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#61
03-13-2006, 08:26 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
In 1999 my team of three received the top prize in the International Mathematical Competition in Modeling. Over an 89-hour period we wrote a 93-page paper and a computer simulation to solve a problem concerning evacuations of buildings during diasters (actually, we came up with two solutions). The problem was inspired by, among other things, the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa.
Out of 478 teams representing 229 academic institutions and nine countries, twelve of the entries were judged outstanding. Of the twelve judged outstanding, one was judged by the Mathematical Association of America as the "best paper" and in 1999 that paper was ours. Our paper was published and that summer we were invited to give talks at several mathematical conferences. This wasn't the first year that we did well in the competition. In both 1998 and 2000 my team placed well, but in 1999 we took it all. 
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#62
03-13-2006, 08:39 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
In no particular order:
Stood at the North Pole. Got drunk with Judd Nelson at the Gold Club in Atlanta. Appeared with Paris Hilton in a scene from "Simple Life 2". Got drunk with Lea Thompson at a bar in New Orleans...without realizing it was her until she left and the bartender told me. Ate raw seal blubber with Greenlandic Nomads. Attended Pink Floyd's "The Wall" concert in Berlin, Germany, right after the wall came down. Got drunk with Gene Simmons and Ace Freely at a strip club in Dallas. Introduced Garth Brooks to over 50,000 screaming fans. Got drunk with Johnny Paycheck AND Willie Nelson. Kissed Wayne Newton on the cheek. Shot craps with Dennis Rodman. And of course, introduced some of the greatest wrestlers of the 80's to the screaming masses when I worked as a ring announcer for the WWF.
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#64
03-13-2006, 08:55 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
Since so many of these suck so badly, I feel okay about revealing my own mega-suckiness too.
Took more honors courses at once than anyone in the University of Hawaii(had to get special permission to do it), which had well over 20,000 students, and did so for 3 of my 4 semesters there. Was told by my martial arts teacher, a guy who found praise a near impossibility, that I was the only one he had trained that had understood how to do certain things. And he had trained a ton of people. Met lots of celebrities working at a bookstore, including Karl Malden, Dick Van Dyke, Michael Crichton, Schwarzenegger, Jamie Curtis, and lots more I can't even remember now. For some reason, a lot of them seemed to be either super nice or super dicks. Beat by far the best Total Annihilation player a bunch of times. (but he was still way, way better than me) As a kid, solved that game just fooling around on my own where you jump marbles over each other on a pegboard, and the object is to have only one left, right in the middle. In high school, the teacher frequently had me entertain the kids with sleight of hand magic when they were all too bored to pay attention anymore. In high school, wrote nearly half of the first April Fools edition of the student newspaper that the school put out and came up with the ideas for much of the rest. Came in second in a Pong tournament. Used to walk an iguana down the sidewalk on a leash and get many freaked out responses -- this was back when I was really little and many people hadn't even seen an iguana on t.v. yet. Was told by the teacher, a published poet, in my college poetry creative writing class that I was by far the best poet there and had a lot of talent. Was told by another teacher in an honors course that I was "too big for" the University of Hawaii and I had to get the hell out of there so I didn't waste my potential. Got a couple of black belts. Did better in some statewide business testing competition than our valedictorian in high school. Got various awards in school, back when you didn't get awards for things like self esteem and just showing up. Helped make it possible for a lot of sexually and otherwise abused foster kids to become emotionally coherent and stabilize their careening psyches, and even look at happiness and a somewhat normal life as a real possibility that was available to them after all. Was a union steward at a job because nobody else wanted to be and everyone was very intimidated to be.
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#67
03-13-2006, 09:28 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
-Grandpa invented the magic marker, sold it to Crayola for $100.00
-Had a 15-20 minute conversation with Burt Reynolds when he came into my family's store, then got invited to eat with him at his restaurant. (Gone now but used to be here in Ft. Lauderdale) -Peed in a urinal right next to Dan Marino when I was about 12 years old, he was still playing for the Dolphins at the time. -Was eating dinner @ local place "Bahama Breeze" and Duane "The Rock" Johnson and hit amazingly hot wife and kid sat down right next to us, got his autograph more later...
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#68
03-13-2006, 09:36 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] was prom king and the lead in a high school play [/ QUOTE ] [/ QUOTE ] I was in a play once. Froze up and forgot all my lines. Years later was asked to play a small part in a t.v. production exercise for film students and did so well they wanted me to head up a couple of others. Sweated bullets and was so miserable I vowed never to do it again. Funny thing is I do fine at public speaking. Not acting though, too shy.
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#69
03-13-2006, 09:59 PM
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Re: Claims to fame.
[ QUOTE ]
In 1999 my team of three received the top prize in the International Mathematical Competition in Modeling. Over an 89-hour period we wrote a 93-page paper and a computer simulation to solve a problem concerning evacuations of buildings during diasters (actually, we came up with two solutions). The problem was inspired by, among other things, the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Out of 478 teams representing 229 academic institutions and nine countries, twelve of the entries were judged outstanding. Of the twelve judged outstanding, one was judged by the Mathematical Association of America as the "best paper" and in 1999 that paper was ours. Our paper was published and that summer we were invited to give talks at several mathematical conferences. This wasn't the first year that we did well in the competition. In both 1998 and 2000 my team placed well, but in 1999 we took it all. [/ QUOTE ] That might be the nerdiest thing I have read in a long time
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Linear Mode
