Superlatives in Roger's Life

Physical

• Learning lots of different sports (elementary school, middle school, high school, college)
  • tennis, softball, figure skating, hockey, soccer, football, swimming, diving, snorkling, scuba diving, whitewater kyacking, shark hunting with a bow and arrow, fishing, hiking, survival camping, rock climbing, sailing, horseback riding, downhill skiing, crosscountry skiing, crosscountry running, crosscountry bicycling, track and field sprinting,
• Bicycling halfway across the US -- from Boston, MA to New Ulm, MN -- in 30 days. (1975)
• Climbing two 14,000 foot peaks in the Colorado Rockies in two days (1966)
• Driving 1,000 miles (1,600Km) in 24 hours (1973)
• Flying a single engine plane from Salt Lake City, UT to El Paso, TX and back in one day. (1976)

Intellectual

• Read/skimming the World Book Encyclopedia cover to cover (middle school)
• National Merit Scholarship semifinalist (1965)
• 98th percentile on GMAT verbal (2004)
• adding at least one new word to the English language ("spreadsheeting")

Cultural

• Visiting twenty eight countries and working in four of those.
• One of the first hundred people to play Dungeons and Dragons (1973)
• The world's best Command HQ player (1992)
• Publishing many books
• Directing and producing two 20 minute-long movies (MIT 1974 & Beehive 1982)
• Setting up my own web site (1993)
• Inventing and naming a new food recipie (Shoo Bop -- named after Shoo Bop rock and roll and because "bop" means rice in Korean. Cook a bowl of rice, cover it with a can of one of Cambell's Cream Soups, add nuts and sliced up Spam or Smoked Oysters and stir... voila! Shoo Bob! A wonderful bachelor's dish.)

Scary experiences

• Hitting a goose while flying at 3000 meters (10,000ft) on a moonless night over California (1977)
• Motorcycle accident while driving alone on the uncompleted I-80 Interstate in western Utah (1969)
• Getting lost on Woraksan Mountain in Korea (1995)
• Being in my apartment when the building catches on fire. (1970)
• Divorce, child support and bankruptcy proceedings. (1989-1997)
• Driving through a road-covering flash flood on a moonless night in Southern Utah. (2002)

Odd experiences

• Working as an artificial inseminator of turkeys (Dixie college, 1970)
• Becoming a semi-fugative because of our tax and child support laws (1989-97)
• The Fortunately - Unfortunately story of my getting a flat tire in Western Utah (1993?)
• Bicycling from Salt Lake City across Antelope Island to Roy (1976)
• Getting asked every couple weeks, or so, mostly by cute teenage girls, to have their picture taken with me. (teaching in Korea, 1993-2006) Every time it happened I would think of Roger Miller's song, Kansas City Star.