There’s a game of tag circulating it’s way around the blogosphere, and I’m one of those who is currently “it”, thanks to Raymond David Salas of ZenChill.com Power Tools Blog. In all of my time blogging, this is the first time I’ve been tagged like this, so thanks to David for bringing me into the game.

In order to participate, I’m supposed to reveal 5 things that others may not know about me. It’s double extra interesting, since just last night I was reading a post by Tony of Empowerment4life on transparency and being real. It really made me think about my own blog, my own attempts at making my life better and just how open I was being here on Creating a Better Life. Maybe It is trying to tell me something.

So here goes:

  1. When I was in 5th grade, I saved my city’s library system from being shut down. I was quite the little geek back then (not that that’s changed), and I loved books and the public library. The city was planning on budget cuts, and that meant closing down all of the branch libraries in the city. So with the encouragement of my parents, I made a speech at the council meeting about just how important the branch libraries were to us kids. Man, talk about terrified! But the next thing I know, my picture is on the front page of the next day’s paper, and the librarians have it up in the branch closest to my home with the words “Our Hero” under it. The best part for me, though, was that I was suddenly allowed to check out books in the “adult” section. :) They said that if I was mature enough to do what I had done, it was probably OK for me to check out Peter Benchley’s Jaws.
  2. I was in the US Navy, until my drinking got the better of me. It took a long time for me to get over the shame and guilt of being discharged early as a “drug and alcohol rehabilitation failure”, especially considering all of the men and women who have given their lives for our country since then. There’s a scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan that touched me deeply, where Ryan, as an old man, asks his family to reassure him that he has lived a good life. I figure that all I can do now is live the best life that I can, and be an asset to my world rather than a liability.
  3. I met my wife in a chat room on AOL back in 1997. Yup, an AOL chat room. I was living in Bridgeport, CT at that point, and she was in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. It was love at first IM. :) After a (very) long distance romance, I ended up moving to Illinois to live with her, and we married in June of 2000. We are now in Glendale, CA, and there is no one I would rather spend my life with.
  4. I’m a double PK (preacher’s kid). Both my mom and my dad are/were ordained ministers in the United Church of Christ. My dad was the pastor of Olivet Congregational Church until he died in 1990 while on vacation in Florida (he drowned while swimming), and my mom is currently the pastor of the United Church of Christ of Bridgeport. And she reads this blog (hi Mom!) :)
  5. I have a couple of tatoos, the first of which was done as a training exercise for the owner of Lucky Soul Tattoo in Ansonia, CT (Jim). While he was first learning, he started with chicken breasts, then he worked on himself, and he needed someone to ink up for the first time. The part he did is a simple black and white from the cover of the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I’ve added some stuff to it since then, but it’s still fun telling people that I was a successful artist’s first victim.

Wow, that was a lot of info…

Thanks, Raymond, for bringing me into the game. And now it’s time for me to tag 5 others.

I’d like to hear from Christine Kane, Dave Mauder, Steve Pavlina (yup, the big guy), Tony Teegarden, and Gleb Reys (haven’t heard from him for awhile).

Y’all are IT! :)

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