Harold Jarche

I’ve been tagged for the 8 Random Facts About Me meme by Michele Martin and Karyn Romeis. It comes with a set of rules and you’re supposed to pass it on.

Well, one random fact about me is that I don’t like to follow instructions. Interesting for someone who spent 21 years in the Army. For instance, when I wrote my military French language aptitude test in 1978, we were supposed to read a list of Kurdish words and commit them to memory. We were then asked to write down as many as possible. I thought the whole thing was absurd so I didn’t read the list and then failed the short-term memory test. I was placed at the lowest ability level and spent my Summer of language training in what we called, “Sandbox French”. But I did finish the Summer fluent in French, with a lot of help from a belle petite Québécoise.

A second fact is that I’ve been in the training  field ever since I was 14, when as an Army Cadet I learned Methods of Instruction and I still remember the picture showing the “sea of wasted effort” if you didn’t follow all the instructional steps. I don’t follow those rules any more.

Thirdly, I love sports that have few rules. I used to run every distance from the mile (4:21) to the marathon (2:38), but my knees won’t take it any more. I now enjoy nordic skiing and road cycling, and both have simple rules – keep going forward.

You might think that  I should add five more facts, but I already posted to the Five Things Meme as well as the Five Goals Meme, so I think that I’m up by five

Remaining true to not following instructions, I won’t tag anyone else.  Happy Friday.

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