2004-06-27 - 6:24 PM

I've seen way too many quizzes in my email and on friend's blogs. I know their favorite drinks, now. I know the last time they smoked a cigarette and whether or not they have a dorky little crush, and their favorite soda, and a couple hundred other answers to a couple thousand questions, but I don't think they even remotely begin to describe who they are as a person.

To that end, I'm making my own quiz. It's very simple, one question long. "Who Are You?" As many lines as it requires, however much you want to share, which details you think are significant. Nobody will be able to copy answers off their friends, there are no "N/A"'s, and nobody needs to know your favorite color, unless you think it defines you.

I'll start.

I've never put much effort into fitting in. I think through high school most people looked down on me for it. Around college they started to respect me for it. The last 3 songs that played on Winamp were Freak On A Leash, Superman (Lazlo Bane), and the theme song to Fraggle Rock. For the past 22 years I've been told that at some point I have to grow up, but I entirely disagree with them. In my head, I've been an adult since I was a kid. In my heart, I'll still be a kid when I'm 80. I love waking up next to soft people, being at the playground at night, being with people that make me feel loved, travel. In a very serious way I define myself by Travel. I love my friends, too. I consider myself one of the luckier people on this earth simply because of the people I have the honor of calling my friend.

I hate feeling alone, emotionally dead, or hopeless. I'm entirely comfortable with being plain miserable, as long as it doesn't turn into those former emotions. There isn't anyone who I would specifically say I hate, but the groups, the kinds of people that bring me close are hypocrites, manipulators, people who need me to think they're better than I am, and people who walk in front of me so they can claim I'm following them. I admire kind people over clever people, and authentic people over those who know when to behave in what manner.

I've only ever had my heart broken once, and it wasn't even by the only girlfriend I've ever had.

I'm terrified of needles, boredom, and the way my housemate's alcoholism and gun collection occasionally complement eachother so well. I don't dance, defend people who don't deserve it, or go on carnival rides that spin along more than one axis. I hate feeling nauseus, it's a thousand times worse than being in pain. I hate throwing up.

I am now, but was not a year ago, mildly allergic to cats.

I'm a geek. I'm pretty proud of it, too. I can write a prime number generating utility in some obscure programming language in less time than it takes me to program a universal remote. I love technology in all its forms, except the stuff that nobody in the design process of which ever stopped to think "Would I actually use this thing." Cellphones with keypads, the N-Gage, pretty much all all-in-ones I've seen fall into this category. I dig on learning flashy little things like zippo-lighting tricks and ways to flip a pen around your thumb. To be honest, I have sites on how to accomplish these things bookmarked. I have a PC and a laptop, the laptop being Dual-boot Windows and Linux. I'm not part of the whole "My OS is better than your OS" thing, though, I think it's because I subscribe to a "to each his own" philosophy. When I was in elementary school, I had a super nintendo, my next door neighbor a Genesis. Enter the distaste for "people who need me to think they're better than I am." What works for me, works for me. What works for you, doesn't necessarily work for me. It really doesn't have to go any farther than that.

I've quit smoking about a half dozen times now. The problem is that I genuinely love cigarettes. I find them relaxing, satisfying, and a perfect complement to about a thousand situations.

I go to a major university, utterly surrounded by gorgeous women, who are great eyecandy and everything, but I really just can't bring myself to care about. I fall very easily for girls who make it easy to be comfortable aorund them, can be affectionate without being flirtatious, who have beautiful smiles, and who wear jeans and a sweatshirt. Billy once told me, and I totally agree, there is no time when a girl looks more beautiful than when she's wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.

Fast food is a staple in my diet. I dig the Carl's Jr. Guacamole Bacon Cheesburger, and am thoroughly convinced that everything people put ketchup on would taste better if they used Ranch instead. Ranch makes pizza better. Caffeine makes me go, TV makes me stop. On a few occasions I've given a pound to my reflection in the mirror. I have no idea whether it was purely idiotic of me to share this much or not, because it's 4:00 in the morning and I should by all rights be totally unconscious by now.

I don't know when the transition occurred between who I was before I got to college and who I am now, but I can say with complete and total honesty, that I like who I am.

Your turn.

-Alex

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