A self-summary sounds a little like an auto-obituary to me. Surely it's better to summarize something once it's complete and you can get a clearer view. I ain't dead yet.

Working and paying the bills. I don't have what I regard as a fulfilling career at the moment but I've not given up hope and am still pursuing over avenues. I try to write as often as I can, currently working on a film script but it's very slow going - often I just stare at the blank screen trying to force the words to come. The story is all worked out, it's just the damn DETAILS - and expressing them in a screenplay format. (if any one wants to collaborate, that would be great, except I hate sharing my ideas with people because I'm afraid they'll turn around and tell me they're crap :) )

Modesty prevents me from telling you just how astoundingly awesome I am. (modesty and the truth, that is.)

I'm not sure. I'm not the type to stand out in a crowd, even though I consider myself a bit of a freak (in a good way), I have a pretty quiet and unassuming demeanour. I am small, which often leads to people treating my in an inexplicably patronising manner as if I were a child (and I'm too polite to tell them off about it so I just smile and nod).

Books: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, anything by Kurt Vonnegut, The trial by Franz Kafka, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Raymond Chandler, Faulkner, Umberto Eco, Alan Moore, lots of non-fiction, lots of stuff I can't remember and any comic written in the sixties by Stan Lee (especially Spidey or Silver Surfer).

Movies: That would be a very long list, so I'll stick to a list of my favourite directors: Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Hitchcock, Ozu, Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, Sam Raimi, Jean Renoir, Fritz Lang,Preston Sturges, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Sam Peckinpah, James Whale, Buster Keaton, Michael Haneke, Powell and Pressburger, Luis Buñuel, F.W. Murnau, Nicholas Ray, Jacques Demy. That ended up being a long list anyway.
I have a high-definition projector and I like nothing more than to get some microwave popcorn and spend a Saturday evening watching films on the big screen (seriously, it fills the wall. It. Is. Awesome.)

Music: Here are some of my favourite artists Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Neil Young, Hank Williams, Animal Collective, Pavemnet, Wilco, Robert Johnson, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Joanna Newsom, Sam Cooke, The Beach Boys, Aimee Mann, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison, R.E.M., Gillian Welch, Aphex Twin, Big Star, Dean Martin, A Tribe Called Quest, Grizzly Bear, Chet Baker, Chuck Berry, The Byrds, Richard Thompson, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Randy Newman, The Unthanks,Beethoven, Beirut, Fleet Foxes, First Aid Kit, Charles Mingus...I'm sure I'll think of a few more later.
My Last.FM page: http://www.last.fm/user/CarlShort
I listen to music everyday without fail and love going to gigs. At work I'm forced to endure the horrors of Heart FM so I need to balance it out with the good stuff to maintain my sanity.

I don't actually own a TV, not for any ideological reasons, I just never got 'round to buying one when I moved in on my own and found out that I could do perfectly well without one. I'm sure I'm missing some good programs but on the plus side I remain blissfully unaware of what's happening in the X-Factor and its ilk.

I like lots of different food and am a reasonable cook. . I am a carnivore which I know makes me a horrible, horrible person but I can't seem to get worked up enough about it to stop.

All you need is love. And food. And water. And shelter. And Tea, of course. (That's five so I'll add the projector to the list. Did I mention it is awesome?)

I spend nearly all my time thinking. It doesn't get me anywhere.

My Friday nights are pretty uneventful at the minute. I have little desire to go clubbing and get wasted, feel like I'm past all that (though the occasional trip to a (nice) pub is all right).
My ideal Friday night is probably at a gig, or at home with someone special.

Although I'm pretty good at appearing erudite, witty and sophisticated in a written profile in the real world I often communicate in little more than mumbles and grunts.

anything I've written here has piqued your interest. It's not like you'd message me if you thought it was a load of bollocks, would you? (unless it's to tell me it's a load of bollocks, which would be a bit rude, I think.)