[Content: poker 8%, me 100%]As some but not all of my readers know, bloggers often "out" themselves with a list: "100 Things About Me". I recommend this exercise to everyone, even if you only share the results with your cat. This is actually my updated 100 things about me, revisited from just over a year ago. Further tweaking is in progress.
1. I do not have a tattoo or any piercings.
2. I was All-League in football in high school, so were all three of my brothers.
3. I was born in Detroit but only lived there a year and a half.
4. I grew up in a rural village of 1200 in Michigan near Ann Arbor (Dexter for those who care).
5. I have lived with four women in my life; this total does not include lesbians, my mother or my sister.
6. Only one relationship ever got anywhere near the conversation that begins: “4½ yellow gold with….”
7. I got my undergraduate degree in political science from Kalamazoo College in 1969.
8. I received a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology in 1999 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
9. I have been quoted in Business Week.
10. I will be a published co-author before this time next year.
11. I was Jane Fonda’s bodyguard for a day.
12. I once grew my hair for two years, it never reached my collar.
13. My beard used to be dark red, now it would be dark red and white-grey.
14. The title of my novel in process is: “All My Friends are Nearly Normal.”
15. That has been the title for over twelve years.
16. I went to a Catholic grade school. The school, church, rectory and convent were all on the same block as our house.
17. I skipped from the 4th to the 5th grade in the middle of the year.
18. I rang the “Angelus Bells” at the church three times a day for five years, got paid $20 a month.
19. I don’t wear jewelry, cologne or chartreuse.
20. I volunteer at the SPCA shelter in the cat wing.
21. 99.4% of my clothes are cotton.
22. A google search for me will find a lot of papers presented to the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.
23. My academic friends think that same google search finds a lot of strange poker references.
24. The most important feature of a car is head room.
25. I taught real estate in LA in the late 70’s.
26. I once sat next to a perfect Madonna wannabe at a dance performance, this was during the underwear-on–the-outside phase; she had the costume down perfect. Later, I noticed the guy she was with was Sean Penn.
27. There were seventeen academic awards for boys given out my senior year in high school. I won them all.
28. I write under several pseudonyms.
29. I won $4800 in my first ever major poker tournament. That remains my second biggest win ever.
30. The first hand I was ever dealt in a live poker tournament was pocket Aces, the game was later busted by the Ohio State Police.
31. When working for a major Japanese corporation the president of the division laid off 25% of the employees one morning, called everyone else into a meeting and gave a 90 minute lecture on our new austerity plan. When he finished he said: “I will take questions now.” Then he looked at me and said: “If you ask a question, you’re fired.”
32. I once received a job evaluation that read: “I have no idea what Tim does; we prefer not to ask. Overall rating: Excellent, perhaps.”
33. I have run several political campaigns in the 70's, none of my candidates won but none of them ever served time in prison either.
34. I have voted in every presidential election I was eligible for. I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate and I won't in 2008.
35. I have only voted for one democrat and no republicans for president; McGovern of course.
36. In the 1972 election, I voted for ten different parties.
37. I have a lengthy rant/tirade on third party voting, which no one is required to hear more than once; on all future renditions you may leave the room or shout me down.
38. The last presidential speech I heard was Richard Nixon’s resignation. I enjoyed it way too much.
39. I don’t believe in the Cartesian mind/body split.
40. I got my first passport to study in Germany in 1968.
41. I used my second passport to go to Antarctica in 1980.
42. Third passport took me to Singapore & Bali in 1997.
43. I was using my fourth passport in Australia in January 2007, when I wrote the first draft of this list.
44. The have an deeply repressed attraction to redheads.
45. I have about six dozen favorite quotes. Among them: "An ass is but an ass, even though laden with gold."
46. I think that The Simpsons is a brilliant commentary on American culture.
47. When anyone says their family is dysfunctional, I ask if they have ever seen The Osbournes.
48. I have many qualities that resemble a hibernating bear.
49. I love my friends more than my family, except for one wonderful brother.
50. I have never been arrested. Once a young, eager officer considered it (1971 anti-war demonstration) until his more seasoned partner said: “…that guy outweighs you by fifty pounds and I'm not helping you if he resists.”
51. I have only three addictions: chocolate, oxygen and that other one.
52. Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie but not the director’s cut.
53. Catch-22 was once my favorite book.
54. Annie Lennox is my favorite female singer.
55. I really love cats and I am fond of manatees.
56. Microsoft Word is sheer brilliance; its creator is a chauvanistic ass.
57. Three of the most remarkable women I have ever met, all live in Texas.
58. The other three I met in San Francisco.
59. I have lived in Michigan, Massachusetts, Germany, LA, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
60. I am the middle child of five; I am typical of a middle child.
61. I am an Aquarius, double Capricorn.
62. I read Tarot.
63. I have some limited shamanic abilities.
64. The best vacation of my life was in Bali.
65. The second best was Key West.
66. Favorite Band: Genesis before Peter Gabriel left.
67. Favorite Music: Nessa Dorma from Turandot.
68. Susan Sarandon, Steve Buschemi, Val Kilmer, William Hurt
69. I discovered I was buddhist in Singapore.
70. I write about poker better than I play poker.
71. The most important part of a movie is the dialogue.
72. After the writing comes the music, except Koyaanisquatsi.
73. I am fascinated by images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
74. I prefer Charlie Rose to Bill Moyers, most of the time.
75. “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all” is empirically true.
76. I do not watch nor follow team sports.
77. I do watch the Super Bowl commercials.
78. I eat the M&Ms by color, dark to light.
79. I can’t skate or ski.
80. I don’t believe in sports where your legs often go in opposite directions.
81. I was employed for several years as a demi-god in several virtual reality worlds. It was type-casting.
82. No matter what some relatives say, I am paternally Italian.
83. My mother’s maiden name was Gillespie, which has got to make me part Irish.
84. Is my favorite number but not my lucky number.
85. Grey is my favorite color.
86. I have made love in hell.
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
89. I lived in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach but I never, ever lay on the beach.
90. 1984 was the first book I ever stayed up all night to read.
91. I owned a mortgage company in Manhattan Beach, CA.
92. I lived with a woman named Faith.
93. I got hit by a car driven by a woman named Hope.
94. I was asked to have coffee with a hooker named Charity and she really did want to have coffee.
95. I do not eat fast food of any kind.
96. I will eat a hot dog, no matter how many snouts and lips are in it.
97. I will eat chocolate anything and will do most anything to acquire it.
98. I once camped for a weekend with 7 gay men, 6 lesbians, and 4 newborn kittens.
99. I have only one prejudice; I abhor voluntary stupidity.
100. I will listen to almost any thoughtful position, unless it violates the limits referenced in ninety-nine.
