The 25 Random Things meme is now a bit passé, but given that today marks the completion of my 25^th year of existence, I somehow felt it would be appropriate to chime in and let the world in on 25 random things about me.

1. I ride my bike as much as possible.
   City living is exciting in its own right, but when it comes to parking, it’s an absolute nightmare.  I got myself a nice bike with street tires, and use it to get around as much as possible.  It’s particularly rewarding on crowded streets, where I am at once flying past the pedestrians and flowing through the backed up street like water through a strainer.
2. I have an unidentified blood clotting disorder.
   I would get bloody noses quite often, so I underwent some medical tests.  After a chemical analysis of my blood, all indicators appeared normal, yet on the ‘gash-the-patient-and-watch-him-bleed-while-counting-the-time-it-takes-until-he-scabs-naturally’ test, it took my blood about 50% longer to coagulate than it should have.  I still have several scars on my arms from where those bleeding tests were administered.
3. My favorite musician is Hans Zimmer.
   He writes film scores (one of my favorite genres of music,) and in my view, his versatility and the power of his music is unparalleled.  I often try to listen for the signature he leaves in much of his music: a distinctive synthesized percussion fill.
4. I have been the recipient of a corporate sponsorship.
   My first year of college, I was involved with some roommates in producing an SNL-type comedy show.  Through some tactful negotiating and unmatched business savvy, we landed a deal with Pizza Pipeline, a local Pizza joint (now defunct.)  They provided us with cash and gift certificates in exchange for some product placement and advertisements in our show.
5. I nearly landed a role in a Belgian made-for-TV movie.
   When I was in first grade while living in Belgium, a talent agency came through the local elementary schools.  I auditioned for them, and got called back to their studio for a second round of auditions.  The line they had me read the most was “Mon père n’est pas mort!  Il est à Manchester!”  I didn’t get the part, but I think I was pretty high on the short list.
6. I have been approached by three Korean media networks.
   In early 2007, I became somewhat of an internet celebrity in Korea because a video I made somehow made it as ‘today’s featured video’ on Korea’s largest video sharing site.  I received a lot of random fan mail, and among the flood of contacts was a reporter from a Korean new website, a producer from KBS (Korea’s PBS) and a Seoul-based radio show.  I got a newspaper article written about me, but the offers to be featured on the TV and radio shows fizzed when they learned I was not currently living in Korea.
7. I have an online entourage in India.  
   In 2005, an Indian guy about my age found me on the internet and we began corresponding.  He introduced me to a lot of his friends, and since then, I’ve gotten to know them well, as we’ve all transitioned from  school to the workforce together, albeit worlds apart.  Most of them live in Kerala, a southern province of India;  I have been invited to their weddings, and have been guaranteed a hero’s welcome to their village should I ever visit.
8. Minnesota Timber wolves center Mark Madsen is my 2^nd cousin.
   That means we have the same great-grandparents: Elmer Madsen and Sarah Ellsworth.  There have been several family reunions where I have met him, but I can’t say with any level of confidence whether or not he would remember me.
9. At one point, I was an accomplished high jumper.
   In 3^rd, 4^th, and 6^th grades, I placed either 1^st or 2^nd in my division for community and school-wide high jump competitions (and still have some of the medals to show for it)  Unfortunately, I peaked in elementary school, and when I tried to pick it back up on the high school track team, it was a dismal failure.
10. I had a blog before you did.
    Well before blogger or wordpress, in the bygone era of 2001, I was involved in running an underground high school newspaper online, using a now extinct web app called Nuke News, which was an early blogging platform. Our operation was by all standards a blogging initiative, although that terms was not yet in our vernacular.
11. I’ve produced a documentary film.
    In 2002, I was part of a team that put together a documentary on Salt Lake City street racing.  We shot interviews with local street racers, listened to people brag about their rap sheets, went onsite to rocky mountain raceways to shoot some races, and got to see a bunch of really nice cars.  The film premiered at the University of Utah student union center, where a respectable amount of people showed up.
12. I’ve been to John Stockton’s house.
    I had a friend who lived in Holladay UT, a part of which (notably Walker Lane) is the harbor for high net worth estates.  While at a party a this friend’s house (circa 1999), she announced that the Stocktons were her neighbors.  Another guy at the party and I wondered if she was bluffing, so we decided to go find out for ourselves.  We marched over to the neighboring house, rang the doorbell, and demanded to see John Stockton.  His wife answered the door with a kid latched on to her leg.  She graciously informed us that they liked to ‘keep things private’ and kindly sent us on our way.  Although I’m pretty sure I caught a glimpse of him when I tried to sneak a peek at the side window.
13. I am a devoted fan of the TV show LOST.
    What I always tell people is that the show can be analyzed in the same way a lengthy novel can.   I have gotten a number of people watching the show, and enjoy discussing the characters, the themes, the narrative elements, etc, in a similar way that we would discuss literature in AP English.  I also contribute to the show’s Korean transcripts on the fan wiki Lostpedia.  And to those who claim the show makes no sense, I recommend doing more than sitting in a mid-season episode…that’s like showing up to a book club meeting late  and not having read the book.
