Carlo’s 100 Things

1. I have been told that I am “the most intense person” some people have ever met. I guess they didn’t get out much, huh?

2. I was born in New Hampshire, grew up in Rhode Island, but I consider a lake in Maine to be home.

3. I cannot stand heat and humidity. If the temperature is above 75 or so, I am MISERABLE.

4. I love movies, music and books, not necessarily in that order.

5. My children are my greatest joys and my failed marriages are my greatest regrets.

6. I have been married three times. Three strikes and I’m OUT!

7. I hate being the center of attention. This means that I don’t like my birthday.

8. I think differently than most folks. What I mean is, I interpret things from a completely different perspective than everyone else I know.

9. I am nervous about relationships.

10. I recently bought a Kawasaki Vulcan 750, and I absolutely love it!

11. My parents divorced when I was five and I split my time between their houses until I was fifteen, when my relationship with my father imploded.

12. I have a brain full of useless facts, a.k.a. trivia.

13. I love all types of music, and I have no one favorite song. The music I listen to fits my mood at the moment.

14. I am the same way about movies.

15. I am not much of a people person, I am a people watcher.

16. My mother has described me as a person that “wouldn’t say a paragraph when a sentence would do, and you wouldn’t use a sentence when a word would do.”

17. My father is an English professor at a New England state University.

18. That’s why I detest misspellings and people that cannot speak or write clearly.

19. The big joke is that I am always “clarifying” what I meant so that any misunderstandings can be corrected.

20. I have been a soldier for more than twenty years.

21. The reason that I stayed a soldier is that I love the relationships that are formed in the Army.

22. www.patriotguard.org ‘NUFF SAID!!!!!!!!!!

23. I never would have thought that I could go to a stranger’s funeral and feel both honored and welcome there. I was so wrong.

24. I hate stereotypes. They are almost never true, and they only lead to discrimination and hatred.

25. I find something beautiful every single day. In my opinion, if you can’t find any beauty, then you have to suffer through the day instead of enjoying it.

26. I learn at least one new thing every day, as well. Any day that I don’t learn something new is a day wasted.

27. I have been accused of being a “know it all,” however (comma), the most important thing that I know is what I don’t know. That way I can tell someone honestly that I don’t have the answer to their question.

28. I’m shy. I don’t talk with strangers easily, ESPECIALLY women.

29. I hate stupidity, yet I am surrounded by it EVERY FREAKIN’ DAY!!! Ironically, the stupidity usually comes from the people with the most college. Hmmmmm, don’t they have a “common sense” course in college? They ought to!

30. I have extremely varied political views, so don’t try to pigeonhole me into one political party. I am a square peg, parties are round holes, and if you hit me on the head, I will do violence unto your body!

31. I truly love being an American, and I don’t understand people that feel guilty that they are one.

32. My two favorite holidays are Independence Day and All Hallows Eve.

33. That’s because I like to blow things up and sneak around in the dark.

34. Why can’t people be open-minded and LISTEN to other viewpoints? If you close your ears and your mind, you demonstrate how stupid you really are.

35. I love to flirt, but I feel uncomfortable initiating the conversation (see #28, above).

36. My son is named after my and my ex-wife’s grandfathers. His first name is from my Grandfather; his middle name is from hers.

37. I have tried to explain why I go to the funerals of fallen military people, and the only way that I can describe it is to say, “I don’t like to go to the funerals, but I need to go to them.” I need to show a grieving family that I respect their sacrifice and that I honor and respect the sacrifice of the fallen.

38. I have turned into a biker. Hard to believe that I’ve only been riding a month, eh?

39. I recently read A Child Called “It” and I cannot comprehend how a parent can abuse a child. My children bring me the most joy of anyone on the planet, I couldn’t hurt either one of them.

40. I don’t know how I am going to deal with my daughter turning fifteen next year.

41. I retire in 2008. Then I have to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

42. I am a hopeless romantic and I get a little overly emotional about things. Yes, I own “The Sound of Music,” and I love it.

43. I know the lyrics to hundreds of songs.

44. I never learned my multiplication tables.

45. Combine numbers 43 and 44 and you might understand just one of the ways I drove my mother nuts when I was younger.

46. I have been working on this list for more than a month and I only have 46, I may have to change it to “Carlo’s 50 things.”

47. I cannot wait ‘til I get my new leather vest! I already have a number of patches and pins to go on it. Now, all I have to do is wait for the shipper to send it out and the US Postal Service to get it here. Hopefully it won’t take too long…

48. I got my vest yesterday, and I have some (as in 3 of the 11) patches getting sewn on.

49. I am really starting to not like people. People in general, I mean. I will make exceptions for specific individuals, however (comma), I must say that some people are real idiots. The specific situation is a friend of mine came back from Iraq a few months ago, and seven (7) days after, his wife hit him with divorce papers. Rant to follow on the blog…

50. Holy struggling writers, Batman! Half way!

51. I have higher standards for myself than I do for anyone else, and I don’t meet them, most of the time.

52. Others usually live down to my expectations of them, so I am not surprised when they do dumb s@#t.

53. I have to agree with my mother that, in most cases, bureaucracies promote people to the level of incompetence, i.e. they get promoted one level above their optimal skill level.

