What are five things about yourself that are totally un-mo related? I saw a thread like this on another exmo site and it was fun to read. A good reminder that yes, we have left the morg behind and it doesn't define us, at least not most of the time.

I've played the piano since I was 5, and also played the oboe, bassoon and clarinet. Lots of time as a kid spent practicing when I wanted to play outside instead. Its great now though to have the skill that comes with that much time:)

I have an irrational fear of tsunami's. A friend of mine was washed away in central america when I lived there, I still get bad nightmares when I'm camping near the coast.

I have an equally irrational love of pickled beets. I get panicky when I've eaten through my supply and I have to immediately make some more. I've heard pickle lovers get higher rates of stomach cancer, but oh well, its not an addiction I plan to give up.

I am very very poor. I'm sure there are people on this board who make more in a couple of years than I have in my entire working life lol:) Yet, I've lived in more than 10 countries and have travelled in closer to 60 and feel incredibly rich in experience and life satisfaction. There is a lot of freedom in giving up a career, a mortgage, a car payment, and the need for a lot of stuff and security.

In a major way, I base where I live on the library. I live to read. If and when my public library system is privatized, that will be when I know my life is finished and I'm ready to be compost.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 04:59AM by popolvuh.

Work math problems in the evening to calm down from the days' activities.

Draw copious amounts of flowering plants. Sometimes I will draw one entire flowering plant a day during my spare time. I have the beginnings of a great portfolio because of this.

I rejuvenate in solitude, mostly out in nature, rather than being with people.

I was born 3:20 a.m. and biologically wake up by 3:30 a.m. Good morning world! Yes, I am in bed by 9:00 p.m.

I collect First Day of Issue envelopes.

1. I play piano, string bass, electric bass, violin, and can macgyver my way through cello/viola treble clef if I focus. Years of practice here as well.

2. My dad had gold mines when I was a kid. I can ghetto gold prospect/ pan for/ spot gold ore like nobodys business :)

3. I have a bit of synesthesia. Music, notes, words have a certain hue. When I am painting, colors have a certain shape/feel/sound. Hard to explain, but so happy its there.

4. I love all things lemon.

5. I'll read anything I can get my hands on. Not technical or electronics manuals, but pretty much anything else. At a low estimate, I have about 5000 books in storage plus all the books inside my house. I have an unslakeable thirst for information. One of my dreams as a kid was to be a librarian & live at the library. Unlimited books, woot! I used to be incredibly self conscious about it. Now I just think it rocks :)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 09:59AM by ambivalent exmo.

How exciting!!!

1. Experience with gold suction dredging up to 8". Top side only. Have exchanged gold for food at local store that used a triple beam scale. Panned daily *Waves at amb ex. Gold was at $350 ish.

2. Limitedly attended Stanford for 7th and 8th grade. Stanford research project for mentally gifted children. We were kept in our own group, labeled and coddled.

3. Can skin and tan most critters.

4. Wrote technical manuals for cable harnesses, subcontractor to IBM and Litton. Developed a strain relief part that IBM got the patent for :((

5. FBI jacket from the 70s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 08:20AM by mindlight.

Interesting. I too, was pulled from regular school/ classes to do/be a subject of gifted children studies/groups at an Arizona university. 5-6 times per year, from kindergarten through about 9th grade. Fascinating stuff. Id be interested in hearing more about your experiences.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 10:15AM by ambivalent exmo.

Mindlight and Ambivalent:

That Stanford thing must have been going around: what later became The Columbus Group did the same with with me and about 12 other kids in my elementary school, for the same reason as for you two.

I got a xerox (hah! Yes I am THAT old) of my school records from elem, middle and HS a long time ago from my mom, and in there were some reports from some of those tests and visits.

I bet you could find some stuff on yourselves like that, if you wanted.

1. I am a supertaster/supersmeller (My superpower: I can say or think words like oranges or pickles or whatever, and actually taste that in my mouth with salivation, and can smell it in my nose)

2. I make zombies out of things like Mrs Beasley dolls

3. I sing and have played the violin, but cannot read music

4. I swear. A lot. DHs nickname 4 me is Filthy Little Sailor

5. I collect things I have never seen before and have no real use for, like MOP caviar dishes and Belgian stone axes

1. I play piano and clarinet.

2. I love to cook, and everything from scratch.

3. I love to travel. I have an enormous list of things and places I want to see.

4. I speak enough (or more) French, Spanish, and Hebrew to get by.

5. I love to read. It seems to be a common theme here. I like to learn something every day. I read both fiction and nonfiction, though I'm fairly picky about my fiction genres, mainly mystery, classics, or books that will be classics (The Color Purple, for example).

