About Me (and some ramblings)

Appearance, Fashion, Diversions

Sam McGee is my name, I am 6 feet tall, Caucasian, brown hair, blue eyes, I'm not completely in shape but people say I have nice eyes.
I live in SW Missouri and I am a Cancer (July 13).
I also like Italian, Chinese, and Mexican food,
and I enjoy taking hot baths to relax myself when I'm tired or stressed out.

In fashion I like Rave-style polyester shirts and regular t-shirts, often to advertise the bands I like, in pants however I wear regular jeans or the baggy kind.
My shorts however are loose-fitting to relax anywhere.
In Springfield there is a decent store,
Hot Topic, there you can shop for Goth, Rave, Street, and Punk clothes (and for wannabes).

I sometimes have taken Ballet and Jazz dancing as well as the martial arts, it is a great thing to do, though I can't take those all the time since it's so expensive.
My training in dance happened at the
Ozarks Performing Arts Alliance/Branson Performing Arts Academy
The Sonnenberg family, who ran the school, are great people and taught me everything I know about dance as well as promoting my appreciation of Classical music and music influenced by Classical (see below)

I am a single guy, I seem to have bad luck with women, I am 24 years old and I would like pretty and nice girls who read this to drop me a line, anyone else can talk to me too, just don't be argumentative, I hate arguments, because it makes me sound like my father, and I want myself to be more soft-spoken, the worst thing is when someone says a particular thing and it gets me in a "mode".
And, you know, I am also saying now that if it is "triggered", I can have a temper, it can flare up terribly, but recently I have been trying to keep my cool and I'm alright...usually :-)
Anyhow, in the presence of a pretty girl my temper automatically simmers down, especially if she has any amount of sympathy, which I appreciate greatly if you know me and you have done so.

Tolkien and Dune and TV

I like some popular things as well as weird things, like the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but unlike the folks who saw the movie and are instant "fans" I liked his books before it and have "The Silmarillion", a condensed guide of the history of the "Lord Of The Rings"'s world, with many events occuring that were just as important if not more than the finding of the "One Ring".

And Frank Herbert's Dune series is some deep sci-fi reading, with politics, mysticism, environmentalism, and adventure, buy them all!
Plus the newer books by son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

I DON'T watch much TV, it's mainly video games, the Net, and movies I enjoy, the sitcoms are what annoy me the most, now if I had satellite I may just become a couch potato though. The sole exception is the best sitcom of all time.
Married...with Children
Very funny humor, characters, script, acting, and Christina Applegate doesn't hurt either.
Most people see the show for the first time and think it's filthy or trashy or whatever, but it eventually grows on you, my family being one example, we all watch the Bundys now.
See this website for more info
Bundyology

I love anything to do with Monty Python's Flying Circus

Renaissance Faires

Another sort of event I love to go and see are Renaissance Faires, they have good food
(and drink, like beer, ale, mead, cider, yum!)
and often have the most talented shows.

My favorite show at the Faires I go to is that of Scott Hendricks, aka Axel The Sot you may want to go to a faire just because of his eclectic and irreverent humor

Hendricks' music album of serious songs recently came out and is very good, he is talented even without comedy, it is heavily influenced by Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, though one song has a blatant Black Sabbath riff.

Movies

I love the Terminator movies, T2 is the best, but the first is a classic as well, and part 3 has a completely unexpected ending.

A Clockwork Orange and Braveheart
(as well as the aforementioned Lolita)
also rank as two of my favorite movies, the former is very odd though, Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal are great, too, Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors, he kept the movie "Hearts In Atlantis" from sucking, not to mention, if he wasn't casted as Hannibal Lecter, no one would know who Thomas Harris was.
(Silence and Hannibal's author)

Going Abroad

History is fun, especially Western Europe, although it all is wonderful, and anything having to do with British history is great since I have strong blood there.

