Buhner.com - 100 Things About Me (12/13/03)

100 Things About Me (12/03 Edition)
By Tom Edwards, overlord, Buhner.com

1. I stole this idea from Mark Warren. His website is www.the16thparallel.com.

2. I met Mark online in a IRC room about e-wrestling.

3. E-wrestling is a role playing based game played online based on professional wrestling.

4. Oddly enough, neither Mark nor I have any real interest in pro wrestling anymore.

5. Possibly even odder though, I asked my mother-in-law for a subscription to Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer for my birthday.

6. I hate professional basketball. I used to like it, but once high school players started to be accepted into the league, I lost interest.

7. I like just about any other sport. I follow baseball and football the closest, though.

8. I honestly think, if given the opportunity, I could handle being the general manager of a major league baseball team.

9. If I could pick my profession, regardless of income, general manager of a professional baseball team would be it.

10. #2 would be owner of a music store.

11. I went to Hofstra University on two seperate occasions. The first for two years, and the second for four.

12. I usually don't talk about the first two.

13. I probably never would have gone back to college had I not had an asshole boss and a massive ego. I felt that I was way smarter than he was, and that if I accepted my place under him, then I would probably end up killing myself. I looked at the paperwork that I was doing, and decided that I'd go back to school to be an accountant.

14. I quit the next day, and called my boss a stuttering asshole.

15. He was.

16. My major when I first went to Hofstra was communications. My goal was to be an anchor on SportsCenter.

17. My decision to attend Hofstra was based on the fact that Hofstra was relatively local, offered me a scholarship, and hosted a sports show on SportsChannel.

18. When I went back to Hofstra, almost none of my credits my first two years counted towards an accounting degree.

19. I dropped accounting as a major after three semesters.

20. I took up BCIS (Business Computer Information Systems) as a major after accounting, because I thought it was easy and the accounting (and business) courses I took counted towards the degree.

21. My fourth semester back at Hofstra I sat next to a girl who was a former biochemistry major now majoring in BCIS.

22. I married her three years and nine months later.

23. I originally met her online. She IMed me because she saw in my AOL profile that I went to Hofstra.

24. That was December 28th, 1997, exactly three years and ten months before I married her.

25. She was in a serious relationship at the time.

26. She didn't tell me that.

27. Despite being together in one way or another for all that time, we never really "went out" or were in a relationship until we got engaged.

28. I credit the music of the Dave Matthews Band for getting me through the times when we were apart, and bringing us closer when we were together.

29. I think Dave Matthews is one of the most gifted songwriters that I know.

30. When I was preparing for my wedding, I had two people in mind for my best man.

31. I didn't pick either of them. Instead, I picked my brother-in-law.

32. I don't regret the choice. My brother-in-law is a very good friend and a good man. One of my choices ended up being a groomsman because I wasn't sure if he'd be around come the wedding. The other wasn't, and promptly blew off the wedding.

33. The groomsman I consider probably my best friend (outside of my wife). The other I used to consider my best friend, but I've spoken to him once since the wedding.

34. I've never not lived on Long Island, New York. I've lived now in Bridgehampton, Hempstead, East Meadow, Hampton Bays, and back to Bridgehampton now.

35. I still hold the belief that if I went to a "regular" school and played baseball in junior high school, junior varsity, and varsity, I could have gotten a scholarship to some college to play baseball.

36. My high school didn't have a baseball team, so I was sent to a neighboring high school in a "share program". This program didn't exist until I was in 11th grade. I hadn't played baseball in five years.

37. Baseball hall of famer Carl Yastrzemski went to my high school with my father. The school had a baseball team then.

38. My favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut. My writing is highly influenced by him.

39. My favorite Vonnegut book is "Breakfast Of Champions", although "Player Piano" is right up there along with it.

40. I had never read a Vonnegut book until I picked up "Breakfast Of Champions" out of a display at Tower Records while waiting in line to buy music. I had no idea what it was about.

41. The two male names that were picked out for our child were Nicholas Tyler and Tyler Vaughn. "Vaughn" was a reference to Vonnegut.

42. "Kurt" was also a strong consideration, which was a reference to Vonnegut and also to musician Kurt Cobain.

43. I was driving home from Hofstra on the Long Island Expressway when I found out Kurt Cobain committed suicide.

44. I love caffine, despite the fact that I don't think it affects me that much.

45. I joined the fire department not because of 9/11, but because I had friends in the fire department and thought it would be something my father would have liked.

46. My father passed away from cancer June 7th, 1998. He never saw me graduate college, get married or join the fire department. He won't see my son.

47. My father complained of pain Memorial Day weekend and went to the emergency room. Five hours later, the doctor met with my mother and I and explained how he didn't understand how my father was alive.

48. My dad ended up living six more days in the hospital. His last words to me were to get a job for the summer.

49. My wife never met my father. It's one of her biggest regrets.

50. I have a fascination with Japanese culture. It started because of Japanese pro wrestling.

51. If I didn't meet my wife, I'd probably be in Japan teaching English.

52. I love to travel out of state. Las Vegas is my favorite place to go, though.

53. I'll watch pretty much anything on television related to Las Vegas.

54. My high school graduating class had 9 people in it.

55. I was one of two who were white.

56. I was class valedictorian, which doesn't sound as impressive when you read #54.

57. I first experienced computers when I was five years old in first grade.

58. I was skipped to first grade from kindergarten after four days. I was reportedly supposed to be skipped to second grade soon after, but my mother felt that it would warp me socially.

