I was inspired by this blog post from one of my favorite bloggers who writes about social media. He gave an open invitation to readers of his blog to follow suit and reveal eight interesting things about themselves to the world through their blog.

Here is my eight:

1. I am chubby at around 200 lbs. and wear my hair closely cropped at the cusp of hitting 37 years old. Most people who know me today probably don’t know that from my teens to my late 20’s I was a bit skinny and wore my hair to about shoulder length. I was at 155 lbs. for a long time and was fashionably long-haired.

2. I am a serious guitar hobbyist. I have been playing guitar on and off since I was in high school with a long break of about seven years where I did not play at all. I rediscovered my love for the guitar in 2005 and just a few months ago started learning proper technique and music theory with the help of an excellent guitar teacher.

3. My guitar dream is to be able to play blues slide guitar like Duane Allman and Derek Trucks. I have a serious jones for blues-based Southern Rock and consider myself an aspiring bluesman!

4. My other guitar dream is to form a band with middle-aged dudes like myself who came of age in the 80s and to play the Independence Day Philippine Festival in Washington DC. I’d like us to play a few 80s hair band covers but also develop a repertoire of Pinoy Rock classics from Wolfgang, Razorback, Lokomotiv, Juan de la Cruz, Maria Cafra, The Dawn, Judas, etc.

5. I am an avid collector of Pinoy Rock music although I live in Washington DC in the US. I especially like the music from the alternative rock band explosion in the early to mid-90s like the Eraserheads, Sandwich, Wolfgang, Razorback, The Dawn, Color it Red, the Jerks, Agaw Agimat, Yano, Rivermaya, Buklod, etc. I even have a few collectors’ items like cassette tapes of the Jerks Live! and three LA 105.9 FM compilations.

6. I am a Red Diaper baby who was raised by parents in the 1970s under Martial Law in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos. Consequently, for a long time, I considered myself a Marxist. Or at least, class conscious along Marxist terms of class struggle, who controls ownership of production, and an aversion to capitalism.

7. Through time I became disillusioned with Marxism although I still consider myself to be a very liberal-progressive type of person in my political views.

8. I love eating pork rinds.