Name: Paul Cales

Aliases: Far too many to note - but let's stick with theDreamer for the moment.

Online Contacts : e.mail me, AIM me: theDreamworld@mac.com, or ICQ me: 69299572. I have Twitter and Facebook accounts but use them next to never.

Birthdate/Age: March 19th, 1967... I'm 46. Sometimes I feel much older, sometimes much younger, but I rarely actually feel my age.

Height: 5' 10" ... Believe it or not, I've been this same height since I was 12.

Weight: About 225 lbs. at the time I write this, but it fluctuates wildly between 180 and 225, generally based on how much anxiety I have (I tend to eat when I'm stressed, depressed, or nervous ... Yes, it's pathetic, and I am working on it).

Looks: Blond hair, grey eyes (change to bluish or greenish at times), light complexion, wide shoulders, broad chest, etc. Do you really care?

Sexuality: Gay. You might not guess I'm gay if you met me, but I'm out to everybody but my family.

Location: Sandusky, Ohio ... home to Cedar Point Amusement Park and ... ummm... and ... ummm ... well, yeah ... home to Cedar Point Amusement Park.

Occupation: Job-seeker ... After about 10 years in management (mostly at Kinko's), I realized I hated corporate America and decided to return to college. I attended Bowling Green State University working towards a BA in Literature and a BFA in Creative Writing with Minors in History and Scientific & Technical Writing. Because I had to complete two full Majors and Minors in addition to all of the other required courses that took forever. During that time, in 2003, I moved back to Sandusky to live with my grandmother. My responsibilities for my grandma increased quickly until I was a full-time caregiver and college was no longer possible. I spent a decade caring for my grandma until she passed away in May of 2012. Since then I have been looking (and failing) to find a job. Although it is not up to date, you can check out my Online Portfolio.

Relationship Status: Single :( ... I'm always looking, though :) ...

Pets: My aquarium (an old converted Mac SE30) lies empty right now. I'm not having the best of luck keeping snails and Bettas alive for very long, and it's depressing. I'm taking a break from pets for the moment, but I'll be getting more eventually (I sort of miss the calming effect of gazing at the fish swimming lazily around the tank, so maybe I'll get more soon).

Interests: Computers and the Net, electronic games (arcades, computer games, etc.), walking/hiking in nature, bicycling, movies, theater, any sport played spontaneously (I dislike organized sports and the way it ruins just having fun), exploring (buildings, nature, ruins, stores with weird collections of stuff, a new city), swimming, talking and sharing things with people I care about, and listening to music (just about all genres except country and rap (although I still like certain country and rap music, just not very much)).

Favorite Color: Lavender. Really, I'm not kidding. Black is a close second.

Favorite Food: Cheese. Mmmmm.....

Favorite Beverage: Even though I haven't drank it in years because I stopped taking anything with caffience, I still love Pepsi. I'm ... I'm ... <sob> ... I'm a Pepsi-holic ... I am currently drinking mostly just ice water, partly because I love ice water but also because I wanted and needed to cut out the caffienne and the sugar that filled nearly everything I used to drink. I've been Pepsi-free since the beginning of 2003, and I've been without any caffienne (for the most part) since the beginning of 2004.

Favorite Musical Groups: Queen. Pretty much nobody else compares, but I really like the KLF (early British Techno group), Moby, Erasure, Björk, Aretha Franklin, Yes, Geinoh Yamashirogumi (popular Japanese Folk group), Dead Can Dance, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Mussorgsky, ... well, it's a long list ...

Favorite Movies: Lawrence of Arabia, Akira, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Beautiful Thing, Hudsucker Proxy, Star Wars (A New Hope), the Blues Brothers, the Matrix, Godzilla (the original, uncut Japanese version), Rebel Without a Cause, L.I.E., the Lord of the Rings trilogy ... another long list ...

Favorite TV Shows: Dr. Who. I got hooked on the the Doctor as a kid when PBS ran the old episodes from this British sci-fi classic, and the new Dr. Who broadcast on the BBC and the CBC has been a great return. I've always been a huge fan of The Simpsons. They rock! I also devotedly watch Heroes, Skins, Robin Hood, The Daily Show, and Smallville. Beyond that I watch cartoons to relax - not much from the most recent crop of animated shows, but many from the last few years and when they're still on, Dexter's Laboratory and the Powerpuff Girls. I have my moments of surfing the tube like a couch potato, but I really don't have a lot of interest in tv - it's mostly background noise while I read or surf the net.

Favorite Books: Illusions by Richard Bach, On the Back of the Swallow by Danny Morrison, the Illiad by Homer, Ariel by Stephen Boyett, the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Wicked by Gregory MacGuire and the Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, among others ...

