Drawing, Schooling, Petting, 'Netting, and OTPing
So once upon a long, long, long, long, long time ago, grandlarseny gave me 5 topics to blather on about. (adaon6 did too, but those are topics for another day.) In the process of trying (in vain) to clean out my email, I came across the beginnings of my responses in my draft folder. Why not finish these, I said to myself, and gain a sense of accomplishment at keeping promises you never should have made in the first place?
And so here we are.
I'll hit one of my topics back your way- drawing
I took 3 years of art in high school, won a few awards in school and county shows, had a lot of fun. In college, art classes never really fit in with my schedule or my budget (all those extra materials being quite costly). I did manage to take an Art History course Contemporary Movements in American Painting (1945-present) my last semester in undergrad, but it did not involve the creation of any works ourselves. When it comes to my own abilities, I am incredibly rusty. I am competent and can usually generate recognizable figures. Beyond that, I'm not so hot. My drawings were always a little stiff and lacking in dynamism IMO, and that really shows now that I no longer draw frequently.
I love watercolors to distraction, even though they can be so very frustrating. Watercolor pencils are the Best Things Evah! because they are both colored pencil and watercolor paint simultaneously. Painting is incredibly relaxing, more so than drawing, and I haven't quite figured out what the difference is there yet. One of my masters professors told me that I meditate when I paint, and it's certainly something that I would like to get back to doing. Right now I can use all the relaxation I can get!
education
Ah, school, I shall never get away from you. I am going to end up over educated compared to the average population, yet in some ways I just feel like I get stupider and stupider the farther I go. I liked being a jack of all trades and taking courses across a variety of subjects in high school and undergrad, but the very act of pursuing a masters degree requires specialization in a particular area. I do enjoy learning simply for learning's sake. I have this sometimes obsessive desire to know and understand how things work. That's a large part of how I ended up in psychology and counseling--people are fascinating and I want to understand why they do the things they do and feel the way they feel. While I've hopefully gotten the whole career path thing figured out by now, I'll probably take continuing education classes in various subjects for the rest of my life because learning new things and remembering forgotten old ones is fun.
your work as an animal rescuer
You make this sound much more dramatic than it actually is. Let's see, of the critters that have lived here for any length of time, in order of appearance:
- Lady (dog; died a month shy of her 16th birthday) came from a kill shelter.
- Fred (dog; will be 14 yrs) was a gift from an accidental litter.
- Trouble was a feral kitten who showed up one day, stayed for 2 years, and then disappeared. At the time, it was thought I was allergic to cats, and I couldn't keep him in the house. :(
- Roxey (dog; died at 10 yrs) was left with my sister's tenant when Theresa temporarily moved to Georgia. He proved incompetent so the dog came here and just stayed forever.
- Hazel (cat; 7 yrs on Halloween) was born to a pregnant stray who took up residence in my sister's garage.
- Lily (cat; 4 yrs) came from a hobby breeder (one of my psychology professors).
- Frankie (cat; 3 yrs) came from the landed humane society where I volunteered.
- Mason (dog; 2 yrs) was found through Petfinder.com and came from a rescue group that operates solely off fosters.
- Tiger (cat; 15+ yrs) was abandoned by his previous owner (and he was at least 13 at the time!).
- Penny and Cohen (cats; 7 mo) were adopted at Petco from a rescue group that operates solely off fosters.
I haven't really done any major saving of animals myself. I volunteered at a humane society for 8 months, and it was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. My duties were primarily feeding, cleaning, and socializing so I didn't have any big heroic moments, but there's something inherently heartwarming about finally teaching a scared dog how to play or patiently smearing canned food across a sick kitten's face to encourage it to eat. Unfortunately, once I gained full time employment my working hours conflicted with theirs, and I had to stop. As grad school has become more rigorous, I think I would have had to let it fall by the wayside anyway. I'd love to go back to it one day though and would really like to try out being a foster mom to cats and kittens. If I'm ever able to work solely from home or at a place where I'm able to bring pets to work, I'd do dogs too.
