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25 random things about me
Some of my friends have been playing this game, and one of them tagged me. If you want to play, make up your own list. (I can't be bothered copy-pasting the original rules, can you tell ;-)
1. I move a lot. Normally every three years, give or take some. Before I was nine I’d lived in Japan (Tachikawia), Germany (Hof & Frankfurt), Crete, Michigan (Ewen—upper peninsula), Texas (San Antonio), and Alaska (Anchorage). Between nine and 18 was an anomaly—I lived in Anchorage the whole time, and most of that in one house. Since turning 18 I’ve lived in (in order): Arizona (Phoenix), Alaska (Anchorage—three different houses that time), Oregon (both Eugene and Ashland), Alaska (first Fairbanks, then Anchorage, then Kotzebue, then Anchorage), California (Mountainview followed by the Santa Cruz mountains), Tasmania (Hobart’s eastern shore), Canada (Burnaby, BC), Tasmania (Allens Rivulet, then Fern Tree, then South Hobart, and finally back to Allens Rivulet).
2. Unlike many people, I like moving. Particularly moving in. It gives me great pleasure to first clean/scrub my new home and then unpack and put away my books, kitchen toys, SCA stuff, craft stuff, and clothes (which pretty much covers everything which moves with me). It rarely takes me more than two weeks to unpack and put everything where it belongs—and if I didn’t usually need to build new bookshelves, it wouldn’t take that long.
3. I also like moving in on a smaller scale—I really enjoy setting up my pavilion at SCA camping events, and putting everything in its place so that it is all clean and presentable. I think I would have made a good nomad of the sort which travels on foot, setting up camp in a new location every night, or every few nights.
4. I have a strong preference for stating things positively whenever possible; even if the concept to be communicated is negative there are often positive ways it could be phrased.
5. Given the choice between shopping and most other activities, I would prefer to do the other activity.
6. I find it easier to save money than to spend money. I was like this even as a child, which came in handy, because sometimes mom needed to borrow money from me when things got tight. She always paid me back, with interest—she’s a good mom.
7. The first time I read the Christmas Carol I fell in love with the line “darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it”. I still think it is brilliant, and, I still enjoy the dark.
8. When I do need to go shopping, I prefer to go to the store, hurry in, walk straight to the item(s) I need, grab them, pay, and get back out again as quickly as possible. One of my friends insists “that’s not shopping, that’s buying”. This preference on my part explains why I’d rather do anything other than shopping, it being difficult to walk straight to the needed item when one doesn’t know A) which store (if any) carries it or B) where in the store it is located.
9. Most of the food I eat comes from the sort of store wherein one scoops the grains/flour/nuts/dried fruit/etc. into a bag so as to purchase only the amount desired. I mix my own muesli (rolled oats, rye, triticale, and barley, raw almonds, sunflower flax, pumpkin and chia seeds, raisins, dried pineapple, papaya and currants), which I eat (one cup) for breakfast every morning with a blend of half apple/pear juice half lemongrass tea. The rest of the food I eat consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh eggs (when our hens are laying), and butter/cheese/yoghurt.
10. I love to bake. Fresh bread, hot out of the oven, with plenty of real butter is probably my favourite food. However, when time is short, I’m also happy with mixing 1/2 cup of flour with a bit of water (+/- salt) and either rolling it flat and baking it in a toaster oven, or squeezing it into one of those electric sandwich grillers—they will take the plain dough from raw to cooked in the time it takes to wash the bowl & spoon.
11. I see no reason to ruin a perfectly good cookie by putting it into the oven. While I do bake cakes and cookies, the reason I do is to enjoy eating the batter/dough in the process. I often use far less sugar in my cakes/cookies than traditional recipes call for because they taste better to me that way.
