This is it | THE WORLD OF BRIAN SMITH www.twobs.com

25 Things

Alright, so this has been going around facebook a while... and finally I said okay fine... I'll do it... so you can if you want, you don't have to but.... here are 25 things about me you either knew, didn't know.. or now you know... I figure I'll post it here if i'm gonna post it there too... disregard the "sign up for the board" plug.

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Alright fine, so here it is. I have been thinking about what my 25 things would be and reading all of your 25 things for however long they have been going around for.

1. Hey, Brian Michael Smith originally, changed last name to Bickersmith upon marriage (Bicker and Smith smushed together to form one super name). And shit, in a little over a month, I'll be 30. How the hell did that happen?

2. In high school when we use to party and drive around aimlessly, I recorded a lot of the audio with a TalkBoy. I still have about 20 cassette tapes worth of material. I still don't know what to do with any of it, and I'm pretty sure its all mostly unlistenable.

3. I wish I had a digital camera and a cell phone in high school. Memories are great and all, but I am seriously lacking pictures. Not to mention all of that driving around to meet up with people would have been a lot easier if any of us had cell phones.

4. I've had my car searched about 3 times. Once because we had just egg'd a kids house (who mind you dared me to do it in math class). Once cause one of my headlights was out and we looked suspicious. Once cause my muffler was extremely loud and we were acting suspicious. Each time there was nothing to find.

5. I love taking tests. I don't love studying for them. But there's a nice feeling to taking the test, letting it all pour out, and then being done with it. Back in the day, I was usually one of the first people to be done with tests. The way I saw it was, you either knew or you didn't know. I'm not going to sit around wasting time trying to figure it out. Oh yeah, a photographic memory helped with some of this.

6. I will never die my hair and I can't wait til it turns completely grey. It's been on its way for quite a long time. Oh, and I hate getting haircuts. I pretty much go as long as I possibly can, and then either I get a cheap one, or I convince the wife to buzz it off. This morning, I thought that I should grow it out again. I don't know.

7. I have a lot of the same clothes from high school. I lot of those clothes don't fit. I don’t wear any of them. This past weekend however, I did take about 20 of those shirts out of my closet. I never want to see them again. And I thought, even if I do lose pounds, I wouldn't wear these shirts again.

8. I'm a pack rat and I seriously need to throw out some stuff I never use. Moving from a house back to an apartment really opens your eyes as to how much stuff you have. I did manage to toss my years of class notebooks, folders, and 3 ring binders that I was holding onto for whatever reason before the move, but it still didn't really put much a dent into it all.

9. I recorded 95% of my college radio shows onto cassette, and a little over a year ago I began the process of digitizing them. I've recently taken a little time off from it. But it's been a huge wealth of production on my part this past year. I'm in iTunes. I've got a wiki dedicated to show write ups. I pretty much have gone all out on putting it out there, and I still have a lot of work to do on it. http:///www.twobs.com/wiki/2BS_Radio_Archive You already knew that though didn't you! Check it out.

10. I have been blogging since 2001. Before that I journal'd. These days a lot of my blogging might seem like just posting pictures from my cell phone, but I still enjoy sharing. I've given up on figuring out who my audience is. I'm perfectly content with accepting that I am my own audience and I maintain my website for myself. http://www.twobs.com/blog/

11. In college, Wayne and I formed Busta Kappa Kappa as a way to give a name to our 'extra curricular activities'. We absorbed Snotty's Fart Posse. We "recruited" new members each year. We even won Wick Wars one year, yet they failed to put any of our pictures in the yearbook. And even after I left, the tradition continued... but I didn't know very many of the new people. There have been attempts to keep it going, but face it, no one lives in Oneonta, it's pretty much done. However there is a BKK brick in the new building at Hartwick College, compliments of this very fine establishment (ps I still owe you Rob, I haven’t forgotten). Oh yeah, one other thing, remember when the campus kept getting chalked randomly? Yeah, that was us.

12. Before I left college, I became friends with these kids who were still in high school. Turned out they were into the same music I was. Turned out they had a band. Rezi was a huge part of my life for over 5 years. I built their website. I helped promote them online (before myspace music thanks). I took photos. I recorded shows. I helped them setup at shows and tear down. I traveled around the North East with them. I was super sad when they called it quits and talked to each of them on the phone for what seemed like hours to try and convince them all to stay together. They were these sick ass talented kids in high school when I met them and after 100 shows seeing them and many more without me, they got better each and every time I heard them. I still have the domain rezi.org and someday in 2009 i'll relaunch their website and keep them going with or without them! They are all still really good friends of mine.

