Seven Little Known Facts (About Me)
Category: Unitarian Universalism - General
I haven’t done a meme before, and I usually don’t write a lot of personal detail here. But Jules tagged me and he is cool. So I’m giving this a try! Seven little known facts about me…
1. I played soccer for ten years (age 6-16). Obviously, 16 was a while ago, so when I started coaching a kids’ soccer team this fall, a lot of my friends asked me, “Uh, do you even know how to play soccer?”
2. I went to an all-girls school for middle and high school.
3. Some favorite movies: About a Boy, The Dreamlife of Angels, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
4. I was obsessed with video games as a child, including Mario Brothers, Zelda, Street Fighter and Final Fantasy.
5. My favorite poems in high school were The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
6. I was on the O’Reilly Factor in December of 2001, speaking on behalf of a Harvard student anti-war group.
7. Between high school and college I took a year off, and spent part of the time backpacking around Southeast Asia with a group of teens. Our adventures there included being stranded on an island during a major storm and being rescued by a Thai military battleship!
November 27th, 2007 13:48
Just wanted to say hello and that I really enjoy your blog. You commented on one of my blog posts recently and I just thought I’d return the favor. I really find myself agreeing with everything you have to say.
I read your bio and saw that you studied religion at Harvard. That makes me a bit religious. But I’m happy with what I’m doing. After a stint in neuroscience at the University of Michigan, I’m currently a sociology grad student at Penn State. Sociology of religion is my area of study.
So did you have any contact with Diana Eck? She’s at Harvard and runs the Pluralism Project. I admire her work and what she’s tried to accomplish.
November 27th, 2007 13:56
Thanks for playing along and thanks for the props on me being cool but I think (and most people might agree… particularly my tween daughter) that I’m a pretty big dork.
Nice factoids you’ve provided. I like the O’Reilly Factor one and am so jealous about your backpacking stint through Southeast Asia.
I’ve never told anyone but I secretly dream of doing something similar… train hopping across America with my guitar in tow and meeting Mr & Mrs Americana.
shhh… keep it a secret. it could still happen. I don’t want to jinx myself. ;)
November 27th, 2007 20:23
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for letting me know that you are enjoying the blog.
It sounds like we have a lot in common. I think that the sociology of religion is really exciting field. Diana Eck was my advisor as an undergraduate. She’s a wonderful teacher and researcher. I admire her too.
While at Harvard, I also had the chance to work for Robert Putnam and Dave Campbell, helping research for their upcoming book on religion in contemporary America. This experience gave me a deeper understanding of sociological research methods, and I had a great time.
Please keep me posted on your research (and also if you have any recent sociology of religion book recommendations)!
Julian,
Don’t worry, it’s a secret between you, me, and the readers of this blog. It would be really cool to travel across the US with your guitar (although even then, your daughter would probably think otherwise, since that’s her job). My great grandmother traveled across the US on a Greyhound some half a century ago, so it can be done! Actually, there are a lot of places in this country that I’ve never seen, and would really like to, including the whole Southwest.
November 28th, 2007 01:23
Hello Shelby,
You were on the O’Reilly Factor? I’m sorry. :wink: In any case, I used to be a big Nintendo fan as well. Couldn’t play it very well, but I loved everything about it. And back-packing in Asia? That’s just mad cool! (Am I allowed to say “mad cool” if I’m over 25?) I’m not as adventurous… I’ll stick to English speaking countries, like Australia.
Namaste.
November 28th, 2007 16:09
Hi John,
Since I’m over 25 too, you can use “mad cool” here. (Thanks for the compliment, by the way!) I’ve never been to Australia. Did you get to see the Sydney Opera House?