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The Truth Behind Three Truths, Three Lies
Apr. 3rd, 2011 10:29 amYes, I said I'd only reveal the answers if somebody got them all right. But I said that on April Fools Day, so I don't hold myself to it. Really, not enough people guessed to give it a reasonable chance of success. And let's face it, if I didn't have certain attention-craving tendencies I wouldn't be here on LJ in the first place. So I'm revealing the answers anyway.
So, take it statement by statement:
1. As a child, I spent 3 week at a summer day camp themed around paleontology, where we got to dig up (fake) dino bones and learn dinosaur facts. False!
Although it does seem like a cool idea, and I was into dinosaurs a lot as a kid (I know, shocker? A kid that's into dinosaurs? But that was me!), but I never went to that camp (my Mom did once take me to a lecture from a paleontologist at the zoo once though). And, speaking of the zoo, I did do two years of a different, but also rather cool, summer day camp - Zoo Camp. I spent a week or two (can't really remember) at the zoo for the day, going to all the exhibits, learning about animals, and playing different animal games. I loved animals back then (well, I guess I still do, but back then it was my 'thing', I loved animals, wanted to be a zoologist, etc), so it was right up my alley. Aside from a couple mildly-socially-traumatic memories that are still with me, I do look back on it with a certain fondness.
2. I can list off over a hundred countries in roughly 2 minutes without looking anything up. True!
This one is actually VERY recent, though. Over the past few weeks I've made a project of memorizing the complete list of countries from Yakko Warner's "The Nations of the World" song from Animaniacs (I say 'list of countries' because although I do it, in order, to the tune and rhythm of the song, there's no way I'm going to get all the "ands" and other little words of the song in exactly the right place.) At this point, I can do the whole song, although I do have to pause occasionally to remember what comes next, only about the first half of it or so it can I do completely unconsciously.
Why did I do this?
Well, I have a large amount of time on my hands. And I figured, it would be a useful party trick if I ever went to parties or that were the kind of thing that were impressive at them in the first place.
Plus, on the off chance somebody offers me money or three wishes or something, but only if I can name 50 different countries in a minute, well, I'm prepared.
3. I tried to stay awake a full 36 hours on a week long school trip because I heard it makes you high and hallucinate. True!
Yes, we did a school trip to Washington DC, and I figured I'd experiment. I don't drink or do any kind of drugs, but I was taken by the idea that it was sort of an 'all natural' type way to hallucinate that I couldn't get addicted to (because it would take 36 hours to do it again). Anyway, it failed. I think I got about 30 hours before I was dozing frequently without wanting to. All in all, although I kind of am glad I tried staying up just to see what it would do to me, I regret doing it then.. in particular, because there was a social event/cruise/dinner/dance among the people on the trip that I was only semi-conscious for... and really, I needed every social opportunity I could get, and all my faculties available for it. I mean, theoretically, if I'd been well-rested, I might have had a pleasant conversation with a female classmate, seen each other in new ways, maybe even have gotten a girlfriend in Jr. High that would have changed the course of my whole life. But instead, I spent the time barely managing to keep myself awake.
4. Given only the stardate stated in an episode of Star Trek (TNG or DS9 only), I can probably (80%) tell you the episode name. False!
I thought maybe I'd throw people off with the uncertainty factor, but it was never even close. At one point, I could probably tell you the SEASON the episode was in (because it followed a regular pattern), but I'm not sure I could even do that, now. Also at one point, I could tell you the name of any episode (of any series, probably up until Enterprise), just by watching the first 30 seconds or so of it. I'm probably decent at that still, but I haven't had daily reruns to watch and help reinforce the skill in quite a while. That's about the extent of my Star Trek memory tricks though.
5. I once played the Skipper (from Gilligan's Island) on stage in front of a large number of people. Surprisingly true!
Yes. I don't remember the full context, but it was at Disney-MGM studios (back when it was called that) in Orlando Florida. One of their little things was a show using park-goers in the attraction. Because I was a little chubby at that age, I was chosen to be the Skipper. All I can remember was that I was supposed to hit Gilligan with my hat.
