As If You Really Wondered...

If there's one thing I'm not a fan of in the social web, it's the peer pressure surrounding memes. On the one hand, it's a forced post that I'd rather not write; then again, if I don't write it, I feel like I'm letting a friend down.

In this case, that friend was Aaron Strout, a social media and marketing colleague from back in Boston. Aaron has recently relocated to Austin (joining a number of other Boston illuminati) and is heading up marketing for Powered. And he told us seven things we may not know about him and challenged others.

So, here are the seven things you may not know about me (keep in mind I've done this a couple of times before). That means if you do your research, you'll know 23 things about me.

1. I worked as a writer for the Department of Veterans Affairs during the Clinton healthcare reform proposal era. The thought was that the VA would need to compete with the Johns Hopkins and Mass Generals of the world, so they needed their own reform project. Industry and government leaders met and our group wrote the plan. I also wrote for another project Meeting the Challenge: A Research Agenda for Health, Safety and Food for America. I later went on to become a speechwriter for the Director of Medical Research.
   


2. Speaking of medical research, I hold a Master's in Medical Science from Boston University School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with an concentration in healthcare management from Boston University Graduate School of Management.


3. I was an altar boy for 10 years, serving under Father Ted, a very old-school priest. He was a no-nonsense guy and he expected things to be orderly. I kind of cringe every time I seen an altar server wearing sneakers at mass - Fr. Ted would have excommunicated them.
   


4. When I participate in karaoke, to disguise my inability to perform current hits, I typically choose older songs and impersonate the singers. My favorite - it's a tie betweetn "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" as a duet between Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias and "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.
   


5. Before I joined Ford, I had only driven one American car - and a GM one at that. When I was in high school, I inherited a Vette. No, it's not what you're thinking. It was a Chevette.
   


6. If you told me that I could only have a single kind of candy for the rest of my life, it would be Peanut M&M's. And yes, I'm old enough to remember when light brown was a color of regular M&M's.
   


7. I won't be doing another one of these memes for at least another year.
   

Now, in keeping with the rules of the game, I nominate these seven unsuspecting souls. These are all people whom I've met or interacted with for the first time throughout the course of 2008. It's my goal to break out of the echo chamber a bit and extend your reading, if you're not already aware of them:
Amber Naslund
Justin Levy
Samir Belwani
Bob Knorpp
David Alston
Matt McDonald
Shannon Paul


Photo credit: sheeshoo