Five Words
Ask in comments and I'll give you five words I associate with you, for you to expound upon as you see fit. These are from jazzfish. (And I'm only getting around to it now because I've been very busy lately and you'll just have to deal. I bet you thought I forgot about it, didn't you?)
Hair - This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius? Well, like I said before, I've only really ever had two hairstyles: "long" and "short." Throughout my childhood my hair was terribly difficult to manage, tending to stick out in odd places unless it was cut just right - and not too many stylists could get it just right. While my peers were experimenting with interesting twists on haircuts, my hairstyle remained pretty much the same. Then I graduated college and, due largely to my being lazy, started to grow it out, only to have it cut recently for my sister's wedding. I have to admit, I kind of like the length it's at now - hanging just past my shoulders instead of hanging down past my waist.
Mascotting - The number one question I get asked about it is "is it hot in there?" (or some variant) and the answer is... well, yeah. Of course. It's basically a fur-covered convection oven. Take the outside temperature, and then add between 20 to 40 degrees, depending on the costume and humidity (not kidding). It's one of those environmental hazards that comes with the job. One which we (the performers) usually happily endure, because the job is fun.
Imagine being removed from the social contract - living out the fantasies of those around you; being able and even encouraged to do things that might otherwise get to arrested, or at least thrown out of whereever you happen to be, and getting little kids to smile (most of the time). Like I said: fun.
Comics - Which I find weird would be associated with me by you, Jazzfish, not because I don't read them, but because I don't recall talking about them much around you. But anyway - comics. I don't remember any time that I've not read them in some form - starting with Calvin and Hobbes when I was in elementary school, to reading the TopCow X-Files comic, to devouring the graphic novel collections. I never really got into Superhero comics as such - I didn't have the money or the patience to try and break into the marvel or Dc universes, but I know enough of their conventions and cliches to enjoy the sort of superhero: deconstructed sub-genre. (Watchmen, Powers, etc.) and going on to the not insignificant money I drop on them now at my friendly local comic shop.
I'm current reading Fables, Jack of Fables, DMZ, 100 Bullets, The Walking Dead (incidentally, just picked up for a TV series by AMC), Thieves and Kings (a delightful indie-fantasy story out of Canada), and Bone. Oh, and I'm (very slowly) reading through the master Peanuts collection.
Games - A bit of a broad category, no? I came to gaming orignally through Decipher's Star Trek CCG, then on to the Babylon 5 CCG, then Munchkin, then Looney Labs (through equal parts The Stone and the Gamers Association of Penn State - where I did not even go to school), and then everything else. I currently have two bookshelves dedicated to gaming - one for my RPG books, the other for my board and card games. Actually, make that 2.5, to cover the boxes of CCG cards that I have on the bookshelf in my bedroom. Buy games has gotten to the point that I plan out my big purchases one or two in advance. Now if only I had a local group that was keen on playing regularly and when I was available.
Icehouse - I was first introduced to the Icehouse line at Origins... '01, maybe? I remember it was at a Babylon 5:CCG Tournament and one of the other players had just picked up the Zendo boxed set. (Zendo, incedentally, remains my favorite Icehouse game.) The actual game Icehouse eluded me forever - the concept appealed to me (especially as described in The Empty City), but I just had this overwhelming mental block regarding the rules. I finally learned the game itself when taught to play it by ee0r (who I think was the second person to try to teach me, and after my attempts to teach others in the hopes of getting some opponents and figuring out the strategy as a group failed miserably). Two tournaments later, I'd still consider myself a very new player - the only real opponents I have are at Origins - but it's still fun. Lesson learned this year: the game involves just as much diplomacy and table-talk as it does clever/dexterous piece placement. More so in my case, because my piece placement is neither clever nor dexterous.