I like...

• learning
• photography (see my photography philosophy)
• reading (see my book reviews)
• knowing and understanding as much as possible about an issue before deciding
• being corrected — I'd rather be eventually right than always wrong
• hiking / taking long walks, either alone or with good company
• working with numbers, including statistics
• over-analyzing anything
• being alone
• sleeping / dreaming
• most music
• charts, tables, graphs
• yard work
• finding new uses for old things
• figuring out things for myself
• asking questions (and getting answers)
• order and organization

I dislike...

• being misunderstood
• surprises
• unnecessary noise
• things that don’t make sense
• Daylight Saving Time
• current state of the English language
• poor use of language
• games of chance
• confrontation
• when easily correctable things go uncorrected
• crowded rooms
• formulaic media (books, movies, music)
• unethical business practices — auto salesmen for example
• preventable waste
• planned obsolescence
• rudeness
• violence without reason

Books:

See: My book reviews

• 1984 (George Orwell)
• The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins)
• The Better Angels Of Our Nature (Steven Pinker)
• Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein)
• Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
• The Stand (Stephen King)
• Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

Songs:

• Snoopy vs. The Red Baron (The Royal Guardsmen)
• Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin)
• Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns ‘N’ Roses)
• Thunderstruck (AC/DC)
• Locomotive (Guns ‘N’ Roses)
• Breath [In The Air] (Pink Floyd)

TV Shows:

• Supergirl (CW)
• American Gods (Starz)
• Westworld (HBO)

Movies:

See: Wil's Top 20 Movies list • My IMDb list

• Wonder Woman
• The Princess Bride
• Star Wars (all of them, but especially Rogue One)
• The Matrix
• Baby Driver

• Pre-school: Tokyo, Japan
• Kindergarten: Tokyo, Japan
• Grade 1: Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Grades 1-3: Nicoma Park Elementary, Choctaw, Okla.
• Grades 4-6: Nicoma Park Intermediate School, Choctaw, Okla.
• Grades 6-8: Bulverde Middle School, Bulverde, Texas
• Grades 9-12: Smithson Valley High School, Spring Branch, Texas
• College: Central Bible College, Springfield, Mo.
• College: San Antonio College, San Antonio, Texas

If it helps you complete a mental picture of me, here are some of the activities I’ve participated in:

• High school years: Marching band, choir, math club, chess club, Texas Boys State, founded and published a Christian youth newsletter.

• College years: drama club, intramural volleyball, volunteer DJ at college radio station, youth pastor, preacher, sign language choir.

• Later adult life: Environmental advocacy, civil rights marches.

Before becoming a full-time homemaker, I held a variety of jobs and was gainfully employed for about 21 years. My jobs included: gas station operator, grocery stocker/cashier (for four different chains in four cities and three states), fast-food cook/cashier/manager (for three different chains in three states), clown, church janitor, telemarketing (for only three days!), bar-coder at a jeans factory, writer/photographer/editor at a small-town daily newspaper, and free-lance photographer.

The newspaper job was the longest duration for me, at about eight years. My grocery years combined come in second at about six years; divided by company, they would come in second, third, and sixth. Those are the only two job types with which I ever identified.