10 Random things meme

[Castor Troy]

Here's some updated things I want to share.

- I have an overactive imagination and I've always imagined my life as some sort of episodic saga with me as the main hero. Before I go to cons, I imagine that I'm Goku flying over to save the day. I consider AMV contests my epic battles with Freeza and Cell (or Sasuke vs. Naruto). I would never admit any of this in person, but that's what goes on in my head.

- I really want to overcome my shyness not only to help me become a better filmmaker, but to become a better person in general. I've been making really good strides at work and my voice doesn't feel so suffocated and nasaly in comparison to a year ago. If you've met me at cons, I tend to be happy and social. I want to be that way 100% of the time now and not only during cons/social gatherings.

- Because I've been shy and introverted most of my life, I've had some kind of chokey of feeling in my throat that prevents me from really speaking clearly when I'm nervous. If I'm put on the spot like on a job interview or when I meet people at cons, this chokey feeling temporarily goes away. One of my life goals is to get rid of this chokey feeling and controlled breathing really helps with this.

- I hate the sound of my voice since it sounds a million times deeper than the way I hear it, although I've appeared on RDS Radio and several Dragon Ball related podcasts. I also want to overcome this and I'm going to do that by putting all of the podcasts I've been in on my car's mp3 player and listen to them on my way to work.

- I get super sentimental about things to the point where I shed tears.

- My life goal is to be a filmmaker and my biggest influence is Kevin Smith rather than obvious ones like Lucas/Spielberg. Upon listening to his podcasts, I never realized how much alike we are. I didn't have a true life goal until 2007 when I decided to be an editor for a living. I got sick of editing other people's stuff and finally made the decision to be a full fledged filmmaker in 2009. In 2010, I was going through financial problems and almost decided to give up on my film dream, but after getting chewed out at my current job a few times, I realized that I'm an artist and not a corporate drone. That was the kick in the ass I needed to get back into my film dream.

- At my current job, I feel that I'm the company hero since I do so much important work, but I'm really in a low level, bottom of the barrel position. Kind of like how Naruto is the strongest ninja in his village, but is literally also considered the bottom of the barrel. At times, this feels like my work has more merit.

- I feel like I can stand toe to toe with the majority of the amv community, but Zarxrax and Khameleon808 are the 2 editors who I actually fear the most if I had to compete with them.

- I really don't like talking on aim/messengers and I prefer to talk to people face to face.

- With everything I've said above, I have a strong desire to get in front of a camera and start a show, which is one of the reasons I'm working hard to overcome my shyness.

[ZephyrStar]

- My life goal is to be a filmmaker and my biggest influence is Kevin Smith rather than obvious ones like Lucas/Spielberg. Upon listening to his podcasts, I never realized how much alike we are. I didn't have a true life goal until 2007 when I decided to be an editor for a living. I got sick of editing other people's stuff and finally made the decision to be a full fledged filmmaker in 2009. In 2010, I was going through financial problems and almost decided to give up on my film dream, but after getting chewed out at my current job a few times, I realized that I'm an artist and not a corporate drone. That was the kick in the ass I needed to get back into my film dream.

Hell yeah man. Use that corporate oppression as fuel to go home at the end of the day and kick ass on a film. It's a lot of what keeps me going, instead of lamenting that I don't work at Pixar or some other high end place, I take that with me and use it to drive the process. I tell myself that if I can do this, I'll be one of only a handful in the world so far. Kevin Smith is a hero to indies, I certainly look up to him for not giving a fuck and making what he wanted to make. What impresses me about him is that he gets a lot of crap from people, mainly about his camera work, but he'll say "yeah, I know. I don't shoot my films to be pretty."

I'm crap at making online friends because my natural default of mocking sarcasm comes across as me being a raging bitch and when I try to tame it down and be nice I end up looking like an overly enthusiastic and desperate whiny emo social leper destined for crazy cat ladyhood. It's not pretty

Hmmmm...perhaps you could append "...just kidding" to everything you say? :O

What Ileia said though. When I first met her I never found her to be unfriendly or anything, in fact, she was one of the only people who really paid attention to what I was doing with my first AMV. Even if she was a smartass ...just kidding. Most of the folks I've met online from here have become great friends. Wouldn't trade em for the world.

