The "25 things" meme from Facebook
I've found myself keeping my Facebook account up to date more than my LJ, which is why I haven't updated in a while. There's a meme running around right now where people post random facts about themselves into their profile.
1. I'm coming up on the fifth anniversary of being engaged. Since we already in effect have a blissfully happy marriage, neither of us has really made the wedding itself much of a priority, though the fact that Canada has same-sex marriage was one of the reasons why we moved here.
2. My first marriage, by contrast, featured an elaborate and beautiful wedding, and broke up after two months for deliciously ironic reasons.
3. I've attended the Chautauqua Institution season every year of my life.
4. I'm a really atrocious correspondent.
5. I haven't checked, but I might be the second-oldest living alumna of the prep school I attended.
6. While I was there, I had my weekend privileges revoked for my final year because I snuck off campus for three days and handcuffed myself to the White House fence to protest the nuclear arms race and the Reagan Administration in general.
7. I build boats in my spare time, and am commissioning a 60' schooner from a celebrated designer. Among other features, the boat will fold up in three sections to fit on a trailer.
8. We have a kitty! She's the most people-friendly cat I've ever met, and she came into our lives by hopping up in my lap and starting to purr after she had been dumped on some friends of ours.
9. I'm the only child on my father's entire side of the family.
10. When we moved to Belgium and back when I was very small, we traveled to and from Europe aboard one of the last of the classic ocean liners of the mid-20th century that was still in service.
11. For the most part, I grew up in the US, but we got Canadian television over the air from across the lake. At one point, we briefly moved to California, and I couldn't understand why Mr. Dressup wasn't on in the afternoon.
12. My mother is the biggest (American) football fan ever. She's not the stereotypical sporty type at all -- in fact, she's a sweet little old lady who judges flower shows and directs the church choir -- but she'll sit down to watch a football game for which she has no rooting interest whatever just to see football.
13. I'm not the spectator sports type, either, but I make an exception for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hopefully, this will be a good weekend. :-)
14. I've studied martial arts since the fall term of my senior year in high school. Currently, I'm studying kendo, iaido, and naginata, the last of which is my first love.
15. I'm at least twice as happy at 40 as I was at 20, for a number of reasons.
16. My politics have ranged from moderate to very liberal over the course of my adult life, but I was a member of an ultraconservative student group when I was 13.
17. I've followed three different religions during my lifetime, and have had significant religious experiences in each. At the same time, I consider myself a rationalist and a skeptic, and I don't see that as a contradiction.
18. So many friends and people I love are far away that I wish I had a teleporter. And that I were better about keeping up with everyone (see point 4, above).
19. I'm a geek, both professionally and in my spare time. It's pervasive enough in my industry that geeky hobbies such as role-playing games and open-source projects have unintentionally proven to be useful professional networking opportunities, though that's not why I do it.
20. ...and likewise for my forays into LGBT activism (mostly "B" and "T").
21. I'm a political junkie, and spent two and a half years majoring in it at Georgetown before I finally settled on a career in computers.
22. I managed to become a member of the Kodak Wise Owl Club despite working in software.
23. In my twenties, I never understood why any self-respecting geek would want to become a manager, but now that I am one, I love it.
24. I suffer horribly from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Having an office with windows admitting daylight directly in front of me (and a peregrine falcon nest a floor or two over my head) helps, but I'm still struggling right now.
25. We've planned to have kids for at least five years now, and it's clearly time, and we're both utterly terrified.
1. I'm coming up on the fifth anniversary of being engaged. Since we already in effect have a blissfully happy marriage, neither of us has really made the wedding itself much of a priority, though the fact that Canada has same-sex marriage was one of the reasons why we moved here.
2. My first marriage, by contrast, featured an elaborate and beautiful wedding, and broke up after two months for deliciously ironic reasons.
3. I've attended the Chautauqua Institution season every year of my life.
4. I'm a really atrocious correspondent.
5. I haven't checked, but I might be the second-oldest living alumna of the prep school I attended.
6. While I was there, I had my weekend privileges revoked for my final year because I snuck off campus for three days and handcuffed myself to the White House fence to protest the nuclear arms race and the Reagan Administration in general.
7. I build boats in my spare time, and am commissioning a 60' schooner from a celebrated designer. Among other features, the boat will fold up in three sections to fit on a trailer.
8. We have a kitty! She's the most people-friendly cat I've ever met, and she came into our lives by hopping up in my lap and starting to purr after she had been dumped on some friends of ours.
9. I'm the only child on my father's entire side of the family.
10. When we moved to Belgium and back when I was very small, we traveled to and from Europe aboard one of the last of the classic ocean liners of the mid-20th century that was still in service.
11. For the most part, I grew up in the US, but we got Canadian television over the air from across the lake. At one point, we briefly moved to California, and I couldn't understand why Mr. Dressup wasn't on in the afternoon.
12. My mother is the biggest (American) football fan ever. She's not the stereotypical sporty type at all -- in fact, she's a sweet little old lady who judges flower shows and directs the church choir -- but she'll sit down to watch a football game for which she has no rooting interest whatever just to see football.
13. I'm not the spectator sports type, either, but I make an exception for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hopefully, this will be a good weekend. :-)
14. I've studied martial arts since the fall term of my senior year in high school. Currently, I'm studying kendo, iaido, and naginata, the last of which is my first love.
15. I'm at least twice as happy at 40 as I was at 20, for a number of reasons.
16. My politics have ranged from moderate to very liberal over the course of my adult life, but I was a member of an ultraconservative student group when I was 13.
17. I've followed three different religions during my lifetime, and have had significant religious experiences in each. At the same time, I consider myself a rationalist and a skeptic, and I don't see that as a contradiction.
18. So many friends and people I love are far away that I wish I had a teleporter. And that I were better about keeping up with everyone (see point 4, above).
19. I'm a geek, both professionally and in my spare time. It's pervasive enough in my industry that geeky hobbies such as role-playing games and open-source projects have unintentionally proven to be useful professional networking opportunities, though that's not why I do it.
20. ...and likewise for my forays into LGBT activism (mostly "B" and "T").
21. I'm a political junkie, and spent two and a half years majoring in it at Georgetown before I finally settled on a career in computers.
22. I managed to become a member of the Kodak Wise Owl Club despite working in software.
23. In my twenties, I never understood why any self-respecting geek would want to become a manager, but now that I am one, I love it.
24. I suffer horribly from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Having an office with windows admitting daylight directly in front of me (and a peregrine falcon nest a floor or two over my head) helps, but I'm still struggling right now.
25. We've planned to have kids for at least five years now, and it's clearly time, and we're both utterly terrified.