Well, well the last introduction was passable if a bit half-hearted.

I figure I'll try it once more, with feeling.

I'm a relatively calm, cool, and collected college student. I lived my entire life in Alabama mostly in Huntsville and the Birmingham Area and despite earnest wishes I have never once set foot on foreign soil.

That said I really do love my life. I seem to have totally missed the whole bummed out teenage period where everything seems pointless, as a matter of fact I feel it was during those years that the concept of purpose finally coalesced in the temperamental filing cabinet I call my mind.

Oh yeah, my name.... Alesis. If anyone can figure out what (or whether) that means I would greatly appreciate it. So far all I've gotten is a brand of keyboard, I'm likely the least musically inclined guy you'd ever meet so that would be ironic.

I am first and foremost and advocate of reason and absolute truth. Unlike many I don't find "relativism" an insidious force of evil, I find it to be the funniest joke mankind has ever played upon itself. As a friend (Shild also of AD fame) and I used to quip There is no truth, and that's the truth

There's another reason I love life, you can't make humor like this up if you tried. I am an unrepentant humorist I love a good joke and I tell a bad one.

Politically I am liberal in the true sense of the word.
I believe that there are problems in society in the world at large
I believe in fixing them (I'm an Engineering major, it's a compulsion)
I believe that government, as our system for collective decision making has a important role in doing so.
I don't believe most problems fix themselves (once again, humor)

I am an advocate of civil liberties, of international cooperation, of human rights and democracy.

I am an advocate and product of multiculturalism next to my family and God it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

I also like kittens, bunnies, and warm summer nights.

I don't like emotionalism. Don't get me wrong, emotions are important, but they are not the basis for serious decision making. I meet cries of "you can't understand you haven't experienced it!" with an acknowledgment that reasonable conversation (and therefore all progress) has just ended. I usually offer a Kleenex at this point.

I love to help people, especially academically. I'm a tutor here at the college (Cal II and General Chemistry) and have the bad habit of being interested in everything. It is a severe test of will to stick with my major.

That's enough of me for one dose.

Question? Comments? Suggestions?

I can't remember if you have answered this in some sitewide chat before or not but I figured this would be an approriate place to ask

1) What is the story behind your AD user name?

2) What is your avatar, I have never been able to see it large enough to figure it out.

Sadly, an uninteresting one. During an internship at UAB I had to be issued a username for the computer system. The process was automated randomizing bit of your full name

Alesis Turner became Turnea90. Very soon thereafter I discovered AD, loved the heck out of it and in my hurry to register threw creativity to the wind.


Now that is more interesting, at least to me. It's a clip of a scene of one of my favorite movies.

Samurai X - Trust & Betrayal
It's is anime and I'm a fan of the genre in general, but this movie struck me as something special.

The avatar is a clip of the main character and orphan/slave turned Samurai smearing the blood from his first wound. I don't think I've have ever identified with a movie character as much as I did with Kenshin is this film.

A young man determined to change his world for the better who struggles with how he feels this must be done.

There is a TV series and a couple other movies. The series is nice but the distance between it and this movie is night and day. Samurai X is a true work of art, beats the pants off anything in stateside theaters these days.

I guess only us Anime guys would have known that.

Which type of engineering are you going to pursue?

Mrs. P You know that's where that interested in everything problem comes in. I've been taking core course till now but I figure I'll go into electrical engineering.

I'll have to throw that one in my Netflix queue (assuming they have it), I'm a fan of anime, but just haven't had much exposure to it.

I get to Birmingham once in great while. What are the best places to eat?

I'm not sure I'm an expert, my fare is mostly vegetarian like yours, but I occasionally eat fish when I'm out.

I'm also not known for my pickiness.

Nevertheless here's some of my favorites.

Downtown you can go with "The Mellow Mushroom" it's a decent sit-down pizza place, excellent crust, I eat there when I'm fed up with the same old delivery stuff.

Salvatore's is another nice place, it's off Highway 280 and near the Summit shopping center, which incidentally has a "Cheesecake Factory" Never eaten there personally, not a huge cheesecake fan, but I hear it's good.

A little outside of downtown (but still technically in Birmingham, which is a sprawling place) is

"Niki's West" (not the one downtown, I heard it wasn't nearly as good). This one is right across from the Farmer's Market, which now that I think of it probably explains why the veggies are always so good.

They have a great fried flounder if you like fish, lots of Southern favorite side items. Great greens, mac and cheese, cream corn, red potatoes, the fried mushrooms are the best I've had anywhere.


Down in Hueytown (very close to where I actually reside these days) there's good Mexican food to be found at "Habaneros".

In Midfield there's a great, cheap, Chinese place 'Egg Roll Express" where you can buy enough Lo Mein to sink a ship.

Those are my usuals, that and O'Charley's, that is for the fish again.

I'll have to try this place next time I'm in B'ham (probably this summer). When I go back it is always to get a hold of all of the food cravings I can't satisfy out here in California - southern cuisine is one of them.

The very first order of business when I get off the plane is whoever picks me up has to take me immediately to Milo's for a burger and some sweet tea

Turnea, I shake my head every time I’m reminded of your youth. Your wisdom is well beyond your years.

To you and Victoria – try Los Angles in Birmingham, great restaurant with a Southern California feel. They’ve got something for every appetite, vegans to carnivores. Took a taxi so I don’t recall it’s location.