It’s time for a lighter, less philosophical post. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now since you all posted yours a month or so ago. So without further ado, here are 50 things about me:

1. I am 31 years old.
2. I’m Chinese.
3. I’m a Christian.
4. I was born in a small town in Iowa where I spent the first 13 years of my life.
5. I have since lived in California, New York and now reside in Minnesota.
6. I knew how to read by the time I started kindergarten. I remember being in first grade where kids were learning the alphabet and the sounds that all the letters made. I remember thinking to myself, “They can’t be serious?”
7. I was a typical Asian kid who excelled in math and science and didn’t really care about social studies and English.
8. Entering high school, I was less than five feet tall. I was also under 100 pounds.
9. I grew nine inches and gained 50 pounds during high school.
10. Aside from one person, the vast majority of my closest friends haven’t been Chinese.
11. I get the strangest looks from people when I tell them that I’m Chinese but most of my relatives live in the Philippines. Living in the US, the supposed melting pot of the world, I find that a weird concept not to understand.
12. I’m extremely introverted.
13. Above all foods, I love Mexican food.
14. My first job out of college was a technical support job which eventually drove me nuts. To this day, it annoys me when the phone rings.
15. I was born and raised Catholic but have always felt more in touch with Protestant beliefs.
16. I’d say I’m fairly athletic and would rate myself as above average in just about every sport.
17. That said, I haven’t been stood on a podium since high school. I don’t excel exceptionally at any one particular sport.
18. I swam on the varsity swim teams in high school and college. I competed primarily in the 50 and 100 sprint events.
19. I vividly remember my first day of swimming lessons. I was maybe six years old and didn’t have a swim suit so they made me wear tighty whiteys in the pool. I remember being embarrased and thinking that I was going to drown.
20. I also used to be in a bowling league. My average was right around 180.
21. For the past two years, I’ve trained just under 20 hours a week but have paid someone to cut my grass.
22. I wonder if I create my own suffering through training because I don’t have enough suffering to endure in my normal, everyday life.
23. I sometimes wonder if God has given me an easy life so far, has given me the time and ability to train and strengthen myself physically and mentally because he later plans to smite me and wants me to be ready to deal with it.
24. Although I enjoy the training and the sport, I think if I could be thin and still eat whatever I wanted to I might stop working out entirely.
25. I guess that makes me pretty vain.
26. I don’t have an eating disorder, but I have disordered eating habits (restricting food intake, calorie counting, preoccupation with food/weight, skipping meals, fasting, rigid food patterns, elimination of certain food groups (esp. meat), not eating with others).
27. I don’t really fear death. I don’t welcome it, but I’m not afraid of it.
28. Other than fish, I never had any pets growing up.
29. I used to play in highly competitive online gaming leagues with practices, matches, rankings and all. I still keep in touch with many of those folks.
30. I’m left handed when I do anything requiring precision (i.e. writing, throwing darts, shooting a basketball) but am right handed for most things requiring more “action” (i.e. throwing a baseball, swinging a bat/golf club, shooting pool).
31. I often mix up the order of numbers as I read them - I wonder if I’m partially dyslexic and never bothered getting myself checked out.
32. I don’t mind shots and needles but it freaks me out to get anything stuck in my veins.
33. My favorite color for the longest time was blue, but now it’s red.
34. I live very much in either the black or the white. There is very little grey for me.
35. I hate sitting in a car for more than a few hours. I’ve bought plane tickets a few times for destinations that were only 4 hour or so away by car.
36. I have a tattoo of Calvin and Hobbes.
37. I am a 3rd. My legal first name is “Arthur” but have always gone by “Chris” as to not get me confused with my father.
38. I can, without any reservation, honestly say that I go to Hooters for the wings. Really. I’ve taken out from Hooters and eaten them at home several times.
39. Unless I’m really exhausted, I find it hard to sleep without the TV or some kind of soft background noise going on.
40. My most useful “toy” in my house would have to be my TiVo (well now, my home grown SageTV digital video recorder). It really annoys me now to have to watch TV with commercials.
41. My favorite snack (at the current moment) are Lay’s Kettle Cooked Jalapeno Chips.
42. If I lost my job, I’d move out of Minnesota in a heart beat.
43. I listen to a wide variety of types of music although my favorite category would have to be rap/hip-hop.
44. When I wake up, my first two steps usually cause my knees to crack - one crack for each leg. They don’t crack after that for the rest of the day.
45. I also voluntarily crack my neck, back and sometimes my knuckles (although not the hands as much anymore). My back will sometimes “pop” as much as 5 times for each direction.
46. Training aside, I generally put things off until the last possible minute.
47. According to Typing Test, I type about 90 words per minute.
48. I’m absolutely horrible with names. If I meet you for the first time, chances are I’ll forget your name before I’m even done talking to you.
49. The domain chivalry.net holds no deeper meaning or value. I picked it back in 1997 because it sounded cool and I’ve always like that middle ages, swords and shields, Lord of the Rings kind of thing. Now I’ve had it too long to switch to something else.
50. I’m glad that this is my last entry because I’ve totally run out of things to write!