Someone recently said to me, "You know, Dan, for an online journaller, you sure don't share much of yourself, do you?"
     To which I replied, "I think the fact that you know my name is Dan means I've probably shared way too much."
     After thinking it over, however, it occurred to me that maybe - just maybe - that someone had a point.  
     So: Here are 6 TRUE things about me that I don't think I've shared in any of the 248 entries I've posted since May.
     If that doesn't prompt this someone to beg for a quick return to outright blather, I don't know what will.
 

     True Fact #1:  I've never suffered a broken bone.  Not that I know of, anyway.

     True Fact #2:  I maintained a perfect attendance record in the 4th, 5th, and 8th grades.  I still have the three certificates I got for this.  I actually held them in my hands today as I was doing the necessary research for this entry.  I was surprised to find out that I'd managed to go three years without missing a day.  I was especially surprised I didn't miss a day of 5th grade because my teacher that year was a terror.  The memory of the time she vehemently ridiculed the entire class for not being able to come up with the exact same definition of "culture" she was thinking of remains raw, tender, and painful.  Fascinating, eh?

     True Fact #3:  I never wore jeans before I was a sophomore in high school.  Why?  I have no idea.  What did I wear instead?  Sorry - only one secret per numbered item.

     True Fact #4:  I am deeply, deeply thankful that I no longer have to figure out the decimal equivalent of reciprocals using a pencil and paper.  Reciprocals, you know, are fractions which have 1 as the numerator.  Why would anyone ever need to figure out reciprocals?  Well, if you ever studied electronics you know Ohm's Law says (among other things) that while total resistance in a series circuit is merely the sum of the individual resistances, total resistance in a parallel circuit is equal to 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3... and so on.  As a boy in radio shop before the invention of the pocket calculator, I was forced to use pencil and paper to figure out the damn decimal equivalent of those reciprocals more times than I care to recall.  And it's probably why I am unable to even think about writing fractional entries in this journal to this day.  

     True Fact #5:  Despite the scars left by having to cope with this aspect of Ohm's Law, I am now a collector of old tabletop radios.  In fact, I have 50 or more such radios from the '30s, '40s, and '50s.  Here's a half-assed photo of two of the cutest:

     No, they don't work.  When you're cute, you don't have to work.  You knew that.

     True Fact #6:  I made a little drawing of myself today and signed over all the rights to it in exchange for maybe, possibly having it put into a book.  Hey, you can, too.  Seems these people have an art project they're doing that's going to symbolize the 6 billion people on the planet.  Some 500,000 of these drawings will be put into a book, 12,000 copies of the book will be printed and displayed - total: 6 billion drawings.  Here's what I drew using the rudimentary online sketchpad they gave me to work with:

     Yes, I'm sure you can do better.  What are you waiting for?  Click here.
 

     BONUS True Fact #7:  I'm going to go to bed now.  Seems revealing one's secrets can be terribly tiring when you're as out of practice as I am.