Five Things You Don't Know About Me Meme

The Five Things You Don't Know About Me Meme, started by Jeff Pulver on December 10, has made its way to The MineThatData Blog. Thanks to Friends Of MineThatData blogger Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! for the ping.

For those of you who are interested, I appear to be the 16th generation of this game of tag, since inception. I was referred by Becky, who was referred by Derrick Daye at BrandingStrategyInsider.com,.

Derrick was referred by a series of folks who write about SEO and online marketing, including Shimon Sandler at ShimonSandler.com, who was referred by Gordon Choi at GordonChoi.com, who was referred by Vinny Lingham at VinnyLingham.com,

We move into Affiliate Marketing next, with Jeremy Palmer at QuitYourDayJob.com, who was referred by Scott Jangro at Jangro.com, who was referred by Sam Harrelson at SamHarrelson.com, who was referred by online marketer Jim Kukral at Jim Kukral.com, who was referred by Shmuly at OneParkAvenueReality.com.

This referral came from the Affiliate and Search Engine Marketing world of Kristopher B. Jones at Pepperjamblog.com, who was referred by online marketer Jeremy Schoemaker at Shoemoney.com. Moving right along, Jeremy was referred by internet marketing consultant Andy Beal at Marketingpilgrim.com. Andy was referred by Friends of MineThatData blogger Avinash Kaushik at Occam's Razor. Wow!

But we're not done yet. Avinash was referred by South Africa's Dave Gale at DigitalPilgrim. And Dave picked up the meme from the originator, Jeff Pulver.

Because of that series of antics, you get to learn Five Things You Didn't Know About Me.


Number Five: I am an avid fan of Sprint Car Racing, and to a lesser extent, NASCAR racing. There is almost nothing I would rather do than spend a summer Saturday evening at the Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, or the Skagit Speedway in Burlington, watching twenty-four Sprint Cars kick up dirt and belch exhaust during a 40 lap A-Main. I know, start rolling your eyes, I come by this quite honestly. My father raced cars in his twenties. Our family tradition was to attend Saturday evening races at the quarter mile dirt track in Plymouth, WI, when I was a child. It's in my blood.

Number Four: I have a passion for nachos that is unparalleled. I'm not talking about the kind of nachos where chips are baked with shredded cheddar, salsa, ground beef and any other add-ons. Instead, I am talking about forty chips in a cardboard container, with fake molten cheese generously drizzled over the surface of the salty delights. Add a 44 ounce Mountain Dew and Sprint Car races, and you're approaching MineThatData nirvana.

Number Three: My favorite move of all time is 'Less Than Zero', closely followed by 'Peggy Sue Got Married'. Oh sure, you can argue that features like 'Forrest Gump' performed better at the box office, but few movies called out the problems of the mid-80s college-bound crowd better than 'Less Than Zero'.

Number Two: I am one of maybe twenty-seven people who avidly follow Book TV on CSPAN2. CSPAN2 videotapes author presentations at various book stores (non-fiction), and broadcasts them each Saturday and Sunday. Check your local cable or satellite provider for details.

Number One: I've made a lot of mistakes during my career. None were more glaring than a Fall 1995 mistake at Lands' End. It was my job to pick the 1,000,000 best households for a women's catalog. I was asked to pick an additional 300,000 households as a contingency. So I picked the best 1,300,000 households. Then, I sorted the households in ascending order of value, instead of descending order. Instead of the best 1,000,000 households being mailed, I mailed households 300,001 to 1,300,000. When the book was mailed, we instantly knew there was a problem, because the mailing was missing expectations by forty percent. I investigated my code, found the error, and fessed-up to the problem. We sent a catalog to the 300,000 great customers that I failed to mail, at a cost of $200,000. Thank goodness my salary wasn't garnished. From that point forward, I became a zealot for audited, accurate, correct information.

If these Friends of MineThatData wish to participate, feel free: Anthony Power, Adelino de Almeida, David Raab, Dirk Plantiga, Jeff Larche.