Last week, I opened up my email only to find that Rich Pieropan had sent me the dread MeMe virus.  I thought that I had become immune to this virus due to my previous post caused my both Carole Cohen and Chris E Griffith.  I guess there is no escaping this pandemic plague.

So, here are 5 more things that you may not have know about me:

1. Okay, if you actually read my last one and all comments, you would know this one.  I used to be big in martial arts.  I studied several different styles with most of the focus on Tae Kwon Do.  When I was active, I used to compete at state tournaments.  I have won 3 gold medals and 1 bronze medal at the state level.  I never ventured into the national circuit.
2. My near death experience... back in my teen years (you know when you think you are invincible to death) I went with a group to go mountain climbing and white water rafting.  Well, on the climb, we were about 3/4 of the way up and leaving the tree line (where the trees stop growing and the rocks start becoming the landscape).  It was someone's lame idea to free climb (no safety ropes). As you can guess, I lost my footing and fell about 20-30 feet.  Remember that tree line... thank God it was not that far because it was a root that saved me from going down the rest of the way.  Let's just say I held on to that root for quite some time.  I finanally made it to the summit to find out that the back side of the mountain had a nicely traversed path that did not require climbing.  Since then, I have stuck to traveling on the path.
3. I have a fear of snakes.  I cannot stand the thought of them unless they are a piece of luggage or clothing.   I have always left them alone and made it a point to stay well clear of them.  Recently, I have been working on overcoming this fear by studying them and getting closer to them.  While I still have rooted fear, I have grown to appreciate them.
4. One more than one occassion, I escorted a couple million dollars worth of diamonds and jewelery.  Back in college, I worked as an armed guard for a big name armored car service.  One of my duties was to transport these types of items to retail stores.  Nothing like walking around with a pea shooter in your holster and several million dollars in you hand with a bullseye on your back.  (One little scare did happen... I was on my way to a delivery when I found out that a co-worker had been shot doing the same thing that I was doing.  He was in the south part of the county and I was in the north.  Using quick math to determine distance and time, I determined that I could be the next target at my next drop.  That was the only time I had my gun ready when I exited the truck.)
5. I had to fire some of my closest friends.  With one of the companies that I worked for, I received a phone call asking me to fire/layoff several people.  Each one ended up being good friend.  One of those people was Marc Blasi.  I did not agree with the decision, but it came from the higher ups.  Marc and I are obiviously still great friends, and have in essence become business partners with Knightlines Mortgage Services.  I do not like to fire someone unless they absolutely deserve to be let go.  Now, with my own company, I can make those decisions and don't have to let those go that don't really deserve to be let go.

So, now you know a little more about me.  If I can find some of my pictures from TKD, I will post them here.  Especially if I can find a pic of me doing my favorite kick, a 360 degree jump round house.  I would send the virus on to 3 more, but I believe that just about everyone has been subjected to the virus now, and I would not want to plague them again.

UPDATE: I could not find the album with my TKD pics in it, but I did find this video demonstrating my favorite move.  This is a full contact TKD video, so that is a little warning...  :)