[Otohiko]

I actually find mocking sarcasm attractive in a lot of situations, but I guess it takes a particular kind of personality to appreciate it I dislike people who are actual raging bitches, but it's really not that difficult to tell the difference. The key is not actually being a raging bitch, and occasionally people can slip into that particular mode of behaviour.

But what Ileia says is totally also true. I think I had fairly poor first impressions a lot of AMVers I got to be good friends with since. Then again, I was also such a giant douche in my first couple of years on the .org, I probably shouldn't be talking

***

And because I have to be at least as cool as Castor, here's 10 more things .__.



- Letting me loose in bookstores is financially irresponsible and risky. Letting me into music stores is financially ruinous. Oddly, when it comes to DVDs, or to dealer rooms at anime cons, I'm usually pretty shrewd and choosy. Probably tells something about my priorities.

- I love growing, collecting, and heck, even don't mind killing things for food. However when it's not for food, I really don't care that much. So I'm cool with fishing and growing vegetables, but never cared that much for lawns, flower gardens, fishing for sport, and what have you.

- Kinda related to the above, I grew up in a big city (or "the streets", if you will), but also spent a lot of time in the countryside as a kid. I actually think this is one of the most important and valuable things about my upbringing, and has really made me appreciate the differences. Given the choice though, I'd prefer to live in a big city.

- My nearest near-death experience was almost drowning in a lake. Strangely, it felt really peaceful .__.

- Never had my own pets, although my relatives did and I've periodically lived with cats. It turned me into a total cat person. Wish I had the space for one.

- I'm overedumacated. In fact I think the only person on the forums here who's got more education under their belt is dwchang (and even then, I think he's ahead of me by like a year, and possibly actually less time spent in education because I'd had periods where mine stalled). I'm currently at the end of my 3rd year of my PhD in communication design. My dream used to be a teacher and work in academia, but once I found out that the two seriously get in each other's way, I'm not so sure anymore... I've actually been rather disillusioned with the whole system lately. But I guess I have to finish what I started :/

- I didn't have my own room for most of my life, and in fact my first few years I spent living in an apartment that had 9 people in 3 rooms (including living room). So while I like quiet space and need it to work, I find it very unnatural to live on my own.

- Back in Russia, I once nearly ended up in juvenile court, and spent almost 2 months not going to school and dealing with police and school district authorities... for punching a girl in the face. Mind you, this was in grade 6, and said girl was a serious bully who was like a foot taller than me. Not to mention full of shit. So to this day, I don't regret it.

- Three of my close relatives were/are dedicated communists; one is a pro-democracy, liberal activist. Several of my more distant relatives are Russian Orthodox, one of my grandmothers is Lutheran, two of my cousins are Jewish, my father was an Evangelical preacher for a couple of years, and I went to a Catholic high school. Despite (or because of) that, I'm neither religiously nor politically aligned, and shun organisations with dogmatic views of anything. At the same time, I also often refer to myself as both socialist and Christian, while mocking some of the underlying problems with both, and praising other things about them. I consider all of that a blessing to my critical thinking and my ability to relate to people. Go figure

- My goals in life used to be teaching, traveling, owning a (small) airplane, and writing books. I'd still love to do all of those things, but having run up against the realities of them, I'm not sure I can call them goals anymore. They're complicated and no longer run away with my imagination. If anything, my goal and focus in life is to find somewhere nice to settle, someone nice to settle with, and to be able to do WORK (i.e. actual, meaningful stuff that has as much lasting benefit to other people as possible, as ethically as possible). I think that's called growing up. Yup, I grew up .__.

[Glitzer]

1. I have chronic asthma. Something as minor as laughing too hard can cause a full on attack. On occasion, I give the finger to my symptoms when watching Monty Python or Whose Line and laugh through the wheezing.

2. I own the most obnoxious parrot in existence. From Wiki “While Senegal Parrots are preferred by many people who live in apartments for their quiet nature, they can become quite aggressive and one-person birds.” My parrot decided his one person is my mom. He will bite and scream at me all day but when my mom visits, he will literally roll over in her hand. It makes me puke.

3. I’m majoring in psychology. For the last semester, I have self-diagnosed myself with half the disorders in the DSM. I feel like that guy on Welcome to the NHK. With most of the posts I write here, I don’t even click submit for fear of looking like a retard trying to hump a doorknob.

