Five things you don’t know about me

January 3 2007

OK, there's a meme going around on the blogs, and I've been "tagged" thrice on it -- Michael, Richi, and Catherine.  I sat on it a while -- wasn't sure if there were really five things about me I hadn't already blogged.  But here are some.  Thus, without further ado, here are five things you don't know about me...

  1. I was on the student congress (congressional debate) team in high school.  Yes, I've been this argumentative all my life.  I really enjoyed this activity, and won several awards at the time.  It's funny to think about some of the "legislation" I authored, including my annual attempt to have us debate why the US needed to enact the metric system.  The other recollection from those days that I dwell on was our reliance on "power quotes", typically taken from my very dogeared copy of Peter's Quotations.  With all the content being created in the world today, by Time's Person of the Year even, I wonder how future generations will compile reference books of quotations.  Whose quotes are relevant and whose aren't?
  2. I played for Bobby Knight,  the winningest coach in NCAA history, in 1990.   Yes, on one fateful day at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Coach Knight rotated over and directed the Pep Band during a commercial time-out.
  3. My first car was a 1976 Mustang II Ghia hand-me-down from dad.  It eventually had the Fred Flinstone feature -- the floorboards beneath the passenger seat rusted through, and you could put your foot directly on the ground from inside the car.  The electrical system was a disaster from the start.  But that V8 -- wow.
  4. I am such a travel geek that I collect model airplanes -- little diecast or plastic models of every airline that I've flown (except the small handful that don't appear to sell scale models).  I also have a collection of old airline decals, those stickers that use to adorn luggage.  And I keep the boarding passes for every flight, eventually hoping to make a collage out of them.
  5. I went skiing for the first time in my life last month.

And apparently, the next step in this meme is to tag someone else... l nominate Nathan Freeman, Darren Adams, Rob Wunderlich, John Roling, and Crystal Coex.

Ed Brill Chicago, IL USA Category:  People  Add/View Comments [24]

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  1. 1  Wild Bill http://www.billbuchan.com | 1/3/2007 11:41:16 AM

    Actually, nerd that I am, I have collected every boarding pass for the last 10 years. At one stage, I enlisted the Sprog (daughter) and one of her friends to try and make something interesting. Well. It wasnt. So back in the boxes they went...

    ---* Bill

  1. 2  Patrick McAllister  | 1/3/2007 1:30:16 PM

    I used to collect the pilot's wings they'd give you back in the day...still have some from now mostly defunct airlines (Eastern for one)...

  1. 3  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 1/3/2007 2:41:29 PM

    Congrats on joining the ranks of winter sports enthusiasts. :) When my partner told me I was going to strap two pieces of wood and metal on my feet and fling myself off the side of a mountain -- and it would be fun -- I was more than a little skeptical. I love it now, though.

  1. 4  Bob Balaban http://www.lotus.com/notesforsap | 1/3/2007 4:40:21 PM

    I started saving all my boarding passes many years ago, after receiving one of those "You may already be a winner" class-action-lawsuit notifications.

    It said that if I could prove that I'd taken a certain number of flights on a certain airline in a certain time window, then indeed I would be a "winner" of some cash.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't prove it. But, if it ever happens again, I will be able to!

  1. 5  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 1/3/2007 4:45:48 PM

    I collect emails and old mail files, I can't part with them :-)

  1. 6  Richard  | 1/3/2007 4:52:53 PM

    "..I went skiing for the first time in my life last month.

    .."

    And did you enjoy it? I was a late starter in winter sports but now love it. 1 week (3 flights & 19hrs of travel) to go until my 2 week ski trip to Aspen :)

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/3/2007 6:22:05 PM

    @6 had a fantastic time, even though it was a bit of a daredevil day in that I had no lessons and we ended up on something harder than a "bunny hill". Already working on a next opportunity to get on the skis...

  1. 8  Kurt B http://www.onthehoist.com | 1/3/2007 6:56:03 PM

    Where did you find snow? There's none in the east ;-)

  1. 9  Simon Barratt http://apps.fmc.com/blog.nsf | 1/3/2007 7:28:00 PM

    Ed, is winningest really a real word? Firefox spell check does not think so?

