short form: I am a 41 year-old writer/web developer living on Maui. I enjoy carving statues of 11 of the 12 apostles out of soap, collecting lint from around the world, racing box turtles, counting seeds in a fig newton, and generally making the world a better place by fucking with morons as often as I can.
long form: A while ago someone asked my what series of experiences lead me to think and behave as I do. I could have said any number of things that would probably satisfy such curiosity and avoid a long discussion, but I chose to tell the truth. Here it is…
When I was young (say five or six), people would tell me things I knew were complete bullshit. Adults tend to make stuff up when either they are unsure of the answer or are too busy to find an adequate way of explaining things to people they think are beneath them. I grew to despise people who would lie to me to save themselves the trouble and I began to go out of my way to show these people up. I didn’t do this with malicious intentions, but purely selfish ones… I didn’t want to be someone they felt they could lie to again. This belief continues to this day, albeit, the rules to my game are a lot more complex.
I believe in telling the people the truth if they ask for it. While I rarely will confront someone who is lying in general, I have no problem calling them out if they lie to me directly. I also preface any conversation with someone who requests my honest opinion with this : “Do you want me to tell you the truth, or do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?” While some people believe the two ideas are the same, in practice, the two ideas are about as similar as oprah’s ass and and a postage stamp.
Add to this my growing displeasure with the self-righteous zealots who think they know what is best for me. Whether they are Republicans/Christians (I slash them together because these days, they are one and the same) hell-bent on saving me from myself or eco-facists trying to scare me into giving up my free will, I seem to be unable to play nice when it comes to destroying their rhetoric filled belief systems.
You can always reach me at e@inherentlydifferent.com
