Five things: Part however many times I've done this

I passed by Cooper's latest (or maybe by the time this hits, second latest) post and as such was hit with a tag for the Five things meme. So... five things that I haven't already spilled here.

1: It very slightly annoys me whenever I hear the phrase, "I'm no Boy Scout," or in fact, to hear people refer to Superman as the Big Blue Boy Scout because I was once and am still now an Eagle Scout and, well, it's hardly a secret that I partake of many of the activites that these "no Boy Scouts" define themselves with. In fact, most of the people I know who are Eagles or were once Scouts would fit the phrase's alleged meaning, except for, well, the fact that they were Scouts.

Though it should be noted that I do have a significant amount of beef with the Scouts, because they still exclude atheists and agnostics and have ten tons of homophobia. Also the fact that they've clung to those fugly uniforms and moreover that grown men involved in scouting--usually middle aged fat men-- wear them enthusiastically is almost as off-putting. I ditched that thing as soon as I left the organization and will never don it again.

2: It's no secret that I'm a fan of webcomics; there are forty links to the left that proudly state that fact. But I've twice been involved in projects that sort of, well, went belly up doubleplusfast. As for the first one, three strips were produced. They now only exist in a singular hardcopy printout, which is now hanging on my wall. I will not mince words. They utterly suck and were the halfassed product of two high school sophomores. The other one resulted in a completed storyline that was, I thought, awesome. The problem is that they never made it to the webs as this time an artist who was more than willing to collaborate ducked out because he didn't want to have to deal with photoshopping the comic. I've since vowed only to enter into something if an artist was seeking a writer or if I have some other way of assuring that it'll get off the ground.

3: I ascribe to the Many Worlds theory; which states that every possible outcome of every quantum event exists as a separate or parallel universe. As each event branches out into several others, this means that the number of parallel universes is unquantifiably infinite (yes there are different flavors of infinity. Think of it like this. A line stretches forever in either direction. A plane stretches forever in four directions. Therefore, while there are infinite points on both, there are clearly more points on the plane than on the line). And no, this isn't just because I'm a science fiction fan. I find it to be the natural conclusion of the quantum paradoxes that exist as I've come to understand them through my reading of Stephen Hawking.

4: I am an absurdist, which is to say that I believe that attempts to find meaning in the Universe will ultimately fail and are thus absurd. I've been said to be an absurdist in other senses too, and that may be true as well. More accurately however, I believe that the answerable questions have more meaning within them than the unanswerable ones. Or, to put it more succinctly, "You're not going to find the Answers, and if you do, you won't understand them. So cut out that nonsense and come to the pub with me." It may be easier to understand this perspective if you've read Douglas Adams. I also believe that everything is interconnected. These two beliefs may seem to not be in concert, but they are because I say they are, dammit.

5: I'm a science fiction fan but think that Orson Scott Card is an utter douchebag.

No wait that's trivial shit hold on

5.1: Like Cooper, I've taken up poker as a pastime. I'm ranked #22,907 out of the 1 million plus players on the facebook Texas Hold 'Em app, which suggests that I'd be a lot better than I actually am. It's of course a lot harder to sniff out a bluff when you're not facing the person but I rely on the same arcane sense that wins me match after match of online Rock Paper Scissors. Completely useless talent, but fun.

I'm going to use the same tagging rationale as Cooper; If you've read this and have a blog, consider yourself tagged.

If you're just tuning in after the admittedly too-long drought there's another recent post before this one.