I like to call myself eccentric and eclectic, but in reality, weird and boring is closer to the mark. I'd rather read than just about anything else.

I live in a rural area (though not that rural, I'm about 10 miles from Six Flags, I can see their fireworks at night) but I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. I walk a lot (2-4 miles a day) and sit outside reading, but that's it for outdoors activity, except stargazing.

I majored in Space Science in college, but that didn't work out so well because math beyond Differential Equations is really hard. And I wasn't as good at it as I thought.

So I ended up fixing computers for a while. When my mother passed away a few years ago, I used the inheritance to try to become a writer. A few novels later, well, the writing part has been easy enough, but the selling them part has been hard. I've made some money, but not nearly enough. (And note that I said writer, not editor. I'm sure I've made a few typos on my profile. Especially when you re-write stuff they creep in)

Reading. Sort of a curse, actually, I read too fast. Takes me an hour or two to read a book, and that's just sort of my "cruise" speed. If I want to read faster, I can. Which is nice, but I tend to run out of things to read.

Though thanks to the Kindle, I'm not sure I can run out of things to read anymore. All pre-Mickey Mouse literature is now mine!

The uncanny resemblance to 16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe.

Or perhaps to the 19th Century pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti.

It's actually sort of eerie coming across people you look like, or when people mention you look like someone.

Books: I've literally read thousands of books, averaging about 300 a year since I was 5 (Hey, my mother was a librarian.) My favorite genres are historical mysteries, noir, pulp, science fiction, and fantasy. Name an author in those genres and I've probably read him/her, at least once.

Movies: I like action, sci-fi and horror (the suspenseful sort, not sadistic or gory), as well as campy movies. Johnnie To and Ryuhei Kitamura are my favorite directors. Also love old movies, especially serials and pre-code stuff.

Although it's a bit hard to reconcile with my admiration for artistic creation, even badly done ones, I am a big MST3K/Rifftraxx/etc fan.

Shows: I generally only watch TV to watch the (baseball) Cardinals game or the History Channel and TCM. The last sitcom I liked was The Golden Girls, and the last drama...I don't know, I am afraid to watch them because they always seem to get canceled when I like them.

Music: I have a Last FM page.

Mostly a combination of '80s stuff, classic rock, and Electronic Dance Music (mostly trance). Led Zeppelin, Suzy Solar (her radio show), and A Flock of Seagulls are my top three.

I actually haven't liked a new rock song in almost 15 years (though I've tried to get into psychobilly), but on the flip side, there's more good music being produced today than I have time to listen to. It's all pretty much EDM, though.

And yes, I really do like disco. Quite a lot. Particularly the orchestral sounding stuff that just goes on and on and on. K.C. & The Sunshine Band not so much.

Food: Pizza is my favorite. About the only great thing about St. Louis is the style of pizza, which I love. Faraci's on Manchester is the best, I can't even imagine a better pizza. Well, Farotto's is really good as well.

St. Louis has a lot of pizza places - do yourself a favor and don't eat at Imo's, or god help you, Cecil Whitaker's. They are respectively the McDonald's and Arby's of St. Louis style pizza

And while I'm being preachy about pizza, use your skillet to heat it back up, not a toaster oven. Just put some tin foil over it, put it on medium, and give it a few minutes! Just try it. You'll kick yourself for not doing it earlier.

Just to add my own categories:

Comics: Get Fuzzy, Drabble, Mother Goose & Grimm

Paintings: Et in Arcadia Eco by Nicholas Poussin, A Friend in Need by C.M. Coolidge, Flaming June by Frederic Leighton, and most landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich, but especially The Tree with Crows and A Couple Gazing at the Moon. Art is something I've grown to appreciate more as I've gotten older

Dr Whos: Jon Pertwee - he was the most stylishly dressed (even looking good in a cape) and flew an autogyro. And Leela would be my favorite companion, she's very...stabby.

I know it's trite, but really just the basics: Food, shoes without holes in them (especially the sole), clean drinking water, a roof over my head, heating in winter, a bathroom (and ability to take a hot shower). I've spent a (fortunately) brief time homeless, and really, those are the things you really really miss.

Seriously, who cares about an ipod when it's 30 degrees and pouring ice rain? Once you've lost everything, it's hard to get attached to mere possessions again...

Scenes from my current writing projects. I like to think about them and visualize them, then write them down when I get them worked out right in my head. Almost always ends up different in written form.

It's given me a much better understanding of Michael Bay. When you can't figure out how to develop a scene further, it's easy to just insert an action scene or explosion.

KABOOM!

Exploring other planets, battling the forces of evil, solving a mystery, learning about the past, all the while fending off menacing wild beasts.

Or in more prosaic terms, reading a book while occasionally entertaining one of my pets.

Saturdays I generally go out, though it's usually to the library and then a pizza.

When I was a kid back in the '70s, my best friend's mother would always yell at us to go out and play as opposed to sitting around his computer or Atari. So we would, reluctantly.

Yet as I reach middle age, I realize that she was absolutely right. And yet today, it's even worse, when kids go outside today, they are glued to their cellphones...

I was really looking forward to yelling at them to get off my lawn, too.

I am one of those silly people who thinks their partner should be their best friend. Certainly not share everything in common, but a lot.

Do you get a thrill when you visit a bookstore you've never been to?

Do you love it when you catch a B-movie on TV you've never seen before?

Do you realize you look silly when you sing along to the car radio and yet still do it?

Do you say "oooh" when you see a shooting star in the night sky?