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random facts meme
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peachespig. A few of you will already know many of these, but I bet there's no one who knows all of them.
1. Except for Columbus, OH, where I was born and which we left before I was a year old, I never lived in a town of over a thousand people until I was 13. The smallest of these had only 150 residents.
2. I have two brothers, both younger. D, my middle brother, is autistic. I was very grateful when the movie Rain Man came out, because before then almost no one knew what that meant.
3. I can't stand wearing socks, and I wear sandals whenever I can possibly get away with it. Living in California helps a great deal with this.
4. My favorite movie of all time is Amadeus and has been for years. My other favorites (band, book, tv show, etc.) fluctuate constantly, but this one stays constant.
5. I met my husband T via the Internet. Since you get a week free, I put an ad on Match.com out of pure curiosity, not intending to write anyone back. I got dozens of responses and about half a dozen I considered responding to. But I only actually answered one.
6. During the 2003 SF mayoral runoff, I almost didn't vote because I had serious issues with both candidates. It was the closest I've ever come to consciously choosing not to vote in an election. In the end, I held my nose and voted for Gavin Newsom. Now he is unquestionably the elected official I am most proud to say that I voted for.
7. I find watching other people play computer games almost as diverting as playing them myself. During college, I would spend hours watchingluvmoose play Tetris, or SimCity, or whatever particular game she was addicted to at the time. Now I'll sit and watch T play almost anything.
8. Speaking of which, I'd played computer games off and on for years, but I never played a console game until 2001, when T put the controller into my hands while I was watching him play Final Fantasy X. I was hooked almost instantly, and now I'm more into RPGs than he is. (Anyone have recommendations to hold me over until FF XII?)
9. When I was a kid, I used to watch football with my dad every Sunday afternoon. I'm not particularly a fan of the sport anymore, but I still speak the language and am more than capable of following and enjoying a game.
10. I hate fruit. Almost every kind of fruit. I'll eat apples, pineapple, a few kinds of berries, the occasional grape or very sweet citrus. But that's it. And it's not just that I'm not fond of the other kinds of fruit. I actively despise most of them.
11. I took a year and a half of piano lessons in fifth and sixth grade. Then we moved, and we couldn't find another teacher. At the time I was grateful because I hated practicing so much. Now I really regret not knowing how to play.
12. I have lived with three of the people on my friends list. Two were college roommates and one is an ex-housemate from a couple of years after college.
13. Except for a year and a half during grad school, I've sung in a chorus since I was in eighth grade -- nearly 20 years of learning and performing choral music. During that time, I have never learned or performed Mozart's Requiem.
14. The only poets I have ever read for pleasure are T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Parker.
15. One of my favorite pasttimes is re-reading a book or story I've already read. It's like comfort food for the mind. Lately, I've found myself re-reading my own work, and I think it's for much the same reason.
16. There are three ordained United Methodist ministers in what I consider my immediate family: my father, my uncle, and my late grandfather (my mother's father). If you go out a couple of generations, there are probably at least a dozen.
17. I am afraid of heights. More specifically, of falling -- I'm fine in airplanes and tall buildings, but put me on any kind of ledge or rickety bridge and I'm very uncomfortable.
18. I didn't get a passport until I was 28.
19. On the other hand, if you count those I've only driven through, there are only ten US states I haven't visited.
20. My most cherished professional dream is to go back to school and get an advanced degree in architectural history. Whether I will ever actually do this is an issue of much speculation for me.
This was a lot of work, but it was definitely an interesting exercise! I won't tag anyone specifically, but if anyone on my FL wants to do this, I'd love to see it.
peachespig. A few of you will already know many of these, but I bet there's no one who knows all of them.1. Except for Columbus, OH, where I was born and which we left before I was a year old, I never lived in a town of over a thousand people until I was 13. The smallest of these had only 150 residents.
2. I have two brothers, both younger. D, my middle brother, is autistic. I was very grateful when the movie Rain Man came out, because before then almost no one knew what that meant.
3. I can't stand wearing socks, and I wear sandals whenever I can possibly get away with it. Living in California helps a great deal with this.
4. My favorite movie of all time is Amadeus and has been for years. My other favorites (band, book, tv show, etc.) fluctuate constantly, but this one stays constant.
5. I met my husband T via the Internet. Since you get a week free, I put an ad on Match.com out of pure curiosity, not intending to write anyone back. I got dozens of responses and about half a dozen I considered responding to. But I only actually answered one.
6. During the 2003 SF mayoral runoff, I almost didn't vote because I had serious issues with both candidates. It was the closest I've ever come to consciously choosing not to vote in an election. In the end, I held my nose and voted for Gavin Newsom. Now he is unquestionably the elected official I am most proud to say that I voted for.
7. I find watching other people play computer games almost as diverting as playing them myself. During college, I would spend hours watching
luvmoose play Tetris, or SimCity, or whatever particular game she was addicted to at the time. Now I'll sit and watch T play almost anything.8. Speaking of which, I'd played computer games off and on for years, but I never played a console game until 2001, when T put the controller into my hands while I was watching him play Final Fantasy X. I was hooked almost instantly, and now I'm more into RPGs than he is. (Anyone have recommendations to hold me over until FF XII?)