12. I am fanatical about clean kitchens. I strongly believe that if a person doesn’t have time to wash their dishes the second they are done eating (when it is easy to do, because the food hasn’t had time to dry yet) that they shouldn’t be wasting their time eating something that required dirtying dishes. There are plenty of “grab and go” foods available—apples, cheese, bread that has already been baked…
13. I also believe that my kitchen counters should be clean and empty and ready to use at all times. I won’t permit anything, even appliances like microwaves or toasters, to sit on the counter when not actively in use because they interfere with wiping the counter and keeping it spotless. Fortunately, it is possible to build separate shelves to hold such items where they can be used and not clutter the counter.
14. I was very, very fortunate to have attended Steller Secondary school in Anchorage, Alaska for grades 7-12. It was an “alternative” school for “self motivated” students. We were given the responsibility to take charge of our own education, and we had much of the control of running the school. A much higher percentage than “normal” of our students were gifted/talented/weird/geeky/bookworms and I fit right in. The more I hear about other people’s high school experience, the happier I am that I attended Steller.
15. I love to sew by hand. There is a peaceful relaxation which comes from putting the needle into the fabric, and a powerful joy from creating seams which are both stronger and prettier than that obtainable by machine. I am also one who fidgets, so it is nice to have a sewing project to keep my hands busy while I’m talking with people, listening to a lecture, attending a meeting, waiting in line, or whatever.
16. I love being a student. I first started school at three years of age in Japan, and have been a student for most of my life since then. The six years I took off between my Master’s and starting my PhD was long enough to convince me that I wish to remain in acidemia.
17. I first took a yoga class back in high school, and have taken the occasional yoga class since then. I always very much enjoyed it, but never remembered to practice it on my own time until Crian and I decided to get married. The day we did we started doing a little bit of yoga (+/- weight lifting) together every day. The first year we did 15 minutes a day, the second year we jumped to 20 minutes a day, and since then we’ve added one minute a day each year. We are now up to 23 minutes a day, every day. Some days we wound up doing it at 26:30 at night, but as we’d not yet gone to sleep, we still counted it as that day.
18. I have always been a polyamorous person, even though the term hadn’t been invented yet. Even as a child I never had a crush on one person, but on a list of people. I believe that jealousy is nothing more than a form of insecurity and that communication is the cure. I am just as comfortable having more than one partner at a time as I am with my partners having other partners. I like to share, and have always considered it a compliment when someone else finds attractive the people I care about.
19. I only ever have sex with people for whom I feel love. The sort of love and how strongly it is felt is negotiable, but without a form of loving connection, I’m simply not interested. There are many ways to express love for someone, while sex is one of them, so is baking them a batch of cookies, or washing their dishes. I am happy to express my love for people in the manner which is appropriate to the relationship and suits their needs. As a result, I have only had sex with a small percentage of the people for whom I feel love, and am happy that this is so. I have expressed my love by tasks like washing dishes far more often!
20. I have always been an avid reader, and an avid re-reader. As much as I enjoy reading something new, I really, really love falling into an old favourite book and letting the familiar patterns wash over my eyes and into my mind. Lately, due to time constraints, most of my reading has been either geological literature or LiveJournal/Blog posts or friend’s updates on Facebook/Myspace. But I am looking forward to finishing my degree and once again making time for fantasy/science fiction reading.
21. I love to dance. If I am at a dance, I prefer to dance every dance, non-stop, taking brakes only when there is no music playing. If I can’t find a partner, I will dance on my own. I am particularly fond of dancing at SCA events and contra dances where there is a set pattern that everyone follows. I have enjoyed the Mid-Eastern dance classes I’ve had, and in that sort of dancing love best memorizing a routine to a specific piece of music. Dance forms that require improvisation are better than not dancing, but they are a second choice. Oddly enough, I rarely think of dancing when at home, even though I’ve got a computer which could play the tunes for me.
