This is the fifth annual edition of "100 Things About Me". It's been five years since I updated my self-reflective "facts." Some things have changed, others have dimmed in memory. This started out as a "blogger thing" now it's almost entirely ego-driven, but what else is a blog for?
There has been about an 20% update this time around, mostly because I appear to be getting a tad wiser and perhaps a bit mellower. Perhaps I should ask around to see if those observations are congruent to outside observers. Anyway, this is me, as I see me, 1948 to 2015.
There has been about an 20% update this time around, mostly because I appear to be getting a tad wiser and perhaps a bit mellower. Perhaps I should ask around to see if those observations are congruent to outside observers. Anyway, this is me, as I see me, 1948 to 2015.
1. This here blog totals more than 1,200 posts since 2007. I have disclosed more to the void of the internet ether than I have to my closest friends and they are not reticent about telling me that sternly and often.
2. For 15 months in 2009-10, I was undomiciled (not homeless) while traveling in my Cube to see family and friends around the country.
3. One year from now, I am hitting the road going undomiciled again, this time with no end date in mind. I did a three month test of this plan last fall and plan to do so again beginning later this month. Gotta give everyone another chance to deal with the in-their-face reality of my long-term presence in their space.
4. I'm going to write a book/guide about baby boomers & others living with friends, relatives, old college roommates and lovers. Working title: Undomiciled: A guide to being a great houseguest.
3. One year from now, I am hitting the road going undomiciled again, this time with no end date in mind. I did a three month test of this plan last fall and plan to do so again beginning later this month. Gotta give everyone another chance to deal with the in-their-face reality of my long-term presence in their space.
4. I'm going to write a book/guide about baby boomers & others living with friends, relatives, old college roommates and lovers. Working title: Undomiciled: A guide to being a great houseguest.
5. As of June 2016, my permanent address will be very impermanent.
6. Yes, I'm going to convert this blog to annotate my renewed on-the-road lifestyle.
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7. I grew up in a rural village in Michigan. Part of my future wandering will be in that general vicinity.
8. I am the middle child of five; I am typical of a middle child. Also an Aquarius, double Capricorn, Tarot: Emperor-Fool, Meyers-Briggs: INFP.
8. I am the middle child of five; I am typical of a middle child. Also an Aquarius, double Capricorn, Tarot: Emperor-Fool, Meyers-Briggs: INFP.
9. I have lived with four women in my life; this total does not include lesbian housemates, my mother, sister or my various roomies while on the road next year.
10. Only one relationship ever mutually got anywhere near the marriage conversation. There were several others that got that close for her but not for me or so I was later informed. For future reference -- this is not information you should withhold, who knows where it might have gone. (p.s. the one that got close just celebrated becoming a grandmother)
10. Only one relationship ever mutually got anywhere near the marriage conversation. There were several others that got that close for her but not for me or so I was later informed. For future reference -- this is not information you should withhold, who knows where it might have gone. (p.s. the one that got close just celebrated becoming a grandmother)
11. I got my undergraduate degree in political science from Kalamazoo College in 1969.
12. I received a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology in 1999 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
13. I was Jane Fonda’s bodyguard for a day (1973).
14. I once grew my hair for two years, it never reached my collar. These days I clip rather than shave, but there is much less acreage supporting hair growth now.
15. My first book was published in May of 2009, it has sold about 30,000 copies; the screenplay still languishes in Hollywood; though I have quite a good one on laptop.
16. The title of the book I am actively shopping to my agent is: Grey Angel. Several readers tell me it has a chance.
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17. I went to a Catholic grade school. The school, church, rectory, convent, playground and the big field were on the same block as our house.
18. I skipped from the 4th to the 5th grade mid-year.
19. I do not have a tattoo or any piercings and only four major scars from a broken baby bottle, a high speed clothesline, a surgeon's scalpel and a redhead's heart.
20. I don’t wear jewelry, cologne, boxers, pelts or chartreuse.
21. 97.3% of my clothes are cotton.
22. A Google search on my name will find a lot of papers presented to the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.
