Justin William Almeida
Age 33, Male, United States, Married, Looking for Guys and Girls for Friends
About him
SUN SIGN: VirgoMOON SIGN: Pisces
RISING SIGN: Sagittarius
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I was born in California but grew up in Las Vegas, NV. Sin City was my home for about 30 years, but now I have the travel bug and have been living in Eastern Europe. I worked for about 10 years in television media. I know what it's like to be fat and lazy, so I will have an active lifestyle for the rest of my days. One of my goals was to earn a black belt in Shaolin Kempo and travel to China to visit the Shaolin monastery, and I did it! I hold a B.A. in philosophy and theology from the University of San Diego and an A.A. in communications from the College of Southern Nevada... when I make my way back to the United States, I'll be pursuing a PhD in applied ethics. As a side note, I studied in the Roman Catholic seminary for 2 1/2 years, but am now a humanist in belief and trade. My amazing wife and I met over ten years ago and after years of friendship we were married in 2006. We are now serving our country as United Stated Peace Corps volunteers living in Romania. Life is calling, how far will you go?
"When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a human being can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding them. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." ~Albert Camus
ENNEAGRAM INFORMATION
Type 9: The Peacemaker
Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable and Complacent
Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best, nines are indomitable and all-embracing; they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts.
Key Motivations: Nines want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, and to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.
His interests
I love reading, from philosophy to pulp-fiction. I'm passionate about social justice and environmental issues. I study yoga & shaolin kempo and live a healthy, active lifestyle. Listening to live music at a bar filled with interesting people and intelligent conversation is my kind of night. Spicy food is my favorite, along with natural teas, coffee & spirits. The two things that turn me off are narcissism and ignorance. I will always be a world traveler!http://www.myspace.com/paxus
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinalmeida
02/15/2008
I used to think that people who complain about winter depression were just full of crap. Seriously. Sure, it is all dark and grey and cold and lifeless where these people come from. But it's just a season, right? Well, it just goes to show how unsympathetic people can be when all they know is living in a mild, mediterranian-esque climate. Like Las Vegas. Or San Diego.
Romania is not mediterranian. At all. So to all those people who come from less friendly climes (i.e. Seattle) I apologize. I now know, and feel, your pain. All over my body.
This is my second winter in Romania. The first one was cold (sub-zero even), grey, overcast and rainy. From November to March I remember praying for sun. I would beg and plead for just a few glorious rays of light to fall upon my then bleached brown skin. I would tell myself "This must be a fluke! No place on Earth is like this!" and chalked the whole experience up to perhaps a big mistake, much like Global Warming but more serious.
Well, this kind of winter weather apparently is NOT a fluke. It's the real deal. Which actually explains why Communism failed. It wasn't because the economic and political systems were flawed by believing in a just and honest governing populace, but because the systems just didn't take Eastern European weather into account. If I had to share everything with everybody when the rest of life had become an example of climactic nihilism I'd try to cheat the system too. Nobody wants to share the blanket when you can see your breath in the bedroom.
At least in the United States we have capitalism! We have celebrities and energy drinks and starbucks and all sorts of things to spend our money on! Oh... wait... we HAD those things. Makes me wonder what capitalism is going to do now that it's not working. At least under capitalism you're not expected to share the covers... you're just supposed to go to the country next door and take theirs. Problem solved.
But getting back to my first thoughts, this whole winter depression thing is real. When grey, gloomy, cold weather persists for days and then weeks and then months, it wears on your psyche. You stop shaving, and taking walks, and exercising, and having sex, and concentrate on nothing but how lifeless the world is. You become a French existentialist, for god's sake. You want to smoke and drink coffee and bitch about the weather.
Thankfully, this will be my last winter in Romania. I have 3 more months left in my Peace Corps service, and as scary as returning to the United States is right now, at least I'll be back in my own culture speaking my own language and be able to bite into a big juicy double-double. I have survived my foray into the wide and wild world, and have learned quite a bit.
Like how much winter sucks in Eastern Europe.
