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[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Hi, gang! I was originally planning on putting up a Free For All post today, but I'm feeling a need to meme. We tend to get a lot of participation on the getting-to-know-you type memes, and I'm always fascinated by the types of things I learn about 'Shipper Nation from these things. You can certainly feel free to comment with whatever visual media or text you might feel like sharing as if it were a Free For All, but I'll offer the following meme starter as a jumping off point:

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

This should be fairly self-explanatory. :) The 5 can be as personal or silly as you care to share. If a couple folks on the comm already know them, that's OK, too. My favorite part of these memes is the conversations they start, so let's get to know each other a little more!

Comments

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I'll start us off:

1) I was a volunteer firefighter after graduating from high school- until I got tired of being treated like a girl and being left behind while the teen boys rode the trucks out. They "let" me roll hose after the fires were out, no matter how many trainings I attended and successfully completed.

2) I later changed fire companies, where I was allowed to drive the trucks. I took an antique, open cab, double-clutch fire truck out for a spin one day with a friend and didn't grind the gears or anything! :)

3) I can drive a standard and had one for 8 years, which is apparently weird if the way my friends talk about it is any indication.

4) I'm a member of Mensa.

5) This week's episode of Castle ate my brain. OMG, the squee and constant looping of the youtube clip! I keep catching my mind wandering, writing a story I don't have time to really write.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I love ALL of these! And the Mensa one didn't surprise me in the least! (You come across as brilliant!)

*hugs* K :>)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

You should totally write that Castle story so I can read it. :D

[kag523.livejournal.com]

*happy dancing*

This sounds like fun! Alright... well I tend to tell everyone EVERYTHING, so I'll try to come up with some super random items about myself.

1) I have synesthesia, which means I tend to mix my memories/experiences of items. Sounds have colours to me, numbers have genders, I prefer the taste of certain items based on their shape... It is difficult to explain, but it results in me having an excellent memory.

2) I wear SPF 100 sunscreen every single day.

3) I have an exceptional ability to thin-slice decisions. I never waver. I just know what to do. (It drives my husband crazy, since he likes to discuss and make lists of big decisions and I tend to just say "well, why bother, I know we're going to... [fill in the blank].")

4) I used to run a bar. It taught me more about humanity and the value of kindness than anything else.

5) My body is naturally attuned to technical equipment - and that sounds like a joke, but it isn't. If a student computer hangs, I can usually get it back by just touching it. My kid's ipad doesn't sense my touch. Neither does my laptop's control pad or the school's smartboard. It's like I'm synced up with the same electromagnetic field. Bizarre but true.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

So, what you're telling us then is that you are a cylon.

Pfft. We already knew that! LOL.

And that synesthesia is way cool!

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

My mom can't wear watches because they don't just stop, she ruins them. It's freaky in a totally fascinating way.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued by what the synesthesia is like inside your head! Also, I totally get #5. My Dad has always had to wear plastic/rubber-backed digital watches because metal band digital watches would run weird on him. I LOVE that you can just touch a PC to get it running again. That kind of makes you a PC Whisperer!

[wand3rlust.livejournal.com]

You're a synesthetic? Wow! I watched this fascinating special on Science channel a few years ago about that and the gal could see and taste sounds. I'm guessing like you there were probably more things they didn't cover, but I thought it was pretty amazing when they showed how well she could remember things.

[stripes13.livejournal.com]

IT'S TRUE THEN!! YOU ARE A CYLON!!!!

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Wow. You are officially the most interesting person ever. Someday I will write stories and you will be part of them.

So cool.

It's amazing how the brain and memory work. I've been getting into the "Sherlock" fandom lately and I read a fascinating post from someone with prosopagnosia (face-blindness). She cannot visually process people's faces, which means that she has had to construct an elaborate system of observation and memory tree association to narrow down people's identities and deduce who she is talking to in any given situation. It's completely fascinating. I had never heard of synesthesia as anything more than a literary device; that sounds like a really amazing way of seeing the world.

