Here's a bunch of stuff about me. It's very rambling and opinionated. If you get bored, skip to the next paragraph or something.
As of this writing, I'm a 24-year-old guy living in southeast Portland, OR. I recently got a degree in Computer Science from Ithaca College in New York, my home state. My hobbies include sitting at the computer for long periods of time, listening to music, and reading. I like music a lot, but so does the average young person. I've played bass clarinet and flute in various student music ensembles, and I hope to do similar things in the future. The music I listen to is very diverse, from stuff you've definitely heard of to stuff you've definitely never heard of, much of which is not in English. I'm always indecisive when it comes to picking my favorite things, but my favorite band is They Might Be Giants. Other bands/artists I like, in no particular order, and with appropriate Wikipedia links that you can click on for more information: The Mars Volta, The Residents, Rammstein, The White Stripes, System of a Down, The Tiger Lillies, Apulanta, Einstürzende Neubauten, Phil Ochs, Bad Religion, Primus, XTC, Peter Gabriel, Midnight Oil, Mike Doughty, Soul Coughing, Nirvana, Pixies, Weird Al, 10,000 Maniacs, Otyg, Megaherz, Laibach, Das Ich, Catatonia, The Arcade Fire, The Fiery Furnaces, John Vanderslice, Leningrad, Edmund Welles, Pink Floyd, In Extremo. I also like reading, although I don't do it very quickly. My favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut. Other favorites include Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Robert Jordan, Margaret Atwood, Sarah Vowell, Sherman Alexie, and Robertson Davies.
About the name: I'd been using "Mandaliet" as my online name for a few years without knowing what it meant or how to pronounce it. It's from Carmina Burana, a collection of Medieval poems that were set to music by Carl Orff in the 1930s. The line the word is from is in the song Circa Mea Pectora: "Mandaliet, mandaliet, min geselle chumet niet." This is generally translated as "Mandaliet, mandaliet, my lover comes not." Recently someone told me that the word means "song of joy" in middle high German. The pronunciation was given as MAN-da-LEET, which was how I tended to pronounce it, although everyone seems to come up with their own pronunciation.
I'm just about as white as you can get, and I'm male, despite how my name may sound. I may be a little effeminate, but I'm straight, although I'm okay with gay people. Politically, I'm very liberal... although I think that to be truly liberal you have to admit that the other side is right sometimes. To me, the greatest politician out there now is Ralph Nader, so naturally I voted for John Kerry in 2004. I mean, what kind of country would this be if you could just vote for whomever you wanted? Other old white guys whose political philosophies I tend to agree greatly with include Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Another one is Mike Gravel, who is running from the Democratic presidential nomination as of this writing.
I don't know what "normal" is, but I'm fairly sure I'm not part of it. Some people say that there is no "normal", but I disagree; I think it exists, but it's not what most people think it is. Anyway, there are many reasons why I don't think I'm normal. For one thing, I'm fine with not having many friends in person; most of my friends are online. Making friendships in person is not my thing. I'm very nervous around people, especially normal people. I didn't have a true girlfriend until I was almost 20, and that relationship lasted over 2 years. We met online but I visited her in person many times. Also, I'm currently living with a friend I met online and that seems to be going well.
Conversations with me tend to be difficult. I have a minor hearing impairment, and I don't speak very clearly, so there tends to be a lot of repeating going on. It's also often difficult for me to explain my thoughts coherently. I have a lot of trouble remembering people's names, faces, indentities, etc., so don't be offended when I forget who you are.
I like cats.
I've met most of my online friends on various They Might Be Giants fan communities, LiveJournal, and Furcadia. Many Furcadia users are part of the "furry" fandom, and many are not. Furries generally are interested in anthropomorphic animals - in other words, fantasy animals with human minds and characteristics. They often create artwork and stories based on this, and some even make animal costumes and wear them. Furries tend to have the reputation of being obsessed with sex, but that's not true for most of them. I like the artwork, but otherwise I don't consider myself to be a furry, although I'm interested in their culture.
Another thing that I think is unusual about me is that I hardly dislike anyone. I've gotten in arguments with people and lost friends but I still find it hard to dislike people, even if they seem to hate me. (Of course, I've never met any murderers or rapists, as far as I know.) However, I do dislike certain groups of people—by which I mean groups they've chosen to be in. When people get into groups, they often lose their individuality and do things they wouldn't normally do, sometimes very bad things. I think individuality is a very important thing but, at least in the U.S., people are too willing to give it up.
Speaking of the United States, I don't really like it. There are a lot of things I think are good about it, but they are outweighed by the negatives. I don't quite feel like getting into specifics, but I think this country has started to become the very opposite of what it pretends to be. Of course, I can't know everything; I admit that I could be wrong about this and everything else I've ever believed, but it's hard to know what's real anymore (if it was ever easy). Another big reason why I don't like living here is that, according to me, it's pretty much impossible to be a part of American society without contributing to some horrible evil (and it's my opinion that you're naïve if you think you know about more than a little bit of the evil that goes on).
On the subject of recreational drug use: I don't think you should do that. I've never even been drunk, partially because I've seen what a life of drugs and alcohol can do to you. Still, it's your decision and I don't think they should be illegal. I also think it's absurd that the legal drinking age in this country is 21. People under 21 are going to get drunk no matter what the age minimum is, and having it illegal just makes it worse. I think the biggest problem with drugs is that they're illegal; if they were legalized, things like drug-related violence would basically go away. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be problems with the legalization of drugs, but I consider it a much lesser evil.
I value honesty. I try to be as honest as possible. I think we'd all be better off if everyone were able to just speak the truth all the time, but that's not how our society functions.
The end.
Last Update: December 21, 2007.