Thursday, December 11, 2003

Tony -- A.K.A. Semjaza Azazel
I figured that, for this post, I'd do a version of Otaku History. My history for today is Semjaza Azazel, or Tony.

I first became aware of Tony's existance in the Music Forum when I ventured in there one day to talk to Flynn and Luci about Rasputina. At that point, I knew his name was Semjaza Azazel, but I always thought of it as Semjaza Azrael. Then came the "What's the OB name you always get wrong?" thread. And his name popped up constantly.

I guess I was sort of impressed by that, and when I downloaded AIM, he was one of the first people I spoke to.

I think originally I spoke to him to ask him about Rasputina. Anyway, we got talking and at some point I started raving about a band I'd just gotten into and absolutely loved: Jack Off Jill. I'd never met another person who'd even heard of Jack Off Jill, so when Tony did, I pretty much went into spasms of delight. I'd only just started getting into that music, but Tony asked me what other bands I was interested in. I told him that I wanted to hear some stuff by My Ruin, because I'd heard they were good.And lo and behold, Tony liked them.

I guess that's when we started talking. For me the friendship became crazily "Whoa...he's so like me," when almost everything I liked he liked, and everything I didn't, he didn't. And then, of course, there was the point when we mentioned in passing, "My father died when I was younger." "So did mine."

Anyway, since then, I've often thought of Tony as a lot like me. For instance, I was browsing his myO before, and I came across his list of likes and dislikes:

Tomatoes

I absolutely loathe tomatoes. For the longest time I never met anyone that felt the same. I've met some people in recent years that do, finally. I can't stand anything about them. The smell. The taste. The texture inside and out. The feel. The gooey remants it leaves behind even after you pick it off a sandwich. I think they just look nasty too. Especially raw ones just lying out on the table. I'd rather look at a dead body.I don't mind most tomato by-products. Ketchup is good in small quantities (and only on fries). Tomato Soup is okay. Anything with raw or chunks (or bigger) of tomatoes are totally disgusting though.

I hate tomatoes, or, more especially, Tomato Sauce. My brother ate it in huge amounts when we were younger [and still does], and I cannot stand that taste, or smell, or even touch ketchup. I can eat Tomato Paste in something -- Spaghetti Bolonaise, for instance -- but I won't eat Tomatoes in bits; I hate the smell, the taste, and the way they squish in your mouth.


Cleaning

For some reason, several people I know think I'm a neat freak. Generally my room isn't all that clean. However, there are times where I just get this overwhelming urge to clean my room and I spend most of the day doing it. The other reason to clean is when I'm upset. For some reason when things aren't going well, I just feel like cleaning my room.

Any time I'm thinking about something, or something's happened I don't like, I'll clean. Not always my room, although it most often is. Some days I wake up, and I just have to clean something. Then I'll have pulled up my books out to organise my book shelf and get distracted for the rest of the day, and I don't feel like cleaning the next day. And so it stays there until I feel like cleaning again.

Sleeping

I have a few things I do that apparently aren't normal. First of all, I don't sleep in a bed. I have one, it's actually up in a loft I build. However, I don't sleep in it. I've only been in there maybe three times since I made it. I usually just use it for storage. Everytime I do go up there, I forget something and have to come back down. It's very aggravating.

So instead I sleep on the floor. This isn't simply because I'm too lazy to keep the bed neat. It's because I really think I get a better sleep on the floor. It takes some getting used to, but I swear my back and such feel much better thanks to it.

My other thing is that I simply cannot sleep with socks on. There's rare ocassions, but I usually have to take them off. Otherwise I just wind up feeling really warm all night and can't fall asleep. Don't ask me why.

Well, I don't sleep in jeans. I can't sleep with socks on, because I don't like my feet to be all closed in when I'm sleeping. It's this quirk that I have, although we don't need socks in this weather, which may have something to do with it. I sleep on a bed, but sometimes my back hurts, so it gets more comfortable to sleep on the floor, because my mattress is too soft. And I'd prefer the floor to a mattress on the floor any day.

The Cold

I'm really warm very often. I don't know why. I just am. If I'm in a room with a bunch of people in the winter, I'm usually the only person that's dying of heat. So I wind up leaving my window wide open in the winter until my room cools down. Then I let the heater warm it back up again... then I open the window again. I don't feel like the room ever gets to a good temperature otherwise, no matter how much I play with the thermostat.

I'm always warm. Always. Unless I'm sick, and then I'm not. In Autumn I get really hot, and I have to put my hands on something cold, otherwise the heat just gets too hot. I sleep with my window open all the time, whether or not I have my heater on. When I get cold I just put the heater on and go back to sleep.

Eh, yeah. It might seem like I'm grasping at straws or something, but Tony is probably the person most like me that I've ever met, which is cool. At least, he's impressed me.