100 things about myself

[vovat]

I've seen this done on a few other blogs. Not those of anyone I know, but I still thought it was kind of an interesting exercise. So here's 100 things about me, in the order I could think of them. Most of them are probably things you already know, but some of them might be interesting.


1. I usually did well in school, but I was not a very conscientious student. I frequently turned in assignments late, or not at all.
2. On the other hand, I never missed class without a valid excuse.
3. If a subject or task doesn't come naturally to me, I usually want to give up.
4. My taste in food is fairly narrow and childish. I love pizza, and don't care much for spicy food or vegetables.
5. There was a period of a few years where I hardly ate any cheese, because I thought I might be lactose intolerant. After a while I figured I probably wasn't, but I had just gotten in the habit of not eating it. Eventually, though, I returned to eating cheese really often, as I did before that.
6. I can get pretty bad hay fever in the spring. How bad it is varies from one year to another. I can't stand it when my eyes get itchy.
7. I have bad skin, and I'm too lazy to take proper care of it.
8. I hardly ever watch the news or read the newspaper, and I'm not proud of this.
9. I really wasn't into music that much until college. I got seriously into "Weird Al" Yankovic in high school, and progressed from him to loving They Might Be Giants, and then from them to other related bands.
10. My music collection focuses on only a handful of bands, but I usually try to get everything by those bands.
11. I often wish I were familiar with a broader range of music.
12. I don't watch much TV. As with music, though, I follow a few shows obsessively.
13. Most of what I watch on TV tends to be animated.
14. Although I tend to read more than I watch TV, I don't agree with the "books expand your mind and TV destroys it" philosophy. Advocates of this way of thinking seem to be ignoring the fact that there are some quality TV shows, and a lot of crappy books. Still, the fact that people rarely read anymore bothers me.
15. As you probably know, I love the Oz books. I first read The Wizard of Oz in December 1988, when I was upset my dad wouldn't take me to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit? at the movies. I knew there were other books, and I soon became obsessed with them.
16. I've been told that I first starting reading when I was three years old.
17. When I was a kid, I had a terrible fear of being struck by lightning.
18. I've always been terrified of being drafted. I don't think I would do well in the military, and not just because there's a good chance I would die.
19. I'm anti-war, but there are situations when I can't think of any better solutions to certain problems. I understand that fighting is natural, but I think it's kind of barbaric that we haven't progressed past it in solving problems between nations.
20. I'm glad to live in the United States, for many reasons, but I'm not a flag-waving patriot.
21. The uneven distribution of wealth in this country (and the world) really bothers me.
22. I really like to get stuff, especially books and CDs, but I don't consider myself overly materialistic.
23. Soon after my parents divorced, each one of them got a cat. My dad's cat Arthur was my first pet.
24. I was afraid of dogs when I was young. Beth got me to start liking dogs, but I'm still more of a cat person.
25. I didn't have a girlfriend, or even a date, until I was 22, and we're still together now. I'm glad of that.
26. I think I lack a lot of basic social and relationship skills that other people take for granted.
27. I didn't learn to drive until I was 24, and I was terrified of learning. I'm glad I did learn, though.
28. I'm not religious, nor was I really raised to be. My parents used to take me to a Presbyterian church when I was young, but they eventually stopped.
29. I did learn how to ride a bike when I was a kid, but at one point I lost control of the bike, jumped off, and scraped my knees pretty badly. That wasn't the last time I ever rode a bike, but I never really wanted to after that.
30. I never wanted to keep a journal, even when it was required for class. I blog fairly regularly, but I don't really treat it like a journal.
31. I think I sometimes get too attached to e-mail lists, and the fact that most of my favorites seem to have lost quite a bit of steam saddens me.
32. I met my girlfriend though an e-mail list.
33. I'm a total wimp, both mentally and physically.
34. I didn't really participate in extracurricular activities. I was in German Club for two years, and the first year I refused to do the fundraiser (selling candy bars), just paying them the $15 that I had to raise instead. The second year, I DID sell the candy bars, and even ended up selling more than I had to, which made me feel stupid about wasting my money the year before.