22. I am a brutally honest person. Even though I’ve learned some diplomacy over the years and have found nicer ways to tell the truth, I still speak the truth, and am not afraid to tell you what I think. I make it a point of never saying anything about a person that I wouldn’t also say to their face. I also prefer to say positive things about people—there is something good to say about everyone. I adore “positive gossip”—tell me who’s in love, who found a new job, who has achieved a childhood dream…
23. My temper is the sort that flares up in an instant. Learning not to lash out in anger is still very much a work in progress. However, if something does trigger my temper, it is a fleeting thing—it cools back down again as quickly as it flared up, and then I forget that I was ever angry. One of my early boyfriends used to tease me when I was angry that he would “just wait five minutes and you will have forgotten that you were mad at me”, and he was right. I am more likely to get angry due to frustration when something isn’t working when I’m trying to accomplish something than I am at a person. If I am angry, I’m likely to cry. This can be very embarrassing if there are witnesses.
24. A variety of things I once said “I would never” have come to pass. I thought I’d never be a vegetarian, because I didn’t like vegetables. It turns out that I like fresh vegetables, but I’d mostly been offered the canned variety. I was offered salads, but thought I didn’t like them—it turns out that it was the dressing I have a problem with. Once I realized that my list of “ick” foods all contain wine or vinegar I was suddenly able to eat far more, by simply avoiding those two ingredients. It has been five years since I realized that my digestive tract wasn’t happy with meat, and I don’t miss eating it. I don’t *think* of myself as a vegetarian, but neither am I eating meat. I used to say that I’d never get married, because I couldn’t imagine limiting myself to one partner. Now I’m happy to have a financial partner with whom to share my life and with whom I can move to new, interesting places, but while we are married, there is no limiting, and we are still free to love whom we will.
25. When I graduated high school one of my goals for my university education was to learn to speak another language, having long since forgotten what Japanese and German I’d learned as a child. However, the timing still hasn’t worked out for that. While I have taken a variety of first-year language courses, every time I do either I wind up moving away or the teacher moves away, or something. As a result, I know how to get an A in a first year language class, but can’t speak any language other than English. Oddly enough though, my love of re-reading does come in handy. It has been 18 years since I took the first-year Norwegian class and attended the International Summer School in Oslo, but even with that huge gap since studying it, lately I’ve been reading the Norwegian copy of Anne of Green Gables I bought back then, and I find that while I can’t understand every word, I *know* the story well enough that I can understand what I’m reading well enough to know exactly where in the story I am, and, occasionally, notice where the translator left out bits.
1. I move a lot. Normally every three years, give or take some. Before I was nine I’d lived in Japan (Tachikawia), Germany (Hof & Frankfurt), Crete, Michigan (Ewen—upper peninsula), Texas (San Antonio), and Alaska (Anchorage). Between nine and 18 was an anomaly—I lived in Anchorage the whole time, and most of that in one house. Since turning 18 I’ve lived in (in order): Arizona (Phoenix), Alaska (Anchorage—three different houses that time), Oregon (both Eugene and Ashland), Alaska (first Fairbanks, then Anchorage, then Kotzebue, then Anchorage), California (Mountainview followed by the Santa Cruz mountains), Tasmania (Hobart’s eastern shore), Canada (Burnaby, BC), Tasmania (Allens Rivulet, then Fern Tree, then South Hobart, and finally back to Allens Rivulet).
2. Unlike many people, I like moving. Particularly moving in. It gives me great pleasure to first clean/scrub my new home and then unpack and put away my books, kitchen toys, SCA stuff, craft stuff, and clothes (which pretty much covers everything which moves with me). It rarely takes me more than two weeks to unpack and put everything where it belongs—and if I didn’t usually need to build new bookshelves, it wouldn’t take that long.
3. I also like moving in on a smaller scale—I really enjoy setting up my pavilion at SCA camping events, and putting everything in its place so that it is all clean and presentable. I think I would have made a good nomad of the sort which travels on foot, setting up camp in a new location every night, or every few nights.
4. I have a strong preference for stating things positively whenever possible; even if the concept to be communicated is negative there are often positive ways it could be phrased.
5. Given the choice between shopping and most other activities, I would prefer to do the other activity.
6. I find it easier to save money than to spend money. I was like this even as a child, which came in handy, because sometimes mom needed to borrow money from me when things got tight. She always paid me back, with interest—she’s a good mom.
