[Groop] Other than Groo

[Tone]

	I was looking back at some e-mails I have had with Ryan apart
from the Groop, and started thinking about interests other than Groo.
Ryan and I have told each other about some hobbies and we also discussed
whether the sense of humor Groo fans seem to share might be spawned from
birth or developed through reading Groo. This got me thinking about what
other Groopies out there might be into.

As one example of a Groopy's interests these are some of my interests:
	- Bicycling,
Urban cycling and road touring. If people did not know already, I
actually work as a cycle courier in New York City and I ride a cargo
bicycle. I have toured parts of Europe, took road trips to Upstate New
York as well as Philly, and I brought and used my bike as my only means
of transportation when I went on a business trip to Tokyo. I use my
cargo bike for EVERYTHING (Moves, Home Depot, and CostCo included), and
I do not even has a driver's license. I volunteer with the NY Bike
Messenger Association and have participated in numerous local and
international cycle messenger competitions. I even organize a charity
Thanksgiving messenger race called Cranksgiving every year on my own.
	- Graphic design,
Digital and mostly logo/trademark-type stuff. I majored and graduated
with honors in computer graphics animation, but as you can tell by my
primary profession I do not do computer animation for a living. I guess
I do not want to be stuck making car commercials. :)
	- Obscure animation,
Mostly older foreign NON-Disney stuff, claymation, and stop-motion
based. This is probably why I got into computer animation, the love of
making things come to life. I suppose I just do not want to make things
come to life in the marketing field, which might try to sell things that
can ruin life in general.
	- Pan/Satyr's,
I am into the mythology of Pan, and play the Pan flute occasionally by
improvisation only, as well as have about five Pan flutes and some
statuettes. I am actually planning on selling one or two of the flutes
and figurines though. I even made a rather impressive Satyr costume for
Halloween once. One of my favorite statues is "Pan Comforting Psyche" by
Richard Degas.
	- Medieval/Fantasy Thieves,
I use to play Dungeons & Dragons and would almost always play the role
of a thief. Since then I have always been interested in old-world
Thievery, tactics, and tools. I also made a nice Thief costume for
Halloween complete with a gray leather lock-pick roll I stitched by hand
and a black velvet cloak. I still sometimes find things to upgrade the
costume. :) I have all three of the "Thief" PC games, and I even have
the "Thievery" mod for the original Unreal Tournament PC game, where
people can play in a multiplayer setting as guards or thieves, stealing
and sneaking rather than shooting everything up. I also occasionally
host my own UT-Thievery server (in case anyone is into it).
	- Video/PC gaming,
Speaking of gaming, I am into multiplayer games other than Thievery.
Sometimes I still play that old Unreal Tournament game on-line in a
multiplayer setting, but when I am not sneaking and stealing in Thievery
I prefer to shoot-'em-up in the Halo Xbox realm. In my apartment I have
a Local Area Network (LAN) and have been known to host Halo Xbox LAN
parties, where I have had up to almost a dozen people playing in three
different rooms. Apart from the very occasional LAN party (In the NY
area it seems hard to coordinate a bunch of people for any kind of
gathering), I sometimes play Halo 2 on-line through Xbox Live under the
username "TONE 8". I just recently won an auction for some Groo
T-shirts, and I fully intend to wear the Groo Cheese Dip shirt while
gaming. I figure playing a fighting game like Halo would match the Groo
battling mentality, and the Cheese Dip shirt would match some of the
snacking, which goes on simultaneously. :)
	- Martial Arts,
Back in high school I took about three years of Korean Tae Kwon Do and
advanced a number of belts. Maybe I got into that instead of other
sports because of Groo's influence. :) I still have some of my
flexibility from that. Since then after I graduated college, I started
training in Vee Arnis Jujitsu, which is a combination of Thai
kick-boxing, Brazilian Capoeira foot-work and tumbling, Filipino
knife/stick fighting, and Jujitsu grappling. I was only to train in it
one day a week for a year due to my work and internship schedule, then I
had to stop because of finances. Perhaps I got into it because it
incorporated dual-handed knife techniques, similar to Groo's two handed
sword fighting. :)
	- BDSM,
Perhaps this is getting a bit personal, but I am somewhat into Bondage,
Discipline, and a bit of Sadism... all in a safe manner with my
consenting and sane girlfriend of course! We have a long-term live-in
relationship and understanding where she is pretty much my submissive. I
really hope I am not offending anyone, particularly the women on the
list. I am not at all sexist. I just happen to be a dominant male, who
is also attracted to women. By no means do I want to restrain and
degrade women in the general population! I just want to dominate the one
woman I love and am deeply close with. I am a member of the oldest and
largest educational, activist, and social BDSM group in the country, so
I engage in BDSM in a responsible manner. Being a member also allows me
to know many people of different sexes and preferences, so I am not
offended when I meet a woman, who happens to like dominating men. This
is my logic for why women should not be offended by me. I know the
stereotype for men is to subjugate women, but in the kink realm that is
just one perspective of many, so my preference is not considered sexist.
I know this interest might seem shocking and odd to include in any kind
of list, but I am really curious whether anyone into Groo might also be
into kink. I suppose Sergio's drawings of well-endowed endangered
maidens and shackled slaves may have had some influence on me.
	-Craft work/building,
I sometimes really enjoy designing then crafting and/or building things.
For living in a NY apartment, I probably have a generous amount of hand
and power tools. I tend to lay things out using my graphic design skills
in a computer aided manner to make sure measurements are accurate, then
I use my bike messenger skills to collect the various materials I need
from different sources in the city as well as from mail order catalogs,
etc, then I go ahead and build stuff. I have made custom furnishings for
my apartment, unobtainable parts for my bike from scratch, and even
unique gifts and pieces of jewelry. For instance, I did a comic trade
with Ryan from our Groop and he sent along a piece of rare blue stone
called Lapis Lazuli. When I got it I used my Dremel tool to form it into
a heart, then I gave it to my girl. She especially liked it because she
was a painting major and knew that Lapis Lazuli was used to make rich
blue paint centuries ago.

	You know... I think I may have gotten carried away in writing
all of this. Did I Err...? If so, I deeply apologize. Maybe I should
have waited to post this until there was a lull in the Groop. I suppose
it is good I stopped where I did because I THINK I might have a couple
of other interests. :)
_TONE_