Interesting Facts About You That Few People Know About

[CorporalClegg]

If we're playing that game, a drawing I did in high school won a ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair.

It was called "Bones."

It was a "scene" of a T-Rex chasing down a Brontosaurus except they were skeletons. I had some other life in the background (including a few pterodactyls flying around) that were also skeletal. The forest itself was petrified to keep up with the theme.

I made the drawing itself from some chicken bones that I'd bleached, dried, and then sharpened. What I did was, I used canvas and smothered it in some very dark gray low gloss paint to make a negative of sorts. Then I just used the sharpened bones like pencils.

I did try and etch a silhouette of Dee Kelly's face into the bark of one of the trees in the background as a joke. It didn't turn out so good, but it was small so I doubt anyone ever noticed.

 

[Roshi]

None of my friends wants to play against me (hell, even with me sometimes) at Trivial Pursuit, Scene It and other such games. It's not that I easily win, it's simply none of them are nerds/geeks... I just can't lose.

 

[Emher]

The meter sucks, but it's got a certain something!

Well excuse us for using a logical system

 

[Gryffindorian]

^ And why would he shoot birds? For what purpose...? Merely target practice? That's really fucked up and I don't like it! What birds was he killing.....which ones? I don't care if it was house sparrows...now you've gone and gotten me upset.

I don't know what species of birds. It was ages ago. Would it make a difference if I said "fish" instead of birds?

Good Point! I fish all the time. But I catch and release. I'm just pointing out that it is now illegal to kill native birds. And did he shoot them for target practice or for food? It's disturbing (to me) to kill something for fun or for target practice...but that's just me.

Oh, I remember now. They weren't birds; they were fruit bats. He shot some fruit bats because they were eating up all the fruit from the trees in our orchard.

 

[Kestra]

Another random one:

When I was in fifth grade, I participated in an area contest to create a design where the theme was "Celebrate the Arts". My sister was the one who persuaded me to join, as we both enjoyed drawing.

Out of all the kids in several grades, my design ended up winning and my sister ended being the runner-up. The judges were as surprised as we were, since there were no names on the designs and we had entirely different styles.

They used my design on several billboards in the county and there's a picture of me sitting up on one of them, somewhere. The paper did an article on me because my brother and sister were known for winning all sorts of contests in the area, and this was the first one I had won.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Oh yeah, up until about 30 years ago, I was the only person in all the U.S.A. with my real name. Now there are two others.

 

[thestrangequark]

I won a drawing contest when I was seven and my prize was a set of towels embroidered with teddy bears. I still use those towels at the age of 24!

That's great! For the release of the 6th Harry Potter book I went to one of the midnight bookstore parties with some friends. They had all sorts of activities including a drawing contest, which I assumed was just for the kiddies. However, 5 minutes to midnight they announced that the prize for the drawing contest would be a free copy of the book and that there would be both a kid's and adult's prize given! I snatched up the only three crayons left --yellow, brown, and orange -- and whipped out a portrait of Hagrid and won the book!
On the way home I was so excited that I crashed my bike on the corner of 14th st and 3rd ave when I tried to make the turn at top speed. Fortunately, I had the book to keep me company while I was laid-up with a sprained ankle. Those books really do make me feel like a kid again. (And the drawing of Hagrid is still tucked away in the book.)

 

[captcalhoun]

i came third in a competition to create a banner ad to advertise planetwolfenstein.com on the gamespy network.

 

[Omnius]

I have been to the state of Delaware, and I know where to find it on the map!

 

[Bloodwhiner]

I won a blue ribbon at the fair for my Sweet Potato Pie

 

[Amaris]

^ On that same subject (food!), I may be the one guy in existence who likes Fruitcake.


J.

 

[JustKate]

Ooh, I like fruitcake! Good fruitcake - and there's a lot of bad fruitcake out there. But you still may have the title, J., since I'm not a guy.

Also sort of on the subject of food, I won the award in my senior class for Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow, which is pretty darn hilarious considering how little interest I have in housekeeping. A whole bunch of us, male and female, took the test because it got us out of some perfectly wretched class or other, and yet it turned out that I was apparently one of the few whose parents had made me do household chores. So I knew about laundry and ironing and vacuuming - how anybody got almost through high school without learning how to vacuum is a mystery to me even now - and measuring cups and the care of small children. It was hilarious, but I can't say I was thrilled to stand up at senior assembly near the end of the year to accept this "prestigious" award. Oh, well - I don't like to do some of that stuff, but it is pretty useful to know. I've got more use out of homemaker skills than I ever got out of, say, calculus.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow

Sounds like Jane Jetson.

 

[JustKate]

Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow

Sounds like Jane Jetson.

That actually makes me feel better about it, Laser! I wish I'd thought of it at the time. If only Betty Crocker had - imagine how cool the plaque could have been...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Reminds me of those lameass ultra-sexist and borderline-slavery tracts from the 50's like this.

 

[JustKate]

^ This actually wasn't sexist per se, since both males and females were eligible to take the test, and quite a few guys in my class did so (though from what some of them said later, it was pretty obvious why they hadn't won!) - whatever class it was that was affected, apparently we all wanted out of it pretty badly. I strongly suspect that up until just a few years previously, it had been the Betty Crocker Housewife of Tomorrow award, but I don't have any actual information about that.

 

[An Officer]

I crossed the Kenyan border to Tanzania whilst on safari. It was without permission, and we weren't supposed to.

 

[Kommander]

Might as well do a real one:

I'm only afraid of two things:
1: Alien abduction. Seriously, if I see a picture like this,

and I'm not expecting it, I have a minor panic attack. Even if I am expecting it, I feel a little anxious. What makes it strange is that I also enjoy researching UFO sightings and alien abduction phenomenon. That would be like someone with a severe fear of spiders becoming an amateur arachnologist.

2: Anything other than air, water, or my eyelids touching my eyes. That's why I wear glasses instead of contacts. Eye surgery or injuries too. I was watching How It's Made and they showed how LASIK is done, five seconds in I had to stop watching. Also, the part of A Clockwork Orange with the ocular speculums is difficult for me to watch.

For years I thought I was clairvoyant, but it turns out I'm just really observant.

Um... that's all I can think of for now.

 

[Lonemagpie]

For years I thought I was clairvoyant, but it turns out I'm just really observant.

I love that show...

 

[captcalhoun]

i love fruit cake. ESPECIALLY Mom's home-made fruit cake. she doesn't have time to make it these days