"I always thought our house was haunted,

'cause nobody said boo to me-

I never did get what I wanted,

So now I get what I need..."*

After a less than inspiring start in life, I have managed to pack a lot of living into the years since.

I smoke just about enough, and drink more coffee than I should. I read voraciously and spell terribly. I ride a motorcycle every day, except when it snows (when I just stay home). I have vast and wildly unsubstantiated opinions on subjects that I am completely unaware of. I have sunk ships, wrecked cars and broken hearts. I have screwed the inscrutable, and gleamed the sphere. I sing rather well (within a limited range of material), which surprises me. I can tie a cherry stem in a bowline with my tongue. I will play a Dylan or Tom Waits CD on repeat, day and night, till strangers come to my house and make me stop. I work shirtless in the hot sun till my body gleams with sweat. I work hard, I play hard, and I live the life I want. I drink big bright blue fruity margaritas (in a pint glass) and pull it off. (I'm the slightly bashed up guy in full leathers at the end of the bar with the girly drink- you gonna give ME a hard time? ). I drink beer in the dive where I don't trust the bartender to make a good drink, and enjoy wine with dinner. I once fell in love with a woman's brain, and dated her. I should have just kept her brain in a jar on my desk, and skipped the rest.

I discovered that the real benefits of getting older are two fold: I just won't put up with or play games (and I've learned to spot them a mile off), and I have no fear of speaking my mind , because "those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind..." (Dr. Suess).

I actually have been there and done that, and I am always ready for the next adventure.

Editors

• snarkinthedark

enjoying every single minute, or looking forward to the next.

I am a live-aboard captain on a private yacht, whose owner rarely uses her, so I live like a semi-retired boat bum in beautiful places. We winter various places. This winter (2009-2010) we'll be in Chesapeake Va. till spring, when we'll return to Sag Harbor (in the fabulous Hamptons) which is more or less our home port.

I am assisted in my duties by my crew, MrMoffit (a large black Manx Cat), who believes he is the focus of my existence... Sadly, he is not far wrong.

Hey, somebodies gotta do it...

Fixing boats, tying knots, whips, cooking, photography, reading aloud...

Ellipsis rescues, apt observations, really paying attention, understanding the essentials of who you are, obliquely letting you know it without ever saying so directly.

Being a friend

Editors

• Geminimoon77
• junipurr

My hands- especially if I am touching them in an inappropriate manner...

(a) Authors: Neal Stephanson, Connie Willis, Nevil Shute, Dean Koontz, Ian Banks, Ian M. Banks, Ken Macleod, Anonymous, Richard Morgan, William Gibson. Poets- Eliot, Kipling, Rilke, Frost.

(b) What dreams May come, Hook, Hudson Hawk, Buckaroo Banzai, Riddick (all three), Fifth Element, Princess Bride, Black Snake Moan, Anything by Kevin Smith, anything by the Coan Bros, Firefly/Serenity, Heroes, House, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind (made me cry),Masked and Anonymous, Nate and Hayes, Gran Torino.

(c)

Bob Dylan, Especially: Infidels, Street Legal, Empire Burlesque, time out of mind.

Bruce Cockburn, Tom Waits, Mark Knoffler, BB King, Chris Rea, Richard THompson, RL Burnside

(d)COFFEE!, Philly Cheesesteaks, Sushi, Omlets, Pretzels, Onion Soup, whatevers on the menu at the Sage Cafe. Added for Jacksonville: Fuji Sushi, the Casbah, Sterling, Brick. Added for Sag Harbor: the American Hotel, Zen Sushi, the Corner Bar, Murph's.

or 'six things I always have in my pockets':

knife, multitool (because most multitools are mediocre as knifes, and a knife makes a poor multitool) (current multitool of choice, CRKT Guppie, current knife, SOG-TAC automatic), a ponytail rubberband thingy or two (My ex had loooong hair, so I usually carried one for her, and just generally find them very handy, and a bit more durable than an ordinary rubberband), a thumbdrive with various useful docs on it ( I use a lot of different computers in the course of my day), condoms, cigarettes, 2 Zippos (cause they don't float!) and a geniune Fischer Space Pen. No wallet- carry my cash doubled over and secure with a wide rubberband, downtown style, with my license tucked in the middle.

Ellipsis's...

the same thing we try to do every night, Pinky...

Try to take over the world.

I really really like Burl Ives music, and it is one of the more likely things for me to be singing in the shower, or when I am working.

I also make up songs to sing to MrMoffit (the Ship's Cat), often to the tune of 'Shaft'

you understand that I am living a very nomadic life, and that it can make LTRs very difficult.

You can't sleep, and want me to read you a bedtime story (Wind in the Willows? Gunare of the Sea? Winter's Tale?)

you now have *J.Hyatt's 'Slow Turning' stuck in your head!