I went to London last year, it was so exciting.
Must-sees include: The British Museum, Changing of the Guard, the Tower, Madame Tussaud's
(wax museum where you get to pose with the stars),
Westminster Abbey, the London Eye
(a 400 ft tall "ferris" wheel for observation of the city),
the underground subway system known as the "tube", and much more.
We (me and my sister) also went on a coach tour to the town of Salisbury where we saw its cathedral, then on to Stonehenge, and the village of Avebury, with stone circles you can get close to and touch unlike at Stonehenge.
The food was totally unlike American fare, allyoucaneat buffets and free drink refills are almost unheard of,and even the burgers, fries, and ketchup taste different.

I also did get to see the ruins of Kohunlich in Mexico in 2002, it is a Mayan ruin, and was not as vast as, say Chichen Itza, but it was really wonderful, highlights included climbing step-pyramids, seeing an ancient "ball game" field, and stone masks of the city's monarchs.

Religion?

I am a Christian, I love my Father, my three-fold Dad whose name is Yahweh, whose title is God, and was called in his physical body Jesus.
I believe the basic laws Moses gave the Israelites is still valid to follow, grace just means that thanks to the crucifixion I can just pray for forgiveness instead of sacrificing an animal.
And that we will rule the earth after the second coming (the "elect"), and eventually the galaxy, universe, and other planes of existence.
I am unsure on some doctrines commonly believed but I hate debating with people on things like that,
however, I think most mainstream churches are watered down and/or hypocritical.

Other Musical Tastes

Besides Progressive rock
(how I got my online name),
other kinds of music I like include:

Metal, in the vein of Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Ac/Dc, etc.
In Industrial, it's NIN, (some) Marilyn Manson, Tool, Garbage, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and others.
Also some Grunge bands are cool, the best are Soundgarden,
Alice In Chains (R.I.P. Layne Staley), Nirvana, early STP, and the harder songs of the Smashing Pumpkins.
I hate most Alternative, exceptions include Weezer and the Presidents of the USA.

Bridging the gap between good-sounding rap and good-sounding metal/grunge is another of my favorites,
Rage Against The Machine, fronted by Zack De La Rocha's all-too-true political lyrics, and by the innovative and often experimental guitar of Tom Morello. (the newer band Audioslave is good, it combines the band of RATM with Soundgarden's vocalist Chris Cornell, unfortunately many songs are quite tame due to the musicians getting older).

I hate most Rap/Soul of today, in the 80's the rappers could be funky and funny, in the 90's N.W.A. helped bring in gangsta rap, coolest in the west coast, talkin 'bout life in the streets, y'all.
Exceptions of today's hip-hop include Snoop Dogg and Ice-T for the former, and Alicia Keys and Aaliyah for the latter.

I can't stand Country,

The "Nu-Metal" has been popular now, it had honest beginnings like with Korn's raw first album, which was about real life things that messed up Jonathan Davis' mind, however, to me it seems that when they got the big bucks, their message got watered down, as happens too often, the same could be said about Limp Bizkit.
However there are some ok sounding groups in that genre like Godsmack and System Of A Down.
I DO like some Classical, especially the Piano-based composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin.
Many Russian (and Eastern European) composers also are very good, like Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Bartok.
However most Mozart and all Opera I cannot stand.

One alcoholic drink that is very good is one which many have not heard of, and here there is only one store that carries it,
Woodchuck Ciders
straight from a small plant in Vermont, and their best is from my favorite type of apple, Granny Smith, yummy!
And they don't give headaches when they wear off either.
I, though, love beer, and I constantly try new kinds, both imported and domestic, there's more I do like than I don't, the beers I dislike are Coors, Miller, Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee's Best, and Tequiza.
I love anything Anheuser-Busch as well.

Video Games

Besides RPGs, I like Fighting games, like Tekken and Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter II, the intelligent action-oriented Metal Gear games are great, I love the detail put into those, and also driving games can be fun.