Some Things About Me

Alright, so posting twice in a day makes me seem kind of like a douche bag. Seeing as I never claimed that I wasn't, here is a list of things you should know about me if you plan to read this blog regularly. I'll start with a basic bio:

Name: T.J. You may also refer to me as "That One Guy," "That Viking," "Supreme Mega Overlord Mk V," "Your Awesomeness," or "Prince of the Star Werewolf Barbarian Lords."

Age: 19. My birthday is September 12. I live in the only country on earth where I cannot legally drink at my age. I'm sure to write a full "WTFism" about that at some point.

Birthplace: Colorado Springs, Colorado. I attended Frontier Elementary School up until the fourth grade. Anyone who can prove they were there at the same time I was gets put on my list of "People Who I Might Send A Cookie." I also lived for nine months in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to my current place of residence in Kansas City, Kansas.

Ehtnicity: I am, to varying degrees, English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish, Anglo Saxon, Jewish, and even a little bit Cherokee, so I am told. Other than the last two, you might notice, I am white to a quite extreme degree. Aptly, I find a large percentage of the items on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com to fit me very well. You might see some of them on the list below. I am also, as you may have ascertained, a self-styled Viking, which is what I write in the "Race" box on most forms.

Religion: Straight up, I'm a Heathen. To be more specific, I'd describe myself as an Asatruar. Go look it up. I can say that religion won't be a primary topic on this blog as I'm pretty strongly against evangelism of any kind, but I may use it to make points in explaining my opinions and world views. I'm always open to answering religious questions as long as they are not overtly hateful.

Politics: Most would describe me as liberal after hearing me talk about the issues, but the fact is that I hate the Democratic and Republican parties with a fiery, burning passion. I just happen to hate the Republicans a lot more right now. Essentially, I'm conservative from the standpoint that I'm very pro-limited government, pro-balanced budget, and pro-responsible spending. I am however quite the left-leaner on issues like gay marriage, stem cell research, campaign finance reform, and the like.
Bush is the only president I've lived under since coming of age, so I feel biased and uninformed saying he's the worst president in history. Let's just say I'm not a fan.
I'm a strong Obama supporter, but I'm not a member of his cult of personality and I don't agree with all of his views. Of the people running, he's the only one I'd be proud to call my leader.

Now that all of that is out of the way, and assuming there are a few people still reading rather than coming to find me and throw a brick through my window, I'll take a bit of a more light-hearted approach. Here is a quick A to Z of things I like. It's not really "my favorite thing for each letter," as I'm sure to remember something later that would have fit better, as well as several things I am a rabid fan of that were left out for some reason. All of it is written purely off the top of my head with minimal pre-planning and minimal revision. Still, it should give you a fair idea of what I'm into.

#: 24. One of the few shows I watch religiously, this is probably my favorite show ever that is not a comedy and does not involve the supernatural. No season so far has been able to match the first season, but it's still a great show. Jack FTW.

A: Alyson Hannigan. I know her only as Willow from Buffy, so it may be more accurate to say that I'm in love with that specific character. Never seen American Pie, and I don't ever plan to. I'm afraid it would ruin my perception of her as a cute, shy wallflower. Hannigan currently shares the top spot on my list of "Celebrity Girls That I Find Most Attractive" with Jewel Staite, Firefly's Kaylee (also Dr. Keller on SG:A.) Whedon sure knows how to pick 'em....

B: Battlestar Galactica (The New One.) Far and away the best sci-fi show I've ever seen. It really shows that you can have a great character drama not in spite of but in addition to an epic space opera. I'm only dissappointed that I stumbled onto it about a year ago, and now it's almost over.

C: Colorado. It's my home state, and I plan to head back there some day. You really take the mountains for granted when you grow up in plain sight of them. I can even discard my usual apathy for televized sports when the Broncos are playing.

D: Dr. Pepper. I don't understand why Coke and Pepsi are always the leading brands. They both taste like battery acid.

E: Everything on Comedy Central between 10 and 11 pm. Alright, I'm sort of cheating on this one. Still, I had to give a shout out to Stewart and Colbert.

F: Falcons. Next to wolves, they're my favorite animal. That's about it.

G: GFFA (Galaxy Far, Far Away.) I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. The movies have been a part of my consciousness as far back as I can remember. The only thing that's a bummer for those of us born in this era is that I never remember being shocked by "I am your father!" It's just kind of been in my mind by osmosis from a very early age. Now here's where I usually get thrashed: My favorite incarnation of the Star Wars universe is the original Knights of the Old Republic game. I liked it even more than the original trilogy. You may now throw me to the Rancor.

H: Harry Potter. If you think you're too cool or too manly to like Harry Potter, you're a douchebag. Granted I never got into the series beyond the books themselves.

I: Iceland is the most metal country. It's also the most Viking-like country... which makes sense, because the Vikings were the most metal people in history. Iceland is SO metal, I am currently attempting to learn Icelandic, which is supposedly the second hardest living language on earth to learn (after Navajo.)

