Monday, January 5, 2009

Se7en things...

Tagged by Natalie for this, the first Intermeme© of 2009!

Share seven facts about yourself, and tag seven people at the end of the post.

I've had to do this before in meet-n-greets and offsite meetings, and like to choose the things that I may not be the most proud of, but the ones that are the most...um...unique, I guess (but wouldn't put me in hot water if a prospective employer were to find this post). Might be hard to hit seven, though, I'm just not that interesting...also, I find it weird talking about myself (blogging is a big step outside of my comfort zone).

1. Although far from virtuoso, I am a self-taught guitar player who started playing at age 13...despite that, I didn't join my first band until I was 34, and quit following our first gig six months later after an onstage row with the drummer (in the middle of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb). It was a fun six months, though.

2. I have been stung by a Bark Scorpion, the most toxic scorpion in North America (and I'm sure I will be again...my neighborhood has no shortage of the little darlings). It's like being injected with liquid fire that doesn't go away for 24 hours or so (in case you were wondering).

3. I dropped out of high school at the mid-point of my sophomore year. High school was too dramatic for me...I hate drama. I worked for many years, and in my early 20s aced my GED, got an A.A. in business, B.A. in Marketing, and an M.B.A.

4. My first 'real' job was at Old Tucson, a movie studio-cum-amusement park in Arizona. I drove a tour train around the town giving a speech about all of the movies that were filmed there. Fun job for a teenager.

5. I have worked for a bank for over ten years, and am the only person I've met there (at least in management) with full-sleeve tattoos. I also have Mr. Gosh on my right leg (done by the Hart and Huntington studio in the Palms Casino).

6. Being towed by a friend driving a hatchback, I have done 55MPH in a shopping cart. And I have the scars to prove it.

7. Before pulling my head out of my ass and figuring out what I was going to do with my life, I spent about five months in my seventeenth year homeless in Portland, OR, sleeping on the banks of the Clackamas river, or on random couches, or backyards of vacant houses, or the backseats of cars, or a wildlife preserve that inexplicably sits in the middle of the city. I'm sure there's a story in there, somewhere...

OK, not sure who hasn't been tagged, or who regurly reads this; but, stabbing in the dark:


Side rant:

I'm livid with Blogger...I spent four hours messing with Blogger themes this weekend, four hours that could have been spent writing. I can't seem to get any themes I like to work properly, so I'll probably keep this one for a while and change some of the side nav stuff...blogger seems to have problems with the blogger roll widget, and there are several blogs I want to add that won't show up (mostly some Wordpress and Livejournal blogs), so I'm having to track everyone's blogs (I follow about 25 or so) in Outlook. End rant. Sorry, had to vent.

**Updated...forgot the linkies to the bloggies...***

6 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

"I'm just not that interesting"?

Mr. Brooks...next to you, I'm plain yogurt.

Cate Gardner said...

OMG! 55mph in a shopping cart, your first job, and you were homeless. I have no doubt every story your write is going to be brilliant.

I hang my head in shame at my lame answers.

Fox Lee said...

I still shiver at the scorpians : P

Jeremy D Brooks said...

yeah, it's mostly not stuff to be proud of, but it makes good party conversation.

We were only able to sustain 55 for about ten seconds, and the little wheels exploded...luckily I was wearing a thick leather jacket, but unfortunately, when I was doing a high-speed roll/slide thing after it kicked out from under me (like CNN motorcycle wreck footage), my jacket pulled up and gave me a road rash the size of a dinner plate.

Obviously, I was a pretty smart kid who probably shouldn't have lived to 25.

Jamie Eyberg said...

You have lead a much more interesting life than I have and I thought I had some marvelous misadventures.

Robert said...

I use Google Reader to keep up with blogs and news articles from Publishers Weekly and New York Times -- it seems to work well, and loads nicely on my Blackberry, where I can breeze through the title or first paragraph of a news article and star it to come back later if I think it'll be worth reading.