11 Random Facts About TroubleMaker

These are generally things I don’t believe would have been picked up under my posts.  Hopefully, most of this is new information to give you all a little more insight to myself.

1.) I’m a halfie, or “wasian”.

My father is full Chinese, though he doesn’t look it.  My grandfather is from China, though he moved here when he was young and doesn’t speak a lick of Chinese.  I get my white genes from my mother – Italian, Irish, and I think a little Scottish as well.

So what do I look like?  Well, I actually have dark, olive skin, which I get from my dad, as well as a similar facial structure and dark hair.  But that’s about where the similarities end.  I got green eyes, broad shoulders, and the ability to actually grow facial hair from my mom’s side of the family.  My little sister, on the other hand, inherited more of my dad’s looks such as slanted Asian eyes with a brown texture, but she got my mom’s much fairer skin tone.

2.) True to my Asian roots, I’m really good at technology.

This probably isn’t so much a secret, because I’ve discussed my job before.  My first job was as a computer technician.  I ripped laptops apart, soldered them, built up all sorts of super gaming computers, and basically fixed anything that needed to be fixed.  I was 14 at the time.

If you have a computer problem, I can probably fix it.  And probably a lot faster than you could.

2a.) I used to do a lot of freelance web design.

I’ve contemplated doing this again as a way to become location independent.  I have a hard time with getting the business though, unless it comes straight to me.  But, I know HTML and CSS very well, as well as bits of back-end code like PHP.  I know my way around just about any CMS system – WordPress (obviously), Joomla, Drupal, etc.

3.) I play(ed) a lot of sports.

I played lots as a child – basketball, baseball, and flag football (never had any interest in real football, sadly) on competitive levels as a junior.  I once hit a half-court shot in a basketball game.  I used to be a chubby kid, as I’ve discussed before, but I was fortunate enough to still be wicked fast.  I always played point guard – if they stuck a bigger guy on me I could blow by them, if it was a smaller guy I muscled my way through them.

I still play pickup basketball a couple times a week, and participate in the occasional recreational softball or soccer team.

4.) I’m terrified of fish.

Not spiders, not heights – no, I ended up with “fish-phobia”.

I suspect it is from when my parents took me to a salmon festival when I was about five.  There were these gigantic salmon quadruple my size staring at me from these tanks, less than a foot away from me.  For whatever reason, since then, I hate fish.  I don’t eat it, I can’t touch them, and the smell repulses me.  I used to train for triathlons in the ocean, and every time I’d see a school of fish below me in the cove I’d freak out and swim faster.

5.) I live in San Diego, but I never go to the beach.

Maybe it’s because I’m always terrified of fish.  Kidding.

In all honesty, I hate going during the summer months.  There are far too many tourists, not enough parking, and being out in the sun all day gives me a headache, and leaves me with a feeling of lethargy.I love running on the beach first thing in the morning, but spending an entire day there has little appeal to me.

I’ve also got a surfboard, but I’m not very good.  More likely, I just never practiced enough.  I’ve got a great board sitting in my bedroom, but I hardly take it out.

6.) I drink Rum & Cokes or Gin & Tonics when I go out.

They’re simple, easy to sip on, and I’m a man of simple tastes.  Generally, I prefer gin and tonics.

7.) I’m almost exclusively attracted to white girls.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll bang an Asian or two.  Mostly though, I’m attracted to the white girls.  I would never consider marrying, or evenly probably being exclusive, with any girl but a white girl.

8.) I actually do drive a Mustang.

It’s a 2011 Pony Edition with a GT500 handling package.  It’s only a V6, but I’ve got ‘er tuned up.  The light weight and the tuning means I can stay even, if not beat, most GTs off of a starting line.  She is my baby.  I also still have my high school and college beater, which is an old Honda Accord with 250,000 miles on her.  She just keeps chugging along.

And of course, my Mustang is a manual.

9.) I have very little compassion.

I realized that worrying about other people makes your life much, much worse.  I could give a fuck less about hobos, people on welfare, or quite frankly, anyone whom I don’t care about.  If someone begging outside of a store irritates me enough begging for my hard-earned money, I’ll tell them to stop being a bum and get a job.

10.) I’m terrible with money.

I put 10% away in my 401k every paycheck.  Other than that though, my expenses are so high that it makes it hard to save.  Granted, I live a good life and have a lot of luxuries.  I am in the process of trying to cut some of this down though to make things easier from a financial perspective.

11.) I don’t keep a huge *close* social circle.

I believe you’re better off having a couple of close good friends than a lot of shitty friends.  I consider most of my co-workers to be friends, so I get to socialize quite a bit on a daily basis with them.  This leaves me feeling content with my social life many days, which opens up my weekday evenings to work on my projects in solitude.  Truthfully, this makes me very happy.

So I have my work crew of friends. I have two friends whom I consider very close.  One I’ve known for nearly 10 years, and the other for about 4.  These are guys I would go to war for and I know that they would for me, too.  I’ve also got two more guys whom I met through this blog, whom have become my trusted wingmen (you know who you are, gents!), and then a few girl pals I see once in a while, some of whom don’t leave in San Diego anymore.

I also now consider many of my fellow bloggers around the world to be friends, and look forward to meeting more of you in the near future.

Read More: My Journey