Billy Mulrennan

I am the youngest of 5 children brought up in a traditional Irish Catholic home. Obese, bespectacled, and marginalized, I hated school but loved learning as a youngster. As a teenager I became an alcoholic and drug addict, achieved local notoriety for crashing my first car into a house while on my learner's permit, joined a cult, and barely graduated high school. Later I bolstered my already impressive academic record when Union County Community College dismissed me academically. My sneaking suspicion that something was wrong with my life was confirmed when a new voice made itself heard. In my head that is. While the psychiatrists diagnosed me as paranoid schizophrenic, it turns out that if I don't do cocaine, I don't hear voices. I was loosed from the booby hatch December 24th, 1986 and with the help of God and a host of 12 step programs I have remained clean and sober ever since. In 1995 I received my B.S. in Psychology with a second major in History from the University of Pittsburgh. I am single with no children and live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkien from The Fellowship of the Ring

Hobbies:

movies, fishing, hiking, bowling, reading, and writing

Favorite Movies:

Clockwork Orange, Godfather I & II, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Alien, Swingers, Slapshot, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, Braveheart, Waking Ned Devine, Moscow On The Hudson

Favorite TV Shows:

24, Lost, Rome, Sopranos, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Law and Order

Favorite Music:

Bauhaus, Black 47, Buena Vista Social Club, Elvis Costello, Little Feat, Charlie Parker, Pretenders, Rolling Stones, Squeeze, Steely Dan, U2, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Dinah Washington, The Who, Stevie Wonder, XTC

Favorite Books:

Byzantium, The Pendragon Cycle, The Iron Lance, & The Black Rood by Stephen R. Lawhead, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fool On The Hill by Matt Ruff, She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner