10 things

[cellio]

There's a meme going around where you list ten things you've done that most people haven't. I think it started out as "...that no one else reading this has done", but I haven't led a novel-enough life for the number of readers I have. :-)

1. Had a pet rabbit.

2. Took graduate courses in music for credit, without being formally enrolled in the department.

3. Flew to another city to spend a weekend with someone I knew only from the net, and it wasn't in any way romantic.

4. As a college freshman, introduced a professor to a new research area (and it turned out to be productive).

5. Got kicked out of a required class for being a trouble-maker, with no academic reprecussions.

6. Built a house to use for Pennsic. (Well, mostly not personally... :-) )

7. Sued a corporation when there was no money in it for me.

8. Wrote a program to monitor the state of a vending machine and let me know when the Cokes were cold. [See note below.]

9. Attended a party where the host had prepared handouts entitled "what to do if the police show up".

10. Entered every major category in a large SCA arts/sciences competition, just to see if I could.

Edited to add: About the Coke program -- this wasn't the Coke program at CMU, the famous one that allowed you to query the machine from any terminal. First, that pre-dated me; second, I wouldn't have had a clue about the hardware interface anyway. What I wrote was a monitoring program that used the output of the existing program. When the machine was "empty" and I was thirsty, I would fire up the monitor so I'd know as soon as someone started to fill the machine. (An "empty" machine actually contained a few cold Cokes.) Eventually I got added to the list of people with permission to just go fill the machine, but that came later.

And the flip side: ten things I've never done that many people I know probably have:

1. Waited tables.

2. Attended a prom.

3. Played team sports.

4. Held a gun.

5. Intentionally consumed illegal drugs other than alcohol.

6. Driven more than 400 miles by myself.

7. Watched a Three Stooges movie all the way through.

8. Ridden a skateboard or scooter.

9. Left North America.

10. Built a fire.

Comments

[ironangel]

Let's see. I've done 3, 7, and 9 on your "done list", and 2-10 on your "not done" list. :) hmm. wonder what my lists will look like?

[cellio]

I've done 3, 7, and 9 on your "done list"

I'm curious about 7.

[ironangel]

hmm. I think I counted class-action lawsuits from which I got no money due to the size of the class. I have not *personally* sued a corporation.

now I'm curious about your case, if you care to share?

[cellio]

I was the lead plaintiff on a suit against SCA Inc in 1994. They had just taken some egregious actions and vaguely cited a "financial emergency", but would not open their books to the membership. The bylaws said they had to, but when confronted with that they didn't seem to care. I, and several other plaintiffs, wanted to know just what was going on. (Answer: gross incompetence, not fraud.)

All tolled, the corporation wasted something over $70,000 in a failed attempt to keep the organization's true financial status from the membership.

[ironangel]

ah. good job! that does seem pretty...incompetent.