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five words!
Nov. 15th, 2010 02:08 pmLeave a comment saying, "They cut off my beard and forced me to eat it" (or some other nonsensical phrase, or really anything indicating you'd like to participate) and I will give you five words I associate with you. Then post about what they mean to you, along with this, at your journal.
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nyghtshayde
Poetry
I used to think that I was a poet, but somehow poetry came harder and harder to me as I got older; I don't know if it's just the skill curve that a lot of gifted children get, where they start out a prodigy and end up just mildly talented, or whether it's just how much I expanded my horizons and what a dizzying array of poetry I found out there. I know what Edward Albee meant when he said he never felt like a poet when he was younger, just someone who wrote poems. I still write a little when the inspiration strikes me, it just doesn't happen that often. I still love it, though, because I love the puzzle that goes with poetry, the way every word and every line break can totally change the balance of a single piece.
Tea
I grew up drinking tea. My mom's family liked Red Rose best, and that's what I go to when I feel like I need a comfort drink. I keep a ridiculous number of different teas in the house, although I'm not really up to tea pro yet. (I like Earl Grey, chai, floral greens, and mint best.) I drink coffee for largely functional purposes, so tea is a treat for me now.
Jewish
Another thing I grew up with! My dad's side of the family is Jewish, and I started Hebrew school when I was very young. I rebelled against the religious side of Judaism when I was younger, along with the expectation that I would follow it...but I had my bat mitzvah anyway, and I'm glad I did. Since it stopped being compulsory, I've been learning to appreciate the philosophy and history of my culture a lot more. I still don't believe everything in it or follow 99% of the laws, but I can appreciate how learning about Judaism shaped me and the way I look at the world.
Unique
wow, that's a big one. I'm unique, and so are you--everyone has a complex equation and an ongoing story that makes up them and no two are alike, like snowflakes or swans... In a larger sense, yeah, people tell me that "Oh, you're such an individual!" or "You're a fuckin' weirdo" all the time. I mostly try to be myself, and I've stopped worrying about whether liking something makes me too weird or too mainstream.
Family
My family is a big part of my life. I grew up with a very close-knit family on my dad's side; everyone knew that they were each others' best friends and had to be there for each other. Childrearing duties were largely shared, and drama was kept to a minimum through the judicious application of humor. My mom's side of the family is a little more far-flung, but that doesn't mean they aren't still close, and I appreciate how great my relatives are every time we get together.
fromladybugandbee (Vee!)
~SCIENCE AND/OR FICTION~
They are more closely related than you might think! Science is not a collection of facts, but it is a process, a way of looking at the world--you observe what happens, you poke at it and see if it happens again, and then you figure out what that might mean. Fiction is also not just a collection of stories, but it is a way of looking at what people believe and desire--you observe what happens, you wonder what else might be going on, and then you make up a story to explain it all to yourself.
Robots
This is definitely the Aspie in me talking, but I really identify with the concept of robots. I'm a humanist first and foremost, and robots are a great metaphor for the human condition. We are composed of separate components that work together to create a whole being that can process information and complete tasks, and to some extent what we are is hardwired into our systems, and we see the world in the terms we're programmed for. But we can always open up our metaphorical chestplates and tinker around with ourselves.
Pale mysterious men with the first name Crispin and the last name Glover
I like that he looks odd, and I like that he only ever wears suits. I like that most of his characters have a kind of pathetically endearing creepiness to them. I like that he puts so much money and effort into these projects that clearly mean the world and are very important to him, and that it doesn't matter if nobody else quite understands them and he has to take awful roles in bad movies to raise the money for them. I like that he goes on early-bird dates to the art museum and bought his own Czechslovakian castle and collects fake eyeballs. I'm not as obsessed with him as I used to be--I think I've outgrown that--but he's still probably my favorite celebrity.
Old-Timeyness and/or Time Travel
I swear this comes from when Mom used to take me and my brother to the Henry Ford Museum at least five times a summer. I LOVE old things, especially Americana from the last few hundred years--things that my great-great-grandmother might have used, worn, seen. I like old advertisements and toys and kitchen implements and clothes, because they look cool and they remind me that yes, people a hundred years ago were pretty much just like you and collected dumb things and were easily swayed by garish colors and needed major help making soups. This is also why I love poking around flea markets. If I could time travel, I don't know that I'd go back to any particular historical event--I'd set things for a hundred years ago and just walk around, taking it all in.
