Facebook had a “25 Random Things About Me” thing going around a while back (~2009). Here’s what I posted:
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1. I’m a pretty unflappable optimist, but also a pretty entrenched cynic. The two have grown comfortable with one another.

2. For several years, I “raised” peacocks. (Really, they just kind of lived their lives, while I oversaw, but I was their primary care provider, and nominally responsible for them.) There were somewhere around 30 that came and went over the years (spawned from an original 3). It was a lot of work. A LOT of work. Mostly because there was another peacock colony about two miles away, and the screams from that colony drew first one, and eventually all, of the peacocks, to stray across the neighborhood to an almost relentless degree. As a result, I was well-known in the neighborhood for my peacock herding skills (and for being crazy, probably).

3. On the positive side, I got to experience 3 or 4 years of watching mom peacocks raise their little batches of chicks basically in the wild, and that gave me a level of insight into animals and nature that I almost couldn’t have gotten any other way. I’ve mostly internalized the impact that had on me, so it’s hard to enunciate, but it was significant. I’ll never underestimate bird sounds again.

4. I also like that I am on a (presumably) relatively short list of people in the world who have fed Goldfish crackers to peacocks out of his mouth. (Well, if there’s actually a list like that, I’m not sure I’d like that. But I like having experienced something that few have.)

5. I really love life. I’ve had some seriously rough times, especially in the past several years, but it hasn’t impacted how much I love life. Actually, it’s possible that it has made me love it even more. I kind of love it more every day anyway. Life is just so fascinating and full of possibility; I really celebrate it all – the good and the bad. No matter what kind of day I’m having, I can always find joy just in the fact that I am part of life. So cool.

6. My immediate family consists of 2 dogs and 3 cats, who I love to an extraordinary degree. I didn’t really intend to get any of them–they’ve all entered my life in unexpected ways–but I don’t care to imagine who I would have become without their influence in my life.

7. Without any real intent or training, I guess I have become sort of Buddhist, or Zen, in my thinking. One good side effect is that I don’t get upset very easily, and when I do, I’m able to distance myself from it when I need to. One less-good side effect is that I don’t get “excited” per se as much as I used to.

8. I’m able to get enthusiastic about anything, however big or small, if I choose. It’s not uncommon for me to spontaneously sing a crazy improvised song about some mundane thing, like looking for the dog collars or draining the sink or tying my shoes.

9. As a consequence, if you go out in public with me when I’m in the right mood, you may end up being embarrassed, if that’s your wont.

10. I like to drive my shopping cart like a sports car, and I usually do just that. I take turns on two wheels, I fishtail wildly and unnecessarily whenever possible, I screech to halts, I pop wheelies. I like throwing things into (or near) my cart from too far away. I probably shave a month off of the soles of my sneakers just from foot-braking while riding carts in parking lots, which I still do almost every time. (Yes, I am 36. What of it? ;-))

11. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever be part of an organized religion, unless I decide to found one. ;-) However, I’ve come a long long way in finding common ground with folks who believe in God. I’ve come to believe in something that I think might be what others call “God”, and when I hear about God now, I feel less alienated or left out (as well as less judgmental) than I did in the past. But I still bristle at the term “God” and I probably always will.

12. I love communication. Whenever I go to write or say anything I’ve had a chance to plan in advance, I marvel at the fact that we have this unbelievably wide range of things we can choose to spew out of ourselves. And what you say or don’t say, or write or don’t write, or create or don’t create, and the way you say or write or create it, could change someone’s life (including your own), or a hundred lives, or everyone’s lives. (Just think – I could have put 25 totally different things here, and made a totally different impression. I could have not said that previous sentence, and you might never have considered what it would have been like if I put 25 totally different things here.)

13. I wish more people voiced their unique selves unto the world. I wish more people pursued their wildest dreams in the face of adversity, and took big risks in search of big rewards. I wish more people would stand up for themselves, and for others.

14. I am extremely opposed to censorship in all forms.

15. For example: When I heard a few years back that a student in Wisconsin had been suspended from school for creating a rap CD that was “threatening” to the principal, I found and contacted the kid and his family to offer my help. (I know a little bit about fighting school administrations.) The parents and their wuss lawyer decided not to fight, and so (with the student’s approval) I launched an online protest called “30 Days of Raps About Principal Mark Cerutti” (where I wrote a rap/poem each day for 30 days) – which remains the top Google result for his name 5+ years later.

16. I am very critical of myself. Not down on myself so much, just always looking for ways to improve.

17. I wish others were more openly critical of me. Not necessarily publicly, but I’d rather hear it than not hear it (whatever it is–always).

18. I edit myself retrospectively a lot more than I used to. I used to just blast shit out however I pleased, and head on down the road oblivious to the ramifications. I’m a lot more blivious now.

19. As a consequence, I probably apologize a lot more now than I used to. :-)

20. One time I drank so much booze that I blacked out for a couple hours that night, all the way through a night of sleep, and into the next morning. I regained awareness while standing out by a campfire around dawn, having already been awake for some time. I don’t necessarily recommend that.

21. I have an interest in almost all creative arts, and I think I could probably do something interesting and possibly worthwhile in most any art form I worked at. So far, various forms of writing are the only ones I would claim any mastery of, but music, film, comics (and comedy), acting, painting/drawing, and even sculpting and woodwork all have my attention to some extent, and most are on my current or future to-do lists.

22. I’ve carried around a digital voice recorder most of the time since about 2002, and I have an immense collection of recorded ideas, stories, jokes, speeches, rants, poems, songs, and tons of other byproducts of my mind.

23. I walk or run about two hours a day on average; most of the above-mentioned recordings were made during those walks.

24. I like my poetry, and I think it provides an interesting quasi-view into who I’ve been over the past 20 years or so. I don’t know if any of it qualifies by real poetry standards, and I’ve pretty much stopped wondering. I don’t seem to be writing much poetry any more, which is OK. I got plenty out of me.

25. I live in a one-room cabin, which would have been hard for me to imagine a few years ago.

26. I encourage people to break rules that don’t make sense.

27. That includes laws. It’s more important to do what’s right, and/or what’s right by you, than to do what someone else has decided you should do.

28. I think other-ism is the biggest problem the world faces today. Please get over it everybody. (Pretty please?)

29. I think TV has gotten a bad rap. I actually have played a part in giving it said rap, but in the final analysis, I think there is a tremendous amount of value in television programming, both past and present. If you disagree, you may not be watching it, or you may still be watching commercials. Not my fault. There are few if any movie (or even literary) franchises that can stand up against some of the great TV shows.

30. Bands and musicians have played a big role in influencing my outlook on life. The four that have had the biggest influence are probably Timbuk 3, The Bobs, 311, and Mojo Nixon. If I had to recommend one band to anyone, it would be The Bobs.

31. I still think there’s a chance I could become president one day.

32. Sometimes I wonder how much people from my past resent me for not-great things I have done (or am believed to have done).

33. I’ve owned 9 and 1/2 cars and/or trucks, which cost a total of just under $3500.

34. If I had enough money to do whatever I wanted, the first thing I would do is buy my mom a house and new car. The second would be to launch the Free School on the Internet, which still reigns after 12 years as my best idea ever.

35. The fact that I was asked for 25 things and instead provided like 100 things posing as 35 things says as much about how I operate as anything else probably could.