54. Superfluous means extra, not needed, unnecessary (argument at work, sorry).

55. I must say that I am pretty pathetic. I don’t like to go out, but I crave intimacy; I don’t like people knowing me really well, yet I crave intimacy. Hmmmmm, there’s a pattern forming here.

56. I have been told that I have “amazing potential” and that I’m a “great guy,” but I’ll never get promoted and the women I’m interested in aren’t interested in me in the same way.

57. Maybe I should lower my standards…

58. Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, I’m not the Army, I will find the right woman eventually.

59. Patience may be a virtue, but being patient SUCKS!

60. Some days I feel like Mad Max, a man who fought his way through madness and found his humanity again. Other days I just want to kill someone.

61. Why do people hate? I don’t think I will ever understand how one person can hate an entire group of people based solely on something as ridiculous as skin color or ethnicity.

62. I can usually find an appropriate movie quote for almost any situation. This annoys the HELL out of some people, and I really like that.

63. Can you tell that I LIKE my attitude problem?

64. And I wonder why I’ll never get promoted?

65. Sometimes I wish life could be as simple as in the movies, and then I realize that I’d be bored to tears if I could solve my problems in 95-130 minutes.

66. http://www.myspace.com/carlo_shannon check it out, if you really want to see more of what makes me tick. Or don’t, it’s all the same to me…

67. Since I have gotten my motorcycle, I have a bunch of new goals, and I have a new lease on some old ones.

68. I want to spend 24 hours (or more) in all 50 states.

69. I want to ride Route 66 from end to end.

70. I want to ride across the country, coast to coast.

71. I want to do the “Run for the Wall.”

72. I want to take a month and just RIDE.

73. Mom Carver, welcome to the Patriot Guard Riders. Thank you for your commitment.

74. Why is it that land-locked states sometimes have higher humidity than states on the ocean? Could it be Mother Nature hates me?

75. I really love a good movie. I took my son to see “Cars” last weekend, and he and I both loved it. A well made movie can make you forget that it’s a movie and make everything seem real.

76. Then, you get slapped in the face with a wet noodle and have to come back to reality.

77. OK, I have been working on this 100 list for two months and I’m only at 77. I might just cut this short.

78. Back to my goals: I want to find “the one” and, as they say in “The Italian Job,” “…hold on to her forever.” (told you I could find a movie quote for any situation)

79. I want to see my children happy and together as often as possible.

80. In my opinion, I am a horrible leader and a neglectful person, but some very special people love me. I am fortunate in that.

81. I have met some famous people and I have to say that, while I appreciate their support, I’d rather sit and talk with them for an hour or so, you know, to get to know them.

82. I have two favorite movies about musicians and I appreciate them both. “Eddie and the Cruisers” and “8 Mile.” They both show the passion and dynamics of music, and I can appreciate the artistry of both styles, too.

83. I speak American (I say that Americans don’t speak English) and German fluently, with a smattering of Spanish, Italian and French.

84. See what 14 years in Europe does for you?

85. Since I have had my bike, I have not spent any time playing computer games, and, two years ago, they were my escape. Imagine that…

86. I hope to NEVER work for another bureaucracy. I cannot bear the politics, the people there to justify their paychecks, and the lack of responsiveness to new situations.

87. I would love working for a company like Pixar… I wonder if they have an opening for someone who’s skill set is based on blowing things up?

88. The two most useless objects on the planet – a dull knife and an unloaded gun.

89. An optimist says that the glass is half full.

90. A pessimist says that the glass is half empty.

91. A realist (me) says that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

92. I actually thanked my mother for putting up with me and raising me right when I was about 24. I noticed at a young age that I was a hellion.

93. My most difficult birthday was my eighteenth (18th). That’s when I realized that, if I got caught I would be tried as an adult.

94. The Republican and Democratic political parties may as well combine into one and make the “Republicratic” party. The so-called conservatives no longer want small government.

95. This is the problem when one allows people to become “professional politicians.”

96. And we complain that they keep raising their own paychecks?

97. Does anyone remember the saying, “Power corrupts: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”? And they wonder why politicians keep covering for each other?

98. I am tired of bad news television, so I stopped watching the news.

99. I watch American football, soccer, hockey, and racing (all kinds except horse).

100. Finally, once more, I am a proud member of the Patriot Guard Riders.