RE: Twenty April SoursApr 30 '03 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Hello me... Meet the real me/And my misfits way of life/ A dark black past is my/Most valued possessions... 20 or so things for corpgents massive w/o: 1. I was born several years ago in the Year of the Monkey. When I was a little boy I ate in one of two quaint Chinese restaurants almost every day and was reminded of that fact upon each visit thanks to those nifty paper placemats. 2. I don't know if this continual reminder was a direct influence or not but ever since I can remember I've always had a fondness for monkeys and the great apes. For me it's never been a matter of being cool or hip to like the monkey; like I said, it's just something I can remember from my earliest days. I can recall being sad for the apes behind the bars during my first visit to the local zoo. My Barrel of Monkeys game and Mattel Big Jim gorilla were treasures. I admired Curious George for his mischievous spirit and begged my father to often retell the story of Gargantua the Great. Nowadays it's trendy to love the monkey. Ah well. 3. I grew up in the 70s and I wish I remembered more of it than I do. Many of the things I do remember seem so insignificant now. I watched Nixon on television and didn't understand what all the hubbub was about. Later Mrs. Shields pulled us out of class to another room so we could all watch the man with big teeth from Georgia being inaugurated. I remember my mother crying as we sat in a small office to the rear of Zayre department store after I was caught shoplifting. It was 5 years to the day of my grandfather's death, the day after Christmas. Nervously wiping her tears away, my mother informed me of this over and over. 4. My mother is the coolest person I've ever known. (to read the subsection of things I originally wrote for this (my mom, Hawaii, etc.) click here and paste in this: http://www.sleestakk.com/20-supplement.htm - a new window will open so you won't lose your place. ^_^) 5. I had lots of pets as a kid. Here I define "lots" as in the dozens and dozens. All at the same time. Mice, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, lizards, snakes, doves, finch, cockatiels, quail, ducks, a rooster, squirrels, chinchillas, ferrets, a pig and we had a goat for a short time. Many had Hawaiian names like my German shepherd, "Nani Wahini." I didn't live on a farm or in the country but I had my own zoo. Add a couple hundred plants to the mix and it was like living in a huge vivarium. Oh, we had fish too but I don't count them, as they were far too numerous. 6. I was a dick to animals during much of my youth largely due to my ignorance and "only-child syndrome" sadism. That is one of the few regrets I have about my childhood and my conscience has weighed heavily in the years since. I'm not sure if it's because I went through that or not but over the last decade or so I've developed great compassion for animals. Not in a hardcore PETA kind of way but rather a more enlightened type of understanding in which I won't go into detail. (if you missed the previous subsection, there's another one at this point. Click here and paste in this: http://www.sleestakk.com/20-supplement.htm - a new window will open so you won't lose your place. ^_^) 7. Strangely enough, that year ('81-82) was my most successful year for my short-lived scholastic sports career. I started on the A-squad football team playing tight end and corner; we went undefeated that year. I won a number of medals in track & field. By the following year, I was concentrating less on sports and more on girls. I fell to backup positions in everything and bailed out of what would be my last track event ever. From that moment on, I was never a participant in school sports again. And I don't count those occasional intramural collegiate activities. 8. That said, I love sports and can watch any sport so long as I understand it. Not long ago I could name every professional team in the four majors (NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB) including the division they belong to and several players on every team. Usually I also knew the current standings of every team as well. It helped that I worked for a trading card distributor at the time. Now so much in pro sports has changed and I don't care nearly as much. 9. The only sporting activity I partake in now is backcountry backpacking, which I still don't do nearly as often as I'd like. I realize it's not a sport per se but it can be rigorous as hell depending on the conditions. Besides being physically challenging backpacking is beautiful and spiritual. I spent the week after 9/11 traversing around the Three Sisters mountain range in Oregon. It provided exactly what my soul needed and the isolation from humankind was powerful as well as necessary at the time. Knowing the names of the Three Sisters made even more poignant. 10. I have what my stepmother refers to as a "chop suey family." Besides my blood-related younger brother, I have an All-American older stepsister and stepbrother. I also have two half-Korean/half-American half-sisters, one a year younger and the other a few years older. With mine and my brother's Filipino blood (from my mother's side) we sorta have the quasi-Asian thing going. I guess that's how my stepmom derived the silly "chop suey" thing. 