Home, Home on the Strange...

Sometime earlier this year I got caught up in one of these tag things and put up a lengthy post describing several unique qualities about myself. Well, now I've been more or less tagged to do a similar post describing nine strange things about myself. At first I thought, "Only NINE? " Then I figured, oh well. I might as well do this. I realize some of these strange facts about myself may very well be repeats from that earlier post, but at least I won't have to worry about being cursed by the people that tagged me...

Anyway...Nine Strange Things About Myself:

***ahem***...

1. I was born breech, i.e. feet first. I was also a very large baby. Needless to say, my birth was not exactly an easy process. My mother was in labor for a long, long time. I've often wondered if that has anything to do with some of my more unique qualities...

2. You'd be hard pressed to find a bodily system or function in me that isn't flawed or deformed somehow. The bones in my arms, legs, and part of my skull are crooked. Because of that, some of my joints are deformed, and the muscles aren't connected properly. I have a recurring, mild carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist which the doctor says is related to the deformity. My nervous system works way too fast, meaning I am not only naturally nervous and tense (and no treatment has worked thus far), but my powers of concentration are extremely limited. My stomach is sensitive and acidic, and my colon is irritable. I have two pairs of kidneys, which means I tend to dehydrate quicker than most people. My respiratory system is plagued by mild (but apparently worsening) allergies which doctors have yet to identify. My circulatory system is increasingly suffering from ever-increasing cholesterol which a no-meat, no-egg, lots-of-fish diet hasn't really helped. I'm sure there are probably other things, but I'll leave it at that.

3. My brain seems to have a built-in math blocker. I was always interested in (obsessed with?) science while I was growing up, I majored in science in senior high and my first few years of college, and I even have an associate's degree in chemistry, but the fact is that I've always been weak in math (and ONLY math!). In every single area of math (algebra, trigonometry, geometry, calculus) I started out really well, finding it all ridiculously simple and getting straight A's with no effort, but for some reason I'd always wind up hitting a point where I simply couldn't progress any further, and I never understood why. No matter how much I studied, practiced, asked for help from others, and got insulted by my teachers, I'd be virtually paralyzed. It's like my brain would literally lock up and refuse to work, leaving me staring blankly into space unable to answer the problem.

In fact, when I finally gave up and dropped out of my last attempted college math class, I went to the Department of Math to take care of the humiliating procedure, and when they asked me the name of my teacher and the time my class was held my brain locked up again and I was unable to say anything at all for a number of minutes. First the secretary laughed at me, and then she looked frightened. Finally she just named off all the calculus classes and professors, and I nodded at the correct one.

It has to be a psychological thing, but I can't imagine what it would be.

4. On the other hand, I've always had a knack for language and music. It's hard to say when I really learned either, but I do know that when I was four I was already reading books and picking out TV show theme music on the piano. When I was five I argued with my kindergarten teachers when they misread the instructions on our worksheets and made classmates who were taking piano lessons mad because I'd listen to them struggling with their practice etudes, say, "Is this what you're trying to play," sit down next to them, and crank it off in one go. In the 4th grade I scored second place in Oregon (4th place on the West Coast) on an English proficiency test, and when I took up the clarinet later that same year I was put directly into the advanced band after only two weeks of instruction (which is probably what finally cost me my best friend at the time). In college I took beginning and second-year German at the same time (which my professors thought was totally insane), got straight A's, and decided to make it my major.

I guess it makes sense that I work as an English and music teacher and moonlight as a musician/composer/arranger...

5. I sometimes have prophetic dreams. They tend to happen in waves. I'll often have several within a period of anywhere from a few days to a few weeks and then nothing for months after that. Usually when a "prophetic wave" happens it manifests together with other strange symptoms, such as me seeming to become temporarily left handed, being perpetually dizzy and unable to concentrate, or having occasional, sudden, intense flashes of waking dreams that have proven clairvoyant. These dreams may involve me or people I know. They are usually rather metaphorical in nature...or the prophetic bit will be embedded in a metaphorical environment...but they have proven chillingly accurate.

I once had a couple of such dreams whose warning was very clear. I didn't take them seriously, and it nearly cost me my life. Needless to say, I make a point of trying to remember what I see in my dreams just in case.

