PublicNMEno1. If you don't understand the pen name, say it quickly. You'll get it.

Gender: Male

Age: Take a guess. You're probably right. Or PM me and ask if you really want to know.

Name: Take a guess. You're probably wrong. Or you could ask me via PM.

Personality/character: There aren't many people gifted with the ability to describe themselves accurately, and I'm not one of them. Maybe you can figure me out based on what I write. If not, it's no big deal.

I have an affinity for Naruto that approaches obsession.

Favorite charaters:

1.) Shikamaru- Who doesn't like the lazy genius with the laid-back personality whom authors like to torment, whether through freakish turns of events, or through pairings with "troublesome" women?

2.) Lee/Gai- I almost always tear up watching episodes 49 and 50. It really doesn't matter that these two characters are absolutely and completely "uncool" because their commitment to hard work is so admirable (and so funny.) And don't let me hear about you telling people I got emotional watching anime. The result wouldn't be pretty.

3.) Kiba- He reminds me of one of my best friends.

4.) Gaara- Don't ask me why I like the psycho-killer-turned-Kazekage. Maybe I think it's about time something went right for the guy, or maybe I just like seeing characters change.

5.) Genma- That's right, the examiner for the final stage of the Chuunin exams. He has what I would call a narrator quality where he seems to observe more than most people. Added to that, he gets style points for the senbon (not toothpick, though that would do just as well) that he holds in his teeth.

Favorite Pairings:

1.) Any straight Naruto pairing. The guy needs some love.

2.) Any straight Gaara pairing. Same deal.

3.) Shikamaru x Ino. Despite me not liking Ino much, she and Shikamaru have a near-perfect opposites-attract thing going.

4.) Shikamaru x Temari. Ha-ha-ha-haaaa-ha-ha...She actually fell for him, poor Shikamaru! She has a special smile meant only for him, and everything!

5.) I dislike and will not write homosexual pairings. Anybody who wants to discuss/debate/argue with me over this civilly, may.

6.) I won't write incest, either.

Interests: Reading and writing despite being picky about what I read, baseball and softball (recreational, not competitive), video games, card games, piano, Naruto and Case Closed anime though I only recently started watching Case Closed, track and field, spending time with my closest friends. These interests are not written in any particular order and nothing should be read into the order.

-If you read The Great Gatsby and the only character you could stand was the narrator (Nick Caraway, I believe, was his name), put this in your profile.

-If Huey is your favorite character in The Boondocks, put this in your profile.

-If you actually do have regrets and you're willing to admit it to yourself, put this in your profile.

-If you read and/or write to escape from reality, put this in your profile.

-If you think PublicNMEno1 is a nutcase or has lost it, put this in your profile.

Quotes:

"Courage as a definition: when you are afraid to do what needs to be done, but do it anyway. If fear is not there, courage is not needed." Mike Welch, my former cross-country coach

"A champion is somebody who is bent over, drenched in sweat, and at the point of exhaustion when nobody is looking." Runner's World

"I'm telling you this because you DON'T get it. You think you get it, which isn't the same as actually getting it, get it?" Kakashi-sensei, Naruto episode 4

"Some sentiments are taboo, period." Myself

"75 percent of the time, I'm right. The other half of the time, I just talk really loud." Woody Paige, Denver Post sportswriter

"If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk!" Woody Paige

"Regret and self-doubt are both real." Myself

"Experience can be an unfair teacher. The test comes first; the lessons afterward." Anonymous

"There's no point in being pessimistic, it wouldn't work anyway." Anonymous

"The Procrastination Support meeting has been postponed." Anonymous

"Trust as a definition: not being afraid, even when you're vulnerable." Anonymous

"Online signature as a definition: your last attempt to show the world how cool you are." Myself

"Coolness, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder." Myself

"I'd like to say I don't care what people think about me. That would be a monstrous lie. I wouldn't have put anything in this profile if I didn't care." Myself

"Our justice system is so messed up that it doesn't know the difference between a death sentence and a life sentence." Myself

"I used all the power you had to give and still lost to Sora. I'm not impressed." Riku, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

"Got it memorized?" Axel, Kingdom Hearts 2

"The first three letters of "diet" spell "die." Jim Davis, Garfield, myself

Alright, this...is a sort of project I'm working on. I asked somebody what they would do if they had 24 hours to live. Naturally, this person (whose name I shall disclose only if she so wishes) returned the question. I answered that I would be very afraid, pray, notify everyone who I had reason to believe would care, and leave them this in my will. The "this" in question would be a collection of all the lessons I've learned in my life. Don't ask me why I've decided to make it public.

