Pastimes are: Riding bicycles, reading most anything but preferably escapist fiction, watching movies, fiddling with tools, worrying about all the things that I've left undone, thinking about golf, thinking about taking pictures, thinking about hiking and exploring, losing at chess and procrastinating! I bought a book about overcoming procrastination three or four years ago; been meaning to read it.
Music
Like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, The Flatlanders, blue grass, some folk, Leonard Cohen, some opera and classical, 50s-80s R&R, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Doris Day. "Secret Love" is a secret love of mine. (Sometimes I have an emotional need for music. But I go days, even weeks, at a time without listening to any. At all. Is there something wrong with me? Don't answer that. I don't want to know. Too late to do anything about it anyway.)
Movies
Epics like Ghandi, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, The Sand Pebbles or Last Valley; Good sci-fi; Cohen Brothers' films. GUILTY PLEASURES: Kill Bill, Both good & bad post- apocalyptic sci-fi, action movies, biblical thrillers, tricky little movies with surprises like Sleuth, Spanish Prisoner, No Way Out. No chick-flicks allowed, except maybe Chocolat, Under the Tuscan Sun, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Feet of Flames, or Strictly Ballroom! Is Breaking Away a chick flick?
Television
"Firefly", "Globetrekker", "VR.5", "Millennium," and, yes, "The Prisoner." But I'll settle for CSI and a cold glass of my favorite soft drink.
Books
I own some good books which are mostly sitting around on a shelf or in boxes, unread. I read for entertainment, for escape. (While in what some consider a tough professional school, I typically checked out an armful of sci-fi or Deighton and Le Carre spy novels and read them before and during final exam week to lessen the stress. My grades, as you may guess, were seldom, if ever, outstanding.) So, what DO I read? Blush. Favorite writers are Louis L'Amour, Dick Francis, Len Deighton, Geoffrey Jenkins, Hammond Innes, David Drake, Manly Wade Wellman, Walter Jon Williams, Joel Rosenburg, Eric Flint, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Fred Pohl, Stephen Hunter, Daniel Easterman, Barry Eisner, Robert Harris, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Robert Morrell.... I want story, atmosphere, meticulously researched factual detail, plot twists, and a good writing style.
Heroes
Lewis Thomas, Rachel Carson, Garrett Hardin, Capt. Richard F. Burton, Ernest Shackleton, T.E. Lawrence.
About me: Everybody wants to label you. Labeling is often a substitute for thinking. Labeling a person does not tell you for sure who or what the person is, or all the person is. Here are some labels for me. I am a freethinker/atheist. I support negative population growth and the quest for a sustainable economy rather than a runaway consumer economy. Respect for other living things and the diversity of life. Procrastinator extraordinaire. Tests usually show me to be an INFP, whatever the heck that is. Strong on the I and the N, variable on the F & P.......
VISIT MY BLOGS. All original material in my blogs is copyrighted by me, and may be reproduced only with permission. Most of my "blogging" is in a bunch of forum posts at http://forum.lubbockonline.com/index.php/forums/ ISSUES THAT PULL MY CHAIN include Guantanamo, the Iraq invasion, conservation and the environment... In this supposed bastion of conservatism that is my hometown of Lubbock, Texas, I have found that I am not alone; I am merely a minority.....
PHOTOGRAPHS are copyright by The Refracted Image unless otherwise noted, and may not be copied without express written permission of The Refracted Image.
SUPPORT THE TEXAS FREEDOM NETWORK, www.tfn.org, on this, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin.
THANKS to R2RO for getting me started in Myspace. He encouraged me to beautify my site, but my having a dial up internet connection makes all that a waste of time.
Sampling of dance scenes from "Strictly Ballroom," showcasing the chemistry of the lead players. First movie roles for both, btw. I am totally smitten with Tara. Good thing she is in Australia or I might end up as one of those annoying stalker-fans.
Who I'd like to meet: Dunno if meeting anybody is either object, or likely outcome. But, feel free to drop by and say hallo and have a cuppa tea or coffee. 98% of the "new friend requests" that I have gotten are purportedly from ladies overladen with silicone and big hair who seem to be in the business of selling pictures said to be of themselves; I delete their requests.
MY MYSPACE FRIENDS POLICY: Everybody's welcome provided they don't think they have all the answers and are not on MySpace to peddle their bodies or some other product. We are all peddling something, if only ourselves, but let's not be too gross about it. Peddling art or ideas is mostly okay.
And you are a wordy old son. Took me a six pack of beer and romantic interludes with three different women before I got the whole thing read. Later, buddy.
Hi I had no intensions on being on that race but since you mentioned it, i might just give it a shot. I did modified course B last thursday and it was fun. And we do course A all the time. takes me about 2 hrs to do either one!
