25 Random Things About Me

This is kind of a crosspost, but recently I was encouraged by my Facebook buddies to jot down 25 things of interest about myself. The fact that a man my age HAS Facebook buddies is a good place to start, but what I actually wrote follows.

1. At my heart, I worry that there aren't 25 things about me that are interesting.

2. On weekends, if I have the time, I bake my own bread. It doesn't save any money but the smell of fresh-baked bread is really appealing.

3. Since this time last year, I lost twenty pounds.

4. I made a video short in the nineties which won an award of some kind at SMOFI, a Polish film festival. They called to congratulate me at 4:00am. I have no idea what prize I took and googling the award now - well, as of 2002 they were accepting submissions in VHS only.

5. I was brought up Catholic but became an atheist at the age of 12 because the story just didn't hold together.

6. There's a scene in the first Star Wars movie (Han Solo and Chewie trying to hold down the prison detention center) that always seems fresh to me because when I saw it originally, I was making out with the girl I eventually lost my innocence to. It was great, but I still kind of regret missing a part of Star Wars.

7. Fear serves a purpose but for the most part it does more harm than good.

8. I have a younger brother and an older sister - you could conclude from conventional wisdom that I'm the stable one.

9. DARK MEAT: MUSIC FOR DEPRESSIVES is basically an extension of a thing I used to annoy my friends with. I have odd musical tastes and I was continually trying to get them to listen to the artists I like. It still isn't working, but at least I'm annoying strangers instead.

10. I have a fetish for cherry red appliances. Current inventory - a microwave oven, a toaster, a coffee ginder, a coffee maker, and a vacuum cleaner.

11. I've always looked younger than my age. At present the average guess is 10-15 years short.

12. My IQ is above-average.

13. I have written 13 (or so) screenplays and about 5 TV spec scripts. For a while I had an agent, though my career never quite took. 

14. My SEINFELD spec, as I recall, was terrible. I had only seen one episode of Seinfeld and I just didn't get it at all.

15. There was a show on UPN called THEY CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, a goofy comedy. I wrote a pretty good script for them and even managed to get it into their production office, but they were canceled later the same day.

16.  I don't need to spend as much time alone as I do. I suspect if I got out more, I might be quite popular.

17. Women who are too beautiful freak me out, the same way that people without limbs or disfigured people do. Try to keep to the center of the bell curve, people!

18. I'm not happy with most of my body, except my legs. The legs are golden.

19. When I got divorced and moved into my own apartment, I declined to get cable. Now it's over a year later and it just doesn't seem like a sensible investment. If I read about a good show, I'll just download it.

20. Numbers and statistics fascinate me. If I don't watch myself, I start to see everything in terms of ratios and percentages. It's not healthy.

21. Once I was on a cult radio show called SIMUL TREK, and this is the most famous I have ever been. It was ideal - there was praise from strangers, but you wouldn't recognize me on the street. If only there had been money also.

22. I hardly ever go to movies nowadays because I recognize the same six plots coming back over and over again.

23. Everything that is fun about photography - composition, subject, focus and exposure - is there if you shoot in black and white. Color is only an annoyance. Unfortunately, it's usually nicer to look at.

24. I prefer slow zombies to fast, or sprinting, zombies. 

25. Damn, I was right.