Interesting Things About Me

1) I am a native of Asheville, NC. I would have been the eighth generation to live on the same family land in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

2) I don't have a Southern Accent, despite growing up there.I'm not even particularly good at faking it.

3) I can sing... well. I performed in several musicals in high school, and I got the big solo in West Side Story ("There's a Place for Us").

4) Despite my mother being a piano teacher, I taught myself to play the piano. I played the flute in elementary school, the trumpet in middle school, and I played the piano all through high school and college. I seriously considered majoring in music.

5) I've been studying psychology on my own since middle school. I became fascinated early on with personality types and the Myers-Briggs in specific. I seriously considered majoring in psychology.

6) In high school, I read all about relativity. I really enjoyed learning all about how our universe works. Someday, I might get a masters (or more) in physics.

7) The doctors told my mother I would be mentally retarded. Because I'm so quiet, she always wondered if they might have been right. She'd say, "well, at least he'll get by on his looks."

8) In the 7th grade, I discovered quite by accident that I'm smart. Everyone in our math class was given a test to take--basically a math competition. I was shocked when I found out I got the highest score in the class. Then I found out I got the highest score in the school. I also got the highest score in the county--by two points (I got 18 out of 25).

9) I did the same thing again the next year.

A) I did the same thing again the next year, but this year, I was competing with high school students. If I remember correctly, I did the same thing every year thereafter, though I never topped my freshman score.

B) I didn't have my multiplication tables memorized until late in high school. Yes, I did multiplication on my fingers.

C) I suck at arithmetic. I take that back. According to the IQ Adventure Test on okcupid, I'm pretty darn good relative to most people, but I feel like I suck at arithmetic. There's a difference between Mathematics and Arithmetic. I kick ass at math. I majored in it.

D) I grew up without cable. For most of my childhood, we didn't even have a TV.

E) I don't have a TV. I watch movies on my computer. I gave my TV away a long time ago.

F) I have a core body temperature well below 97°. My mother and all of my siblings do as well. Some people claim that this means we're descended from aliens. (hahahahaha!)

10) I didn't successfully learn to program on a computer until the summer before my first year in college--as a computer science major. I had only programmed my TI graphing calculator before starting college. Now, I'm a programmer... and my hobby of studying psychology has come in handy. By the way, In hexadecimal, "10" means sixteen. :)

11) I was raised Christian--mostly Presbyterian. I went to a Southern Baptist church through middle school and for a while in high school. I've been born again and baptized, and I was a part of the youth band for several years (played piano on Wednesday evenings).

12) I'm an atheist. I go back and forth between being an agnostic atheist and the asshole "I'm right" kind of atheist. It depends on my mood. (Yes, I really *am* an INFP... no INTP would ever say something like that.) As an advanced mathematician, I am aware of the concept of higher dimensions, so I'm not opposed to the possibility that there could be sentient beings of higher dimensions.

13) I'm a firm believer in the Weak Anthropic Principle. If you try to use logic to argue for god with me, you will lose. I believe you have the right to believe whatever you want (otherwise we're talking 1984 and Big Brother). I won't try to force my beliefs down your throat if you don't try to force yours down someone else's.

14) My dad is a preacher. His specific job is to convert people like me to Christianity.

15) I've lived in California since May, 2005. ALL of my family is on the East Coast.

16) I'm the second of four children in the family. We're all two years apart.

17) I was the first to get married.

18) I was also the second to get married. Wtf?

19) Third and fourth are already taken. Whew.

1A) I didn't forget the hexadecimal thing.

1B) The only thing worse than doing arithmetic in hexadecimal is trying to convert large decimal numbers to binary.

1C) That's what computers are for. :D

1D) I abhor calling for tech support. I absolutely hate the new automated troubleshooting systems that ISPs have now. If I'M calling them, it's THEIR fault.

1E) I have a really hard time asking for help. Let me rephrase that. I never ask for help.

1F) Unless it's physical labor. I hate physical labor.

20) I get along better with the girls than I do with the guys. The idea of a "guys' night out" gives me the heebie jeebies.

21) If you have to ask how to know if you're in love, then you aren't.