My dear friend Mike recently posted on his blog a list of six random things about himself. Apparently this post was because he was tagged to do so in a blog from a friend of his. Mike then said, "But, I don't really know a lot of people who blog, so I don't think I'll be passing it on. Sorry!". Thanks a lot Mike. But to make you feel better, I'm posting my six random facts here, so you can enjoy strange and interesting things about me and my life. Here we go:
1. I share a birthday with Michael Jordan. I know, what a silly thing to be proud of. As a matter of fact a quick check on Wikipedia shows that I also share it with Bonnie Wright (the actress who plays Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Rene Russo, Rick Majerus (Former Utah basketball coach), Jim Brown (one heck of a running back back in the day), Frederick Douglass, and Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (among others). Besides that, my birthday present in 2009 is the end of analog television broadcasts in the United States. Amber herself shares a birthday with Julia Stiles, Vince Vaughn, Byron Scott, Reba McEntire, and Utah's own Jerry Sloan, along with many others. So what's special about Mike? Well, when I was in third grade and His Airness was the king of the free world, I was given a tee shirt for my birthday and on that tee shirt were stats about Michael Jordan, including his birthday, which to my surprise, was the same as mine, exactly twenty years earlier. Since that day I've been happy to know I've shared a special day each year with the greatest basketball player to play the game (even though I did hate him for beating the Jazz in the NBA Finals two years straight.
2. I am a HUGE computer geek. No I mean HUGE. I'm sure many of you knew this already, but I've been into computers for a long time and I've always enjoyed the fact that they are so neat as toys and so powerful. I'm a geek to the extreme. I'm in a class right now where I'm building a computer. Not in the way that some of you may think where you go to somewhere such as newegg.com and buy parts. I mean I wire every connection from the processor to other parts such as the clock generator, the RAM, the ROM, the programmable interval timer, the PPI, etc. That's how nerdy I am. I write assembly code. I get excited when my favorite text editor has syntax highlighting for a new programming language I'm learning. I know what a "linux distribution" is, I've discussed with people which is best, and I've even tried probably 4-5 different ones for myself. I have a computer at work that can boot to one of three, THREE different operating systems. I come home and tell Amber all about my nerdy homework. I'm a geek through and through. But at least I'm not trying to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout like my favorite mission companion. If any of what I just said made actual sense to you, welcome to the nerd club.
3. I am married to the most wonderful woman on earth. Yes, I know all of you who have women in your life who aren't Amber (they better not be) think they are the best, but all of you are mistaken. Amber Smith Anderson is simply the most amazingly wonderful woman who there could possibly be. Did you know she loves to dance and is pretty good at it? She is a very caring person and always looks out for those around her. She is extremely supportive of me in all that I do. She likes Strong Bad as much as I do. She gets all wrapped up in books and can't put them down, which is really cute. She gives the best hugs ever. She loves me for who I am while helping me to become who I am capable of being. She's good at sports. She likes a lot of the same goofy stuff as I do, particularly "Boy Meets World". Pretty much she's the perfect woman.
4. Yes, I love "Boy Meets World". Cory, Topanga, Shawn, Eric, I love them all. Amber and I have been watching seasons 1-3 on DVD (we borrowed them from our friends, but we would gladly own them), and enjoying ourselves very much. I used to watch it all the time with my brothers on the Disney Channel, along with "Even Stevens", "Lizzie McGuire", "Bug Juice" (which was really fun to make fun of), and other such great shows. Yep, I'm really cool. I'm also a huge fan of "The Wonder Years", and if any of you know how those two shows are connected (aside from being about a boy growing up), good job! I also like Cookie Monster, Tigger, Schoolhouse Rock (Verb! That's what's happening), Amber, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, anything Homestar Runner (especially Strong Bad or Teen Girl Squad), Amber, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Loony Tunes, Harry Potter (in my book Dumbledore is still not of the opposite persuasion), Amber, The Music Man, Dr. Seuss books, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband (Corn dogs, corn dogs, they are so good to me!), corn dogs, the Big Blue Special from A&W, A&W root beer from the restaurant, Butterfingers, Amber, Butterfinger hot chocolate (it really exists), pizza of almost any kind, China, Amber, Chinese food, Chinese (the language - both Mandarin and Cantonese), Chinese people, most Asian stuff, the United States, patriotism, President Bush, Amber, certain Beastie Boys songs (weird...), lots of other random songs from random bands, stuffing, Amber, Linux, my Mom and Dad, my brothers, free stuff, Amber, and most importantly the Lord. The best thing is, Amber feels the same about most if not all of this stuff!
5. During my mission, I lived down the street from a hospital where many of the SARS patients were admitted. Yes, what a claim to fame.
6. Amber and I have a blog that we unfortunately only post to about once every eon or so.
So there you have it. Sorry it took so long to finish, Mike, but you'll get over it. Enjoy!