some things about me that you should know or do know or probably don't know . . . you know.
So, new journaling service, new me! For those who are new around here, I thought I'd do this meme where you talk about yourself for a while, because god knows I like doing that. :)
five things I expect you to know about me:
1) Hi, I'm queer! This means a variety of things that relate to my sexual practices, my political practices, and of course my engagement with cultural texts like tv shows and that youtube video I saw that one time. I will be doing queer readings of things in this journal, which includes "OMG GAY YAY" and "hurrah interestingly queer" but also includes angry rants, angry well-reasoned essays, and sometimes sadness. If you can't tolerate anything but squee, I may not be your favourite tv reviewer of all time.
2) I'm also the kind of person who says things like "cultural texts" when she means "tv shows and that youtube video I saw that one time." I can't help it, I grew up a nerd and then when I got to the nerd career-paths crossroads, I took the one marked "academia." So this is really, "Hi, I'm an academic!" But I'm not an acafan, which is perhaps an important distinction - I do academic work in RL, and I write fic and make vids, and it's not like those things aren't connected (they're both about how I read and how I watch) but I don't write academic criticism about fandom or fic or vids, and I don't really have any intention of starting. Anyhow, this is to say, I'll use academic language sometimes, but only because it's how I think. I promise I'm not writing a paper on you.
3) Relating to squee and academia: I don't think those two things are incompatible, I get as much joy out of critical interpretation as I do out pure squee, and I enjoy the ability to hold contradictory opinions at the same time (i.e., this show sucks and is misogynist / omg I love this character). I love that I get to interact with my fandoms in a variety of ways at once, and will be doing so here. HOWEVER, I really detest people who show up to take the piss out of my cornflakes - if I'm upset about something, or angry about something, I dislike receiving comments to the effect of "but you should like it because the characters hugged!" It makes me want to tear my hair out. I don't think this is any different than people who don't want their squee harshed - I don't want my harsh squeed. Generally, I guess this just means "I expect people to not be tone-deaf while reading my posts, and to respond appropriately when I am sad or upset." Which is not too hard!
4) I am completely, incurably, chronically tl;dr - I love the long dash and the semicolon and don't hesitate to use them in order to be able to write longer sentences; I will always write a paragraph where a pithy sentence would do; I tend to go on at length; I repeat myself in slightly different language in order to say the exact same thing that I said a moment ago; I can get long-winded. Soooooo don't think that a post is well-thought-out just because it's long; long is my default setting. I think as I write, and I like to think here.
5) I'm trying hard to be a better person. I've spent a lot of time in my life working to be a better feminist and a better queer kid, and while those projects aren't done, I'm starting to feel good about how far I've come. I have further to come on things like critical race thinking and disabilities activism, but I am working hard on those, too. What this means for you: I really appreciate it when people are kind enough and brave enough and have spoons enough to help me in these projects, and in other kinds of being a better person. So if I say something hurtful or problematic or rude or ignorant, it's nice when people tell me so.
ten things you may not know about me:
1) I really love bodyart and bodymod; I have three tattoos and a facial piercing (and have maintained the latter despite rather dickish critics who told me that I didn't look 'professional' enough). I am always wishing that I had more money in order to get some of my big tattoo projects done. My thing that I really like is getting poetry tattooed on me, although I haven't been able to afford to get much of that done yet (just a line from Bliss Carman as an armband, so far). One of my tattoos is properly fannish (a Gandalf G-rune) and one of them is book-fannish (a Vurt feather, which is eventually going to get married to a poem).
2) I'm an amateur juggler. I can do lots of three-ball tricks (showers, cascades, flashes, tennis, reverse tennis, time-delay tricks, barbells, etc.), I can juggle four for short periods of time, I can juggle clubs, and I can pass-juggle with balls (though I haven't done it in a while). It's a wonderful relaxing non-cerebral thing to do, especially if I want to stretch my shoulder muscles after spending hours hunched over the computer. :)
3) I was once a hair model.