6. Speaking of dreams, from the time I was about 11 years old until the year 2002 I had occasional waves of dreams that not only shared a common theme but were amazingly interconnected. The main themes/events of those dreams were often repeated many times over the years with increasing detail as if my subconscious were gradually filling in the gaps. They took place in a sci-fi/fantasy setting, and they centered on me, but not really me. It was almost as if they were depicting me in an alternate universe, a past life, or even a future one. People I knew often appeared, but sometimes I'd see the same scene over and over again with different people playing the same roles as if the events were more important than the characters. Looking back, the way my real life has turned out has paralleled those dreams in many ways, so it's possible that the sci-fi/fantasy setting was just my subconscious adding artistic license to prophetic vision. Nothing like some of the more important events I've seen has happened yet, however, so the story is far from over. In any case, it has inspired all kinds of artwork, stories, cartoons, and even a role-playing game over the years, and it is still very precious to me.

7. My tastes have never meshed well with those of my peers. In my elementary school days I hated sports and loved music, reading, and learning. In my teens fashion and all that social bullshit really annoyed me. (I tried to be "normal" for a very brief period in senior high at the urging of some of my classmates, but I hated it, and they quickly gave up.) Even now I tend to shun parties, preferring the company of a few good friends. I'd much rather relax with beer and chat than go out for an "exciting" night on the town. Come to think of it, I'm not even really all that fond of towns in general, preferring the quiet of the country or wilderness. I don't mind traveling, but I don't do it very often, and when I do I try my best to avoid the really glitzy, touristy places (which annoy me...and tourists in general tend to annoy me even more!).

I was never even able to fit in with regard to religion. I had a conservative, Christian upbringing, went to church, read the Bible cover-to-cover, and mostly tried to live according to Christian morals when I was growing up (which earned more than a little ridicule from my peers, particularly with regard to my firm belief in God and dislike of casual sex), but traditional Christianity never really computed with me. My tendencies toward objective science, reality, and basic logic kept me constantly at odds with Bible literalists. I also had problems with religious intolerance, let alone dogma. After squabbling with priests and members of the congregation at more than one church I finally gave up going altogether. I also started studying and even incorporating elements of other religions into my "belief system". A "preferred religion" test I took online not so long ago said that I should be Buddhist. I am strongly interested in that religion as well as others, and recently I've been studying a bit of Islam.

Yes, I'm a geek, and I may be going to hell...but at least I'm not suffering from an identity crisis.

8. Objective realist or not, you'll still find a healthy dose of the supernatural in my life. I carry a lapis lazari luckstone in my pocket at all times except when I'm bathing or sleeping. I keep a crystal in my briefcase and various luckstones (garnet, tiger's eye, amethyst, jade, and rosy quartz among others) in my BLUE RAV4 and in my bedroom. I have an Irish luckstone (which I bought in Australia) on my desk at Ye Olde Academy^TM. I have a couple of tarot card decks, and I used to be pretty good with them in my college days, but now they just sit in the "altar" in my bedroom. Since Shinto believes that spiritual energy flows from the East, I tend to give that direction special significance. I once composed and recorded a tune because I was told to do so in a dream...to pacify a restless spirit that had been causing trouble in my household.

I look at it this way: if these things are real, then doing them might bring some benefit. If they're not real, then doing them won't bring any harm. That means that, logically, it makes more sense to do them.

9. If you ask me what kind of music I like, I will answer, "Yes!" I like and listen to a very wide variety of music. I also like to play a very wide variety of music. I performed Dvorak's "New World Symphony" with an orchestra, me playing all those clarinet solos, and it was a headrush. I performed "Sing, Sing, Sing" with a jazz big band, me playing that screaming clarinet ad-lib solo, and it was a headrush. I played my university's fight song with our marching band after we'd beaten our biggest rival in football for the first time in twelve years, me on clarinet standing in the rain, and it was a headrush. I performed the rock classic "Hush" with a (very good) rock band, me playing keyboards, and it was a headrush. I performed the Judas Priest song "Sinner" with a (very bad) heavy metal band, me on lead guitar/vocals, and it was a headrush. I performed the song "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, me on alto sax with only a piano accompaniment, and it was a headrush. I performed the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", just me with an acoustic guitar and my singing voice in front of a large festival crowd, and it was a headrush. I sang The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" at the top of my lungs at a karaoke party, and it was a headrush. I played a jig and a reel on an Irish tinwhistle for a group of students who had never heard such music before, and it was a headrush. I tried playing my first tune on a kokyu (Japanese version of the Chinese violin), sucked really badly, and it was a headrush.

Music is my life!

Okay, that's nine, so I guess I have to stop there. I won't bother tagging anyone, as I figure anyone I might tag either wouldn't do this or has already, but if anyone wants to go for it, please do! And let me know, too!