Interests meme
I seem to be drifting away from LJ and I'm not sure whether or not that's a good thing. The other day I spent my free computer time happily writing an accounting procedures manual for a non-profit organisation, which is odd behaviour. Life is full and varied at the moment and maybe I'm getting everything I need offline? I still read everyone's posts, but I haven't felt inspired to make any. I don't want to cut myself off, though, and as I accidentally got a list of interests to explain from mergatrude while innocently commenting on a photo, I'll use that to try to get back in the swing of things.
atheism The lens through which I view and enjoy and appreciate the world and the most important part of my identity. I had a completely non-religious upbringing and by the time I learned anything about religion, it was far too late for it to sound anything other than totally bizarre. I find the concept of "spirituality" just as incomprehensible as organised religion. Every so often when someone mentions it, I look it up to see if I can at least memorise the definition, but there are never any words on the page I can understand. Almost as strange to me are those atheists and agnostics who think it would be nice to believe - I don't think it would be nice, I think it would be awful.
chocolate chip cookies One of my favourite things! I bake home-made chocolate chip cookies about once a month (and eat most of them myself). I got my favourite recipe from LJ, and I wish I could remember who from, because they made an enduring difference to my life!
hornblower litverse Lieutenant Hornblower is right up there in my favourite books of all time. Various events take place, but mostly it's Bush watching and reflecting on and essentially falling in love with Hornblower. I've never read another book like it, and honestly, I thrill to Bush's careful observation. I'm not a huge fan of the TV series, though, which is why I specify litverse. Ioan Gruffudd makes a good Hornblower, but I can't imagine any actor being able to portray Bush with a fraction of the depth of the books.
land management My hobby! I don't know much about it on a grand scale, but I'm making a pretty good stab at improving my little patch of the country. My winters and springs are dominated by tree planting and weed control, and my spare cash goes for extra fencing to keep the animals out of the areas I'm trying to revegetate and natural fertilisers to improve the soil. Watching the trees grow and the weeds die is really tremendously rewarding!
natural hoofcare What I do for a living, when I'm not counting things. Basically, it's about trimming the hooves to follow the internal structures and giving the horse as natural a life as possible. It never involves nailing shoes to the animal, and strongly discourages confining it to tiny spaces when it evolved to roam and graze. It's still kind of a fringe corner of the horse world, but more barefoot horses are making a mark in mainstream competition, and more new horse owners are starting out this way. One of my clients won a major showjumping class at last week's Royal Show, to my delight - no shoes, no bit, no clipping, no rugging, no stabling, and the best horse in its class in the state. My hope is that it will be the way of the future, but I'm afraid human population growth is going to work against that even more than entrenched conventional horsekeeping practices will. There just won't be enough room to keep horses the way they should be kept.
running My main fitness activity. In retrospect, starting to run was quite a turning point in my life - it was when I discovered I could DO things.
sharpe A great show with that slash vibe I love, but not one I actually slash, since I have trouble with superior/subordinate relationships. I love the historical, military setting.
That wasn't so hard. It's kind of fun to be up this late on the computer! If anybody wants me to pick interests for you to write about, just let me know.
atheism The lens through which I view and enjoy and appreciate the world and the most important part of my identity. I had a completely non-religious upbringing and by the time I learned anything about religion, it was far too late for it to sound anything other than totally bizarre. I find the concept of "spirituality" just as incomprehensible as organised religion. Every so often when someone mentions it, I look it up to see if I can at least memorise the definition, but there are never any words on the page I can understand. Almost as strange to me are those atheists and agnostics who think it would be nice to believe - I don't think it would be nice, I think it would be awful.
chocolate chip cookies One of my favourite things! I bake home-made chocolate chip cookies about once a month (and eat most of them myself). I got my favourite recipe from LJ, and I wish I could remember who from, because they made an enduring difference to my life!
hornblower litverse Lieutenant Hornblower is right up there in my favourite books of all time. Various events take place, but mostly it's Bush watching and reflecting on and essentially falling in love with Hornblower. I've never read another book like it, and honestly, I thrill to Bush's careful observation. I'm not a huge fan of the TV series, though, which is why I specify litverse. Ioan Gruffudd makes a good Hornblower, but I can't imagine any actor being able to portray Bush with a fraction of the depth of the books.
land management My hobby! I don't know much about it on a grand scale, but I'm making a pretty good stab at improving my little patch of the country. My winters and springs are dominated by tree planting and weed control, and my spare cash goes for extra fencing to keep the animals out of the areas I'm trying to revegetate and natural fertilisers to improve the soil. Watching the trees grow and the weeds die is really tremendously rewarding!
natural hoofcare What I do for a living, when I'm not counting things. Basically, it's about trimming the hooves to follow the internal structures and giving the horse as natural a life as possible. It never involves nailing shoes to the animal, and strongly discourages confining it to tiny spaces when it evolved to roam and graze. It's still kind of a fringe corner of the horse world, but more barefoot horses are making a mark in mainstream competition, and more new horse owners are starting out this way. One of my clients won a major showjumping class at last week's Royal Show, to my delight - no shoes, no bit, no clipping, no rugging, no stabling, and the best horse in its class in the state. My hope is that it will be the way of the future, but I'm afraid human population growth is going to work against that even more than entrenched conventional horsekeeping practices will. There just won't be enough room to keep horses the way they should be kept.
running My main fitness activity. In retrospect, starting to run was quite a turning point in my life - it was when I discovered I could DO things.
sharpe A great show with that slash vibe I love, but not one I actually slash, since I have trouble with superior/subordinate relationships. I love the historical, military setting.
That wasn't so hard. It's kind of fun to be up this late on the computer! If anybody wants me to pick interests for you to write about, just let me know.