4) I'm a dog person, and although I of course attempt to maintain snooty critical cynical distance from everything at all times (not really you guys), I can be completely undone by meeting a random dog on the street. PUPPY! Pictures of dogs also. I can't help it. Big dogs are the best! Then you can hug them around their big scruffy necks.
5) I once wrote Spike/Xander kidfic. REALLY. Their daughter had magical powers, even. Oh the days of my youth.
6) I love sports movies. I just, I love them. I have seen The Mighty Ducks and A League of Their Own and all sorts of other sports movies probably a dozen times. I love how terrible they are, and I love how predictable they are, and I love how they always include a message about TEAMWORK and OVERCOMING ADVERSITY and the TRIUMPH OF THE UNDERDOG, and I love love love the training montages. I used to watch them all the time on cable, when I had free cable, and they were like a balm to my soul in times of trouble.
7) I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Canada. I once did a pop-wheelie in a giant Versatile tractor (while receiving my first lesson in how to drive a standard transmission. Apparently you shouldn't let the clutch out too fast!).
8) There was a period of my life when I worked for a very very evil corporation (a credit card bank, let's call them Bank of Shamerica). I learned that corporate life is a cult. It was honestly frightening. I hated my life so much I could barely get up in the morning, and at the same time just working there and being exposed to their evil brainwashing cult began changing the way I thought and behaved. It is actual literal brainwashing, their corporate practice, designed specifically to break spirits. And they don't even let you read gay porn at work there! Or, like, go to the bathroom except during scheduled bathroom break times. I'm glad I don't work there anymore.
9) I travelled to my first fannish gathering when I was sixteen - my parents let me fly down to LA by myself to meet up with a bunch of awesome ladies from the x-files official online forum. Remember when people used official forums? And meeting people from the internet was a pretty new and crazy thing back in 1998! We spent several days watching Red Shoe Diaries and reading fanfiction aloud and gallivanting around LA. I've been kind of incurably fannish ever since. :)
10) My first sexual experience involved roleplaying as doctor and patient. Now I mod kink bingo.
K, now it's your turn - if you didn't do so on the last post, feel free to tell me a little something about yourself in the comments. :)
click to comment at dw || there are
comments right now
five things I expect you to know about me:
1) Hi, I'm queer! This means a variety of things that relate to my sexual practices, my political practices, and of course my engagement with cultural texts like tv shows and that youtube video I saw that one time. I will be doing queer readings of things in this journal, which includes "OMG GAY YAY" and "hurrah interestingly queer" but also includes angry rants, angry well-reasoned essays, and sometimes sadness. If you can't tolerate anything but squee, I may not be your favourite tv reviewer of all time.
2) I'm also the kind of person who says things like "cultural texts" when she means "tv shows and that youtube video I saw that one time." I can't help it, I grew up a nerd and then when I got to the nerd career-paths crossroads, I took the one marked "academia." So this is really, "Hi, I'm an academic!" But I'm not an acafan, which is perhaps an important distinction - I do academic work in RL, and I write fic and make vids, and it's not like those things aren't connected (they're both about how I read and how I watch) but I don't write academic criticism about fandom or fic or vids, and I don't really have any intention of starting. Anyhow, this is to say, I'll use academic language sometimes, but only because it's how I think. I promise I'm not writing a paper on you.
3) Relating to squee and academia: I don't think those two things are incompatible, I get as much joy out of critical interpretation as I do out pure squee, and I enjoy the ability to hold contradictory opinions at the same time (i.e., this show sucks and is misogynist / omg I love this character). I love that I get to interact with my fandoms in a variety of ways at once, and will be doing so here. HOWEVER, I really detest people who show up to take the piss out of my cornflakes - if I'm upset about something, or angry about something, I dislike receiving comments to the effect of "but you should like it because the characters hugged!" It makes me want to tear my hair out. I don't think this is any different than people who don't want their squee harshed - I don't want my harsh squeed. Generally, I guess this just means "I expect people to not be tone-deaf while reading my posts, and to respond appropriately when I am sad or upset." Which is not too hard!
