Johnny's World:

The Secret Life Of John Hindle

This web site is dedicated to the proposition that it is better to be an oddity than a commodity. It is hoped that those who enter my domain will come with an open mind. This web site will not enlighten or edify, but may provide for a few moments of vicarious entertainment.

My Background

I was born a poor sharecropper's son in the Mississippi Delta. No actually, I was born in Mississippi but to a fairly middle class family. As a young boy I had a slightly different perspective on the world than my peers. I read alot of science fiction and was generally weird. I had several Platonic relationships with girls in high school. I was a kind of geek introvert who mostly read books. At the age of 14 I went to a Catholic boarding school near New Orleans. While there I read two books, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence by Robert Pirsig. These books changed the direction of my life. I became even weirder. I went to Louisiana State University in 1983 and studied philosophy. Most of the time I hung around the Union reading books on Chinese mysticism and Persian Poetry. Some of my favorite books were The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the Tao. I went from there to Loyola University in New Orleans. There I took a class in Zen meditation. At the age of 18 I took a train to Denver, Co. While there I worked at an insurance company as a mail sorter in a job that can be best described as a human machine. I also hiked in the mountains and met the groovy people of downtown Denver. This was my,"Summer of Love." At present I am about to reprise my role as a professional student. I am returning to college to get my school librarian certification. I figure the world could use a few more eccentric school librarians. It helps eliminate the "Marian the librarian" stereotype. That's all. I know, an anti-climactic ending. I'm only 34 though. I still have a lot of years left for letting my inner child play. Just wait till my inevitable mid-life crisis comes. Oh Sheit!!!

My Interests

Hobbies:
Sensual massage, poetry writing, listening to the wind, dreaming, contemplation, reading(esp Pablo Neruda, Sanskrit poetry, and Haiku), and most importantly, thinking. Oh yes, and there are a few non-sedentary activities I enjoy. Didn't want you to think all I did all day was sit around experiencing the undifferentiated contiuum of ultimate reality. I love to take road trips. I find my personal nirvana swimming in the lakes and rivers of Mississippi and Louisiana. Have hiked the Backbone trail through the Kitsatchie Hills wilderness area of north Louisiana on many occasion. Out there the only sound is the wind rushing through the tree tops, with nothing but green hills stretching out as far as the eye can see. Well I guess I'm just describing more spiritual stuff. Hey, everyone should take a vacation from the real world once in a while. I do work too ya know. Am I providing the vicarious entertainment as promised? Are we having fun yet? But I digress. I have canoed several times on the Okatoma, a class one or two white water stream near Hattiesburg, Ms. I also like to visit Ship Island off the coast of Mississippi, cleanest beaches in the north gulf coast area. I love to visit Cameroon Parish and go bird watching in the marshes there. My favorite place to travel however is the Southwest, particularly, New Mexico and Arizona. I am particularly fascinated by the Native American cultures there. I have visited numerous pueblos in these areas. I have also gazed upon the Grand Canyon while contemplating ultimate reality, along with millions of other tourists. Yes, it gave me a sense of my own mortality and how inconsequential I was in the face of geologic time. Now I am at home contemplating what to eat for supper and what movie to see this weekend. I have also wandered the Anasazi ruins of Queblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, contemplating the impermanence of life and how much I'm going to miss my hair when I start balding with middle age.

Links to My Favorite Sites

Another way to really get to know someone - especially someone who spends
as much time on the Internet as I do - is to learn their favorite sites:

Timothy Leary Home page This was voted the cool web site of the year for 1996,"Tune in, turn on, and plug in."

Hotwired Magazine This is an avant garde internet magazine in San Francisco. My cousin, a graduate of the computer science department at Louisiana State University, used to work there as an internet engineer. You can visit his and his wife's website at: http://www.tacocat.com.

Louisiana State University Virtual Library This is a web site I use alot. It has links to sites througout academia.