Yet Another 101 Things About Moi

Since I have completely lost my original train of thought, I decided to pull one of the oldie but goody blog tricks and use a "standard" idea to fill out the thoughts for the day. Being that it is also MeMe Monday, here are 101 Me Things. I guess the trick is not to duplicate from the previous list, eh?...

And having reread some of these list items... damn, I'm getting deep. You have been warned.

1. I can neither confirm nor deny that I have inhaled...
2. but I've been to a number of Dead Shows...
3. and several Phish shows...
4. and Bonnaroo...
5. where I slugged through a mile of ankle to knee deep mud to go see the Dead close the second night in 2004...
6. and loved every minute of it
   
7. I grew up in Hawaii, yet only had 1 chance to ever go surfing...
8. My father was a bit protective
9. And demanding
10. Every day I find myself saying more and more things that I have either heard or can imagine coming straight out of his mouth
11. Some of my best friends are black
12. I love it/hate it when people say things like #11 cause it is such the backhanded compliment... makes me laugh
13. I believe in political correctness
14. That is to say, I believe political correctness exists... I also believe that it should be eliminated completely so that we can finally "all just learn to get along"
15. I'm a smart-ass almost all the time
16. I think it might be at least partly genetic
17. Those who once believed I am a Cancer rising have since accepted my belief that I am really a Leo rising, given my crowd-ho tendencies and the love of being loved upon... then again, who WOULDN'T love that?
18. I still wonder at the truly dark thoughts in my soul... and I mean, they are DARK!
    
19. I used to write almost daily in a journal, the events and thoughts of my life
20. It was a very private thing
21. I haven't really written in one in almost 3 months
22. I am not sure why... it happens sometimes... I just get in a go-with-the-flow phase and just let the day-to-day ride on by...
23. It's usually when the stress I getting to me and I just tire of having to write it and think about it all the time
24. Or sometimes, I just get tired of writing it all down
25. or it could be some other reason I am keeping private, like my journal, you nosy fargin' bastages!
    
26. It's fascinating looking back on those journals... I've come across many a passage that immediately paints the scene in my mind, crystal clear... yet I would never have remembered it otherwise...
27. and other scenes, I can't recall at all... even though I am reading all about it
28. The privacy of my darkest thoughts, and thus my journal, is HIGHLY important to me... I cannot stress that enough
    
29. I am terrible at placing names to faces
30. I am pretty good at remembering the faces, though...
31. I bought a purple zippo lighter on the way to Parris Island... it is very cool
32. Well, it's cool to me, at least. You non-smokers... dammit, I envy you sometimes
33. I am rereading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series yet again... I am on Book 6 for the 4th or 5th time now... why? Well, first, it takes a long time for the next book in the series to come out. Second, this series has a multitude of plot lines and more names to keep track of than War and Peace. Put that together and I forget a ton of details between books... and book 11, as in TEN plus ONE, just came out last November... and I really want to read it... and I've forgotten everything...
34. Anyway, I'm on Book 6 again and every rereading is like a fresh one.
35. I reread books often. It's a new me every time, so every reading is different and fresh... when it's a good book, at least.
36. I wrote a song called "One More Day"
37. It's subtitled "Bitch"
38. I'm willing to answer questions on it, if you want to ask.... it's a funny song, when you get past the basic concept and shock of the word, Bitch.
    
39. Contrary to SOME opinions, it was NOT written with any single person in mind... it is simply an amalgamation of some of the worst bits and pieces...
40. I'm a self-admitted crowd-ho
41. I love being a ham on the stage... this is basically a repeat of 39
42. I no longer enjoy just getting drunk...
43. I used to do it all the time in college...
44. but I got over it... now I like to attain and maintain a nice buzz
45. I don't understand why people go and get trashed when they are upset... it only makes things worse.... I mean, there's a reason alcohol is classified as a DEPRESSANT. Damn.
46. I miss my motorcycle
47. I am so busy (and slack at times, too) that I STILL haven't gotten it back on the road
48. I sometimes wonder if I am the only person in the world who CANNOT read minds - this would explain A LOT.
49. I am a flirt... a terrible, terrible flirt.
50. I don't believe that is inconsistent with being faithful. Not at all.
51. I sometimes think that I think too much for my own good...
52. yet sometimes I act without thinking enough...
53. My favorite colors are blue and purple... and red, really. Red looks good on me, so they say...
54. I am told that aquamarine or similar blue colors are the best for me to wear, particularly in the summertime when I am tan...
55. which I do easily.
56. I lost my virginity some time ago... I think it just fell out of a hole in my pocket or something
57. I lost my innocence when I moved from Hawaii to Virginia...
58. I was the butt of many a racist joke and relentless hounding by rednecks when we moved to this state, at the tender age of 12
59. I believe that was one of the defining moments for me... it certainly led to many of my actions and beliefs...
60. My closest sibling, my older sister, died on April Fool's Day... I was 19, on the verge of 20.
61. She was in an unfortunate, unscheduled meeting between an Amtrak train and her car on a cold mid-December night 3 and a half months prior...
    
