7 things about me

[xparrot]

I've been tagged for this meme by several people over time; the last one was tasabian. Haven't done it before because, um, I'm boring. But what the heck.


List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.


1. I've kept a daily paper journal since late 1995, the one lasting legacy of an otherwise inconsequential HS creative writing class. I've missed a few dozen days over the years, but it's fairly complete. Entries range from a single line "tiiiired need sleep" to pages detailing various trips.

2. I haven't owned a camera for several years, and don't take pictures*. This is mainly because I usually travel with family or friends, pretty much all of whom are talented shutterbugs and let me mooch shots off them afterwards. I like photos well enough, but I don't like looking at things through a camera lens.
* except for snapping the occasional shot on my cell phone of cute schoolboys asleep on each other on the train. Aww!

3. I've always loved animals. When I was a kid I was most disappointed to be a human being, out of everything I could've been; I finally decided to accept myself and show some species loyalty, but I know crazy amounts of weird animal facts from all the biology books I devoured in my youth. And I still love watching other animals (humans are pretty cool to watch, too, but they tend to be more sensitive about it than most.) I'm an irregular birdwatcher, and I always was able to spend forever in a zoo, in front of pretty much any enclosure; to this day I can happily sit for an hour or more just observing pigeons feeding in a park, or squirrels running their special rodent brand of tree parkour.

4. I've also always loved reading. Up through high school this was on the order of five to seven books a week. When I was younger I used to speed-read such that to catch all pertinent details I'd have to reread the book. My favorite books, I'd read dozens of times. I think my record was The Trumpet of the Swan, which I read about twelve times straight through in the first three days I encountered it. I couldn't believe it ended, so kept flipping back to the beginning and starting it again. There's a part of me that wants to write children's novels just so I can write a book that casts that kind of spell on some hapless child.

I read fewer books these days, but considering how much text I absorb online daily, I'm curious how much my average word-count actually dropped, if it even did.

5. The one I'm embarrassed to confess, because it's vaguely inhuman or at least asocial - I don't drink alcohol. There's no especial reason, neither religion nor even a particular personal philosophy. I can't stand the taste, but mostly I just don't get the point. I have a theory that in America, if you actually make it to the legal drinking age of 21 without ever drinking, it's simply too late to start.

6. I've never had short hair, not since I was...about 1 years old, I think, got sick and lost it all. Been compensating for that embarrassment ever since. It's never been that long, not usually more than halfway down my back, but it's never been as short as shoulder-length, either. I usually wear it pulled back, but you can tell when I've been writing hard because it often ends up down and twisted into banana curls.

7. I don't have a very mature...face, or fashion sense, or carriage, or something, which means I routinely am mistaken for being younger than I am. By a lot. The summer after my college graduation, I was asked if I was a junior or senior in high school. My sister, almost five years younger than me, is often taken for the elder. Then there was the Japanese class, where about halfway through the semester we were talking before class, and I was asked what year I was - freshman, was the general guess. This was five years after I'd graduated college (I was a university employee, taking advantage of the one free class offered as a benefit.)

People have told me I should enjoy it. Me, I'm convinced that when I hit thirty my hair will go silver overnight (this practically happened to my mother, so...) and I'll be mistaken for forty or over.

Comments

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't drink either, for the same...non reasons. Neither does my roommate. We try sometimes, but it always goes laughably poorly. Neither of us like beer or wine, although I can kind of get behind vodka in a way where I drink a shot over like a two hour period. I wish I could drink just because I'd like to be able to write about it more credibly, also I'd like to travel outside the US and I don't know how well that'll go.

Anyway though, you're not alone! You can always just say you're the designated driver. Of course then you have to drive...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - designated driver has been my excuse at times, since all my friends drink, and it is convenient for them. And double heehee because the only reason I've ever been tempted to drink is to gain the writing experience. Especially since I have a tendency to write chars smashed. But no one's ever called me on unrealism, so I think calling on the experience of sleep deprivation passes well enough...

I've had a couple Japanese completely astonished when I say I don't drink. "But...you're an American! From America!"

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

I feel the exact same way about alchohol, and I also love "The Trumpet Of The Swan".

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahhh I haven't read The Trumpet of the Swan in years, now I want to! I loved it so much more than Charlotte's Web...couldn't reread that one because Charlotte died. I was a very sensitive child ^^;

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

Me, too, with the alcohol aversion, both to preserve my highly sensitive taste buds and to avoid being that stupidly out of control. I also agree with you that animals of most types are far more appealing to watch than people. (Can't watch bugs, though, because they creep me out.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

For me, it's not even the out of control so much as just, hmm, wasting time? So much to do, and I want to be able to do it at any given time...

Actually I like watching people! Just, they tend to notice ^^; And bugs, too...well, outside; inside bugs creep me, but outside I'll sit and watch ants, or spiders...and then there was the summer I was putting ants into spider webs, because it was cool, if cruel to the ants. The spiders liked it, though!

[lukita.livejournal.com]

My dad have really weird ideas when it comes to drinking, both my brother and I were allowed to steal from his cup since we were small. Not the biggest fan of it, but I tend to surprise people when I do drink.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

My parents never drank much - neither of them like beer, so we didn't often have it around - so that's probably part of it. But they'd let us try wine and such, and had no problems with my sibs drinking in college, even when underage. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't drink at all...go figure.

I once heard of a study showing that people who drink in moderation are better socially-adjusted than teetotalers. Judging by personal experience, this is true, but I'm not that interested in social adjustment, soo... ^^;

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think you may be right about the drinking. I'm not actually legal yet, for that, but my father and my uncle have introduced me to alchol over the years. I have, apparently, terrible taste in beer (I like that one Canadian beer, and asian rice beers like Tsingtao or Kirin. I think I spelled those right.), don't like wine, red or white, or champagne.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Pretty much everyone I know drank underage, at least a bit (the 21 drinking age is insanely dumb anyway, because everyone breaks that law, and kids hiding their drinking? Yeah, that can be bad. Better if it's more in the open and can be watched. But then I think marijuana should be legalized, too...just tax it and regulate it, rather than wasting legal resources in trying and failing to block it entirely...)

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

I know some of the people around me do, but I've never really had the desire to, beyond what my Dad and my uncle gave me. Like you said, it can get bad. Personally, I think it is just stupid, to have voting and the draft/military eligibility at 18 and drinking at 21. As to marijuana, I am frequently of two minds. I think I'd need to do more research to decide, and I don't have the time or inclination right now for that.

[sholio]

Then there was the Japanese class, where about halfway through the semester we were talking before class, and I was asked what year I was - freshman, was the general guess. This was five years after I'd graduated college (I was a university employee, taking advantage of the one free class offered as a benefit.)

Hee! I have that problem, too. Just within the last few weeks, when I was in Ithaca, my sister introduced me to her co-workers and one of them asked me where I was going to school. A little startled, I said that I wasn't in school and she was taken aback by that and asked me how old I was. I asked her to guess. She guessed 18 or 20.

... but I'm actually 31! It's not often that people are THAT far off! My sister and I laughed about it, because she's actually the younger but her co-workers thought she was a lot older than me. And the person who'd guessed my age kept apologizing, but I really didn't mind; I'm not convinced it's as flattering as people always claim, but it doesn't bother me either.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Stand us side by side and see who mistakes us for the elder? Does your little sister find it hysterical when people think she's the older one? Because my sister thinks it's about the funniest thing ever.

I don't really mind it much, but I don't think it's that flattering, either...mainly because I have the feeling it's less that I have the glow of healthy youth so much as I come across as too immature to be going on 29 ^^;