Haven’t done one of these in a while…

What was…

1. …your first grade teacher’s name? Mrs. Lambert. I remember her as being very tall and that she taught us to count to ten in Spanish. She used to refer to Jeremiah Cotton as “Soup and Sandwich Boy” because he was the only person that ordered soup and sandwich for lunch and he ordered it every day. And Mrs. Lambert always reminded me of the “Lambert, the Sheepish Lion” cartoon.
2. …your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? Hm… you know, I’m not sure. Superfriends was on Saturday mornings, right? (Paul once sent me a link to a full schedule of Saturday morning cartoons from the 80s, but I can’t seem to find it.)
3. … the name of your very first best friend? I think in first grade it was Dennis DiLullo. I think this is him.
4. …your favorite breakfast cereal? Like Kelli, we only had healthy cereals at home. Really early on I liked “Cereal Mom Makes” (granola), but in terms of commercial cereals, Cheerios was probably my favorite.
5. …your favorite thing to do after school? Who the heck knows… I don’t have that kind of memory!

I haven’t done one of these in a while…

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it? My first real good best friend (not just someone I called my best friend) was in fourth grade: Brett Joyce. We slept over each other’s house all the time, valued our baseball card collections together, and played a lot of catch in the backyard. We also had a crush on the same girl… eventually I gave up on this girl after I found a picture of her and me taken at a school dance ripped to shreds in her desk. Brett could have her for all I cared. He recorded a tape to give to her, professing his love. I still have this tape. Brett: if you come across this entry somehow, I can probably be bribed to destroy the evidence.

2. Are you still in touch with this person? No. Unfortunately, a couple years later his family moved to Texas and I never heard from him again.

3. Do you have a current close friend? Lots of them.

4. How did you become friends with this person? I don’t really remember… we were definitely in class together… maybe we were on the same baseball team?

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why? Oddly, I’ve lost touch with all but one of the people from my past that I considered my best friend. One of them (7th grade) is in the army and lives in the DC area, but he hasn’t replied to my e-mails. Another (8th grade) I’ve exchanged a couple of e-mails with over the years, but we haven’t seen each other since 1994. Maybe at my 10 year high school reunion. And I’d love to talk to Brett again. I actually wrote him a letter when I was in Vietnam in 1998 to pass the time, intending to hunt him down no matter what when iI got home. I wasn’t able to.

For old time’s sake… a Friday Five.

1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn’t have breakfast, why not? An Alvarado Street Sprouted Whole Wheat Bagel with Tofutti Herb and Chive Better Than Cream Cheese on half and Earth Balance Spread on the other half. Am I dork or what?
2. What’s your favorite cereal? Health Valley Cranberry Crunch cereal. Healthy AND tasty.
3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change? Not frequently. I’ll get lunch out once every week or two and we’ll eat dinner out about once every other week. I like it that way—it keeps us cooking for ourselves while making “eating out” still seem like something special. I don’t understand how people that eat out every night can do it… or afford it.
4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that? I’m thinking about making this ital dish with fried yams from this cookbook. However, I may just have leftovers from last night, an Autumn/Winter Fritatta from Sunlight Cafe. It depends whether Huyen heads out of town tonight or not.
5. What’s your favorite restaurant? Why? Tough choice. It definitely depends on my mood. So, I’ll just point you to a neglected part of my web site.

Oh, what the hell, here’s a Friday Five.

1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why? Even though I was a computer science major, I didn’t enjoy most of the core comp sci classes I took.
2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why? I’ve had a bunch that I really liked, and it’s tough to pick a favorite. In high school I really liked Mr. Moran (Poetry and Short Fiction classes) and Mr. LaBrot (history). In college, I liked Professor Ackermann (Comp Sci, including two individual studies), Hank Lewis (Short Fiction), and Dr. James Farmer (Civil Rights History). They were all teachers that made a strong impression on me or treated me like an equal. Mr. Moran’s classes were just fun and he allowed us to be very open. I still occasionally keep in touch with Mr. LaBrot (who was cool for reasons mentioned here. I keep in frequent touch with Professor Ackermann, as he was the first person at MWC to really see that the Internet was going to become a cultural phenomenon and part of our everyday lives. Hank Lewis was an excellent writer and a super-nice guy that I haven’t talked to a couple of years. We met for lunch in New York a few years back. And, lastly, Dr. James Farmer, who was an integral part of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s… what can I say? Taking a class with a man who was a significant part of the movement was an amazing experience.
3. What is your favorite memory of school? Lunch in high school, hanging out in the dorms in college. And the half-year English classes I took in high school were an excellent alternative to the bland, boring full-year general English classes that the masses took.
4. What was your favorite recess game? I remember in elementary school playing a kind of hybrid game. A group of us would have a tennis ball or racquetball. We’d stand 15 feet back from a brick wall and one person would throw the ball against the wall. As it came flying back at us, we had to catch it. If it touched us, or we missed it, we’d have to run and touch the wall before someone else grabbed the ball and pegged us with it. The odd thing: whether or not you got hit didn’t really matter (other than the inevitable stinging that followed getting thwacked with the ball) — there was no “out” of the game. You just rejoined the group. One funny incident from elementary school that sticks in my head for some reason happened during one of these lunchtime games. One kid named Nick turned to another kid named Brett (my best friend at the time) and said, “Brett — your momma!” Brett looked at him like he was about to attack him. Nick clarified, “No, really, Brett, your momma!” and pointed behind him. Brett’s mom had come to take him to a doctor’s appointment or something.
5. What did you hate most about school? High school: so many things. College: nothing, really. My high school was very sports-oriented (they were third in the country in basketball and were actively recruiting players by the time I graduated), thus there was a heavy jock mentality. A lot of the asshole jocks got away with everything, while the school decided to enforce their bullshit policies on good students that never gave anyone trouble. The principal was a prick, as was the vice principal. I once wrote a short story for class about how the principal lived in the walls of the building and how if he ever actually had to face a student, he’d pee himself. Nice. When I drive by my high school on visits home, I still give the school the bird and say “Thanks for nothing.” Fortunately, I did manage to make a good group of friends that made the days go by a little better.

