uhm-

last time I checked, being weird, having poor social skills, or just being 'creepy' was only illegal if you're in high school.

however, fire bombing someone's apartment for any reason is, and suggesting it makes you look like a macho drunk at best, George Bush at worst, and certainly worse than said wingnut, who sounds offensive, but hasn't actually hurt anything more important than the carpet.

have you considered

1) simply not tolerating him? listening to your radio at a reasonable level, and when he comes knocking at your door, suggest he stop trying to sleep with his ear to the wall?

2) reporting him to the campus police, since the LAST thing they want is a creepy looking dude wandering around bothering people- when he's not a paying customer.

of course, the guy you're describing sounds suspiciously like a well known professor at UC Berkeley, so you never know ;)

I agree with chinacat... He may be rude and annoying, and possible mentally ill, but it doesn't sound like he's doing anything threatening, dangerous, or illegal. By all means, address any specific concerns with your landlord, but it's really not a crime to be "moderately demented,totally drug-f**ked and absolutely disgusting", as you so nicely put it.

You are letting HIM push YOUR buttons. Calm down. Ignore him. Have as little to do with him as possible. If you don't like him, just ignore him. If he comes to your door and doesn't speak, simply close the door. If he asks you to turn down the music, don't converse, just calmly close the door and turn the music down 1 notch if you feel like it (or don't.)

Don't you use your peephole before answering the door? If you see it's him, feel free not to open the door. Don't have a peephole? Now THAT'S something to discuss with your landlord.

If he sits down on a bench where you are sitting and you don't like it, get up and walk away. You don't owe him an explanation (nor do you own the bench), and conversation and confrontation will simply prolong these encounters that you seem to find so difficult to deal with.

I can't see why you think you have to apply conflict resolution principles to communicate with him and work things out amicably. What's to work out? You don't like him. Big deal. Welcome to the big wide world that's full of people not to like. Frankly, with the way you have come completely uncorked over this, I would be more concerned if I were the other guy and had to deal with YOUR weird vibes.

I got an idea.....how about MOVING!!

hbw- oh, come on-

if he's living in a place that caters to the mentally unstable... where's he gonna go? ;)

Yes I agree with chinacat's (First) post, and Susan's. Maybe I did overreact, but of course I was being sarcastic when discussing the possibilities of firebombing his room. Of course I wouldn't do such a thing! After all, his room is right next to mine!!
The guy swore at me through the window the other night, and he is a total a-hole, but what can you do?
Moderately...disgusting is an accurate description. At least I'm honest! I will just ignore him. Such are the bonuses of apartment living eh?

there are similar bonuses to homeownership--people have next-door neighbors in houses who are like that.

It's the bonus of being a human, living among other humans.

the only part of this that is truly apartment-specific is the "complaining to the landlord" business--just be sure that you've communicated your own "reasonableness" to the landlord, as a form of self-defense, so that you don't end up being forced to move out of your apartment on terms not of your choosing. If he comes and tells you to turn the noise down, and it's already down, then call the landlord right away and say, "I had a weird request from this guy; I just want you to know that it was 9pm and my stereo was set low enough that I could talk on the phone through it."

Or something.