Name: Derek Skillings

Age: 23

Where I Live: Mankato, MN. I lived in Washington for awhile and love the west coast, I hope to move to a coast when done with school.

Occupation: School takes up most of my time. I am an undergrad at MSU, Mankato majoring in Biology, Chemistry, and Philosophy. I also work at school in the biology department and work in a lab doing research with intestinal parasites and do more research/reading/writing in the philosophy department. I plan on going on to get a doctorate in biology. I work on the weekends at an italian restaurant as a chef. I am also married and I suppose you could call that work :) My wife is currently finishing both a law degree at Hamilin Law School, and a Masters in counseling and school administration at MSU.

Hobbies/Interests: 
  Music to the point of distraction
  I read a lot of books, generally for school but I try to have at least one book going that is not mandatory
  Movies; I have been trying to work my way through the classics that all the critics say are so great, as so to get a background for what is coming out now
  Video games; I am horribly, horribly addcited to World of Warcraft, it is crack to me
  Regal Social Club
 Cooking; I try to cook fancy challenging stuff when I get the time
  I also have tons of plants and animals around the house; parrots, chameleons, frogs, fish, lizards, newts, ft long millipedes. You name it and I probably have it or have had it. 
 I have started to get into photography, but I am still pretty horrible at it
  And of course my interests in philosophy and biology heavily influence all of my hobbies and how I approach them, heck, one of my other hobbies is arguing

    Stuff I am currently listening to/reading/watching/playing with
Music: Folk/Freak Folk (Joanna Newsom, Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power etc.); David Bowie; Guided By Voices; Wilco; Gravenhurst; Miles Davis; Pablo Casals; Glenn Gould
Reading: Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations; Various works by S. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Watching: Awesome movies with the Regal Social Club like Robocop and Mr. Nanny.
Playing: World of Warcraft, the ancient Chinese game Go

    Since Lists are so popular, and I live by what is popular, here are mine

Favorite Bands/Groups/Individuals who write and play music
(In no particular order beyond the first two)
1. The Beatles
2. Radiohead
- Pedro the Lion - Miles Davis - Nick Drake - Iron & Wine - David Bowie - Elliot Smith - Johnny Cash - The Smiths - The Beach Boys - The Smashing Pumpkins - The Flaming Lips - Belle & Sebastian - Neutral Milk Hotel - My Morning Jacket - Wilco - Bach - Nirvana - Sufjan Stevens - Sunny Day Real Estate

Favorite Albums
- All the Beatles Rubber Soul and Beyond - Radiohead; Ok, Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief - Miles Davis; Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew - Pedro The Lion; Control, It's Hard to Find a Friend - .......hosts of others, I will update when I can come up with a comprehensive list

Favorite Songs
 I am not even going to try. It is too hard for me to judge between what is my favorite now and what is my favorite song of all time but have worn it out through too much listening.

                   Page under construction; more to come soon