Sunday Social

Those of you who know me particularly well also know that this Sunday is not a day that will improve by recapping.  Which is a shame as yesterday's messing about with historical ideas has gotten me a little closer to my goal of establishing reverse-causality, and today's events haven't been conducive to following this idea up.

Anyway, rather than sit here and watch "Family Guy" and feel sorry for myself, I'm taking part in a linkup!

So there.

What do you miss most about being a kid?

 

As the term "kid" isn't defined it's a little hard to answer, but I think the answer would be the same in principle.

What I miss most is the limitless sense of possibility.  I remember when I was 16 and driving back to the Peninsula from NSW with Dad, and coming over the hills north of Craigieburn, and seeing the whole of Melbourne spread out before me, right down to the Bay and beyond, and thinking of the vast possibilities that life held.  If there's anything that helps me get out of bed in the morning, it's remembering all the things in the world still waiting to be seen, learnt, discovered and done.

 
Did you have a nickname growing up? What was it?

Usually, Tucky, although my Dad always called me "Fred" for reasons he has never made clear!

What was your favorite thing to do at recess?

 

Usually, I read or hung out in the library.  Yeah, I was that kid.

Although, when I was about 9 or 10 I figured out something useful: When kids at my primary school put in orders at the canteen, any change would be stapled into a corner of the lunch bag.  It occurred to me that a lot of kids would carelessly throw the bags in  the bin and forget to take the change.  So for about 6 months I spent lunch hour rummaging through the bins and collecting this discarded money.  I acquired a reputation as a "Bin Scab" but by the end had racked up over $6.00 in small change!  This sort of thing may explain why my wife sometimes refers to me as "Scrooge McTuck"

This lack of physical activity at recess may explain why, for a while in 1989, I found myself doing what I can only describe as "Special Phys Ed".  I remain somewhat bitter about this.
 

What did you want to be when you grew up?

 

I never knew what I wanted to be.  One day in about 1987 my mother asked me if I wanted to be a lawyer and for want of any better ideas I said yes.  Twenty-five years later ... well, check out my Linkedin profile.

 What was your favorite toy?

 Science kits!  I had this one -

But the king of them all was this one -

Yep, the Science Fair 200+ electronic projects kit!  It was, seriously, the most awesome thing you could give a ten year old (although I'm pretty sure I burned the whole shebang out by removing a bunch of resistors from a circuit to see if the LEDs got brighter - I remember it give a crackling noise and never worked quite the same after).

And despite all of this encouragement to learn something useful, what did I do?  Majored in history and took a degree in law.  All that potential brilliance was wasted.

What is the funniest thing you did as a kid that your parents still remind you about?

Generally the "funny" things I did as a kid tended towards mortifying, I'm afraid.