Potential Energy

I've been tagged!

Without further ado, here's five things you didn't know about me:

1. I learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube when I was 9 years old, and I can still do it, largely without even looking. Note that I didn't say I solved the Rubik's Cube; I just learned how to solve it. I think I spent two bucks on a solution book, which I quickly recouped by charging a quarter a cube to solve them. One time my friend Jimmy messed up his dad's cube, and didn't have time for me to ride my bike over, so I solved it over the phone-- that one cost 50 cents.

You too can learn to solve the Cube, and you don't have to be a genius (or even have two bucks). The complexity is about the same as learning to play one song on the piano. It just involves a lot of finger repetition, a little dexterity, and memorizing a few dozen "moves".

2. I'm a terrible reader. Horrible. I read slowly, I don't retain much of what I read, and I have the attention span of a four-year-old. But, I love books, and I can hardly set foot in the bookstore without buying something. Consequently, I have a house full of books that I've read the first chapter of.

3. Speaking of books, I suffer from this condition, although I doubt it really qualifies as suffering (or a condition). Aren't you glad you asked.

4. Any time I buy something, I immediately tear open the box and start playing with it. Even if it's a gift for someone else. I particularly love putting things together, and within that genre, I really love assembling furniture. I've actually bought furniture I had no need for, just for the pure joy of putting it together. My normal friends, who hate assembling furniture, have learned that not only will I do it for them, but I'll actually be grateful for the opportunity.

5. I do math in my head to calm or distract myself. Usually it's recursive problems or some really long division. For example, while riding my bike up a long grade, I'll distract myself by calculating the slope in centimeters per foot, or how much faster I could go if my wheels were 1/8" larger in diameter. Or, if I can't get to sleep, I'll work on a problem like this: arrange the numbers 1 through 9 in a 3x3 grid such that every row, column, and diagonal add up to the same number. How many solutions are there? How many ways can the 9 digits be arranged? Repeat for a 4x4 grid.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the frightening peak into my life. There's lots more things you don't know about me, but they're best left for another conversation.