10 Honest Things

I was going through my Google Reader after Sunshine left yesterday and found that one of my favorite bloggers, Morgan at ModernMarriedMomma, had tagged me for an “award”.

This is the first time I’ve ever been given an “award” like this so it’s pretty cool.  Of course, I’ve been nominated for Hottest Daddy Blogger (c’mon and vote!!) but I’ve never been given one of these ‘blog memes’ before…so I figure I might as well give it a shot, right?

So then I read the description of what this award is all about:

“The Honest Scrap award is given by other bloggers who consider a blog’s content or design to be brilliant.  The awardee must then post ten honest things about themselves and pass the award on to other bloggers who fit the bill – in other words, whose blog is brilliant.”

I’m very flattered, for sure.  I very much appreciate Morgan thinking my blog’s content and/or design is “brilliant” in any way, shape, or form.  I then looked at her list and figured out what I wanted to do with mine.

So without further adu, here are my 10 Honest Things:

1. I was a club DJ between 1991 and 1999. Also during that time, I was a DJ (and even program director for six months) on my university’s radio station.  In fact, my dream was to always become a radio DJ…except I had a chance to go to university on my dad’s dime as long as I took business, so that’s the road I took.


Where I finally got my degree

2. It took me 8 years to get my 4-year university degree. I’ll be the first to admit that I was extremely immature during my younger years, and I was kicked out of two different universities for having low GPA’s.  Kudos to my dad for continuing to dish out money until I finally smartened up and finished my Bachelor of Commerce degree.
3. I’ve got two younger siblings…sort of. I’ve got an adopted sister who is five years younger than I am.  She and I have NEVER been close…nor will we.  Her first-born son ended up being adopted by my parents when she f*cked off as a teenager.  So, technically, my nephew is now my younger brother.  Because of our age difference, we’re also not very close.
4. I’ve got two amazingly large fears: spiders and heights. I don’t think I’ll ever get over my arachnophobia, but I’m doing whatever I can to overcome my fear of heights by attacking those fears head-on.  Up next?  Tree-Go, I think.
5. 

   Hey...it was the early 80's!

   I used to play the organ as a kid. In fact, I was even given an award for being so good at age 10 (or thereabouts).  I told Sunshine over the weekend that I played the organ over the weekend and she laughed.  Is it really so lame?  I mean, considering it was the early 80’s and all.  LOL…yeah…it is.

6. I’m drifting away from “normal television”. In other words, I’m a reality junkie.  And it’s not just stuff like Survivor or Big Brother, either.  I only watch a few “normal” television shows like CSI and House.  Everything else is Deadliest Catch or Cities Of The Underworld or Ghost Hunters or “classics” like American Idol or The Amazing Race.  I don’t know why, but scripted television rarely grabs my attention anymore.  There’s just something about life that is much more interesting to me.
7. If I don’t make my bed or shower every day, I feel guilty. Maybe that makes me a nerd…maybe that makes me “normal”.  I dunno.  I’m not an overly clean guy (i.e. NOT a neat-freak), so these two habits seem a bit odd to me…but necessary, nonetheless.
8. 

   Even if you DID pick me out of this picture, I would never admit to it.

   I got my online username from an insult during a high school pageant. See, my dad ran a pizza restaurant for about 20 years.  During much of this time, I worked for him (started as a dish washer while in  high school and finishing up as manager just nine years ago). In tenth grade, I was entered into the high school pageant as “Junior Prince”.  When I walked out in my “casual dress” outfit of sweater and khakis, I heard a few catcalls of “Pizza Joe”!!  It was a dual insult: “pizza-face” because of my acne and “Joe” because that’s my dad’s name.  As time went on, I just ran with it.  To this day, my really good friends from my hometown still call me “ZAH”, which is my online username.

9. 

   The "PIZZAH"-mobile: circa 1989

   I had a (very pathetically cheesy) personalized license plate in high school. In an ongoing effort to “get over” my nickname, I had a personalized plate on my 1989 Pontiac Sunbird that said  ”PIZZAH”.  I liked it so much that I even kept it on the car during my first year of university.  Looking back, it was a horribly embarrassing thing to do.

10. Before becoming a blogger, I led a “secret online life”. I’ll admit it here…I was a writing for a wrestling website.  Yes…”professional wrestling”.  Long story short, I became a fan of wrestling in the very late 70’s and was hooked around 1985 when WWF became syndicated across the globe.  In 2005, whether because I was searching for something I wasn’t getting in my ‘real’ life or because I just needed an outlet for my creativity, I started writing for a website called the Pro Wrestling Torch (trust me…you do NOT want a link).  After a very brief stint there, I was asked to write for a site called World Wrestling Insanity (the name for the website was because the webmaster had written a book under the same name) under my online username, ZAH (i.e. the same username I took from my high school years). I wrote for the website and provided downloadable audio programs for over three years.  I quit in February of this year because I just felt like I didn’t have the desire to write about, talk about, or even watch wrestling anymore.  Maybe I grew up…maybe I burned myself out…maybe I just found my blog to be a much more fulfilling form of creative outlet.  Whatever the reason, “ZAH” is no longer an active writer but Canadian Bald Guy is alive and well.

Whew!  I feel cleansed.  Or something.  Whatever…it’s now time to pass this award on.  Here are the bloggers that I’d like to pass the Honest Scrap Award along to:

• Nicole at SingleMomInTheCity
• Hanna at Cost of Living
• The Quest for T
• QTMama
• Amira at Memoirs of a Single Mom
• Sunshine (well naturally!) at Sunshine On My Shoulder