Five Things You Don't Know About Me

You may have seen this post title circulating around other blogs. It appears I have been tagged for this now by DM Osbon, so as a good blogging citizen it is my duty to comply.

1 - I used to design video games when I was a kid. Using pencil and paper I would draw up game designs and mail them to video game companies. This last Christmas while visiting my parents in Atlanta, my mom actually dug up this box of old junk that I did when I was a kid and I got to page through the stuff (my savvy mom having made copies, anticipating the potential for future hilarity).

I made a game called "Rushan Special Forces" (I'm not kidding on the spelling), which was basically a blatant rip off of "Rush'n Attack". Later I designed a second game called "Valcor", including primitive level design. Perhaps in a future post I'll scan the pages of my masterpiece and put them up for mockery.

2 - I had a recurring nightmare for over five years. When I started going to college, I would have the same dream once or twice a week. I'd dive into a swimming pool, with friends and family standing around the outside. I'd swim around underwater for a bit, but when I'd come back up for air, there would be a thick block of ice on the surface. I'd scratch and claw at it, trying to get out, but to no avail. The creepiest part was I could see everyone standing around the outside, looking in the pool, watching me drown. Bet an analyst could've had a field day with that one.

3 - I once had a hamster named General Zaroff.

4 - I played the Phantom in a sixth grade production of Phantom of the Opera. This was basically the first time I did any acting, which I continued to enjoy for years afterwards. I think my parents still have a tape of this thing lying around somewhere though: it was hilarious because no one had ever actually seen the show, so there was some guesswork as to the actual plot. We (the thespians) also lipsynched all the songs.

On top of that, I wore white socks with my black pants, cape, and shoes during one of the performances leading my mother to call me "The Phantom in White Socks" for years afterwards. By far the coolest part of doing the show though was getting out of class for an entire day to make the mold for my Phantom mask, along with the piece of latex they'd attach to my face to make me look deformed.

5 - I was a semi finalist in the Nintendo World Championships. Some of you may remember this event in 1990, which was basically an excuse to charge people money to play a machine that, if they were attending the event, they likely already owned. The competition toured all over the country. At any rate, you paid the entry fee and then played in a group of a hundred or so. If you finished in the top seven, you played again, this time in front of the crowd that was watching the competition on big screen TVs, including a play-by-play announcer. I remember the whole thing being slightly nerve wracking, but if you finished in first place out of that group of seven, you became a "semi-finalist", which meant a certificate and a VIP sticker that got you in the door for free the next day.

I got absolutely smoked during the semi-final round, but the cool thing was I got to play all the demo games with a lot fewer people in the convention center. Plus I have a certificate signed by Mario himself.

I now tag Motorcycle Manifesto, Cross Thoughts, jclark.org (get off your lazy butt and update), Last Best Angry Man, and The Uber Dude.