Me in a Nutshell ("Let me out! Let me out!")

Don't let my name mislead you. I was born in the Philippines.

For those of you not familiar with the country, the Philippines are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Southeast Asia... and it's right smack dab in the middle of trade winds, so it's constantly visited upon by conquering peoples. Japanese. Spanish. American.

In other words, I'm a mutt.

As if that weren't enough to erase whatever ethnic identity I might have had, I lived in three different countries during my formative years. By the time I was five or six, I was as linguistically and socially confused as any child could be, and I used all three languages as one to my benefit. Whatever got my message across was fine by me.

In terms of religious identity, I have none.

I was raised a Catholic, but I quit after confession. My grandmother's a Mormon, and my mother has considered becoming a Jehovah's Witness. If you absolutely have to categorize me, put me in with the agnostic folk. I'm comfortable there.

As for political identity--ha!

I'm registered under no party affiliations. Extremes never sat well with me, and ideology tends to stagnate and become static or inflexible. I go for what's fair and practical, and I like having each issue addressed. As a whole, I guess you could say that I'm in the moderate area of American politics, socially tolerant and fiscally conservative, and these days, the left side of the spectrum seems to reflect that better than the right.

Ambiguous and apathetic, me? Maybe.

I simply don't like generalizations that ignore the gray areas, and I don't like package deals where you don't get to pick and choose the features or components. Don't ask me to ascribe to, or categorize myself in, one group or another. That's like having to choose between a PC or a Mac, when I use and like the various features in both. Or having to choose between a Packard Bell or an Aptiva when I'd rather have a custom-made Dell or Gateway computer. If I could, I'd create my own computer, my own operating system, and my own software.

Wouldn't you, if you could? So why follow a set of beliefs or ideas, when you can make up a set of your own?

Aha! My point exactly.

Details
• Statistics - just the basic facts
• Recreation - books, movies, and music (favorites and recommendations)