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

I tend to mix my memories/experiences of items. Sounds have colours to me, numbers have genders, I prefer the taste of certain items based on their shape GET OUT OF MY HEAD. Seriously, the parallels between us scares the crap out of me sometimes (like right now)

It's like I'm synced up with the same electromagnetic field. = You are a Cylon.

5 random things

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

1. I spent my childhood on three different continents.

2. I'm fascinated by the Byzantine Empire.

3. I think "The Wire" is the greatest TV show ever.

4. I am a super-fast reader but I don't know why (never took a speed reading course or anything.)

5. I am completely terrified of having water over my head. I totally freak out (n.b. Does not apply to showers ;))

Re: 5 random things

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Now, I want to go the library and check out books on the Byzantines (and possibly Vikings), but our brnach is closed today. Maybe I'll put some one hold online. *grins*

Five Things

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

1 - Everyone is home from school and work today (although my husband has work to do). This conflicts greatly with my alone time. Please pray to the deity of your choice for my sanity.

2 - My nose had been pierced for 17 years, almost 18. My mother offered to pierce it with a sewing needle cauterized on her gas stove. I decline, but she paid for it.

3 - An ex-boyfriend once dressed as Spike, complete with pro-quality vampire forehead make-up, for Halloween just for me. :D

4 - I bought A Handmaid's Tale and Exile in Guyville with the same paychack, and they're inexorably tied to me.

5 - I've colored my hair almost constantly since I was 16,, usually red. I used to think I would stop one day, but I don't think I will anymore. I really hate my natural hair color.

Re: Five Things

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I want to know what it is about the Handmaid's tale that connects to you! (Love that book :>)

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

1. I chatted with Ray Bradbury when I was a teenager, and told him I wished he hadn't killed off my favorite character in Farenheit 451. He told me he gets that all the time.

2. My best friend has albinism, which involves a lack of pigmentation in her skin and hair and major vision problems. In film and TV, albinos are usually portrayed as psychopathic killers, which we find very funny since if you gave a real albino a gun they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn (many albinos are legally blind). Our favorite iteration of this trope was in the DS9 episode "Blood Oath," which involved a psychopathic albino killer who was also *Klingon.* Hee!

3. My fashion sense has been described as "construction worker casual."

4. I have gone caving in Budapest.

5. My husband's first and middle name together make up the name of one of my favorite fictional characters.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I love ALL of these Rachel! Oh goodness - I SO want to meet you for REAL! Any chance you are coming to ComicCon in July???

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

I love these type of memes! I might end up saying the same things I've said before, but ... whatever!

1. I don't like ice cream. It's too cold.

2. (I'm not copying kag523 here, but) I associate sounds with colors and numbers with gender. It works the other way too. Colors are associated with sounds and genders with numbers!

3. I've been compared to the Energizer Bunny on Red Bull in print.

4. People call me a bridge builder because I have a knack of bringing people together and making things happen. I know for a fact that there are at least two people in this world who wouldn't be here if I hadn't intervened and made their parents get together in the first place!

5. I always have a plan and am your go-to person for plan b thru z. My motto is "impossible is just an opinion" and I live by it, so if you ever need to come up with a plan to make something work, I'm your gal!

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I only like ice cream when it's hot out. Too cold and too milky otherwise.

I assign gender to almost everything. It's one of the ways I keep track of stuff.

[shinyfab.livejournal.com]

This is awesome. I don't think I can beat out the Cylon up there so I won't try. ;)

1. I was a History major in college and my thesis was on the Salem Witch Trials.

2. Two years after I graduated college and moved from Oregon to Massachusetts, I became a historical tour guide at the Salem Witch House in Salem, MA.

3. When I was 7 I wrote a poem that was printed in our town newspaper and I got to even read it on the radio.

4. I have a crush on David James Duncan who wrote The River Why.

5. I was born with 10 white hairs (my mom counted) to which I have added substantially at this point, with no signs of stopping.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

The Salem Witch Trials are fascinating! I visited there and was completely creeped out by the place. (I wonder if you were the tour guide - as I did go on the tour of the house!)

