About Me

10 Personal Likes

10. Long walks. I love to take long walks in the forest preserve or the riverwalk (a very nice park by where I live) or any place at all really as long as it's nice outside. Something about getting outdoors makes me feel good physically and mentally. Its like a recharge. I wish I lived in a warmer climate because I love to get outside more but in Chicago land, forget going anywhere mid October to mid March. I am by no means a winter person or like anything to do with snow. Eventually I would like to move to Florida or South Carolina where is warm year round.

9. Loud music. I mean I'm not trying to make myself deaf by any means. I just like to hear music at a loud level. I am a firm believer that music has to be about a step below concert level to really be experienced. I don't want to loose my hearing before I'm 30 so I do keep extremely loud music to a minimum but loud music is my friend. I really get into my music and sometimes to get into it needs to be cranked.

8. Jazz and Blues. I love all kinds of music, from Jazz to Rock to Country to even Rap.. But something about Jazz and Blues or anything with soul has a special place in my heart and ears. I love Blues songs where you feel like the guy is singing about your life and you can just jam to it saying to yourself, "I know what you mean man". Nothing like jamming The Sky Is Crying by Stevie Ray Vaughn after a breakup... Nothing like driving downtown Chicago at 2am with some Fusion Jazz just pumping out of my speakers with no particular place to go.

7. Long drives. There is something liberating and refreshing about long drives. Somehow it revives my vitality, I do not understand it fully. I just know it works for me. For example, the night that I am writing this before I sat down to write this, a friend and I drove around for 130 miles. I ended up in some truck stop in the middle of nowhere and had the best chicken friend chicken (yes that is what it was called) I have ever had. Driving back on the highway at a rapid rate was also quite enjoyable. If I had a really fast car I would be dangerous.

6. Driving Fast. In line with the last item, I love to drive fast. As Maverick and Goose said in Top Gun, "I feel the need, the need for speed.". Its very ironic because I'm generally a very laid back kind of guy. It takes a lot to tick me off and I am rarely in a hurry. Yet put me behind the wheel and even if I'm going nowhere I have to get there fast. Maybe it is something to do with cars and testosterone. But that does not add up either because I know plenty of women who like speed too. Except for residential zones, I think that the speed limit is about 10-30mph too slow. I mean when you get on rural interstate anything slower then 80 is ridiculous.

5. Electronics and Computers. I will admit that at heart I am a complete geek. I mean I don't look like the guy from Revenge Of The Nerds or anything. But I can sit for hours and talk about stereos, electronics, computers and anything else technical. Not that I can not have a decent conversation about people, life, dreams, aspirations, politics, or whatnot. It's just that I love to talk geek talk. Making IRQ conflict jokes and such is a riot to me. Its only fair, I listen to the conversations of your typical high school student these days and I'm just as baffled listening to them talking about life in general as they are listening to me about geeky stuff. I've stop asking myself the question "What are they thinking?" about a lot of people and have just come to the conclusion that they are not thinking at all.

4. Walking a different road. Some people strive to fit in. I strive to be different. Its funny how people think that being different these days means piercing your nose three times and dying your hair purple. I mean if half they people they are hanging out with are doing it, what makes it different? Sure doing all that makes one different from what is "typically acceptable" but it doesn't make anybody an individual. My belief in being different comes from another perspective. Being different to me means searching deep within myself for who I really am and striving to show that and live that on a daily basis and not be who I think people want me to be, or think I should be. I don't think you need to have neon hair and 10+ piercing to be different.

3. Sleeping Late. Oh how I love to sleep late. I love to go to sleep when the sun comes up and wake up when its at its zenith. Seriously though, About 4AM to Noon sleeping schedule would be just dandy with me. I feel much more rested waking up at Noon after 8 hours of sleep then I do at 10 in the morning if I went to bed at 2. Just the way I am. Hopefully some day I will never need an alarm clock, hopefully before I am dead.

2. Helping others. I like to help others with whatever they need. I mean I have my limits where I just feel like pulling my hair out and screaming, "LEAVE ME ALONE". But those times are rare. Most of the time I like showing people how to do new things or helping them with their problems. I give great advice, or so I've been told.. Only catch is learning how to take my own advice. In the words of Homer Simpson, "DOH!"

1. Love. Love in all of its forms is the essential food on which humans live. Give me millions of dollars, a diamond ring, and a mansion and without love it is useless and empty. Even the materialistic want love. They just believe that the material things will bring them what they believe is love. Which brings me to the point that Love is also subjective. There is true love and what people think love is. True love is easy, its undemanding, forgiving, and simple. There are no rules to love, no restrictions, no boundaries at all. True love makes one feel safe, cared for, forgiven, accepted and wanted. Abusing ones love for you is one of the greatest sins of all in my opinion. Sure there are misunderstandings, confusion and pain when it comes to love, but when one uses love for their own gain there is nothing redeeming in that at all. So take away my other nine and give me love and I will be much happier in the long run.