http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/
Actually, after reading through it, I started to feel like a non-white anthropologist had been spying on me, and made the list to report the findings.
Let's go down the list and see how I measure up. Let's give it a score, +1 for HIT, +0 for Miss or N/A or No Comment.
- #81 Graduate School
- Being too much of a slacker in college, skating my way through, I never got a high enough GPA to qualify for Graduate school. I applied for George Washington University's graduate program in Loudoun county for a Systems Engineering Masters program, but wasn't allowed to join because of my "too much beer and chasing women" habits I had in college.
- #80 The Idea of Soccer
- Nope. Not me. I can't understand or stand soccer. "Playing Soccer is Un-American" as my father said. "Soccer is what those 'Messican' kids play", another said. I couldn't agree more. I might be interested in Soccer if the goalies were prohibited. How could anybody possibly be interested in a game where the final score is 1-0?
- #79 Modern Furniture
- Hit. Our house in Switzerland here is full of Ikea furniture.
- #78 Multilingual Children
- Hit! The kids are all in a Swiss school all learning German. Cecilia has a genuine talent, although her German has a Swiss accent (Especially when she says 'Danke'). Jake, not so much. The kids sometimes argue in German.
- #77 Musical Comedy
- They show a picture of "Flight of Conchords", which have been featured on this blog. So a "hit" for this one.
- #76 Bottles of Water
- Can't stand them. Stop being so pretentious and drink some tap water. The bottled water tastes awful anyway.
- #75 Threatening to Move to Canada
- Not only have I threatened to move to Canada, I moved to Switzerland. If you read the article, they say the Canadians threaten to move to Europe.
- #74 Oscar Parties
- I hate celebrity worship, so not a hit for me.
- #73 Gentrification
- Nope. Wish that all buildings that look old would get imploded and replaced with a modern building.
- #72 Study Abroad
- Did it; went to Ireland in 1988 to be a foreign exchange student.
- #71 Being the only white person around
- Kind of hard to do in Switzerland, but was a common event in my high school, where white people were not the majority.
- #70 Difficult Breakups
- Uh, just about every one of them, except for one or two.
- #69 Mos Def
- Not so much
- #68 Michel Gondry
- Not so much
- #67 Standing Still at Concerts
- Guilty, as my co-worker says (who used to work as an usher at the Patriot Center in Fairfax), "The most white people do is bite their lower lip and move their head a little bit, unless it's a heavy metal concert."
- #66 Divorce
- Parents did it, so I guess I understand this one. Thankfully, I haven't gone through one of my own.
- #65 Co-Ed Sports
- So much fun!
- #64 Recycling
- We have three trash cans here in Switzerland, AND our own compost heap! But we recycled before we came here, and felt good about it. Call this a hit.
- #63 Expensive Sandwiches
- Guilty. Back in Virginia, we would buy expensive sandwiches all the time. The "Atlanta Bread Company" was a common location for the expensive sandwiches. There is a point when I won't buy the sandwiches, as we did not often go to "The Corner Bakery", after I once called it the "overpriced mediocre sandwiches" I didn't mind so much when the company had a meeting, and the Corner Bakery was the caterer. So let's call it a hit.
- #62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
- Guilty. They should get jobs.
- #61 Bicycles
- This was painfully guilty. I have been riding the bike to the train station for the past 4 weeks (I have a separate post pending for this activity). In fact, just this very morning I noticed a woman got on the train with her bike, and instead of looking at anything else, I started to look over all the wares on her bike. "Ooh she's got a better gear arrangement than mine! She could probably bike up that steep hill next to my house. Wow, those gears have a much better ratio for straight-aways too. She has a break light on it!" Hit.
- #60 Toyota Prius
- I have been coveting my mom's Prius for years. A coworker has one with all the electronic gadgets, and I want that one too. This one is definitely a "Hit"
- #59 Natural Medicine
- I think it is for the gullible; probably also the same sort of people who believe in UFOs, creationism, holocaust denial and that 9/11 was faked. The people who believe in this crap need to read Michael Shermer's book, "Why People Believe Weird Things" Miss.
- #58 Japan
- 100%; I love Tokyo. Hit.
- #57 Juno
- Never saw the movie. Didn't know the movie existed until I saw this post.
- #56 Lawyers
- Hate them, and their movies, and how the fear of liability has ruined America. See #75.
- #55 Apologies
- I'm sorry. I haven't though much about this one. (Hit)
- #54 Kitchen Gadgets
- Guilty. Just on Saturday, we made home-made "Butterzöpf" with our new electric Mixer.
- #53 Dogs
- They are fun. But we have rabbits. (Miss)
- #52 Sarah Silverman
- I think she is both cute and hilarious. I thought she was awesome on the one-season show "Greg the Bunny". I also thought she did a good job in "School of Rock" (Hit)
- #51 Living by the Water
- Yes, often a dream; an ideal location. But maybe Hurricane Katrina scaled back the idea of how wonderful that would be.
- #50 Irony
- "It's like rain on your wedding day" -- It actually rained on mine. (Hit?)
