Ten Things
There’s a discussion currently ongoing over at the Fountain Pen Network, entitled “Ten Things I’ve Done (That You Probably Haven’t).” Apparently it’s an Internet meme or some such thing. Some of the responses were quite interesting, so I figured what the hey, I should participate in an Internet meme at least once in my life. In no particular order, then, here’s my list:
- Deciphered five-thousand-year-old jar sealings dating from the reign of the first king of Egypt (or possibly his predecessor), made when written language was still a new idea.
- Read the Story of Sinuhe in the original hieratic.
- Produced a Master’s thesis, which should have taken most of a year, in three weeks. (And graduated. And impressed the heck out of the committee. AND it wasn’t because I’d procrastinated.)
- Learned the art of bonsai from an American master, in the process working with trees now on display at the Morikami Museum and the National Arboretum.
- Won a university fiction-writing award without entering.
- Nearly perished of hypothermia in July (in the northern hemisphere, south of the Arctic Circle).
- Flew less than twenty feet above the Florida Everglades in a Cessna 172 (as a passenger), startling the heck out of several alligators.
- Aged eleven, gave an impromptu anatomy lesson following the accidental partial vivisection of my arm. My audience was the P.E. instructor, a former Marine, who nearly fainted.
- Learned from, and served as principal demonstration dummy for, a martial arts instructor who some years before had been resoundingly flunked out of high school by my father.
- Met Mr. Rogers. (I was four at the time; I remember little other than that he was every bit as nice as he seemed on TV.)
I should probably elaborate on some of those, but I won’t. I have a comment section. Interested parties may ask.
Alex — 21st January, 2011 at 17:47
Good god, man! You can’t simply fire the above off and leave it at that! Hie thee to the nearest pub and tell all!
Sam Minter — 21st January, 2011 at 19:17
I want to know about the hypothermia!
Kyle — 21st January, 2011 at 20:04
Muahahaha! Now my sinister plan begins to bear fruit! This is but a convoluted scheme to garner comments!
Ask, and answers may be given. They may even be true. One never knows.
Kyle — 21st January, 2011 at 20:36
My word, Sam! Good to see you!
I must confess, I fudged things a tad with the hypothermia. You see, while it was south of the Arctic Circle, that was only by about a degree and a half of latitude. I visited some relatives in Alaska when I was a lad, and they took me to visit (and go swimming in) Birch Lake. My cousins bet me that I couldn’t stay in the water as long as they could. I was eight, curious about the effects of very cold water, and annoyed with my cousins. I won the bet, but I also turned blue-er than I ever expected to be and shivered for hours.
I found out later that, even though the air temperature was in the mid-70s, the last of the ice on the lake had only melted the week before we arrived. So, there you go. Hypothermia in July.
Brian — 5th February, 2011 at 22:47
I vividly remember the thesis writing process. There was much frantic gnashing of teeth and wild eye-rolling as I recall.