14. I was a resident assistant in the BYU dorms (Deseret Towers.)  
    It seemed like a good stable job to have that would get me room and board for my sophomore year.  It turned out to be one of the best jobs I ever had.  I had a lot of fun with my floor; I certainly wasn’t a drill sergeant when it came to enforcement—I allowed, among many other things,  a full sized arcade game station on the floor.  (police trainer, I believe it was.)  I look back very fondly on that time, and I really came to love all the guys under my care—Shout out to 4Dub, you know who you are!
15. I designed and built the BYU Kennedy Center Lecture archive.
    While employed at the Kennedy Center, one of the largest and most lasting projects I was involved in was using my web design, database, and video skills to revamp the online lecture archive.  While it hasn’t received an enormous amount of attention, I hereby publicly issue the challenge for anyone to show me a comparable media archive from any other academic center, school, or college that rivals the Kennedy Center’s in terms of depth of content, searchability, visual appeal, and ease of use.
16. I’ve had videos of mine displayed on the jumbotron of the Marriott Center.
    My freshman year of college, I was recruited by the student union to produce some fake commercials for an end-of-year spoof forum they were putting on.  I delivered in spades, and got about 5 minutes of air time on the jumbotron’s four large screens in front of an audience of thousands.
17. One of my legs is longer than the other.  
    When I was very young, I broke my leg in a car accident and sustained damage to my bone’s growth zone.  As I got taller, one leg grew faster than the other, so I now wear a lift in my left shoe to compensate for the difference.
18. I’ve been called by some ‘the cross-roads of the universe.’  
    Don’t ask me why, but I have an abnormally high occurrence rate of ‘it’s-a-small-world’ moments.  I can’t count the times that  I’ll meet someone who is friends or associates with someone I know from a completely independent context.  Sometime I will even know someone for a while only to find out after some time that we had a mutual friend all along.  Other times, people I know independent of each other will randomly meet each other and have me as their common friend.  I know these things happens to a lot of people, but I seem to have more stories than most.
19. I attended summer scout camps for seven consecutive years.  
    My first scout camp was at Camp Freedom, Germany, in 1995.  The early years I was just a regular participant, then I got into the junior leadership camps, which eventually lead me to the national camp in Philmont in New Mexico, where I was then called back to be on staff.  My last camp was an experimental startup forged by a disgruntled scoutmaster who was set on showing the rival local camps how things ought to be done.  He recruited me to be the senior patrol leader, based on my Philmont credentials.
20. I love the clarinet.
    I don’t play the clarinet, but if I ever picked up another instrument, it would probably be the clarinet.  I don’t know why really, I think it just has mesmerizing sound that works effectively as a single voice or an ensemble.  When watching movies, I often listen for clarinet parts, and to me, those parts often become the most memorable segments of the score.
21. I can beat-box.
    I may not strike you as the urban hip-hop type (you know, the style that the Republicans are now trying to identify with,) but I can generate a pretty eclectic array of percussion, DJ, and techno sound effects with my mouth and voice.  In fact, a few months ago in St. Charles IL, a co-worker and I brought down the house at the local karaoke club when we did an unplugged vocal + percussion rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean.’
22. I owned tadpoles.
    I had a friend in Belgium who’s family members were the caretakers of a large estate, which included a frog pond.  We would go fishing in the pond, and pull out all kinds of creatures, including tadpoles.  I brought some home in a bucket one day, and after some bartering with my next door neighbor, who also had tadpoles from a different source, I ended up with a nice little aquarium.  Sadly, none of them lasted too long, maybe because I never figured out what I needed to feed them.
23. I feel strangely drawn to Thailand.
    I can’t really explain this one.  I’ve never been to Thailand, don’t have any Thai friends, and know no Thai beyond ‘hello.’  I enjoy Thai food, though I’m no connoisseur; yet despite my essentially complete alienation from the country, there’s something about it that piques my curiosity, and I feel that someday I’ll end up going there for whatever reason only time will tell.
24. My facial hair grows in four different colors. 
    I rarely let my scruff go unattended for longer than a few days, but when it gets long, the whiskers comes through in four distinct varieties:  a thick black, a medium brown, a golden blond, and a fire red.  That’s right, red.  Whatever shred of Irish genes I carry, they come through in one out of every four whiskers.
25. I play the piano by ear.
    I took old-fashioned lessons for a good 8 years, but it wasn’t until I stopped lessons and switched to ‘independent study’ that I really hit my stride.  I’m terrible at reading music, but name a tune, and more often than not, I’ll be able to whip something up (with varying degrees of accuracy.)  Improvisation comes along with the territory, so name a theme or a mood, and I’ll spell it out in music for you.