Tagged and Released for research

Over the weekend, Haley Hughes at The Beacon tagged me. She's got some great stuff on her blog.

Here are the rules:

The Rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to read your blog.

This stuff is kind of fun and challenging. I have to come up with 8 things about me that I haven't written about much, and yet they can't be things that I won't write about.

So here goes...

1. I remember the moment I learned to read. I was "reading" a book shortly before bed and all of a sudden I wasn't seeing individual words and letter any more, but I was actually understanding it. It was a moment when the light suddenly went off and I got it.
2. When I was unemployed in Boise I spent a day as a temp at the Powerbar factory. For several hours I pulled the wrapper off defective Powerbars (too heavy, too light, or leaky) and threw away the wrappers. The Powerbar itself, we would dump into a trash can that was filled with defective Powerbar material. Then they would run it through the machine again.
3. I spent two weeks working the graveyard shift at a Minimart in MT. I like my current job better.
   
4. When I was 18 I got a ticket for illegal dumping in NYC. I was disposing of old construction equipment (I'll tell the whole story another time). The cops threatened to seize the car.
5. The only character I like in The Lion King is Rafiki. The rest are all jerks.
6. I once gave a speech in a college speech tournament where I actually jumped up on the table and scared everyone. I stood on the table for half the speech.
7. I have flow about 320,000 actual butt-in-seat miles on Alaska Airlines. Just 680,000 more and I'll be MVP Gold for life. My current actual miles for all airlines flown is well over 500,000. You can see my public flight profile here. And that doesn't include most of my flights from the 80s and 90s.
8. The biggest high I get is when I give an awesome speech/presentation/performance to a large, live audience. It makes my teeth tingle.
   

The next step is going to be to tag 8 people. But I think I'm going to skip this test. Instead, I'll encourage you to self tag, if that's legal in your state. Go ahead and list your 8 items in comments, or blog about them post a link here.

I wonder what the typical response rate to a tagging is...