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/3/2007 7:35:19 PM

    @9 the Notes spell checker doesn't think so, but Dictionary.com says yes: { Link }

  1. 11  Mike Lazar  | 1/3/2007 8:06:09 PM

    Ed -- Where'd you go? Not around here to Wilmot, Villa Olivia, or one of the other "hills", right?

  1. 12  UIrich Krause http://www.eknori.de | 1/3/2007 11:24:37 PM

    I collect denials. Denials of my travel requests for Lotusphere. I already have 3. Maybe there be more to come in the future ...

  1. 13  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 1/3/2007 11:44:36 PM

    @7 - We have a sleep sofa available in Tahoe (Jan 6 - 13) and Whistler (Feb 4 - 11). I'll even give you first dibs for Tahoe 2008 and make a sacrifice and go in late February since I know you're probably swamped with Lotusphere stuff throughout January. If nothing else file it away for future reference. :-)

  1. 14  Roger Hintz  | 1/4/2007 5:25:28 AM

    Ed,

    Add another book to your list: "Breakthrough on Skis: Getting Out of the Intermediate Rut" by Lito Tejada Flores ({ Link } While you may or may not consider yourself an intermediate skier yet, this book easily explains the mechanics to creating good habits while skiing and will make it much more enjoyable next time out.

  1. 15  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 1/4/2007 7:07:21 AM

    When I was graduating college my buddies roommate lined his walls with denial letters from law schools and job applications.

    So later on I collected some of mine, in fact I have the original advertisment from the ny times from Lotus circa 1993 which I applied to with no reply.

    Then in 1998 when i was working at Lotus I found the people who were the contact at the time and told them the story.

  1. 16  Ben Langhinrichs http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog | 1/4/2007 2:05:53 PM

    She didn't want to at first, but Crystal Coex has posted her list. I thought I'd mention it, as she had to do it on my blog, as she doesn't have her own.

  1. 17  Kevin Mort  | 1/4/2007 4:27:17 PM

    I do believe I remember that IU game, pretty cool thing Coach did there...those were the days indeed. Nothing like the crowd at Assembly Hall.

    On the travel side, being a Rush fan, I do have my requisite YYZ tag ...sits next to my bobble heads of the band.

    Kevin.

  1. 18  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 1/4/2007 10:36:59 PM

    @17 LOL. I'm from Toronto, and I have to tell you, tons of people that live there and like Rush, never understood that YYZ is the airport code!

  1. 19  Dave Harris  | 1/5/2007 5:08:06 AM

    @19 I can't believe that, Alan, my brother who's a Rush fan as well managed to drum that into me in the UK before I left high school ;o)

  1. 20  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/5/2007 5:37:53 AM

    @13 Wow! I have a ways to go before I'd want to attempt skiing in Tahoe. And yes, January's usually not so good for me to get away :-P

  1. 21  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 1/5/2007 8:36:37 AM

    Tahoe isn't so intimidating. My partner, myself, and the five or six friends we've introduced to skiing all learned in Tahoe. They do have green slopes there, but you have to graduate to blues to get the good views of the Lake. :-) I'll put up some pictures on my Flickr site after I get back.

  1. 22  Kevin Mort  | 1/5/2007 3:24:03 PM

    @18 - That is funny Alan. I would think that is one of those "understood" things in Toronto. Go figure.

    I recall some friends of mine and I were on a bus in Ocean City, Maryland...the bus number of course, 2112. We all rather enjoyed that. : )

    Kevin.

  1. 23  Nathan T. Freeman http://www.openntf.org/nathan/escape.nsf | 1/6/2007 2:41:13 PM

    @18 - Geddy has actually stated that the frenetic pace of the song is intended to convey people travelling through an airport.

    Maybe Bruce and I can rock out a few bars of why-why-zed at the Jamfest. Don't expect the bass breaks, though. Mr. Weinrib is definitely out of my league.

  1. 24  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 1/6/2007 3:17:32 PM

    @23. Ah, that's it dammit!

    I'm missing Lotusphere. Bad.

    I'm missing catching up with everyone. Very bad.

    I'm missing out on the buzz and the cool info. Indescribably bad.

    And now, NOW there's talk of playing YYZ at Jamfest??

    ARGH!

    :o)