My Very First Meme
Courtesy of jakebe, that tricksy little whimsy who actually got me to do one of these things! He picked five words that remind him of me, and for each one I have to write a paragraph or two describing what they mean to me. Here goes!
Philosophy
The beauty of philosophy is that everyone has one. The danger of philosophy is applying yours to everyone else. Philosophy basically means a love of knowledge, which can be applied to just about anything: politics, spirituality, ethics, and so forth. On one hand I appreciate philosophical curiosity, the desire to experience and understand challenging concepts. On the other, philosophy can be flawed, because people (politicians, religious leaders, intellectuals) base their entire philosophies off of incomplete and sometimes shaky ideas that affect large numbers of people.
I've often thought of philosophers as people constantly chasing their own tails. Look at Descartes. Of course he was right, but should anyone have to prove that they exist? My personal philosophy tends to be agnostic, with liberal leanings. In a way agnosticism is a safe philosophy, one that unfortunately doesn't accomplish much in application, but I believe it's the most intellectually honest one. It realizes that different things work for different people. A murderer's philosophy isn't equal to a charity worker's, that's just common sense. But on certain difficult subjects I find it offensive for one person to tell another that he is right and the other wrong. Philosophy is much more complicated than black and white.
Paws
Okay, I fricking love paws. And bears also shit in the woods. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't like paws why you do. At it's core, it's just a fetish, and you can't really explain that, but there's nuance to every fetish. Some people like the idea of stomping, others like stinky socks, and others are even weirder still. For me, it's the sensuality, to massage and feel. It's not about smell or tickling or sweat or any of that. I like the idea of having paws pressed gently against my face, for example. In a way it's about trust, it's not just a purely sexual thing. I wouldn't say it's about subservience necessarily, though I'm willing to accept there's something to that. There's just something erotic about an attractive guy casually leaning back and propping up his paws in your lap, anticipating a massage.
So many people just think of feet as what they walk with, never appreciating them for their more erogenous qualities. Some people take outright offense to the idea. Their loss; in the hands of a proper paw connoisseur, no massage is uncomfortable or awkward. :3
Growth
Growth is incredibly erotic to me -- I've covered this in other journals before, but the concept of growth is like taking something awesome and sexy and amplifying it. The thought of being at the feet of a giant dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even more feet above me is one of my most prevalent fantasies. The end result is never as important as the act of growth itself, which is why my imagination can accept a creature of impossible sizes, such as being planetary in height, or having a tool they'd need a wheelbarrow to carry.
Growth works in funny ways, though. Something I wouldn't normally consider sexy can be erotic as long as it's growing. That doesn't work with, say, spiders or crabs or Karl Rove. But growing non-anthros, as long as they have human qualities, can be appealing to me. Take Red XIII, for example. If he were gigantic? Unf. But that's not really fair since I think he's sexy at any size. A better example would be the episode of the Littlest Pet Shop, where Chet the horse grows and grows. Normally, I wouldn't be attracted in the least, but the growth changes everything. The look of surprise, the confusion, the helplessness. Forced growth is the best.
Lizard
When I first got into furry, I started off at the Lava Dome mailing list, a place full of macrophiles and scalie fans. Making Seph a lizard was a completely random choice; I think I picked it after leafing through the instruction booklet to an old PS1 game called Alundra, which had a neat picture of a lizardman. In fact, the name Sephiroth was chosen pretty randomly, too. People on the list just called me that since my email address at the time was sephiroth13@hotmail.com, and I ran with it.
I added the name "Ebonblade" to distinguish myself from the Final Fantasy character, and shortened my name to Seph. These days I just go by Seph, even though my LJ and AIM handle still have the Ebonblade attached. I think it feels kind of childish, but it's too much of a hassle to make a new LJ as sephyote and have my friends migrate over. I also never had a personal thing for lizards like I do coyotes. To me, coyotes embody how I imagine Seph's character -- a playful, fun-loving trickster with an affinity for excess.
Film
I've been passionate about movies since I was a kid. My favorite movies tend to be fantastical or goofy or thought-provoking without the pretension of art films. I like plenty of art films, but my preference is generally for movies that are accessible. I love Stanley Kubrick's films. Every detail is thoroughly thought-out, every character, every shot has a reason for being the way it is. I love off-beat actors like Gary Oldman and Johnny Depp (Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" looks so awesome).
Even when a movie is accessible, I like it to be taken seriously. Spirited Away is one of my all-time favorites. It's a stunningly beautiful Wonderland-esque fairy-tale with richly imagined characters that can be appreciated on a deeper level than what you find in just about any other children's film. There was a time in my life when I wanted to make movies, but I'm content just to watch them.
