Eight (8) Random Facts About Me

Guitar blogger JP at Strat-O-Blogster recently tagged me with the blog meme “Eight Random Facts About Me”. For those unfamiliar with blog memes, it’s a question or topic passed from one blog to another. The result is something of a conversation carried across multiple sites. I don’t often talk about myself but I thought this might be a fun way to share a fact or two. To that end, here goes!

1. Hello. I’m Johnny Cash… – That’s right. I wear a lot of black. In fact, it’s all I wear. No, I don’t belong to a secret society, I’m not a vampire and I’ve never been to Fulsom. This started a long time ago and it just stuck. Now, I’m just happy I never have to worry about my clothes matching. Better yet, I can dress in the dark with no worries. Bonus Fact – I’m blind as a bat so dressing in the dark isn’t too far off the mark.

2. The Man Who Laughs – Like Cary at Electric Guitar Review, I’ve had someone tell me I laugh too much! Say what? (With apologies to Victor Hugo for borrowing his title.)

3. Predator III – My cat’s name is Predator and, given the opportunity, he would live up to his name. Unleashed on society, no cat, songbird, small dog or even child would be safe. Fortunately, he remains confined to the house. There he’ll sit – forever dreaming of meals accompanied by fava beans and a nice chianti…

4. “It seems that you’ve been living two lives. One life, you’re Thomas A. Anderson…” – When I’m not my blogging away as my digital self, I work for a large IT services provider as an engineer supporting a platform with $1000/min penalties for down time. Piece of cake, really. 🙂

5. The Man with No Name – Ok, I’m just missing a middle name but most folks find that odd. My dad, rest in peace, had this notion that only rich folks had middle names. Years later, I still don’t have a middle name but then again I’m still not rich. And, did I mention that Matt over at Guitar Stuff also has no middle name? A conspiracy against future guitar bloggers? You decide.

6. Baby Face Finster – Anthill Harry and I share the fact that no one realizes just how old we are. I can’t speak for Anthill but I’m 40 and frequently confused for being in my 20’s. Just a few months ago, a bartender made me wait 20 minutes while she had all the waitresses and kitchen staff check my driver’s license.

7. Rob the Builder – Here’s a trait I share with with Lori over at Play Like a Girl who says “If a task is more than moderately interesting, I’d rather learn how to do it myself than have someone do it for me.” I love learning new things and enjoy the challenge of tackling them on my own. It’s how I got into Information Technology, for example. By now, I’ve taken my share of courses but I’m largely self-taught. The same goes for building a guitar. I came to my first guitar project with an idea and no woodworking experience. I researched, asked questions and then jumped in.

8. Ahoy there maties! – I love boats. I fell in love with being on the water on our honeymoon in Belize. We stayed on a tiny little island in a cabana right on the water taking water taxis to the “main land” which in this case was actually just a larger island. Back home, I spent a couple of summers with a friend learning a bit about sailing. I haven’t had the opportunity to sail in years but I still long for it. Fortunately, we now live very close to the Hudson River in New York and have easy water access. All that’s missing is a boat. Of course, being the kind of person I am (see #7), I’ve been researching how to build a boat for a while. Can anyone guess what my next blog might be?

So that’s it. And, although the rules say I should tag other folks with the meme, I don’t want to put anyone on the spot. Besides, as I’ve looked around, many of the same folks I would consider tagging have already been tagged by fellow guitar bloggers.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this silly bit of fun. Meanwhile, If you want to know about the serious side of this blog and the motivations behind it, I invite you to read my About page.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming…

9 Responses to “Eight (8) Random Facts About Me”

  1. “…I’ve been researching how to build a boat for a while. Can anyone guess what my next blog might be?”

    Building The Ergonomic Boat?

    1. 😀 Maybe not that far off the beaten path but I’m definitely not looking at conventional designs. Mainly, I’ve been looking at catamaran and trimaran designs. Why start with something simple? Some may say there’s a pattern at work here with me…

  2. “Some may say there’s a pattern at work here with me…”

    I concur. 😉

    1. Oh no, Robert, does your wife know you’re here?! And does she know how much time you spend here?! 😉

      Marc

      1. LOL – Fortunately, my lovely wife does indeed know about this place. She even tolerates the hours I spend on “research”.

        Actually, she’s been very supportive of all this right from the start. Whether its been blogging, building my first guitar or obsessing over site minutiae, she has been right there for me. I’m quite a fortunate man.

  3. Great posting. I also don’t use a middlename and have not for 25 years. It’s no longer on my passport or any IDs. Although I’m pretty youthful looking at 45, I admit it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve been carded. And I’m in the tech industry also, over at MySQL. Hmmm….

    –Zack
    http://www.guitarvibe.com

    1. Maybe there is something to my nascent conspiracy theory. 😉

  4. robert, my partner Allen sent me a link to a page on your site that has a very insightfull review of our F-1 pick and X-1 pick grip – thank you! wile i was looking thru your site i came to your lesson sample about “tapping”? and wanted allen to see it. after i’d looked at some other pages and wanted to send it to him, i couldn’t find it again! I guess maybe you rotate them or somthing. could you, when you have the time, send me a link to that, so i can send it to him, i played it to him over the phone and he wanted to see it. or maybe just send it to him direct – i take it you guys are in contact. and thanks again for the glowing review – i hope it provides you endless hrs of less stressfull playing. billy ps i built a 33ft trimaran email me and i’ll send you a picture