Five Things About Me

So I was tagged by Dan Ciruli yesterday for this meme thing.  So I’ll do my part to keep this silliness going.

Here are five things that you probably don’t know about me:

(1) My first job was at age 7, stuffing envelopes at my parent’s printing company for 3 cents each.

(2) I hate video games.  They’re a waste of time.

(3) I get my best ideas while in the shower or on the toilet.

(4) In 1995, Virginia Tech beat UVA (in football) because of me.  It was the last game of the season, and the biggest game of the year.  VT was ranked #20 and UVA was ranked #13, and the game was played in Charlottesville.  The night before the game my friends and I went to several parties around UVA’s campus.  For some reason, I decided to start telling random UVA fans that Tiki Barber, their star running back, was in jail and wouldn’t be playing tomorrow.  By the end of the night the rumor amazingly had circulated far and wide, and I had UVA fans telling me that Tiki Barber was in jail and VT was going to kick their ass tomorrow.  Well, Tiki Barber wasn’t in jail.  It was just a rumor started by some drunk college kid 🙂  But I have to believe, that this rumor convinced many UVA fans that they were going to lose that Saturday and somehow contributed in Tech’s 36-29 victory.

(5) I am on day 3 of Dan’s 2007 pushup challenge (even though he forgot to include me in his post the other day 🙂  Beth is giving it a shot too.

Pat, Kevin, David, Tom, and (just for fun) Ray… you’re it.

4 thoughts on “Five Things About Me

  1. Dan Ciruli

    That reminds me of one thing I meant to list but forgot! I once led the Oakland Arena in the National Anthem.
    It was about the same year as your rumor-story; Jason Kidd was playing bball at Cal, and we were playing our home games at the Oakland Arena. It was the first home game of the season, and it was over Thanksgiving weekend. Because so many students were out of town, the Cal band wasn’t there.
    Right before game time, the stadium announcer introduced the national anthem. Everyone stood up and waited for a pre-recorded anthem.
    And it never came. Clearly, the arena folks expected the band to play it. The band wasn’t there, and no one had thought to tell the arena to be prepared to play the recorded anthem.
    As soon as I realized what was happening, I started singing: “Oh say can you see.”
    My friend Steve, sitting next to me, joined me on the second line: “By the dawn’s early light.”
    Much of our section joined on the third and fourth lines, and by the end of the song the entire arena joined in. Fifteen thousand strong, a cappella, unplanned, and unrehearsed. It was very organic, and gives me chills remembering it.
    Afterward, we all sat down, and then some people in the section started yelling for me to take a bow. I stood up and saluted the crowd.
    Anyway, it was fun. Can’t remember if we won the game or not, but if we did, I’d like to think that I played some small part in it!

    Reply

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