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, snorkeling, scuba diving, whitewater kayaking, 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)

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") (1980's)
Coming up with why Venus' surface is so hot (the high atmospheric pressure) (2006)
Conceiving of the "ooze zone" in gas giant interiors (2007)
Answering Fermi's Paradox (2015)
Coming up with how strong language skill supports having the big brain (2017)

Visiting twenty eight countries, and working in five of those
Driving in all 50 states, 49 of them before finishing college
One of the first hundred people to play Dungeons and Dragons (1973)
Directing and producing two 20 minute-long movies (MIT 1974 & Beehive 1982)
Personal computer and computer network business pioneering (1977-89)
The world's best Command HQ player (1992)
Setting up my own web site (1993)
Inventing and naming a new food recipe (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 any one of Campbell's Cream Soups, add nuts and sliced up Spam or Smoked Oysters and stir... voila! Shoo Bob! A wonderful bachelor's dish.)(circa 2005)
Publishing many books (one in 1986, then starting again in 2007)
Starting and participating in the 20,000+ comment "Blogathon" on Linked-In in MIT Alumni group (2012)
Attending Salt Lake Comic Con: Utah's biggest convention to date and the 3rd biggest Comic Con in the nation (2013)

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

Coming upon someone who had jumped off the Charles River Bridge while on my way to interview at MIT (1966)
Working as an artificial inseminator of turkeys (Dixie college, 1970)
Passing twenty cars at one time on the "Nephi Death Strip" (US 89 before I-15 was completed nearby) (1973)
Bicycling from Salt Lake City across Antelope Island to Roy, Utah (1976)
Watching my mother cat freak out when one of her kittens "came back from the dead" (1976)
Watching the first firing of a Space Shuttle Booster while circling my airplane nearby over the Great Salt Lake (1977)
Becoming a semi-fugitive because of our tax and child support laws (1989-97)
The Fortunately - Unfortunately story of my getting a flat tire in Western Utah (1993?)
Climbing Mount Timpanogos on a moon-lit night without a flashlight (1995?)
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.
Experiencing Utah's hottest July on record. (2013)