1. I tried out being vegetarian back in the early 90's, because I had heard about the atrocities to pigs and cows committed by farmers. But it wound up being easier to replace other meats with turkey than to eliminate meat completely--and I kept drinking milk back then (but no more cow milk now). However, I did start a healthy move toward being semi-vegetarian that continues on now, and my SO is a good vegetarian. I choose to be semi-vegetarian for health reasons.
2. Hair? I wouldn't know what any of my realtives hair looks like--I don't even remember any pictures of them. For some reason, I never knew about my relatives. My mom and dad have scraggly brown hair, and so do I (my hair is military short right now). Hair is not a priority for me; I have promised to shave my head when I finally have a real bald spot. Well I don't have a bald spot yet, but I'm probably within a year of shaving my head.
3. I kind of enjoy housework; it's a reason to put on an entire CD of something that you maybe haven't heard in awhile, and you hum while you're cleaning, and all of a sudden the house is clean--and it hardly feels like work. So I do a fair job of keeping stuff clean. I do a little more housework than my girlfriend, usually, and she buys a little more groceries.
4. I never won any awards in high school; I never thought of school as anything but punishment, and treated it as exactly such. If grades were so important, then somebody should have told me. If my parents had a stake of pride in my achievements, then they should have told me. Not that I would have listened, or cared; hey, it wasn't my freakin' idea to be here. Talk to my hippie parents; in fact, I think they have alot of explaining to do--about many things.
5. Have I done some pretty cool things in my life? Sure. And I'll let you know if I remember any of them. Wait; I died in a car wreck back in '82. Took 2 trips out west with my Dad while I was a kid, and was too young to appreciate most of it. Went to the Indy 500 about a dozen times with my Dad, too; those were fun. I've been to Mexico, and I saw Canada from Port Angeles, Washington. I've also been to Roswell, New Mexico, and to Area 51 in Nevada. I don't plan on leaving north America for any reason, ever, thank you.
6. I don't hate to read; I just don't enjoy it as much as most people. I find it slow and linear--plus, I'm easily distracted. If I were big on books, then I'd write one. I will give some of my time for reading, sure, but I'm not a "reader". There has to be a happy medium between reading and action. I'd be a person who might sit on a stationary bike and read a book for 30 minutes while pedaling. My girlfriend spends hours a day reading--it's one of her best oddities.
7. TV. Here we go; I am THE guy who believes that a well-organized and carefully planned out education-oriented set of televisual stimulus could have made mankind the elite animals of ALL time. The problem is that tv generates alot of money, and therefore tv is controlled by forces intent on dumbing us down. I am/was idealistic that a channel could come along and reshape the face of television, and it almost happened. Cable should have brought out privately funded educational channels; and public telelvision should be all about human betterment. But it's not. The best channel on tv is...Comedy Central, a cable channel that prides itself on mockery, shock value, and poorly drawn cartoons. I love it!
8+9. Art? I don't do much art. If I have artistic talent, then maybe somebody should tell me what the hell it is. I speak pretty well, but that ain't art. I don't even know what a "collage" is, but apprently my girlfriend doesn't think much of them. In my world, frisbee throws and good games of pinball are art; completing a weather report in the 10-second front post of a Butthole Surfers song is art. Art is subjective (I hope).
10. School. Ha. My grades? I passed, apparently. What a joke. It will eventually come to light that all of the teachers of my high school years had been tricked into their profession with the lure of being able to 'influence the lives of the great leaders for tomorrow', when what they were really doing was babysitting. If I develop the urge to learn more stuff (doubtful), then I completely agree with my girlfriend that doing some online classes would be a great idea.
11. College majors? My grades were shit, so I kept dropping down until I finally hit the bottom of the Arts and Sciences department; that put me in "speech communication". Then I finished my schooling.
12. I cook a little, but not much. I get really lucky at creating foods and dishes. We eat mainly vegan here at home, and it's healthy for us. We put a base of rice, potatos, or pasta in just about everything. And we love garlic in this house. Since my already brilliant girlfriend eats small portions 4 or 5 times a day, we don't have to make big meals.
13. Plants are beautiful but useless; I have killed every plant in my possession up until moving in with Static Girl. Plants breed little bugs, and mosquitos, and they all can kill you now. I used to waste hours chasing bugs around my place, but I no longer dedicate my life to killing small insects. Oh I still kill them (the bugs--not the plants), I just don't obsess over them. We (humans) don't live in dirt, so I see no reason to bring flowers into an artificial environment--like "indoors". But I respect the plants that my girlfriend has all over the house, and I water them, and I let most of the bugs live now.
