The following is a post that I did on my Facebook page. It’s a “random things” meme that swept through my group of friends. I thought I would post it here since it was something fun to do. I was only suppose to do 25 but ended up doing 30 since I got into a groove. I have plenty more tandom things I could have added.
The meme is after the jump.

1. I broke my Femur bone in my leg when I was 7. I was jumping down a set of hills (that were slick with rain) and did the splits. I remember trying to stand up and falling over. I also remember we were suppose to have spaghetti for dinner that night – I dislike spaghetti. I had a full leg case for several months.
2. I fractured the Radius bone in my arm when I was 26. I was out on a bike ride and fell off due to my own stupidity.
3. Firda and I have know each other since 2000. I was a lurker on her blog for a while, and then emailed her one day when it seem she needed an email. She then started up Quack-O-Matic (a homemade chat application for her blog – since she couldn’t use ICQ or AOL at work) where a group of us chatted. Her aunt was nice enough to fly her to England, then Canada on May 28th, 2004. We were married one year after meeting in person for the first time.
4. Through Quack-O-Matic I also met a couple from Singapore (Nit and Wari) who I’ve kept in touch with and hope to visit someday in the future. Or have them come and visit us.
5. I was born and lived in Cambridge until I was the age of 7. Then we moved to Wilsonville (a small hamlet between Simcoe and Brantford).
6. I am still close friends with people I met on the first day at my new school (after we moved to Wilsonville). I am also a Facebook friend with the first person I met at my new school – Hi Paul! I’m also still close with a large group of friends from high school and they are an amazing group of people!
7. I have moved a total of 18 times in my 33 years on this earth – only two of these were major moves (from Cambridge to Wilsonville and from Waterloo to Stratford). Most of those times were due to being in the co-operative education program at university (meaning I typically went to school for 4 months then worked in industry for 4 months). In this time I’ve lived with a couple dozen housemates – not including the people from my residence in first year university).
8. I have a very visible half-inch diameter birthmark under my left ear. I use to feel self-conscious about it, and wished my parents had it removed when I was younger. Now I rarely remember it’s there.
9. When I meet someone I usually have an “observation period” to figure out the type of person they are. Once I figure that out I’m pretty personable.
10. When I was living with someone (whom I’m not related too my marriage or blood) I attempted to keep my messiness contained to the bedroom. I still try to do that at our house but it very rarely happens – too many books, cameras etc.
11. During my last year of high school people would come into the school and talk about the universities they were attending. Many of these people stressed how much more difficult university was compared to high school. I didn’t believe them until my first year of university! Holy crap!
12. There are times where I am still amazed that I got my degree from university (Bachelors and Masters), that I’m married and am paying mortage on a house (I didn’t want to say own since I don’t). It blows my mind when I think about it.
13. I am half Belgian and half mutt. My dad was born in Belgium and came to Canada at the age of one. My mom’s side of the family are many generation Canadians and are a mix of English and Scottish (these two I know for sure) – there is likely some Irish in there are well.
14. As far as I know I’m the second person on my dad’s side of the family to go to University. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in my distant Belgian past went.
15. I’d like to become a teacher at some point in the future. I enjoyed my Teaching Assistant assignments during my graduate studies.
16. I am both excited and scared about travelling to Indonesia in the future. Excited because I’ll get to meet my in-laws, visit the places where Firda grew up and try out more Indonesia food, but scared because it’s Asia (crazy traffic, large crowds etc.) and the whole cultural shock. I also hope that interracial marriages don’t attract too much attention, and that people won’t think Firda is my “mistress” or something like that. 🙂
17. I’m not a big fan of crowds of people. I like my space. And no I am not claustraphobic. I can handle small enclosed spaces.
18. I’m a media whore. I love media in all forms – books, movies, tv shows, music, video games, etc.
19. I’m also a pack rat (which I inherited from my father). This means that our house is bursting at the seams with hundreds (and maybe thousands) of books, about 700 music CDs, around 300 DVDs, a crap load of video games, a couple hundred vinyl records – not to count the 300 hundred cameras that Firda owns.
20. I love playing video games. I have a Wii, PS2, PS3 and XBox. I don’t pay mind to people who claim that video games are not a vaild form of entertainment and are rotting our culture.
21. I find it very hard to deal with people who are ignorant, hypocritical, racist or self-righteous. I will never be friend with people who posess any of these traits.
22. I have a weird sense of humour – that many of my friends also possess.
23. I was raised as a member of the United Church. While I am not a religious person and haven’t been to church in years,I am thankful that I was raised in the United Church – since the basis of their belief are based on the teachings of Jesus with the main one being “treat everyone as you would like to be treated”.
24. I’m unsure about what happens to us after we die. The only certainty I know is that our energy cannot be destroyed and that this energy will be around in one form or another forever. This is good enough for me.
25.The book that altered my way of thinking about life and death is named Stardust by John Gribbin. It’s a pure science book which explains that all life and all matter in the universe is made up of star dust – we are all made of stars. (To break it down in simple terms – all chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium were produced inside stars and expelled when the stars explode). This way of thinking ties back into fact 24.
26. Interest fact #26! There are more things I want to touch on so I’m going to go over the 25 limit.
27. My parents own a cottage in South River, Ontario. The cottage was built by my grandfather starting in the 1960’s. When I was younger the cottage had no electric, no running water (meaning no indoor toilets) and no phone line. We have electricity, running water (including a toilet) and a phone line. We usually open the cottage in May and close it in November (since it is not insulated and can get pretty cold).
28. I enjoy cheesy horror movies. Especially the ones that don’t try to take themselves seriously (like Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, and Dance of the Dead).
29. I like taking road trips (with Firda and friends) – the only thing I don’t like is the kilometers it puts on my car.
30. I’ve been to 9 of the 10 Canadian provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador is the only one I haven’t had the chance to visit.