4. I have serious issues with saying no. It’s to the point where I’d rather cut off any interaction with people rather than simply telling them I don’t want to do something. I’m just racking up the maladaptive behaviors.

5. I’m “one of those people” when it comes to fantasy. Reality appears quite dull in comparison to my books. I have J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion next to my bible, right where it should be. Love Game of Thrones and the Legend of Drizzt as well. Just starting Gardens of the Moon.

6. This website has caused me to radically change my music preference. I used to exclusively listen to alternative or punk rock, but I now realize how insignificant my previous choices were compared to that of bands such as Blind Guardian.

7. I’m Mormon. Unfortunately I was raised within a community that didn’t exactly give me a choice on how to build my religious views. Questioning God and doctrine is unheard of, and I have to tip-toe around the Nazis just get the most basic of answers without alarming the watch to my uncertainty.

8. I’ve been raised my entire life on our family farm. Though between allergies and asthma I sometimes feel like drinking pesticide, I’m overall glad that it taught me how to work. Interestingly, this has also had the effect of giving me the desire to live in a big city someday. Go figure.

9. I want to learn as many languages I can and travel the world. This is my current main incentive for making money.

10. I should be studying

[Castor Troy]

punching a girl in the face.

George, you are officially my newest hero.

I also had a girl bully growing up, but I got my kicks writing stories on how I was a superhero and she was the villain who I always defeated (in 60's Batman style). Sadly, this did not bode well with my 5th grade teacher.

[Kariudo]

me...
be outdone by an Oto?
unpossible

10 more things it is then!


-I've lived in the dorms at my University for 6 years now (gotta be a record). I know I'm not the oldest resident, but I'm definitely among them.

-I've played several instruments. I started playing flute in 6th grade, and switched to bassoon half-way through 11th grade. I played some percussion for one school concert because we were short some percussionists. I think I only did the cymbals and triangle, but I'll be damned if that wasn't the most moving 10-measure triangle roll anyone in my hometown has ever heard. I also occasionally did bass drum for pep band. I taught myself how to play tuba for pep band (probably wasn't that great, but hey...we needed tubas). I took a semester of intro guitar in college, but haven't picked it up since. Other than those, I've also gotten my hands on the trumpet, alto sax and cello. Haven't really done anything with those though...

-I inherited essential tremor from both sides of my family. It makes soldering rather challenging. On some occasions, it also makes eating miso soup rather challenging. I've only had it once when I stopped by Mitsuwa outside of Chicago when going to Youmacon to advertise for AMKE...but I had the shakes bad that night, and ended up spilling a good bit of it on my hand.

-Speaking of medical conditions, I also have Scoliosis and Kyphosis (causes hunched backs) and had to wear a back brace for 2 years (9th and 10th grade). It was pretty painful for the first month or two when I was getting used to it, and then it was just as painful for another 2 months after I was told I could stop wearing it. The type of brace I had to wear was a Milwaukee brace (and I'm in Milwaukee now. Coincidence?). For those interested, it's the first picture on this page. Nobody really gave me much grief about it, which was nice.
Also, I have no patellar reflex (or at the very least, it's not noticeable because of something else I have)

-My first choice of career, back when I was about 5 or 6 or so, was to be a cashier. My reasoning was that people just handed cashiers money all day. Flawless logic, that. After my parents got it through my head that it didn't quite work like that, I wanted to be a meteorologist. Eventually, by sometime in highschool, I decided I wanted to be an engineer (didn't have a clue which type of engineering though). I settled on Electrical, and in the course of getting that degree I decided that I liked Computer Science as well...so I got a degree in that too.

-I take way too long to type things. It's not that I'm a slow typist (I think I'm rather average there,) it's just that I tend to pour over every word and try to make sure that I choose my words carefully so what I end up typing is clear and coherent. Heck, even typing this post out to here has taken me the better part of an hour so far.

-After being forced to learn how to touch-type back in 5th grade or so, I never really used it. For the next 8 or 9 years, I still had to look at the keyboard. When I started talking to people on AIM regularly, I got better...and now I can touch-type again.

