a dozen or so things about me

a couple people asked me to do the facebook equivalent of a chain letter, which ultimately required me to list 25 things about myself. and since the interwebs are nothing if not a repository for stupid lists, i’ve reproduced some of the highlights here, for all you non-facebooking folks:
1. i’m a wretched singer, and suffer from mild stage fright – but i really, really want to do pulp’s “common people” to live band karaoke.
2. at various times in my youth, i aspired to be a paleontologist, an astronaut, or the next jim davis. i’m pretty glad i’m not cr#pping out garfield knock-off comic strips, but i still get all geeked out about nasa.
6. as much as i love the idea of working for an elected official, i get discouraged thinking about the kind of people who actually win those seats – and this upsets me a great deal.
7. i am, for possibly the first time in my life, in complete agreement with my friend b.a. – i think a quality public education system is the silver bullet for 99% of the world’s problems (and empathy can solve the rest).
9. every day when i get home from work, i ask my dog what he did with his day (“so, kent, did you accept a position in obama’s cabinet today?”), then we proceed to horse around for ten minutes before going for a walk.
11. i have an unreasonable love of brew. there are over 600 different beer bottle caps in my kitchen, and i’ve drank several hundred other unique beers on draft.
14. i have a subtle, but ever-present, ringing in my ears from going to too many rock shows without earplugs.
19. given the option, i will always choose tater tots.
20. regrets? i’ve had two.
21. i openly encourage people to write graffiti on my bathroom wall – there are even pens in the toothbrush holders over the sink.
22. opting to forgo cable television in my apartment was probably one of the smartest decisions i’ve made as an adult.
23. many, many times i’ve daydreamed about being featuring in a broadcast news story wherein the anchor refers to me as a “31-year-old man from chicago” (or whatever age i was at the time) – and then giggled madly because that phrase makes me sound like i’m a proper adult.
24. i’d take religion to the woodshed if i could.