25 Thing-a-Ma-Jigs

I've been meaning to update for a while, and this is my attempt to get back in that habit. Yes, I pretty much just copied this over from Facebook, but it's conceivable that not all of you are on Facebook. It's a start.

1) Because I'm always shocked that people still don't know this: I have a fraternal twin brother, Ford. He's way taller and larger than me, and he has all the artistic talent in the family.

2) I used to play video games on a daily basis, but since my 4th or 5th year at Lehigh and ever since, my video game playing has dropped off precipitously. In fact, I don't think I've played a single game this week (I may have to fix that today). Even though I have a game that I've barely touched (Fallout 3), it requires a large time investment that I haven't been willing to begin yet.

3) I got into Dungeons and Dragons at the end of high school, dived into it in college, and joined a new game with complete strangers in December.

4) I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. Any time I get sick in a way I haven't experienced before, I begin to imagine that it's either organ failure (if it involves pain) or cancer. Fortunately, I'm rational enough to not go to a doctor with that suspicion right away. Also, it helps that I haven't been right yet.

5) In principle, I love the idea of traveling to foreign countries, but in practice, I'm a nervous wreck in a country where I don't speak (or am not accompanied by someone who can speak) the language, as I found out when I took a weekend trip to Germany while I was studying abroad two summers ago. I also don't want to be the stereotypical American who is completely ignorant of a country's culture and history, so that limits the countries I'm willing to visit.

6) A cute dog will transform me into a 5-year-old. "Oooh, look at the doggie!" I absolutely am going to be a dog owner some day, but not until I'm financially stable and a home owner.

7) I have a blog that I did a good job of regularly updating until I moved to Arlington. I'll probably copy this over to my blog and consider that an "update". (See? That's exactly what I did.)

8) I love math, and I was in a number of math competitions during high school. I'm competent, but in a pressure situation, I make a lot of careless mistakes, so I didn't do great. But at least my team won every year except for one while I was in it, so at least I didn't sabotage us.

9) Throughout high school and early on in college, I felt abnormally "mature" for my age, in the sense that I took life way more seriously than most of my peers. College helped me learn to not be so serious. In particular, ...

10) I was in an improv troupe at Lehigh for 3 years. At first, it was just a fun late night activity where we made each other laugh, but in the last 2 years I was in it, we began performing for the general public, including at an improv festival in Elizabethtown, PA. To this day, the Hobo Army lives on.

11) I was super short up until junior year of high school. I can't give an exact height, because I don't remember, but I believe I was the second shortest guy in my class. I was starting to accept that I was going to be a midget, until I suddenly grew over the course of one summer.

12) Up until my 21st birthday, I was convinced that I was never going to drink. And then, well, I did. But I still drink only a handful of times per month, if that.

13) In high school, up until senior year, I was completely unaware of any social scene in Salisbury. I kind of regret missing out on that, because I grew to like going to parties in college (turns out, you just need to party with the right people), but I only regret it a little bit.

14) Although my current career is in computer science, I also graduated Lehigh with a degree in international relations. One day, I hope to put it to good use, but I have little interest in research or academia at the moment, which limits where I can use the degree.

15) My dad teaches management, but I never expected to be a manager. However, I've suddenly become the testing manager on my software project, and it may become a permanent responsibility.

16) Up until my study abroad two summers ago, my foreign travel consisted of: Canada. Now, the total list: Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland. Sad for an international relations major, isn't it?

17) Unlike most people I know, I handle life transitions pretty well. As much as I enjoyed Lehigh, I was ok with leaving it. Sure, I miss the people I saw there on a daily basis, but I had no real qualms about moving on. I'm just the sort of person who accepts that things have to change.

18) That being said, I miss Lehigh and the people I met there terribly. So I've been fortunate to have gone back twice (I think?) already.

19) I still have hope that I'll be a Jedi someday. Around the same time as lightsabers become a reality...

20) My most realistic dream job is, to become a programmer for a computer game. Unfortunately, I have no desire to spend my spare time making modifications of computer games (almost a requirement to get into the games industry) when I could be playing them.

21) My most unrealistic dream job is, to become the host, performer, or writer on a Daily Show-type show. Being an improv performer made me realize that, I love making people laugh. But first, I need to figure out how not to have stage fright or how to be a good writer.

22) I often observe the world through the lenses of efficiency and algorithmic complexity. For example, when I was at a Mongolian grill last night, I marveled at how well parallel processed the line was.

23) I have great faith in individuals but little hope for humanity as a whole.

24) I want to do great things with my life while still remaining obscure and only known in academic or professional circles.

25) But because I want to have a comfortable, predictable, easy-going life, I will probably never achieve #24. And that might be ok.