Okay, whose idea were these anyway? Never dawned on me that the whole things u didnt know about me meme would become an endless loop of requests if I kept liking my friends posts. Thought it was a one and done?! LOL! Oh well, thanks to Diane Weisbrot, 13 it is, I guess. So here goes... 1 - I have pretty much read only non-fiction for most of my life. That is, until I came across a study a few years ago that explained how reading fiction actually helps to improve your overall brain function, your creativity, and even delays the onset of dementia. (yeah, yeah, sarcastic comments, HA HA! very funny :P) Kinda makes sense given the whole left brain / right brain thing, I guess, since non-fiction is factual while fiction forces your brain to use your imagination and picture the story and its characters. So ever since I read about that, I do try to read some fiction, at least more than I normally would. 2 - Back in the day, I once self-taught how to program in BASIC (remember that?)...oh and how to use LOTUS, too...both just from how-to books. In fact, now 30+ years later, I still think in LOTUS even while using Excel. 3 - My dog, Tony Henrik, was actually born in Georgia in 2009, which is kind of ironic since my prior dog, Ezra, was born in Arkansas back in 2003. Something about southern pups, I guess. Anyway, at 1 year old, Tony somehow made his way northward up to the NYC Animal Shelter in Manhattan. Luckily for both of us, they had a combined open house with the Monroe, CT ASPCA, so at about 18 months old, Tony was transfered right near Shelton where I live now. And ever since May 14th, 2011, Tony Henrik - the Henrik part added in honor of a certain Ranger goaltender, of course - and I have lived happily ever after. Everybody say: Awwwwww ;) 4 - I feel honored by the fact that arguably the greatest hockey player to ever play the sport, Wayne Gretzky, chose to play his final NHL game on April 18, 1999 aka my 33rd birthday. Its almost as if he knew. ;) To this day, I still occasionally scour the internet for anything that commemorates The Great Ones special day, hoping to find a trinket that even has the actual date on it. :) 5 - Speaking of birthdays, the very first song I ever learned to play on the piano was, fittingly enough, Happy Birthday. I was 5 at the time. :) 6 - Ive had the good fortune to be able to visit Paris 3 times, all via work-related trips. But the very first time I went, I was such the newbie engineer. I had no idea how often projects got approved or canceled. Since I assumed this might be the only time Id ever get to go, I literally saw ALL of Paris in a day?!! Yup, in a state of almost semi-panic, I bought an all-u-can-ride ticket for the Metro and zipped to every sight I could think of, often times just long enough to snap the obligatory picture, i.e. Notre Dame? Check!..Arc De Triomphe? Check!, etc. LOL! Luckily, I left plenty of time for the Eiffel Tower so I could take the elevator all the way up, which was mega-cool. But even with that, the most memorable part of my one-day excursion occurred when I went to the Louvre Museum. Almost a decade removed from having taken 3 years of French in HS, I could stil kinda, sorta make out a sign in the lobby that read: Visitors 25 yrs old or younger, 50% off, which I assumed was some sort of student discount. Welp, as luck would have it, I was 25 at the time, and I had my license with me, so I decided to give it a shot. I remember practicing Je suis vingt-cinq ans aka I am 25 years old over and over in my head while I was in line. When I finally got up to the window, I robotically repeated the phrase to the agent, and was so excited when she said Oh, Oui, Monseur! and gave me the change per the discount. WAHOO!! Of course, my next thought was: My French teacher would be so proud right now!...LOL! Vive la France!! :) 7 - My remaining bucket list items for hopeful travel destinations includes a trip to Italy and a cruise to Alaska, the latter one out of Portland, OR where my brother lives, not from CT. :P 8 - I consider myself to be bizzarely ambidextrous b/c, for all intents and purposes I am a righty (i.e. handwriting, batting, playing hockey, tennis, dominant hand, etc.), yet for whatever reason, I throw & bowl lefty?! I think its b/c I have more inherent strength in my left arm. Who knows? I just remember as a kid, my Dad assuming I threw righty up until I was about 5 or 6, and then, frustrated with my form - can u say: throws like a girl? - he suggested I try lefty, and the rest, as they say, is Clark Little League history. ;) 9 - I am proud to say that I have co-authored 10 patents in my life which I think is way cool. And yes, real ones! Like with the US Patent Office and everything :P Most of them are truly collaborative, whereas for some, my name is on them more or less by default since simply being in the same room where a design conversation takes place can often times be all you need to get your name on one. Pretty silly actually, but who am I to argue? Anyway, Im most proud of one I have for an artificial knee cap replacement b/c there is no doubt that it was me who came up with that