25 Random Facts

1. I suspect I smell bad at least 80 per cent of the time.

2. Signing up to be a journalist when I was 18 has influenced my person greatly. I have a fierce interest in politics and government, and am often found boring the hell out of everyone at dinner parties as I drone on about how inequitable this world is. When presented with the rare opportunity to stand up for the little guy, I do so with reckless abandon.

3. Sisqo's Thong Song has been stuck in my head for years, and I find myself humming it at least once a week. The phrase 'dumps like a truck' is unparalleled.

4. I attempt to live by the motto of "try not to be a bastard". My stance on racism, homophobia and sexism stems from that. My sarcasm does not.

5. I am left-handed. The three chords I can approximate on a guitar, however, are produced in a right-handed fashion, as is my Guitar Hero wailing.

6. I love to write, and attempt to blog about something each day as a way of indulging this. I periodically contemplate turning it into an enterprise, but fear it would suck the fun out of the endeavour quicker than Jar Jar Binks.

7. I can watch the original Star Wars trilogy without having the experience tarnished by the God awful-prequels. I cannot watch the Matrix without having it a little ruined by the terrible sequels.

8. To my mind, good art leaves you contemplating it long after you experienced it. I count Watchmen and The Wire as the best of their breed for this reason. I read Watchmen in a few days, and chewed it over for the next year. I finished The Wire last month, and still think about it constantly.

9. I am unapologetic about playing Dungeons and Dragons.

10. I credit my childhood love of comic books with my present love of writing and language. They exposed me to reading - and words such as "dimensional continuum" - at a young age.

11. My favourite superhero has always been Spiderman. I suspect this is because he is a desperate four-eyed nerd, and I ... may have been able to identify with him on some level.

12. As a child I wanted to be Spiderman or Wolverine very badly. This fantasy evaporated when I realised that there were no buildings in my city that were high enough to facilitate web-swinging, and that adamantium claws would be fun for the three days it took for me to be incarcerated for vandalism and murder.

13. The first CDs I ever owned were the Batman Forever soundtrack and Michael Jackson's HIStory, which I received, as requested, for Christmas alongside my first CD player. I coveted the Batman soundtrack solely for "Kissed by a Rose".

14. I was not cool in any way whatsoever until I was at least 16, and then likely only in my own mind.

15. Almost everything I say is an attempt to elicit laughter from others. I have trouble turning off my sarcasm, which can be difficult when meeting new people. Often I have made sincere statements and offended people who assume I mean the opposite. I like your hair!

16. I love video games, but am not any great fan of playing online. If I wanted to interact with people, I would not be playing video games.

17. The first CD I ever bought for myself was Smashing Pumpkins' 'Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'. It was the first band I ever grew obsessed with and I played the album on repeat for months, only stopping when my mother asked if I could stop flooding the house with 'music to slash your wrists by'.

18. I did not get drunk until well after my 18th birthday.

19. My hair has a long and varied history, much of it regrettable. I always had long hair as a child, and in primary school had a long, ringlet-ridden mullet. When I started high school I tied it into a ponytail that reached down to my ass. Upon deciding the mullet's time was done I grew out the fringe while keeping the back, leading to me looking like some '70s disco hippy. I then rocked shoulder-length hair, tied back at all times save two unco-operative pieces at the sides, for years. When I finally got the stones to cut it off, I died it purple and filled it with gel. Over the years I got increasingly bold and moved through the dye rainbow until I was sporting twelve-inch-long spikes sticking straight up with the consistency of concrete. These days I do nothing to my hair whatsoever, and routinely put off haircuts for years. I secretly believe I've already used up all my grooming time.

20. I prioritise internet access alongside electricity.

21. I try to recognise that things retain importance despite not holding my interest. I likely do this because, as a journalist, my profession and the system in which it sits is constantly attacked by others. It is rare for a dinner party to go by without someone - stranger or no - saying the media is pointless/wasteful/mean/broken, that journalists are stupid/bad spellers/mean/self-absorbed, that my newspaper is terrible/inferior/pointless or all of the above.

22. I really, really hate sport and it's position in this country. I struggle to integrate this pure stream of hatred with the previous point.

23. Anything set during a war immediately loses my interest.

24. I watch a lot of television shows, but never watch Australian television networks.

25. I am out of ideas.

This is a response to me being tagged or something by Luke on Facebook. I believe, through some techinical wrangling, that this will end up there as a not or whatever. Social networking FTW!