For those of you who are surprised by this for someone as shy as me... well, yes, it's true, I am shy, always have been but it's actually built up a lot as time went on and failures to connect piled on failure to connect, combined with frequent moves and being thrust into the new-outsider role again, and I withdrew more and more into my shell. For a time, I actually was able to perform and enjoyed doing so (I suppose it was because I could tell myself it wasn't ME they were judging, it was who I was pretending to be), even taking Drama as an elective one year after it was mandatory. I still got horrific stage fright (I remember faking sick to get out of a school play where I played french fries, which should give you an idea of what age range that was), but if you could manage to get me out there, I enjoyed it (and some people have told me I did well. In my last year of high school, after seeing me in an in-class skit, a teacher recommended me to another student I didn't really know who was trying to make a deep, serious independent movie, because she thought I could do anger well... but that was another 'I chickened out' moment and I turned down the offer... also, I didn't much like the script and it'd have required me to swear... those who've read this a long time may recall that I have an issue with swearing. I don't have a problem with other people doing it, but it's very hard to force myself to out loud, or in text, unless I'm directly quoting something... in my head, I swear like a sailor, but most people who know me have never heard me swear).
6. I at one point owned and read every single Dragonlance novel, no matter how tangentially connected to the core plot and characters, up until the Fifth Age stuff started coming out. I still have most of them. False
But nearly true. I owned VIRTUALLY all of them (I think there might be one or two I didn't, like the second or third parts of the Dwarven Nations one, but even then I might have). And I read MOST of them at least once, but there were probably about 10-20 that I know I never got around to reading.
Which also brings me to the 'lie I was going to use but then it turned out to possibly be true'. I was going to say "I owned every single "Complete Handbook" for 2nd Edition AD&D... the ones with the brown(mostly, but occasionally grey or other colors) softcover... they had one for each class, like a "Complete Fighters handbook", and one for different races, "The Complete Book of Dwarves", and contained useful rules for them, cultural things, and different 'kits' you could use which make your character into a specific TYPE of fighter, dwarf, etc, almost an early-prototype of prestige-classes I guess (although starting from character creation, not something you grew into). I went to look for a list to figure out which I was missing and realized that, although there were a couple I'm not 100% SURE if I bought, there were none that I knew I didn't buy. And I still have most of them too, just a little scattered about and some in not-easily-accessible places. And I got lots of other of those softcover ones even when they weren't "Complete Handbooks" (the historical supplement ones, the monster religion ones, etc)... and that's not even mentioning all the other assorted book, magical item compendiums, hardcovers, boxed campaign settings and supplements that I bought and still have, gathering dust.
Man, TSR sure got a lot of my money in the 80s and 90s. How did they ever go bankrupt?
So, take it statement by statement:
1. As a child, I spent 3 week at a summer day camp themed around paleontology, where we got to dig up (fake) dino bones and learn dinosaur facts. False!
Although it does seem like a cool idea, and I was into dinosaurs a lot as a kid (I know, shocker? A kid that's into dinosaurs? But that was me!), but I never went to that camp (my Mom did once take me to a lecture from a paleontologist at the zoo once though). And, speaking of the zoo, I did do two years of a different, but also rather cool, summer day camp - Zoo Camp. I spent a week or two (can't really remember) at the zoo for the day, going to all the exhibits, learning about animals, and playing different animal games. I loved animals back then (well, I guess I still do, but back then it was my 'thing', I loved animals, wanted to be a zoologist, etc), so it was right up my alley. Aside from a couple mildly-socially-traumatic memories that are still with me, I do look back on it with a certain fondness.
2. I can list off over a hundred countries in roughly 2 minutes without looking anything up. True!
This one is actually VERY recent, though. Over the past few weeks I've made a project of memorizing the complete list of countries from Yakko Warner's "The Nations of the World" song from Animaniacs (I say 'list of countries' because although I do it, in order, to the tune and rhythm of the song, there's no way I'm going to get all the "ands" and other little words of the song in exactly the right place.) At this point, I can do the whole song, although I do have to pause occasionally to remember what comes next, only about the first half of it or so it can I do completely unconsciously.
Why did I do this?
Well, I have a large amount of time on my hands. And I figured, it would be a useful party trick if I ever went to parties or that were the kind of thing that were impressive at them in the first place.
Plus, on the off chance somebody offers me money or three wishes or something, but only if I can name 50 different countries in a minute, well, I'm prepared.
3. I tried to stay awake a full 36 hours on a week long school trip because I heard it makes you high and hallucinate. True!
