1. I was born and raised in Northwest Georgia.
2. I am right-handed.
3. I have one brother, older.
4. I am married.
5. I remember the first thing I ever read: the 1975 Sears Wish Book.
6. I fell and blacked both eyes in the elementary school playground.
7. I have been a youth minister.
8. I attended four colleges in five years for one degree.
9. I was considered gifted in elementary school.
10. I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up.
11. I wanted to go to Space Camp when I was little.
12. I used to love the smell of mimeographed paper.
13. I had braces on my teeth for over three years.
14. I moved to Atlanta in the fall of 1995.
15. I graduated from Berry College in the winter of 1994.
16. I learned how to drive in a light grey 1976 Ford Granada, my first car.
17. I got my first computer in 1982: a Commodore 64.
18. I was born in March of 1972.
19. I have lived through seven presidents, but only remember six of them.
20. I went on a Carribbean Cruise in 1985.
21. I visited Europe in 1992 for the first time and returned ten years later.
22. I have over 750 CDs, at last count.
23. I used to think I was 6′ tall, but now I know I’m 5’11” or so.
24. I had subscriptions to Weekly Reader and National Geographic’s World when I was growing up, but not Highlights.
25. I have maintained a personal website since 1997.
26. I have maintained this weblog – grabbingsand – since 1999.
27. I was allergic to milk, cheese and chocolate through much of my childhood.
28. I took piano lessons for six years.
29. I have a brown belt in taekwondo.
30. I graduated from high school in 1989.
31. I used to avoid fishing with my dad, but now I enjoy it.
32. I have little patience for deliberate ignorance.
33. I worked as a freelance designer at a silkscreen t-shirt shop in Athens, Tennessee. For a health fair, I was asked to place Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man on a t-shirt — complete with a modesty-inducing fig leaf.
34. I have directed three Shakespearean plays: Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest and Love’s Labour’s Lost.
35. I got my first 45rpm record from my brother in 1980: Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Ol’ Lang Syne”
36. I want to visit India.
37. I pledged to Alpha Psi Omega, an honorary dramatics society, when I was in college. A society, mind you … not a fraternity.
38. I have brown eyes.
39. I lettered in high school — an academic letter for quiz bowl team. I still have the jacket.
40. I saw all three Star Wars films in the theatre during their original release.
41. I saw my first “real” play at the Chattanooga Little Theatre in elementary school: The Miracle Worker.
42. I volunteered at Dragoncon, a science fiction convention in Atlanta, from 2000 to 2004. In 2005, I attended with a press pass from JIVE Magazine.
43. I was Berry College Theatre Company’s Actor of the Year in 1992.
44. I learned a few years ago that my first girlfriend married her stepdad after the death of her mother.
45. I used to stay up late on Saturday nights to watch Doctor Who on Georgia Public Television.
46. I had my first kiss behind a red fire truck during a church field trip to the Rossville Fire Department.
47. I can read some French, but I am far from fluent.
48. I thought I was a Republican in high school, but I wasn’t. I just didn’t like Michael Dukakis.
49. I wanted bell bottom jeans when I was little because the flares reminded me of the legs on a Shogun Warrior.
50. I used to get carsick riding the van to kindergarten.
51. I taught myself how to drive a stick shift.
52. I miss a handful of people from high school — the rest can stay missing.
53. I have always been fascinated with time travel.
54. I love theoretical physics, but I am horrible at complex math.
55. I work for a massive corporation.
56. I can have a decent conversation with almost anybody about almost anything.
57. I would never make a good vegetarian.
58. I was fired from the young men’s department of Belk for failing to meet my sales quota. I have no regrets about this.
59. I haven’t been in a fist fight since junior high school.
60. I have been downsized or laid-off at least five times since 1995.
61. I used to own the complete catalog of Queen albums — they all went missing in 2001.
62. I saw the Statler Brothers at the UTC Arena when I was ten or so — that was my first concert.
63. I was a Boy Scout, though I quit shortly after getting my Tenderfoot badge.
64. I always associate potato soup with Sunday afternoons and 60 Minutes on CBS.
65. I can be quite persuasive when I want to be.
66. I try to maintain a very long fuse on my temper.
67. I broke my nose when I was six or so, falling out of a camper.
68. I played Abraham Lincoln in an elementary school pageant of American music.
69. I had nightmares about Count Dracula coming after me with a hammer when I was small.
70. I got my first email address in 1993 – America On-Line.
71. I have never smoked marijuana, though I see no reason for it to be illegal.
72. I love fresh apples from Ellijay, Georgia – crisp and tart and juicy.
73. I like to people watch in public places like parks and shopping malls.
74. I might be addicted to caffeine, or perhaps I just really, really like coffee.
75. I’ve got soul, though it is not always obvious to the casual observer.
76. I can tell I am getting sleepy at the PC when my middle finger gets lazy and I start right-clicking everything.
77. I don’t like Mondays — I want to burn the whole day down.
78. I think 80s music stations are for people who don’t really remember the 80s.
79. I saw a UFO when I was about 11 or so — looked like two gray discs attached at the center.
80. I wanted long hair when I was in junior high — it never quite worked out. I blame Richard Marx.
81. I am not as patient as I used to be.
82. I love roadtrips, but I don’t like traffic.
83. I want to live at least a century.
84. I need to write a novel, and I will.
85. I have two favorite made-by-Mom desserts: apple-chocolate-walnut sheet cake and something called cherry swirl.
86. I’ve had contact lenses before, but probably never will again.
87. I have four obvious scars: on my right hand, on my left knee, on my right temple, on my chin.
88. I’ve had one root canal — it was not as bad as everyone said it would be.
89. I like cemetaries, though I fear for their continued existence and use.
90. I don’t deal well with malfunctioning technology.
91. I was an anomaly in high school because my parents were still together while all of my friends had step-parents.
92. I built most of my library of books while I was working at Waldenbooks in Chattanooga — the result of a 33% discount.
93. I was raised in the United Methodist Church.
94. I would’ve liked to have been a beatnik in the Greenwich Village of the 1950s.
95. I wish I could’ve seen the World Trade Center when it was standing.
96. I think pleats on men’s pants should be outlawed.
97. I don’t see politics as a barrier to friendship.
98. I am anxious for my country’s future.
99. I am given hope by the smile of a child.
100. I believe that everything will be okay eventually.

Last edited on February 16, 2005 at 12:51 pm.