Roommates are tough. You've got to pick someone you can beat up on because you never get along with everybody always. Even if you shared an apartment with the Pope, I guarantee that three weeks into it you'd be going, "Oi, d'ya mind picking up the cape, mate? And stop leaving the papal mitre on the kitchen counter."

I'm no so sure living with myself is any piece of cake. You definitely don't want someone wilder than you are. You want the same degree of wildness. If you're the wild one you'll feel like you're living with your Aunt Mavis. If your roommate is the wild one, you'll feel like Aunt Mavis while he's holding a naked Twister Bingo session in his bedroom - or worse, in the living room, where you can see it all. You both need to stagger in side by side. The Odd Couple approach never works.

One person to absolutely avoid as a roommate is an ex-girlfriend, no matter what sick circumstances drive you to again share the same living space. First, you don't want to be around when she's getting phone calls from other guys. Second, she doesn't want to be around while you're burning her clothes.