-When I speak (and type), I tend to use a lot of qualifiers. Seriously, go through this post (or any of my 6000+ others) and count how many times I use "I think", "probably", "maybe", or something like that.

-I won't make a promise before I know what I'm promising to do (or not do). My standard reply to "Can you promise me something?" is "Depends, what is it?". I also won't tell someone I can do something for them before I know what they want me to do.

-I make friends really slowly. When I moved to Milwaukee for school, I started out knowing absolutely nobody. It took me about a year before I considered myself to have made 1 friend here. It took me about another year to make 2 more friends, yet another year to make 3-4 more...and I've made maybe 4-5 more in the past 3 years. I know a lot more people down here than that, but even though I act pretty friendly towards most of them I wouldn't consider them to be friends. I'm not really clear on what makes someone my friend...it's just more something I feel (which I think is just a bit out of character for me.)

extra credit:
I've nyaned for over 9000 seconds

[ZephyrStar]

hm.. MAOR

1) When I was about 8 I fashioned a tree branch into a "sword" by carving a point on it with my knife and wrapping the handle in electrician's tape. My friend and I used to go on epic journeys armed with our "swords" and we killed a lot of plant life D: (to be fair we usually did this in the fall so most of it was already dead) I still have my "sword" and plan to eventually put it in a frame and hang it on the wall.

2) I own a crapton of Magic the Gathering cards, but am not a very serious player. I generally don't like the aggressive style of tournaments or even casual Friday night magic. I have a core group of friends from college that are extremely laid back and whom I prefer to play with.

3) I'm pretty bad at remembering friends and family birthdays, probably because I don't take my own too seriously.

4) I'm catholic but grew up going to a methodist church. While I'm not terribly religious, I am very spiritual and do believe that everything was somehow intelligently designed. I don't really have an argument, it's just what I feel. My philosophy is that life is fleeting so I'm going to try and get the best out of every day, and I'm going to try to be good to others while doing so. Karma and all that. Also, Jesus Christ was a pretty cool dude who doesn't afraid of anything.

5) I like collecting weird plants. I have a yellow lady's slipper orchid that I bought for $50. One could say they're a bit rare, and very difficult to grow. Mine has happily enjoyed a woodlands garden at my parent's house for the last 8 years. It blooms in the spring (around this time actually), and it usually only has one flower. One year it had two! Mine looks somewhat like these.



6) I've never broken a bone despite doing some really dumb things as a kid. I did fall off a counter and bite completely through my lower lip when I hit the floor though.

7) I really enjoy marksmanship and enjoy showing new people the experience. Shooting firearms is a very fun and stress relieving past-time. I know there's a lot of gun-fear with people, and it's very rewarding to show them that most gun owners are very responsible. Their perception definitely changes when they've been instructed on safety and get to fire the gun themselves. I have a CZ-75 9mm handgun which is my favorite to shoot with, a Ruger single six .22 pistol, a Russian Mosin-Nagant 9130 from 1943 (the engineering on these was FANTASTIC), and a Marlin .22 rifle. In the future I would like to have a 1911 style .45 pistol, as well as some black powder revolvers. Man-with-no-name style.

8) I love animals and used to want to be a veterinarian when I was a kid. Growing up however, we only had two cats, and at one point some guinea pigs and hamsters. My ultimate pet would be some kind of fox though, I was always told when I was a kid that you can't keep them because they get mean when they get old. I have recently discovered, however, that they make fantastic pets if you treat them right and can keep up with them. Turned out the people that told me they were mean kept theirs locked up in a tiny cage all day. I'd be mean too >:|

9) I like cute stuff as much as GAR stuff, but I hate moe :/

10) Twilight Sparkle is my favorite pony. I had a hard time picking because they're all really awesome.

[Brad]

I suppose it's about time

1. Growing up (elementary through high school), I was kind of a pathological liar. For whatever reason I just had to make up weird crazy random things about my life that were completely untrue, even if they didn't serve to inflate my ego. Things like saying I had chicken for dinner when I actually had spaghetti. Weird shit. I also don't know when/why I stopped.... or is THAT a lie?...

2. A kind of tie-in with the above, one of my biggest fears is not being honest with myself. It's one of those things where, if I'm lying to myself, will I REALLY know that I am? Is my conscious completely shutting out my subconscious? It's something that's gotten me in trouble in the past. Like, KNOWING something about how I feel, when in reality, I didn't feel that way at all, but the lie was so overpowering.

