5 Things you didn’t know about Me

Michael Jensen over at SoloSEO just blog tagged me so I’m required to list 5 things that most people don’t know about me, and then tag five more people. Michael Gray has a great summary of what this is all about and how it applies to internet marketing overall.

So… Here are the facts.

1) I grew up in Roswell New Mexico. (Yes… The place where the UFO crashed) I lived there until after I graduated from High School. I later moved from Roswell to Denver to go to art school.

2) I moved to Hawaii on an impulse. In 1998, I was working for my friend Todd Robertson in Denver doing 3D animation & technical illustrations when he decided to move to Hawaii on an impulse after returning from vacation. So… I had to make a choice. Be unemployed in Denver or Honolulu. (I chose Honolulu) About three weeks later… I had sold or given away almost all of my possessions, purchased a one-way ticket to Hawaii and landed in Honolulu with my computer, a duffel bag, a backpack, a box and about $250 in cash.

3) I collect “Magic The Gathering” game cards. (Great game) I used to play all the time back in 93-94 and spent a small fortune collecting the cards. One-by-one, all my friends stopped playing the game and sold their cards. (To me) I stopped playing as well but for some reason I never sold my cards or completely quit collecting them. (That’s what was in the box I moved here with) I hope to play with my boy in a few years or as soon as he’s old enough to play the game. (I sincerely hope he wants to play Magic and not Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!)

4) I was a Hippy. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them this, but… Back in art school… I was a huge fan of Phish & The Grateful Dead. I’ve seen both bands at least 20 times each. Back then I had some seriously long hair, made my own Tie-Die, T-shirts, collected bootleg tapes, the works. I don’t listen to them very much anymore but I’m still a big fan.

5) I met my beautiful wife Alice online. It’s a long story but… My friend mike posted a profile for me with his AOL account in an effort to help me get my mind off an ex-girlfriend who I had broken up with. We got along great and got married about a year later in 2001. We have a three year old boy named Shane and things are going great. (Shortly after that, my brother & sister both met their spouses online.)

Bonus Fact) My wife and I are Buddhist. Just like Christianity, Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. There are many different variations. We belong to an organization called SGI (Soka Gakkai International) which is a very popular variation in Japan.

So… Who am I going to tag? Solo SEO has a “Blog Tag Tree” of people who have been tagged so far but there are quite a few great people still out there who haven’t been tagged yet.

Christoph Cemper, Mike Belasco, Brian Vuyk and Everett Sizemore… Tag! You’re It!