Thirty days, Day 1

[gridlore]

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

1. Although left-handed, I shoot scoped rifles right-handed due to the way I was trained.


2. I wasn't a baseball fan until the summer when I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of games were televised...


3. General McChrystal, the recently removed commander of our forces in Afghanistan, was my company commander for a few weeks.


4. My toes are long enough and dexterous enough to manipulate tools.


5. I once insulted Ted Nugent to his face, in a room filled with his fans.


6. The suits of BattleDress in GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces are named after my Drill Sergeants


7. I may well be the pickiest easter on the planet.


8. I developed Thalassophobia late in life. As a kid, it was impossible to get me out of the ocean.


9. For most of my teenage years I slept on an old couch. This was at my request, as it allowed me to set up an old dining table in my room for wargames.


10. The little toe on both my feet curl under the toe next to them. This is a trait in my mother's line.


11. While on a cruise I drew an inside straight playing seven-card stud and won close to a hundred dollars. I was seven, the other players were adults.


12. I have crossed multiple international borders illegally.


13. We went through three wedding rings before realizing that my body rejects jewelery.


14. I was diagnosed with mild Antisocial Personality Disorder while in the Army.


15. I have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show over 700 times in the theater.

Comments

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Wow! What happened with the Nuge?

[benkenobigal.livejournal.com]

I second notthebddha's comment. I'm terribly curious about what you said to Ted. :)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

This was when my cousin was married to Tommy Shaw, and Tommy and Ted were in Damn Yankees together. We had gone to see them, and got to go backstage. Tommy wasn't feeling well, so had left already but we were put into a room to meet Ted Nugent.

I like his music, but have no respect for him (and this was before his career as a right-wing radio moron.) Watching fan after fan just gush into the gaping maw of his ego was getting annoying. It was soon our turn to meet him, and I simply said "Great show sir" (it was, Damn Yankees with Bad Company opening) and he goes off on how DY is the best show out there on the road. I couldn't help myself.

"Well, except for the Grateful Dead."

The room went silent. The look Ted gave me was priceless. People were absolutely shocked that I had dared to mention another band to the Nuge. He made a comment about members of the Dead still dying of drug overdoses. Posed for pictures, and we left.

I really wish we had more time with him. I wanted to know if he had ever gone to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington and tried to figure which one of those names went in his place when he dodged the draft by pretending to be crazy.

[rickvs.livejournal.com]

I understand that these days, Mr. Nugent is claiming that his crazy-draft-board story was a lie he told to ease the boredom of going through umpty-ump interviews, back in the day. Not sure which version I believe, but I don't have much use for the guy regardless.

[benkenobigal.livejournal.com]

I would have paid good money to see his face if you'd asked him. He's not really my favorite person, though he can play guitar.

[claidheamhmor]

Why did you learn to shoot right-handed?

When I was in the military, I shot a rifle left-handed, and always found it disconcerting having hot shell-casings popping out in front of my nose.

Nice pic, BTW.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

My sniper training was done by the Marine Corps, and they taught us to shoot right-handed. I adapted. To this day I shoot left-handed unless I'm using a scoped rifle, then I switch.

The M-16A1 ejects brass back and up. I had a semi-permanent burn above my right eyebrow for most of Infantry OSUT.

[claidheamhmor]

Was that characteristic of the M16? We used the R-4, which was essentially a clone of the Israeli Galil, and that ejected to the right.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Every single M-16 I ever fired had that characteristic, and the Army even had a brass deflector that you could attach to solve the problem. There were never enough to go around, and you couldn't use it with a NVS attached or if you happened to be firing a 16 with the M-203 Grenade Launcher attached, so most people just got used to the "friendly fire" of hot casings.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

I once insulted Ted Nugent to his face, in a room filled with his fans.

And I salute you.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

I may well be the pickiest easter on the planet.
That is really tricky being an Atheist!