62. the crossbar that should have prevented anyone from driving across the tracks only went across 1 1/4 of the 2 northbound lanes... she was ever the on-the-go kind of girl
63. I still miss her to this day
64. I often wonder how things would be now, after all these years, if she were still around... how would my life be different? Would she have helped me to NOT go out with some of the "bad girls"? Would I have stayed with any of the "good girls"? Hell, she might have been singing with my band - she had a good voice...
65. My oldest brother is the only one of us 4 siblings who does not have a "clearly good" voice - it is definitely good enough for rock and he does keep in tune... he is not musically and tonally challenged... it's just not church or choir clean like my other (older) brother's and mine. It's definitely more Bob Dylan/Tom Petty vs my brother's Josh Groban pretty or my Paul Simon "folksy" voice... And my sister could do the 80's Pat Benatar thing, for real.
66. I won first prize in the 5th grade science fair with my best friend, Deven, for our experiment on cockroaches.
67. We captured them from a tree and put different drinks in front of them - KoolAid, Coke, Pepsi, and water - and measured which one was drunk the most. I did a huge backdrop with all this research on the various kinds of roaches. KoolAid, with it's massive sugar content, won hands down... but in the other taste test? Coke beat Pepsi. Keep that in mind for future purposes... cockroaches agree...
    
68. There are tons of roaches in Hawaii... trust me. We used to go "roach stomping" at night in the neighborhoods.... inch-long suckers would run across the cul-de-sacs in the evenings and we would go hop on them like little ketchup packets, trying to aim the goo at our friends. Yeah, gross. Only kids would ever think of doing that.
69. In Hawaii, it is pronounced "cock - a - roach"...
70. I have a terrible "Save the Damsel in Distress" complex
71. It unfortunately gets abused sometimes
72. I envy some of my friends' happy marriages with or without children
73. I would love to have kids someday ... and that would likely have to be soon... at the rate I'm going, I'll be retired before the kids graduate
74. I have fears that I might be a terrible father...
75. Many people have told me that I would make a great dad... me? I'm not so certain. I think I could be a "fun" dad or a "buddy" dad... but a great father? I think there's a difference.
76. But I'm pretty sure my kids would have great hair and a smart mouth... for good or ill
77. I sometimes wonder that, regardless of my desire for a family/married life... if I am actually just built in the bachelor mode... or maybe I am just too used to having more free reign over my own life.
78. Or do I just suck?
79. I give really good massages... that's what they tell me...
80. I will admit to using that as one of several sleazy techniques to try to hook up.
81. It has actually almost worked once.
82. And then I got slapped.
83. Well, not really, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story?
84. I own several guitars - like... umm... 4 electric guitars, a nice bass, an acoustic bass, a classical, and 2 Martin acoustic electrics... yeah, I love the Martin sound. They sing to me.
85. My first Martin was a gift from one of my dearest friends.
86. She has done more for helping come out of my shell as a person AND as a musician than anyone else I know. You know who you are, if you are reading this... so THANK YOU once again.
87. There are some debts I feel can never be repaid
88. I also believe there are some debts that never need repaying... it's just part of the process of having TRUE friends and REAL family... they aren't debts... they are blessings given...
89. There is only one person I think I could never forgive, having turned his back on me during one of my very darkest hours...
90. I like to go target shooting
91. I like driving fast, and I think I'm good at it...
    
92. I collect 1/6 scale action figures... some of them are very cool, in a totally geek, doll-collecting kind of way. (They are NOT GI Joe's... just so you know)
93. I have an R.Lee Ermey motivational figure, for instance. He spouts several "motivational lines" - some of which came straight from his role in "Full Metal Jacket, one of the finest films ever. EVER.
94. Did I mention I'm a crowd ho? Some people think that's a good thing to be for a wanna-be front man in a rock band. I'm not sure if I'm the front man in the band, but I am definitely the funny guy to the more straight man on stage, Kirk... who is actually a damned sharp and witty, dude. We make ourselves laugh a lot on stage, even if it's an empty gig.
95. Every show I play, there is at least one moment of zen magnificence... one moment where all the notes and harmonies and rhythms align themselves and make us feel like "Wow... we were really good right there, at that point." I think Thursday, we had several of those... it was a REALLY good show.
96. We are going to seriously make a run of this TV thing... details to come.
97. I wish I could make a livelihood out of performing music and television and all the rest...
    
98. For now, I'm happy that I have it for my LOVElihood...
99. Yeah, that's not a typo and I came up with that term the other day...
100. I'm thinking about copyrighting/trademarking it... I mean if that boxing announcer can put a trademark on "Let's get ready to rummmmbllllleeee!!!!" then why can't I?
101. I had a really hard time thinking of 101 worthwhile things to write... I'm not so sure I succeeded... feel free to blast me for it

And there you go. 101 overly wordy, less than riotous, somewhat laughable more useless tidbits of information about your truly, the Wop. Hope you all have a great week, given that today is MONDAY, the day Satan came up with. Of course it was him... he had to follow up God somehow, didn't he?
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