Issuing supreme power to you...one moment.

My self-summary Propose an edit

Name's Anthony.

My mind constantly extracts patterns from minute details; I have a proclivity for incessant integration. Data analysis, as it were. My conceptions of elegance and beauty are derived from appreciating the inner workings of seemingly simple entities, objects, actions, and interactions. I attempt to process less from the top-down or bottom-up than from both at once; for in breaking things down, we play to our preconceptions of constituency, and in building things up, we risk overlooking certain fundamental constituents.

While I enjoy a heady discussion, I make forays into absurdity regularly, and while I strive for harmony, I often feel detached from my surroundings. Although I'm an avowed aesthete, I have little or no aptitude for the visual arts. Logic and intuition pull me with equal force--ISTJ by day, INFP by night. Faced with the choice of studying science or language, I decided to study the science of language.

What I'm doing with my life Propose an edit

I recently transferred to Georgia State University in Atlanta to complete my BA (and likely an MA immediately thereafter) in Applied Linguistics. After grad school, who knows? It's several years off at this point, and I have yet to decide on the subfield in which I want to specialize.

I had previously attended college in the Boston area, but after a few years, it became apparent to me that it was neither what I desired nor what I needed. It is easy for us to get caught in the current of external pressures and expectations, since our chains are often bound so tight that they begin to become a part of our flesh. This realization has helped me become more centered and assured now than I have ever been; acting ceases and being begins. I hope never to lose the focus and clarity that has resulted from this.

I'm really good at Propose an edit

Verbal pugilism. Want to spar? Arguing on the Internet is pretty much a national pastime, you know.

Assorted video games, especially RPGs, rhythm action, and puzzle games.

I would say that I'm a talented musician, but I'd be lying. Not like there's much correlation between the technical perfection of your musicianship and the quality of the music you produce, anyway. You might as well judge a piece of literature by the complexity of its sentences. Music, like language, is an expressive medium, and any perceived boundaries can and should be breached to attain degrees of expression otherwise unattainable. Unbridled passion and independent vision generally triumph over calculated precision and dogmatic devotion to accepted standards.

Oh, and I make some killer mixtapes. Well, CDs.

The first thing(s) people usually notice about me Propose an edit

That my hair seems to account for 5% of my total body weight.

My favorite books, movies, music, and food Propose an edit

Books: It was hard to pare this list down to this size, trust me. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Catch-22, the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, I, Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Cat's Cradle, Lamb, the first three Dune books, and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Movies: I enjoy a good film every now and then, but I am not really a cinephile. Nevertheless, here's a short list: The Matrix, Monty Python films, Star Wars IV and V, Pan's Labyrinth, Lost in Translation, and Oldboy. Most films by directed by Stanley Kubrick, Darren Aronofsky, Mel Brooks, Ridley Scott, Kevın Smith, and Francis Ford Coppola. Most films written by Charlie Kaufman. And I have a soft spot for I ♥ Huckabees.

Music: Music's my biggest passion and hobby, both to create and consume. I own two guitars (one acoustic and one electric), a bass I nicked from my sister, and a crappy old Casio keyboard with glittery dolphin stickers on it, which I really don't know how to play.

Look me up on Soulseek if you're curious about my collection; I have the same username there. You can also look me up on RateYourMusic and Pandora.

Anyway... maximal minimalism, repetition repetition repetition, copious amounts of fuzz and feedback, empty spaces like pregnant pauses, polyrhythmic percussion, Slint , Xiu Xiu, Sonic Youth, Television, Tim Hecker, Low, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Fennesz, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mission of Burma, Trail of Dead, Yo La Tengo, Brian Eno, Wire, The Flaming Lips ca. 1990, various indie rock, indie pop, shoegaze, krautrock, drone, post-punk, psych, post-hardcore, and a little bit of sludge, stoner, and doom metal on the side.

Current obsession(s): volcano!

Food: I'm a rather adventurous eater, although I become fixated on certain foods for several weeks at a time. Cereal is always a constant. Ethnically, being Italian and Spanish/Puerto Rican, I have particular affinities towards the cuisine. Still, I also enjoy Japanese, Indian, Polish, Thai, Vietnamese, and Mexican.

Video Games: Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Suikoden II, Animal Crossing, Valkyrie Profile, Shadow of the Colossus, The Elder Srolls III: Morrowind, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Final Fantasy Tactics, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU FOR 9999. YOU DIE.

EDITORS

• gypsy_macabre

The six things I could never do without Propose an edit

Music, literature, pain, passion, silent space, teh intarweb and related technology.

I spend a lot of time thinking about Propose an edit

Since I don't spend terribly much time thinking about the distant future, and even less thinking about the past, that leaves me daydreaming about more immediate things. Not that I don't take anything away from the past, nor look to the future at all. I just extract from past experience what I feel to be the applicable to the future, lest I feel burdened by my fixation on either.

I spend a lot of time thinking about abstraction. About systems, the interconnectedness of everything, and the difference between perceived purpose and actual execution as the gears of society grind. About symbolism, signs, referents, and dominant discourse. About how something like language, with all its power, is inherently imperfect in communicating meaning. About the fundamental paradoxes that underpin our universe, and the balance that results from them.

On a typical Friday night I am Propose an edit

With my amazingly adorable girlfriend, either on Skype or in person.

The most private thing I'm willing to admit here Propose an edit

Contrary to what my profile may say elsewhere, I am actually 8 feet tall and made from pure titanium.

Really though, privacy is intimacy, and I am not one to give that away neither here nor anywhere else very easily.

You should message me if Propose an edit

If the word 'agog' makes you giggle for some reason.

If you want to talk music and/or trade mix CDs.

If people NEVER seem to understand your cards when playing Apples to Apples and instead emit a slight, awkward chuckle.

If you are in the habit of taking absurd and untenable positions merely because you enjoy attempting to defend or rationalize them.

If you are the kind of person to let your lawn grow out, and if anyone asks, you say that it's an artistic statement representing humanity's ultimate futility against the forces of nature.

If you're actually going to type me a message containing more than a sentence or two, unless it's remarkably witty in its brevity, or your sentences are the length of most paragraphs. Addendum: flattery is welcome.

Note: As I've allude to above, I am not looking for anything romantic, as I am rather content with my current relationship with gypsy_macabre, whom I met on OKC. Well, maybe not so much content as ecstatic. However, I am looking for new friends with similar interests, particularly people who might want to go to some shows in and around Atlanta. Even if you're not nearby, I always enjoy good conversation about literature, philosophy, music, politics, and linguistics, among other things.

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