16 Things About Me
Jan. 13th, 2009 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dcseainThis is a Facebook meme which i'm reposting here*:
1. I met Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan while they were in office, at the White house. (Daddy was Secret Service, Uniformed Division, Foreign Missions Branch.)
2. I spent several mornings plucking chickens for supper while visiting family on school vacations. Plucking chickens is hard work, very hard work. May you never need to pluck a bird. We used the dunking method.
3. I spent every 4th of July but for one at the White House, from birth to age 12. (See parenthetical comment to #1 as to why.)
4. I attended the groundbreaking for the new Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. My sister and i, and at least a score of other children, tied together several hundred helium ballons and using ribbons, tethered them while floaing them out over Pennsylvania Ave NW and Constitution Ave NW.
5. I cloned African Violets, carrots, and radishes while in high school. I spent my HS years in a biotech lab at least 45 min a day.
6. I used my father's family as a case study for autosomal recessive inheritance for a genetics class. At that time, he, his mother, her brother, at least one of her parents, and an aunt had all died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. His sister has since died of the same thing.
7. I helped record the graves in an unrecorded cemetery, and in the process found the earliest known marked graves in Prince William County, VA. 'DYD 1612' the pair of sarcophagi are marked. That was our 8th grade SIGNET (GT program) field trip. Years later, i learned that the powers-that-be that arranged that trip got in big trouble about it, for taking is to a grave yard. All of us who were on that field trip learned a lot, had fun, gained a strong connection to where we lived, and gained a historical perspective not many in the US get to have. I told the program head that when i met her at age 17, and she was surprised at our reaction. Totally the BEST field trip ever, even compared to the hydraulic model of the Chesapeake Bay on Kent Island, MD we went to in grade 6.
8. I narrated a stage show in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Hmong, Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Farsi, Hungarian (Magyar), and English at age 16.
9. I helped judged the pig and cow contests at the Hartford Fair in Licking County, OH for 2 years in my teens.
10. I have bowled in the White House bowling alley.
11. I do not, by default talk about myself, unless posed a direct question. When my background investigator was interviewing my friends, which specific group had known me 7-25 years, he was flustered, yet impressed, that when he asked them about a job he got answers like "I know he worked there, doing helpdesk stuff, and had clients in Brazil" and when asked what they new about the job he was doing the BI for, got answers like "It's an IBM contract at Customs, some helpdesk thing". One friend commented after her interview that she feels she knows me well, but doesn't really know about me.
12. I've come to realise that my personal essays, some of which are properly vignettes, are really some of my strongest writing. I find that kind of odd, as i'm not one to talk about myself. I'm really rather introverted and shy, despite the face i present to the world.
13. The previous 12 items all came from my journal, though i've expanded on most here, and rearranged some bits in other cases. So, i can be a tad lazy at times. Though it did take me about 20 min to find the post that gave me 1-10. :)
14. A while ago, a friend was having a rough time in a relationship. Said friend was making journal posts about the stress, the anxiety, the seemingly insurmountable problems. One night, in IM said friend was 'thinking out loud' about it at me, resulting in me typing back at what i know as i typed was a slack-jawed reaction to some many pages of put-the-pieces together to find a solution insight. In reply to what i typed, said friend said simply "Wow you really were paying attention". I'd not said much through it all up to that point because there had been little to say. But in that conversation it all came together, and i had to share.
The short version of the paragraph above, is "I listen and i pay attention, at least when it really matters.".
15. May the heavens help you if ever you make me angry. You may also be really, really, surprised someday when you ask me a question, and get 6-X times the answer you were expecting.
16. Hm. Something should go here, though i've said so much already. Oh, i know! I've been in 3 plays in the last four years, twice on violin, and once in a singing role.
*1-10, in more abbreviated form, were originally posted here
1. I met Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan while they were in office, at the White house. (Daddy was Secret Service, Uniformed Division, Foreign Missions Branch.)
2. I spent several mornings plucking chickens for supper while visiting family on school vacations. Plucking chickens is hard work, very hard work. May you never need to pluck a bird. We used the dunking method.
3. I spent every 4th of July but for one at the White House, from birth to age 12. (See parenthetical comment to #1 as to why.)
4. I attended the groundbreaking for the new Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. My sister and i, and at least a score of other children, tied together several hundred helium ballons and using ribbons, tethered them while floaing them out over Pennsylvania Ave NW and Constitution Ave NW.
5. I cloned African Violets, carrots, and radishes while in high school. I spent my HS years in a biotech lab at least 45 min a day.
6. I used my father's family as a case study for autosomal recessive inheritance for a genetics class. At that time, he, his mother, her brother, at least one of her parents, and an aunt had all died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. His sister has since died of the same thing.
7. I helped record the graves in an unrecorded cemetery, and in the process found the earliest known marked graves in Prince William County, VA. 'DYD 1612' the pair of sarcophagi are marked. That was our 8th grade SIGNET (GT program) field trip. Years later, i learned that the powers-that-be that arranged that trip got in big trouble about it, for taking is to a grave yard. All of us who were on that field trip learned a lot, had fun, gained a strong connection to where we lived, and gained a historical perspective not many in the US get to have. I told the program head that when i met her at age 17, and she was surprised at our reaction. Totally the BEST field trip ever, even compared to the hydraulic model of the Chesapeake Bay on Kent Island, MD we went to in grade 6.
8. I narrated a stage show in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Hmong, Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Farsi, Hungarian (Magyar), and English at age 16.
9. I helped judged the pig and cow contests at the Hartford Fair in Licking County, OH for 2 years in my teens.
10. I have bowled in the White House bowling alley.
11. I do not, by default talk about myself, unless posed a direct question. When my background investigator was interviewing my friends, which specific group had known me 7-25 years, he was flustered, yet impressed, that when he asked them about a job he got answers like "I know he worked there, doing helpdesk stuff, and had clients in Brazil" and when asked what they new about the job he was doing the BI for, got answers like "It's an IBM contract at Customs, some helpdesk thing". One friend commented after her interview that she feels she knows me well, but doesn't really know about me.
12. I've come to realise that my personal essays, some of which are properly vignettes, are really some of my strongest writing. I find that kind of odd, as i'm not one to talk about myself. I'm really rather introverted and shy, despite the face i present to the world.
13. The previous 12 items all came from my journal, though i've expanded on most here, and rearranged some bits in other cases. So, i can be a tad lazy at times. Though it did take me about 20 min to find the post that gave me 1-10. :)
14. A while ago, a friend was having a rough time in a relationship. Said friend was making journal posts about the stress, the anxiety, the seemingly insurmountable problems. One night, in IM said friend was 'thinking out loud' about it at me, resulting in me typing back at what i know as i typed was a slack-jawed reaction to some many pages of put-the-pieces together to find a solution insight. In reply to what i typed, said friend said simply "Wow you really were paying attention". I'd not said much through it all up to that point because there had been little to say. But in that conversation it all came together, and i had to share.
The short version of the paragraph above, is "I listen and i pay attention, at least when it really matters.".
15. May the heavens help you if ever you make me angry. You may also be really, really, surprised someday when you ask me a question, and get 6-X times the answer you were expecting.
16. Hm. Something should go here, though i've said so much already. Oh, i know! I've been in 3 plays in the last four years, twice on violin, and once in a singing role.
*1-10, in more abbreviated form, were originally posted here