I wonder if the ten white hairs have some special significance...? Is it a sign of some special "gift" you have? K :>)

[wand3rlust.livejournal.com]

1. My great grandfather passed away mere hours before my mother went into sudden premature labor with me. I was born 3.5 months early and had no major complications that most preemies have. To this day I rarely get sick other than the common cold once or twice a year. *knock on wood*

2. I went on a whirlwind 3 month tour around western Europe (and Morocco) about 5 years ago and fell in LOVE with Madrid, Spain. It was one of those instant "I feel like I've been here before" kind of feelings. I would love to live there some day.

3. Speaking of "feel like I've been here before" kind of places. I have this ridiculously intense desire to visit Africa, specifically Kenya. I have a friend from SA so I may make it there yet. (can you tell why my SN is wand3rlust yet?)

4. I used to be a charity fundraiser for children living in poverty. To this day it remains the hardest job I've ever had because it required such a huge emotional investment. *hugs poor babies* Yes I do want world peace, dang it!

5. I can not eat strawberries. I'm not allergic to them I just have the strangest gag reflex anytime I try to. I do like strawberry flavored things. *shrugs*

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I have the same issue with bananas. I'm sort of better now because my children love them, but touching bananas is how I show children unconditional love.

[acsgrlie.livejournal.com]

1. I'm adopted from South Korea.

2. I am usually the peacemaker with my friends. Not that we fight often but when there's conflict I usually try to stay out of it.

3. I'm currently getting my Masters degree in Criminal Justice.

4. I love just driving around blasting my music and singing along like a maniac.

5. I'm definitely a shopaholic.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

More than once, I've realized my car windows were open at a light and I'm doing a crazy karaoke performance of something on the radio. I suspect I look pretty funny singing Paramore at the top of my lungs in my soccer mom Outback wagon.

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

1) I don't like to watch or talk about it--I like to do. I'm more action than words. Player vs Spectator.

2) I've been into 'doing things' since a little kid. I've played sports since elementary school despite being overweight most of my life.

3) I was the only girl on my Little League baseball team. They didn't have girls' softball available until Jr High. I went onto soccer in Sr High, then after graduating: rec co-ed volleyball, got my Blackbelt in American Kenpo and played six years on a Women's Tackle Football team. My knees hate me--and it's mutual now that they don't work ;^)

4) I'm naturally shy, yet managed to do Mime in High School and sing Karaoke (very badly) without having been plied with drinks first.

5) Most alcohol tastes NASTY to me. Can't even stand the smell. But I can tolerate a well-made Long Island Ice Tea, go figure :)

[kag523.livejournal.com]

*hugs super tight*

I love all of these. And I know this sounds odd, but I think I could have guessed four out of five of them. Not sure why.

Now, which one do YOU think surprised me, Ms. M? Hmmmm....? ;>)

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

1 I worked as a hostess during my colleges basketball games. Which meant I spent like 10 minutes getting drinks and food for the press in exchange for a first row center court seat.

2. I did some twirling in both high school and college, although I wasn't particularly good at it.

3. I can't stand beer.

4. I sang in choral groups from 4th grade through my first year teaching, and after that periodically. The biggest thing was doing The Messiah with the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, but the thing I remember most fondly was my Dad turning too me at one Christmas midnight mass and telling me "You really do have a good voice."

5. I taught ESL to several students from the Far East through Literacy Volunteers, and was an exchange coordinator for a high school foreign exchange program.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I did some twirling in both high school and college, although I wasn't particularly good at it.

What does this mean? Honestly. I'm thinking it is not a Canadianism, because I'm just not getting this one.

*hugs* Sorry! Dialect catches me up some times.

[thegreenkitty.livejournal.com]

1. My least favorite organ is the pancreas. I've never chosen a favorite organ but I suppose I might settle on the brain.

2. I have no fashion sense and hate make-up. I'd rather wear a suit than a dress but can pull off the dress pretty well on the rare occasions when I try.

3. I am currently working part time as a "personal assistant" (aka maid, cook, babysitter) for a couple friends. It's harder work than being a vet and equally fulfilling. I'm learning lots of practical skills and life with a normal sleep schedule is really awesome.