online community and it's personal significance
Oh, this would be so easy just to devolve into a woe is me, nobody understands me, I'm not like other people, blahblahblah rant of epic proportions. The simplest (and least melodramatic) thing would be to say that most of the people in my daily life didn't share my obsessions... or at least none of us admitted to them publicly. (Just looking at me or even my bedroom, you would have never guessed that I was a raging anime fangirl and lover of trashy romance novels. I seem so boring.) Therefore I had to turn my attention elsewhere to find people who get similarly excited about all those quirky things that kept my boat afloat. I didn't get a computer until I was 16 and didn't participate in online communities until 18 so I can't really say that there was any great effect on the formative years of my youth. However, it was awesome to finally find a group of people that would talk writing, characterization, character building, and plotting; who would sit for hours dissecting frame by frame a 10 second interaction between two fictional characters; who screamed at their television sets because why wouldn't those two idiots just make out already?!; who gave me feedback and constructive criticism when I made my own forays into writing for public consumption. It was validating, and you are all spiffy, and we should start a commune.
1xR
O Pairing of Doom, I just can't seem to quit you. Everyone on Gundam Wing is insane--every single person, even Sally Po. As much as we love them, I think we can all agree that Heero and Relena rank up there on the higher end of the crazy scale. So what it is about them that still holds me in thrall a decade after I first saw him threaten to kill her? I will fully admit up front that I really need to rewatch the series because it has been years, and my memory is not the most accurate thing at the best of times. But I remember the way that they weren't static. Both of them started pretty damn flawed, absolutely unlikeable even, yet they came out so much better at the end for having met. They served as catalysts of purpose and hope for one another, and I think both of them really came into their own as characters, as "people," due to the relationship that developed between them across the series. You can argue the specific nature of that relationship and whether or not it was romantic in nature, but if you plan to argue that it didn't exist or that it didn't matter, you're just wasting your breath. Who did they think of in times of crisis? Who did they draw strength from? Whose name did they call into empty air? It wasn't Duo or Dorothy or Dr. J or Darlian daddy.
Besides, I think trying and failing to blow yourself up after a girl finds you washed up on the beach and then ripping said girl's birthday invite and telling her you'll kill her is the most ultimate "meet cute" misunderstanding ever. There is nowhere for that relationship to go but up!
And so here we are.
I'll hit one of my topics back your way- drawing
I took 3 years of art in high school, won a few awards in school and county shows, had a lot of fun. In college, art classes never really fit in with my schedule or my budget (all those extra materials being quite costly). I did manage to take an Art History course Contemporary Movements in American Painting (1945-present) my last semester in undergrad, but it did not involve the creation of any works ourselves. When it comes to my own abilities, I am incredibly rusty. I am competent and can usually generate recognizable figures. Beyond that, I'm not so hot. My drawings were always a little stiff and lacking in dynamism IMO, and that really shows now that I no longer draw frequently.
I love watercolors to distraction, even though they can be so very frustrating. Watercolor pencils are the Best Things Evah! because they are both colored pencil and watercolor paint simultaneously. Painting is incredibly relaxing, more so than drawing, and I haven't quite figured out what the difference is there yet. One of my masters professors told me that I meditate when I paint, and it's certainly something that I would like to get back to doing. Right now I can use all the relaxation I can get!
education
Ah, school, I shall never get away from you. I am going to end up over educated compared to the average population, yet in some ways I just feel like I get stupider and stupider the farther I go. I liked being a jack of all trades and taking courses across a variety of subjects in high school and undergrad, but the very act of pursuing a masters degree requires specialization in a particular area. I do enjoy learning simply for learning's sake. I have this sometimes obsessive desire to know and understand how things work. That's a large part of how I ended up in psychology and counseling--people are fascinating and I want to understand why they do the things they do and feel the way they feel. While I've hopefully gotten the whole career path thing figured out by now, I'll probably take continuing education classes in various subjects for the rest of my life because learning new things and remembering forgotten old ones is fun.
your work as an animal rescuer
You make this sound much more dramatic than it actually is. Let's see, of the critters that have lived here for any length of time, in order of appearance:
- Lady (dog; died a month shy of her 16th birthday) came from a kill shelter.