one. The idea popped into my head during an off-hand conversation I had with my boss in the hallway. We submitted it to the USPTO, it eventually was granted as a novel idea. But even with a patent, many ideas stay just that, an idea, and dont necessarily come to fruition. They more or less act as intellectual property protection for down the road. In this case, though, the company I worked for at the time actually produced and sold the new knee cap design, so that made it even more special. :) 10a) Two of the first movies I can ever remember seeing were Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - which was actually written by Ian Fleming of James Bond fame - and The Poseidon Adventure, still one of my all-time favorites. The cool thing was, I saw both of these at Radio City Music Hall back when 1st run movies where shown there vs. mostly just concerts and The Rockettes today. I so remember how cool it was to see the curtain open up and reveal that ginormous movie screen. Sweet! :) 10b) Meanwhile, the very first *R-rated* movie I ever saw was Saturday Night Fever, but the catch was, I was all of, um, 10 years old. (FYI: a PG version was later released as well.) Plus, I went with my older bro and sis, neither of whom were 17 at the time, so what to do, what to do? Well, we somehow concocted a scheme to get some random older looking couple waiting in line to play my parents. LOL! As I recall, it was my sisters idea. HA! :P Anyway, we actually found one that agreed to do it, and the plan seemed like a good one until they walked up to the window and bought tix for a DIFFERENT movie?!! WT?! Ahem, ya coulda told us that?! LOL! And if that wasnt bad enough, the manager then came out and proceeded to LECTURE them about the profanity and nudity in the film. OMG!, it was hilarious, but I was mortified just the same. God bless em, Mom and Dad hung in there, and kept up the act. Eventually, the manager conceded, and my parents went one way in the multi-plex, and we went the other. Too frickin funny. ;) 11 - Speaking of #11, turns out I have auditioned for Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in NYC, yup...exactly 11 times. Alas, I have yet to pass the 30-question audition test, but I have gotten to see many shows get taped, and even vote as part of the ask the audience lifeline, so thats pretty cool. Im fairly confident Id do well during the interview part of the audition. Its just that damn test. Oh well, someday. And in case ur wondering, the questions on the test are lightyears harder than those used on the actual show. For me, anyway. Guess I need to go study more Renoir and watch a ton of E! ;) 12 - I very rarely watch any new prime time shows. Mostly reruns of Friends, The Honeymooners, Frasier, Seinfeld, etc. But back in the day, I was majorly hooked on the original Dallas series and the manipulative evil that was JR Ewing. More recent shows I have watched fairly regularly are The Apprentice and Amazing Race, but thats about it. 13 - While I remain hugely proud to be a Cornell graduate, there was once upon a very precarious time when it almost didnt happen. My freshman year up in Ithaca, I actually did suprisingly well, having been lucky enough to have some excellent teachers in HS. So going into my sophomore year, I remember thinking: Eh, this isnt so tough. Yeah right. LOL! Suddenly...WHAM!...and no, not the singing duo. ;) I hit a major wall that year, with Calculus almost singlehandedly being my ultimate downfall. I was so overwhelmed by that one class, it completely demoralized me and affected my performance in all my other classes. I was put on academic probation in the Fall, but then my grades actually got worse the following Spring, b/c I really didnt do anything differerently except stress out more. So the follwing summer, I was told by the school to take a year off aka go find myself. Man, was I pissed. Still loved being there, even though I had struggled. Fortunately, my Mom and Dad stepped in big time! Sure, they were upset and disappointed, and it got loud in the Weissman household, but I do remember that as upset as they were, it was conveyed in a very supportive way, with my parents focusing on the potential opportunity I still had in front of me instead of dwelling on what had already happened. I also remember the angry part being very short, and them questioning what exactly a year off would do other than...well...waste an entire year?! And, in principle, they were right. Welp, the next thing I knew, my Dad and I were on the 3-way phone call with admissions office to see if I could somehow get re-instated. And once I wisely decided to switch to mechanical engineering, combined with some summer courses I had taken at Rutgers, Cornell actually let me re-apply and I was eventually re-accepted later that summer. After that, I did much-o better-o my last two years, especially with the prospect of becoming a bioengineer now motivating me, and I eventually graduate in 1988. WAHOO!! Thanks, Mom & Dad.... ;)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 14:18:08 +0000
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