Life Update + Interview from FrostDemn
here and now> So, I'm back in Santa Rosa. I slacked off all of last week, including slacking on a group project. Oh well, I'll thank my project partners profusely, and try my best to catch up on the next project. I wish I had time to go to WonderCon and Video Games Live, but instead I caught up on a much-needed hike from the center of Berkeley campus over the Berkeley hills to the Orinda BART station. Oh, and today was a five-hour blues dancing workshop, which makes me really happy even though I have a lot of work to do before I can be a really good blues lead.
adobe woes> I've been dying to post pictures of the hike, and the time-lapse pictures I took last week at work, and video from Uck's birthday bowling last week, but my installation of Adobe Production Premium CS4 screwed up, and I can't reinstall it no matter what I try. I'm getting closer, so we'll see what I can do. When I get it fixed, or when I give up and use my laptop instead, I'll "develop" and post pics.
music> I've been getting into some downtempo music lately, partly because it fits with blues fusion. I highly recommend Zero 7's Simple Things (LGT Amazon), particularly "Red Dust" (LGT YouTube).
roommate>Regarding the roommate situation, I now have two potential roommates-my high school friend Tom, and recent friend/coworker/partner-in-crime John ("the Aussie"). No guarantees about the situation (things are more cemented with John, I still need to talk with him about Tom) but either way looks good. There are always reservations about living with friends, and especially about living with co-workers, but I think we'll be mature enough to handle it and draw lines where lines need to be drawn.
But there is one thing. frostdemn did the "interview" meme (comment on this entry and I'll give you five questions to answer in a post), he asked good questions, and I thought they all deserve good answers, offered behind the cuts. Hopefully a couple of you will read them, I actually put effort into answering them and it always frustrates me to see no comments on pensive entries.
1. How did you get introduced into Furry? That one was on my own.
I was part of the Lion King generation (watched the VHS, listened to the soundtrack, collected the cards, etc), and always had an affinity for dogs, wolves, and werewolves. I'll admit that it was the costumes that directed me to the Furry community in 2002/2003, when I finally tried creating a character and exploring FurryMUCK. Didn't really do much of anything until my 18th birthday, though, when I moved to Berkeley and delurked on BAF. My first real furry event was a non-suiting meeting for Critters By The Bay, which I followed up with a Critters gig (San Leandro, and my first in-person exposure to a real live fursuit), then a day trip to FC, and then attending a then-irregular Berkeley furmeet.
2. What sparked your interest in swing dancing? Sheri French.
There's a girl I credit with helping me become more outgoing, and just being one of my best friends in general, named Sheri. Everyone knows someone like her-she's the gorgeous, selfless one who always hosted the parties, always made sure no one felt left out, and always had time to make you a birthday card. Anyway, it was December 19, 2003, the Friday of Winter Break of my junior year, when I was helping her in the yearbook room and she convinced me to go to the swing dancing hall (Ellington Hall) she started going to. I just kept going, learning one new thing a week, and five years later here I am still doing swing and blues.
God I miss dancing with you, Sheri, and miss seeing your smiling face. Almost three years ago exactly, on Valentine's Day, she and her boyfriend were taken in a daytime car accident in Santa Rosa. R.I.P. Sheri French, March 14 1987 - February 18 2006.
I don't know Furp, I never did, but he sounds like a very good person and my sympathies go out to those who miss him--and to everyone who has someone they miss, taken too soon.
3. What's one thing you want to accomplish before the day you kick the bucket? Why do I have to pick one?
I've always had this philosophy, as poor as it can be sometimes. I figure we all have this environmental footprint, this mark we leave on the world in energy consumption and garbage creation, this debt we're born into. And I know we all know those who take, and take too much, those for whom everyone would be better off if they were gone. And I know I don't want to be one of those people.
So, I want to do something good. Maybe not something revolutionary, but I want to keep being good, and do at least my share. I want to make kids happy, and support the environment, and be a good friend to as many as possible, and learn enough to help produce something profoundly good. I don't know how yet, but that's part of the adventure of life.
4. Do you think you would survive a Zombie apocalypse? Or at least longer than most of your friends? Aim for the head? No and no.
I'd like to think I'd sacrifice myself to give my friends and family a better shot. The reality is, I'd probably trip and get eaten alive for my clumsiness.
5. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change and how? I'd be more comfortable being weird.
There are so many things I would change about myself, and part of the thought was "I want to be less weird." But the reality is, I kinda like being myself, for as awkward and weird as I feel I am. So maybe it's just a matter of being more comfortable being crazy.
