Half-and-half

Borrowing and modifying an idea from Ingrid, I present 14 bits of information about myself. Seven are real. Seven are false. This is also partially inspired by Carra's post about weird things about herself.

  1. When I was into model rocketry, I used to roll my own rocket engines and make my own rocket fuel. I often had "catastrophic" engine failure.

  2. I have never been intoxicated. Not even a little bit "happy".

  3. I have had the privilege and pleasure of going out with women from every continent except Antarctica (for the obvious reason there are no indigenous Antarcticans).

  4. I volunteered one Christmas at a soup kitchen. I naively believed that such simple acts of generosity helped people over temporary setbacks until they could get back on their feet. The reality was these people were pretty wretched and needed far more than a ladled bowl of soup, a slice of turkey, some stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce to get them "over the hump". It was a stark revelation that there are quite a lot of marginalized people who lead pretty pathetic lives.

  5. I have chewed coca leaves in the Peruvian Andes. You can have the same experience by chewing on a handful of fresh green leaves (just ensure you choose non-poisonous ones). Coca tea and coca flour are legally available in Peru and promoted as a source of calcium.

  6. One summer I worked as a researcher's aid on protecting electronic equipment from EMP pulses produced by atomic blasts. I read a lot that summer about the effects of atomic blasts on electronics and humans.

  7. I have (probably unwisely) taken apart smoke detectors to get at the Americium-241 to do experiments in radioactivity (primarily trying to observe tracks in a homemade cloud chamber). It is apparently quite toxic.

  8. I played the role of Judas in an Easter play on the Passion of Christ back in grade 6.

  9. One lazy Saturday I drove my friend (a Master's student at the time) around Montreal Island as we collected pH readings from various spots in Lake St. Louis (really part of the St. Lawrence, the island of Montreal just happens to lie in the middle of it).

  10. I have had chicken pox, measles and mumps, despite being vaccinated against measles and mumps.

  11. I read about 1 page per minute (paperback sized book, also depends on how "heavy" the subject matter is). So a 300 page paperback takes me about 5 hours to read (less, if I am tired. ha ha I start skipping paragraphs).

  12. I fractured my radius (or possibly my ulna - one of the bones in the lower right arm), the first time I went downhill skiing. Focussing on speed is not a smart thing for a beginner.

  13. When I was significantly younger, I once bicycled from Montreal to Ottawa (a little less than 200Km). It took 2 good effort days, was incredibly dull (cycling in the city is more varied, on the highway it is just the same for kilometres on end), it is also incredibly scary as cars and trucks zip by at 120Km/h (it is scary enough in the city at 60Km/h, but the lack of paved shoulders makes it extra scary on the highway - this was before the days of ubiquitous cell phones - which I still don't have). Not looking forward to another two long days to return, I took the bus back.

  14. It is not just my age that gets bigger as I get older, so does my waist and weight. At my heaviest I have been 145Kg (which people said I wore quite well. Erm … ok, sure if I was few inches shorter, I would have been more round, but I can assure you, nobody wears that much weight well - not even Orson Welles).

Comments

Tena Russ said…
So, are you going to tell us which is which, or shall we guess?
Richard said…
I think this is the post were I get to surround myself with an aura of mystery. It was not actually intended as a game. However ...

You are free to make wild and speculative guesses or to try and reason the answers out by using information found in my blog and my comments on other people's blogs, but I believe these facts are all new and cannot be answered by reading previous posts or comments.

I make no promises to untangle this web of deceit, though.
Cavalock said…
hah! enjoyed reading that. oh, i played one of the Wise Men (the wise guys as i prefered to call them) in a kindergaden Xmas play.
Barbara said…
They all sound believable to me! Can't wait to find out which are really true.
They all seem possible except the last..145kg? You'd be twice as heavy as I am and I rather doubt that! (I'm 5'9" and weigh about 73kg and I consider that big.)I'd believe it if it was in pounds and you were spoofing us!
Richard said…
cavalock: good, but any ideas on which are true and which are false?

barbara: I worked hard on my lies. Not very easy. I would be more curious to know which are false.

MOI: I think weight is in the eye of the beholder. I remember years back complaining to a Japanese friend that I was 100Kg and not happy about it. She replied that I weighed more than twice her, since she was only 45Kg. She is somewhere between 5'5" and 5'6". I think people were saying I looked like I weighed 20Kg less (or am I lying?).
x said…
this reminds me of a game geishas play with their patrons... i wonder which 1s are true and which 1s aren't. haha. hard job.
B said…
Ah, this is great. So, which are false? Hmph. You've done a great job with these. I have to start by saying that I believe I know #11 is true. And I feel that #4 is true as well. And with both of those I am drawing upon my (weak) recollections of a couple of past discussions about those topics. I am completely guessing here but I will say that the following are false: 5, 6, 10, 2, 12, 8.

And those are really guesses and I hate guessing about such things because any/all of these could be absolutely true or absolutely false with you. So, your desire to surround yourself with an aura of mystery is definitely working! :)
Richard said…
acey: try and guess. So you are saying I am like a geisha? :P

breal: thanks for guessing. You are about half right or half wrong (depending on which way you fill your glass) - which is what I would expect a guess to produce.

I have come to realize that one of those "facts" can be proved or disproved from a previous blog entry (not to worry, there is only about 500 from the past 2-1/2+ years). I also think one can be answered from a comment I left on someone's blog sometime (actually, I think I left the info on two blogs).

But it is interesting to see how you think I am.

If at least 3 more people guess over the next week, I will post the answer key. I need multiple responders to be able to generate some stats.
B said…
Please don't think that my guesses were based on a perception of you. I think any of those could be possible or not possible for you. Sometimes I also guess against what seems so obvious! As you might gather from such a statement, if I had not studied or attended class in college, multiple choice tests offered no comfort!
Tena Russ said…
I make no promises to untangle this web of deceit, though.

You rascal, you.
Richard said…
breal: so you just picked them as you would pick lottery numbers? I am not offended, just amused and curious why people would pick they way they do. I tried to make them all plausible, so that none were obviously false or true (or half true or false), I also tried to ensure that none could be known by someone reading my blog or comments (although, I goofed on that one and two are knowable).

tena: well, I did make a concession to breal, if at least 3 others try to untangle the deceit from the truth, I will reveal all.
B said…
Haha. No, I did not choose as though I were playing the lottery (I've honestly never purchased a lottery ticket). I tried to go with a "gut" feeling but you really did make them all rather feasible, so I could only attempt to guess and I think I found myself choosing answers because I thought they sounded very believable. Okay, my head hurts now! :)
Richard said…
breal:take some aspirin

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