59. I'm still warped socially, despite her efforts.

60. The first computer I ever used was a Commodore PET. I was introduced to it via a math program. By the time I was six, I was sitting in high school classes in regards to the computers and programming in BASIC.

61. I can still program in BASIC, but that skill's kind of useless now.

62. I used to play pinball while my mom bowled before I was old enough to go to school. I eventually got an award from the bowling league for pinball after beating almost everyone who played me.

63. I once ran an air hockey table for 27 straight games.

64. Despite taking two years worth of communications classes, the closest I ever came to the media was a radio commercial I did while working as a high school intern for a local radio station, and three guest spots on a friend's wrestling radio show.

65. I eat a lot less of every kind of food than I used to, EXCEPT for sushi.

66. If there was a local sushi eating contest, I would enter it. I honestly believe I'd stand a chance.

67. I've eaten a golf ball sized ball of wasabi on a dare.

68. When I was 19, I tore my upper and lower meniscus in my right knee playing softball. I didn't know that I did until I was 26, when I finally got medical insurance and had someone look at it.

69. I broke my middle finger on my right hand twice, and never had it fixed. It can now bend backwards at the knuckle at a 45 degree angle.

70. I don't like candy. If I eat any candy, it's either sour or has some kind of peanut butter content.

71. I was watching a Yankee game one day and decided I needed a favorite player. I didn't want it to be an obvious one, so I picked the guy who crashed into the outfield wall chasing after a fly ball. His name was Jay Buhner.

72. I got the nickname "Buhner" from a guy at college my freshman year who didn't know my name due to my shyness. I wore my Buhner Mariners jersey all the time around the dorm, so he just called me "Buhner".

73. A good percentage of my friends from college thought my name actually _was_ "Tom Buhner".

74. I used to be a very good junior bowler. I've got about a dozen or so bowling trophies from when I was in my teenage years.

75. I've earned varsity letters from three different high schools for four different sports, thanks to share programs; baseball, basketball, bowling, and golf.

76. I was invited to run cross country at Hofstra, but I think just about anyone who played sports in high school was invited.

77. Outside of my wife, I didn't have any other relationship last more than 3 months.

78. I've fallen for two women that were in lesbian relationships at the time.

79. I have a miniscule attention span.

80. My favorite kind of potato chips are Herr's Sour Cream and Onion. I could eat an entire large bag in one sitting.

81. I lick the coating off of chips before I eat them.

82. From the age of 15 to about the age of 25, I wore baseball caps whenever possible. The only time I took off my hat was when I was required to for whatever reason.

83. Despite my wearing baseball caps for almost ten years straight, I'm not bald, nor balding. Baldness has nothing to do with hats. The baldness usually comes before the hat.

84. For about a year or so, I tried growing out my hair. It got past my ears. It looked like shit, because it was (and still is) really thick, and doesn't lay right.

85. My wife (whom I wasn't together with at the time) told me I probably should cut it. I did that day.

86. I have a 12 gauge sterling silver earring in each ear. I only take them out for job interviews.

87. I have a tattoo on my right bicep of kanji which means "gifted and talented father". When my son is born, I'll tattoo the date I lost my father above it and the day my son was born below it.

88. I've had a goatee almost continuiously since 1993. I grew it because I felt I had a babyface. I'm shaving it off after the holiday season just so my wife can see what I look like without facial hair.

89. I have an inch-long scar under my chin from when I fell out of my crib as a baby. You can't see it when the goatee is there.

90. I love game shows, and would love to be on one day. I was invited to an audition for the old ESPN game show "2 Minute Drill", but I didn't pass the written test with a high enough score.

91. When I first started talking to my future wife, she mentioned that she was really good at Jeopardy! After watching the show with her once, she refused to play along with me for a while after that. To this day, she makes me wait to see if she knows the answer first before I answer.

92. I have a Monopoly obsession. I have various Monopoly collectables, and to this day, tell you the entire layout of the board from memory and the rents and costs of each property.

93. I'm a pretty horrible basketball player for several reasons. One of which may be the rim that my parents put in the back yard for me to use growing up. They stated that it was regulation heigh, but in reality, was at least a foot too short, and completely destroyed any shotmaking talent I developed practicing on the home rim.

94. My mother wanted a boy when she was pregnant with me. To ensure this, she only thought of girls names, because by her logic, if she only thought of girls names, she would have a boy.

95. Since there was no name picked out for me, I was named after my father. However, since my father didn't want me to be called "JR" through my life, he changed my middle name to his father's name, guaranteeing a future of confusion.

96. I was originally a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I ended up becoming a fan of the Miami Dolphins football team because my grandmother called me at the age of six before one Christmas and asked me what I wanted. When I told her I wanted a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket, I was told that they didn't have Pittsburgh stuff down in Florida (where she lived), so if I wanted a football jacket, it would have to be Miami. I've been a fan ever since.

97. I once worked as a timekeeper for a professional wrestling show, despite having nothing to keep time with.

98. I was one of the shortest kids in my class until the summer of 1989. I was 6'2" by 11th grade. I haven't grown an inch since.

99. If our child was a girl, her name would have been Chloe Faith.

100. My favorite fruit in the world is a guava, despite the fact that I've never eaten one.