35. I've never been particularly musically inclined, but I'd like to be. I took a beginning harmonica class when I was in high school, and got an acoustic guitar from my dad for my eighteenth birthday, but I never stuck with either of them. I'm trying to get back in the habit of practicing the guitar.
36. I like to sing, but I'm really terrible at it. I probably should take voice lessons.
37. I want to get a full-time job and find my own place to live, but it doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon.
38. I don't drink coffee. The only coffee drink I've ever sort of enjoyed was something with a lot of caramel in it.
39. I've always pronounced "aunt" to sort of rhyme with "wont," and I say the names "Erin" and "Aaron" practically the same way.
40. I've never had very many friends. My most social time was when I was in college, and even then I didn't really feel that close to anyone.
41. My family had a home computer when I was a kid, so I've been around computers pretty much my entire life, and was exposed to programming early on (my dad was a computer programmer). When I tried to major in computer science, though, I ended up not being very good at or interested in it.
42. Despite always having had a computer at home, my dad's home PC was outdated for some time, so I really didn't get to use the Internet until I started college in 1996.
43. I got my first job when I was 19. I worked as an usher (which included quite a bit of custodial work) in a movie theater.
44. I don't really mind working, but I hate looking for jobs.
45. When left to my own devices, I tend to go to bed around 2 or 3 AM, and get up around noon or 1 PM. I'm definitely not a morning person, and I'm really not a night person, either. I guess I'm mostly an afternoon and evening person.
46. I've always been interested in outer space and other planets and stuff (I guess it's part of my general nerdiness), but I don't want to go into space, and I don't think the government should allocate a lot of money to space exploration at this point. (We're Earthlings; we should blow up Earth things!)
47. I probably would have played Dungeons & Dragons or other similar role-playing games if I had had any friends. That kind of dorky stuff interests me, but I've never really done it.
48. I enjoy video games. I am not at all good at video games. I've probably spent more time watching other people play video games than playing them myself.
49. I'm afraid of heights. I think I might have inherited this fear from my dad, if fears can be inherited.
50. I'm really not a movie person. I'll usually only go to the movie theater a few times a year, and that's generally more because other people want to go than because I do. On the other hand, I have no problem with going to the movies alone in the rare cases when there's something I really do want to see.
51. I also don't mind eating out alone, but I have kind of weird rules for where I'll go when I eat out alone. Fast food and places like Denny's and Pizza Hut are fine, but I probably wouldn't go to a place like, say, Friday's, Bennigan's, Red Lobster, or the Olive Garden alone.
52. I generally like seafood. Most kinds of fish (that I've had, anyway) are good. I LOVE shrimp, but, unlike many people, I prefer it hot, rather than chilled. Crab is okay. I don't like clams at all.
53. When getting fast food, I'll usually go for chicken over burgers, except at Burger King. I also usually order my sandwiches plain.
54. I have a desire to be appreciated, perhaps even more than I do to be liked.
55. I have a fairly active sense of humor. I like to make jokes, and I tend to find myself amusing, but most other people seem to find my jokes to be really awful.
56. Most of the "jokes" I make are bad puns, silly responses, quotes from people funnier than I am, and non-sequiturs. I never really tell long, story-style jokes.
57. I don't THINK I believe in life after death, but I'm still scared of dying and finding out there really IS a Hell, or something of the sort.
58. I wish I had magic powers. Who doesn't, though?
59. I don't really follow politics, but there are certain issues on which I take a fairly strong stance.
60. I've never smoked, and never had enough alcohol at any one time to have any effect on me.
61. I have no fashion sense whatsoever, but I like to think I don't dress THAT badly. I usually wear casual pants (generally not jeans), black shoes and socks, and either a button-up shirt or a T-shirt, depending on whether or not I'm going to work.
62. I pretty much never wear shorts. I'll occasionally put on a pair in summer if I'm not going to be going anywhere or doing anything, but I don't like to wear them in public.
63. I can swim, and I enjoy swimming, but I'm pretty bad at it. When I took swimming lessons at day camp, I could never get past the Guppy level.
64. As I mentioned in my last item, I went to YMCA day camp for two summers, at my dad's insistence. I really didn't like it at all, although the second year was better than the first, because the other kids weren't as mean.
65. I have somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction against what's popular and mainstream, but I won't automatically dismiss something just because a lot of other people like it.