Yes, we did a school trip to Washington DC, and I figured I'd experiment. I don't drink or do any kind of drugs, but I was taken by the idea that it was sort of an 'all natural' type way to hallucinate that I couldn't get addicted to (because it would take 36 hours to do it again). Anyway, it failed. I think I got about 30 hours before I was dozing frequently without wanting to. All in all, although I kind of am glad I tried staying up just to see what it would do to me, I regret doing it then.. in particular, because there was a social event/cruise/dinner/dance among the people on the trip that I was only semi-conscious for... and really, I needed every social opportunity I could get, and all my faculties available for it. I mean, theoretically, if I'd been well-rested, I might have had a pleasant conversation with a female classmate, seen each other in new ways, maybe even have gotten a girlfriend in Jr. High that would have changed the course of my whole life. But instead, I spent the time barely managing to keep myself awake.
4. Given only the stardate stated in an episode of Star Trek (TNG or DS9 only), I can probably (80%) tell you the episode name. False!
I thought maybe I'd throw people off with the uncertainty factor, but it was never even close. At one point, I could probably tell you the SEASON the episode was in (because it followed a regular pattern), but I'm not sure I could even do that, now. Also at one point, I could tell you the name of any episode (of any series, probably up until Enterprise), just by watching the first 30 seconds or so of it. I'm probably decent at that still, but I haven't had daily reruns to watch and help reinforce the skill in quite a while. That's about the extent of my Star Trek memory tricks though.
5. I once played the Skipper (from Gilligan's Island) on stage in front of a large number of people. Surprisingly true!
Yes. I don't remember the full context, but it was at Disney-MGM studios (back when it was called that) in Orlando Florida. One of their little things was a show using park-goers in the attraction. Because I was a little chubby at that age, I was chosen to be the Skipper. All I can remember was that I was supposed to hit Gilligan with my hat.
For those of you who are surprised by this for someone as shy as me... well, yes, it's true, I am shy, always have been but it's actually built up a lot as time went on and failures to connect piled on failure to connect, combined with frequent moves and being thrust into the new-outsider role again, and I withdrew more and more into my shell. For a time, I actually was able to perform and enjoyed doing so (I suppose it was because I could tell myself it wasn't ME they were judging, it was who I was pretending to be), even taking Drama as an elective one year after it was mandatory. I still got horrific stage fright (I remember faking sick to get out of a school play where I played french fries, which should give you an idea of what age range that was), but if you could manage to get me out there, I enjoyed it (and some people have told me I did well. In my last year of high school, after seeing me in an in-class skit, a teacher recommended me to another student I didn't really know who was trying to make a deep, serious independent movie, because she thought I could do anger well... but that was another 'I chickened out' moment and I turned down the offer... also, I didn't much like the script and it'd have required me to swear... those who've read this a long time may recall that I have an issue with swearing. I don't have a problem with other people doing it, but it's very hard to force myself to out loud, or in text, unless I'm directly quoting something... in my head, I swear like a sailor, but most people who know me have never heard me swear).
6. I at one point owned and read every single Dragonlance novel, no matter how tangentially connected to the core plot and characters, up until the Fifth Age stuff started coming out. I still have most of them. False
But nearly true. I owned VIRTUALLY all of them (I think there might be one or two I didn't, like the second or third parts of the Dwarven Nations one, but even then I might have). And I read MOST of them at least once, but there were probably about 10-20 that I know I never got around to reading.
Which also brings me to the 'lie I was going to use but then it turned out to possibly be true'. I was going to say "I owned every single "Complete Handbook" for 2nd Edition AD&D... the ones with the brown(mostly, but occasionally grey or other colors) softcover... they had one for each class, like a "Complete Fighters handbook", and one for different races, "The Complete Book of Dwarves", and contained useful rules for them, cultural things, and different 'kits' you could use which make your character into a specific TYPE of fighter, dwarf, etc, almost an early-prototype of prestige-classes I guess (although starting from character creation, not something you grew into). I went to look for a list to figure out which I was missing and realized that, although there were a couple I'm not 100% SURE if I bought, there were none that I knew I didn't buy. And I still have most of them too, just a little scattered about and some in not-easily-accessible places. And I got lots of other of those softcover ones even when they weren't "Complete Handbooks" (the historical supplement ones, the monster religion ones, etc)... and that's not even mentioning all the other assorted book, magical item compendiums, hardcovers, boxed campaign settings and supplements that I bought and still have, gathering dust.
Man, TSR sure got a lot of my money in the 80s and 90s. How did they ever go bankrupt?
