25 Random Facts About Your Astro-Dude

1.28.09


So you know those silly online surveys that get passed around social-networking sites?

I never did one before—until now. And I decided that I'd post it here, as part of my ongoing desire to share more of me (not just my astro-alias) with you all, my dear readers.

What follows are twenty -five tidbits of additional knowledge about me, in case any of you might be curious about the actual guy behind the astro-insights you crave. Here goes:

1. I am left-handed, prone to ambidexterity. I'd play sports right-handed (e.g., batting, golfing, playing tennis) if I ever played sports.

2. I type more than 90 words a minute, but I don't type the 'right' way.

3. In elementary school, I was known around town as the kid who won all the spelling bees. Little did I know the advent of computers and, subsequently, of spell-check would turn this talent totally obsolete.

4. When I was still quite young (no older than 3), my great-aunt Phyllis bought me an organ. I went on to play the organ all through my childhood and adolescence, taking lessons until around age 15. I used to fantasize about getting discovered by somebody walking through my neighborhood, who'd overhear the organ music pouring out our house and sign me as a featured performer for weddings and bar-mitzvahs. I still own my most recent organ, with its three keyboards and full set of foot pedals. One day, I will pick music back up.

5. Prior to my current profession, my dream was to become a university professor. My main interest was in using popular culture as a tool to teach students how to critically think and write. (My master's thesis was entitled "Sex, Magic, and Shannen Doherty".) I gave up that dream after I was rejected by my Ph.D. programs of choice in two separate rounds of applications.

6. When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit, I was taking a piss. In the shock of the situation, the flow abruptly cut off.

7. I love listening to dumb pop music really loudly.

8. For a few years, I had a subscription to The National Enquirer, after discovering only two libraries in the whole country keep archives of it. I still have boxes full of old issues in the attic.

9. I drive very aggressively.

10. I love swimming in the ocean. I find it profoundly humbling to surrender to the waves. The ocean teaches respect for currents stronger than any single lifeform can contend with.

11. I'm a professional astrologer, but I cannot explain how astrology works. One day it might stop working for me, as I'm well aware, at which point I'll have to find another job.

12. One could technically say I've been to every continent, but then we'd have to count my five minutes in Egypt (the Israeli border patrol let us walk across in the middle of deserted desert) as an African visit, and that doesn't do justice to my deep desire to explore Africa. (Yes, I've been to Antarctica.)

13. My biggest regret in life is that I didn't learn to speak another language fluently while in school. (I was young. I thought I knew everything.)

14. I love to take digital pictures, but I have no official training or education in photography and I'm resistant to pursue any, out of a fear that it'll transform a leisure creative activity into another skill to master or goal to achieve.

15. I have major 'high achiever' damage, which makes it hard for me to relax or stop criticizing myself for everything I haven't yet done.

16. One summer, I drove an unmarked white van delivering windshields to auto-glass installers around the Bay Area.

17. I am very sloppy. At any given moment, I'm likely to drop it, spill it, break it or otherwise misjudge its spatial relation to my physical person.

18. When I was a kid and broke my wrist, my mom didn't believe me. When I was a kid and bit through my lip, my parents didn't believe me. When I was an adult office-worker and came down with appendicitis one day, driving me to lie down on my office floor clutching my side, my co-workers didn't believe me. (Am I that melodramatic?)

19. I'd rather spend my money on meals, travel and other fleeting experiences than on tangible stuff I have to find storage for somewhere in my home.

20. I have at least five ideas for books I'd like to write. All I need is an agent and an editor, to help me figure out the wisest manner in which to proceed so I can actually sell my ideas. (Are you who I'm looking for? Call me.)

21. I've spent most of my adult life in relationships, which is sort of funny since I think of myself as something of a loner.

22. People mistake me for an extrovert because I'm so 'good' at being social, but really I'm an introvert.

23. I am an only child of two only children. That means I have no siblings, aunts, uncles or cousins… only great-aunts and -uncles and second-cousins.

24. Ever since my Reiki attunements, I get a physical sensation of tingles on my scalp and arms whenever my intuition is strongly activated.

25. I'm a chronic nail (and finger) biter.

Is there anything you want to tell me about you? Email me…