23. The most important feature of a car is head room; come to think of it, that may be the most important feature in life.
24. I have been told I have really great hands. I have not been told that often enough in the past decade.
25. I was mesmerized twice during an Easter weekend in Paris in 1968. No sentient beings were involved, other than me.
26. There were seventeen academic awards for boys given out my senior year in high school. I received seventeen.
27. I have written about poker, intergenerational living and meditation under several pseudonyms.
28. The first live poker tournament I ever played was raided by the Ohio State Police.
29. I worked as a media writer at the World Series of Poker for four years: ’06-’09; Most of those who worked with me agree, it's an interesting memory.
30. I once received a job evaluation while working in Silicon Valley, it read: “Not completely sure what Tim does; prefer not to ask. Overall rating: Excellent, perhaps.”
31. I ran several political campaigns in the 70’s; none of my candidates won but none of them served time in prison either.
32. I have voted in every presidential election. I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate. I have voted for one democrat and no republicans -- George McGovern 1972. Next year might be tempting.
33. Obama is not a liberal, nor is he a socialist. I disagree with all of my friends on the left and the right about him.
34. I have a lengthy rant/tirade on third party voting, which no one is required to hear more than once. I would add that several friends have come back years, even decades later and asked me to repeat my argument.
35. The last presidential speech I heard was Richard Nixon’s resignation. I enjoyed it much too much. I tried to listen to Obama on election night 2008 but years of poker make it too easy to read the facial expressions that go with political half-truths.
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36. I don’t believe in the Cartesian mind/body split.
37. I do believe in Karma and perhaps Reincarnation, this time around.
38. From the age of ten to twenty-six, I had the key to a pharmacy in my pocket. I refer to those as my “chemically formative years.”
39. My father was a naval officer, small business owner, pharmacist, village councilman and volunteer fire chief.
40. I have a not so deeply repressed attraction to redheads.
41. I have about six dozen favorite quotes. Among them: "True wisdom needs decades to ripen."
42. I think that The Simpsons remains “a brilliant commentary on American culture” and so is the woman who first said that to me.
43. When anyone says their family is dysfunctional, I ask if they have ever seen The Osbournes; available on DVD.
44. I do believe we are living in the true golden age of television. There are shows running today I would have enjoyed immensely in the 80s or 90s, now they don't even make it to the DVR. A feast from the boob tube.
45. A country needs jesters; we have had John Stewart and Steven Colbert. I await replacements.
46. I have many qualities that resemble a hibernating bear.
47. There is a sign on my front door that reads: “Arouse only as necessary. At your own risk or pleasure.”
48. I have had several “families” over the years; the one in L.A. will always be the most memorable, we lost our center and drifted apart in 1990.
49. I have never been arrested. I have put up bail several times, but not recently. Well done friends.
50. I have only three addictions: chocolate, oxygen and that other one.
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51. Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie but not the director’s cut. I have a blog post: Movies of My Life that may interest movie buffs.
52. Catch-22 was once my favorite book. These days my favorite changes often.
53. Annie Lennox is my favorite female singer (still), though I really like Pink's voice.
54. I adore cats of all sizes and I am fond of manatees.
55. In the last eight years I have discovered the answer to several of life’s questions. However, I have also realized that an equal number of previously 'revealed’ answers, no longer seem to be valid.
56. Three of the most remarkable women I have ever met all live in Texas.
57. The other three I met in San Francisco. I am open to expanding this list.
58. I have lived in Michigan, Massachusetts, Germany, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, San Francisco, Las Vegas and now Berkeley. Over the next year or five I will be adding Florida, Texas and perhaps a few more yet-to-be-explored venues.
59. Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley has been a real re-learning experience over the last five years.
60. A lot of my daily life decisions are made based on the current operational condition of my lower back. This reality sucks and at times dominates my life. The sacrum is clearly an evolutionary design flaw and proof that there is no such thing as intelligent design when it comes to humanoids.
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61. (2010) I have many more conservative friends than I used to, but most of them tend to not know about my previous incarnations. (2015) My facebook comments seem to be costing me more and more of my former friends. Facts can do that, particularly when they run smack into someone's beliefs.