4. I haven't finished LoTR (books or movies). I got really pissed in the middle of the second book when Tolkien did the whole "kill off a main/favorite character" (deliberately vague in case there's anyone else out there who has yet to read and doesn't want to be spoiled) and I quit reading in disgust. Considering my feelings (and lack of ability/desire) to rewatch any bsg epis from Maelstrom to Daybreak b/c of the Kara character inconsistencies, I'm thinking maybe the whole Jesus/"death+rebirth character arc" is really not a device I want to see in my fiction.

5. I love to study people and subcultures. I'd happily write ethnographies for a living if I thought I could support myself while doing it.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

*pulls you to dance*

Liz - these all make me so happy! I feel like I had an underpainting of you (in my strangely-wired friends-fic-creating brain) and I now have certain areas of your image that have suddenly popped into focus. I like what I see!

I am currently working part time as a "personal assistant" (aka maid, cook, babysitter) for a couple friends. It's harder work than being a vet and equally fulfilling. I'm learning lots of practical skills and life with a normal sleep schedule is really awesome.

This, in particular, made me really happy. Oh hon, I'm so so glad to hear that. Life is an amazing evolution sometimes, and this just totally makes me "glad". Be well! ♥ K

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not?

1. I started doing Shakespeare when I was in 3rd grade, playing Dromio of Syracuse. The affinity has continued, at 26 I own six different editions of the complete works.
2. I'm a huge fan of Japanese all-female musical theatre.
3. I'm a major bookworm nerd, I own well over 1000 books.
4. I was on the winning junior division Mock Trial team in Los Angeles County in 7th grade.
5. I have a massive crush on Rachel Maddow.

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

Mock Trial! When I first read this, I pictured you mocking & heckling the 'witnesses', 'judge' & 'jury' *hee hee*

You didn't say if your plethora of paperbacks were of a specific genre, or swept the spectrum of possibilities?

[samstareagle.livejournal.com]

Trying to think of some new stuff beyond the cave diving incident and fandom fun...:)

1.- I'm a volunteer minister which means I'm one of the few people on Earth with that job who doesn't make coin off of God. :P (Luckily, nobody in my religion does either since it's looked on as wrong in the first place) About 10 years ago I started to learn Spanish to be able to talk to people in the community where I live and now am able to do public speaking in front of an audience all in that language. Just last week I gave a thirty minute talk to my congregation.

2.- I've been to every state bordering Alabama (Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi) as well as Louisiana. And that's it. I do however know my home of Cullman county like a freakin GPS.

3.- Everytime I make grilled cheese sandwiches olive oil is an essential. They just taste utterly flat to me without it now.

4.- In English class in High School, I was the only one who had any clue how to emote while reading lines from Shakespeare. I was apparently so good at it what had stared off as a class exercise turned into "Story-time With Sam" with me literally reading the whole thing out loud to the class, switching back and forth between characters the entire time. An odd thing to do considering it was Romeo and Juliet. :P

5.- I've been working on the same original Sci-Fi story since I was 8. It's really big, really fun, and hopefully something I can fully share with the world one day. ;)

[pressdbtwnpages.livejournal.com]

I'm totally knew here, so most of you probably don't know anything about me!

1.) I finished watching BSG a week ago.

2.) It took me almost exactly a week to finish, in which I blew off a lot of things in order to curl up with my computer.

3.) Since I've finished BSG I've mainly been reading fic, watching vids, and also watching Law & Order: UK. It's Martha Jones and Apollo!

4.) Kara Thrace may be my favorite character ever written.

5.) I am well aware that this is not a friending meme, but I would LOVE to have some fannish BSG friends on my flist, if anyone is interested!

[elzed.livejournal.com]

Hey, you!

Back in the day, and in another fandom (when your initials, weirdly, used to be bsg...) we used to be friends (remember the dandy warhols' song...). I think I lost track of you when you changed your name...

I'm not so active in this fandom any more, but have been known to write some K/L - and it feels like we should reacquaint ourselves! ;) L