THE ASPIRING HORSEPLAYER

I saw this on another blog and thought it was a good idea for those of you that want to know more about who I am.  I don’t usually go “off topic” here on the blog, but there’s been some request for more of the “about me” type stuff for the readers that are not into playing the horses.   It’s a mammoth undertaking, and those that know me well will  no doubt recognize or already be familiar with much of what is posted here.   I’ve got links to  many of the items I’m referencing highlighted in blue.  Without further adieu, here are 100 things about me you may or not know. 

1.  I was born in Alabama (Roll Tide!!!)
2.  I currently live in Pennsylvania
3.  I work in Baltimore, Maryland for an auto-finance company
4.  I’m of primarily of European ancestry but have a touch of Native American (Cherokee) as well.
5.  I’m prone to breaking out in song at work.  Usually I’ll just run down random 80’s songs or top 20 hits.  I  especially enjoy totally random songs.   For example, it’s not unusual for me to roll over to someones desk and yell out “we built this city on rock n’ roll!!!” while acting like a rock star….you know, air guitar – the whole bit.   I then return to my desk and act as if all were normal.  This repeats itself several dozen times over the day.    I like it.  It keeps me amused.
6.  Sometimes I change the lyrics of songs just to annoy my wife and sing the same things over and over again. 
7.  My Chinese Zodiac sign is the Earth Horse
8.  My Western Zodiac sign is Taurus the Bull.
9.  I can trace my family ancestry all the way back to the Norman Invasion of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings.
10.   My wife is of 3rd generation Chinese American ancestry. 
11.   I fell in love with my wife the moment I laid eyes on her.  I knew right away she was the one for me.   Nobody else has  ever had such an overpowering effect on me.   That was in 1998 and it hasn’t dwindled for a moment. 
12.   I proposed to my wife on my mother’s birthday.  Tricks like that help a well meaning son/husband keep dates straight. 
13.   We honeymooned in Hawaii after our wedding, as it seemed the proper mix of tropical paradise and historical significance.  What’s funny is that I ended up liking the beaches best, while my wife ended up liking Pearl Harbor the best, which is totally opposite from what you’d expect.
14.   We have a beautiful 3 year old “halfie” together (that’s what she calls him. She thinks it’s cute)
15.   I named my son Randall (we call him “Randy” or “Ran”) after SFC Randall Shughart who was killed in action during the Black Hawk Down raid in Mogadishu, Somalia and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery.   I also had a football coach in High School that was named Rand who played for the Alabama Crimson Tide.   I figured if he could pick up a little bit of either of those guy’s characters, he’d be well set in life.
16.   I love to look at the moon and stars with my son on warm nights.  When I’m away from home travelling, this is the thing that I miss most.  I miss holding him and pressing his soft cheeks up against mine.  You haven’t lived until you’ve held your own child in your arms.  Life can’t get any better than that.
17.   I love to interpret people’s dreams. It’s a skill my mother was proficient at and years of listening to her amazing interpretations have given me at least a fraction of that ability, or at least I like to think so.
18.   I was haunted by dreams of wolves as a child, but ultimately have seen the wolf become a guide like figure in my dreams. To me, the wolf represents a creature that has one foot in the physical world and one foot in the spirit world.   It can be a pack animal or a loner.  It can be cute and cuddly or very dangerous.  It is a yin/yang type of animal.
19.   Coincidentally, my son’s name “Randall” translates to “wolf shield.” 
20.   I love Yeungling Lager, although I have to watch my consumption as it tends to put poundage on me fast.
21.   I’ve always wanted to brew my own beer.
22.   I miss Pete’s Wicked Winter Brew. 
23.   I love red wine, but am not so fond of white wine.
24.   As far as red wine’s go, I love a good Pinot Noir or Shiraz. 
25.   I can’t handle liquor at all.   Nothing makes me sick quicker than liquor, despite the fact that I can drink beer and wine all day with no problems.
26.   I seem to do well controlling my weight when I avoid sugars, carbs, or any additives and preservatives and eat only fresh meat, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit.   Basically anything in a container (be it box, can, bottle) causes me to balloon up. 
27.   I love to barbecue.  BBQ chicken legs and thighs with ribs are my specialties on a standard Weber charcoal grill.  My wife makes a homemade BBQ sauce that is sweet and spicy, just how I like it. 
28.   I played defensive tackle and offensive guard for a class 2A North Regional Champion in Maryland high school football.  Those were some of the best days of my life.  We ran Buddy Ryan’s blitzing “46″ defense and the old Wing-T offense. 
