100 Degrees

Okay, so I'll hop on board this whole "100 Things" meme if only so I can get the dang thing out of my head. Seriously, it's creepy how ideas like this spread. It's no wonder these sort things are referred to as "viral," because everybody I've shaken hands with on the internet has passed on their germs.

[achoo!]

Here goes:

1. I'm more than a little self-conscious.
2. My default is to assume that people don't like me.
3. I like all kinds of music
4. And when I say "all kinds," I mean just that, not that you caught me off-guard and couldn't think of anything so I just said that. I'm not too hot on hip-hop and really can't stomach contemporary pop-country (sorry folks, but it's some dire stuff), but other than that, I'm game.
5. I have close to 1000 CD's.
6. Most of them are legally obtained.
7. I also have a shelf of vinyl records as well as a couple of shoeboxes full of mixtapes that I've made over the years.
8. I am still madly in love with my wife.
9. I honestly thought I'd never find a girl that complemented me as well as Candace does.
10. I miss her when I'm gone.
11. We're totally co-dependent.
12. It's kind of sick.
13. And sort of sweet.
14. Mostly sweet.
15. I am obsessed with the Beach Boys, Guided By Voices, the Flaming Lips and Talking Heads.
16. I used to try and harness the power of the Force to turn on the light switch when I was five or six.
17. I still try it now and then... just in case.
18. I have been obsessed with Star Wars for most of my life.
19. I was - literally - a card-carrying member of the Star Wars Fan Club before the mediocrity of the prequels leached my passion for that universe dry.

Everything in that previous statement cements my nerd status forever.

20. I love comic books.
21. Mainly the mechanics of sequential storytelling - it's a boundless medium, limited only by the imagination of the storyteller.
22. Okay, so I also like superheroes punching each other.
23. I can name a couple dozen X-Men off of the top of my head.
24. I like samurai movies.
25. And kung-fu movies.
26. I can appreciate a good car chase, fight scene and/or an impressive explosion.
27. I am a loyal friend.
28. I like doing things for people I love.
29. I started drawing in the fourth grade.
30. I am still not a great draftsman, but appreciate the challenge drawing, as well as art, presents me with.
31. I have a knack for writing.
32. For a week or so, I flirted with the idea of switching to an English major and writing for a living, mainly because it comes so naturally.
33. I'm glad I stuck with art.
34. I don't feel particularly macho, like, ever.
35. I love the felling that comes after I've made something out of nothing, which I guess is what art is.
36. I love reading.
37. I try to read at least one book a month.
38. I've always wanted to be a husband and father.
39. I love being a dad.
40. Especially a girl dad.
41. I think My Little Ponies are so well-designed.
42. There's not a bad angle on them - they're beautiful from any point.
43. I like modern art.
44. Meaning: Picasso, Duchamp, Warhol, Rothko, Modigliani, Rauschenberg, Pollack and Hopper, to name a few. Standing in front of a Pollack is a pretty heavy experience. It's like the painting is eating you.
45. I love bookstores, music stores and comic book stores, though that last one depends on the store.
46. I am proud to be a Mormon.
47. I like the idea of trying to be better every day.
48. I have done stupid things in my life.
49. I am a registered Democrat.
50. I don't think that being Mormon and being a Democrat are mutually exclusive.
51. I believe in helping others, being responsible for your actions, and in compromise.
52. I think other people have valid points.
53. I get worked up over nothing.
54. I have written - again, literally - hundreds of poems from the age of 15 until around 23 when I just stopped with no desire to write any more.
55. Some of them are actually not half bad. Some of them are quite bad.
56. I was in a band called the Asthmatics.
57. As long as we're being honest, I was also in a band called, well, Sexual Tobacco (and my Accidental Pervert Traffic is on the rise!).
58. We played in our high-school battle of the bands but lost to Plane Grey, which featured Mark Stoermer who's now in the Killers.

We were totally better.

59. I really like Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49.
60. I married an artist.
61. Which is rad.
62. I am afraid of snakes, the dentist and old people. Seriously.
63. Retirement homes make me very nervous. Like "I have to get out of this place before I start screaming uncontrollably," nervous.
64. I was voted "Class Clown" of my high school.
65. I don't think I'm particularly funny.
66. I am a little too organized.
67. Bordering on OCD.
68. I love seeing live music.
69. I like clothes.
70. And shoes.
71. Sometimes I worry that I'm just not butch enough.
72. So I go cut a tree down with an axe. Then I shoot it full of holes. Then I blow the tree up. Then I scrath myself and belch a half-dozen times. That usually solves it.
73. #72 is a total lie. I really just mope about it until Candace tells me that it's okay.
74. Which I love her for.
75. For an incredibly white guy, I have an unhealthy love for the music of James Brown. The man was a genius. May he rest in funky peace.
76. I have seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure way too many times.
77. I consider The Goonies to be one of the best films ever produced in modern cinema.
78. Top 10 for sure.
79. I know a lot of random things.
80. Like, seriously, it's kind of weird. And that's coming from me.
81. I like office supplies.
82. People often tell me I look like Conan O'Brien, which is, surprisingly, not very flattering.
83. I think Woody Allen is (was?) a genius.
84. If you doubt it, watch Take the Money and Run and then tell me I'm wrong.
85. If it were, or ever is, possible, I would seriously consider living on another planet. How cool would that be?
86. I waited in line at midnight at Tower Records on Maryland and Flamingo for Pearl Jam's second album, Vs.
87. While I liked growing up in Las Vegas and have alot of history/roots/family there, I would be okay never living there again in my life.
88. I think the Simpsons was the funniest show on television from the fourth season through the eighth season.
89. After that, not so much.
90. That show, Friends, freaking annoys me.
91. We haven't had TV reception in our house for a year.
92. I kind of like it.
93. Someday I will have enough time and money to read everything I want to read, listen to everything I want to listen to and sleep as much as I should.
94. I have a hard time going to sleep before midnight.
95. I am not a morning person.
96. My wife has helped me become a better person. I know it sounds cliche', but it's the honest-to-goodness truth.
97. In the end, I just want to be happy.
98. I know that stuff isn't important. But I like having stuff.
99. I'm glad I am who I am and look forward to becoming who I am becoming.
100. I seriously didn't think I'd manage to squeeze 100 out, but here it is, 100 randmom things about me.

So, there you go. I gave into peer pressure and you know what... it felt good.

*Title from the Shout Out Louds' debut album, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff.