25 Things About Me

[ I resisted for a while, but after spending more than an hour reading friends’ “25 things” on Facebook, I’m sold, and feel obligated to contribute to the meme 🙂 – Adam ]

1. I had never seen snow coming from the sky ‘til college (grew up in S. California, went to school in the midwest).
2. I have not eaten fast food in a decade, except for In’N’Out and (rarely) Subway.
3. I started studying music at age four, wrote my first song around age six, and have always had perfect pitch (which is both a blessing and a curse).
4. I began e-mailing in 1987, before there was a public internet (on Prodigy Online Services) and was (I’m embarrassed to admit this) a forum leader on AOL in the early 90’s so I could avoid the high per-hour charges.
5. Except for a friend’s wedding in Canada, I had never ventured out of the U.S. before age 27.
6. I’ve now been to more than two dozen countries.  Found the friendliest people in Brazil and Denmark, best food in France, best ocean in Australia…
7. I got a D in “Arranging [music] for Wind Ensembles” from a professor who was angry that I ditched a review session to do a 30 hour Dance Marathon.
8. I conducted a (small) orchestra for dozens of performances of the quirky, awesome musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
9. I ran my own singing telegram business in high school.
10. I ran a web server (O’Reilly’s “Website”) in my grad school dorm.  I think I spent more time with that and other geek playthings than with my (often very very boring) law school books.
11. I love a cappella music… both the serene and the hard-hitting kinds and everything in between.
12. I am Google’s only Search Evangelist, named such largely because my boss (who recruited me) couldn’t think of another title for me to put on my job application. I actually focus on webmaster outreach and I still love my work.
13. I was apparently viewed as somewhat of a slacker/loser by my law school colleagues and an amiable and savvy networker by my business school colleagues.
14. Even though I love chatting with, learning from, hanging out with people, I am far more introverted than most people realize.
15. I have always really really wanted to be taller. Only recently have I more or less made peace with the fact that we shorter guys suffer real discrimination. Can’t do anything about it, have to move on.
16. I LOVE food. I’m trying to tone up a bit, and believe me, I’m far more delighted to rachet up the exercising and dancing vs. forgoing “sinful” foods like dark chocolate and gelato.
17. I have composed dozens of songs, but not much of anything in the last decade. I recently bought (expensive!) music notation software to encourage me to get back into the composing world.
18. Yes, I’m a geek, but I’m mostly interested in how technology makes us more productive and (genuinely) brings us together socially. The latest-and-greatest-shiny-thing doesn’t move me.
19. I used to have horribly awful posture, and now I just have mildly bad posture. Still trying to work on it.
20. I learned most of what I know and love about lindy hop from two teachers who moved far away and now openly have divorced themselves from the dance world. This still makes me very sad.
21. I was voted “Most Studious” in my HS senior year (despite rarely studying), sharing the award with a girl I had a massive crush on (who, last I heard, dropped out of college).
22. I have traveled internationally a ton for work and am grateful for the professional and other opportunities this has given me, but few believe me when I emphasize the stressfulness and un-glamorness of it.
23. I only keep up with one TV show (“LOST”) and don’t even own a TV.
24. I’m probably one of the few straight guys who loves musical theatre, enjoys step aerobics, doesn’t drink beer, and yawns at the thought of car shows and football games.
25. I recently discovered yoga and now love it. My lower back initially protested, but has now seen the light, too :-).