3. I have very few "favorites" or anything. If you were to ask me what my favorite food, color, movie, band, song, book, etc. was, I'd be hard pressed to pin down anything. I could likely list off a bunch of favorites for each, but that kind of negates the point.

4. No matter how many times I have to correct it or look it up, I can never spell "necessarily" correctly.

5. I'm a big "phases" guy. I will go through phases that tend to last between a few days to a few months where I'll be really obsessed with something. This happens a lot with video games. For example, I'm in my Civilization phase currently. I've been a fan of the whole series of games, but I always tend to want to play them at random times. I play for a few days or so, then randomly just get tired of it and move on. I also started into a big comic book obsession several months ago, and I splurged a bunch of money into growing a collection, and I'm beginning to fear that this is yet another one of my "phases" since I'm just not getting as jazzed about them as I was before.

6. I smoke Benson & Hedges Menthol Light cigarettes. The only real reason it's this brand and not a cheaper/more well known brand is cause it's what Liz smoked, and that's how I got started. And yes, I do plan to quit eventually.

7. I know that this might be construed as some sort of character flaw (in a weird way), but I really want people to like the same music as I do. I'm totally cool with people saying they don't like what I listen to, but little makes me happier than sending somebody some music and turning them into a fan. I say it might be construed as a character flaw only cause it might come off as me pushing my tastes down people's throats, but I don't really mean it that way.

8. Another one of my biggest fears is people seeing me as haughty, conceited, egotistical, or just in-general, thinking I'm hot shit. I realize that might sound weird considering my sometimes bombastic behavior, but that's pretty much all sarcasm. I do have self-esteem and I'm proud of myself, but I really really hate the idea of people looking at me and assuming that I think I'm better than anybody, cause I really don't. Here's a recent example. When I was in school, I took a class called Fundamentals of Motion Graphics, which was basically and entry level After Effects course. Now, at this point, I had already been using After Effects for several years, and simply through experience, already know pretty much all of the stuff that was to be covered. One the first day of class, the professor of the class (Michael) and I were talking and I told him about my experience. I also inquired about the possibility of testing out of the course since I knew that I was doubtful of really learning anything new, and if I could test out of it, I could save a bunch of tuition money. Unfortunately they simply didn't do that, but I figured I'd ask anyway. Well, I've long since graduated and I became very good friends with Michael. André (Kristyrat) is now going to the school I went to and has had Michael as a professor in a couple classes. They were talking about me and he mentioned that his first impression of me was that I was full of myself and thought I was hot shit. He later understood more about who I was, but when André told me that, I genuinely felt like a complete asshole. Even though I wasn't trying to act like that, the fact that I was perceived that way really upset me. So, if I ever come off that way, please know that I'm either being totally sarcastic, or I'm talking about something factual (like in the previous case, I was talking about raw experience, not like, innate talent or something)... Okay that was really long.

9. When I start talking about things that I feel strongly about, I tend to ramble on. See above.

10. I have shared apartments with 9 different AMV editors.

[JaddziaDax]

Hmmmn 10 random things... O.o

1. I love Star Trek. I think I always enjoyed watching it, but I became massively obsessed when I was 12. I guess some people would have considered me somewhat hardcore for the fact I went to local conventions, and if I didn't show up in uniform I felt out of place. It was when I was about 18 or so at a Star Trek con that I realized I wasn't really "one of them" because I couldn't find myself that lost from reality (maybe my "hardcore phase" was dieing? or I was just growing up?). I still love Star Trek to this day but I don't see myself becoming that obsessive over anything anymore, like I was when I was a kid. Funny though, this year was the first time I'd seen the original series. I'd never watched it before, aside from a couple of eps I caught late at night.

2. My sister somehow thought Ranma 1/2 would "traumatize me" and felt the need to sit me down to explain why the boy was being turned into a girl, because my "fragile 15 year old mind" might not have been able to handle such "a huge drastic thing" as gender bending. Seriously. However I consider Ranma 1/2 to be the first anime show that I got into. (Transformers didn't count IMHO).

