Ten Interesting Things About Me

Ah, what a great idea. I hope others do this too:

#1 - Ella Jenkins (children's interactive singer) invited me up on stage for a performance at the Rosemont Horizon. At age 6 I got to sing in front of thousands and thousands of people, and was plastered all over her brochures for years to come.

#2 - I had never broken a bone in my body until my sophmore year in college, when I broke it while sparring with people in my dorm. I blocked a low snap kick badly and spiral broke my first metacarpal in my left hand (bone right below the index finger)

#3 - I set that break myself with a pencil and tape. I didn't see a doctor until a week or so had passed and the swelling didn't go down. I was sparring again within two weeks.

#4 - I've been hit by a car 5 times in 3 years while riding my bike around the campus of the University of Illinois. I've suffered nothing worse than scrapes, and my bike has survived each time (I usually take it with me when I dive)

#5 - Last year I was in a bike accident when my chain slipped off my pedals while I was divebombing down a big hill at my university. I was standing on the pedals at the time, and did a full front flip over the handlebars at about 35 miles per hour. Thanks to jujitsu, I rolled for about 25 feet and walked away with just a badly roadrashed arm and some deep gouges out of my leg from the bike sprocket.

#6 - I am proficient enough with Jujitsu and other eclectic arts (a bit of Kali, Mu-thai, etc) to hold my own in a fight. However, I have still never advanced in belt rank [thanks Sensei! =( ]

#7 - I'm currently in my senior year of college for Electrical Engineering. I will also graduate with a minor in Computer Science. I'm pushing my graduation date back by a semester so I can study abroad in Japan. I have a deep interest in Eastern culture, history, and religion. Despite wanting to travel the world, I have never left the US.

#8 - I learned BASIC at age 5 and was programming RPGs (like Choose Your Own Adventure Style). I was running a BBS at age 12, when we got our first modem and I could run it off my Mac. By age 15, I was hacking and phreaking with the best of them. I am an excellent social engineer and have used it (most noteably to shut off my friend's phone when he bet me I couldn't... in 6th grade). When I graduate I have always wanted to own my own business and work in consumer robotics, space exploration/exploitation (commercial), or nanotechnology.

#9 - I have read many books on Bushido, Shinto, and Taoism. I know the Bible well enough to quote or find the right verse for the right occasion. I have read the Torah and the Qu'ran. I am a Christian, yet I do not belong to any church or organization. I attempt to live my life by the Samurai code - Every day should be lived to the fullest, for tomorrow may never come. I am brutally honest with people and with myself.

#10 - My outlook on life may be changing. I am an adventurer by heart, and while work in an engineering field may be monetarily fulfilling, I have a feeling that I will end up exploring the world and seeing where life takes me. After four years of training to be an electrical engineer, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.