Favorite movies:

• The Lord of the Rings (all three)
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Lethal Weapon (they're all great, but especially 1 and 2)
• Schindler's List
• Good Will Hunting
• A Few Good Men
• Weekend at Bernie's (beyond hilarious)
• Underworld
• The Green Mile
• Bedazzled
• The Patriot
• Glory

Favorite books:

• Stephen King - Misery
• Joel Rosenberg - The Guardians of the Flame (series)
• Glen Cook - The Annals of the Black Company (series)
• Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park
• Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever (series)
• J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings (series)

Favorite albums/CDs:

• Dream Theater - Awake
• Enchant - Break
• Rush - Moving Pictures
• Vanden Plas - The God Thing
• Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
• Eric Johnson - Ah Via Musicom
• Redemption - The Fullness of Time
• Zero Hour - Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond
• Conception - Flow
• Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter

Favorite artists:

• Dream Theater
• Enchant
• Fates Warning
• Queensryche
• Pain of Salvation
• Yes
• Conception>

Favorite guitarists:

• John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Joe Satriani
• Rik Emmett (currently solo, formerly with Triumph)

Favorite keyboardists

• Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)
• Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater)
• Andre Anderson (Royal Hunt)
• Rick Wakeman (Yes)

Favorite vocalists:

• Roy Khan (Conception, Kamelot)
• Daniel Gildenlow (Pain of Salvation)
• Ray Alder (Fates Warning, Redemption)
• Ted Leonard (Enchant)
• Brad Delp (Boston)
• Lou Gramm (Foreigner)
• Chris Salinas (Zero Hour, ex-Power of Omens)
• Geoff Tate (Queensryche)
• James LaBrie (Dream Theater)

Favorite drummers

• Neil Peart (Rush)
• Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
• Mark Zonder (Fates Warning)
• Phil Collins (on early solo stuff & with Genesis)
• Alex Arellano (ex-Power of Omens...he's unbelievable)

Pet peeves (since we've covered favorites, here's the other side)

• Traffic congestion (esp. for no reason other than driver stupidity or rubber-necking)
• Obnoxious children with no discipline or manners and their parents who ignore their bad behavior.
• Locked doors at stores:  Have you ever been walking into or out of a store, push (or pull) on one of the doors at the entrance, and it's locked?  I don't know why, but that drives me up the wall!!  If they're always going to keep one of them locked, then why does it have the stupid "Push/Pull" sign on it!?!? It should have a "Locked For No Apparent Reason" sign instead!! :-)
• Lack of quality in goods and service.
• Poor customer support.
• Barking dogs and the people that own them and leave them outside to bark all the time, disturbing the neighborhood (esp. early morning or at night). Either keep them outside, train them not to bark (those anti-barking collars?), or give the dog to someone who will. Don't get me wrong...I love dogs, but I also love peace and quiet. There's no reason we can't have both.
• Lazy people who expect society (ie. me and you) to take care of them and feel it's their "right" that we provide for them.
• Unfairness, in all its many forms.
• Poor grammar and spelling, especially in the media (books, TV, magazines, etc).
• Being ripped off or cheated in a business setting, even if it's an unsuccessful attempt.
• Government waste, government's poor judgement, and "politics for the sake of politics."
• People who have been "educated beyond their intelligence" (my brother's saying), which means that they hold degrees and/or certifications and claim to be "educated" or brilliant in some way, but when you get right down to it they're simply full of hot air.
• "Buzz word" freaks, especially in the technology area.  Many people love throwing around the latest terminology and acronyms, even though they don't fully understand it, simply to make themselves sound knowledgeable or "cool."  In other words, they know the terms and use them, but don't really understand them (it's frightening how many people fit this category).
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