Your interpretation of Steampunk
It's a rebellion against iStuff. The big thing for technology now is to be, like Clarke's law, practically magic--we can't see what goes on inside an iPod, we can't open it up and play with it, it's all smooth and shiny and mysterious and mass-produced. Steampunk is DIY technology at its purest--the fetishization of gears in the aesthetic is a visual metaphor for being able to see exactly what goes on in a machine, seeing into the guts of it, which means that you can take it apart or make your own if you want. And it's rooted in the aesthetic of the past because steam is such an accessible technology--there are no atoms you can't see, no mysterious wires that do things, it's just boiling water that makes gears go. (G.D. Falksen defined steampunk as being restricted to the Victorian era, but I'd stretch it and say that it could go up to the end of WWII--the Atom Age, when tiny unseeable things became the big popular technology of the future.)
from
nyghtshaydePoetry
I used to think that I was a poet, but somehow poetry came harder and harder to me as I got older; I don't know if it's just the skill curve that a lot of gifted children get, where they start out a prodigy and end up just mildly talented, or whether it's just how much I expanded my horizons and what a dizzying array of poetry I found out there. I know what Edward Albee meant when he said he never felt like a poet when he was younger, just someone who wrote poems. I still write a little when the inspiration strikes me, it just doesn't happen that often. I still love it, though, because I love the puzzle that goes with poetry, the way every word and every line break can totally change the balance of a single piece.
Tea
I grew up drinking tea. My mom's family liked Red Rose best, and that's what I go to when I feel like I need a comfort drink. I keep a ridiculous number of different teas in the house, although I'm not really up to tea pro yet. (I like Earl Grey, chai, floral greens, and mint best.) I drink coffee for largely functional purposes, so tea is a treat for me now.
Jewish
Another thing I grew up with! My dad's side of the family is Jewish, and I started Hebrew school when I was very young. I rebelled against the religious side of Judaism when I was younger, along with the expectation that I would follow it...but I had my bat mitzvah anyway, and I'm glad I did. Since it stopped being compulsory, I've been learning to appreciate the philosophy and history of my culture a lot more. I still don't believe everything in it or follow 99% of the laws, but I can appreciate how learning about Judaism shaped me and the way I look at the world.
Unique
wow, that's a big one. I'm unique, and so are you--everyone has a complex equation and an ongoing story that makes up them and no two are alike, like snowflakes or swans... In a larger sense, yeah, people tell me that "Oh, you're such an individual!" or "You're a fuckin' weirdo" all the time. I mostly try to be myself, and I've stopped worrying about whether liking something makes me too weird or too mainstream.
Family
My family is a big part of my life. I grew up with a very close-knit family on my dad's side; everyone knew that they were each others' best friends and had to be there for each other. Childrearing duties were largely shared, and drama was kept to a minimum through the judicious application of humor. My mom's side of the family is a little more far-flung, but that doesn't mean they aren't still close, and I appreciate how great my relatives are every time we get together.
from
ladybugandbee (Vee!) ~SCIENCE AND/OR FICTION~
They are more closely related than you might think! Science is not a collection of facts, but it is a process, a way of looking at the world--you observe what happens, you poke at it and see if it happens again, and then you figure out what that might mean. Fiction is also not just a collection of stories, but it is a way of looking at what people believe and desire--you observe what happens, you wonder what else might be going on, and then you make up a story to explain it all to yourself.
Robots
This is definitely the Aspie in me talking, but I really identify with the concept of robots. I'm a humanist first and foremost, and robots are a great metaphor for the human condition. We are composed of separate components that work together to create a whole being that can process information and complete tasks, and to some extent what we are is hardwired into our systems, and we see the world in the terms we're programmed for. But we can always open up our metaphorical chestplates and tinker around with ourselves.
Pale mysterious men with the first name Crispin and the last name Glover
I like that he looks odd, and I like that he only ever wears suits. I like that most of his characters have a kind of pathetically endearing creepiness to them. I like that he puts so much money and effort into these projects that clearly mean the world and are very important to him, and that it doesn't matter if nobody else quite understands them and he has to take awful roles in bad movies to raise the money for them. I like that he goes on early-bird dates to the art museum and bought his own Czechslovakian castle and collects fake eyeballs. I'm not as obsessed with him as I used to be--I think I've outgrown that--but he's still probably my favorite celebrity.
Old-Timeyness and/or Time Travel
I swear this comes from when Mom used to take me and my brother to the Henry Ford Museum at least five times a summer. I LOVE old things, especially Americana from the last few hundred years--things that my great-great-grandmother might have used, worn, seen. I like old advertisements and toys and kitchen implements and clothes, because they look cool and they remind me that yes, people a hundred years ago were pretty much just like you and collected dumb things and were easily swayed by garish colors and needed major help making soups. This is also why I love poking around flea markets. If I could time travel, I don't know that I'd go back to any particular historical event--I'd set things for a hundred years ago and just walk around, taking it all in.
Your interpretation of Steampunk
It's a rebellion against iStuff. The big thing for technology now is to be, like Clarke's law, practically magic--we can't see what goes on inside an iPod, we can't open it up and play with it, it's all smooth and shiny and mysterious and mass-produced. Steampunk is DIY technology at its purest--the fetishization of gears in the aesthetic is a visual metaphor for being able to see exactly what goes on in a machine, seeing into the guts of it, which means that you can take it apart or make your own if you want. And it's rooted in the aesthetic of the past because steam is such an accessible technology--there are no atoms you can't see, no mysterious wires that do things, it's just boiling water that makes gears go. (G.D. Falksen defined steampunk as being restricted to the Victorian era, but I'd stretch it and say that it could go up to the end of WWII--the Atom Age, when tiny unseeable things became the big popular technology of the future.)