J. Geils Had it Right!

I had "write" on my list of things to do yesterday. LSG sent me a link, so I'm going to start by piggy-backing off of a young married couple who blog together. They have a list of seventy-one items (because they couldn't figure out one hundred) to celebrate their one hundredth blog post. I'll start this off with twenty-five random facts you might not have known about me.

1. I've lived in three states, and two countries: an undisclosed northwestern state, the United Kingdom, California, and currently Virginia.
2. I've been to the following states: Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
3. Of the states listed above, I was only ever in an airport in Utah, Colorado, and New Jersey. I only ever drove straight through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and West Virginia.
4. Outside of the United States, I've been to Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy.
5. I have one brother, [Twitley], who's twenty-two and lives in Wyoming.
6. I'm horrible at most kinds of math. I have been since I was a little kid. I'm very good, however, with money, and with spatial math/geometry.
7. I graduated with almost as many ROTC credits as credits in my major, despite the fact that I'd dropped from ROTC less than halfway through college.
8. I spent four years expecting to get a Bachelor of Arts degree, and changed my plan in my last year of school after doing poorly in second year German. It all could have been different if someone had explained what the term "definite article" meaned.
9. My favorite fiction book is "The Terminal Experiment" by Robert J. Sawyer. My favorite non-fiction book is "How the Irish Saved Civilization" by Thomas Cahill.
10. I'm the proud owner of three embalming manuals.
11. When I was in high school, I played no sports. I was president of the forensics team, advertising manager for the school newspaper, and in the electronic media class.
12. I've known people who are better at saving money than I am, but not very many of them. Since I moved away from home in April of 2006, I've only borrowed money from my parents once, and that was to buy a plane ticket to fly home a couple of months after I'd moved to California. I've taken several trips and moved to Virginia without using credit, all on money I'd saved up.
13. My favorite candy is probably Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
14. I've turned into a bit of a beer connoisseur over the last year, based largely on the fact that I've had two different parties (my aunt and uncle, and Michelley) give me books about beer.
15. I've had three dogs: Buck, Majo, and Jack. All of them have been black labradors.
16. I was the Most Outspoken guy in my senior class. Imagine that.
17. I once skipped a concert by the Spin Doctors, one of my top five favorite bands of all time, to spend the evening with a girl.
18. During my first election in 2000, I voted absent-tee. I punched my ballot (with chads and everything!) with my Leatherman tool while watching "American Pie".
19. When I was in my first two or three years of college, I shaved every day unless I wasn't leaving the house. Now I shave twice a week, maximum.
20. I got bored this winter in Virginia, so I grew a beard. I shaved it, and now I'm growing it again.
21. I saw "Gladiator" in the theater instead of going to my senior prom. I'd been shot down by four girls.
22. I'll eat almost anything, although I'm extremely picky when it comes to vegetables. I can cook almost nothing. I want to learn how to cook shepherd's pie.
23. Someday, when I settle down, I'd love to build a house out of shipping containers. I had this idea independently after seeing pre-fab container buildings at my old job, but apparently someone else also had the idea.
24. I love shooting, and I was on the ROTC pistol team for two years straight. This was good news for me, because I was horrible at close order drill.
25. In college, I used to have "Spy Night[s]" where I would invite friends over, cook food (steak is easy, as is pasta!), and show a spy comedy followed by a 007 flick.

Twenty-five is probably sufficient for this post.

* * *

So, today is Saint Valentine's Day. I'm gonna be honest with y'all: I'm not feeling it. I'm not even really feeling that vindictive about it; more indifferent than anything else. As usual, I'm not dating anyone, so I don't really have any big motivation to observe at all. Even so, I looked up the corresponding entries on the comprehensive source for all knowledge, Wikipedia. Here's their article on the actual Christian saint. Interestingly enough, under the entry for the day, the sidebar lists as observances:

sending greeting cards and gifts, dating

Dating? Really? That's Wikipedia's expert call on how Saint Valentine's Day is observed? So, in my continuing efforts to reflect that I'm a hard-ass and a curmudgeon, I present to you the most appropriate of all videos for today.


Oh snap! I hope you all have an outstanding Saint Valentine's Day, whether it's being celebrated with someone you can't get enough of, or making every effort to ignore it altogether.

* * *

Okay, I'm excited about one more thing, and I have to talk about it because... Well, because that's pretty much what this entire website is for, me talking about stuff I think about. Frequent readers know that every other week, I post an article that's also published elsewhere. Now, I'm not going to post that link, but I have some news that I found to be very exciting. My managing editor sent me this link a while ago. Yesterday, the dude linked to one of my articles! That means that I'm not the only one reading them! Brilliant!

Okay, folks, time for me to start getting ready for work. Remember: love stinks!

Oh, and I suppose this would be a perfect opportunity, since today comes about four days before the thid anniversary of my most noteworthy breakup, to reiterate that my ex-girlfriend, the Whore, should be hit by a double-decker bus (pictured), in God's mercy. Keep reaching for the stars, folks!

UPDATE: I'd just like to give special thanks to The Artista, who informed me of the snow outside long before I would have discovered it on my own - by walking outside to leave for work. Thank God for four-wheel drive!