I'm going to throw in a twist, I'm going to put six things and see if anyone can guess the one that is a lie. :D

1. I have ridden an elephant.

2. I drove big rig trucks throughout the lower 48.

3. I have also played piano since age 5, and from a bit older, trombone, trumpet, and assorted types of clarinets and whistles.

4. I only finished two years of college.

5. I can twirl pizza dough in the air over my head. Valuable life skill right there!

6. I love reading too, speed read a little, and have several bookcases of books too, continuing the trend. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 11:04AM by WinksWinks.

I'm betting you can't read. The book one is the lie.

OMG, you could be right.

But no, actually I haven't had any college.

Ha!

We had a similar thread a few months back and it was fun read.

* piano, guitar - likes jazz piano, drum and bass
* synesthesia - hears colors
* can wiggle both ears, can only snap with left hand
* can drive both left and right hand side vehicles
* will scream like a little girl at the sight of cockroaches

Winkswinks, I didn't even finish 1 year of college rofl :P

What? Not even going to guess which one is a lie?

Cool thread, thanks for starting it.

I love to sing in an amateurish kind of way
I'm a good cook
I saved a family member's life after a freak accident
I have a habit of smooching boxer dogs squarely on the lips
My dad named me after a character in Peter Pan

The homeless one ... because 2 years is a lot of time homeless

?

you must tell.

should I be confident that "freak" was not a person?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 09:46AM by mindlight.

1. When I was in the army, I did a Regimental Command Sgt Major's Challenge: 10 mile run, 35 mile bike, and 15 mile ruck march, under 12 hrs. I was the last person in my battalion to finish, at 11 hours, 47 minutes. I suck at athletics, so one one thought I could do it. To this day, this is one of my proudest accomplishments.

2. I love natural history. My dad raised me roaming the hills of California's gold country. One of my favorite places on the planet is Yosemite, followed by the California State Gold and Mineral Museum.

3. I also love to read and cannot get rid of books I've enjoyed. I will re-read them. My home library is taking over the spare bedrooms.

4. I love animals. If I ever win the lottery, I want to donate to the ASPCA. Hopefully enough for them to build a shelter here in the Seattle area, similar to the one on Animal Cops : Houston.

5. I ride horses even though I have terrible anxiety about it. I love riding and I'm going to push through, and not let anxiety ruin it for me. My discipline of choice is dressage.

Yay for you!!!!!
we are probably in the minority here



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 09:48AM by mindlight.

I don't really think of it as a good thing though. Why "yay!"?
But you have written about being on food stamps, how is that "come so far" without it...?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 11:02AM by WinksWinks.

for Winkswinks - I say Yay because look how far we have come without a degree. Yay for breaking the stereotype that you must get a degree
Yay for breaking the stereotype that without a degree you are stupid

Ambi - Yes, it started very early for me. I was in Sunnyvale , Ca and had testing from the time I can remember. 7th and 8th were particularly exciting with trips to university.
However it had some downsides for sure. With my Asperger's and being kept from "normies" I had it pretty twisted. We were taught early on we were different. My email is public, feel free.
It might be a limited interest subject on here?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 10:17AM by mindlight.

*I went back to school at the age of 41 when my youngest kid started school, earned my nursing degree at 44 and started working for the first time as a professional in a pediatric emergency room that same year.

*Was thrown headfirst over a horse's head at a dead run. He flipped and landed squarely on top of me. I suffered broken ribs and whiplash, and had a bruise the shape of a horse's hindquarters on my chest and abdomen for about a month. The bruise turned really pretty colors as it faded and disappeared.

*I once walked down a really bad-news street with a hooker on a Saturday night. I was working as a concert promoter and was going to fetch dinner for a picky-picky musician. The girl and I just sort of fell into step with one another. We had a great chat while we walked, though our conversation was interpolated by many loud comments by drivers-by....I'm still pretty sure they weren't aimed at me.