- Fred (dog; will be 14 yrs) was a gift from an accidental litter.
- Trouble was a feral kitten who showed up one day, stayed for 2 years, and then disappeared. At the time, it was thought I was allergic to cats, and I couldn't keep him in the house. :(
- Roxey (dog; died at 10 yrs) was left with my sister's tenant when Theresa temporarily moved to Georgia. He proved incompetent so the dog came here and just stayed forever.
- Hazel (cat; 7 yrs on Halloween) was born to a pregnant stray who took up residence in my sister's garage.
- Lily (cat; 4 yrs) came from a hobby breeder (one of my psychology professors).
- Frankie (cat; 3 yrs) came from the landed humane society where I volunteered.
- Mason (dog; 2 yrs) was found through Petfinder.com and came from a rescue group that operates solely off fosters.
- Tiger (cat; 15+ yrs) was abandoned by his previous owner (and he was at least 13 at the time!).
- Penny and Cohen (cats; 7 mo) were adopted at Petco from a rescue group that operates solely off fosters.
I haven't really done any major saving of animals myself. I volunteered at a humane society for 8 months, and it was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. My duties were primarily feeding, cleaning, and socializing so I didn't have any big heroic moments, but there's something inherently heartwarming about finally teaching a scared dog how to play or patiently smearing canned food across a sick kitten's face to encourage it to eat. Unfortunately, once I gained full time employment my working hours conflicted with theirs, and I had to stop. As grad school has become more rigorous, I think I would have had to let it fall by the wayside anyway. I'd love to go back to it one day though and would really like to try out being a foster mom to cats and kittens. If I'm ever able to work solely from home or at a place where I'm able to bring pets to work, I'd do dogs too.
online community and it's personal significance
Oh, this would be so easy just to devolve into a woe is me, nobody understands me, I'm not like other people, blahblahblah rant of epic proportions. The simplest (and least melodramatic) thing would be to say that most of the people in my daily life didn't share my obsessions... or at least none of us admitted to them publicly. (Just looking at me or even my bedroom, you would have never guessed that I was a raging anime fangirl and lover of trashy romance novels. I seem so boring.) Therefore I had to turn my attention elsewhere to find people who get similarly excited about all those quirky things that kept my boat afloat. I didn't get a computer until I was 16 and didn't participate in online communities until 18 so I can't really say that there was any great effect on the formative years of my youth. However, it was awesome to finally find a group of people that would talk writing, characterization, character building, and plotting; who would sit for hours dissecting frame by frame a 10 second interaction between two fictional characters; who screamed at their television sets because why wouldn't those two idiots just make out already?!; who gave me feedback and constructive criticism when I made my own forays into writing for public consumption. It was validating, and you are all spiffy, and we should start a commune.
1xR
O Pairing of Doom, I just can't seem to quit you. Everyone on Gundam Wing is insane--every single person, even Sally Po. As much as we love them, I think we can all agree that Heero and Relena rank up there on the higher end of the crazy scale. So what it is about them that still holds me in thrall a decade after I first saw him threaten to kill her? I will fully admit up front that I really need to rewatch the series because it has been years, and my memory is not the most accurate thing at the best of times. But I remember the way that they weren't static. Both of them started pretty damn flawed, absolutely unlikeable even, yet they came out so much better at the end for having met. They served as catalysts of purpose and hope for one another, and I think both of them really came into their own as characters, as "people," due to the relationship that developed between them across the series. You can argue the specific nature of that relationship and whether or not it was romantic in nature, but if you plan to argue that it didn't exist or that it didn't matter, you're just wasting your breath. Who did they think of in times of crisis? Who did they draw strength from? Whose name did they call into empty air? It wasn't Duo or Dorothy or Dr. J or Darlian daddy.
Besides, I think trying and failing to blow yourself up after a girl finds you washed up on the beach and then ripping said girl's birthday invite and telling her you'll kill her is the most ultimate "meet cute" misunderstanding ever. There is nowhere for that relationship to go but up!