29.   Some of my favorite movies include (select links to clips of my favorite scenes available for some of these – courtesy of youtube):
    • Slingblade
    • Donnie Darko
    • Zulu
    • Black Hawk Down
    • Henry V
    • Dr. Strangelove
    • 2001: A Space Odyssey
    • Gettysburg
    • Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • Das Boat
30.   Rob Ager’s review of 2001: A Space Odyssey blows my mind.  I didn’t put a specific clip to the film in the above list because I find this interpretation to be fascinating, as it attempts to answer the meaning of the monolith.  I’ve got his blog (”Collective Learning”) blogrolled if you are interested in more. 
31.   My favorite book that I’ve recently read was “How Can Man Die Better? The Secrets of Isandlwana Revealed” by Colonel Mike Snook.   It’s a fascinating look at the final moments of the battalion of the 24th regiment that died to a man in the tragic battle of Isandlwana.   I loved it because Snook finally paints the final moments of the 24th into a logical progression of events.   Well worth the read for any military history buffs.
32.   I have a deep appreciation for military history.  I mostly focus on the American Civil War, but I’m also fascinated by the Anglo-Zulu war. 
33.   I live within sound of Gettysburg battlefield and visit the field as often as I can.   I give tours to friends when they are in the area.  Nothing beats a spring day on that hallowed ground.   To stand where Pickett’s charge broke against the angle?  To stand where Lincoln delivered the stirring Gettysburg address?   Priceless.
34.   My maternal grandfather fought for George S. Patton in the 26th (”Yankee”) Division in World War 2 and was captured at the Battle of the Bulge. 
35.   I’m an ENTJ  (Field Marshall) personality type. 
36.   We take these gallup polls at work that determine some of our driving personality traits, and mine come up Context, Belief, Intellection, Learner, and Strategy.  Basically it means I love to study things that fascinate me and that I have  a love of understanding things from the beginning, which probably is where my love of history comes from. 
37.   I’m told that I’m very passionate in everything in my life and that I “wear my heart on my sleeve.”
38.   I’m a social butterfly.  Any of you from the blog promotion websites know that all too well. 
39.   Even with the above, I tend to need a good amount of quiet alone time to recharge my mind daily.  Remember that yin/yang wolf theme?  Here it is again at work.
40.   I long for the weekends. Weekends are like mini vacations that I could not live without.  Especially in beautiful weather.
41.    I tend to get hot and sweat a lot.  It’s not something I like about myself and I seem to be a bit sensitive about it.  If it’s hot, I’m sweating my butt off, you can count on it.
42.    I love yard-work.  I rarely get the time to do major projects, but I love starting the weekend off early on Thursday night, coming home, and cutting the grass and doing the edging/trimming/weed whacking. 
43.    When mowing, I tend to get big time OCD and try to mow everything perfectly. 
44.     I love my house.  We bought a new single family home a few years ago at a great price with a yard I never imagine was possible in this day in age.  The trade-off was a much longer commute to work, but as a good friend once questioned me: “would you rather hate your house and love your drive, or love your house and hate your drive?”  I went with the latter.  Wouldn’t change anything for the world.
45.    My favorite part of our house is our water-garden we have out front.  It’s dead now due to winter, but in full bloom contains a water fall, goldfish, water hyacinth, and water lilies.  The pump tends to be a problem and has already gone out on us once, but the sound of running water is soothing to my savage soul.
46.    I’m a bit of an audiophile electronically and have a series of kick ass Paradigm reference speakers hooked up to my home theater.  
47.    I love to blare loud music, especially when I handicap.   While prepping for horse races, I tend to put on fast beat top 20’s music, but my favorite musical talents include:
    • Pink Floyd
    • Credence Clearwater Revival
    • The Beatles
    • U2
    • The Four Tops
    • Bruce Springsteen
48.   I love to play PC strategy games like the Total War series (Rome, Medieval 2) and the Take Command series (2nd Manassas).
49.   The first strategy game I was ever hooked to was Panzer General for the original playstation.
50.   I tend to have an up and down personality.  It’s either happy as a lark or down in the dumps with no middle ground.  
51.   I’ve passed a kidney stone.   Good lord almighty that was painful. 
52.   I’m afraid of spiders.   It’s silly and I wish it weren’t true but they freakin’ creep me out!
53.   I believe in ghosts.  I’ve seen some things that I won’t talk about here.  I’ll just leave it at that.
54.   I have an absurd sense of humor, as evidenced by my frequent references to “Kuato” fom Total Recall.  I just don’t think there is an office meeting that isn’t benefited from someone in the room – I don’t care who – but someone standing up and yelling “Quaid…….Start the reactor!!!”  For whatever reason, that generally seems to be me.
55.   I love really bad, cheesy B-movies. You may think you’ve seen B-movies, but I tend to enjoy things on a level of utter-crappiness that defies description.
