As for the first part, let’s see…

1. I love all things zombie. Since I discovered George A. Romero’s movies, I’ve turned into a zombie nut, and have bought a lot of DVDs, video games, books, comics, etc. with zombies (including variants such as the 28 Days Later infected). It’s hard to say why the genre appeals to me so much; maybe it’s because zombies force us to look at ourselves with brutal honesty, sometimes for the first time. Plus, I love “what if” scenarios such as a world-wide zombie apocalypse: what would I do? Probably not survive long, but I’d sure try.
2. I love unintentional humor, that is, things that weren’t intended to be funny, but somehow are. For instance, bad translations (such as in many video games), or the crude anti-communism in 60s Marvel comics (“We have no choice! Our communist overlords will slay us if we fail in our mission!”), or some “odd” titles (“Giant-Size Man-Thing”).
3. I’m usually shy in person (much more so than on the Internet), especially with people I’ve just met. Except after a few drinks; then it’s hard to shut me up. I don’t become “dumb” or violent, though, like some people do when they drink.
4. I love learning and solving problems, but after everything is working perfectly and there’s no more room for improvement, I usually get bored with my own solution, and start looking for something new to challenge me — even if it involves replacing my “perfect” solution with something else in need of improvement. Similarly, once I exchanged an 8-bit computer for an inferior one, simply because it was completely different, and new to me, while I knew mostly everything about the one I had.
5. I’ve loved computer and video games since I was 6 (I’m 32). Before then, I remember that I was usually bored, as a kid; most things I did became repetitive and predictable after a while, and I didn’t have any real friends back then. Computer games were my “salvation”, because there’s always something new — they’re “a world that never ends”, to quote Machinae Supremacy. My interests are more varied these days, but I don’t know how I’d have survived the otherwise absolute, insanity-inducing boredom of my childhood and early adolescence without computer games.
6. I dream of one day earning enough money to live comfortably from my blogs and sites, without a day job. Yet, contradictorily, I blog about things that interest me, such as philosophy, atheism, blogging, and personal stuff (all of which earn me virtually nothing — after all, there are no related products for advertisers to sell), and for serious money-making I should be writing about gadgets, phones, personal development and similar stuff. I guess I’m too honest not to write about what I want.
7. I have a curious mix of confidence and lack of it. I know I am capable of just about anything if I put my mind to it, but I’m always afraid of not putting my mind to it if I try to do something, either due to laziness or fear of failure. In other words, I usually succeed if I try… and I know it… yet quite often I don’t try. This is something I should do something about.
8. I get a little bored with Italian and Mexican food (both very popular here in Portugal), but I love Portuguese, Chinese, Israelite and especially Japanese cuisines.
9. I can trace my loves of reading, fantasy, Tolkien, and the English language to one 1982 computer game, The Hobbit. More on that story here.

And I guess that’s it. With an extra one, too.
Now, I hope you’ll forgive me, but I won’t be tagging anyone. Many members of PA have already been tagged, and I’m too lazy to go check which have been, and which haven’t. But if you read this and, for some reason, haven’t been tagged yet, feel free to consider yourself tagged.

While I’m guessing that most people who come from those social bookmarking sites are more technically inclined than the norm (seen, for instance, in the stats – there are almost twice as many Firefox users as there are Internet Exporer ones), still, as this is not a technical blog, and many people also come here from search engines, or through links in other blogs or sites, it’s possible that you don’t know about this “feeds” stuff.

Feeds are, quite simply, a way to “subscribe” to the site. Just click on this icon on the sidebar: (or on this very one, right here), and you’ll get some instructions on how it works. For an even easier tutorial, see here – it’s written by me, but don’t let that put you off.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to bother with feed readers, you can simply get new articles by email. You never get more than one email per day, even if there are more than one post. And the service is provided by FeedBlitz; I don’t even get to know your email address, so you don’t have to worry about your privacy.

If you already knew about all that stuff, I apologize.

Now, on a more personal note, today (August 25) is my last day of employment! Yes, starting from tomorrow, I’ll be working at home, as a freelance blogger and writer. Therefore, my other blogs will finally get some needed attention, and I may even start a couple of new ones. For some of my reasons for not wanting to have a “normal” job any more, see this brilliant post by Steve Pavlina, 10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job. I, myself, will probably write about this subject in the future.

And now for something completely different! While it may currently seem otherwise, this blog is not just about atheism. I have been writing about it a lot, because my “16 myths” post was incredibly popular, and the hundreds of comments I received inspired me to address several other points about atheism, Christianity, and religion in general. But, while I’ll certainly write more about it in the future, there are also other subjects I want to write about, much like I did in the past; just click on any of the categories in the huge list on the right to see some of my past articles about other topics.

Finally, if you’re new here, welcome to Way of the Mind. I hope you enjoy your stay.