EMF's Schubert Dip is one of my favorite records of all time.

- I performed well at a nerd competition in high school, and was rewarded by being given a private tour of the White House and meeting Bill Clinton at a reception in the Rose Garden. I did this in a fifteen-dollar suit bought at a consignment shop where widows sell the Brooks Brothers clothing of their dead husbands.

- I have met, interviewed and dined with a high-ranking member of a paramilitary fascist organization, which politically controlled the city that I was visiting at the time. This was not my choice, and I smiled throughout our meetings so as not to offend my host, who was presumably trying to curry favor with said fascists. I was too pusillanimous to confront either my host or the bigwig on the murderous behavior of the organization, but due to my having determined that my host was well in with these fascists, his organization was removed from the project I was working on.

- On the same trip, I was taken to see a holy man for no clear reason. I sat on a chair facing this holy man and his meager worldly possessions, in the cool shade of the temple complex where he lived, and he asked me what I wanted to know. I am without spiritual inclinations and had no questions for him, which irritated and baffled him.

- On the same trip, in a different city, I was invited to give a 45-minute lecture about Canada and Quebec to sociology and social work students at the local college. They were attentive and offered few questions after my talk, though many wanted to shake my hand. When I asked the director of the college why the students were so quiet, he told me that most of them spoke no English.

- Working in the New York juvenile court system, I told a judge about the terrible discrimination faced by Gypsies, which led to her releasing a Gypsy child from a brief spell in the foster care system to be reunited with her family. The leader of New Jersey's Roma community was extremely grateful to me and my co-workers. This may be the best thing I have ever done.

DNA Concept wrote:I was taken to see a holy man for no clear reason. I sat on a chair facing this holy man and his meager worldly possessions, in the cool shade of the temple complex where he lived, and he asked me what I wanted to know. I am without spiritual inclinations and had no questions for him, which irritated and baffled him.

If he was genuinely irritated and baffled by your lack of questions, then he was a bum steer.

The mother of horrible director M. Night Shyamalyan (?? no clue) delivered me by c-section and accidentally cut a gash less than an inch from my left eye doing it. The scar's still there.

In 1993, hearing very loud, very bad domestic violence occurring in the apartment next to the one I lived in at the time, I called 911. The incident turned out to be a gang rape, still in progress when the police arrived. Ten people were arrested. I testified. All of the perpetrators served time. The victim survived. No one else had called.

I share a surname with two well-known comic strip characters.

ctrl-s wrote:In 1993, hearing very loud, very bad domestic violence occurring in the apartment next to the one I lived in at the time, I called 911. The incident turned out to be a gang rape, still in progress when the police arrived. Ten people were arrested. I testified. All of the perpetrators served time. The victim survived. No one else had called.

holy shit.

I have written and directed a feature film (still in post production as it happens but still)

Here is a page with a preview trailer on it.

www.frameworkmovie.com

Earwicker wrote:I have written and directed a feature film (still in post production as it happens but still)

cool, man. you should send me a copy when it's complete. (i like seeing people's work.)

i started to fight for democracy, freedom of speach etc at the age of 2 months - in the 80's my father was involved in printing and distributing all kinds of stuff written or used by poeple from solidarity movement (which was delegalized by then). it was a lot more serious than it sounds as distrubuting articles/books that were against soviet union, or even written by people who were not agreeing with polish goverment was stricly forbbidden as it was aimed againts the soviet union loving polish nation yada yada. so my father thought that one place that won't be searched by police/military patrols (i was born during the military law time in 1982) will by a baby carriage. so i was used to smuggle works of people like czeslaw milosz or leszek kolakowski beneath my back (i hoped my diapers weren't leaking) and helped in bringing communism down. i rule.

whoops