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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Howdy! This is my profile page. I'm filthy light thief, no caps, because I might be one of many filthy light thieves (or because I didn't really think about it when I joined MetaFilter).

Feel free to ask me about my posts or comments, including college radio (where I volunteered from 2001 to 2012), the Central Coast of California (born and raised there, and lived there until 2012) and life in New Mexico (my current residence), California planning practices and regulations (professional life up to 2012) and transportation planning (my current professional life), being the older brother of an adopted sister, the husband of a wife with mild-to-moderate anxiety, and being a working dad to a young son.

I can also ramble on about various forms and realms of electronic music, and anime through 2005 or so.

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Filthy light thief's posts have cost American business roughly 85 billion dollars a year in lost productivity. -- Stagger Lee

Hello, my name is filthy light thief, and I'm an infoholic.

It seems I really like to research random topics. I did not know this until I met MetaFilter. I eschew the succinct not because I like to be verbose, but because there is just so much out there. For others who wish to follow this path of over-indulgence, I wrote filthy light thief's guide to making detailed posts. I realize now that overkill can ruin an interesting topic, but I think I now enjoy creating something to digest more than something for quick comments. I'm still refining my writing, and I think stupidsexyFlanders' post on The Harry and Bess Truman Ex-Presidential Road Trip is an archetype for my efforts. Linked text should reflect the contents, and there should only be enough links to cover the material. This is good. Don't go to the point of saturating the page with links and overwhelming the MetaFilter previous post checker. That is bad.

* Tangent on post-making: don't be afraid to share interesting facts about your hometown or where you currently live. It's a great way to learn more about the history and context of where you are. *

Decimask said my posts balance out the shorter ones. This comment made me very happy, and it still does. I was once thought to be an undead William S. Burroughs. This still amuses me. And because of me, eponysterical can now be retired.

The nickname is a new one, made after lurking on MeFi and being impressed by nickname creativity. I vaguely remembered a slashdot.org comment where someone stretching a story and equated photographers to "filthy light thieves," and as a hobby photographer, this notion made me smile. I lost the exact post, but ErWenn tracked down the Slashdot post from plasmacutter:

dirty air thieves (people who live), dastardly noise thieves (people with ears), horrific light thieves (photographers)

if you don't pay for it it's a sin, viva extremist capitalism!

I like my handle, even if it's not an accurate quote. I feel more filthy than horrific, to be honest. And ErWenn is awesome for doing this research without my request.

(Profile picture is from Threadless: Sky Thief by Chow Hon Lam)

Fun fact: my 1,000th AskMe answer/comment was about wearing a pumpkin on your head. In short: pumpkinheads are heavy and not as much fun as they seem in theory. Trust me on this, I speak from experience.

My 10,000th favorite was received for a post about the continued use of old tools. The only meaning I can suss from this is that I post a variety of odd topics, and they aren't all meaningless or fleeting. And that's me grasping for significance.

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Questions to remember:
1. Word problem: x computers for y tasks
2. Teach me how to find good work/dress shoes

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If you've read this far, you get something special: a glance at filthy light thief's Box O' Names. There's no box here, but rather a list of user names (or just words) I like, but will never use because I don't think I could even manage sock puppets.

Bag-a-Banthas - an eggcorn of sorts, jumbling the sounds of agapanthus. It's fun to say, and ridiculous to imagine. Try it - bag-a-banthas. Bag-a-banthas.

Peggy Bacon in mid-air, taken from the caption from this image caption, via (ardgedee's site) - somehow the phrase captures the image (the "backflip" part is left off because Bacon Backflip is the next entry). Surreal and dated.

Bacon Backflip - because everyone loves bacon, though Bacon may not really like dirt (random video found when searching for the unlinked terms BACON and BACKFLIP)

Chimp Champ CHOMP! - it came to me as if in a fever dream, though I felt fine. And I was wide awake. But you get the idea, don't you? If nothing else, it's just fun to say. But if you want to use it and create a story, you're a little monkey. Normally you're just adorable, but when your powers are requested, you become Chimp Champ, and your signature move is the Chimp Champ CHOMP!, in which you bite something/ someone really hard.

Son, I Crush - formed from a guess at what "sonicrush" might be, I created a story which I rather like. The characters didn't have names, just vivid personalities. In the end, it was imaginary, and that phrase is really Sonic Rush. Rather a let-down in the end. But then someone made it into a game!Well, not really. I sent the description to cheap paper's Made Up Video Game site, and viola! Video Game review and art. Except the site is down, taken over or replaced by porn spam. But in case it ever comes back up, check out /archives/SIC.html (Archive.org didn't get that one, sadly).

Needlemouse - Mr Needlemouse was apparently Sonic's original name.

Loopholes in everything, loopholes for everything - maybe this is more of a slogan than a handle, but it's only slightly longer than that AACS key name. You know, that one, and shorter than the champ's full name.

The lord of Three Prosperities and the nine hells - misquote from The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. The actual line is "I will follow the lord of the Three Prosperities into the nine hells."

The Road that is not a Trail - vague quote from ook's trail mix comment, in his comment on wasabi in trail mix ("I know that bin of "asian blend" at the store looks tempting, there are some interesting-looking shapes and colors in there, but beware! That road is not a trail!")

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner, or winnerwinnerchickendinner - just something 23skidoo wrote. It is weird, and I liked it.

belted cow, not rare - it's true, the belted cow isn't rare.

park(ed) bench in Atlantis - something mis/over/heard.

bandwagon of my own uncertainty - excerpt from a spoken word poem by Taylor Mali

baby's got back-bones made of tomb-stones - what, don't you get morosely twisted humorous lyrics in your head from time to time?

sleep where you fall - something I muttered at my baby, while he stared up at me with sleepy eyes that I know would not soon close, at least not without some assistance. In other words, "I know you're exhausted, little baby, just go the fudge to sleep already. I don't want to rock you to sleep for another 20 minutes."

the exalted state of "donkey" - a phrase taken out of context, written by rongorongo.