10 things I have done that you probably haven't...

[ellyssian]

-- Flown as a guest on a couple of refueling missions with the Air National Guard - having F-16's or A-10's flying alongside and coming up and connecting to the plane I was in (20mm cannons and air-to-air missiles look very imposing when you're flying a gas tank); sitting in the cockpit for a landing

-- Learned to arc weld so I could program a computer to control a robot to arc weld

-- I was complimented on my guitar playing by Vivian Campbell (Dio, Whitesnake, Def Leppard)

-- Watched the fear in the policeman's eyes (and his hand move to his gun) when I gave the name of the person who informed me they were going to kill me (the person actually belonging to the name later removed the person who used their name falsely)

-- Invented the word "edgertonian" to describe a moment caught in time, in honor of Doc Edgerton, who once gave me a live demonstration of a bullet hanging motionless (via the strobe technique he invented) in a playing card

-- Made my on-stage debut with the percussionist who John Williams consulted with while scoring "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (minutes after I was introduced to him, and a bit concerned that he was even in the audience); also accompanied by two female vocalists and a keyboardist, in addition to the drummer and bass player I had expected to be up there improvising with

-- Trained in Jeet Kune Do in a movie theater parking lot (and only attracted curious police officers once)

-- Introduced the singer (Brian Ross) of a band Metallica idolized (Blitzkrieg) to the music of another band (Artch), and was treated to him singing along with one of the songs (a cover of Judas Priest's 'Electric Eye')

-- Took up space in Cardiac-One for nearly half a day while little old ladies who sounded like they were dying were carted in via ambulance and then shuffled out to the hall to make room for the next one. As I had nothing to do except sit there and be monitored, I watched the staff. It is apparent to me that the writers of the ER/Trauma-type shows have done something similar - all of the usual cast of characters were there.

-- Attended the birth of the three most beautiful children in the world (must admit, I am a little biased...)