Over on Facebook, there is a meme going around, “25 things about me...tagged” in which you write twenty-five random things about yourself, and then tag twenty-five other people to do the same things. The instructions from Facebook say”

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.

(To do this, go to "notes" under the tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) Then click publish.

Well, as you might expect, I’m doing it a little bit differently. I’m writing this as a blog post. My blog is set up to automatically create a note, so it will be up on my blog, show up on Facebook and then I’ll tag people.

Thus, without any further ado, here are twenty-five random things about me.

1. I had a significant speech impediment as a child and studied speech pathology in college.
2. I had a great fifth grade teacher who encouraged me to write. Everyone had to memorize a poem, and I memorized “Sea Fever” by John Masefield because I loved going to the sea so much myself.
3. I had a newspaper route and worked as a caddy as a kid.
4. I was a cub scout and then boy scout.
5. I was in photography club in junior high school.
6. I worked in A-V and the library in high school. I still have a coffee cup that I got one year when we did inventory in the library.
7. I played the saxophone in high school. I played mostly the Bari Sax and played in the wind ensemble, the marching band and the jazz band.
8. I also played the bagpipes, and even went to bagpipe camp one summer.
9. I came in fifth in nation in first year Latin vocabulary when I went to a Junior Classical League convention.
10. I had an Amateur Radio License.
11. I was known for wearing sandals year round in college. Now, thirty years later, people say, “Oh yeah, I remember you. You’re the guy that wore sandals all winter.”
12. I dressed in drag for a Rocky Horror Picture Show.
13. I shaved my head to be the character of Pozzo in the play Waiting for Godot in college.
14. I’ve been tear gassed at an anti-nuclear demonstration.
15. I was into Dungeons and Dragons in college and with a few friends from that circle we competed in collegiate archery tournaments.
16. I moved to New York City after college to become a writer. I had some poems published in various school literary journals and have written one unpublished novel.
17. I started programming computers when I was about ten, going to the office and working on a PDP-8 with 4K of memory. I first connected to the Internet via UUCP on Unix machines at Bell Laboratories I was a consultant in 1982.
18. I spent eight months hitchhiking around the United States and then Europe a few years after college.
19. The uncle of a friend of mine is a Trappist monk and we went down to talk with the monks. I seriously considered becoming a monk and had a great time jogging twelve miles with the abbot as we discussed theology.
20. I used to reverse commute for New York City to work in New Jersey. I would take the train followed by 8 mile bike ride.
21. I’ve jumped out of a plane four times. Each time, the parachute worked.
22. I lived on a boat in the Hudson River for about four years after college. It was great in the summer time, sitting on the back of the boat. But during the winter, I would huddle down with a bottle of scotch and a Russian novel under the covers waiting for Spring.
23. I’ve seen three total solar eclipses. Great fun. Try to go see one if you ever get a chance.
24. Kim and I have had two former Presidential candidates over to our house, not at the same time.
25. Every summer I folk dance with my family at the family stage at Falcon Ridge.