I'd also love to be better at following through on things, and to be a better friend to all my friends, and to be less neurotic about certain things, and to be better at making friends, et al. But you know what, maybe I'm not so bad after all.
Maybe.
adobe woes> I've been dying to post pictures of the hike, and the time-lapse pictures I took last week at work, and video from Uck's birthday bowling last week, but my installation of Adobe Production Premium CS4 screwed up, and I can't reinstall it no matter what I try. I'm getting closer, so we'll see what I can do. When I get it fixed, or when I give up and use my laptop instead, I'll "develop" and post pics.
music> I've been getting into some downtempo music lately, partly because it fits with blues fusion. I highly recommend Zero 7's Simple Things (LGT Amazon), particularly "Red Dust" (LGT YouTube).
roommate>Regarding the roommate situation, I now have two potential roommates-my high school friend Tom, and recent friend/coworker/partner-in-crime John ("the Aussie"). No guarantees about the situation (things are more cemented with John, I still need to talk with him about Tom) but either way looks good. There are always reservations about living with friends, and especially about living with co-workers, but I think we'll be mature enough to handle it and draw lines where lines need to be drawn.
But there is one thing. frostdemn did the "interview" meme (comment on this entry and I'll give you five questions to answer in a post), he asked good questions, and I thought they all deserve good answers, offered behind the cuts. Hopefully a couple of you will read them, I actually put effort into answering them and it always frustrates me to see no comments on pensive entries.
1. How did you get introduced into Furry? That one was on my own.
I was part of the Lion King generation (watched the VHS, listened to the soundtrack, collected the cards, etc), and always had an affinity for dogs, wolves, and werewolves. I'll admit that it was the costumes that directed me to the Furry community in 2002/2003, when I finally tried creating a character and exploring FurryMUCK. Didn't really do much of anything until my 18th birthday, though, when I moved to Berkeley and delurked on BAF. My first real furry event was a non-suiting meeting for Critters By The Bay, which I followed up with a Critters gig (San Leandro, and my first in-person exposure to a real live fursuit), then a day trip to FC, and then attending a then-irregular Berkeley furmeet.
2. What sparked your interest in swing dancing? Sheri French.
There's a girl I credit with helping me become more outgoing, and just being one of my best friends in general, named Sheri. Everyone knows someone like her-she's the gorgeous, selfless one who always hosted the parties, always made sure no one felt left out, and always had time to make you a birthday card. Anyway, it was December 19, 2003, the Friday of Winter Break of my junior year, when I was helping her in the yearbook room and she convinced me to go to the swing dancing hall (Ellington Hall) she started going to. I just kept going, learning one new thing a week, and five years later here I am still doing swing and blues.
God I miss dancing with you, Sheri, and miss seeing your smiling face. Almost three years ago exactly, on Valentine's Day, she and her boyfriend were taken in a daytime car accident in Santa Rosa. R.I.P. Sheri French, March 14 1987 - February 18 2006.
I don't know Furp, I never did, but he sounds like a very good person and my sympathies go out to those who miss him--and to everyone who has someone they miss, taken too soon.
3. What's one thing you want to accomplish before the day you kick the bucket? Why do I have to pick one?
I've always had this philosophy, as poor as it can be sometimes. I figure we all have this environmental footprint, this mark we leave on the world in energy consumption and garbage creation, this debt we're born into. And I know we all know those who take, and take too much, those for whom everyone would be better off if they were gone. And I know I don't want to be one of those people.
So, I want to do something good. Maybe not something revolutionary, but I want to keep being good, and do at least my share. I want to make kids happy, and support the environment, and be a good friend to as many as possible, and learn enough to help produce something profoundly good. I don't know how yet, but that's part of the adventure of life.
4. Do you think you would survive a Zombie apocalypse? Or at least longer than most of your friends? Aim for the head? No and no.
I'd like to think I'd sacrifice myself to give my friends and family a better shot. The reality is, I'd probably trip and get eaten alive for my clumsiness.
5. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change and how? I'd be more comfortable being weird.
There are so many things I would change about myself, and part of the thought was "I want to be less weird." But the reality is, I kinda like being myself, for as awkward and weird as I feel I am. So maybe it's just a matter of being more comfortable being crazy.
I'd also love to be better at following through on things, and to be a better friend to all my friends, and to be less neurotic about certain things, and to be better at making friends, et al. But you know what, maybe I'm not so bad after all.
Maybe.