13. Me + The Phone + Drinking does not always equal a good thing. You probably already knew that. If not, just be glad you didn't. However, some times I do reconnect with long lost friends this way, so it can't be all bad.

14. I love the idea of just taking off in my car with my wife and dog and just going wherever and doing whatever, but... I like to plan things out and I hate long trips in the car.

15. I have a message board. You should join it. It helps those of us who are active get thru a boring day. http://www.twobs.com/board/ --Stop in and give it a try. We're always looking for new people. We don’t bite unless you ask nicely.

16. I am newish to twitter. Heard of it? And I gotta say, I am hooked. It's cool. follow me! http://www.twitter.com/bickersmith/ Twitter is very cool because it allows you to see what people are talking about NOW. Not later. The News Media and the general way in which information is gathered, is changing quick. You are either on this train, or you didn't know the trains were running. Take a note, they are.

17. I love Tetris. I have been known to be addicted to it on multiple levels. In high school the topic for my senior speech was tetris addiction. To college and that awesome acid tetris game. To more recently and my addictions to facebook tetris friends app. The easiest way I have learned to curing my Tetris addiction has been to just have an extremely high school I can no longer beat. Too bad known of my friends are an even close competition cause then I would spend a lot more time just trying to beat their score.

18. I love fantasy sports. I've faced it. I am never going to play professionally. So the next best thing (besides the video game versions), is the fantasy game. I started when I was a little kid and played in the league my parents were in. Anthony Carter and Emmitt Smith were my top dogs back then. A couple years ago I ran 100 football teams one year. That turned out to be overkill. I've cut back drastically. Yahoo allows up to 4 teams per sport per yahoo id. I think next year I will finally be able to cut back to using just 1 id for football. P.s. if you are interested in joining one of my many of leagues, stay tuned... Open Baseball League will be forming soon... on a sidenote, I hate gambling and don't do it.

19. I should be working right now instead of doing this. But I'm not. I'm efficient at what I do, so the 1 thing I am assigned to do right now will be done very quickly after I finish this. Also, I love learning new things or getting trained on something new. I just take as much as I possibly can in and even though I hate that time period of not fully understanding it, I totally understand that one day soon, I will fully understand. P.S. I fully believe the best name for my generation is Generation Multitask.

20. I love shortcuts. I love not needing to reinvent the wheel and borrow what others have already accomplished and modifying it to fit my needs. I get frustrated trying to solve complicated puzzles myself. I'd rather get stuck when I need help, that way I can apply what I've learned to any future problem that's similar. Don't get me wrong... or maybe I overstated.. I don't HATE figuring things out on my own, I just like to get taught by someone if they already know.

21. I hate surprises. I like to know what I'm up against before walking into a line of fire. If my boss asks to come see me, I want to know what it's about before hand so I can gather my intel and be prepared for whatever is going to be asked about me.

22. I hate job interviews, I hate looking for a new place to live, and I hate moving. However, I like switching things up, I like getting past the first week of a new job, and I like living in a new neighborhood. I love routine, but at the same time, when I was a kid and something new happened, it was so exciting.

23. I'm always concious as to how I am perceived. I can not stand someone not respecting, or generally disliking me. I don't hate anyone. But if I am under the impression that you don't like me, I am not happy with that and don't understand it. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes thats not smart, and other times, its just what you should do. I guess what I am trying to say here is that, I realize I shouldn't be overly concerned with what other people think of me, but it's just my nature. I am beyond trying to be the cool kid on the block. I am the cool kid on the block. You are either with me, or you should be with me.

24. People think that we got married on 07/07/07 because it had something to do with luck. But in all honesty. I'm just a numbers geek. We got engaged on 05/05/05 and when I looked ahead on the calendar to see that devil's day (06/06/06) was a Tuesday and we'd still be in Michigan then I knew that wouldn't work. Flip ahead one more year and 07/07/07 was a Saturday and we'd be moved back to NY by then and perfect. Oh yeah, at the time my favorite football player wore number 7. Plus it was like the longest courting yet... took 6 years to propose, and it was about time. p.s. didn't want to wait another year cause 08/08/08 was my mom's birthday. Sidenote- we don’t need Luck. We are just that good.

25. I have an extremely small bladder. I already have to pee. Luckily my wife and I were made the same way, so if we have to stop 3 times on the highway on the way home, we both understand. The way I understand it is, if you have to go, you have to go. There's no sense in holding it. Luckily I've never gotten into any trouble peeing where I wasn't supposed to pee.

There you have it.