*Besides giving IgG to Rabies patients, I once had to give injected immunoglobulin to an entire airplane's worth of people who had been exposed to measles by a fellow passenger.

*I have the odd habit of "collecting" words that sound awesome or feel good when I say them. My current favorites are paraprosdokian, creolize, propinquity, and crepuscular. I keep a running list of them skewered on a hook above my computer.

I voraciously mastered every craft I discovered as a child and have used them all in my current occupation except for sand painting.

I painted a 70' mural at the Salt Palace for the Catholic Bicenntennial of Father's Dominguez and Escalante's arrival in Utah and met a host of Catholic Dignitaries, many of whom shook my hand just a little too long--which I liked.

I love to shale surf down mountains.

I lived on my horses in the mountains when I was young. That was the happiest ever, just me and them. I used to find wild onions and sego lilies and I ate them.

I won two dance contests. The prizes were a paisley shirt, very Carnaby Street, and a Beach Boy wide stripe shirt. This was when rock was young.

I live visually. Unless you do too, you won't know what that is.

I watch my roses from buds until they are old ladies the way most people would marvel at the way their children would grow.
There is a beauty when they are fully open, the yellow center on display or partially hidden by the one petal some roses have that forces the bees to scrape though, and you know tomorrow the petals will be on the ground.

When I would ski at Alta I would tear off through the woods way too fast and just take my chances. Stupid but freeing.

If I posted my email address, would you mind sending me a few pictures of your roses? I love to draw and am currently collecting pictures of roses for my next series of botanical drawings.

For botanical drawings I would need photos of the life cycle of the rose flowers: A rose bud, semi-open flower, and an open flower. Also, a picture of a leaf and how it attaches to the stem.

Please ponder this and let me know.
Sandie

Hi Sandie* I would be happy to send you some photos. I haven't had a lot of luck with close-ups but I will try. I do take photos and use them in my paintings.

Bless your heart! Thank you.

The photos don't have to be extraordinary. Just as long as I can see the distinction between the flower petals (so they don't all run together) they will be fine.

you don't have to photograph the same flower from bud to the fully open flower. A side view of a flower would be great, also.

I can post a drawing on facebook so you can see what I am working on.

violinharvest @ yahoo.com

started back to college at age fifty six, once traveled to Micronesia with four year old child, flew my own sailplane in the White mountains,lived in station wagon in the desert.
my family could not keep me corralled!

Like!

I...
...sing off key. Loudly.
...paint oceanscapes on canvas. Badly.
...meditate.
...cook. Used to have a catering business. I once cooked for a FARMS gathering.
...just started attending the Unitarian Universalist church - no dogma or mention of God and I like the music.

Obviously "come so far" is subjective. I am quite content.
We haven't had the same experiences, so for you, hey I am sorry you never achieved your goal of ... what was it? Oh ya, having a degree. That guarantees you what?

Your distain of Food Stamp recipients is palpable.

LOL, wrong on all counts.

I can live with that :P

bookrat-

I tried to get my records last year... called Stanford and the elementary schools... Just found minor references, such a long time ago. I thought they told me I would be tracked? but I never heard anything.

They were going to get back with me..
The Columbus group?

Maybe this happened to a much bigger group than I thought. Very cool.

There must be some published research regarding the different longitudinal studies, don't you think? Ill check it out.

I love threads like this! It's always so interesting to read other people's responses.


1 - I hitched-hiked across Canada (Victoria to PEI) with a boyfriend when I was about 21. It took 3 months (there and back) and was an amazing experience. The people we met... so friendly, generous and decent. And what a way to see a country. I almost want to do it again.

2 - I won a wilderness survival skills contest when I was 12 years old. There were grown men in the contest... and they were all beaten by a wee girl! nah-nah!

3 - I lived in the UK for five years. It was the dog's bollocks!

4 - I am hard of hearing and have worn hearing aids since I was 34. The cause: loud music, concerts and probably genetics mixed in there too. I still listen to loud music... dumb, eh?

5 - I helped start up a mental health charity for OCD (which I have).

I

sing
Play the Guitar,Saxophone,Clarinet,and am working on the bagpipes
Never went to college
Have been working with the same group for 38 years(started at 19)
Love to cook