Jim has tagged me with "The Eight Things Meme". Apparently, here's the rules:

• Post these rules before you give your facts
• List 8 random facts about yourself
• At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
• Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

It's possible that I will risk the wrath of the chain-letter demons by being slow to get around to the last rule. But here's my eight random things:

1. I do not have a high school diploma.
2. Speaking of high school, I went to the state track meet in the 400 m hurdles (finished dead-ass last).
3. I once submitted a book proposal to O'Reilly. Didn't get all the way through the acceptance process, but I'll always be grateful to Simon St. Laurent for his kind and generous thoughts, help, and encouragement.
4. I was going to grow up to be a mathematician until Galois Theory kicked my butt.
5. My dissertation was on representations of knowledge and the act of knowing in Anglo-Saxon literature.
6. As an undergrad, I took an F in "Computational Methods in Physics". (First page of the workbook: "Turn on the computer. Write a sentence describing what happens.").
7. I wrote a significant portion of my dissertation (at least early drafts) in Paul's Club.
8. My favorite building materials are bricks and planks of wood direct from the lumber yard (it's so modular!).

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