an introductory post, now with added friends policy.

[sinsense]

I don't really write very much about my day to day here. Rather, I write about the excruciating minutiae of my life, but I don't mention the larger things that often.

I think in bullet points:

• I joined Livejournal in 2001, but did not start posting until 2002. My first entry was about a road trip I was going on with friends. True to form, it was bizarrely short and completely lacking in explanatory detail.
  
• I am in my mid-twenties. I'm white.
  
• If you go back and read entries from 2002-2003, please remember that I was young. And stupid. Possibly even brain-damaged.
  
• I am a Libra. I place little weight on astrology, but I'm told I'm a typical example of the sign.
  
• I represent myself as queer, queermosexual, bisexual, gay, a fop, a dandy, a girl-loving faggot, a dyke, or a lesbian, depending on when we're talking and in what context. I came out when I was 8, 12, 16, or 18, depending on who you ask or how I'm telling the story. All of these things are true.
  
• I am fascinated by gender.
  
• I am annoyed by roughly 79% of the people who study gender.
  
• I enjoy telling stories.
  
• I am earning my doctorate in English and American Literature.
  
• My job/academic work means most of my journal is friendslocked, and why I use nicknames and pseudonyms in my entries. Consistent characters include:
  • Dr. Favorite, my advisor and all around dude.
    
  • Dr. Dangly, also on my committee, who redefines "dry humor."
    
  • Dr. Lino, my committee chair, who has a linoleum-like head.
    
  • Tangle, a friend in the program and dance partner.
• Previous jobs include: pet-sitter, house-sitter, baby-sitter, legal secretary, Rite-Aid clerk, cafeteria cashier, library worker, secretary to the district manager of Barnes&Noble, and video store lackey. I have consistently held a job since I was seventeen or so, although my first job was around fourteen.
  
• I used to play rugby with a local team. I began playing rugby in 2000, at my undergraduate university. I stopped playing in 2008, due to injuries and concussions.
  
• I began fencing at age 8, and continued fencing seriously until my graduation from undergrad in 2004. After that, I was burnt out on the sport, and took four years off. I recently returned to the sport, and have been enjoying it a whole hell of a lot. I'm an epeeist.
  
• I was raised Episcopalian. I still consider myself to be a Christian of sorts and a person of faith, though I am not religious.
  
• I am generally very, very liberal in my politics and world views.
  
• My cat is named Malcolm, for El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. I got him in August of 2008, when he was two and a half months old.
  
• I am not involved with anyone romantically.
  
• Unless you count coffee. Oh my god coffee.
  
• I don't drink very often or very much. I have tried cigarettes, but I don't smoke. I have tried marijuana, and it makes me paranoid and annoyed. Athletics kept me out of other, harder drugs, but that doesn't mean I disapprove of using them, or of having tried them. My one true drug is caffeine.
  
• I am a vegetarian. For a while, I would sometimes lapse and eat fish; at those times I would be a pescetarian, but only while I was eating, and then I would feel guilty and sad for my finned friends.
  
• My parents are the most important people in my life.
  
• Likes include: stationery, books, and pastries.
  
• Dislikes include: prescriptive grammar, people who spit in the street, and failure.
  
• You will enjoy reading my journal: if you like self-deprecating humor, random stories, and the hot mansex.

With regards to fandom, that dirty little word:

• I began keeping a livejournal because I was reading in the NSync slash fandom. hammerhead22 was the first person to really welcome me on LJ. (She is awesome, and still on my friendslist.) My primary fandom of the moment is bandslash, and I tag stories obsessively on my del.icio.us. I follow Friday Night Lights, Stargate: Atlantis, Keen Eddie, Criminal Minds, CSI, the Bourne series, Psych, and will read in quite a few other fandoms.
  
• Before LJ, I was in anime fandom (specifically Gundam Wing, Weiss Kreuz, and Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), and belonged to several yaoi mailing lists. They were incredibly horrible fandoms, but I was young and stupid, so it balanced out.
  
• I primarily read slash, which is fanfiction about love between two men.
  
• I'll read just about anything, including RPF, mpreg, deathfic, kink, incest, and chan. If you would like an explanation for why I read fanfiction, or why I am willing to read a kind of fic you particularly dislike, I will explain, and will listen to your side of the argument with an open mind. I won't read (or usually won't enjoy) stories that involve one character cheating on another, noncon, or abject humiliation of a character. I try to warn for things that might offend; if you think one of my stories should include additional warnings, please email me.
  
• I don't really consider myself to be a major part of fandom, even though I am now active in bandslash. I like fandom as a social opportunity. It's one that has allowed me to meet some of my favorite people.
  
• If you have problems with fandom in any way, that is perfectly fine, and I don't believe it bars us from being acquaintances or even friends. However, I would prefer that you refrain from commenting with judgments about my leisure activities.
  
• If you googled yourself and found one of my stories... feedback is always nice? Whatever, I'm not your mama.
  
• I really refuse to take anything on the internet very seriously.

I can't think of anything else. I think that's probably it; or, rather, that's all I can think of that might be of any help in orienting the casual reader. Let me know if you have any questions.

There is no need to comment asking me if it's okay to friend me. It is always all right. However, I may not friend you back right away. I most likely will, but sometimes it takes me a really, really long time.

I would love a comment telling me how you found me, if you have the time. I am used to not being very well-known at all, and when people randomly friend me without telling me who they are I get a little nervous. Even if it's just a note saying "hey, I see you around a lot in [so-and-so]'s journal, whoop," that'll help me be less of a headcase, and I'd appreciate it.

Edited 3/2009.
Retired 10/2009.