Aaron Toponce

I hate Facebook Application requests, and I think more and more of my family and friends are coming to agreeance. To put it bluntly, I'm not interested in taking the "What kind of [insert random noun here] are you?" quiz. I'm not interested in playing YoVille (although my wife seems to enjoy it). I'm not interested in discovering which of my friends are my relatives (I know that already). So, it's no surprise then that I got ignored bing "tagged" in "25 Random Things About Me" about seven times so far.

Fine. I'll give in. 🙂

Well, on my previous blog that used to run under my family name, I blogged 101 things about me. Well, seeing as though that blog is no longer, I'm willing to put them back up here, except just using the top 25 instead of all 101. Also, I'm not going to "tag" anyone on Facebook, because I won't read them anyway, and I find the application requests annoying. However, my blog syndicates to Facebook notes, so if you're interested, you'll see this post under my profile and read it there.

With that, here we go:

1. I suffer from obsessive compulsion disorder in Mathematics and Geometry. For example, I count tiles in the floor as I walk. I won't step on right angles, or even imaginary lines that form from a phsyical right angle. A stack of cards has to form a perfect rectangle. I calculate Pi in my head in different number bases. And so forth.
2. I count in binary on my fingers, not in base 10. This means you'll probably be offended when I'm on the number 4 or 5.
3. I type in the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout, not the standard "QWERTY" layout that is seen on all keyboards.
4. I also type on a Das Keyboard Ultimate, the greatest keyboard manufactured to date.
5. I have played the viola, cello, string bass, bass guitar, standard guitar, drums and saxaphone. I still play the piano.
6. My political views place me slightly left on the communism to neo-liberalism scale , which means I'm more left than the standard US Democratic party. I lean towards the anarchist side of libertarian to authoritarian scale, rather than fascist. This puts me in roughly the same political views as that of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich. Take your test here: http://www.politicalcompass.org/test.
7. I'm so allergic to cats, that while serving a mission for the LDS church, I was in an apartment where a lady had 5 cats, and no ventilation. In 15 minutes, my throat had nearly closed shut, I had broken out in hives and my eyes were swollen shut. My companion had to lead me home, where I downed allergy medicine like it was going out of style. I was approaching Death's door.
8. Oh yeah, I'm Mormon.
9. I also served my LDS mission in the Greater Toronto Area, in Ontario, Canada. Initially, I was called to serve in Montreal, Canada, but they switched me to the Toronto East mission 2 months into my training area. I didn't know why until the next point below.
10. I met Keri, my lovely wife, while serving my mission in Toronto. She was a sister missionary in the same mission as I was. Her mom set us up when we got home, and 5 months later, we were married.
11. I have one child, a daughter, who was adopted. She's currently 15 months old, and a bundle of joy.
12. I am anti-proprietary software. Most readers of my blog recognize this. This means that I don't run Windows, I don't play MP3s, I don't use Microsoft Office, and I don't even run Mac OS X (my wife does though). Yes, there is a world outside of Microsoft and Apple.
13. I have visited 26 of the 50 states, dipped my toes in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and have visited two other countries (Canada and Germany) and one other continent (Europe).
14. I currently own 6 computers, all which are operational and serve at least one function. Because of their power consumption, I take an aggressive stance to preserving power as much as possible (turning the monitors off after 10 min of inactivity, hibernation after 20 minutes of inactivity, etc.).
15. Every bulb in my house is a compact fluorescent. I'm saving 80% of the electricity in light bulbs compared to the previous home owner.
16. I am the organist for my church. I love it, and hope I don't get another responsibility.
17. By profession, I am a Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Solaris and HP-UX system administrator. By hobby, I am a Debian and Ubuntu system administrator and Python programmer.
18. I find women who use Unix-like operating systems sexy, just like other guys who find women driving motorcycles or trucks sexy. Guess what? My wife uses a Unix-based operating system. My wife is sexy.
19. I believe in ghosts (not in the traditional sense of poltergeists or what the movies think they are), UFOs (although I don't believe they've visited us yet, despite all the "sightings" and Area 51) and dinosaurs (although I have a different view of their existence).
20. I am stubborn as a mule, and I come across frank, blunt and slightly offensive when my stubbornness comes out. It's not intentional, it just happens.
21. I believe what a person says first through logical thinking and argument, then through authority and ethics, and lastly through emotion.
22. I studied Latin while serving my LDS mission, and I am studying a language called Lojban- the logical language.
23. I have a deep personal insecurity that people are talking about me behind my back and criticizing my every move, even if they don't know me. It plagues my mind in the grocery store, restaurant, school, work, home and everywhere.
24. I'm usually stuck in second gear, which means I get things done at my own pace. There's no fire, no emergency to my life. I'm fairly care-free and I stop to enjoy the little things along the way.
25. I pace when I talk. Whether it's on the phone, in person or even when talking to myself. Something about pacing and talking- I can't separate the two as hard as I try, which makes it interesting for public speaking engagements, even in church.