25 random things

Yeah, yeah... I know this one's been going around for a while now. The Wife tagged me two, maybe three weeks ago, and I dimly recall other folks tagging me as well. In the interim, several more listish memes have made the rounds as well, and I've been duly tagged with them as well. It suddenly strikes me that I may not be the most prompt tagee on this here interweb.

I'm not tagging anyone, though. Pretty much everyone I know has already contributed to this meme, so if you haven't, and are reading this, consider yourself "it."

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1) It is my sincere desire that The Wife drop all the false modesty crap and accept the fact that she's a hot, leggy, blonde.
2) Conservative friends of mine invariably assume my beliefs are far more right-leaning than they in fact are. Liberal friends invariably assume my beliefs are far more leftist than they are. The truth is that my innate beliefs are all over the map, but pretty much guaranteed to alienate both camps in some manner were the truth known.
3) I generally, if reluctantly, side with liberals on most issues simply because I'm mortally offended by the right trying to shove religion down my throat.
4) I abhor hypocrisy.
5) I am hypocritical on occasion. Yes, I am aware of the irony.
6) I have a shitty relationship with my father. I've actually based my parenting philosophy on him to a great degree, in that if he would've behaved a certain way in a certain situation, I will pointedly take the opposite course.
7) I feel intense guilt that I don't devote enough of myself to my family.
8) I feel intense resentment that there isn't any "me" left after everything I devote of myself to my family.
9) I homebrew my own beer and honey mead. I know what I like with beer, and am damn good at it. With the mead... well, I'm getting better.
10) I am a writer. That's not a choice--I must write.
11) I hate writing. I love having written.
12) I am utterly undisciplined as a writer, which is why my production sucks so badly. If finding reasons not to write were an Olympic sport, though, I'd be a five-time gold medalist.
13) Excluding work-for-hire (ie the day job) I have never turned a profit writing. I've broken even a few years. I find this troubling (see 10, 11 and 12).
14) The Wife is smarter than me, even though she denies it. And although I won't confess as much to them, I strongly suspect my three children are as well. I don't know what this says about me, other than most of my genes must be recessive.
15) As far as I'm concerned, the British Invasion begins and ends with The Kinks. Actually, the same can pretty much be said for rock music in general--although I'll make allowances for Billy Joel and Pink Floyd.
16) I love backyard astronomy and astrophotography, but I'm seriously out of my depth beyond the most basic levels.
17) To any conservative, religious parents out there that believe withholding sex ed information will keep your children wholesome, pure and morally chaste... well, from my particular point of view the exact opposite is true. The only thing institutionalized ignorance did (other than instill me with a lifelong fascination with nudity) was make me an easy butt of jokes for all the upperclassmen from elementary school on up. Seriously. I'd have been better off had my parents sent me to school with a "kick me" sign taped to my back every morning.
18) Someday I shall own a 1937 Studebaker President or Dictator sedan with suicide doors and sidemount spare. It shall be two-tone maroon/burgundy. It will turn heads, oh,yes.
19) NASCAR bores me to tears.
20) I love Texas A&M athletics. I love that baseball and basketball are competitive on the national scene. We'll not speak of football right now.
21) I nurse a bitter, spiteful grudge against Texas A&M and Robert Gates for killing off the journalism program there.
22) I make an awesome hot salsa. I use cactus in it.
23) I'm fascinated by passion flowers. I have a dozen different species that I grow with varying degrees of success. Someday I hope to develop successful hybrids that've not been attempted before and name them after my family members.
24) I'm writing a book on the infamous La Grange Chicken Ranch. See entries 11 and 12.
25) At one time, I had a collection of Dr. Demento syndicated radio shows spanning close to five years. That's a bunch of CDs. I sold the all off via Ebay this past year and used the money to buy my Canon XTi, some lenses and related equipment. My photography skills are slowly improving, but most of the time I feel like a basket case drooling in the corner.

Now Playing: The Kinks The Road (Live)