25 Random Facts About The Prokrammer

This meme has been floating around Facebook lately, I’m not going to tag anyone here since I did it there, but thought I’d share this list with those of you who might not be on Facebook:

(progn (setq num 1)(princ “\n\n25 Random Things About Me\n\n”)(while (< num 26) (princ (format “%d. \n” num))(setq num (1+ num))))

25 Random Things About Me

1. I have been programming since I was 8.
2. I’m writing this list in emacs.
3. I was on the Varsity Team for the 1997 Ohio State Academic Decathlon Team.
4. I’ve only been west of the Mississippi once, for the National Academic Decathlon Championships in St. George, Utah.
5. I spent the ages of 5 to 9 in Marietta, GA.
6. I’m fantastically good at making my daughter vomit.
7. I spent a year at DeVry in Columbus working on a BA in Electronic Engineering, before moving back home. I flunked every class.
8. I worked in Technical support for 8 years, all the way up to Middle Management until I had the chance to take an “Employee Requested Demotion” to get started programming.
9. I was introduced to my wife in high school, but we really didn’t meet until we ran across each other on AOL. We had lived less then a mile apart for almost a decade.
10. I was a BBS junkie growing up during my teens. I even sysop’d my own for a while.
11. My buddy (Jim Balcomb) and I use to sneak out of my house in the middle of the night to go dumpster diving. “I’m pretending to be a garbage bag, shut up!”
12. I was one of those linux zealots who hated Microsoft and vowed never to work in an MS shop… until I started getting paid to support a small number of Terminal Servers (the rest were running an OS called Real/32). Now I’m a Microsoft MVP.
13. I’m currently keeping track of everything I eat and drink, in order to force myself to be healthier in my choices. You can see what I’m eating and drinking here: http://twitpic.com/photos/mletterle_diet
14. My wife and I tried to have a baby for four years before we finally had our daughter via IVF.
15. Three days after our daughter was born, we had to rush her to the hospital at 4am. I rode in the ambulance that took her from the ER to the Children’s hospital. Three weeks later she came out healthy and we haven’t looked back since.
16. I was absolutely terrified of getting my blood taken and hated shots, before we had to go through IVF. I still don’t like them, but I no longer am in mortal terror for a blood draw or shot.
17. I smoked cigarettes regularly from about age 14 until 20, including pipes in college. I still enjoy a good cigar now and then.
18. I own two guitars, an acoustic and an electric. I play both poorly, but am determined to be good (at least passable) on them someday.
19. I once read Dante’s Inferno over summer vacation while a teen. Just because I wanted to.
20. I am very dexterous with my feet. I can pick up and throw things with them. My mother always said we had Hobbit feet, owning to the patch of hair on top.
21. I took the cookie from the cookie jar. See number 13.
22. I am an Eagle Scout. But only because my parents hounded me about it for a good two years.
23. I can crack the bones in my right toes on demand.
24. I once [REDACTED] in [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] until [REDACTED].
25. Yes, I wrote the lisp program above so I wouldn’t have to type all these numbers.
    nil