Hi.

It has come to my attention that it’s been like four years since I last updated my “100 Things” tab.

So I need to update it.

And I’m going to blog about updating it for today’s post, ‘cause if I have to maintain this dumpster fire of a blog, you have to read about it.

GO!

1. I’m an INTJ (very strong on the I, T, and J; fairly weak on the N).
   Still true.

2. I’m a hard determinist.
   Also true.

3. I have a large collection of ostentatious socks.
   I don’t wear them as much anymore because 99% of the time I’m wearing socks, I’m out walking, so they’re my dingy walking socks. But I still have the collection.

4. My hair is naturally black and is apparently impervious to bleaching attempts.
   The sun has given it a good bleach over the past few years. The hair covered by my hat is still super black, but the “long” part is a little brown now.

5. I try to give at least one compliment a day—if not verbally, than at least in my mind.
   True.

6. I love to list, sort, alphabetize, categorize, and organize. In my past life I was a Rolodex.
   Sometimes I get Rolodex flashbacks and wake up from a fugue during which I’ve consumed a packet of index cards in a futile attempt to restore what I once was.

7. I have anosmia. Don’t worry, it’s not catching.
   Pretty sure this one’s never going to change.

8. I do much better upholding my long-term goals than my short-term ones.
   Same with this one.

9. I don’t drink pop/soda/whatever you want to call it. Never have, never will.
   And again.

10. My first word was “tick-tock.”
    I was anal about time even when I was a baby. Fitting.

11. I have very small handwriting.
    I think Nate’s is smaller, but mine is still pretty small.

12. I like airports, both being in them and living near them. I’m one of those weirdos who likes the sound of planes coming and going.
    True.

13. I can fold my entire outer ear into my ear canal.
    I should specify that I can do this with the ear that does not contain the industrial piercing. The barbell makes this difficult.

14. I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue.
    Yup.

15. To me, the Galton board(quincunx, bean machine) demonstrates one of the most beautiful phenomena ever.
    So beautiful.

16. I have a very good aural memory.
    I still think this is true, but to a certain degree. I think it’s aural specifically with an inclination towards being able to remember music/melodies. Any time I watch a movie I haven’t seen since childhood, I remember the melody/cadence/musicality of character’s words more than the words themselves. Hell, I remember when I was a kid that I often had a hard time understanding the distinct words characters were saying in movies/on TV, but I could commit the “song” of their words to memory in a second.

17. I get super obsessed with things once I decide I like them.
    Always true.

18. I did four years of undergraduate work in 2 ½ years and got my first college degree when I was 20. I don’t recommend this approach for those of you who are strongly attached to your sanity.
    I’d do it again. I’D DO IT AGAIN!

19. I like serif better than sans serif fonts.
    Yes. Except for my class notes, where I use Arial because I think it looks really clean.

20. My favorite word is syzygy.
    Yup.

21. I like numbers that are divisible by five and/or ten. I’ve had that preference for as long as I can remember.
    It’s really hard for me to “start” anything (e.g., using a new pair of shoes, changing a workout routine, using a new palette of foundation) unless it’s on one of those “nice” divisible days of the month.

22. My favorite number is 100.
    I dunno. I think 11 is the winner now.

23. I think the need for the interrobang warrants its restoration in common written English.
    Meh. Meh?! MEH‽

24. Physically, I’m a lot stronger than I look.
    My legs are. My upper body’s not.

25. I’m not much of a movie person, but I enjoy disaster movies (the less scientifically accurate, the better) and movies about space. My favorite movie is Sunshine (way underrated, go watch it!)
    Disaster movies are the best. Space disaster movies are even better. Space disaster movies that ignore 99% of physics and logic are amazing. The best (worst?) disaster movie, though, is Atomic Train. Find it. Enjoy it.
    Edit: HOLY HELL IT’S ON YOUTUBE

26. I love walking as a form of exercise, but only if I have some way to keep track of my steps/mileage.
    Very true.

27. I recite a letter of the alphabet per every twist of an apple stem to find the first initial of the person I’m destined to marry, ‘cause I’m just that mature.
    Hahaha, I haven’t done this in forever. Partially because I’m married now. The apple stems LIE, I never got to the “N” and yet I married a Nate.

28. I used to sing the Frosted Flakes “Hey Tony!” song incessantly. There are hours of video of this phenomenon.
    Yup. My poor mom.

