This post is inspired by a Facebook note that has been going around. I thought it would be fun to throw out some stupid facts about myself and see who else can come back with some stupid yet interesting facts about yourselves. I welcome and look forward to your comments.

1. I am superstitious. It pretty much goes against most of what I stand for (logic, fact, etc...). It's mostly with sports. For instance, if I'm going to play basketball, I can't warm up too much or I won't have a good game. I have to work myself into it.

2. I'm not a spiritual person, but I do believe in Karma. I do think the universe tends to balance itself out by rewarding the positive and squashing the negative.

3. In 2006 I took 8 months off work. I was going through a life transition. The state of my company was up in the air. I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in the Phoenix area or move out of state and start over. Plus I was getting a bit burnt out from work. It just felt right. It was quite expensive and on paper it was a terrible decision (mostly financially); but it did wonders for my mental health and I felt rejuvinated when I eventually did go back to work. I highly recommend it to anyone who can get away with it!

4. I am a total metalhead. I love heavy metal. Hard core speed metal, angry thrash metal, it's all good. Some of my favorite bands are Metallica (mostly old Metallica - first three albums), Pantera, Godsmack, Slipknot and Coal Chamber. I've seen all of them. I've lost track of how many times I've seen Metallica. I want to say about 25 times.

5. I'm a huge Packer fan. Most people who know me are quite aware of this.

6. I absolutely hate talking on the phone. If it were a viable option I would never speak on the phone again. Text, email, carrier pidgin, anything other than a phone conversation. Unfortunately with so many friends/family out of state I need to make the periodic phone call to keep in touch.

7. I am claustrophobic. I figured this out when I was in the military. One time while in the field I freaked out when we got gassed. I had to dawn my gas mask and I couldn't take it off for some time. Just the feeling of knowing that my face had to be surrounded by this device wigged me out. This extends to generally being in small, cramped spaces. I deal with it better than I once did; but it still freaks me out.

8. I'm completely ticklish. I can't let anyone touch my feet. If I get a massage the first thing I note is that they will not be touching my feet. They always want to but I insist that they don't. I hate it.

9. I have a ridiculous mastery of 80's music. I can go toe to toe with anyone. I'm a product of the 80's.

10. I am a huge animal lover. I like animals more than people.

I'd like to hear yours...

-Jim

Jim-A-Palooza 3: The Trilogy happened this past weekend. For those who are not familiar with Jim-A-Palooza, this is a party I invented three years ago after I got divorced and bought my current bachelor pad. The name of the party was inspired by the movie Old School with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson. Wilson's character (Mitch) was cheated on by his live-in girlfriend (Juliette Lewis). Mitch moves into a house on campus near a local university which inspires Vaughn and Ferrell to throw Mitch a party to 're-release him into the wild'. The name of the party: Mitch-A-Palooza. Of course this turned into a huge, wild party with the likes of Snoop-Dog entertaining the crowd promptly followed by a beer-bong induced streaking Will Ferrell. The movie is one of my all time favorites, and it seemed fitting that my first solo party should be named 'Jim-A-Palooza'. It was a blast and everyone had great time. So this became an annual tradition. This year in light of the state of the economy and trying to watch my budget I wasn't going to host Jim-A-Palooza. But by popular demand it seemed even more necessary this year. So this past Saturday was the big party... deemed The Trilogy. It was a blast! Everyone had a great time. As always there was pool in the game room, a fire pit in the back yard, spirited games of beer pong going on in the back yard, a limbo contenst (congratulations Chan the man), and Rock Band for musically inclined. Wow. Good times. Lot's of people. I'm guessing around 60 people or so. I was pleased that the cops never came. It was a really beautiful night as far as weather. It was very conducive for hanging out in the back yard. There was much beer, wine, martini's and Tequila consumed. We ran out of beer about midnight or 12:30 so I figured people would start to leave. I was wrong. Instead people made beer runs and got more firewood (good work Crump). So about 1:30 or 2:00 there must have still been 30 or 40 people rocking out. It seemed to gain momentum as the night moved on. I want to say the last people left around 3:30ish. I must say people partied pretty hard and had a good great time! The Trilogy was a huge success. The aftermath the next morning was out of control. No major damage, just a lot of dead soldiers. I mean a LOT. I didn't count, but I'm guessing there were 20 empty bottles of wine, 15 empty cases of beer, 1/2 empty big bottle of Kettle One vodka and 3 empty bottles of Tequila. Tequila was definitely the shot of choice. It took Kelly and I about 4 hours to clean everything to get the house back to it's original state. Like I say, fortunately no major damage. But overall Jim-A-Palooza 3 was huge success!

Preliminary Pictures

-Jim

Modern inventions that we use today is something that I actually think about on a regular basis. Think about the conveniences that we have today and what life would be like without them. Sometimes we take things for granted until we don't have them, even for just a short period of time. Life was a bit different back when I was 12 years old. This inspired me to post what I consider the best inventions in the last 25 years. This was an interesting exercise. It really made me think about what affects our world. Most of my entries are electronics so maybe I have a skewed view on things (he he). I'm curious to see if you agree with my list. I'm also curious to see if anyone has better suggestions that I'm just not thinking of. Here is my list:

10. Energy Drinks I bet a lot of people would disagree with me on this one. Maybe it's because I'm a computer programmer and we have a reputation for downing mass amounts of caffiene. Red Bull's are quite a pick-me-up when you are in a pinch. And how popular are RBV (Reb Bull Vodka's) at the bars?? Yum. Energy AND a buzz, what more could you want?

9. Instant Messaging Not only a great way to keep in touch with friends, but I know I use IM at work for business purposes almost as much as emailing (definitely more than the phone).

8. Viagra Yes, boner pills. Go ahead a laugh! But think about it - what did guys with ED do before Viagra?? Tell me that is not huge (no pun intended).

7. Digital Camera Remember taking pictures with an old school camera? Remember that first time you snapped a photo with a digital camera and you were able to preview the picture on the spot? How cool was that! Remember having to run to Walgreens to get your pictures developed and then some of them didn't come out anyway? That was quite a process. Not to mention the fact that you can easily transer pictures digitally to your PC and upload them to the web.

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