Philosophy
The beauty of philosophy is that everyone has one. The danger of philosophy is applying yours to everyone else. Philosophy basically means a love of knowledge, which can be applied to just about anything: politics, spirituality, ethics, and so forth. On one hand I appreciate philosophical curiosity, the desire to experience and understand challenging concepts. On the other, philosophy can be flawed, because people (politicians, religious leaders, intellectuals) base their entire philosophies off of incomplete and sometimes shaky ideas that affect large numbers of people.
I've often thought of philosophers as people constantly chasing their own tails. Look at Descartes. Of course he was right, but should anyone have to prove that they exist? My personal philosophy tends to be agnostic, with liberal leanings. In a way agnosticism is a safe philosophy, one that unfortunately doesn't accomplish much in application, but I believe it's the most intellectually honest one. It realizes that different things work for different people. A murderer's philosophy isn't equal to a charity worker's, that's just common sense. But on certain difficult subjects I find it offensive for one person to tell another that he is right and the other wrong. Philosophy is much more complicated than black and white.
Paws
Okay, I fricking love paws. And bears also shit in the woods. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't like paws why you do. At it's core, it's just a fetish, and you can't really explain that, but there's nuance to every fetish. Some people like the idea of stomping, others like stinky socks, and others are even weirder still. For me, it's the sensuality, to massage and feel. It's not about smell or tickling or sweat or any of that. I like the idea of having paws pressed gently against my face, for example. In a way it's about trust, it's not just a purely sexual thing. I wouldn't say it's about subservience necessarily, though I'm willing to accept there's something to that. There's just something erotic about an attractive guy casually leaning back and propping up his paws in your lap, anticipating a massage.
So many people just think of feet as what they walk with, never appreciating them for their more erogenous qualities. Some people take outright offense to the idea. Their loss; in the hands of a proper paw connoisseur, no massage is uncomfortable or awkward. :3
Growth
Growth is incredibly erotic to me -- I've covered this in other journals before, but the concept of growth is like taking something awesome and sexy and amplifying it. The thought of being at the feet of a giant dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even more feet above me is one of my most prevalent fantasies. The end result is never as important as the act of growth itself, which is why my imagination can accept a creature of impossible sizes, such as being planetary in height, or having a tool they'd need a wheelbarrow to carry.
Growth works in funny ways, though. Something I wouldn't normally consider sexy can be erotic as long as it's growing. That doesn't work with, say, spiders or crabs or Karl Rove. But growing non-anthros, as long as they have human qualities, can be appealing to me. Take Red XIII, for example. If he were gigantic? Unf. But that's not really fair since I think he's sexy at any size. A better example would be the episode of the Littlest Pet Shop, where Chet the horse grows and grows. Normally, I wouldn't be attracted in the least, but the growth changes everything. The look of surprise, the confusion, the helplessness. Forced growth is the best.
Lizard
When I first got into furry, I started off at the Lava Dome mailing list, a place full of macrophiles and scalie fans. Making Seph a lizard was a completely random choice; I think I picked it after leafing through the instruction booklet to an old PS1 game called Alundra, which had a neat picture of a lizardman. In fact, the name Sephiroth was chosen pretty randomly, too. People on the list just called me that since my email address at the time was sephiroth13@hotmail.com, and I ran with it.
I added the name "Ebonblade" to distinguish myself from the Final Fantasy character, and shortened my name to Seph. These days I just go by Seph, even though my LJ and AIM handle still have the Ebonblade attached. I think it feels kind of childish, but it's too much of a hassle to make a new LJ as sephyote and have my friends migrate over. I also never had a personal thing for lizards like I do coyotes. To me, coyotes embody how I imagine Seph's character -- a playful, fun-loving trickster with an affinity for excess.
Film
I've been passionate about movies since I was a kid. My favorite movies tend to be fantastical or goofy or thought-provoking without the pretension of art films. I like plenty of art films, but my preference is generally for movies that are accessible. I love Stanley Kubrick's films. Every detail is thoroughly thought-out, every character, every shot has a reason for being the way it is. I love off-beat actors like Gary Oldman and Johnny Depp (Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" looks so awesome).
Even when a movie is accessible, I like it to be taken seriously. Spirited Away is one of my all-time favorites. It's a stunningly beautiful Wonderland-esque fairy-tale with richly imagined characters that can be appreciated on a deeper level than what you find in just about any other children's film. There was a time in my life when I wanted to make movies, but I'm content just to watch them.