50 Things

I’ve seen “50 Things About Me” done on many other websites and blogs and thought it would be a good idea for my website. Sometimes these lists are generic questions and answers but I’m choosing the more free-form route of listing pointless trivial facts that are somehow supposed to summarize my life. Enjoy.

Updated 10/24/07
Outdated things crossed out 3/4/10

1. Name: Michael Sussman.
2. Age: 30-something.
3. I’m originally from East Northport, New York, on the northern shore of Long Island.
4. I lived in only one home my entire childhood.
5. I lived in West Lebanon, NH, Salisbury, MD, and Plattsburgh, NY between 1995 and 1998.
6. I now call Charlotte, North Carolina my home.
7. I am married to my college sweetheart.
8. I thoroughly disliked writing the word sweetheart above.
9. We never got to go on our honeymoon.
10. I have two daughters.
11. I have two one dogs: A Rat Terrier named Boomer and a Pug named Hobo. They rough-house constantly.
12. I am currently a Senior Producer in the field of broadcast television promotions.
13. Despite my profession, I do not have cable or satellite television. Just rabbit ears.
14. I have two Emmy awards.
15. I also have a National Addy award, which is one of only two ever won by a local television station for work done in-house.
16. My work is included (with many others) in a permanent collection at the United States Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
17. I should be paid more!
18. I am also an NFL Official. No, I am not a Referee so I don’t make any game decisions.
19. I had a roll in the Will Ferrell movie, Talladega Nights.
20. Everybody except my mom is sick and tired of hearing that I was in a movie.
21. I went to Northport High School.
22. I was on the varsity wrestling team. I’ve been told that my name was painted on the wall of the wrestling practice room after I graduated but I’ve never seen it.
23. My wife went to the same high school too but we never dated until college.
24. My sister was valedictorian in high school, salutatorian at her college at Cornell, received her PhD from Yale, and is now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
25. I graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a degree in Mass Communication. That’s all.
26. I actually began my college career as a Physics/Engineering major.
28. In college I took a test to determine what career would be best for me. The result of this collegiate advisement test was that I should be a bus driver.
29. I am a brother of Alpha Sigma Phi National Fraternity. My Delta Xi chapter is now defunct.
30. I don’t drink beer.
31. My favorite television show is The Simpsons.
32. I am an expert on The Andy Griffith Show, even though I had never even heard of the show until I moved to the south.
33. My favorite musical artist is Billy Joel and my favorite musical group is U2. I also like AC/DC, The Beatles, CCR, Green Day, and a lot of classic rock.
34. The best concerts I ever went to were Billy Joel (Storm Front at Nassau Coliseum, 1989), U2 (How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, 2005), and believe it or not, Living Colour (Time’s Up at the RPI Field House in Troy, NY, 1991)
35. The worst concert I ever went to was Genesis at Giant Stadium. The band was okay but the seats sucked.
36. The day I moved in to my first house a huge swarm of bees decided to make my front lawn their new home and we had to hire a bee keeper.
37. Lets Go Mets!
38. Lets Go Panthers!
39. I play fantasy football and baseball. I first played the original Rotisserie Baseball way back in the 1980’s.
40. I play disc golf. Charlotte has many great courses and I occasionally play in amateur tournaments.
41. I enjoy Letterboxing.
42. I enjoy creating websites, both for myself and for clients. I taught myself HTML/XHTML, CSS, and some PHP. I prefer to hand-code all of my websites and I’m proud to say that I do not use any authoring tools.
43. I am a Wikipedian and a DMOZ Editor.
44. I visited 33 U.S. states plus Washington, DC by the time I was 16 but I still haven’t been to any other country except Canada.

45. I’ve voted in every single presidential election since I turned 18.
46. I swear I once saw the legendary sea-monster Champy as a kid while row boating on Lake Champlain.
47. My wife thinks this list is stupid.
48. My wife is right.
49. I skipped #27 and you didn’t notice.
50. I can’t believe you read this whole post.