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Hello. I am called Russ. Welcome to RADruss.com, a portal for all things good and all things great. “RAD” are my initials. I will start by giving the faithful readers of this new website a brief sketch of who I am, in all my Renaissancey diversity. Can a life be summed up in a few wordy paragraphs? I will try…I will succeed.

The brief of Russ: All my life I’ve wanted to fly like the birds that you see way up in the sky. I am a writer. I am writing a novel. I am psychic. I enjoy playing the harmonica, listening to music, gardening, following manned space flight, fishing, hanging out with friends, cooking, BBQing, camping, spending time with family, writing and many other neat things.

What sort of neat-o things dare you ask? Oh … simple things… like space, the cosmos, Mars, Moon, NASA, earth and environmental sciences, comics, books, movies, scanning, reading, skipping, dancing, star gazing, astronomy, regression, lard, Native American studies, tea, lubby, writing, comedy, cooking, baking, vanilla Zingers, sunflowers, youtube, video, acting, improv, geology, lunar geology, planetary geology, history, archaeoastronomy, writing, adventure, strolling, sitting in silence, listening to white noise, telling jokes, smiling, sharing, leaping, communicating and being. Yes I said archaeoastronomy. Fear me. I have a gaggle of interests.

Would you be impressed if I told you I was unemployed? I didn’t think so.

I’m unemployed and update my internet presence on my laptop from behind a McDonald’s dumpster, pilfering Wi-Fi access and digging around in filth for errant chicken McNuggets. I cover myself in Splenda packets to shield off the cold Denver winters. Yeppers, I live in the Denver, Colorado USA. That’s in the middle of the United States of America, a geologist’s paradise. I am a Denver historian. I am President and Founder of the Biscuits and Gravy Society.

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I wouldn’t mind becoming a space tourist one day. If I had a spare 20 million-plus cash in my coiffeurs, I would rocket to the International Space Station Alpha to perform scientific experiments of my own grandiose design. RADruss.com, my iLog, is a showcase for my talent. Go Broncos – me am born and raised Bronco Maniac! I also like photojournalism, telescopes, carbon nanotube composites, time travel, Guinness, Scotch, chick flicks, comedy, Jello, biscuits and gravy, buffalo, buffalo meat, baba ghanoush, sundresses, picnics, wine, pedicures, garlic, string cheese, the symphony, live theatre and grilled cheese. I am a grill mastah!

I am alive. I roam. I am nice. I try to live life to the fullest, learning and experiencing new things almost daily. I am an adventurer. I want to go tubing. I want to go skiing. I want to go on a bike ride. I want to play golf. I want to go diving. I want to go spelunking. I want to go on a picnic. I am simple, in a sophisticated sort of way. I am a genius. I weep. Yes I weep. I admit it. When was the last time you wept? When was the last time you froze an apple with liquid nitrogen? When was the last time you took the time to look up into the sky in amazement? Do it. Do it all!

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Look away! I am boring. My powers are beyond most people’s comprehensions. I am a space buff amateur rocket scientist. I am a gardener, a farmer in the city with an urban pumpkin patch and I grow my own vegetables and flowers and have mission patches to prove it. I make homemade pie assortments and homemade jelly. I’m quirky. I have opinions. I’m a laid back warrior. I’m a word crafter. I like mystery. I like ‘Fantasia.’ I like butter. I like listening. I am emotional. I am a Scorpio. I like problem solving. I like staring into the eyes of women. I like rambling. I like burnt popcorn. I like culture. I like glasses. I like taupe. I am a loner but not really. I speak German. I have a twin sister. I have a wicked crazy sense of humor in a dry sort of funny way. My ethnicity, for those who care: German, Swiss, English, Scottish and American.

I do like to travel, although I have never been out of the USA. I have seen the world’s largest ball of twine roadside attraction and let me tell you, it is breathtaking. I like road trips. I want to burrow underground to find the KT boundary. I want to wake up next to a woman whom I have genuine affection for. I want to sing.

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Did you know there is blessed musik in this world! I have a ear for sound: U2, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Meatloaf, Enigma, Sugarland, Derek and the Dominos, U2, Billy Gibson, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Junkyardmen, Tori Amos, Tool, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, classical, Tuvan throat chants, The Ramayana Monkey Chant, U2, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, The Freddy Jones Band, Tenacious D, Toad the Wet Sproket, The Velvet Underground, TV on the Radio, Rhonda Vincent, Pat Green, Josh Ritter, Kenny Rogers, Julia Othmer, Skapegoat, Etta James, Better than Ezra, Jimmy Scott, Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, Angelo Badalamenti, Deep Forest, Talib Kweli, Native American, jazz, blues, blues rock, LaTour, Fiona Apple, Radiohead, The Duhks, The Clicks, Railbenders, Björk, Sting, The Police, Luciano Pavarotti, U2, Moby, No Doubt, Catchers, Atmosphere, Immortal Technique, Hank Williams, Delerium, Felix Mendelssohn, Brenda Lee, Miles Davis, Bessie Smith, Thelonious Monk, pop, world, blue grass, swing, techno/trance, rockabilly, the Colorado Symphony and, finally, Grunting with dein Russ Master, my new band.

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Television is the idiot box. I dislike it. But, if forced too, I have spied a few shows in my day: Seinfeld, NASA TV, Mad Men, The Wonder Years, Centennial, Mr. Wizard’s World, Twin Peaks, MST3k, Police Squad, Rescue Me, The Sopranos, From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, Scrubs, The Simple Life, Arrested Development, Cavemen, Reaper, When We Left Earth, Warriors (on History Channel) and NASA TV.

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Movies aka Motion Pictures? Oh yes. I am a critic. A film snob … er … buff. There is Back to the Future, the best movie in the world. And Bubba Hotep, Zapped!, The Dark Crystal, The Goonies, Crumb, Ghost World, Indiana Jones, The Seventh Seal, Seven Samurai, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The Beastmaster, Dune, foreign films, some B-Movies, Apollo 13, October Sky, Family Man and so many more. I like directors David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Oliver Stone, Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg and Kevin Smith.

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The written word: Yes, yes! Classics. English literature, American literature, books, words, textbooks, Billy Shakespeare, National Geographic, Scientific American. I read a lot. Some of my favorite books are: The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin, Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz, The Unbroken Chain (Apogee Books Space Series) by pad leader Guenter Wendt, Flight: My Life in Mission Control by Christopher C. Kraft, The Mammoth Book of Native Americans: The Story of America’s Original Inhabitants in All Its Beauty, Magic, Truth, and Tragedy by Jon E. Lewis, Circle Of Life: Traditional Teachings Of Native American Elders by James David Audlin, Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager, The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (5th Edition) by Richard C. Hoagland, Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, space/astronomy books, My Life by Bill Clinton, Wild at Heart by John Eldredge, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene, Out of Orbit by Chris Jones, The Quickening: Today’s Trends, Tomorrow’s World by Art Bell, Jennifer L. Osborne, Twixt Will and Will Not: The Dilemma of Measure for Measure by Carolyn Harper