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Hello! My name is John, and I’m interested in just about everything. I know an awful lot about things that most people don’t give a damn about, and I love to talk to people to learn what they know. This can make me rather wordy, although at least I’m better about not being as prying as I used to be. People often end up having to tell me that they really don’t care and I need to start talking about something else *laughs*.

I’m an ACT teacher for The Princeton Review and I’m currently going to the Wayne State School of Library and Information Science. I want to be an academic reference librarian. It’s impossible to think of any other job where I would be able to learn about so many things so quickly, just by helping other people. I’m also very comfortable in both academic and library settings; I could have been a teacher, but the job market there is absolute crap and I’m not willing to take that risk. I hope to intern at an academic library at the beginning of 2012, and will complete my degree after that semester if all goes well.

I’m a very social person in a situation where I have almost nobody to hang out with, and that's very hard on me. All of my friends have moved away except for my poker buddies, who have busy work schedules so even that is touchy. I play a lot of video games to pass the time, deal with anxiety, and ignore depression. I’m an avid book reader as well, preferring fantasy and science fiction over other genres. When I’m in the mood I love to play poker at the casino or at charity games, and back when I did so regularly I made quite a lot of money. I have creative periods where I will produce some really good poetry, and I love to appreciate the creative works of others, including art…which I’m terrible at. I’ve had periods where I gather and learn more about large amounts of music. I have a wide-ranging sense of humor, with a distressing fascination towards really, really terrible puns. I’ll debate anything with anyone if I have even basic knowledge of the subject, because getting people pissed off is a great way to learn more about something. It makes me appear ignorant often, though, so I’m trying really hard to avoid doing so if I don’t know enough about something.

I’m a natural editor – I’m able to resist correcting people if it would insult them, but I enjoy proofreading, analyzing, and hopefully improving all sorts of written works. This does mean that people who refuse type and write properly will annoy me very quickly. Occasional spelling/grammar mistakes are okay, but text or twitter writing formats are definitely not okay.

Bad habits die hard for me. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs because video gaming has always been my escape of choice. I’m a medicated bipolar, which means I don’t really feel much in the way of emotions but I’m still subject to very mild mania or depression. The clear negative effect is that I can’t take antidepressants to deal with my strong anxiety. My ADHD meds, without which I pretty much can’t function, also happen to increase this anxiety. It can have a very paralyzing effect that’s similar to clinical depression, but at least I’m still capable of making rational decisions. It's not a mental disorder, but I have an extremely strong sex drive and almost never have any outlets for it. I'm good at keeping it under control, but sex is a very powerful motivator for me. I figure I should disclose that somewhere here *grins*.

I tend to be picky about whom I talk to, because stress management is my biggest concern in any friendship. This doesn't mean that I don't want to talk with a person if I drop off the map, as I effectively shut down if my anxiety reaches critical levels. It's always a good idea to pester me until I make my situation more clear, if you're worried that I don't want to talk with you.

I hate picking favorites, but if I had to name my favorite author, it would be Terry Pratchett over Neil Gaiman by an unbraided nosehair. John Ringo would be well within spitting range, like where you don't actually need to loogie.

Honesty, spunk, people with empathy, women who grew up tomboys, logical people, illogical people who can at least explain why they behave erratically, people who accept mental disorders rather than just tolerate them, people who think or write or talk a lot about things.

Warm weather, those mexican cokes with actual cane sugar, ping-pong, poker, video games, reading, philosophy, math AND english, puzzles, self-reflection, self-analyzation, details, feeling accepted, being manic, my family, helping others, watching some game streams, Phineas and Ferb, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies (NOT the newest one. The original was great, the sequel is the best of the lot, 3 was okay), when people get random song or movie quotes, when people don't groan at my stupid puns.

People who drink or use drugs (including pot) on anything more than an occasional basis (< 3 times a week). When anxiety gets the better of me, how much time I have to spend building up the courage to leave the damn house, people who ignore facts just because it's convenient, people who don't want to think about life or learn anything, abusive actions, how everyone (including me) takes things for granted, not having anyone to hang out with, anytime I have money concerns. People who don't understand that a mental disorder is not something you choose to get, and don't understand that severe mental disorders are powerful enough to dictate a person's actions to the point where most of their decisions are made for them. Emotions and fears are effing powerful things, and even strong-willed people can be powerless to fight them if they're strong enough.

2/24/11 - First time getting new music for like 6 months. All of the bands listed here are awesome metal bands and will also be on the table by genre. I'm starting to pull from international profiles and it's paying off, as the first two - and 2 of my favorites - are from those:

• Dagoba
• The Agonist
• August Burns Red (if you notice, I don't list much metalcore, so this band is both awesome and less...random?...than most metalcore bands)
• Born of Osiris
• Omega Lithium
• Van Canto
• Five Finger Death Punch (should have been in here a long time ago. I hate their 2nd album.)

I'm always arguing with myself over whether I hate rap more than country. Both of us are in agreement that, while we hate pretty much all alternative rock as well, we can tolerate it more than those two pieces of shit. We listen mainly to metal and industrial. Which means we detest anything remotely emo. That probably didn't need to be said, but we don't want any misunderstandings here.

Note that I may really like bands other than those listed (I've listened to a LOT of music), but don't listen to them enough to merit listing. Obviously, in those cases I will attend concerts by unlisted bands. If a genre is not listed, I probably don't like any bands in that genre. Which usually means I've either never listened to it, or I don't like that genre (exceptions: classical, jazz, darkwave, bands similar to those listed in "miscellaneous," select R&B, select oldies). You can safely assume the latter in all other cases.

Super-extra-special-amazing-worshipful-thanks to Amber for doing all this crazy table work with her incredible HTML-fu!