Dan Solomon tagged me with this thing. I'm not a huge fan of these because it is expected that you forward them, and I dislike encouraging memetic organisms to culture in my petri dish, but I have tons of respect for Dan and Kat, and it sounds interesting. I'm not tagging anyone, tag your own damned self. :)

"Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you and post it. At the end, choose 5 people to be tagged."

1) I collect hobbies. I don't tend to do very many of them, I just collect the information on how to do them should it ever come up. This is not particularly productive at times, but I've been collecting information on how to set up organizational systems that will hopefully enable me to be far more prod--oh, right.

2) I am a huge webcomic nerd. I started reading them when I worked at a tech support place in Mt. Pleasant, and although the job didn't work out well for a variety of reasons, the comic obsession stuck. I have at various times attempted to write my own, but never got too far because I'm a bit concerned about my artistic ability and/or the chances of finding an artist that I can count on to faithfully reproduce what I have in mind and stick with it.

3) I have never left the continent. I have been to many of the continental states, as well as brief forays into Canada and Mexico, but have never been overseas or far south enough to qualify for much else. I hope to rectify this one day.

4) I'm returning to college this fall, if all goes well. I'm a bit scared of this, but hopefully ready. One of my biggest regrets is the path my education took in my youth. I don't know where one would have to start to really put things on the track I would prefer, but I never did go away to college, and while I don't think the window is closed for education and self-improvement I know that I missed out on that experience. The closest I have are vicarious experiences and some sort of odd daydream/real dream overlap somewhere in the back of my head - not-memories of things that didn't happen and people that I never met, cobbled together from pieces of dreams and imagination, and refined by other people's stories. This makes it sound like I spend a lot of time on this or something, but I never really even noticed it until recently. "Back of my mind" in a very real sense - I suspect it's probably just my childhood idea of what school would one day be like growing with me independent of any actual events to affect its course.

5) I live in mortal fear of unemployment for every second I am working, and being unemployed makes me incapable of returning to employment. I got fired from my first two or three jobs, because I was a teenager. I didn't really do anything spectacular to get fired, except for the time I quit my job as a janitor for the local country club which was intentional and not a firing, just standard punctuality and slacking issues endemic to teens. It apparently left a mark, though. I am totally freaked out by employment and the necessity of income. Not good.

6) The above story I referenced is one of my proudest moments. I was working as a janitor at the local country club for about a week and a half when they fired the old manager and hired a new one. I liked the old guy well enough, new guy was a retired marine drill sergeant, no joke. Within a week he fired all the gay employees, which was almost half the staff. I took this as a bad sign, went into his office and quit, citing my reasons as him obviously being a Nazi and figuring that the weird ones like myself were probably next. He was very angry, and that forehead vein stood out. I left quickly after that. Best. Resignation. Ever. Of mine, anyway.

7) I get crushes on people from time to time, it is almost never successful and rarely does it work out in other ways. It used to be crippling, as I had far too much of my self-worth tied up in the opposite sex's response to me, although I have gotten better about that by far. Breakups were truly devastating, far out of proportion to the actual event. Among them, I had one breakup that took me six years to completely get over, and one that took about three. In all fairness, the first was basically my first girlfriend, and the other one...well, she's a remarkable person that *should* take some getting over - even if I did make myself an uncomfortable person to be around for that time period. I still have a hard time placing her in my social spectrum, to be honest. The romantic interest I'm over, quite happily, as I really like and respect the person she ended up with and he's a far more appropriate match that I was, not to mention that it simply just wasn't possible for that one to work. That's not always a bad thing, despite Hollywood's protestations. Still, the rare times we talk I am always amazed by the instant rapport and familiarity that we have. It's something that doesn't happen much in my friendships - she feels (these days) more like a family member - long lost sibling or somesuch. Truly a rare friend, one who always inspires and soothes. Which reminds me, I should really get in touch with those two and see what they're up to since they're back. (Hi Kat and Dan)

8) Speaking of, I have [at least one] crush currently on [at least one of] my neighbours. It is doubtful that anything will come of it, but it kills time.

More of these later....