25 things about me you may not know/care about/want to read

I wrote this on January 19th, 2009. 

It's still accurate.

I miss FriendFeed, even though it was like CoSo but less secure. 

 

OK, here's the deal.

Over at FriendFeed, there are these things called memes. This time it's a list, arbitrarily 25 items long, on "25 things you may not know about me".

This latest meme raises some issues for me. I've read some lists that were very revealing and some that were quite facile. Nearly all gave me insight into my fellow FriendFeeders, those I follow anyway, that I didn't have before.So I'd like to contribute to this one, since it actually achieves a worthwhile end.

But I question my own participation, partly because I don't make a habit of getting caught up in these all that often anyway, and partly because I'm not sure just how candid I want to be with this particular crowd. It is a social group, one of several I belong to. Not many of them overlap, there are only around 15 people I know on FriendFeed who I also know in other venues. Still, if I choose not to be totally candid to this group, just how selective should I be? Most of the people who follow me in FriendFeed don't know me from Adam (he's the one on the left)

On the other hand, those who read this blog are mostly a whole other group, people I know through Lockergnome or Scot's forum. That's the tech and comedic side of me. In FriendFeed I expose the more social and psychological me. I'm not sure these two worlds should interact. It could be like matter and anti-matter, you know? Like peanut butter and jelly.

So I decided to post an honest list (meaning that everything on the list is true, but not everything that's true is on the list). Nothing on the list should shock the sensibilities of anyone in either group. Those things about me that would I just won't mention. None of you need to know me that well.

I do take solice in knowing that in less than 5 minutes after reading this, most people will forget all or nearly all I post. This is a very transient medium, populated by far more people with ADD than any group should have to deal with.

In no particular chronology:

