The original instructions from the Facebook meme:
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
The list itself:
I was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and grew up in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. I still want to travel through South America, India, Australia, and Antarctica.
I gave my little sisters haircuts when I was about four or five. I did not do a good job.
One of my favorite books of all time is Charlotte’s Web.
When I was in the third or fourth grade, I wrote a letter to President Carter. I was thrilled to receive a thick packet in the mail from the White House a couple months later.
My favorite toy growing up was the Texas Instruments Speak & Spell that my dad bought on a trip to the U.S. in the 1980s. (I’ve since found one for my daughters on eBay.)
My first album was a copy of REO Speedwagon’s Hi Infidelity (taped for me by a Menonnite missionary kid who had to use a marker to black out the LP cover model’s skin). The first cassette I bought with my own money was The Police’s Synchronicity. No, I did not get to see them on their reunion tour.
I will never forget how to spell “delicious” and “twelfth” (two words that I misspelled in bees) or “megalopolis” and “ottoman” (the two words on which I won).
When I was in elementary school, I wanted to become a paleontologist or open-heart surgeon (because of biographies of Roy Chapman Andrews and Christiaan Barnard) until I had a taste of (programming) an Apple (][ plus, to be precise).
In 1983, when I was in seventh grade, I wrote Apple with an offer to write software for their $9,995 Lisa computer if they would give me one. I got a letter back from their “Kids Can’t Wait” division.
In 1985, I was (I believe) the first American-born Korean to visit North Korea. My wife still occasionally suspects that I am a spy.
I got my first email account in 1986, on the TWiCS Beeline BBS in Japan.
I failed a couple of math tests in the fall semester of Algebra II/Trigonometry, so I spent the winter vacation figuring out what I had done wrong. After that, math became one of my favorite subjects. Differential equations with theory at MIT with a European graduate student whose accent I had a hard time deciphering cured my fever.
I once asked my high school social studies teacher in a moment of frustration, “What is history good for?” (My doctoral dissertation was an exercise in historical linguistics.)
My first “real” concert was Wynton Marsalis. My second concert was Metallica (the … And Justice For All tour, spring 1989). My ears rang for days afterwards, probably because I took out my earplugs about halfway through the show.
If I were stranded on the proverbial deserted island, and could only have one record with me, it would be Phil Keaggy’s Beyond Nature (bonus: the recording engineer’s notes!)
I first studied the ancient Canaanite language of Ugaritic with a Chinese professor, using grammars (Gordon, Segert, and Sivan) written in English and a glossary that was in Spanish.
I watched the first two Anne of Green Gables movies in preparation for my honeymoon on Prince Edward Island.
I once spent about six months researching and thinking about one word (“city”).
I make a mean kimchi jjigae and bulgogi.
I’ve eaten camel (in the Western Sahara [note: I did not eat any of the ones pictured]) and eaten dog and drunk fermented horse milk (in Central Asia).
My dream car used to be the Acura NSX. Now I enjoy driving a Honda Odyssey.
I’m a proud alumnus of Big Nerd Ranch (specifically, their Objective-C and Cocoa Boot Camp).
I am a Mac hero! :)
I’ve made peace with the fact that I will never find all the answers I seek, so I’ve learned to really appreciate the questions.
I haven’t felt lonely since I met Keren. I still sometimes can’t believe that I convinced her to marry me!
We now return you to your irregularly scheduled programming…
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