Tag, I'm It: Five Personal Tidbits

The latest meme making the rounds is Blog Tag. Once tagged, you are supposed reveal five tidbits about yourself - especially those unrelated to your blog persona - and then tag five others. After a double-tag by Oliver Starr and Derek Scruggs, I'm it. Here are five lesser-known snippets about me, and a photo that I'll undoubtedly regret sharing later:

1. I was an All-Ivy college cheerleader. At Columbia, being a cheerleader was not popular, which of course is one reason it was worth doing. Bonus info for trivia hounds: I was cheering during The Streak, and was not only at the football game that put Columbia in the record books in 1987 with 35 consecutive losses, but also at the game that broke The Streak in 1988 (Columbia-Princeton, 16-13) after 44 consecutive losses. Deep in the CBS Early Show archives, there is some very cheesy footage of 17-year-old Christine cheering and being interviewed.
2. Automatic car washes make me laugh uncontrollably. I still remember the first time I went through one, since it was only ten years ago: First, there was a short giggle as the Hand of the Car Wash God took over our forward motion. As soon as the giant rubber noodles started undulating and smacking the car around, I lost it. And what about those giant soapy rollers and whirligigs? The hair dryer tornado? Who wouldn't laugh?
   
3. I don't drink coffee or beer. Double yuck.
4. One of my first hires when I started Mercury2 was my mother, Josie Herron - otherwise known as "M" on the team. Mom is a genius at both data architectures and requirements development. Since we were building complex database applications, and I knew she'd work tirelessly for me, Wheat Thins, and Diet Pepsi, moving her out was a no-brainer. "M" was our naming compromise - I didn't want to call her Mom at work, she refused to have me call her Josie, and frankly, the James Bond reference is a good fit for her.
5. I learned to read when I was two years old (ask Mom), and so I think of books as friends. All of my books are alphabetized by author, then title. Except in the case of trilogies and such, which are organized chronologically within the set. Reference books shelved separately.

Now, the fun part where I get to tag: Rob Hayes, David Hornik, Kaliya Hamlin, Dave McClure, and Charlie Crystle. (I also wanted to tag Lisa Stone and Ross Mayfield, but they've already been hit.)

Comments

[Derek Scruggs]

As a Northwestern alum, I am forever grateful that Columbia broke our record.

[Christine Herron]

You're welcome. :P

I, in turn, am ever-grateful to Prairie View, for its 80-game losing streak that ended in 1998...thoroughly crushing the Columbia record.

[Beaman]

I agree about coffee, triple yuck! A cup of tea, now that's something to savour.

[Sandra Dickinson]

I was a member of the pom-pom drill squad in high school. To this day I actually weep whenever I hear/see a marching band. (Even if its little kids in a 4th of July parade) -- I love the sound and the precision marching making pictures on the field.

[Christine Herron]

Mmm....Earl Grey with a splash of milk (cream if I'm naughty) and a bit of sweet. This also has the benefit of looking like coffee, so I don't seem un-American. ;)

[Dave]

love ya hon, but i wuz already tagged:
http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2006/12/blog_tag_5_thin.html

(btw, next time i get my car washed i'm dragging you along for the ride ;)

[Tim]

There's really an all-Ivy cheerleading squad? At Princeton we only had about 3 cheerleaders, and two of them were guys...interesting.

[christa]

Your car wash confession? um, best thing I've read this morning.

Always great to read your blog, Christine!

Aloha

[Greg]

It's funny to see that this concept of the "five personnal tidbits" (I've just learnt a new english word) is also running around the french "blogosphere", but the personns are not choosen by tag...we just say :"I give the hand to..." Yes I know You are more modern ! Sorry for my English which is not really fluent but a little bit like Google Translator...Best regards from Paris.

[Tisha]

Cool I also went to Columbia, are you a native New Yawker?

[Darian]

Interestingly, we did this at Tribe.net in 2004 to spur usage of our new blogging feature. It really helped at first, but then people started to see it as a chain letter and it annoyed them. That's the fun of "virality" (what used to be called a fad). You can use it, you can even modify it, but you can't control it...

[Christine Herron]

@Tisha: I'm a native Floridian, which at one time was a rare breed. But I can't help feeling at home on the UWS.

@Darian: I think that many of these memes have escaped chain-letter categorization because of the discovery aspect. You don't necessarily *know* that you've been tagged unless your reader/vanity search picks it up, or unless a trackback pops up for approval. And blog tag is easier to ignore than inbox spam. Virality is definitely more subtle than a typical chain letter - I doubt that anyone thought they were receiving chain mail when they started seeing the hotmail signatures on email from friends.

[Janet]

I agree with this completely, thanks for the post.