3. I have used this screen name for almost 14 years. It is not a jumble of letters, it's a character from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, just misspelled because AOL wouldn't let me have the official spelling. It is unique to me for the most part. I think I came across a role play where someone used the screen name once, that was the only instance it wasn't me. I haven't googled it lately though.

4. I was originally introduced to Cardcaptor Sakura through "Cardcaptors" - I ended up wanting to see the original because I heard that this evil company had ripped out its guts and ruined it when they made the dub. So I wanted to see just how different the original was. After watching it, the show became one of my very favorites, and still is to this day. This show also helped me to become more aware of what companies out there "do" to anime to make them more "American friendly", so it made me become a better consumer, and I became more picky. My husband got me the boxed sets just before Geneon pulled out of America.

5. I have a Totoro bento box.

6. I have a kotatsu. IT IS FREAKING AWESOME! (heated table with a blanket)

7. I LOVE Little Big Planet! It's a huge creative outlet for me, but sadly I don't have many level ideas. Give me ideas?

8. I'm a stay at home wife. This means that I'm a lazy leach who hasn't had a job in over 5 years. I kinda want to get a job, but in my current physical condition I don't think I can do it. However I have been getting better, and working at improving. Maybe I can get a job one day?

9. I love Darkwing Duck O: I've loved it since I was around 10 or so. I remember when it first came on the Disney Afternoon, they bumped off Gummy Bears, and that ticked me off... but once I had the chance to sit down and watch the show, I fell in love with it.

10. I used to be the mascot at Chuck E Cheese. I even got complimented by "Bugs Bunny" and "Tweety" one night for being a good mascot. I never got "beat up" though several little boys "tried" (and FAILED!). I did get sexually harassed 3 times though.
One was a little boy who hugged me really tight who walked off nodding his head saying "Chuck E's a girl." *shudder.
Another was a young teen, or preteen girl who hugged me and felt my butt, who walked off saying "Chuck E has a nice ass"... I managed to notify her friend somehow that "Chuck E is a girl" and she went off screaming to her friend "you just felt up a girl!" lol.
And the last one was a full grown woman who chased me through the restaurant to grab my rear, and I turned back and said to her "just so you know Chuck E's a girl" her and her friends laughed for a minute. Then I went and changed out of the costume, came back out and said "no really, Chuck E is a girl." To which they responded "We'll never mess with Chuck E again!"

I'd originally meant for these to be short, but then I got carried away

[Qyot27]

Because everyone else is doing it...

11) The high school I attended was also attended by my mom and uncle, as well as Charlie Crist, the previous governor of Florida. He was in the same graduating class as my uncle, my mom was a freshman at the time. So they've known who he was long before being elected.

12) Our computers tend to be very long-lived. We have an NEC my parents bought in 1995 that still works, the computer I use as my main setup (yes, this includes editing, when I find the motivation) will be 10 years old come August, and the one in the living room that my sisters use is from 2003. The NEC hasn't been upgraded any (to my knowledge), but mine has been modified extensively*. The only stuff done to the one in the living room is a replacement ethernet card and some DDR SDRAM I bought for mine, only to find out that my setup uses non-DDR SDRAM.

*RAM doubled from 256MB to 512MB, one DVD-ROM drive I took out of a crappy Compaq we only had for two years, replaced that DVD-ROM with a DVD-RW a couple of years after that (but the -ROM drive does still work), swapped the original 30GB 5400rpm HDD out for a 160GB 7200rpm drive, a PCI card to give me USB 2.0 ports, a GeForce 6200 graphics card for PCI, and it's now on its third PSU. The first one went in September 2005, the second one went in June 2010. I'm also [effectively] on my third monitor, as the CRT it came with has problems with its reds (thereby sporadically turning everything green-tinted), and the second CRT has something wrong with its focus. So now I'm on a little LCD that's restricted to a maximum of 1024x768.

13) Regarding the single time I've handled a rifle, I found out that I shoot better left-handed. My accuracy went way, way up. My grandfather (who was a drill instructor in the Marine Corps, and actually is left-handed) did let me know that military training would discourage that, because the recoil on some models risks shattering your upper jaw if you do it left-handed.

