Social media is a funny creature.   Try explaining it to someone in a third world country.  Heck, try explaining it to someone who lives next door and isn't on a social media site.

We're the kind of hybrid magazine/blog/community/social media site that defies explanation even more but when I tell someone about it, they will invariably say "So you're like Facebook."   Sure ... except for scientists.   Who write articles.  And comment about them.  It beats spending an hour trying to explain that we're more like Scientific American for smart people.     But Facebook has certainly taken off - and part of it is the interaction ir brings.    I got 'tagged' on a 25 things about yourself deal on Facebook and I was torn.   First, of course, coming up with 25 things about myself is not all that easy.  Second, most people on Facebook I don't actually 'know' so I can't imagine I need them reading anything about me.   But my wife had done the tagging; you learn not to ignore requests from a person who basically controls where you sleep at night.

So I did my 25 things and then, in true passive-aggressive fashion, never published them over there, which was okay because, in hindsight, I should have known Kim would forget eventually.  But I came across them just now in a document called "document.doc" (because I am that creative) so I will put them here instead.   Of course, there is no way to tag people here so you're all off the hook, but should you desire a 25-point primer on how to be awesome too, here you go: 

1. I don't bowl. My wife does not bowl. But we met in a bowling alley. I have not asked but I assume I am prohibited from bowling again.

2. I grew up in a town with a population smaller than the graduating classes of most Californians I have met.

3. I have a brother born on the same day as me but we are not twins.

4. I have 25,000 comic books I have never read in the garage and I started a company in a field I had no experience in and knew nothing about. I suspect my wife was Job in another life (link because most of you are pagan/heathen/hellbound/savages).

5. While not that great at the time, growing up in a place where you only get one TV station and the winters were long frees up a lot of time to read and learn.

6. Like many young men, I had illusions of being a fighter pilot. If you're not a pilot, getting into a real fighter plane and flying it for the first time and immediately executing your best "Top Gun" maneuvers will take your stomach to a bad place.

7. Buying a 2-seater convertible when your wife is pregnant can also take you to a bad place.

8. Your wife forcing you to take her along to a car dealership to try and negotiate a minivan price with a car salesman when she is 8.5 months pregnant is what linguists call 'revenge' for the 2-seater convertible.

9. My two youngest children are as opposite as possible but the more exasperating one is most like me. That is what parents call 'revenge.'

10. Thinking of 25 interesting things is more work than you would think. If these things expect more participation, they should cap it at 10.

11. I was commissioned as an Army officer by Ronald Reagan - in hindsight, that is pretty cool.

12. A few years ago I got a certificate for my service in the Cold War from Donald Rumsfeld - in hindsight, that is slightly less cool.

13. I am not going ask anyone else to do this because writing these is a lot of pressure. I would rather be writing cool science articles.

14. I only did this because my wife tagged me on Facebook. If anyone else had done it, I would have made fun of them.

15. Most of my family thinks I am probably a Goodfella. My mother thinks I am probably a spy. Relaxed environments where you hang out with smart people and great things get done tends to inspire disbelief and I have always been in those.

16. In most cases, seeing the words 'liberal' or 'Republican' makes me stop reading. If it's by a scientist I have never read before, that likely means stopping forever.

17. There are a lot more readers like me than there are scientists who are policy experts. Egotistical fish do best in small ponds.

18. I had a dozen pets growing up but have none now. The downside to metropolitan California living is a small yard and I want critters to be able to roam around. The upside is a winter that consists of a few days with temperatures in the 50s and some rain.

19. People who say they have no kids, they instead have pets, and think that means something are shocked when I say I have no pets, I instead have kids.

20. I own baseball hats from every major league city I have ever visited and I rotate them on weekend mornings. During a windstorm a year ago while tying down my fence my hat blew away but a neighbor found it and figured it was mine. It was going to have to stink flying back to Anaheim just for a hat.  

21. I own a number of rifles but I have never bought one.  

22. I consider myself a lousy hunter but I got the biggest elk anyone in my family ever has.  

23. If you've been in the woods with a camera or a rifle you can appreciate the staggering beauty of nature. That's probably also why I am a lousy hunter.

24. I wrote a novel but I refuse to finish the last chapter. Some things don't have to end.

25. No, you can't read it.