Ten Things

[billroper]

Having been tagged for this twice now (once by my wife), I really ought to respond, I suppose.

Rules: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names.

1. I spent two years on Guam twice.
2. I'm an Air Force brat.
3. My mother was a Baptist. My father was a Methodist. I spent two years in an Episcopal school. And all the ministers in the Air Force seem to be Lutherans. As a result, I have little patience for fine doctrinal differences. :)
4. I was kicked out of the choir in junior high school, because I couldn't sing.
5. I think that chocolate-covered potato chips taste just fine. (Stop flinching! They're pretty much like chocolate-covered peanuts.)
6. I've been working for 25 years at a temporary job.
7. I voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Presidential primary.
8. I skipped first grade.
9. I was on the U of I PLATO system starting in 1974 and was on the junior system staff there by 1979.
10. I have a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemistry and an M.M. (Master of Management, which is what Kellogg called their MBA). I have taken one computer course in my life. Naturally, I program computers for a living.

I'm skipping the tagging thing, because I don't send compulsions around, but if you feel like posting for your own (and your friends') amusement, please do!

Comments

[braider.livejournal.com]

I've no idea what 9 means. What's the story behind 8? And 6, for that matter?

[billroper]

The University of Illinois PLATO system was one of the first large networked systems, with terminals not just in Champaign, but at a variety of sites, including Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where I did my undergraduate work. A friend told me about "the computer in the library with the games". It turned out to be even more fun to program. PLATO had chat, notesfiles, and highly interactive games, along with a lot of courseware -- which was what it was built for. It's since been privatized.

I learned to read long before I started school. I spent about a month in first grade before they decided that they needed to move me up, as they weren't actually teaching anything that I didn't already know. The folks at the school wanted to put me into fourth grade; my parents wisely decided that second grade would be quite far enough, thank you.

When I was graduating with my MBA from Northwestern, I was having trouble finding a job. (I'm lousy at interviewing.) One of my professors said that he could take me on to do some programming for him temporarily until I found something else. After I'd been working for him for a month, he discovered that he had spare time for the first time in who knows how long. So he asked me if I wanted to stay. I said, "Sure!" And here I am. :)

Request for advice

[sraun]

swedishsis is moving to Guam in January (unfortunately, I think that link is friends-locked). She'd appreciate any comments, advice, etc., on living there. I realize your experience is probably very out of date, but she'd appreciate anything.

Re: Request for advice

[billroper]

Wow! Unfortunately, it's been nearly 40 years since I was there. That said...

If it has to come from the mainland, it's expensive or unavailable. That's probably a lot less true in these days when produce is shipped up from South America during the winter, but there are a lot fewer people on Guam than there are in the lower 48, so I'm betting that the produce will still be expensive. Milk was reconstituted. Yuck!

Snakes have taken over the place and have caused most of the local birds to become extinct, which is a real shame.

The weather is island tropical, temperatures in the seventies and eighties. There's always the danger of a typhoon during the season; typhoon-proof housing away from the coast is highly desirable.

Agana, the capital, has been extensively built up since I was there. A lot of that is because it's a closer destination for Japanese tourists than Hawaii is, but has many of the same good characteristics.

Does that help?

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I think chocolate-covered potato chips sound *fantastic.* Anyone who doesn't think so has obviously never had PMS. :)

(Cravings for salt-sweet-salt-sweet are common. I was known in my college days to sit on the couch with a bag of Smartfood [salty cheesy popcorn] on one side of me and a bag of M&Ms or York Peppermint Patties on the other...)