Outdoor Interests: playing sports (not really into being a spectator though, well hockey and soccer I like), hiking and camping, cycling, road trips... pretty much anything that gets me outdoors.

Indoors: strategy board games (we ain't talking Monopoly, even though it is somewhat strategic), reading, swimming (could be outdoors, too), movies, learning guitar and most other music related activites, chilling with friends, fitness/exercise (trying to find more time for this), computers, and relaxing.

Blues at the top AND the music that created it: old country, chants, shouts, and hollers. As it spawned rock 'n roll this is right where it deserves to be :~)

A sample of artists: Stevie Ray Vaughan (Rest in Peace my Texas brother), Eric Clapton, B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, Keb' Mo', Ruben V, Ezra's Poundcake, Robert Johnson, Dr. John, Ray Charles, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Nelson, Fleetwood Mac, Alice in Chains, Beethoven, Puccini, Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, Alison Krauss, Amy Winehouse, Beck, The Black Crows, Sabbath (as in the Black one ;) ), U2, Bob Marley, Buena Vista Social Club, G Love and the Special Sauce, Grateful Dead, Koerner, Ray, and Glover, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Monster Magnet, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Tom Petty (with and without the Heartbreakers).

But really I love all music, and it all gets some play from me with the only exception being most pop country. Jazz, classical (opera is in there, too), punk, heavy metal, rock, big band, swing, hip hop, rap, gospel, old country, techno, and reggae.

..

I likes the movies. Listed below are the top of the favorites pile, but by no means everything. There's still plenty more that I wanted to place here.

Directors: Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Anderson, John Huston, Terry Gilliam, Roman Polanski, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Guy Ritchie, Martin Scorcese, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg (his early work) and Harold Ramis.

Actresses and Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Keener, Kurt Russell, Tom Hanks, Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Ian McKellan ("Oh, the English and their stupid sense of fair play." - The Scarlet Pimpernel), Don Cheadle, Bill Murray, Denzel Washington, Faye Dunaway, I hate to admit it: Brad Pitt (actually I don't hate to admit it; he is a phenomenal actor), Johnny Depp, Peter Sellers, Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Bruce Willis (the man can take any role and do well with it), and Gary Oldman.

Individual Films: Joe vs. the Volcano, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Snatch, Edward Scissorhands, Saving Private Ryan, Steel Magnolias, American Beauty, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, Vertigo, Rope, Rushmore, Brazil, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Princess Bride,

Chinatown, Apocolypse Now, Easy Rider, Big Trouble in Little China, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Casablanca, Network, To Kill a Mockingbird, Monty Python's The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

This list doesn't do justice to my love of movies but you get the idea. Again, there are many favorites that aren't included here. Indie and foreign films round out this abbreviated section... and, I've recently gained a great appreciation for short films.

I also enjoy watching and ridiculing bad movies MST3K style :D

OK, I got my cable back, but I still really don't watch alot of TV. However, I do have a few guilty pleasures that I watch:
-My sister (Sassy Amy) turned me onto "Lost." I didn't think I'd like it when I first heard about it, but it really is a very provocative show. Even after what I thought was a weak Season 3 it is still one of the best shows on TV.
-I've been watching "The Daily Show" since Craig Kilborn. However, and I know this may piss off some folks, I am getting a little tired of Jon's immature expressions and voices. I just want the news presented as humorously as possible without that :D
-"The Colbert Report" is good stuff. Stephen's sarcasm and psuedo conservatism are where it's at!!!
-The new "Battlestar Galactica" on the Sci-Fi Channel is amazing! Vastly different and, IMHO, much better than the original. And now, after "Razor" has aired, I am so looking forward to this last season!!! Highly Recommended! Check it out!
-Still undecided about "Heroes." Not sure if I like it or not, but I am watching to see if it can hook me. That's more than I can say about a lot of TV.
-The best thing about "Heroes" is that I caught "Journey Man's" premiere after it one day. It's actually not bad. Not sure if I can recommend it to the extent of BSG, but, again, better than most of the crap on TV.

What I'm reading now:
-George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (fantasy that's almost as good as Tolkien; better in some ways)
-Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers and The Creators (history books, yum!)

What I've recently finished:
-Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle (unique historical fiction)
-Tsugumi Ohba's Death Note (this one is manga so it may not count, but the story is spectacular!)

Don't read as much as I used to, especially fiction, and there are way too many to remember from when I did; here's a list that touches on the hightlights:
J. R. R. Tolkien, King's The Stand, Grisham's A Time to Kill, Dan Simmon's Hyperion, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Calvin and Hobbes, Isaac Asimov (fiction and non), Matt Ridley's The Red Queen, Oliver Sacks (most of his work), in fact, most anthropology books, Ernest Hemingway, my boy Billy Shakespeare, anything by Orson Scott Card, but Ender's Game deserves special mention, Tom Robbins, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain... I better stop now, this list could go on and on and I'm not sure you've got the time :)

The Dread Pirate Roberts! :~)

Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Specific heroes are hard for me to name as I believe that all people are capable of greatness and heroic deeds, so my heroes are those that have found the divinity within themselves. And that's a hard achievement for me to judge, but still what I aspire to.