I was born with a hearing impairment and so I've been wearing hearing aids for most of my life. My hearing charts at about 60-80% of normal with a particular weakness in the midrange tones that make up human speech.
I was born and raised in Alabama. I moved out of the state for the first time at age 24.
I met my wife - an artist and art professor - at the aforementioned math & science school and we were married five years later.
I played football for a single season in 8th grade. I was slow and stout and not particularly tall for my age so I wound up as a backup for the offensive line. I still like watching college football and occasionally the NFL. This is mostly a social activity reserved for times when I visit family and friends.
I studied at least a year each of Italian, Spanish, and Latin at the high school or college levels but I am not proficient in any of them. I can recognize a few root words now and then.
I have left the United States exactly twice, both times to visit Mexico: A school trip to the Yucatan peninsula at age 18 and a day trip to Tijuana during our honeymoon when I was 22. My ten-year U.S. passport should be expiring any day now.
Despite growing up in a house with a pool and learning to swim at a young age, I once "forgot" how to swim upon taking a water slide into a hotel pool when I was in elementary school. I thrashed about for a few seconds before being hauled out and I haven't forgotten since.
I was raised as a hunter of deer and squirrels. It's been twenty years since I last shot a deer and ten since I owned a gun.
I do still enjoy fishing with my father and my wife when we get the chance.
I've been snow skiing exactly once and my trip ended with a sprained knee. On the bright side I saw Easy Rider for the first time in the hotel.
As a young boy I drilled a hole through my bedroom's light switch and ran a loop of twine through it and around a series of hooks and cabinet doorknobs to give myself the ability to turn my lights on and off from my bed. I can't remember that I had a great reason for this, but I did read in bed quite a lot.
Related to #13, I was a knot-tying aficionado throughout my childhood. I knew all of the knots in our Boy Scout manual as well as several others from outside the manual. I preferred knot tying to most any other scouting activity.
I lost 40 pounds last year and I'm now a "normal" weight for the first time in my adult life.
I work in the paper industry as a Business Intelligence Solution Developer. In practical terms this means that I design, build, and support an enterprise data warehouse that powers operational efficiency reports for a multi-billion dollar company.
I have always had bronchial asthma but it does not bother me on a daily basis as long as I avoid allergens and extreme cold.
I can drive a stick shift thanks to the 1984 Bronco II I drove as a teen.
I worked as a waiter at an O'Charley's for ten months in college.
I am on the wrong side of my family's college football rivarly, having attended Alabama while my parents' generation largely attended Auburn. Fortunately my in-laws are all Alabama fans. This may sound silly to you but I assure you it is a big deal in the South.
I have been trying unsuccessfully since 1998 to switch from Windows to Linux. I am currently dual booting Vista and Ubuntu on my laptop.
I am a CPR-trained member of my company's Medical Emergency Response Team.
I am a casual fan of techno music, turning most often to vocal trance streams online when I need to get into the zone and finish a programming task.
I have received two traffic tickets in my life: in February 2000 and November 2008. Both were for speeds under fifty MPH.
Water and black coffee are all I'll drink on the usual weekday. Diet soda & orange juice make occasional cameos on the weekends. Oh right, there's also the occasional beer or mixed drink at a social gathering.