1. I'm usually about twice the age of most people interact with daily online. The same situation exists at work. I'm older than my boss's father.
2. I'm still surprised, every time I think about it, that I'm as old as I am. In two weeks I'll be 55. I have a pretty firm mental image, have had the same image for nearly 55 years now, of 55 as being the beginning of old-manhood. People that age have always been girlfriend's fathers, not my peers. Crap, I've always disliked old people. Now I are one.
3. I still smoke de' erb, mon. But other than the occasional toke and an addiction to cigarettes I'm much cleaner now than I was years ago.
4. I spent 13 years in Idaho. I went there to get a bit of money to travel on to Alaska. Stayed way too long and never got further North. Never regretted missing the chance. Froze my ass off well enough in Idaho to convince me that freezing my ass off was not the best life had to offer. After all, I'm a San Diego native, I've lived here for all but 17 years of my life. 
5. The San Diego (a.k.a. The Padre or the KGB) Chicken is the only famous person in my high school graduating class. 
6. For a decade I was a cocaine addict with a full time job living on my own. I can't even recall much about that time. Actually it screwed up my memory which is why... I quit cold turkey and haven't looked back. That was over 10 years ago.
7. I'm very reluctant to discuss gayness with my tech friends but not at all reluctant to mention it in FriendFeed or on other blogs. It has to do with being bisexual. Those who are exclusively gay or exclusively straight both look down, or at least sideways, at bisexuals. Because they aren't, they don't appreciate how anyone could be. If totally gay and totally straight are the extremes, I'm about 65% gay/35% straight, and that percentage can fluctuate by the hour some days. 
8. Speaking of my social handicaps, I'm also blonde (well, was), left-handed, an Aquarian, an atheist and a moderate in nearly everything. 
9. I went to the Regionals in (roller)skate dancing as a ten year old. 
10. In high school I was a wrestler and gymnast, performing both with stunning mediocrity. My passion was my position as news photographer for the school paper, later the yearbook and as the official campus radical. 
11. In high school I published an underground campus paper, called The Crotch, and ran off each issue on the mimeograph machine in the teacher's lounge. I had great circulation until I got nabbed and threatened with expulsion. But I could still write for the legit campus paper. 
12. I went into the Army because the girl I was dating then went in first. I had a great job but the company folded and she'd just enlisted. I figured, "what the hell, I need a job". 
13. My job in the Army was the best job I've ever had, the kind of job that fits your own interests and skills perfectly. I was a fool not to re-enlist. Most of my time was spent at NSA at Ft. Meade, Md. I was working with computers and sound systems in 1975. I was involved in cool secret work, much like working at Apple is today. Our outfit, the Army Security Agency, was a small unit within the Army, with our own command structure and our own rules. We rarely wore uniforms. Did I mention we got to play with computers? Oh, to still be there. I miss that job. 
14. My second favorite job was as a manager for Sam Goody (retail music chain-store). For two out of my 8 years I held the position of official greeter and man-servant for any celebrity who came into the store. We were Southern Cali's newest and biggest store at the time. We were also right under Planet Hollywood. I met hundreds of artists I would never have had the chance to chat with (man-servant = green room attendant as well) otherwise. But yeah, only 2nd best job. I'll take a computer over a celebrity any day.
15. My favorite physical activity used to be free rock climbing. I've always loved climbing things. I am the transitional form between great apes and humans. Or was, before I got a belly and started working jobs that required me to sit too much.
16. That belly is my biggest physical embarrassment. I used to be skinny, or thin as everyone used to say...with a forced smile. I had a 32" waist until I was in my mid-40s. In my late 30s my favorite pair of jeans were ones I'd worn in high school.
17. My last real relationship with a woman ended 24 years ago. We broke up, a couple of weeks later I moved to Idaho, a couple of months later I got a call from a mutual friend letting me know that Susan had quickly married a man she barely knew within a couple of weeks of my leaving. The day before his call her husband shot Susan to death at her workplace (Motorola) in a jealous rage. I'm still blown away when I think of the terrible mistake that all was. My feelings for her got sort of cemented in place that day, and I still remember her fondly. 
18. I was a city cop for two years. I was a terrible cop. Good job though for a person who can't stand routine. And I despise routine. Working in an assembly plant would kill me quickly. 
19. I was a motorcycle driving instructor for the local safety council and sponsored by Yamaha. Got some nice schwag but also got run over a time or two. Even had a hot exhaust pipe run into my arm. I said some very unkind things to that lady. I regret none of them.
20. I have a bunch of books and a few keepsakes of George Catlin, early American painter of Indians. He's in my mom's family. I idolized him as a kid. He got to do all the cool things I wished I'd done. I adopted his journal style of notekeeping, but I can't paint for shit.
21. My last vote for president was in 1972. For a variety of reasons I voted for Richard Nixon that year. I was at the height of my anti-establishment ferver and I voted for Nixon. I knew it was wrong, I knew I'd regret it and I regretted it. If on the first day you take driver's training and you manage to crash the car into a tree causing mild injuries to everyone inside and killing a neighborhood dog tied to the tree, you should perhaps dedicate yourself to memorizing the bus schedules and swear off driving yourself. Voting for Nixon was my collision with the reality I was a crappy voter. Best I just take the path wide of a voting booth. Best for all of us. 
22. I had the opportunity while in Idaho to raise a gray wolf. She was part of the reintroduction program. She was a breeder, pretty much humanized but not completely. Still, I could sit next to her while she ate an entire chicken and not worry. I had a young silver-colored male huskey that became her boyfriend. He was neutered, so no problem there.
23. I sang tenor in choirs from preschool through college. I love classical music but really love Gregorian chant and polyphonic motets. I have all the Anonymous4 CDs. I'm an atheist who loves early church music. So? They got one thing right. 
24. I'm an ordained minister. Yes, it was an online ordination, but I (and the state of California) take it seriously. I do appreciate the mystical. I just don't get carried away.
25. While living in Idaho I was surprised to discover that I could easily have been a cowboy. The Western rural lifestyle really appealed to me.

I'm only reposting for those who may be curious. 

But it's my life, no one else's. At no point has it gone as planned.