7. The first time I read the Christmas Carol I fell in love with the line “darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it”. I still think it is brilliant, and, I still enjoy the dark.
8. When I do need to go shopping, I prefer to go to the store, hurry in, walk straight to the item(s) I need, grab them, pay, and get back out again as quickly as possible. One of my friends insists “that’s not shopping, that’s buying”. This preference on my part explains why I’d rather do anything other than shopping, it being difficult to walk straight to the needed item when one doesn’t know A) which store (if any) carries it or B) where in the store it is located.
9. Most of the food I eat comes from the sort of store wherein one scoops the grains/flour/nuts/dried fruit/etc. into a bag so as to purchase only the amount desired. I mix my own muesli (rolled oats, rye, triticale, and barley, raw almonds, sunflower flax, pumpkin and chia seeds, raisins, dried pineapple, papaya and currants), which I eat (one cup) for breakfast every morning with a blend of half apple/pear juice half lemongrass tea. The rest of the food I eat consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh eggs (when our hens are laying), and butter/cheese/yoghurt.
10. I love to bake. Fresh bread, hot out of the oven, with plenty of real butter is probably my favourite food. However, when time is short, I’m also happy with mixing 1/2 cup of flour with a bit of water (+/- salt) and either rolling it flat and baking it in a toaster oven, or squeezing it into one of those electric sandwich grillers—they will take the plain dough from raw to cooked in the time it takes to wash the bowl & spoon.
11. I see no reason to ruin a perfectly good cookie by putting it into the oven. While I do bake cakes and cookies, the reason I do is to enjoy eating the batter/dough in the process. I often use far less sugar in my cakes/cookies than traditional recipes call for because they taste better to me that way.
12. I am fanatical about clean kitchens. I strongly believe that if a person doesn’t have time to wash their dishes the second they are done eating (when it is easy to do, because the food hasn’t had time to dry yet) that they shouldn’t be wasting their time eating something that required dirtying dishes. There are plenty of “grab and go” foods available—apples, cheese, bread that has already been baked…
13. I also believe that my kitchen counters should be clean and empty and ready to use at all times. I won’t permit anything, even appliances like microwaves or toasters, to sit on the counter when not actively in use because they interfere with wiping the counter and keeping it spotless. Fortunately, it is possible to build separate shelves to hold such items where they can be used and not clutter the counter.
14. I was very, very fortunate to have attended Steller Secondary school in Anchorage, Alaska for grades 7-12. It was an “alternative” school for “self motivated” students. We were given the responsibility to take charge of our own education, and we had much of the control of running the school. A much higher percentage than “normal” of our students were gifted/talented/weird/geeky/bookworms and I fit right in. The more I hear about other people’s high school experience, the happier I am that I attended Steller.
15. I love to sew by hand. There is a peaceful relaxation which comes from putting the needle into the fabric, and a powerful joy from creating seams which are both stronger and prettier than that obtainable by machine. I am also one who fidgets, so it is nice to have a sewing project to keep my hands busy while I’m talking with people, listening to a lecture, attending a meeting, waiting in line, or whatever.
16. I love being a student. I first started school at three years of age in Japan, and have been a student for most of my life since then. The six years I took off between my Master’s and starting my PhD was long enough to convince me that I wish to remain in acidemia.
17. I first took a yoga class back in high school, and have taken the occasional yoga class since then. I always very much enjoyed it, but never remembered to practice it on my own time until Crian and I decided to get married. The day we did we started doing a little bit of yoga (+/- weight lifting) together every day. The first year we did 15 minutes a day, the second year we jumped to 20 minutes a day, and since then we’ve added one minute a day each year. We are now up to 23 minutes a day, every day. Some days we wound up doing it at 26:30 at night, but as we’d not yet gone to sleep, we still counted it as that day.
18. I have always been a polyamorous person, even though the term hadn’t been invented yet. Even as a child I never had a crush on one person, but on a list of people. I believe that jealousy is nothing more than a form of insecurity and that communication is the cure. I am just as comfortable having more than one partner at a time as I am with my partners having other partners. I like to share, and have always considered it a compliment when someone else finds attractive the people I care about.