56.   My favorite B-Movie of all time is “Star Crash” featuring 70’s child-prophet and later star of Falcon Crest, Marjo Gortner, and a light saber wielding David Hasselhoff.  That’s right folks, you can read that last sentence again.  Hasselhoff with a light-saber.  Pure cinematic genius.
57.   I’m a a somewhat aggressive driver.   Usually no one wants to go as fast as I do.
58.   I can’t stand getting stuck behind a school bus.  I can feel my existence rotting away while the line of cars in traffic behind these behemoths stop at virtually every house along the route, continually punishing me for having not left just a couple of minutes earlier.   Since when does each kid get door to door service? 
59.   I’d like to be a bit greener than I am.  There are times I think I’m a bit too wasteful. 
60.   My butt hurts when I sit on airline seats for more than 4 hours.  I don’t know what it is, but my tailbone gets in excruciating pain.  I always request the isle seat just so it’s easier to get up and walk around to relieve that pain.
61.   I never seem to get a working pair of earphones on my flights.   I end up watching the movies with no sound, trying to follow along as a lip reader.   What the heck else am I going to do?
62.   I was on a flight once that took a pretty scary drop.   You know how folks say your life flashes before your eyes?  Yeah….been there, done that….never want to experience that again, thank you very much.
63.   I’m a  shorts and t-shirt kind of guy.
64.   I keep my hair short and tight, usually a 1 guard at most.  
65.   I like to “rebel” on the weekends by refusing to shave.    It makes me feel “manly.” 
66.   I like to get up at the crack of dawn and get something accomplished for the day before the family wakes up.
67.   Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. 
68.   Buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup are my all time favorite breakfast.   Bacon, Egg, & Cheese biscuits come in close second.
69.   I’m a die-hard St. Louis Rams fan.  That means I’ve gone through being the worst team in the decade of the 90’s, to winning a  Super Bowl and appearing in another, to now being the crappiest team in the league again, besides perhaps the Dolphins, but they just got Parcells in their front office, so where does that leave us?  You guessed  it….right smack dab on the bottom of the barrel.
70.   I think midgets are awesome, although they do kind of scare me sometimes.
71.   I was recently cursed by “notgod” for posting the 666th comment on our ridiculous “baking soda” discussion on blogcatalog.  It was quite an honor.
72.   I’ve been plugged by Raincoaster and Dissfunktional in posts.  That’s also been an honor and those guys know I love them dearly. 
73.   I think South Park is the most well-written program on television.
74.   I think Christopher Walken rules.
75.   I’m highly allergic to poison ivy.
76.   I can’t spell when I type without a “spell-check” feature, so my comments on other blogs are rife with humorous mistakes.  I consider the lack of a spell-check feature to be cruel and unusual punishment. 
77.   I’m a comment junkie – so if you’ve read this far that means you are obligated to leave a comment! 
78.   For my money, Eddie Izzard’s standup routine about the differences between American and British movies is about as funny as it gets. 
79.   I totally believe that “Freedom Rock” should be turned up whenever heard.
80.   I’m fascinated by early human history and the spread of languages across the globe.
81.  I’ve always found this interview/article  from Discover magazine with physicist John A. Wheeler to be highly   intriguing.
82.   I prefer Cool Water cologne.
83.   I once helped organize a High School walkout that shut down our entire school.  It was after a kid got jumped and defended himself honorably and the school was going to expel him in his senior year for “fighting” – even though he had no choice and was attacked by a mob.  We got the decision overturned.  
84.   I think the “darthmatic” chipmunk (prairie dog) might be the greatest 5 seconds of entertainment ever caught/edited on film. 
85.   Is it just me, or can the world never quite have enough Kelly Hu?
86.   I’ve heard that stars like Alyssa Milano and Christina Ricci play the horses pretty regularly, so it would be cool if they one day visited here. 
87.   I’m not a very good practicing Catholic. 
88.   Puppets make me laugh.
89.   I curse too much.
90.   I don’t exercise enough.
91.   I don’t get anywhere near enough sleep
92.   My fingers ache when I type too much or have to give my wife too many massages.
93.   I don’t like to sleep alone.
94.   I’m always thirsty.
95.   I like to sprinkle about a shot of cranberry juice into a glass of ice water for some flavor.
96.   I love to eat at Japanese steakhouses.
97.   I tend to be verbose and long-winded.  Brevity is not my strong suit.
98.   I’m a consummate clown always looking for a laugh.
99.   I’m loyal to a fault, but those that cross me have a near impossible task of earning back my trust.
100.   I seriously want to organize a huge wordpress or blogcatalog party.   I’m talking kegger here.  Party like it’s 1999.  That sort of thing.  Who knows?  Maybe even some Freedom Rock? 

Hope you all enjoyed!  Now don’t forget you’re obligated to leave a comment after reading that far!