Favorite Video Games: I'm sure many people will be shocked to know that I'm not a huge gaming-console player. They're fun and all, but I've always preferred an actual stand-up video game or a game for my computer rather than an X-box or Gamecube game (although I have a weakness for the GameBoy when one's nearby). My favorite video games included Mappy! (which probably means nothing to most anyone), Galaxian, Spy Hunter, Tron, Samurai Showdown (in all of its incarnations), and many more. On my computer, I have always loved the Journeyman Project series (even though they're getting old), Mechwarrior (which is also getting old), Spaceward Ho!, Warcraft (all versions), Starcraft, Civilization (I and III, but II sucked), and Baldur's Gate (all versions and expansions).

Favorite Summertime Activity: My absolute favorite is going to Cedar Point Amusement Park, home of the best rollercoasters in the world. Second favorite would be sailing, but I don't get as many chances to jump on a sailboat as I would like.

Favorite Wintertime Activity: Playing in the snow. Really. I'd be out in the snow all of the time if I had someone to make forts with and have snowball fights with, but all of my friends think I'm just crazy (or childish) and won't come and play. Just because they aren't kids doesn't mean that they can't have fun.

Boxers or Briefs: Well, aren't you cheeky ... if you must know, boxers.

Ideal Partner: A good heart, a good mind, and an endearing smile ... all else is negotiable.

Have you always lived in Sandusky?: No. I grew up in a little township called Perkins, just next to Sandusky, Ohio on Lake Erie. I went to college in Toledo after graduating high school; moved for a short time to live in St. Albans, West Virginia, not far from Charleston; lived briefly in Dayton, Ohio; moved to live for a little while with my sister in Meridian, outside of Akron, Ohio; moved to a private estate in Uniontown, Ohio, between Akron and Canton; then moved to downtown Akron while I worked in North Canton. I moved away from Akron to get out of the car rental business and returned to be near my friends in Toledo. I lived in Bowling Green, Ohio (25 miles south of Toledo), and went to school at BGSU while I worked in Toledo. Then I moved to Perrysburg (a suburb of Toledo) while I continued college and work. Then I left Toledo to be a manager for Kinko's, first in West Lafayette, Indiana (although I lived nearby in Lafayette), and then in Chicago, managing two stores in the downtown Loop and living in Printers' Row. After a while, I grew sick of Kinko's, moved back to Toledo again, and eventually got back to college, commuting to Bowling Green. Then, in a weird set of circumstances, my parents moved to Florida and I offered to stay with my grandmother and care for her and her house in Sandusky rather than see her forced to sell her house and moved to Florida with the 'rents. And here I am ...

What's the deal with this Arts Center you talk about in your Journal?: Well, the Collingwood Arts Center is where I lived in Toledo before I moved to Sandusky. It was at one time the Convent and Nunnery of the Sisters of St. Ursula and was part of a campus run by the Ursaline Nuns that included St. Ursula Academy for Girls, Mary Manse College for Women, and the Ursaline Nunnery. Other parts of the old campus are owned and operated by a number of different groups: COMPASS, a substance abuse rehabilitation center; a Catholic Elementary School; a photography studio; and some buildings have become private homes. The main building, an elaborate, beautiful brick building with a huge theater, large classrooms, and the chapel, is the Collingwood Arts Center, a nonprofit organization that supports an artists' community. The rooms within the building are for rent as studios, either studios for creating artwork or studios for living space as well as creation space. There were (and are) representatives from every area of art: theater people, sketch artists, comic artists, graphic designers, painters, sculptors, glassblowers, silversmiths, clothing designers, poets, writers, musicians, jugglers, magicians, singers, and probably more stuff that I don't even know about.

Why is this site called theDreamworld?: I have a hope/dream about what the world can be: a world without war, with acceptance, with brotherhood, with tranquility, and with prosperity. It's an ideal that I know can never be fully achieved, but I think it's something everyone should strive toward - the world can definitely be a much better place. In my vision of theDreamworld, all of that comes alive. This website is the closest physical representation I can come up with. It should hopefully provide a place to share positive ideas and solve each others' problems.

What inspires you to write?: Oh, lots of things. My biggest inspirations come from my emotions and how I respond to things I see or experience. The problem has rarely been inspiration or development of ideas for what to write - the problem is making myself sit down and actually get the words out of my head and onto paper. It's not as easy as it seems. I get easily distracted, and honestly I have a tendency to be lazy when I don't absolutely have to do something. Fortunately, I get really involved in what I write once I get started, so the big problem is just overcoming the first hurdle and getting started.

What do you want out of life?: Simple happiness. Wealth, possessions, travel, fame, power - they're all okay and enjoyable in their own ways, but they're really useless and superfluous without basic happiness. Having one or more people to share your life with, love and be loved by, ... that sort of thing. I've had wealth, possessions, travel, fame, and power at one time or another in my life, and I would give up any chance of ever having any of them again if I could secure simple happiness.