Yay, a chance to ramble-rant!
Yeah, this is one of those five-topic memey things, I got it from x_sunniechan_x , and I would just like to say that that is one of the cutest usernames ever. Very fitting. Anyway...
Birth:
I make less of a deal about birth than most people do I think. I mean, birthdays are cool and all, but I'm usually less interested in something being created than I am in how it develops. Of course, if I'm doing the creating I'm a little more keen, but I'm not very creative. As a teacher of course, I'm often involved on the development side of things. Hardly surprising that I have next to no interest in having children of my own, is it? I don't really like being around anyone younger than 10, and people don't usually become interesting to me before they're 16 or so.
Gardening:
OK, tying into the above topic, the only kind of gardening I have any interest in is the human variety. Which is a bit of a stretch, I know, but....it's a kind of nurturing, right? Fine, I'll talk about plants. I do enjoy gardens. I like flowers a great deal, both from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, and also as a scholar. But again, I couldn't be bothered to grow one of my own. I won't even water a plant. About the only thing I could have would be a cactus, and even that I would probably kill. If I were ever to have a garden of my own, I think it would have to be a rock garden. An indoor one too, because I wouldn't want to sweep leaves off of it. :p
Hatred:
Hatred is an interesting cultural concept to me. As a society, we've pretty well accepted the idea that hate is a no-no. I blame Christianity for this to a degree of course. Why do I say blame? Because hate is an emotion like any other, neither good nor bad in itself. Saying hate is bad is like saying that TV is bad. Oh sure, you can use it in bad ways. You can sit around on your couch for five hours every night watching crap. But you can also watch The Daily Show! Or the Colbert Report! So how bad can that be really? Anyway, back to hate. I try not to let it consume me or take over my life, but there are certainly things that I hate. Ronald Reagan for example. Ann Coulter. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Omar al-Bashir. I call them things, because I don't really regard their humanity. Which is not to say that the kind of despicable nonsense these people have propagated isn't human, it's just that what they do and have done is sinful. And I don't have to believe in god to say that. The jury's still out on whether or not Alan Greenspan makes the list. But no...I can't say that I have ever actually hated anyone that I knew personally.
Scents: I have a pretty weak nose. But there are still smells that I like or don't like. Coffee pisses me off for example, or cigarette smoke. They're both somehow...squalid. I do enjoy the scent of lemon though, or grapefruit. And almonds, yes yes yes. Truth be told...I actually like the smell of sweat if it's not overpowering. But I certainly don't live in the same world as people that are powerfully tied to smells. I have a friend who is powerfully turned on by the smell of certain kinds of soap, and while I find it cute, I can't really relate. I don't mind though, because on the other side of the equation, 90% of the time when someone complains about the smell of cats, I have no idea what they're talking about.
Postal service:
This is still one of the hallmarks of civilization to me. And I mean the good ol' USPS, not UPS, not FedEx, or any of those. You'll never hear me complain about the expense of maintaining the postal service, and you'll never hear anyone who has done any comparison shopping complain either. USPS generally gets the job done as fast or faster than those other guys, and for a hell of a lot less money too. (according to firefox, couldn't isn't a word, but generallt is. wtf.). I do have reasons to send packages to distant friends now and then, and I have absolutely no complaints about how the USPS does it. Even when I'm buying them something from Amazon or wherever, I'm often tempted to just have it shipped to me, then take it to the USPS. Only for the overseas folks obviously, but it would probably be cheaper....maybe faster too.
So yeah, if you want five topics, comment to me, and I'll get back to you.
Birth:
I make less of a deal about birth than most people do I think. I mean, birthdays are cool and all, but I'm usually less interested in something being created than I am in how it develops. Of course, if I'm doing the creating I'm a little more keen, but I'm not very creative. As a teacher of course, I'm often involved on the development side of things. Hardly surprising that I have next to no interest in having children of my own, is it? I don't really like being around anyone younger than 10, and people don't usually become interesting to me before they're 16 or so.
Gardening:
OK, tying into the above topic, the only kind of gardening I have any interest in is the human variety. Which is a bit of a stretch, I know, but....it's a kind of nurturing, right? Fine, I'll talk about plants. I do enjoy gardens. I like flowers a great deal, both from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, and also as a scholar. But again, I couldn't be bothered to grow one of my own. I won't even water a plant. About the only thing I could have would be a cactus, and even that I would probably kill. If I were ever to have a garden of my own, I think it would have to be a rock garden. An indoor one too, because I wouldn't want to sweep leaves off of it. :p
Hatred:
Hatred is an interesting cultural concept to me. As a society, we've pretty well accepted the idea that hate is a no-no. I blame Christianity for this to a degree of course. Why do I say blame? Because hate is an emotion like any other, neither good nor bad in itself. Saying hate is bad is like saying that TV is bad. Oh sure, you can use it in bad ways. You can sit around on your couch for five hours every night watching crap. But you can also watch The Daily Show! Or the Colbert Report! So how bad can that be really? Anyway, back to hate. I try not to let it consume me or take over my life, but there are certainly things that I hate. Ronald Reagan for example. Ann Coulter. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Omar al-Bashir. I call them things, because I don't really regard their humanity. Which is not to say that the kind of despicable nonsense these people have propagated isn't human, it's just that what they do and have done is sinful. And I don't have to believe in god to say that. The jury's still out on whether or not Alan Greenspan makes the list. But no...I can't say that I have ever actually hated anyone that I knew personally.
Scents: I have a pretty weak nose. But there are still smells that I like or don't like. Coffee pisses me off for example, or cigarette smoke. They're both somehow...squalid. I do enjoy the scent of lemon though, or grapefruit. And almonds, yes yes yes. Truth be told...I actually like the smell of sweat if it's not overpowering. But I certainly don't live in the same world as people that are powerfully tied to smells. I have a friend who is powerfully turned on by the smell of certain kinds of soap, and while I find it cute, I can't really relate. I don't mind though, because on the other side of the equation, 90% of the time when someone complains about the smell of cats, I have no idea what they're talking about.
Postal service:
This is still one of the hallmarks of civilization to me. And I mean the good ol' USPS, not UPS, not FedEx, or any of those. You'll never hear me complain about the expense of maintaining the postal service, and you'll never hear anyone who has done any comparison shopping complain either. USPS generally gets the job done as fast or faster than those other guys, and for a hell of a lot less money too. (according to firefox, couldn't isn't a word, but generallt is. wtf.). I do have reasons to send packages to distant friends now and then, and I have absolutely no complaints about how the USPS does it. Even when I'm buying them something from Amazon or wherever, I'm often tempted to just have it shipped to me, then take it to the USPS. Only for the overseas folks obviously, but it would probably be cheaper....maybe faster too.
So yeah, if you want five topics, comment to me, and I'll get back to you.