DU3 Reintroduce yourself thread

[hifiguy]

48. Hello, DU peeps!

I am hifiguy, an allusion to my principal hobby, High End home audio, which I have written about in print magazines and now on the intertubes for the last 15 years.

I am an atheist, dx'd Aspergers, and a Social Democrat with Structural Marxist leanings. I was born and raised in the Minneapolis area. I am a graduate of the same law school as the POTUS and FLOTUS, the latter of whom was a classmate of mine.

I've bombed out at most jobs I've had because I am basically asocial and, like most Aspies, can't read people for sour owl crap, which is a serious disadvantage in a highly social profession. I have never had a date, much less a relationship - I've never had a lot of stability in my life, and venturing into that pool seems like a disastrous recipe for catastrophic instability. And I'm old enough now that I have pretty much lost interest.

Music - classical from pre-Bach to Vaughan Williams, 1950s and 1960s jazz, and classic rock (especially English prog) - is my obsession and first love. I have played bass guitar for nearly 40 years; my favorite players and biggest influences are Jaco Pastorius, Phil Lesh, Chris Squire, Jack Bruce and Jack Casady.

I serve as staff to one large (18-20 lb) Turkish Van rescue kitty called Butch - because he reminded me of a feline version of one of those cartoon bulldogs that were always called Butch or Spike. My previous cat, Max, passed at 16 from kidney failure in August, 2010 and I cried every day for weeks. I have loved these cats more than any human being I have ever known.

I was unemployed for three and a half years at one point, losing my car and getting foreclosed out of my home. I have suffered from major depressive episodes but am on the right meds and feel better than I have in years; I am gainfully employed at the present time.

My first hero who wasn't a baseball player was Robert F. Kennedy. I love to read history, current events, politics, biography and philosophy. I have read all 20 of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin books twice and am gearing up for another re-reading. My intellectual heroes include Carl Sagan, Reinhold Niebuhr, Richard Dawkins, Ronald Dworkin and Laurence Tribe, with whom I studied in law school.

I devoutly wish that I had the gift for math that so many on the autistic spectrum have. I would have become a cosmologist, a theoretical physicist or an astronomer. Alternately, I'd love to blow things up on MythBusters for a living.

I am a (long-suffering) Vikings fan and also a Twins fan; I became a Celtics fan while living in the Boston area for three years. Can't stand hockey - OK in person but utterly unintelligible on the tube.

I was once known as MN_ChimpH8r and FKA_MNChimpH8r back in 2005-09 and spent a year posting at HuffPo before getting tired of the trollz and returning to DU, the best online community I have ever found.

There's lots more, too.