J: Joss Whedon. When I discovered the works of Joss Whedon, I had a "Where has this been my entire life?" moment. It all started when I saw the movie "Serenity" on an airplane flight to Africa. I enjoyed it so much, I watched it about six times on the way there and back-- not much else to do on a 20 hour flight. I got into Firefly not much later, and just this year I've been making my way gleefully through dozens of Buffy and Angel DVDs. And if you haven't checked out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (www.drhorrible.com,) I order you to do so immediately. Everything this man touches is amazing. Except Titan A.E. That movie sucked.

K: King Dodongo! Ok, not really. I had to cheat again to fit in my favorite game series: The Legend of Zelda. I couldn't really picture how to fit "Lost" into the K slot. Again, sure to be covered more in the future.

L: Lost. Yes, I know this is one of the most manipulative shows in history. I know that the first two and a half seasons were essentialy stringing me along from paradox to paradox. Still, the most recent season was fantastic and this stands as one of the few shows I watch religiously.

M: Marvel comics. I've always been a Marvel guy. Spidey and Thor are my all-time favorites. Currently I'm following the Strycinsky run of Thor, The Ultimates, New Avengers, and Mighty Avengers. As far as other companies go, I'm into Dark Horse's Star Wars books-- specifically Dark Times and Knights of the Old Republic. There are probably others I'm missing, but I'm sure I'll do an entry about comics in the future.

N: Nix. As in Garth Nix. After Tolkien, he's my favorite fantasy writer of all time. Seventh Tower remains my favorite fantasy series to date, and it holds up despite being written at a Jr. High level. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

O: The Office. The American version. Go ahead and yell at me you Brits, but I got started on the Amreican version and for whatever reason I have no desire to watch the British one. I've seen Ricky Gervase in other stuff, and he's undeniably hilarious, but I just don't plan on ever trying to get into it.

P: PC Gaming. I play a lot of video games, but 90% of them are on the PC- the only TRUE hardcore gaming platform. It comes down to this: I will never get used to using thumb sticks to play shooters and strategy games. They are simply inferior to a mouse and keyboard. Anyone who wants to challenge me on this is free to, but it's up to you to prove you're using a controller and I won't buy a game I don't want to facilitate the duel.

Q: I'm really at a loss here. I like Quaker oats... and Quest64. Actually, any game with quests tends to amuse me. Likewise, I enjoy stories about questing or quests.

R: Roleplaying games. This is a big one for me, as this is my favorite leisure activity. I'd rather be playing Scion or Exalted or Dungeons and Dragons or SWSE than watching TV, going to the movies, reading, playing video games, surfing the web, playing sports, or any other type of passtime that so-called "normal people" enjoy. I like them so much, I do a podcast about them.

S: Strong Bad. I've been following Homestarrunner.com for at least six years now, and as far as "Other People That Understand My Sense of Humor," they're right up there with Monty Python and Invader Zim (which couldn't fit into their own slots...)

T: THE METAL! I tend to judge things based on how Metal they are, rather than how cool they are. More than half of my iPod is metal (and most of the rest is classic rock and movie soundtracks.) My favorite genre of metal is Progressive Viking Folk Metal, a niche dominated almost solely by my all-time favorite band, Tyr. Some other favorites of mine include Eluveitie, Turisas, Korpiklaani, Freedom Call, Hammerfall, Manowar, Amon Amarth, Blind Guardian... the list could go on.

U: Uhhhh.... pirates. Yeah, that's sort of cheating. Pirates are cooler than ninjas. If someone legitimately wants to hear my long argument explaining why, I might post it at some point. The whole debate has become something of a cliche in my opinion.

V: Vampires. I'd put Vikings here, but that's already obvious. In general, vampires are awesome. They can become lame, as in the case of "Emo/Goth Vampire Posers," something I'm sure to write about in the future. Still, I have seen more than my share of Vampire movies and have dabbled into the works of Ann Rice. As I'm sure I'll be asked: No, I haven't read Twilight yet, but I might if the movie interests me enough. In any case, vampires aren't nearly as cool as...

W: Werewolves. Werewolves are kind of like the coolest thing ever. Ok, they ARE the coolest thing ever. 'Nuff said.

X: X-Men. This is a bit of a narrow category (it was basically between this and X-Com UFO defense,) but the X-Men are still awesome. I grew up on the 90's cartoon (Dana nanana na na,) and Wolverine has always been my favorite. Comic-wise, I like the run of Astonishing written by Joss Whedon. Surprise surprise. Oh damn, looking back over this I should have put the X-Files here. They beat out the X-Men by a hair. Meh, I'll write about that later.

Y: Yetis? I guess they're pretty cool. This is one of those where I'm pretty sure I'll think of something better as soon as I click submit.

Z: ZOMBIES!! I've seen every Romero movie multiple times, and I can quote Evil Dead/Army of Darkness withthe best of them. I've read the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z cover to cover. When I enter a new structure, I often find myself thinking about how I would defend it from an impending zombie apocalypse. I have sat and discussed plans for survivng said apocalypse at length with friends and strangers alike. Always remember: Aim for the head.

Alright, now that's out of the way, and you probably have eye strain. Look for a decidedly more coherent entry in the days to come. See you then.