62. I have become convinced by scientific research that conservative & liberal brains are genetically wired differently and never the twain shall meet.
63. The best vacation of my life was in Bali. The second was Key West. The third is still out there.
64. I would like to see New Zealand and much more of Canada; plus there are parts of the U.S. I want to visit again, a few are on my list for next year.
65. Favorite Band: I am rethinking this one, again.
66. Favorite Music: Nessun Dorma from Turandot. Hey, I like Impressionist painting too.
67. Tiger, Clarence, Sam, Gisele, Geniver, Samson,Truman, Wally, Armistead, Honey, Rascal, Smokey, Midnight, Kerry, Shane, Mama, Grendel.
68. I discovered I was buddhist in Singapore. I seem to have misplaced that discovery.
69. I am not going to be here next year.
70. “Here” is not an easy term to define, particularly in the context I use it here.
71. I hope #'s 69 & 70 cause less consternation than they did five years ago.
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70. “Here” is not an easy term to define, particularly in the context I use it here.
71. I hope #'s 69 & 70 cause less consternation than they did five years ago.
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72. The most important part of a movie is the dialogue.
73. After the writing comes the music, except Koyaanisqatsi.
74. I am fascinated by images from the Hubble Space Telescope eagerly await it's replacement. Come on NASA, we need more depth, clarity and alien artifacts.
75. “Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all” is empirically, if painfully, true.
77. I don't play any musical instruments and can't carry a tune. Prose is my vehicle.
78. I gave up chocolate for a time, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the winter of much discontent.
79. Omnivore with predilections for turkey, avocado, asparagus, barbeque, crusty loaves and pineapple based smoothies.
80. I have never participated in sports where your legs randomly go in opposite directions.
81. I was employed for several years as a benevolent demi-god in a virtual reality world. It was typecasting. I never smote anyone.
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82. I believe that U.S. America post-1492 can genetically be a country of origin. I have officially declared myself an albus americanus.
83. As my friends approach retirement, I offer each of them this advice: "Fix up your guest room and no twin beds please." This advice takes on much more significance next year.
84. Is my favorite number but not my lucky number.
85. Grey is my favorite color; followed closely by gray.
86. I lived in Hell for several years in the 70s.
87. Until I was 35 everyone thought I was older than I was.
88. After I was 35 everyone thinks I am younger than I am, even now.
89. I lived in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach but I never, ever lay on a sunny beach.
90. 1984 was the first book I ever stayed up all night to read.
91. About the only pastime that keeps me from writing is reading.
92. My favorite job is the one I have now; teaching is a close second and working with my dad in the pharmacy made both of those possible.
93. I lived with a woman named Faith. I got hit by a car driven by Hope. Was asked to have coffee by a hooker named Charity, she really did want to have coffee (some years later she asked me to be her daughter's godfather.)
94. I will eat a hot dog, sausage or link no matter how many snouts and lips are in it. Prefer the links be barbeque, the sausage in an omelette and only the occasional weenie.
95. I travel with the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.
96. I once camped for a weekend with seven gay men, six lesbians, and four newborn kittens. I had a distinct preference for one of those groups.
97. I met the perfect woman in Kalamazoo in 1965, in Ann Arbor in 1971, in Hermosa Beach in 1976, in San Francisco in 1992, in Indiana in 2006, next in 20## . . .
98. I have two lingering regrets in my life. Both involve relationships I screwed up. One when I was too young, the other I couldn't break through the shimmering walls of her past.
99. I have one prejudice; I abhor voluntary stupidity.
100. I will listen to almost any thoughtful position, unless it violates the limits referenced in #99, lot of that violating goes on in politics these days.
One Hundred Things About Me [2010 edition]
One Hundred Things About Me [first version 2007]
One Hundred Things About Me [2010 edition]
One Hundred Things About Me [first version 2007]
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1 comment:
"I'm going to convert this blog to annotate my renewed on-the-road lifestyle." - Tell me more! :)
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