14. I'm a member of the Fraternal Order of Police of Arizona. I should belong to more clubs, but I don't. I think it's funny how clubs want you to give them money, and be a member. I think clubs should pay US money for doing free advertising for them. The problem here is that: clubs exist for like-minded people to socialize and share ideas. I don't want to be like-minded, socialize, or share ideas with strangers. We don't really like people here, so I might join a club if part of the master plan was to leave me the hell alone. Bill Hicks had the idea for a new political party years ago: the "People Who Hate People" party. I need to get some more Bill Hicks stuff.
15. I have always said that we are the top of the food chain, and we should be allowed to experiment with anything lower than us. Then I learned about how they abuse animals for cosmetics, and all the stuff that gets done to farm animals and such. It's way past healthy experimentation; it's downright cruelty, and that's wrong. I wanna beat the shit out of all the loser pet owners on "Animal Cops". So we only have 2 pet guinea pigs here, and they are low maintenance.
16. I don't know what an Amazon wish list is, and I don't have a palm with any e-books on it. I don't even know where a Barnes and Noble is to use my $15 gift card. I'll go buy a sales book occaisionally, or borrow a Michael Moore book. Books are not a major issue for me.
17. If I lived in a house with a yard, I'd have a frisbee dog, a place to chop wood (for exercise), and a nice 50-yard area to throw human frisbee, too. I've never really had a yard; is it nice?
18. I'm lazy in general. And I do pretty much what I want to do. I don't sit and worry about a whole big bunch of shit that I can't change anyway. I don't have any artistic talent, so there are no art projects trying to swim out of me. Poetry/song lyrics may come out, or not, I couldn't care less at this point. I used to care; you should have talked to me then.
19. My favorite comics are Calvin + Hobbes, Bloom County, the Far Side, and for now--Non Sequitur. I loved Sherman's Lagoon--it had a brief run in our newspaper, but it's gone now. I like comics, and the AZ Republic has the best editorial cartoonist of our generation; Steve Benson.
20. Soft drinks, huh? I'm trying to limit my intake of soda to under 20 oz. a day. It was working well, and then came Vanilla everything, and Live Wire Mountain Dew. I like all soda. Mountain Dew now has a hat trick of flavors, so they are my favorite.
21. Kids? "Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding." No kids here.
22. On my website, I have these little monthly-type things called Sidebars. And I'm up into the 60's of them, so it is possible that I've been doing them for over 5 years now. Between my personal news, new stuff this month or so, and the rest of the current Sidebar, I record most of the major shit in my life. For you? For me? I honestly don't know why I keep doing it; I guess you're just really lucky.
23. People have more than 1 website? Why? I have exactly 1 website, and lots of losers seem to have access to it. As if the idiots I already know aren't bad enough, every month or so some unknown fat girl will e-mail me with some all-caps assault to my chauvinistic side. Oh, the anger. How dare I insult women on such a grand scale! Hmpf. See; it's from bashing standard women for so long that I finally found a couple of them who agree that women (in general) are evil. I suggest that most women (90%) are the downfall of all humans, and a very small group of some women (10%) are the physical goddesses that were meant to rule the rest of us. Oops, I mean, I only have 1 website.
24. I don't journal everyday. I journal when I can, or when I feel like it. Don't I do enough already? Before these computersaurus keyboards I used to try to write everyday. But if you keep a written journal, some dumb bitch you're doing will read it and use it against you (STT was right!). Hey; maybe 1 of the dumb bitches from years past will see THIS, and send me a nasty e-mail. Cool.
25. My SO, my girlfriend, MY Static Girl is a tortured soul like me; but whatever bothers her is usually internalized so that it comes out in spurts unrelated to the original problem. Since she doesn't enjoy talking, she doesn't really throw any screaming fits (unlike me). So sometimes she might be having a really rough day, and she just wants to go be by herself. All I ask is that she let me know what she wants me to do; hang around, leave, or shut myself in my room. Sometimes she cannot talk to anyone, but sometimes I am the ONLY person she can talk to--and I want to be there for her when I can. We will miscommunicate sometimes, all couples do, but she and I get along really well. I still brag about her to complete strangers, and I'd cook for her everyday if I could.
1. I became a vegetarian when I was 20, and I became a vegan when I was 30... I still occasionally have some dairy or eggs, so I'm not a great vegan, but I'm trying. I am thus for ethical reasons, primarily and environmental reasons, secondarily.
2. I've got red heads on my mom's side of the family and blonds on my dad's side of the family, but I got stuck with dark brown hair. Currently my hair is long, thin and scraggly. Mostly, I just hate dealing with it. If I had blond hair, like my brother does, I would colour it green and blue and purple!
3. I despise house work. But my bathroom gets cleaned on Friday evening, usually. And I do about an hour of Guinea Pig clean-up on Sunday afternoon, always. This involves removing all the old bedding in their house, shredding new bedding, picking up the newspapers I've laid down for their "I'm free!" time in my bedroom, and then vacuuming. phew!