4) I am completely, incurably, chronically tl;dr - I love the long dash and the semicolon and don't hesitate to use them in order to be able to write longer sentences; I will always write a paragraph where a pithy sentence would do; I tend to go on at length; I repeat myself in slightly different language in order to say the exact same thing that I said a moment ago; I can get long-winded. Soooooo don't think that a post is well-thought-out just because it's long; long is my default setting. I think as I write, and I like to think here.
5) I'm trying hard to be a better person. I've spent a lot of time in my life working to be a better feminist and a better queer kid, and while those projects aren't done, I'm starting to feel good about how far I've come. I have further to come on things like critical race thinking and disabilities activism, but I am working hard on those, too. What this means for you: I really appreciate it when people are kind enough and brave enough and have spoons enough to help me in these projects, and in other kinds of being a better person. So if I say something hurtful or problematic or rude or ignorant, it's nice when people tell me so.
ten things you may not know about me:
1) I really love bodyart and bodymod; I have three tattoos and a facial piercing (and have maintained the latter despite rather dickish critics who told me that I didn't look 'professional' enough). I am always wishing that I had more money in order to get some of my big tattoo projects done. My thing that I really like is getting poetry tattooed on me, although I haven't been able to afford to get much of that done yet (just a line from Bliss Carman as an armband, so far). One of my tattoos is properly fannish (a Gandalf G-rune) and one of them is book-fannish (a Vurt feather, which is eventually going to get married to a poem).
2) I'm an amateur juggler. I can do lots of three-ball tricks (showers, cascades, flashes, tennis, reverse tennis, time-delay tricks, barbells, etc.), I can juggle four for short periods of time, I can juggle clubs, and I can pass-juggle with balls (though I haven't done it in a while). It's a wonderful relaxing non-cerebral thing to do, especially if I want to stretch my shoulder muscles after spending hours hunched over the computer. :)
3) I was once a hair model.
4) I'm a dog person, and although I of course attempt to maintain snooty critical cynical distance from everything at all times (not really you guys), I can be completely undone by meeting a random dog on the street. PUPPY! Pictures of dogs also. I can't help it. Big dogs are the best! Then you can hug them around their big scruffy necks.
5) I once wrote Spike/Xander kidfic. REALLY. Their daughter had magical powers, even. Oh the days of my youth.
6) I love sports movies. I just, I love them. I have seen The Mighty Ducks and A League of Their Own and all sorts of other sports movies probably a dozen times. I love how terrible they are, and I love how predictable they are, and I love how they always include a message about TEAMWORK and OVERCOMING ADVERSITY and the TRIUMPH OF THE UNDERDOG, and I love love love the training montages. I used to watch them all the time on cable, when I had free cable, and they were like a balm to my soul in times of trouble.
7) I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Canada. I once did a pop-wheelie in a giant Versatile tractor (while receiving my first lesson in how to drive a standard transmission. Apparently you shouldn't let the clutch out too fast!).
8) There was a period of my life when I worked for a very very evil corporation (a credit card bank, let's call them Bank of Shamerica). I learned that corporate life is a cult. It was honestly frightening. I hated my life so much I could barely get up in the morning, and at the same time just working there and being exposed to their evil brainwashing cult began changing the way I thought and behaved. It is actual literal brainwashing, their corporate practice, designed specifically to break spirits. And they don't even let you read gay porn at work there! Or, like, go to the bathroom except during scheduled bathroom break times. I'm glad I don't work there anymore.
9) I travelled to my first fannish gathering when I was sixteen - my parents let me fly down to LA by myself to meet up with a bunch of awesome ladies from the x-files official online forum. Remember when people used official forums? And meeting people from the internet was a pretty new and crazy thing back in 1998! We spent several days watching Red Shoe Diaries and reading fanfiction aloud and gallivanting around LA. I've been kind of incurably fannish ever since. :)
10) My first sexual experience involved roleplaying as doctor and patient. Now I mod kink bingo.
K, now it's your turn - if you didn't do so on the last post, feel free to tell me a little something about yourself in the comments. :)
click to comment at dw || there are
comments right now