Proponents contend that such life-lists are an efficient way to bring long-lost high school or college friends up to speed, and to take existing friendships to a deeper level of intimacy by conveying new aspects of their personalities or new information about their experiences. “It’s fun facts to learn about people you thought you knew a lot about already,” Carey said. “It’s your chance to kind of share your heart and what’s going on inside you.”

But not everyone agrees. There are some who worry about both receiving and getting too much information about their friends and acquaintances. Still others think that the concept is flawed from the get go.

A big part of the problem [...] is the number that defines the phenomenon. “There’s probably not 25 really interesting facts about anybody,” he said. “You could get 12 really good ones, and then you start hitting the bottom of the barrel.”

I take this as a challenge. For you, my faithful readers, I give you 25 Random Things About Me:

25. I once had a dog named Sparky for dinner. He was well behaved.

24. I have a haircut that requires very little prep time in the morning.

23. My CIA code name is “Barnaby”

22, I once wrote a fan letter to a pig.

21. I have an MBA.

20. I have forgotten more statistics than you will ever know.

18. I don’t count backwards very well.

17. I once competed in a ski race, and would have won my age group if I was an 87 year-old woman with one leg.

16. I’m a joker. I’m a smoker. I’m a midnight toker. Don’t want to hurt no one.

15. I can bench press my own weight 10 times. I only own a 5 pound weight.

14. I still think that I will begin to develop an accent from the old country when I turn 60.

13. I have seen Blazing Saddles over 20 times, and I am a lawyer. Wait, that’s not me.

12. I can make any food item into a Frittata.

11. I vomited in a cab once. Wanna see?

10. I sometimes keep Netflix movies at home for over a month.

9. I have a loathsome elbow disease.

7. I don’t count backwards very well.

6. I sometimes repeat myself.

5. I was the fifth Beatle.

4. My name is “The Other Gordon”

3. I have the hands of a sturgeon.

2. I almost beat Ken Jennings while watching Jeopardy on my couch. Okay, it was a rerun.

1. I make excellent pot holders. What color would you like?

Well, whatever it was, it was pretty damn good. You simply have to love an inaugural (THAT’S the word!) address where he mentions “data” and “statistics” in the first 5 minutes.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Not only did he use the words, but he used them correctly. I’m simply not used to a President that does that. Of course, later in the speech, he made my heart soar with the following words:

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its costs.

All in all a forceful, appropriate, and, dare I say, hopeful, speech (That sentence, by the way, has set a new standard in the use of the comma). It takes some pretty large cojones to delineate the changes his administration will make while his predecessor is sitting right there. His moves in the first few days of office, although expected, were still pretty stunning in setting a new course for this country. And it seems like most people, save Fox News, are willing to give him a break for the first couple of weeks. See this clip from The Daily Show for the alternative view.

In the spirit of change, my relationship to social media is also undergoing a little spruce up. The first year anniversary of this blog is coming up shortly, and I’ve decided undergo a little facelift. Some of you may have noticed some changes in the sidebar, and I will be making some other changes that will improve the world’s access to all things Glenn.

Toward that end, I started twittering last week. For those who don’t know, Twitter is a social networking site that asks the question “What are you doing right now?” Users post 140 characters describing what they’re doing, and those that subscribe to their feed can read these “tweets.” I approached this with some skepticism, but I am finding it somewhat entertaining, and it has fun to follow the few people I know on the site and see what they’re up to. If you are on the Twitter, you can find me at “jbsaywhat.” I’ll follow you if you follow me.

As if that wasn’t enough, I am using FriendFeed, which is a sight that aggregates all of my social networking feeds (blogs, twitter, Flickr, etc.) in one place. It is a free site, and even though I’ve only been using it since the weekend, I can see where it would be very useful for families and friends to keep in touch. Here’s the link to my feed.

So that is all for now. Keep an eye out for what might be a major redesign of the blog. Or just minor tweaks. Either way, it will made with you, the loyal reader, in mind.

This weekend, we found ourselves on our annual ski weekend at King Pine. Yesterday while driving back to our hotel from partaking in the best that Conway, New Hampshire has to offer in medical clinics, we found ourselves in a long line of traffic, led by a rather tricked out pickup truck. This conveyance, which was adorned with cop-like lights on the top of the cab, various chrome highlights surrounding the bed, and appeared to have significant engine modifications, was traveling at a rate which suggested that the speedometer must have been calibrated 10 miles/hour below the actual speed. As the cars between our own and said truck peeled off, we soon found ourselves directly behind this slow moving vehicle.

Because the road was both single lane and winding, it would have been neither smart nor, technically, legal, to pass, so we were able to follow him for a good 5 miles, which gave us even more time to admire the artistic vision of the auteur that owned this pokey vehicle. We soon noticed an odd attachment dangling from the beneath the the trailer hitch. My heart skipped a beat, as I realized that I had finally witnessed what I had only heard vague rumblings about. Yes, folks, I had seen my first pair of Truck Nuts. (The following picture is only a representation, not the actual truck (or nuts) in question).

I had first heard of these elusive novelties on the The Daily Show (they make their appearance about a minute and half into the clip). I had originally thought that these were something that the funny folks on the staff of the The Daily Show came up with, but a quick search on The Google proved me wrong. There are apparently a wealth of on-line e-tailers that do a brisk business with these. According to these sites, truck nuts are “are the perfect truck accessory,” and warnings such as “Buyers Be Aware: You may see imitations, however you won’t find any equal to our Second Generation Truck Balls! (includes hanging chain and brass lock )” (which would indicate that these are desirable enough that you need to secure them against nefarious bands of nut robbers).

According to Wikipedia, these were first marketed a decade ago. How is that I’ve never heard of them until late last year, and had never seen a pair in the wild until this weekend? To be sure, these could be considered by many to be offensive, and a number of states (including Florida and Virginia) have either banned them outright or are working to do so, so it could be that the areas of the country I frequent have a little more taste than other sections.

But I think it is mostly selection bias. I suspect that pickup trucks make up a much smaller percentage of all motor vehicles in the Commonwealth that other places in the country. Which means that there is a vast untapped market for non-truck adornments, which I now propose to exploit. Take a look at the mockup below, and tell me if you don’t agree that I’ve got a winner on my hands.