[1] I used to be moderately obese during my early teenage years.

[2] Even as a young man, I used to cry very easily, as well as get angry very easily. I have since gotten better at pretending indifference.

[3] Well into the early years of high school, I used to play by myself in a sandlot in my parents' backyard. I still can't pass by a Lego store without feeling strong nostalgia for those happy and solitary evenings.

[4] Many significant shifts in my life, including the geographical migration to this new world, and even more recently the getting the job position I am currently employed in, were in part triggered by certain relationships and certain women. And I often wonder, is this because in my mind I unconsciously link love to having to prove myself some external other?

[5] In my subconscious, I wrestle with the ideas of "suffering" (and relatedly "sin")and "happiness" (and the question, "what is good?") constantly. Which is why I think Woody Allen's dark comedies appeal to the optimistic pessimist in me.

Note: Elizabeth had tagged me with this meme: "Five things you may not know about me". And since I am supposed to infect others, you, kind reader, if you are reading this bathetic list, consider yourself tagged.

Heart, you disfigured calf, You sacrificial lamb, How you low, How you bleat, When I load you up On the speculative raft again, For another run Down the rushing rapids, By the past maimed wreckages, And through hidden currents' swirl!

Trust me, my pet, even if We have to claw our way Back here, through scrub And stone, once again, We will skate through, along A clear line of beauty, To the sea one day.