66. I don't listen to music by genre, but most of what I have seems to fall into the category of somewhat nerdy pop-rock music.
67. I first voted when I was 22. Before that, I was away at college, and never bothered looking up how to get an absentee ballot.
68. I like crackers more than is reasonable. My favorite kinds are cheese crackers, like Goldfish and Cheez-Its, but I also eat a lot of Saltines. I don't care as much for the fancier and more healthful crackers.
69. I curse a lot when I'm angry and/or frustrated, but not that much in everyday conversation.
70. I don't really like to drink water that much, except when I'm really thirsty. I generally prefer fruit juice, and I'll usually get soda at a restaurant.
71. I prefer light sodas like Sprite to dark sodas like Coke. Orange soda is probably my favorite, though.
72. I'm not sure what my favorite color is. When asked, I'll usually say red, which was my favorite color as a kid, but I'm not totally sure it is now.
73. I don't think I could live without electricity and indoor plumbing. I've grown too reliant on modern conveniences, I suppose.
74. I tend to be a nitpicker.
75. I don't read magazines, unless The Baum Bugle (the International Wizard of Oz Club's journal) counts. I used to when I was younger, and would frequently get magazine subscriptions as gifts, but I don't now.
76. I also don't read comic books, but I sometimes wish I did.
77. I've been told I'm a good writer, and I like to believe it's true. I really should write more often.
78. Perhaps this goes without saying, but I like the book of The Wizard of Oz much more than the movie. The movie is fun, but it removes a lot of the more interesting aspects of the book.
79. The only time I ever left the country was when my family went up to Montreal for a few days. I think I was nine years old at the time.
80. I really have no mechanical or technical skills whatsoever.
81. I don't particularly care for potatoes, especially mashed. I'll eat French fries or potato chips, but they're not really favorites of mine.
82. I enjoy traditional breakfast foods, like eggs, bacon, pancakes, and bagels. I like some sausage, but that's a very hit-or-miss kind of food, so I tend to avoid it unless I know I'll like it. I prefer links to patties.
83. I don't like "clique-y" people. That's probably partially because I've never been part of a clique.
84. I think I might come off as rude to others, but I'm usually not trying to be rude.
85. I get nervous very easily.
86. Although I'm not religious, I am interested in the Bible, and I hope to actually read the whole thing someday.
87. I like playing board games and card games. I used to play these with my dad, but since he moved away, I really don't have the chance to play them much anymore.
88. I don't like cold weather. I hate ice, and, while I used to like snow when I was a kid, I'm mostly just annoyed by it now (although I admit it's pretty sometimes, if you don't have to go out in it). I'm not overly fond of weather that's too hot, either, but I find the heat somewhat easier to combat.
89. I tend not to throw that many things away. I have a lot of old papers and other things lying around in boxes.
90. I've been to seven Oz Conventions (if I'm counting correctly), and gotten the highest score on the quiz several times. I also won a prize for fiction writing at one of them.
91. While I like to get all of the books by a particular author, or all of the CDs by a particular band, I don't consider myself a collector, in that I don't usually get things just for the sake of having them. I'm more of a completist.
92. I've lived in several different homes, but they were all in the same general area. My parents bought a house when I was born, and then they moved when I was five, but they kept the other house and rented it out. When they got divorced, my dad moved back into that house. He moved a few times after that, but my mom never did.
93. I don't like highlighting things (with a marker, that is).
94. I used to hate talking on the phone, but this was probably largely because I never had anyone I wanted to talk to. I can talk to Beth for hours sometimes, although the phone starts to hurt my ear if I hold it up there too long.
95. I don't mind getting random IMs, but it's gotten to the point where I'll usually either stop talking or come up with a smart-ass reply when someone asks "ASL?".
96. I sometimes wish I had more friends, but I have no idea how to go about making them.
97. I don't think I could ever be a vegetarian, although I've gone a few days without eating meat before.
98. I sometimes think I want to be famous, but I don't know that I'd be able to handle the downside to fame that well.
99. I've never been a celebrity-worshipper, but I do like to find out about famous people whose works I enjoy.
100. I tend to overuse words like "really," "indeed," "generally," and "of course." (And yes, "of course" is really two words. Of course.)