I'm outside of a lot of things, inside of everything, and sometimes in a box. My days are 9-5 with car, cube, and condo but like everything else, that’s just a function of now. I backpacked through New Zealand, taught English in Korea, visited Thailand and parts of Western Europe, but I'll always want to see more. I've tried to stick to this general rule of thumb; If you find yourself getting too comfortable, it's time for change. It might be internal or external, but it's the struggle that makes us grow. I'll always want to try new things. I suppose everyone says that, but I'm committed to the discomfort that change sometimes costs.

There is one trait that I value above all others, and that’s compassion. Some of the people I most admire are the ones that are strong enough to absorb another’s loss, help without recognition, and love without self. It is the one quality that augments all others; broadening your intelligence, amplifying your strength, and deepening your understanding of others. It also gives you the ability to shoot laser beams out of your eyes. Seriously. I’ve seen it.

And if you can make waffles, you’re pretty awesome too.

I want to come back to Chicago and make him waffles. <3 --gdsm.

Me too. :) <== Random chick

Editors

• Uyllstide
• goddamnitsomuch

I'm a business analyst at a large education-based corporation who daydreams about divorcing society and writing novels for a living while hunkered down in a double-thick steel walled bunker at the top of a hill with little rifle slots to defend against the attacking hordes of... sorry. was I still writing?

Understanding feelings. Yeah, I'm not thrilled I'm good at that either. It puts me in the friend category too many times, but whatever situation it was where you felt slighted, slightly demeaned, or strangely outraged, I can empathize. I can understand the undertones, sum up your feelings with a vivid metaphor and you'll say "Yeah! That's exactly why I was pissed. That B*tch!" And then we'll go out for ice cream.

I'm also pretty entertaining. But that only seems to work for 1 out of every 5 people or so. If you're that one though, seriously.. I'll make you laugh so hard you throw up (which is actually one of my secret goals in life).

I look serious. Maybe it's the pointy eyebrows, or the fact that I'm sometimes absentmindedly lost in thought (mostly about weird or mundane things), but several people have told me that I look serious or even mean. One time, my friend's little nephew ran from me when I said Hi to her at a family Christmas party and asked my friend in hushed tones... "Is he the devil?".

As a result I try to smile more. And stopped carrying a pitchfork.

Fiction: Auster and Murakami for realistic fantasy. Flannery O'Conner, and Carver for twisted characters, and Robbins, Pynchon, and David Foster Wallace just because they're hip. Yeah, I love Gaiman too. And Anne Rice. (I had no idea I was so common) I'll always read a TC Boyle book, and have been reading Kaye Gibbons lately (Ellen Foster is the female version of Catcher in the Rye). Sherman Alexie, Nabokov (all except for Pale Fire), and of course Toni Morrison. For poetry, I love Ginsberg, ee cummings, Bukowski, Whitman, WCWilliams, and I steal love poems from Pablo Neruda (well, kinda).

Writing: I was a thesis away from an MFA, but I could never finish that novel. For better or worse, I write short speculative gimmicky stories that involve gods and monsters.

Movies: Anything that happens in space, no matter how bad it is, will usually draw me to the theater, and the larger the explosions, the more likely I'll go. I do also like social commentaries, and yes.. even romantic comedies. Most of my friends are film buffs (read: have taste), so if I do get dragged to a good independent film, I'll like it. But only begrudgingly.

Music: I have a pretty good jazz collection (mostly standards) on one side of my collection, but the other is filled with ambient techno and a small assortment of really bad albums. I realize they're bad. And no, I"m not going to throw out my copy of Merril Bainbridge's "Mouth" or my copy of Powerman 5000.

Food: Whatever it is, I will eat it (yes, everything). Even if it's still moving (no really). Even if it's not really "food" (what is food anyway, really? Names are so arbitrary... Like, "dinner", "pet", or "Bob". Who's to say one's not the other? Or all three?)

Idealism, Humor, Love, Family, Dreams, and my imaginary jet-powered monkey-ninja Bobo.

How people see themselves. Thumbs of all shapes and sizes.

Editors

• WutCudHappen

This is going to sound lame, but... it is. I can't help it. Fridays, I generally stay in and play video games. I like it. Saturdays, I normally go out and (action verb) like a (noun - animal) while riding my (noun - person, animal, vehicle, or state of being)

But here are the things I would love to do with you: Go to a 3 day concert, see a movie, take a road trip, check out any number of conventions, go on vacation (beach, tiny town, or jungle), go to the museum, infiltrate a religious cult gathering, go grocery shopping, buy a monkey, return a monkey, go to the hospital for monkey scratches, bowl, check out a used book store, go get coffee, cause certain doom, hang out at a pub, dive, or just stay in and watch Survivorman to prepare for the apocalypse.

(and that whole monkey thing was totally your idea. I wash my hands of the entire thing.)

I posted something really personal here at first, but then realized after reading other people's profiles that no one else did. Sometimes I do that. If you ask me anything about myself, I'll always tell you the most deeply personal truth I can find.

I'm not sure yet if this is a good thing.

If you love language, if you're playful with words and talk about authors with the same passion normally reserved for baseball teams, or play video games in the dark, or if you love the stillness of nature and can't think of a better weekend than outside with a pack on your back and your face full of mosquitoes (in a good way).

Or if you need a partner for the coming Apocalypse and are willing to stand by my side as we fight off zombies, ninjas, or meteors (q: how do you fight meteors? a: very carefully.), and find the aspect of facing oblivion together strangely satisfying.

Or if you're none of these things, and just want to chat.

You should NOT message me if...

1) You are currently resisting arrest.
2) You are trying to foil my dastardly plan.
3) You are me. (now wouldn't that be freaky?)
4) You are a giant mass of ice, rock, and dust hurtling toward Earth at 1000 km per second or more. I will get you, Meteor. I swear it.