- #49 Vintage
- Not me. (Miss)
- #48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
- Yep. We love the stuff. (Hit)
- #47 Arts Degrees
- Not so much (Miss)
- #46 The Sunday New York Times
- Very enjoyable, but being in Switzerland makes it hard to come by, except for the on-line version. (sorta-hit)
- #45 Asian Fusion Food
- Very nice. (Hit)
- #44 Public Radio
- Love it. And I miss it. They can make even the most boring stuff interesting in a traffic jam. (Hit)
- #43 Plays
- Not so much. (Miss)
- #42 Sushi
- Love it, but have to be careful to not have the stuff with my food allergies. Can eat tuna sushi all day long, or Inari sushi. Love Love Love the edamame. See #58. (Hit)
- #41 Indie Music
- Unknown (Miss)
- #40 Apple Products
- Prefer Linux. (Miss)
- #39 Netflix
- Have considered it, there being not a wide selection of movies to choose from here in Switzerland. We have resorted to downloading movies from iTunes instead. (Only a few hours' wait, instead of several days for the DVD to show up in the mail) (Miss) (iTunes is an Apple product, so does this make #40 a hit?)
- #38 Arrested Development
- Never seen it. (Miss)
- #37 Renovations
- Helped my sister with her house in Arlington, so I think this qualifies. (Hit)
- #36 Breakfast Places
- Yes, the Sunday Brunch at Westfield Conference Center comes to mind. (Hit)
- #35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
- I don't get to watch very often on TV, but I found them on ComedyCentral.com a while ago, and added the RSS feeds to my Google Reader. I try not to watch it at work. (Hit)
- #34 Architecture
- There's lots of it here. (Hit)
- #33 Marijuana
- No comment. (Miss)
- #32 Vegan/Vegetarianism
- If my wife wasn't such a carnivore, I might even be one. Thanksgiving would be perfectly acceptable without the bird. (Hit)
- #31 Snowboarding
- Too afraid of getting injured -- I have a lot of walking to do to get to work, and an ACL injury would make my commute horrible. (Miss)
- #30 Wrigley Field
- I'm more of an Astrodome guy. (Miss)
- #29 80s Night
- Hahaha. Love the 80's music they play here on the radio like it's new. (Hit)
- #28 Not having a TV
- Have often wanted to live this lifestyle -- especially when I worked for Media General Cable back in 1993 -- when I was the poor bastard who had to field the phone calls when the cable service went out AGAIN. Now, I watch so little TV that I might as well take the jump. But the kids might get angry about it. (Hit)
- #27 Marathons
- Back in August and September of last year, I was jogging every day. However, I jog so slowly that it might take me 9 or 10 hours to finish a marathon. (But I'll still call it a Hit)
- #26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
- A wonderful place. I really enjoyed my trip there last year. (Hit)
- #25 David Sedaris
- Never heard of him. (Miss)
- #24 Wine
- I fail to understand the big deal about wine. Having a wife who doesn't drink doesn't help this at all. I do however, cook with the stuff. (Miss)
- #23 Microbreweries
- Yes, our favorite being a microbrewery in Ashburn called "Old Dominion Brewery" (Hit)
- #22 Having Two Last Names
- That is very funny, but I am not guilty of this. (Miss)
- #21 Writers Workshops
- Not me. (Miss)
- #20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
- I am more a victim of this rather than a perpetrator of this. The exchange student trip in 1988 was a direct result of my grandfather's fascination with Irish culture. So this is a hit.
- #19 Traveling
- I have been to all continents except for Africa, so this is a hit.
- #18 Awareness
- I am a very aware individual, so this is a hit.
- #17 Hating their Parents
- Not so much. (Miss)
- #16 Gifted Children
- Hit
- #15 Yoga
- Miss. I lucky to be able to bend over far enough to tie my shoes.
- #14 Having Black Friends
- Hit. I have both token and actual.
- #13 Tea
- Hit, but not so much as in recent years, vastly overtaken by #1 (below)
- #12 Non-Profit Organizations
- Hit, belong to at least three.
- #11 Asian Girls
- Had a Vietnamese girlfriend once, so I guess this is a Hit. Used to really like them, but have utterly lost interest since moving to Switzerland.
- #10 Wes Anderson Movies
- Miss (Haven't even seen any of the movies listed there)
- #9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
- Definitely a hit.
- #8 Barack Obama
- Hit.
- #7 Diversity
- Hit.
- #6 Organic Food
- I think it is in the same realm as #59, Natural Medicine. Hormones and antibiotics I am against for food, but GM crops I'm ok with. (Miss)
- #5 Farmer’s Markets
- Hit
- #4 Assists
- HAHAHA. All I could do when I played hockey was assist. (Hit)
- #3 Film Festivals
- Hit. I love the move Sunshine, and Little Miss Sunshine
- #2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
- Yes, that would be 100% true if you consider complete apostasy as a religion. (Hit?)
- #1 Coffee
- 100% true. My day at work can not be started without coffee. I used to have a boss who thought it necessary to list out his demands upon my first arrival to work. This of course was usually met with a stern response of "Do not talk to me until I have had my coffee."
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