I lived in a lunatic asylum for a year, but not as a patient. It was rather unnerving to meet supervised groups of helmeted and straitjacket-wearing "inmates" on forest walks.

I spent my army time in the elite 898 Communications Batalion, eavesdropping on high-speed Morse code communication between Russian armies in East Germany. My code name was 0.007 (yeah, right... =).

My photographic memory was earnestly destroyed by drug use. Even now I am trying to remember why I am writing this.

My favorite vegetable is Purslain, which is considered a weed in the USA.

My first girlfriend was Marijke. The relationship fell apart when I found out she had several boyfriends, so that she'd get more presents. I was 5 years old. The parents were not amused.

I got my drivers license at age 31.

Some of my less appreciated childhood hobbies included a fungus collection and setting things on fire.

I love genealogy and heraldry.

My brother once convinced me I was better than Tarzan. The leap of faith that followed resulted in a shattered wrist with more than 60 bone fragments.

I love the smell of tar in the morning.

My dad, a chef, thaught me how to cook from age 5 onward. My mom thought me how to knit and sew.

I had an Out-Of-Body experience after being hit by a car and thrown 20 feet over parked cars onto the walkway. Our crazy neighbor told my mom: "Your son is lying dead in the street."

My other brushes with death were being stuck under ice as a child and an emergency appendix operation as a teen.

I was formally schooled in the arts of gold- and silversmithing, gemology, enameling, and hand-engraving.

I served in the North European division of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust as a translator and editor for 5 years, producing 7 cantos of the Bhagavata Purana and several other big and small books by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

I have a total fascination for prime numbers.

On several occasions I have personally witnessed the mysterious, floating islands in the Hellish Lake near Korsnäs Gård, Sweden.

I have taken the 24-hour train between Delhi and Calcutta. It took 36 hours. The toilet was a hole in the floor and the AC system consisted of open windows. During every stop, garam-chai (hot tea) sellers would climb in and out of the train through this AC system.

My biggest pet peeve: wet socks.

My grandpa claimed that our family descended from nobility and had arms to back it up. We didn't descend from nobility. My forefathers were a chef, an iron worker, a floor layer, a policeman, a stoker, and a blacksmith (a child out of wedlock). In that order.

I once actually, and mistakenly, believed that couples observed the garbhodhana-samskara (conception ritual) in ISKCON (among plenty of other things...).

I have no interest whatsoever in practically any ball sports or motor sports.

I can only dance when seriously drunk. I don't drink; ergo, I don't dance.

Of the three fights I have been in during my life, I won two and lost one. Apparently, this 65% success rate is not sufficient to participate in the UFC. Bummer.

I have suffered from auto-acoustic emission for close to 28 years now.

Consciously and willingly deadbeat parents are high on my list of people I despise.

I endeavor to understand the dynamics of spirituality itself. I also like philosphy, development of awareness, hanging out with fellow spiritualists, and understanding spirituality through science.

I consider history a friggin' mess that has been rewritten over and over again in accordance with the cultural and political colorings of the civilizations of yore. As such, the further back you go, the foggier it gets. I sometimes wonder what "history" will look like 1,000 years from now...

I am a vegetarian for many reasons, but mostly because of spriritual principles and considerations of health. I love the vegetarian cuisines of Thailand and South India.

My appreciation of art is purely on a case to case basis. Every era and style has its gems and garbage. No human-made art can come anywhere near the art of nature, ever.

I actually remember Errol Flynn movies from the 1930s and 1940s, The prince and the pauper (1978, with Oliver Reed), The Three Musketeers (1974, with Michael York), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982, with Anthony Andrews), and The Party (1968, with Peter Sellers).

I have been an avid reader since childhood. I have a pretty broad taste if it comes to reading, as long as the writing style is engaging and the subject either educational, spiritual, or relaxing. I used to read a lot of SF, especially books by Jack Vance and Keith Laumer. Now only occasionally. If I need some mindless chilling after a long day of work, I hit the comics.