That makes me sound a tad bitter, doesn’t it? Maybe I’ll have gotten over it by the time my 10 year high school reunion rolls around. Or not.

This week’s F5…

1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? I am a webmaster (appropriate, huh?). This is pretty much exactly what I’d like to be doing right now, so that’s a good thing. I don’t think it’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life, but…
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? I have a Soft Rains entry that has been in-the-making for almost a year now… I’m going to really try to put it up this weekend, so I’ll refrain from answering this question right now.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? My dad was a middle school guidence counselor in Philly for 20 years, then taught fifth grade at an advanced school in Philly (that was, oddly, fifth grade and high school), and now works at a local votech school, easing his way towards retirement. My mom was a math teacher for a bit, then a stay-at-home mom, and then a substitute teacher. She still subs quite often. Their education-related professions had no bearing on my career choice.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? Not yet. I’ve always said, though, that I’d love to be a house husband that stays at home with the kids. I could definitely do that.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? Easiest: Isaac Hayes’ hairdresser. Hardest: George Bush’s speechwriter (it’s gotta be hard to write meaningful speeches with words he can read!).

Jump the bandwagon… it’s Friday!

1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it? I have a 1998 Kia Sephia and Huyen has an 89 Mustang.
2. Do you drive very often? I put about 12-14k miles on a year, so yeah.
3. What’s your dream car? I don’t geek out on cars, so I don’t really have a “dream” car. I’ve always said that if I can ever afford to have a luxury car, I’ll still buy an unpretentious, affordably priced car and figure out something more philanthropic to do with the remainder of the money. I guess I would like one of those hybrid cars, though, since they have the benefit of cutting down on pollution.
4. Have you ever received a ticket? Yes. Grrrrr.
5. Have you ever been in an accident? Never while moving more than 2 miles an hour. When I was 17, I accidentally dented my dad’s car (and slightly damaged a truck’s bumper) when I was pulling into a parking spot. And a few years ago I nailed a really short mailbox while backing out of a driveway. Both were stupid, but minimal.

This week’s Friday Five:

1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from? I am 1/2 Polish, 1/2 Scot-Irish. Apparently there is a drop of either black or American-Indian in there as well (one person that married into the family in the 1800s).
2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit? At some point, I’d like to visit Poland, Scotland, and Ireland, probably all in the same trip. I’d probably put Poland at the top of the list.
3. Which would you least like to visit? Why? No answer for this one…
4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? Not much, but every year on Christmas Eve, I go to Wigilia, a traditional Polish holiday gathering.
5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? My great-grandparents on both sides came over in the early part of last century. I don’t know too many details about this, unfortunately, other than the fact that “McMichael” became “MacMichael.” Wasn’t “Mc” a derogatory term at some point in Ireland’s history?

Ok, how about a final entry before the Blogathon starts in 13 1/2 hours?

A little Friday Five fo’ dat ass…

• How long have you had a weblog? I just celebrated my two-year anniversary (though I had a pita.com blog for a short time that I don’t really count).
• What was your first post about? “I realized today that 99.5% of all new corporate web sites simply suck.”
• How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? I had my pita as kind of testing ground and then started the twist of fait accomplis that you’ve come to know and love shortly after. I spun off “There Will Come Soft Rains” as a place for the longer, more introspective journal-like entries.
• What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try something else? I use Blogger for my what’s new page and the Veg Blog, but I now use Movable Type most of the time (for this blog, Picture It, and Soft Rains). I love MT more than life itself.
• Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? Like Hammer said, it’s all good.

OK, off I go. See you tomorrow morning at 9 eastern.