"For those who have come to me for advice, this is my compilation of lessons learned through my 21 years in this world. Some, I've learned the easy way; others, not so much. That is, some things I learned by listening to people and by observing others, and some things I know because they either have caused me trouble in the past or they still do.

Disclaimer: I am not an "expert" on anything, as a high school diploma and two and a half years of college hardly qualify as expertise. As a non-expert, I have no formal credentials.

Credentials: Just because I have no formal credentials, doesn't mean I have none at all. Since this is for people who would come to me for advice anyway, you must know of some quality I have that would make me credible.

As this is a simple compilation, the lessons I've learned will be written in no particular order.

Don't believe everything you hear or read.

This includes what you're reading right now. Think for yourself. God gave you a brain for a reason. If you want to know the truth, you will have to look for it. Look for it in your daily observations, on the internet, in books, etc. And always look at every side of an issue.

How to know the difference between a friend and a friendly acquaintance.

They're not the same, and the word former is often used when the latter would be far more accurate. Friendly acquaintances are the people you say hi to in the hallway; they're the people you encounter regularly and you get along with. Friends are the people you care about, who care about you, who want the best for you, and who you'd trust with your life.

Who are your closest friends?

-You don't have to "act" a certain way around them.

-They want the best for you, even at the risk of you no longer liking them.

-You don't feel the need to keep secrets from them; they know your shortcomings, and like you anyway.

-If you're in a fight you know you're going to lose, and they're present, they'll take the pounding with you.

-You can spend hours with them doing absolutely nothing. And that's fine with you both.

I think I only have two close friends. Maybe three or four.

The closer you are to somebody, the more painful it is when you say or do something hurtful.

Maybe you've noticed this. Do you care when (insert the name of the biggest jerk you a can think of here) says he or she thinks you're a (insert expletive or expletive combination here.) No, they probably say that about everybody, just to see the reaction. When your best friend says the same thing, you either want to cry or kill him or her. Then, whichever one you decide to do, you wonder for weeks on end if it's true because your best friend has more credibility with you and because you don't want to believe your best friend would hurt you without a reason.

The words "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" both consist mostly of the word "friend."

That means, if you have to act a certain way around this person, this person isn't right for you. If they don't want the best for you (AND vice versa!), they're not for you. If there's something you absolutely can't tell this person, this person isn't right for you. Being old fashioned and a guy, I'll make an exception here for the fourth rule. But you will be able to spend a lot of time with this person doing nothing.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

If you don't know, trying to pretend you do will likely only expose you to the derision of those nearby. The uninformed person who wants to know is one up on the uninformed person who thinks he knows.

Smoking does not make you "sexy."

Non-smokers out there, do you want a kiss that tastes of tobacco? Didn't think so. I rest my case.

The word "toxic" is in the word "intoxicated" for a reason.

Getting drunk is not healthy, either for you or those around you. Think about it; anything to seems to change your behavior outside your will can't be healthy.

In novels, movies and video games alike, realism/reality is overrated.

Since you exist, and the world you live in exists, your day-to-day life qualifies as reality, even though you don't see everything that goes on behind the scenes. When I'm reading a book or watching a movie for enjoyment, it's likely because I need a break from reality. That means most of the time, I want to see the good guy win partly because it doesn't happen that way in real life. I want the guy and the girl to get together in the end because there is no romance in my private corner of reality. When reality isn't friendly, you want a bit of fiction that excludes reality.

True friends are rare and valuable. Don't lose them.

Granted, some things happen beyond your control, such as betrayal, but if somebody is really your friend, things like moving shouldn't end your relationship. One of my biggest regrets is that when my family moved into a different neighborhood between the fifth and sixth grade, I didn't keep up with any of my friends, in the assumption that they were gone for good. Now, because I didn't bother, they probably are. I was closer to my friends in elementary school than I am to anybody now because many people don't learn guile at that young age; there was far less facade back then. Ten years later, I wonder if any of them even remember me. Even if they do, I'd be afraid to meet them because I've changed so much that I'm not the same person they grew to like.

Best advice I have so far.

Don't get involved in something that you feel you would have to keep secret from your closest friend. That's the first step toward loneliness, a pure, awful loneliness that in the end, is self-imposed. You feel like you can't trust anyone not to think differently of you once you've revealed that "secret." And you might be right in believing that. Then you can't have deep, earnest, heart-to-heart conversations that you can only have with your real friends. Before you know it, you'll have to admit to yourself that you don't have any friends because you've forced yourself to alienate them all to protect your secret. Yes, this is purely from experience."