14) I'm partially ambidextrous; for many - if not most - tasks, I can easily swap sides at will. Writing, and to some degree, using utensils are the only cases where I'm clearly right-dominant. I can't remember which hand I get more stability from when steering a bicycle, but I seem to remember it being my left.

15) According to some genealogy research my sister's been doing, we are very distantly related to Billy Ray Cyrus. The shared family line was back in the 1700s, though. There's also a story on my dad's side of the family that we're related to Robert Morris, one of the signatories on the Declaration of Independence - my sister hasn't found any proof of that claim, though.

16) I'm very slightly nearsighted, and my right eye is affected by a lazy muscle. It doesn't look 'wrong' or anything (unless I cross my eyes, in which case my right doesn't move inward), but it does restrict my peripheral vision on that side, and might also be one source of my problems with depth perception. As a child, my mom and grandmother noticed I tended to cock my head to the right while watching TV, although I never noticed this in myself until I was at the movie theatre sometime in high school and caught myself doing it. I have a pair of prescription glasses with a prismatic lens to help strengthen that eye, but I barely ever wear them.

17) I'm allergic to codeine. It caused my heart to speed up and beat so hard that it was visible through my chest. This is a little hereditary, as my mom gets extremely dizzy after taking it, and I remember hearing that my grandfather also has problems with it.

18) Most of my family is from the Midwest: my dad's side from Missouri (St. Louis area) and Pennsylvania, my mom's side from rural Indiana and Ohio. I was born in Florida, though. As far as ancestrally, the majority is from the British Isles (I look like the stereotypical Irish depiction with pale skin, rusty-red/auburn hair, and 'green' eyes), some are from Germany and Switzerland, and I think even some from across Scandinavia and one or two lines way way back that could be Norman French.

19) I was raised Methodist, and generally grew up confused about beliefs and doctrine because we were sort of Methodist-in-name-only. Lots of whacked out nigh-fundamentalist stuff being thrown around back then because of AM radio preachers instead of the actual church congregation we were/are still part of. During the latter part and after high school, I developed a bigger interest in theology and comparative religion, and ended up finding out that I fall very closely into what Methodism actually is, with a pretty good dosage of Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox thrown in for good measure (and seeing as how Methodism is much, much closer to those groups - and particularly Anglicans, since Methodism sprouted out of the Church of England - than other Protestants are, it's not that surprising).

My beliefs actually got a lot more 'liberal' the more I studied about history and took cues from the properly traditional branches (historically- and theologically-speaking, fundamentalists are not traditional at all). I still often get haunted by things we had engrained in us during childhood, though - my blood practically boils when I hear the Left Behind nonsense and associated conspiracy theories start up (I can articulate in proper theological terms if need be, but this isn't really a good place for a spiel on that).

I also think that the Church of the SubGenius, Flying Spaghetti Monster, and Invisible Pink Unicorn are hilarious. If you can't laugh at yourself and the kinds of things you have to be openly aware of when doing a philosophical introspection on faith, then how can you cope with anything else? A good portion of this is likely related to me being totally comfortable with the possibility that we could be totally wrong about everything, and that meaning - be it religious or otherwise - is very often what we actively choose to make of it. It's really my inner existentialist, a la Kierkegaard, indulging itself a bit.

20) Politically, I identify as a Classical Progressive. More commonly referred to as 'Bull Moose' Progressivism, the type that Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive movement from the late 1800s/early 1900s were known for. I do part ways on some topics therein, like the Imperialist stuff, but the general attitude is largely the same, just adapted to modern concerns. Generally this means I'm a moderate (heck, I was even registered with the Moderate Party of Florida until they dissolved and I simply let it default to Independent - technically, 'Non-Affiliated') and fall within the just-left-of-center camp, ideologically.

I differ from the broader 'moderate' or 'centrist' tag in that I think the solutions to the problems we have need more drastic reform to be properly fixed - but the actions themselves are not some socialist agenda or whatever the ultra-right-wing nutjobs love painting Progressivism as. The ideas could only be considered 'radical' because the country has been screwed over so badly that pragmatic, fair legislation is now something extreme. I am perhaps a bit more experimentational (yes, I just made up a word), as I think that to be truly pragmatic, you need to know what works and what doesn't, and the only way to know that is to experiment - so some of the ideas I have probably do sound a bit weird, but that's because I want to judge what the result is and if it works.