Wednesday, April 30, 2008

About me redux

This should really be under the "About Me" heading. See said heading for an explanation of why it's here.

I'm a thirty-six year old Buddhist writer (at least that's how I think of myself when I'm laying in bed and dreaming of accepting my first pulitzer) / graphic designer/printer/typesetter (my real job) who likes The History Channel, Metal, animals of any sort (I'm less fond of the ones that have an inclination to sting/bite/attack or in any way make me fear for life or limb, but they're still neat to see from a distance) appallingly greasy food and sleep, among many other things. I'm a huge WWII buff and I love books; old books, rare books, books that are peculiar or odd in some unique way, and books that I think are cool for any reason at all. While on the subject of books, some of my favorite authors are T.H. White, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Cormac McCarthy, Pearl Buck, Flannery O'Connor, James Clavell (Shogun freakin' rules!), C.S. Lewis (for his ability to effortlessly and elegantly explain even the most dense and detailed notions), and any number of 19th and early 20th century writers of history whose flowing and expressive prose made learning incredibly entertaining. They're a mostly dead species now, though there are a few worthy successors (the fellow who wrote the Brief History of Byzantium is one, but I dis-remember his name...it was something perfectly British, like Lowell Abbotcliff Montague, or Percival Knickerbop Kennelforth Warmwater.
Mostly, I love my three dogs (Lab/chow mix - called a Chowbrador non-retriever - named Angel, a very, very stinky Beagle name Mollie, and an eccentric but lovable and loyal bird-dog/mutt named Noah...my three cats, Romeo, the twenty-five pound, half-tail American shorthair creampuff whose nocturnal groomings have left a bald spot in my beard - Chloe, the world's biggest pest when it comes to feeding time, and who is so lovably dim that she forgets how to use the cat flap everytime she encounters it and usually has to wait for another cat to come along and go through it before she attempts it (even then it takes a few paw swats at different parts of the door before she gets it right) and who is so incredibly cute and charming that she gets anything she wants - and the frankenbaby Terra, who is so name because she has odd clumps of hair that grow higgeldy-piggeldy from her neck which we are sure come as a result of her homeless childhood when she had to eat rocks and cans to survive. She is an exceptionally sweet cat when she wants to be, but she is my girlfriend's nemesis and they are constantly at odds. To be fair, Terra is a bit of a psycho - her mood can turn on a dime and she's not afraid to bite or claw even when she's being held - and she swaggers like a junkyard cat who's used to getting her way, but I love her nonetheless...and of course the aforementioned girlfriend, Heather, who has managed to put up with my almost numberless peculiarities for many years and who is the light and love of my life and for whom I am eternally thankful.

So, that's me in a very big nutshell. I'll be adding more as it pops into my head. Bye.
Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. What you will find here is nothing more and nothing less than self-indulgent rants and lists and opinions of things I like and dislike - which is, I suppose, pretty much what every blog contains; the ephemera of the authors' personality. As much as I ridicule "reality" television, pop culture and such truck, I have to admit I have an almost pathological interest in it. It is a source of continuing amazement to me to realize that people actually like such unabashed crap as say Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton, MTV, anything called "emo", virtually any female "singer" under thirty, television in general (excepting Family Guy), politics (a never ending source of nausea and high-blood pressure), rap, anything starring Cher, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close (who has aged into a startlingly accurate resemblance to Robin Williams), or any of the myriad other insufferable "stars", and other things far too numerous to list.
So, this whole blog is really about me, which is exactly as it should be. If you don't like it, or if I offend you or piss you off, then go somewhere else, please...this is my little corner of the web and I'll defend it to...well, actually, my interest will probably wane after a few days and I'll be on to something else, so whatever...see ya.