9. When I was a kid, I used to watch football with my dad every Sunday afternoon. I'm not particularly a fan of the sport anymore, but I still speak the language and am more than capable of following and enjoying a game.
10. I hate fruit. Almost every kind of fruit. I'll eat apples, pineapple, a few kinds of berries, the occasional grape or very sweet citrus. But that's it. And it's not just that I'm not fond of the other kinds of fruit. I actively despise most of them.
11. I took a year and a half of piano lessons in fifth and sixth grade. Then we moved, and we couldn't find another teacher. At the time I was grateful because I hated practicing so much. Now I really regret not knowing how to play.
12. I have lived with three of the people on my friends list. Two were college roommates and one is an ex-housemate from a couple of years after college.
13. Except for a year and a half during grad school, I've sung in a chorus since I was in eighth grade -- nearly 20 years of learning and performing choral music. During that time, I have never learned or performed Mozart's Requiem.
14. The only poets I have ever read for pleasure are T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Parker.
15. One of my favorite pasttimes is re-reading a book or story I've already read. It's like comfort food for the mind. Lately, I've found myself re-reading my own work, and I think it's for much the same reason.
16. There are three ordained United Methodist ministers in what I consider my immediate family: my father, my uncle, and my late grandfather (my mother's father). If you go out a couple of generations, there are probably at least a dozen.
17. I am afraid of heights. More specifically, of falling -- I'm fine in airplanes and tall buildings, but put me on any kind of ledge or rickety bridge and I'm very uncomfortable.
18. I didn't get a passport until I was 28.
19. On the other hand, if you count those I've only driven through, there are only ten US states I haven't visited.
20. My most cherished professional dream is to go back to school and get an advanced degree in architectural history. Whether I will ever actually do this is an issue of much speculation for me.
This was a lot of work, but it was definitely an interesting exercise! I won't tag anyone specifically, but if anyone on my FL wants to do this, I'd love to see it.
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Anyone have recommendations to hold me over until FF XII?
Don't know if you have an Xbox, and if you do you probably know this already, but the original Knights of the Old Republic is the Greatest Game Evah. By far the largest emotional investment I've ever had in characters in a video game. I also picked up Jade Empire, also by Bioware, which seems great but I haven't had the time to get into it yet. For FF style on the PS2, have you played Shadow Hearts Covenant? Very similar in gameplay to FFX, but the Judgement Ring provides a nice little use of reflexes in the battles. And very funny, though a little raunchy in that strange Japanese way at times. :)
The way you feel about piano lessons, I kind of feel about the singing lessons I took in seventh grade. I can sing a little, but... it would've been nice to really know how.
Architectural history... wow. Do you have something in mind to do after the degree, or is it simply studying the field that appeals?
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Architectural history: Studying the field definitely appeals; architecture and urbanism are my true academic love. But it also fits in with my long-term goal of being an academic librarian, prefereably in an art and/or architecture library. (Most universities want their librarians to have a subject masters as well as the MLS.) The big dream is to work at the architecture library at UC Berkeley. I was an intern there during grad school and I loved it.
I
I am surprised at your lack of affection for poets although I like the choices you did make. Parker is much underappreciated. And Eliot is sublime. You might like Auden and Spender. They both have necessary things to say and say them well.
I am glad you did this. I can see you better now.
Re: I
I will look into your the game recommendations, thanks! T is also very picky and has been feeling the lack of a good game lately.
You would probably find my literary tastes shockingly lowbrow. :) So many classics I have never read, or picked up and put down halfway through (I couldn't finish Pride and Prejudice, for example). I have heard bits of Auden over the years and always appreciated them -- I will have to look for more.
I
For Spender - I recommend "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". I find it breathtaking in its intensity.
Will you permit me one more?
Dylan Thomas - "And Death Shall Have No Dominion". This is a poem we all need in these times. The line, "Though lovers be lost love shall not", is eternally reassuring to me. It is worth the reading.
I did this meme, badly since I am unaccustomed to talking about me. Heh!
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socks bad! (but harder to live without in a NY winter)
fruit good! (but not really so tasty in NY)
and I say go for the architectural history :)
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You know I want that degree. Just a question of the practicalities of getting it, especially since there's only one school that offers it inthe Bay Area and there's no terminal masters. We'll see.
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it's not so much about having random facts about the men you've dated, but that when dating you have to be prepared to offer up a lot of random facts about yourself, so when you get asked a question like this, it's not so hard to come up with answers.
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So yeah. D is high-functioning autistic. He went to college and lives on his own (as of just recently; he lives in an apartment by himself and has a caseworker check on him regularly) but has never been able to handle having a real job. When he was first diagnosed, 20-some years ago, no one had ever seen anyone like him, intelligent and able to interact with people in some ways but largely lacking in social skills and empathy. It's much more common now, of course. Doesn't make it any easier, but I do like not having to explain what it means every time I mention it.
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