A bunch of the blogs I read are passing around a virtual game of tag where you write down five things about yourself that are not common knowledge, then challenge five of your friends to do the same. So I thought I would give it a try (plus its 2:00 in the morning and I need to burn off some energy from this Mountain Dew I drank...stupid, stupid Eric...):
1) I've been on TV twice. Both times were in high school for a local PBS show called Quizbusters. Its a sort of Jeopardy/quiz bowl game that most high schools in mid-Michigan send teams to. Both times my team lost in the first round. Incidentally, the show is filmed on MSU's campus (I can't remember exactly where now), making this the first time I had ever been on campus.
2) Also in high school, I worked on part of a team that won a Society of Automotive Engineers competition for large scale industrial robotics. We designed and built a large scale project to automate the construction of snow skis using a large robotic arm (sort of like this, but about 5 times as big). I did all the wiring, programming, and some of the pneumatic setup. It was one of my prouder moments in high school. I still have fond memories of the day I hooked up one of the pneumatic cylinders on our rig with just a bit too much pressure (lets say 4 times too much) and managed to launch the boot binders several feet in the air:) I have less fond memories of the day I took a 110v zap from the power source when I decided that I did need to unplug it while I was reworking some connected logic.
3) I've never broken a single bone in my body. The worst I ever came was a very serious sprain of a few toes my right foot while playing a very stupid game in the 5th grade we called Chinese tag. Basically, it was just like regular tag except that you had to pull the person off of some piece of playground equipment to make them "it". Really, really stupid. I still have bad pain from it once in a while from it. When it happens, it sort of feels like the tendons in foot have somehow slid off of the bone. Let me tell you it is really painful.
4) Speaking of which, that same game caused my only admission to a hospital. I got a very bad concussion in the 4th grade after I was pulled down onto my head. It was so bad that I still vividly remember sitting in class 20 minutes later trying to figure out why the letters on the book right in front of me were swimming. Three hours waiting in the hospital and a CAT scan later (scary when you are 10), I'm fine.
5) Before I decided on Computer Science as a career around 9th or 10th grade, I wanted to be a lawyer. I figured I was good at arguing and paperwork (my rather elaborate D&D world with my brothers taught me that). Before that, I wanted to be an astronaut. Er, at least that's what I thought when I was eight. I figured out much later that what I was actually aiming for was astronomer, but hey! I was eight. When you're eight, everyone who has anything to do with space is an astronaut:)
OK, so now I get to tag some folks: Well, how about Sue, Paul, Kien, R, and Uncle R?
5 years ago
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2 comments:
Wow, Chinese Tag sounds both quasi-racist and ridiculously dangerous at the same time! Yay!
Although I suppose I used to play a game called Suicide which mostly involved throwing a tennis ball at a wall and then if a person missed the rebound, you could hit them with the ball ("peg" them). Ah testosterone. (btw, I've never broken a bone either)
Lol at the astronaut != astronomer thing.
as for the 2) story about the robot, dude you busted that one out when I met you at college orientation over ten years ago... get a new story! or a new childhood!
as for the 2) story about the robot, dude you busted that one out when I met you at college orientation over ten years ago... get a new story! or a new childhood!
Bite me! You come up with five interesting things you never told anyone else and then I'll get back to you:)
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