Seven weird things
Meme
As tagged by Matthew K. Tabor, seven random things about me.
Okay, wait a minute. The rules were “random and/or weird,” and truly random things aren’t possible because you can’t make anything truly random without some kind of physical random number generator. Perhaps more on that in a future post.
Anyway, here are my weird things, in no particular order.
- I’ve performed on fourteen musical instruments throughout my life. In approximate order of debut: piano, B♭ clarinet, bass clarinet, contralto clarinet, bassoon, drums, mellophone, trombone, oboe, euphonium, Ghanaian hand drums, tuba, alto saxophone, and trumpet. My trumpet debut was solo in front of 5,000 people at the Hartford Civic Center in 1998.
- I can hyperextend my elbows to an angle of about 200°.
- I skipped first grade and was always a year younger than everyone else in my class. Because of this and growing up in New Jersey where the driving age is seventeen, I didn’t actually have my driver’s license until four days after I graduated high school.
- I only learned to whistle two or three years ago. I’m thirty-two years old.
- I think I’m the only person in the history of the place to have conducted two different groups in the National Anthems at the Houston Field House.
- I drive a diesel Volkswagen Golf running on B20 biodiesel. I don’t brew it myself; there’s a biodiesel vendor less than half a mile from my house. At some point Robin and I may convert our car to run on straight vegetable oil. At that point we would need diesel fuel only to start the car; once running, the car could be switched over to vegetable oil. Many restaurants give away their used cooking oil for free. Cheap fuel, plus exhaust that smells like egg rolls!
- Although I don’t like to admit it, I’ve beaten Guitar Hero I and II on expert. I don’t really try, but since I’ve been a musician for so long it just comes naturally to me.
See, I’m not above a good meme every once in a while.
I am breaking Matthew’s rule, however. If any of my loyal readers feel like participating please do so, but don’t feel obligated.
January 7, 2008 10:11 pm 4 Comments
Other Links to this Post
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Meme: 7 Things About Me at www.matthewktabor.com : Education and School Issues, News and Analysis — January 8, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
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By Marc, January 7, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
Physical random number generator? Impossible! DETERMINISM RULEZ!!!!1!!
Let’s argue about radioactive decay :-P
Regarding the list: whoa
By Matthew K. Tabor, January 8, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Very cool list - it reminded me of two things.
1. I can’t whistle.
2. I played the ophecleide in an 1840s era band - it’s a great conversation piece, especially when the person has actually heard of an ophecleide.
By Pat R., January 29, 2008 @ 4:29 am
Moving on to Guitar hero III yet? I beat that in like a week.
And how much does biodiesel cost per gallon? And how does it affect mpg?
And I’ve been trying all night to do the elbow thing…nope. Didn’t take. [/jealousy]