11. Between 1992 and 2000, I moved to a new residency 11 times living in IL, WI, NY, and OH. I did spend the two summers prior to '92 living in Corvallis, OR and Clarksburg, WV, respectively; selling books door to door but I don't count those as a "permanent" residence. Then again, none of my stays have been remotely permanent. 12. I have visited every state in the Union except two. Coincidentally, the two states I have not trekked both begin and end with the same letter. I reckon I'll get to them sometime. They don't appear to be going anywhere. By contrast, I've never traveled abroad despite many (failed) attempts. Not counting Canada, of course, in which I spent the greater part of 1994-95 working. 13. I am a collector of things. I inherited the genes of two über-collectors so I guess that makes me an ultra-über-collector. My mom collected things like paperback books, newspaper cartoons, plants, and matchbooks. My father collected Time Life volumes, silver dollars, Dinky cars, clowns, and circus memorabilia. Those are only but a few of the many different things they acquired rather readily. Me, when I was a boy I collected dinosaur books, sci-fi toys, and KISS magazines (before I had even heard one song by them). Into my teens I collected promo posters, comics, horror mags, Mars Bar wrappers, and empty, flattened cigarette packs. Into adulthood, I've collected more toys, _metal_ lunchboxes, bottle caps, Thai menus, stickers, stamps from items I've rec'd from around the world and many other stupid useless things. I've only recently come to realize that my predilection for acquiring things and keeping them is a sickness. 14. I have 8 tattoos. My first was a girlfriend's initials. When we broke up I told everyone the letters stood for "Hard Love." Whatever. Later it was covered with a tribal. The other ink bits are just symbolic of places I've visited. None are very large and all 'cept that tribal coverup (inside ankle) are on my right calf creating a collage of sorts. Eventually I'll sleeve it but I'm in no rush. 15. I bear the bad habit of not finishing things. From video games to dozens of books on my shelves to the stack of videos I've watched halfway through to the partial songs I've learned to play on guitar. I've been great at starting something but not so good keeping up with it. I don't know from where this stems but it bugs me to no end yet it persists. 16. I suffer from an annoying sleeping disorder that I still have not gotten professional help for despite the clamoring of my friends, family and co-workers. I will go days without sleeping (thankfully I did manage a couple of hours two nights ago). I think this started during my first job out of college when I traveled a lot spending night after night in hotels. I dreaded getting up the next day so I stayed up all night. Now, despite how tired/exhausted I might be, I still do not sleep. I've tried all the "natural" remedies and have refused prescription meds. Daily life is like meandering through a haze. 17. Haze or no, I still maintain a good memory. I always performed well in school because of it. In college I never studied but helped others study. That was enough for me. My friends scratched their heads in disbelief when I walked away with top marks and they did not. I later learned that memorization and application were totally separate and therefore my retention has been the pits. 18. I enjoy music. A lot. Recently this has become more a hindrance than beneficial. Because I enjoy so many styles, genres, and subgenres, I no longer have the time to sink into any one of them and become familiar with it. It doesn't help that I possess a lot of music (1300+ CDs and 5000+ albums in mp3 format). It was easier in high school when I adhered to only a select style or so and spent the time to learn the lyrics and grasp the nuances of the actual music. If I listen to an album once these days I consider that an accomplishment. 19. Yes, I once had a male iguana named Sleestakk. My brother originally rescued him but gave him to me when he left for college. Slee was under my care for 5.5 years until circumstances forced me give him up last summer. I drove Sleestakk in the back seat of my car from Chicago to ABQ, New Mexico stopping only once to pick up a guitar in Oklahoma City. My brother and I erected a huge habitat in his backyard and this is where Slee continues to live as of now. I miss him more than one might imagine, esp. for such an indifferent creature with a lousy disposition, but I hope to get him back someday. I've visited him once since and have another trip planned in a couple of months. 20. My brother is my very best friend. And there you have it. If you made it this far (and sucked in the supplement material) you're to be commended (I know, I'm wordy as all hell). Now you know almost as many useless things about me as I do. Check out everyone who joined the fray instigated by corpgent. This was a novel idea indeed. Damn, I still gots lots of reading ahead. Cheers!  |
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