4. I won an "honourable mention" award for a scratch board drawing I did in high school. The drawing is framed and hanging in my parents house. My artistic talent has been going downhill ever since. But I'm trying to revive it!
5. I have done some pretty cool things in my life. I've been up the Eiffel Tower, and the Leaning Tower of Piza, and lived in England for a few years when I was a kid. I've gone to Disney World, been up Mt Evans, took a hot air balloon ride over the desert, stayed in the Little A'le'Inn.
6. I love to read! But I hate reading used books. yuck. I buy my books new and I do my best to keep them pristine. I've discovered that eBooks will never have that "used" feeling when I'm reading them on my handheld! I love eBooks!
7. I don't watch much television, but I usually watch tv while I'm eating meals. SO and I have been watching the Ellen show during the week. Any other time, I go straight to Animal Planet or SciFi. Discovery channel has been pretty lame lately because I don't like those "re-design" your house/ room/ space/ car shows.
8. I really enjoy viewing other people's digital art. Wow, there is some incredible stuff out there!
9. I really don't like collage... to me, that's taking other people's arts, gluing them down and pretending it's yours. I think it's ugly, both physically and ethically. There is a place for collage: in your private journal, it should _never_ be shown publicly! ... Now, if you create your own images for your own collage: that's very different, and that is a true, public art.
10. I got good grades in school, but I hated it. All of my teachers were indifferent or worse. I will never go back to school... but I think I would like to get some more degrees some day, probably studying online.
11. I started out in college with an Animal Science major, art history minor, math minor. I graduated college with an Equine Sciences, industry concentration, degree and a computer sciences minor.
12. I can't cook or bake. But I keep trying. I can cook pasta, but my sauces suck. I have a hard time following a recipe, but I've made okay corn bread and brownies this year. Most of my bread (for the bread machine) comes out okay, tho the prepackaged mixes are much better. As a vegan, I would really prefer to have home cooked stuff because I know what's going into it that way. It's a good thing that my SO cooks for me!
13. I love to be surrounded by green growing things, but I tend to kill off all but the most hardy house plants. And now, of course all my plants have this disease which I'm doing nothing about. fah.
14. I am a member of PeTA, the Humane Society, and the ASPCA. In general, I don't give money to human causes, but I have given donations to some of the online groups I am a part of.
15. I feel strongly about many animal issues, but I have a hard time communicating my thoughts. Too often I keep my mouth shut and I feel bad later. And too often, I have a great animal topic to talk about here, that never gets typed up.
16. I have around 60 items on my Amazon wish list, mostly books. And I've about 140 unread eBooks on my hard drive (and increasing during every visit to Gutenberg). Whee.
17. If I lived in a house with a yard, I'd have a compost heap, a wild flower patch, a small vegetable garden, maybe an apple tree and some grapes. No chemicals would be allowed, and if the rabbits want to eat my food, that's fine with me! If I had a lot of land, and money, I'd have a horse or three and some rescued farm animals. especially a pig. and chickens.
18. I am really lazy about stuff that I want to do, especially art projects. I am trying to change, tho I have had a few creative "failures" lately. bah!
19. My favorite comics are Mutts! and Get Fuzzy! They both amuse me...
Earl: Mooch, do you prefer to be called "pet"?... "companion animal"?...
Mooch: "Boss"
hehe...
Bucky's religious cat prayer: Lord, give me the strength to change you people. and. um. Deliver us from weasels.
20. I love Coke. Original Coke from a can. The only other soft drink I do is the occasional Vanilla Coke. No Pepsi, no root beer, no sprite or any of those fruity ones. I don't even like fountain Coke. Just Coke from a can, thanks. I usually try to limit myself to one a day, or one every other day, so I can remember to savor it! (But this is a long pleasant weekend and I am making my way through the 12-pack!)
21. I am child-free by choice.
22. I used to have a section of my online journal called "cheri Says..." I should bring that section back. And I should find the old file, some of those were pretty amusing, I think. And very much "me".
23. I have more web sites than I know what to do with. Seriously. They are scattered all over the place. Some of them have died. Which makes me sad, but I wonder if they are in an archive somewhere. I just have a little problem when someone says "free web space" or "free site membership" or, you know, something like that. I will say one thing, tho: I've never had a geocities site. Not all my web "problem" is free... I own two domains. *shh* don't tell.
24. I journal most days. It's pretty important to me.
25. My Significant Other is an incredible person. I do not take him for granted. Do you know, even tho he's not a vegetarian or a vegan, he cooks vegan meals for both of us to eat! And he drives me places 'cause I hate driving in the city. And he respects my much needed alone time.
cheri says: Dang. Twenty-five is a lot.