About
About Me
So, I’m Shane Adams. I have resided in the Kansas City area for most of my natural life. For 3 years when I was little, I lived in Lamoni, Iowa and I returned 14 years later to attend college, where I would major in English. I seriously considered going to law school. I even took the LSAT, but decided against it because I didn’t really want to spend the first three years of my marriage in law school. I do not regret my decision one bit.
As for my marriage…it is the best thing I’ve done in my life. I’ve been married to my best friend and soul mate, Alli Arnold, since 2000 and I feel like our life couldn’t be much better. (Not that I would say no to winning the lottery.) Alli is an INSANELY talented artist and runs her own custom painting and mural business. In addition, she coaches the Gardner high school dance team with her sister. She also is the founding (and sole) member of my very own fan club.
I’ve been in Marketing since I got out of school, starting as a writer, moving into event planning, then into graphic design, where I’ve spent the past 4 or so years. I consider myself a decent web designer. I am familiar with XHTML/CSS and Flash, although I much prefer the former these days than the latter. When I first got out of school, I worked for a document imaging software company for six and a half years. I held a lot of jobs and I enjoyed the people a lot, but I never felt like I totally met my potential. In November of 2006, I started working for a small financing company as a Marketing Specialist where I really feel like I’m using all of the tools I can offer (I am not only designing, but writing and strategizing as well).
Family
Alli and I have a dog. His name is Dreyfuss because even as a puppy, he looked like he was a 70-year-old man in a little puppy body. I like the smell of my dog. He smells like Fritos and I love it. We do not have kids. We don’t want them. It’s not that we don’t like kids. We just like other people’s kids. We are too selfish with our time to have a child in the mix. I think that we’d be pretty good parents, but we just aren’t really down with it.
We both have amazing families. We live closest to mine, but since my dad works overseas much of the time, we don’t see him nearly as much as we’d like. Alli’s parent live 3 hours north in Council Bluffs, Iowa. You might say that it’s almost frightening how well our families get along together, given the horror stories I’ve heard from many people regarding in-laws and all that.
We each have one sibling, so we each really have 2 siblings. I have a brother who is 3 years younger than me and Alli has a sister who is two years younger than her. My brother and his fiancee just had a little girl, our first niece. My brother and I are also the proprietors of a freelance design company called topfivedesign. Thus, the domain.
Belief in God
I am a member and a minister of the Community of Christ church. I go to the same congregation that I was baptized in. Alli and I are both Priests in our congregation and were called to the priesthood and ordained on the same day. I’m a big fan of Ephesians 2:4-10:
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Favorites
One of my favorite things in the world to do is to make TOP FIVE lists (it’s where my brother and I got the name for our freelance business, topFIVEdesign. It’s something I was doing long before I read High Fidelity. In that vein, I thought that if you’d like to learn something about me, you’d like to know what some of my favorite things are.
Before he made Entourage, Jeremy Piven starred in a brilliant film called PCU. Ever since that movie, he’s been my favorite actor. Still, though, my favorite movie has to be Good Will Hunting. (Rounding out my top 3 are Fletch and The Matrix.) I saw Good Will Hunting five times in the theater. When it comes to TV, I became an adult watching Friends. I could watch that show over and over again and never get tired of it. For a drama, I really like Alias. I watch way too much TV, thanks to our DVR.
When it comes to music, I’m preferential to what I’ve dubbed “sad bastard” music. So my favorite band is Coldplay and my favorite solo artist is probably Ben Folds. I think that the ipod is one of the greatest inventions of the past 20 years and mine is always running. I would venture to guess that the most played track in my iTunes library is “Warning Sign” by Coldplay.
I love Nick Hornby’s writing. High Fidelity was dead on. But my favorite book of all-time is The Catcher in the Rye.
I love comics. And not the fanboy ones that Kevin Smith made cool. I’m talking about newspaper comics. Not only do they make for really good bathroom reading, but it takes an immense amount of creativity to make someone laugh in 3 frames. Bill Watterson did it best with Calvin and Hobbes. I really like Dilbert (because of its relevance), Get Fuzzy (because it’s like a grown-up Garfield) and Pearls Before Swine (because it’s hilarious).
I like to eat (obviously). If I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be cheeseburgers. Sure, it would be a short life, but it would be awesome. I also like pizza, preferably from the Pizza Shack in Lamoni, Iowa. I also love me some barbecue, particularly the smell.
For hobbies, I like to take pictures and blog, but I also like playing Playstation 2 on occasion, mostly sports games like Madden and Tiger Woods Golf. I’m a much better virtual golfer than I am in real life.
I actually really like doing laundry. I am specific about how I fold stuff and I just like the way I can turn off my brain and just fold. I like board games and game shows. My favorite board game is Trivial Pursuit and I record Jeopardy. I also like playing No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.
I love Volleyball and played through college. I love watching Football and playing golf, but I suck at it.
Like Kip in Napolean Dynamite, I love technology, particularly Macs. We are an all-Mac household. None of those stinkin’ Redmond behemoths in our house. Only streamlined, well-designed computing beauty.
Until recently, I resisted coffee. I opted mostly for Mountain Dew Code Red when I needed a caffiene fix, but I’m now a 3-4 cups per day coffee drinker and my Starbucks Drink of choice is the Gingerbread Latte. I live in the Midwest for a reason. I love the changing of the seasons and I love winter. I loathe summer.
Random Facts
My legs are considerably shorter in proportion to my torso. My wife is a foot shorter than I am and has the same inseam. Once, I got lost in the woods on a float trip. I haven’t been on a float trip since. Almost all of the friends that I grew up with live in this area. We still hang out. Not many people can say that they have friends that they still hang out with that they have known since they were 5.
I love talking about movies, TV, music, the Kansas City Chiefs and The Kansas Jayhawks. I am a music junkie. I wish that I had a running soundtrack to my life, like in the movies…I’ve even got certain songs picked out. Right now, I would have “Reminder” by the Perishers playing. We have 5 ipods in our house. Alli thinks it is ridiculous. I agree. We should have more.
I am very particular about a couple of household chores. I prefer to load the dishwasher myself because I think that I can optimize the number of dishes in the washer better than most people. I also prefer to do my own laundry because I am very particular about how my stuff is folded.
I have a large tattoo that surrounds my right calf of a volleyball and a tribal design that spells the word “PERSEVERE”. I have the design of my second tattoo and am ready to get it on my back. If I had cosmetic surgery, the only thing I would have done is that I would have my back lasered. I have cataracts. This is uncommon for 30-year-olds, but it can be corrected. Although if I had the surgery, I would have to immediately start wearing reading glasses. It’s not that bad yet.
Once, I ate 17 tacos in one sitting. I think I was about 12 at the time. My uncle Monte had made his special tacos (a family secret recipe) and I was hungry. You could also say that I have a little bit of a weight problem. I’m always working on it.
I like photography…I shoot with a Canon Digital Rebel with a Canon 530EX flash. My dream job (besides professional blogger) would be to work for the Associated Press as a photojournalist.
When I was growing up, I wanted to be the President of the United States. Sometimes, I still do. I think I could pull it off, too.
I have no less than 10 e-mail addresses to my name. (Thanks, Gmail!) The best way to contact me is [my name] at topfivedesign dot com. You can also reach me on Google Talk at [top5design] at gmail dot com.