... or at least eight things that few people at work know  about me.  They are having a fun and games contest that include a  "get to know your team lead" puzzle game and I was asked to provide a  list of eight pieces of data about myself that few if anyone up at work knows  about.
     
    It took me awhile to come up with a list of things that fit  in my self imposed criteria.  Obviously it needs to be workplace  appropriate *evilgrin* and it needs to be things that I can handle sharing with  a large number of people (not all of whom do I necessarily consider  friendly).  Considering there are already a good number of things I have  babbled on about, it was a bit of a tough task coming up with things that I  haven't already shared openly.
     
    I finally came up with eight items that I haven't shared  like that.  A couple of them I may have mentioned to one or two people but  in general these haven't been conversation topics that I've really gone into  while at work.  And more than a few not appropriate threads popped up in  my mind as I was thinking about it of course *grin* but those may wait for a  different time.
     
    The list with comments follows:
     
     
    1) My father received his  orders to go to Vietnam  on the same day I was born
     
    - This is something I haven't ever brought up in the  workplace because it can open the door into discussions of some of my primary  life issues *evilgrin*.  I think saying that I have a challenge dealing  with my memories of my father is a subtle understatement.
     
    2) I ran track in high  school for two years
     
    - My favorite comment about this particular thread of  experiences is remembering practice for Indoor Track... which we prepare for by  running outside  in the winter (I  always felt that a polish person had to have come up with that).  Very  quickly a number of the girls on the team realized how much heat and energy I  radiated and I spent much of my downtime with other peoples hands between mine  to defrost them.
     
    3) My favorite taste  sensations is a close race between Thai Peanut sauce and sour candy
     
    - *wipes saliva off his chin*
     
    4) My mother taught me to  drive one handed so that I would have better control over the vehicle
     
    - It actually makes sense if you have any experience driving  vehicles from the pre-power steering era.  Not only do you get greater  range of motion and friction using the ball of the hand as you apply pressure  that way rather then holding onto the wheel primarily with your fingers.
      Though admittedly since most vehicles nowadays have  power steering this particular skill mostly gets used to facilitate eating  while driving and various other one handed moments *grin*
     
     
    5) I have watched Fourth  of July fireworks in a snowstorm
     
    - I have yet to see another firework display that was as  interesting as seeing the lights from the fireworks being reflected from all  the snow particles in the sky...  in the month of July *grin* in the upper  peninsula of Michigan.
     
    6) I have had no broken  bones or serious physical illnesses
     
    - My mom once claimed that she thinks I had mumps "on  one side" *shrug*... But no Chicken Pox, Measles, Tonsillitis,  Appendicitis, or any other of a slew of "common ailments"  The  most serious things I can think of other than maybe a bout with the flu once or  twice has been a round robin of strep throat that I kept getting in high  school.  I would love to blame that on kissing too many girls but I wasn't  exactly that prolific in high school.  *sigh* oh well.
      I've also had inordinate amounts of grace when it  comes to skeletal injuries...  I have been hit in the head with a flying  baseball bat, stepped on by horses, struck by a car as a pedestrian, and other  potentially hazardous situations and the worst I have ever received has been a  sprained wrist from one time that I slipped while running on wet grass, or  maybe the road rash from my car surfing adventure.
     
    7) I have never watched  Schindler's List, Titanic, or Saving Private Ryan
     
    - *shrug* peer pressure doesn't always work *grin* at a  certain point it can become a matter of pride.  though on a similar vein I  finally broke down and read the DaVinci Code... For the longest time it was  sitting in the same category, it was the lemming rush thing to do.  I'm  glad I read it, it was a well crafted novel but it didn't have any of the  profound effects upon me that it would have had on other people...  *grin*  there were no new and novel concepts included, but then I am rather eclectic in  my views and studies.
     
    8) I have a fondness for  nineteenth century poetry
     
    - Oh come on, who wouldn't?  We have William Blake,  Coleridge, Dickinson, Emerson, Keats, Kipling. D. H. Frickin' Lawrence (who has to have some of the  naughtiest poetry a young boy can read *evilgrin*), Poe, Shelley, Tennyson (oh  I'm having a literature orgasm from all the quotes running through my mind  right now), Whitman, and Wordsworth!
      If you want to look at the early years of the  twentieth century then I can add Alfred Noyes (I still can't believe that I had  to explain how "The Highwayman" was romantic to a young lady I was  seeing) and TS Eliot.
      Oh yes... I do miss some aspects of those honors English  classes.  "Gettin' High!  On Lit-tah-chuh!"
     
    And that's my random babble of the day.  *grin*