29. I admittedly like the sound of auto-tune.
    I do indeed.

30. I identify strongly with the belief of hylozoism (but not completely).
    The universe is life. Life is the universe.

31. My favorite artists are Salvador Dali and M. C. Escher.
    Still true.

32. I don’t wear jeans. I don’t see how denim could ever be comfortable.
    I’m now more forgiving with what types of pants I’ll wear than I used to be. Hell I have an actual factual pair of denim jeans in my closet.

33. I think European men’s fashionfrom the late 18th century is astoundingly gorgeous.
    *swoons*

34. My sole talent in this life is being able to re-write song lyrics on the fly. I think it’s because my mom played a lot of Weird Al when I was growing up.
    I still do this a lot.

35. I’m surprisingly old fashioned about a number of things, some of which I am none too proud of and thus don’t discuss.
    …Yeah,  I’d say this is still true to an extent.

36. I very much love the United States of America, flaws and all. I think it’s an amazing country with a fascinating history. Living outside of it has made me appreciate it even more.
    ‘Mur’ca!

37. When I was younger, I truly thought I exerted some sort of control over the wind. During recess I would stand out on the field and wave my arms around like an idiot trying to make a tornado.
    I wanted to be the “wind” Planeteer. I can’t remember her name now off the top of my head.

38. I also thought a flying machine made out of cardboard was structurally sound enough for flight and would perform like a 747 if I could only get it to take off.
    I wanted a flying machine so badly.

39. I have a somewhat odd fascination with the kilogram as a unit of measure. Look it up, it’s got an interesting history.
    Kilogram FTW!

40. There are some days when I have this incredible compassion towards the whole of humanity. There are other days where I just want to stab everyone.
    Hahaha. Yup.

41. I’m a fast walker.
    I’m a lot faster now than I was when I wrote this, haha. I try for an average of 4.5 mph or faster.

42. Within the first few seconds of entering a new room (or in a car/plane/bus), I silently figure out the best place to take cover if a disaster (earthquake, fire, hostage situation, etc.) were to occur.
    Still true.

43. I would love to go to Antarctica. The only thing stopping me is the fact that for an ordinary citizen like myself, I’d pretty much have to get down there via a cruise, and I don’t feel comfortable about wreaking that amount of environmental damage to the delicate ecosystem just so I can satisfy an urge to hug the southernmost continent. That, and cost issues.
    Still true.

44. I need schedules. I will start stabbing people if I don’t have a schedule.
    I think I drive everyone nuts when I demand some sort of schedule for the proceedings of the day.

45. I make a lot of stabbing jokes. I’m in reality a very gentle person.

45. It bothers me when people judge others based on their musical tastes. To me, that’s like judging someone because of their favorite color. Cut it out.
    Who gives a crap about what type of music someone else likes? To each their own, yo.

47. In fact, it bothers me when people judge others at all. We’re all just human beings trying to survive. Live and let live if there is no harm being done.
    I’m the world’s biggest hypocrite because I judge people on non-music-related petty garbage. I try not to, though.

48. I’d rather arrive 30 minutes early for an appointment than be even one minute late. In fact, this is often the case.
    Truth.

49. I’ve had more sexual dreams involving Lady Gaga than I feel comfortable admitting.
    These have stopped

50. The color red-orange makes me physically ill. Even the sound of it is nausea-inducing to me.
    Ugh, red-orange is the worst.

51. My body responds to super-high levels of stress by sleeping through whatever is the cause of the stress. So far, I have nearly slept through an important statistics test, my first-round state drama performance, a big geography final, a major English presentation, the GRE, my final presentation for a measurement class, and the GRE (again).
    Not so much anymore, I don’t think. Probably because I no longer sleep.

52. Simple things like showering, making dinner, walking to the bus, and combing my hair make me really nervous for some reason.
    Yup.

53. I have the immune system of a god. I may have gotten worthless genetic scratch tickets when it comes to attractiveness, but I won the genetic jackpot when it comes to physical health.
    My immune system is the only part of me that I don’t passionately hate.

54. I’m not much of a TV person, but I’m totally obsessed with Metalocalypse. I don’t really know why. It’s so stupid it’s genius.
    Metalocalypse is the best.

55. I type like I think in my blogs, which is why there is frequent utilization of caps lock, lots of lists, parentheticals, and references to completely irrelevant stuff.
    Yup.

