Tag, you're it

Thanks to Girl On Top for tagging me. I love these lists (making them and reading others) and this is kind of a cool one to start with.

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 Years Ago (1998):
1. I graduated from Appalachain State University
2. Moved from Boone, NC to Greensboro NC
3. I was a truck driver. Actually, I was in the management trainee program for Wilson Trucking. I started out by pulling a pallet jack on the loading dock floor from 6 pm - 4 am, then I moved up to driving a forklift, then a large u-haul, then finally (by october 1998) to 18 wheelers. That's a fantastic use for a degree in Communications, Radio and TV Production!
4. Wifey was still Girlfriendey, but we had been living together for 2+ years by then.
5. I was completely miserable. Greensboro can be a dirty filthy place. Most of my coworkers were heroin addicts. I was the only one with a college degree. And I decided I didn't go to college to end up working as manual labor.
5a - z. Most importantly at the time, I was still smoking well over a pack a day! stupid, stupid, stupid

5 Things on Today’s “To Do” List:
1. Teach Advanced Crystal Reports to my one student at Spartanburg Community College - Done
2. We're having a garage sale tomorrow, so go through the books and put out ones to sell
3. Clean the desk in my office - desparate!
4. Fix a web site for a client in S'burg, and debug a program for a client in Florida
5. It's a rest day. Wifey did her 11 mile long run this morning, mine is up tomorrow. Eat smart to prepare for the long run.

5 Things that I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. People want to be a millionaire because of the percieved lifestyle. It's not about the money itself, its about the freedom that the money brings. Read the 4 hour work week for more info. But if I got Tommy Bowden's $2.3 million severance pay check, I wouldn't look for another job.
2. Pay off the mortgages (I have 5 of them right now, including rental property)
3. Max out the 527 College Savings plan contributions for the girl's college funds
4. Buy a nicer bike and ALL the accessories
5. Spend more time with the kids, join the PTA when they get in school, coach their soccer teams (or softball, whatever they want)

That should really be 5 things I would do if I didn't have to work or pay bills.

5 Places I have lived:
1. Greenville, SC
2. Boone, NC
3. Greensboro, NC
4. Oconee County, SC
5. Pumpkintown, SC (Pickens County)
then back to Greenville. That's it, everywhere I've ever lived. Wifey grew up in Raleigh, NC then we met in Boone.

5 Jobs I have had:
1. I've been an IT guy for 10 years now. Software developer for Advanced Automation currently. Before that I owned my own firm(s), first as Flynn Technology Consultants, then rebranding as Structured IT. As the owner I had to do everything. Sales, fix pc's, pull cable inside of walls, setup server and pc's, and write code for databases and web sites.
2. Teacher - actually, a technical instructor for New Horizons Computer Learning Center. This was the same school I went to after leaving Wilson Trucking to get all of my IT certifications. I taught programming, database design, pc repair, network engineering; both here and in Columbia SC
3. 18 Wheeler driver - I hated driving a truck so much that I got married. But that's another post for another day
4. General Self Employment - I've owned 11 businesses besides the consulting firms listed above. I had a live DJ service, owned a retail store, owned a recording studio, a carpentry service/home rehab business, and I used to build furniture and sell it in the store. plus a few others
5. Customer Service - this gives you a whole new perspective on why that soup came to you cold. I was a restaurant cook, dishwasher, small store retail clerk & stock manager, and warehouse worker for a grocery store chain. That stuff teaches you how to work really hard for very little money and become very nice about it. I think it affects your entire attitude.

Now I’m tagging:
crap, I don't know anybody
1. Leigh
2. Katie
3. Wes
4. Hot Thick Chick
5. Frayed Laces

Wow, that was fun and made me think. The two don't usually go together. Some of those things in the list can be posts by themselves. So many stories to tell.

On the running front, I missed the cross training workout on wednesday. I hate this, because it's the only day I don't have to just run. Part of the multi-sport lifestyle is enjoying to do more than one sport. But I smiled and did my 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday in 51 minutes and burned 751 calories. Today is a rest day, and then tomorrow is the big 11 mile long run for the week. Wifey did her 11 today, and she said it was "a really long way to run". So I'm looking forward to it. But the BEST part:

I weighed in yesterday at the gym at 198 lbs!!!!! WOW, I've been trying to break through 200 for how many weeks now? like 5 weeks I've been trying to get from 203 to under 200, and you guys kept all commenting, hang in there. stick with your cardio. make small diet changes and it will pay off. I'm not going to really believe the hype until I see a second weigh in sub-200. I've been known to take a 3 lb swing from thursday to tuesday in either direction. But ah, just knowing that there is finally progress makes my knees feel so much better. So thank you for all the encouragement, and let's hope it is a trend, not an anomaly.

I also want to say thanks to Displaced, who swung by the blog the other day. She didn't leave an email address for me to reply to. She has a neat blog about the family, and they are fellow Greenvillians who moved in here from someplace else. I like seeing outsiders come to SC, it creates a little diversity in the gene pool. We've been inbred with a red state conservitism for so many generations now that most people are scared to live here. With good reason, it scares me sometimes. But anytime you want to go for a run, or just let the kids play together we're always here in Taylors.

South Carolina people tend to think that there is nothing better than living in South Carolina. It's not a bad place to be, but that doesn't mean it's the best place to be. For instance, when you ask a "South Carolina person" if they knew that our public school system ranked 49th in the nation, the most likely response is "out of how many states?" Good grief. Then they normally tell me how there is nothing wrong with our public schools because I graduated from them and I turned out ok, so why would you really want to live anywhere else? Plus the overwhelming, crushing conservative environment. Oh, the judgement that gets passed on the outcasts and lepers... I mean anyone who has a dissenting opinion or doesn't go to church every sunday. forget about it.

So wish me luck on the 11 miles tomorrow. and good luck to anyone who's racing this weekend, I know there are a bunch going on.