My LJ history will import soon, but I guess I should do an introduction post. Even if only one person will see this (I'll have to see if I can grow my circle as I haven't been getting a lot of meaningful social interactions outside of my house).

I'm a 36-year old man living in the Seattle area. Born and grew up here, I live in a house with my wife and metamour (I'm polyamorous, though the only person I'm currently in a romantic relationship with is my wife). I mostly work in the tech industry. I used to work at Nintendo (worked in their call center and wrote gameplay walkthroughs for them), but now mostly work Microsoft contracts these days (the work isn't quite as interesting as Nintendo, but it pays more and lets me live a nice lifestyle).

I'm a big pet person. I have two dogs (Pepper: boston terrier mix, Chewbacca: boxer/bulldog mix) and three cats (Schrodinger and Kitler, though Yuna really belongs to my metamour). Over the years that I've lived with my wife, we've had mice, rats, and a hedgehog (I think we're done with small rodents for now, they are rather difficult to clean up after).

Now to the controversial stuff. :) I'm agnostic, raised Christian. I have no problems with anyone being religious, as long as it's not used to justify bad behavior (which I sadly see a lot of). I do tend to criticize modern, organized religion, but there's a lot of nuance around that, so my feelings are more complex than just this statement (we'll see how much I get yelled at on here about that).

Politically, I'd consider myself center-left. I'm very onboard with equality, and would consider myself progressive. That said, I've found a lot of people that identify as left lean more towards regressive rather than progressive. There are many people like this around me, so I'm not very outspoken when it comes to politics.

I also enjoy dark humor a lot, which is something that tends to ostracize me (I've found that a lot of people are okay with this humor until it targets a group that they're a part of). If you can laugh at stuff like South Park, Dave Chappelle, Don Rinkles, Tosh...it's likely we'll get along fine (as long as you realize it's humor and it's not meant to be taken 100% seriously all the time).

I used to be a huge party person; I used to live with several other people at a time and have regular house parties (maybe 20 to 50 people). These days I don't tend to have quite so many or with so many people. Nowadays I'm a bit quieter, and mostly spend time doing stuff around the house or playing video games.

So that's the quick and dirty!

...I think I'm one of the few people that believe that teenagers shouldn't be coddled, and I'm sure I'm going to get called a little cold for saying that.

I guess I just see teenagers enter the real world and not being very prepared since mommy and daddy treated them as the Perfect And Only Snowflake In The World. Yeah, there're some dangerous things and people in the world. It's called, well, Life. You interact with soceity and you take that chance every day.

The world can be an amazing place but it can also be ugly. When I have kids, I want them to be prepared and while I will love them with all my heart, they will need to fail and learn from their mistakes. No lies, no wool over the eyes.

This isn't really directed at anyone I know in particular, but I'll read news stories or FB/LJ posts. Perhaps some people do this on purpose to keep kids in line with their beliefs and values, or because they have a hard time accepting the face that their child grows up someday.

If you tell a friend about an aspect of yourself and they cut you out of their life, maybe they weren't really a great friend anyway.

Yeah.

Maybe that's why I'm quiet these days. Don't really feel like getting into arguments with friends. ^_^

Today would've been Lisa's birthday. She was an LJ friend from NY that just randomly friended me one day out of the blue. She was awesome. :) We had some really nice LJ conversations.

She died a few years ago in a car accident, IIRC. Her sister made the announcement and it was really hard to believe. She wasn't a huge part of my life, but...she was great.

Just remembering her today. I don't pour 40s so I'll have to have a drink for her tonight.

Not a huge amount to write about that wouldn't be a lot whining/bitching. I mean, no, things aren't bad, but money has been tight and it's been getting dark out, so that means mostly hanging out at home (which isn't bad, just means not a lot of new stuff going on).

Might be getting an iPhone for Christmas...maybe. It'll just be easier for Whitney and I to be on the same plan, and they have a stylus that I can use on it.

Health has been rocky lately. Some stuff is TMI, and though I've been going to the gym at least twice a week (better than nothing!), I think I still feel myself "slipping"...and this does nothing for my mood.

Work's work. I really haven't worked on furthering myself lately. Just by the time I get home my brain is usually melted to the point where anything beyond routine chores or gaming is a huge, huge effort.

But no, you know, things are okay. Seeing Dan, James, Lauren, and Kevin the other week did a lot for me. Whitney has been very good to me and I'm really happy with her. :)

I miss my friends and I don't think I see them much for a few reasons, though it varies from person to person. Then there a few (ex?) friends that I'm fairly confident that I will never see again...

Bah. Nevermind! I'll focus on this later. Back to work for a few minutes, then I'm GONE for a five-day weekend. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!!

Forgot to send a (beleted) birthday shout-out to Collie, Karl, and Reneé! Hope you all had a good one! :)

Yes, I sugar-coat. It's bad, I try not to. It's just really hard. I don't think I know how to be honest without being insulting if my opinion is less than positive. Or is that even possible? Or maybe I just think about it too much?

I want to be more honest, but I get too scared of hurting the person's feelings if it's not a 100% positive opinion. Not sure I could ever be ruthless.

Hm.

Let's see...what's been going on...

Renewed the lease on the apartment for another four months. Anne moved out and Colin is still there. I'm not looking forward to the increased rent, but it is what it is right now.

I'm in my new desk at work. It's massive. I like it, though don't really need all the space. ^_^

Been playing WoW with Whitney and Colin. Currently doing the Midsummer Festival quests.

Saw Arren at Safeway the other day, which was cool since I haven't seen him since...hm, since the Weng House I think. ^_^

Yeah, not much else at the moment, but things are okay. Oh! Went all of today with no caffeine. I'm not sure how I'm still awake...