56. I will go to fantastic lengths to avoid having to talk to someone over the phone.
    Phones are Satan disguised as a mouthpiece.

57. I dress like I stood in front of an exploding Crayola factory. I have come to terms that no one will ever take me seriously as an adult because of this.
    I’ve actually tried to tone this down just a little bit so that I’d taken a little bit seriously. Have to get the lecturing spots if I can.

58. My clothes are organized in ROYGBIV fashion in my closet.
    Still true. It’s glorious.

59. I have a hard time with change. The concept, not the coins.
    Change gives me unholy anxiety. The past year or so has been nothing but change, both for me and my family. Maybe that’s why I feel like garbage all the time.

60. I can’t do simple math in my head. I’ve never been able to. Ask me what 7 + 6 is and I’ll sit there for an unnaturally long period of time before I eventually give you an answer.
    I don’t think this will ever change.

61. Because of this, I use a calculator to check ridiculously simple calculations. “What’s seven minus two? BREAK OUT THE TI-83!”
    Is this embarrassing when I have to do an on-the-fly calculation during lecture and pretend I’m not frantically typing it into my calculator? Yes.

62. In second grade I spent half the school year with a refrigerator box around my desk with a little window cut out of it so I could see what was going on during class. I have no idea why they let me get away with that.
    Because I was awesome, that’s why.

63. I’m horrible with money. I don’t go on $10,000 shopping sprees or anything like that, but I’m terrible at keeping track of my spending.
    I’m trying to do better.

64. I spend waaaaaaay too much time on the internet. So much so that I sometimes think in memes (e.g., “Bathroom! Y U no clean yourself?”).
    As a highly reblogged Tumblr post puts it, “I spend so much time on the internet I sometimes worry I’m Internet Georg.”

65. I love big cities.
    Calgary is amazing. I also just quickly glanced at that and thought it read “I love big titties” because clearly that’s something I think all the time.

66. Between the years 2006 and 2012, I moved houses at least once every 12 months. In my lifetime, I’ve moved nearly 30 times (most of those within one town).
    I think the “move every year or so” thing has finally stopped. Hopefully.

67. Apart from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, I have scored terribly on every standardized test I’ve ever had to take. That’s talent.
    Man, I rocked those Iowa Test of Basic Skills. I was in the 90-percentiles for everything except that stupid “estimation” math portion.

68. I use Internet Explorer and I am not ashamed.
    No more IE for me. I have turned to the dark side that is Chrome.

69. I had a major crush on Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast when I was a kid. Yes, the crush was for him in candelabra form, not human form. Yes, I was a weird child. What can I say? He was hot. Literally.
    Lumiere is the best.

70. Dragonflies frighten me.
    Dragonflies are the worst.

71. I find the passing of a year extremely sad. Every New Year’s Eve I find a quiet moment to go sit alone and cry for a bit.
    New Year’s is a very hard time for me. I have no idea why it’s so sad, but it is.

72. I am quite possibly the least photogenic person on this planet. Do you know how many shots it took me to get that semi-decent picture I have up for this blog? Hundreds. Literally.
    I’d need so much plastic surgery to even be “vaguely” attractive, man.

73. I have a strong dislike for cell phones/talking on the phone/having to listen to other peoples’ obnoxiously loud phone conversations in public places. I’m also not a big fan of Twitter or Facebook. KIDS THESE DAYS.
    Facebook is meh. I don’t have a lot of friends on there and don’t really care too much about what they are all up to. The ONLY things Twitter is good for is a) baseball game updates (my mom was right, Twitter’s actually good for sport-related stuff), and b) being meta and using it making fun of Twitter.

74. I always have to have a way to be able to tell what time it is.
    Both my wristwatch and my Fitbit broke a while back, and it’s causing a nice low level of anxiety not having a thing on my wrist that’ll tell me the time.

75. My favorite period of world history is the European Age of Enlightenment. My favorite period of U.S. History is the American Revolution.
    Both still true. Though I could narrow down my favorite period to July 1, 1646 to November 14, 1716. Because of reasons.

76. My favorite book plot-wise is The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk, my favorite book character-wise is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and my favorite book stylistically is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
    Still hasn’t changed.

77. I’m pretty sure being forced to read To Kill A Mockingbird one more time would cause my brain to implode. I hate that book so much.
    UGH THIS BOOK

78. I wrote a lot of Star Wars fanfic in 1st grade.
    I did. I did write a lot of Star Wars fanfic. Mostly about the droids.

