Things Wrong With Me

Adam P. Knave has officially started his newest webcomic: Things Wrong With Me. Go now and read.

1. You won't be disappointed.
2. You can thank me later.

At Long Last: 25 Things About Me - That Won’t Affect Your Life at All!

I feel confident you all know the deal with this thing, so here goes:

1. I used to require that my folks call me a wide range of names in addition to my own. An example would be Matthew Ryan Spiderman Superman Cowboy Lichtenwalner. The ‘additional names’ would vary day to day and my poor folks had no chance of keeping up with the whims of the childhood me.
2. I have to fight to keep from becoming a hermit. I love and adore my friends and family, but I also love the peace and quiet of being alone. This works out rather well for me these days because I tend to be social when Jill’s home, and not when she’s not. If you’ve noticed this, please don’t think that I don’t care about you when she’s not around, that’s just me ‘recovering’. :)
3. I like the color blue a lot but my favorite ‘color’ is probably black (which some folks will tell you says a number of bad things about me).
4. I am overjoyed that the woman that I am in love with is on the same page as me when it comes to children. The fact that neither of us want to ever have them is a tremendous load off of my shoulders.
5. I find riding my motorcycle to be the greatest form of meditation I know - and I’ve tried a number of different forms. The closest runner up is probably the creation of art.
6. My nephew has already changed my life.
7. I’ve done a lot of growing up in the last 5 years or so. This puts me at a level of maturity far behind that of most of my friends as far as I can tell. I’m completely ok with that as long as a) I’m still working on it and b) they’ll still have me. :)
8. There aren’t many foods I won’t eat. I have difficulty thinking of any actually. You could probably tell that if you’ve seen my waistline anytime recently.
9. My best friend saved my life. As I see it? More than once.
10. I’ve known people who are/were bad communicators and they have frustrated me deeply. This has heavily influenced how I try to communicate with others. In fact, I know myself to be too verbose at times because I’m overcompensating for others, and I still think that I’m failing to be clear.
11. I have a hugely bad habit of eating dessert first. I mean this figuratively as well as literally.
12. I find that there’s a correlation between the size of the group of people you’re talking to and the quality of the conversation – for all topics really, but more than usual when it comes to martial arts.
13. My greatest fear (by far) is to be helpless when someone needs me.
14. I tend to be overly righteous when it comes to ‘common courtesies’. I was raised to treat others a certain way and to be aware of my surroundings. When others don’t do the same it infuriates me. This seems to me to be a sad reversal of how I should respond to the situation.
15. I never learned the right way to study. In high school I just ‘got it’ when the teacher explained it the first time. In college… well… let’s leave it at “I lucked out”.
16. I spend too little time thinking about the future. This is the single biggest way in which I still have a lot of ‘growing up’ to do.
17. I live a lot of my life feeling highly stressed out/anxious/angry. I’ve been this way for a long time. Being deep within a pine forest makes this go away – fast.
18. I have a great love of duality.
19. I wish I could spend more time reading comic books. The (borderline amusing) sense of right and wrong found in many traditional ‘hero’ comics appeals to the afore-mentioned love of duality.
20. I think that I understand people exceptionally well – even when I don’t agree with them. This is seldom the blessing you might think it should be.
21. I am loyal to a fault.
22. I talk myself out of many projects because I ‘forecast’ all the potential problems with them before I start. When I think about projects for other people I see almost exclusively the positives.
23. I love tech toys. This includes things like new software packages. I would much rather learn whether or not you can do something in a new program than learn how to do it in a program I’m already familiar with. This tends to make me a Jack of All Trades but Master of None software wise.
24. I love cool dark spaces (like our basement) because light hurts my eyes and heat saps my strength. This makes me want to be where others are generally uncomfortable. (See point number 2.)
25. Starting in 2002, I feel like I had the closest thing I will ever know to ‘finding my faith’. I went from a person who saw only what they don’t have, and the pain of “why can’t I just…?” to a person who understands fully the amazing gifts that he’s been given in a full and well lived life. I’m now so very thankful for my life and those in it that I’m getting choked up just writing this.


Oh - and I don't tag people. If you feel like doing this (and have somehow managed to not) - feel free to do so. While you're at it - leave me a link here. If you're reading this, there's a good chance I would love to know 25 more things about you. :)