. It turns out, the clouds in Stuttgart broke during the actual eclipse. If only I had stayed! I've also seen two annular eclipses. They're neat, but I want the full deal.
21) I'd like to do more astronomy. I used to get out now and again in Austin to view the night sky, and own two pairs of binoculars that come in handy for doing so. Actually, one pair comes in handy for me, and one pair comes in handy to lend to people that are tagging along and don't have their own. Seattle isn't the best place for this, though! I used to really enjoy our high school astronomy club trips out to West Texas. I suspect I could do similar by going out to eastern Washington, but haven't really tried yet. Plus, I'm not sure if there's an equivalent of the McDonald Observatory area.
22) I'd also like to get back into hiking and camping. I'm an Eagle Scout and did my fair share of camping in high school, but haven't really done any since then. The most I've done in the past few years is to stay in a cabin at a park, which is hardly camping. As for hiking, it's tricky to find people willing to do longer hikes, and I'd rather not go alone.
23) I still haven't cashed my housemate's rent check from December. I find checks some of the most inconvenient things to deal with. That, and I'm a little lazy. Maybe a lot lazy at times. (In fact, right after writing this I discovered that my housemate has redacted the check and will deposit with an account transfer instead.)
24) When I get home, I almost always change out of my pants/shirt into a set of "wear around the house clothes," which consist of a shirt or sweater and either shorts or pajama bottoms. I do this just to get comfortable, even if I know I have plans later.
25) Someone commented recently that they liked the drunk Zach. Personally, I don't think I'm that different drunk - I think I'm more talkative and sillier, but not drastically different. Maybe I should work on being like that all the time. Talkative and silly, that is, not drunk.