79. When I’m in the mood to sing along with my music, I generally like to sing some sort of harmony rather than the straight-up melody. It sounds cooler and I can pretend I’m a rock star.
    I have a few songs that are really good for this. Dan Black’s Symphonies, Sugar Ray’s Chasin’ You Around, Toto’s Africa, to name a few.

80. Calculus is absolutely fantastic. Calculus + Claudia = happiness.
    I still want an integral tattoo on my body somewhere.

81. Algebra + Claudia = I don’t know, ‘cause I can’t do algebra.
    Algebra is the bane of my existence.

82. Apparently I scowl a lot. It’s like my default face. I don’t do it on purpose, but it takes a lot of conscious effort not to. If that makes any sense.
    Hahaha, I believe, in the time since I wrote this, the term “resting bitch face” has come into our vocabularies.

83. I remember the first time I realized that I was an autonomous being that could make life-changing choices and could essentially do with my life what I wanted. That was simultaneously the greatest and worst feeling in the world.
    I can’t remember how old I was when this happened, though.

84. A cat we took in off the street pretty much adopted me when I was little (3 or 4) and used to follow me around wherever I toddled. She died one night on my bed as I sat awake crying. That night affected me more than a lot of the stuff that’s happened in the past couple of years.
    I remember that night so very clearly.

85. I find the sun very fascinating.
    I think if I were to ever go back and get yet another degree, I’d try to focus on a path that would let me be a helioseismologist. Because how cool would that be?

86. If I’m writing a formal paper, I need to create an extensive outline. If I’m writing fiction, I need to stay away from outlines entirely if the story’s going to be any good.
    Truth.

87. Scrabble is my favorite non-computer game.
    Truth.

88. I’m not a vegetarian, mainly because I don’t believe in valuing the lives of more “advanced” beings (pigs, cattle, etc.) over the lives of “simpler” beings (plants). This does not mean, however, that I support the animal cruelty that is so unfortunately synonymous with the U.S. beef/dairy/poultry/etc. industries.
    I do feel fairly guilty whenever I actually eat meat (which is rarely) because of the cruelty issues.

89. I went to a Catholic elementary school. Quite an experience for a non-Catholic.
    Church was BORING and this Jesus guy was WEIRD and WHY did we have to eat his flesh and blood?!?!?!

90. I think I have an abnormally frequent occurrence of double and triple numbers in my life, like 22 and 444 and 77 and such. Heck, I was born on 2/2/88 (which was the 33rd day of the year and had 333 days remaining in the year after it because it was a leap year).
    I still think this is true. I see double- and triple-number a lot more than I think I should.

91. I love Achievement Hunter. Sometimes I accidentally quote them around people who have no idea who they are and I get really weird looks. Seriously, try explaining Mark Nutt to somebody who doesn’t know AH.
    I still love AH, but I honestly haven’t watched a single one of their new videos since Ray left. It’s not the same with out BrownMan.

92. I am rarely without my headphones and iPod.
    Very true.

93. I lived with four guys my last year of undergrad. We took Rock Band more seriously than our school work, bought out the dollar store every Friday night, won the war against the mice that were invading our house, and slacked off more than any college students should while still being able to graduate. It was the best year of my life.
    I really miss that group of dorks sometimes. I wish we had all lived together longer.

94. I was lucky and got blessed with two parents who are absolutely fantastic.
    Very true!

95. I sleep 4 to 5 hours a night most nights.
    More like 3 to 4 hours a night lately.

96. Though I try to be eloquent when I speak and write, my inner dialogue is akin to that of a semi-inebriated frat boy.
    I should change this to say “though I try to be eloquent when I speak and write formally,” because you’ve seen this blog. Nonsense writing is nonsense.

97. Gordon Freeman is my favorite video game character, hands down.
    Freeman is a rock star.

98. Quake, Fallout 3, and the original Half-life are in a three-way tie as my favorite video games.
    It’d be really hard to pick my absolute favorite of the three, though I think Quake and Half-Life are a little bit more favored than Fallout 3.

99. I can identify most songs in my music collection within the first five seconds or so.
    Yup!

100. I unabashedly love Gottfried Leibniz, though you may have already guessed that if you’ve read some of my posts. I mention him quite frequently.
     This is probably the truest thing on this list.