Here I go:

1) I’ve broken my nose twice. The first time, I was in 3rd grade and was swinging back and forth on the monkey bars. At some point my fingers slipped and I went flying backwards. The result was that I had to have surgery to repair my busted nose. The surgeon said that he tried to fashion a “Chinese Nose”, and that I could come back when I’m older if I didn’t like the result. The second time was much later in college at Judo practice. It was much less severe and I chose not to have anything done about it. If you look closely, you can tell that my nose is slightly crooked.

2) I used to work on a farm. I grew up in Tennessee, and my best friend’s family owned a 350 acre farm. I spent many days “bailing hay” after school. Rushing to get a field cleared before it rained taught me lessons about how schedules can be dictated by more powerful forces. No excuse was acceptable, if something needed to be done, we had to finish before it the weather hit.
3) My older brother suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury 4 years ago. His continuing care is a major part of my life. He was a talented driver who had raced Porsches in the past and was having great success racing motorcycles when he had an accident during a pre-race practice session. Describing the effects of TBI on a family to someone who has never encountered it can be quite taxing so it’s something I rarely talk about with people.

4) I like to make Quiches. One of my favorite hobbies is cooking and I take great pride in carefully creating a dish. Once in a while, you might see me eating a piece of quiche for lunch that has survived our household. My favorite foods to cook are things involving cheese, cream, eggs, or any combination of the above.

5) I used to train in Mixed Martial Arts. This is my favorite sport by far and I believe everyone finds a new person inside them when they compete in MMA. The key draw is the removal of restrictions which produces a more pure combat sport. Modern MMA combines elements of boxing, muay thai, and grappling/jui-jitsu, all of which can be trained safely at a high level of intensity (if you disregard the bruises). Regretfully, I’ve had very little involvement with the sport since college, but it occurs to me that I’m still sporting the haircut.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. To continue the fun, I’ll tag Andy, Leonard, Gordon, Nate and Andrew.