Over on Facebook people have been passing this deal around wherein they write 25 things about themselves, and tag 25 friends to ask them to do the same.

Generally I have always  avoided such things, but a few of my friends wrote them and I found them interesting, so wrote one myself. It follows here. If you are on Facebook and have a desire to do so, hook up with me. Maybe we could play Scrabble.

1. I think I am almost an idiot for taking part in this.

2. On the other hand, it might be fun, so why not?

3. In 1968 or 1969 I drove way out into the desert of the Antelope Valley at night, with my friends Pam and Judy. Judy was 6 feet tall and thought she was tough. I drove out on a road that I knew would run out of pavement and leave us alone in the dark, with no electric lights for miles. It's beautiful in the desert at night! You can really see the stars. When I turned off the engine and turned out the lights, Pam and Judy both started screaming, really loud, and tried to hide under the dashboard. They didn't give a shit about the stars.

4. I had some other friends who went out into the desert -- that very same night -- and reported having seen tall creatures they thought were either angels or people from outer space.

5. Later, at least two of those friends from No. 4 turned out to be schizophrenics. One of them got naked once and chased a bus in Lancaster. He thought he was someone from the Bible, I forget who.

6. The summer between my two years at Antelope Valley College and my various years at Valley State ( which became Cal Northridge while I was there), I worked at a place that made illumination flares. They burned at 3 million candlepower for three minutes, supposedly. A whole bunch of the flare mixture blew up one night, which was highly unpleasant to be around. I had the experience of throwing dirt on a friend of mine named Ken to put out his flames. He died 24 hours later. He was 21, an English major at UCLA. At least one other fellow died pretty much instantly, we think. He was an elementary school teacher working a summer job to support his family. Others were injured to various degrees. I was lucky, no injuries, but really jumpy around things like popping balloons for a while.

7. I mostly don't talk about No. 6, but it somehow came up in conversation the other night at work so it was on my mind.

8. Also in the late '60s, early '70s, my friend Jimmy signed up for the Marines because the Navy wouldn't take him because of a little juvenile record. He didn't really have a plan for his life, he said, maybe the Marines would be a good thing. He lasted one month in Vietnam, came back in a coffin.

9. Another fellow I knew, Michael ... the last time I had a conversation with him was at a dance at the high school we had both graduated from. I was in college. He had just joined the Marines because a sailor had beaten him up and taken his date away from him. He wanted to get tough in the Marines, then come back and beat up the sailor. Next time I saw him it was his photo in the paper with his obit after he died in Vietnam. He was dressed in his Marines uniform and looked really tough.

10. Other friends of mine were hurt in Vietnam, too.

11. I am a Christian and know it is God's province to judge, not mine. But I am really, really pissed off at George W. Bush for the Iraq war. I commend him to God.

12. I love my wife Maria and I love my children Sarah, Yas (she will insist I add the phrase "step" for stepchild) and Riley to an astounding degree, and thank God for them all.

13. Sarah has a wonderful husband named Scott and I am crazy about him, too, and I am simply flabbergasted by how much I love their daughter Rebekah, who is my first grandchild. I have never even touched this kid, because she's in Florida and I am in California with, like, zero money for airplane tickets, but I am crazy about her like I am for my kids. Wow.

14. My lovely wife is from the Philippines. She doesn't want me to learn Tagalog. My theory on that is she doesn't want me to understand what she's saying about me to her family.

15. Belinda Pitco, an editor I know, also from the Philippines, taught me the longest phrase I know in Tagalog, and I use it to get a laugh from Filipinos. It is "Ako lang ang puti dito," and it means "I am the only white guy here."

16. I really like working at newspapers. It's so sad, what has happened to them.

17. I am writing a novel. That's one of the things I should be doing now, instead of doing this. I think it is charming and that you will like it when you get to read it.

18. I am Blessed and lucky to be in a really good blues band. That's one of the other things I should be doing now: practicing for rehearsal in the morning. This band has the best musical chemistry of any band I've ever been in, and I hope you will come see us perform some time.

19. I have arthritis in my knees and probably a bit in both ankles. It is unpleasant, but what are ya gonna do?

20. I used to be a pretty good dancer. Western swing, waltz, cha-cha, all that stuff, except I found it difficult to keep a straight face when dancing the tango.

21. My mother said I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. A neighbor once said "What'd you do with the $5 your mother gave you for singing lessons?" And yet I do most of the lead singing in my band (item 18).

22. I love the Harry Potter books and admire J.K. Rowling quite a bit.

23. I have about 2,000 books in my home library, and only that few because I had to give away a lot of books for lack of room to store them. I like books.

24. Something I believe: Love never dies.

25. I thank God every day, many times.