19. I only ever have sex with people for whom I feel love. The sort of love and how strongly it is felt is negotiable, but without a form of loving connection, I’m simply not interested. There are many ways to express love for someone, while sex is one of them, so is baking them a batch of cookies, or washing their dishes. I am happy to express my love for people in the manner which is appropriate to the relationship and suits their needs. As a result, I have only had sex with a small percentage of the people for whom I feel love, and am happy that this is so. I have expressed my love by tasks like washing dishes far more often!
20. I have always been an avid reader, and an avid re-reader. As much as I enjoy reading something new, I really, really love falling into an old favourite book and letting the familiar patterns wash over my eyes and into my mind. Lately, due to time constraints, most of my reading has been either geological literature or LiveJournal/Blog posts or friend’s updates on Facebook/Myspace. But I am looking forward to finishing my degree and once again making time for fantasy/science fiction reading.
21. I love to dance. If I am at a dance, I prefer to dance every dance, non-stop, taking brakes only when there is no music playing. If I can’t find a partner, I will dance on my own. I am particularly fond of dancing at SCA events and contra dances where there is a set pattern that everyone follows. I have enjoyed the Mid-Eastern dance classes I’ve had, and in that sort of dancing love best memorizing a routine to a specific piece of music. Dance forms that require improvisation are better than not dancing, but they are a second choice. Oddly enough, I rarely think of dancing when at home, even though I’ve got a computer which could play the tunes for me.
22. I am a brutally honest person. Even though I’ve learned some diplomacy over the years and have found nicer ways to tell the truth, I still speak the truth, and am not afraid to tell you what I think. I make it a point of never saying anything about a person that I wouldn’t also say to their face. I also prefer to say positive things about people—there is something good to say about everyone. I adore “positive gossip”—tell me who’s in love, who found a new job, who has achieved a childhood dream…
23. My temper is the sort that flares up in an instant. Learning not to lash out in anger is still very much a work in progress. However, if something does trigger my temper, it is a fleeting thing—it cools back down again as quickly as it flared up, and then I forget that I was ever angry. One of my early boyfriends used to tease me when I was angry that he would “just wait five minutes and you will have forgotten that you were mad at me”, and he was right. I am more likely to get angry due to frustration when something isn’t working when I’m trying to accomplish something than I am at a person. If I am angry, I’m likely to cry. This can be very embarrassing if there are witnesses.
24. A variety of things I once said “I would never” have come to pass. I thought I’d never be a vegetarian, because I didn’t like vegetables. It turns out that I like fresh vegetables, but I’d mostly been offered the canned variety. I was offered salads, but thought I didn’t like them—it turns out that it was the dressing I have a problem with. Once I realized that my list of “ick” foods all contain wine or vinegar I was suddenly able to eat far more, by simply avoiding those two ingredients. It has been five years since I realized that my digestive tract wasn’t happy with meat, and I don’t miss eating it. I don’t *think* of myself as a vegetarian, but neither am I eating meat. I used to say that I’d never get married, because I couldn’t imagine limiting myself to one partner. Now I’m happy to have a financial partner with whom to share my life and with whom I can move to new, interesting places, but while we are married, there is no limiting, and we are still free to love whom we will.
25. When I graduated high school one of my goals for my university education was to learn to speak another language, having long since forgotten what Japanese and German I’d learned as a child. However, the timing still hasn’t worked out for that. While I have taken a variety of first-year language courses, every time I do either I wind up moving away or the teacher moves away, or something. As a result, I know how to get an A in a first year language class, but can’t speak any language other than English. Oddly enough though, my love of re-reading does come in handy. It has been 18 years since I took the first-year Norwegian class and attended the International Summer School in Oslo, but even with that huge gap since studying it, lately I’ve been reading the Norwegian copy of Anne of Green Gables I bought back then, and I find that while I can’t understand every word, I *know* the story well enough that I can understand what I’m reading well enough to know exactly where in the story I am, and, occasionally, notice where the translator left out bits.