25 Things

Pat Hawks 04 Feb 2009

So there’s a meme spreading lately (mostly on Facebook) where you list 25 things about yourself, and tag 25 people you want to know more about.

Usually, I hate things like this with a passion.
I really wasn’t planning on participating, even though I was tagged by my sister, Kyle Mertes, Alicia Jones and my girlfriend.

Then, last night, I was tagged by Thom Hotka.
My friends, when Thom Hotka wants something, Thom Hotka gets it.

So here, in absolutely no order, are 25 random facts about Pat Hawks.

I would love to own and live in a warehouse, with lots of rooms.
I’d have a big hang out room, a nice home theater room, and a room dedicated to throwing eggs and plates at the wall without having to clean it up.
I get hot quite easily. If it weren’t for that, I’d love to wear a suit and tie everyday.
I used to really dislike my name. I thought about changing it to Peter or Ryan or something. When I worked as a counselor at camp, BreeAnn decided I should go by Rick.
Now anybody who met me at camp knows me as Rick and it drives me nuts. I have since decided that Pat isn’t such a bad name after all.
When things aren’t symmetrical, it bothers me. When other people are bothered by things not being symmetrical, that bothers me even more. When I’m around somebody who is bothered by asymmetry, I purposely rearrange things just to bother them.
I’m really bad at being a friend.
I really hate following orders from anyone I don’t respect, no matter how much authority they have. Sometimes I do the opposite of what I’m told for no reason except to not do what I’m told.
When I was in 5^th-grade, I would dress up as a clown and skip around the neighborhood just to see how people would react. Most people didn’t.
I dream of being popular enough that people will T.P. my house.
I remember when I was really young, sitting on my dad’s lap learning how to use a computer. He had an Atari ST. I was a GEM master (for my age)
It really bothers me when people
If I didn’t want to have a family and work in ministry, I’d either try to be a news photographer in Chicago or move to Mountain View and start a business.
I wrote my first web page when I was in 6^th-grade. I didn’t yet have a computer that could read webpages, so I typed the whole thing into MS-DOS Editor , saved it to a floppy and took it to the library to view it. The colors clashed horribly, but my code was valid.
I love kids!
In third grade, while playing Four Square outside, somebody hit the ball pretty hard, it bounced and went out. I said “A little too hard on that baby,” not realizing that the person who had been knocked out, Jenna, was, umm… not the tallest person in the class. I promise I wasn’t trying to pick on her, but she was offended and I’ve never forgiven myself.
I will leave the world better than I found it.
It bothers me when people don’t fold an American flag properly, or leave it out in the rain, or let it fly at night without being properly lit. The piece of cloth means nothing to me, but many have given their lives for what that piece of cloth represents. That’s significant.
Often, when I’m alone, I laugh out loud just for the sake of laughing.
In 8^th and 9^th-grade, I wrote calculator programs under the alias PhAT RIno with my “company” Integer Software . Those calculator programs have been downloaded over 50,000 times.
I hate cell phones.
I am good at loosing my cell phone (currently it’s been missing for just under a month)
When I was young, I had a lot of trouble separating fantasy from reality. I figured God, dinosaurs, Santa Clause and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had about the same probability of existing. I gave them each about 83% likelihood.
While I don’t have the time/energy/talent to actually learn to play the piano, I would like to learn to play a couple songs like Moonlight Sonata, some Billy Joel songs, or that song Edward from Twilight plays on the piano (Bella’s Lullaby).
I hate the feeling caffeine gives me, but feel that it’s an integral part of my “image.”
I really love Christine.