February 26, 2004

A/S/L? Curious George: All this talk about being kinder and gentler got me thinking....

Who the hell ARE you people? We did a "What's your job?" thread sometime back and the recent same sex marriage threads have given us a bit more background on our monkeys, but I want some honest to goodness nitty gritty. You folks have become my new social circle (god help me) and I have mental images of you I'd like to have clarified (goetter, you look like Mr. Burns, right? I kid, I kid.). Without this turning into Stalkfilter, tell us more about yourself: where do you live, what do you look like, what is your day comprised of, links to your fave sites, links to pics of yourself, what drives you, what obstacles are you overcoming, what do you need out of life right now, who do you admire, what do you aspire to, what's your favorite movie, who do you love, what best sums you up in a TWO PARAGRAPH NUTSHELL? Alternatively, over at sportsfilter, they got in the habit of holding q+a interviews to get to know their more prominent posters... if there's any interest in trying that, I'd be willing to mediate. Lord knows I'd love to hold dizzy down and interrogate. Regardless, speak up and be counted. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?

posted by forksclovetofu 20 years ago
  • (I guess I'll take the plunge...) An Atlantan male going to college in Chicago. (No, I don't have a southern accent.) Came in thinking I would do linguistics, but have yet to take a ling class, and probably never will; I'm classics to the core. I'll probably write my BA paper on Roman political thought. Probably the most influential person in my life has been my high-school Greek teacher, with whom I spent three years of Saturday mornings slogging through Xenophon and Homer. Wonderfully unreconstructed and unapologetic, an old-school polymath. I'm in a long-term and painfully long-distance relationship with a beautiful girl. Bearded and shaggy in a very college-student way. I play guitar, juggle, and am on the founding staff of a new undergraduate journal. Probably law school next (no litigation for me; I'm interested in antitrust at the moment), but for the longest time I thought I would teach public high school, and that might be where I am in 20 years. Raised as a classically-liberal secular humanist, but I'm still recovering from the entering-college political disorientation caused by the unattractiveness of the more extreme (on either end) of my fellow students. My roommate last year was a MeFi lurker (though he has an account), and that brought me to MeFi and finally to these congenial environs. Oh, and my favorite movie is North by Northwest.
  • Hmm, me next. Although I tend to blather about myself a lot, so this is nothing new. Twenty-seven year old with a very complicated family history (three dads, two of whom are called Pete), one husband, one son who is 13 months old today. Educational background in German and physical anthropology, and I have a somewhat odd enjoyment for human dissection (cats and monkeys aren't quite as fascinating for me as the human body). Failed to complete university twice because life insisted on getting in the way, generally don't write like Bridget Jones. Because in NZ there's little in the way of career options for anthropologists (particularly forensic anthropologists, which is what I most want to try my hand at), I'm thinking of getting a Library and Information Systems qualification and getting a job in the local university library. I like quirky Australian movies; NZ films are generally too serious for me. Favourite music is and has been for some time Air, Daft Punk and Sigur Ros, but I'll listen to anything. I often have urges to listen to Tenacious D as loudly as possible. Am finding it odd to be a stranger in my own country, as most of my pre-California friends have gone overseas themselves (thanks, stupid brain drain) and to be the only mother among my peers is somewhat strange and isolating. Made up for it by trying out this MonkeyFilter thing and meeting a whole bunch of online people. Hi.
  • So I spent time filling in my profile for no freakin' reason, eh? Wait a few hours, until I'm drunk enough to post some of my bizarre true stories.
  • Woah, nostrildamus. I say we all just click on your profile link and gaze in awe.
  • I have a small triangle of hair at the margin between the bottom of my hairline and the top of my back that doesn't come within the barber's range. I grew up in Seattle (25 years) I lived in San Francisco for the next 13 years, some genius asshole popularized the internet which is how I found myself in love and: I now live in Iowa hell, Hunnybunny of/occasional drunken sex partner of Terri, occasional hollerer at and big fan of Alex age (Do not buy your kid a paintgun)12 13, and Emily age 8 9. Also Terri is out of Zoloft and I'm out of Vodka and Alex has a Viewloader Orion Paintball Marker (that we just told him he can't use) and a fully charged 9 Ounce Chrome-Moly alloy CO2 cylinder and about 750 rounds of .68 caliber Blue Streak paintballs: Now is not a good time to visit.
  • 26/m/Chicago. Wanna cyber? I'm self diagnosed with ADD. My hobbies are video games, music, and movies. Riding in the car with me is torture, because I'll whip out a cd, listen to 2 minutes of a song, then hand you the cd case and ask you to find something else. It's been months since I've been able to watch a DVD because I'll wander over to the computer and pull up fark, zfilter, metafilter, boingboing, slashdot, kuro5hin, and now, the overwhelming deliciousity of Monkeyfilter (my new favorite site, by the way. Everyone's so civil!) Coincidentally, Tracicle, I was listening to Daft Punk on the way into work (Techie Supporty stuff) and had a sudden urge to hear the Dio song by Tenacious D (who I saw in concert with Weezer). Uh, I'm originally from Salinas, CA. Yes, the birthplace of John Steinbeck. And my mom's cousin played Chakotay on Star Trek. Uh, 5'11", Long hair, piercings. Google "armaghetto" and I'm sure you'll find more if you're THAT interested.
  • If I ever find myself, I'll let you know who I am. You're first on the list. Really.
  • Can we post pictures?
  • Twenty, Female, New York. Grew up in the deep, Bible-belt American South (no accent here either). Adore my family but hate my hometown. I'm in college studying English and Dramatic Lit. It's been about a year since I've written anything genuinely readable. I make prints (I keep saying I'm going to scan them in and put them on a website, but it still hasn't happened). I keep saying I'm going to write and illustrate children's books, but that hasn't happened either. Right now I'm reading lots of Jorge Luis Borges and Vladimir Nabokov and looking at lots of Francisco Goya (mostly the prints, particularly the Disasters of War series) and Paul Klee. I work a few days a week at a library that looks like M.C. Escher's wet dream. Anyone who's been in said library will know immediately what I'm talking about; feel free to stop by and find me (brownish-red hair, green eyes, really pale but with freckles. People say "You must be Irish!" as if expecting me to say my name is Nora [it isn't] and lapse into rapturous talk about green fields. And yes, I'm a huge fan of the works of James Joyce and Flann O'Brien [and Yeats when he's not going overboard] and I'm very fond of potatoes). I spend a few other days each week babysitting for an awesome family (they've got three boys under the age of six, and they're all very intelligent and very adorable). I was a tutor in a kindergarten classroom a few years ago. One of the girls used to chase the boys around the playground chanting "Baby want alfalfa? Baby wanna sofa?"
  • Oh, and my favorite website is Mister Widget (sadly, Mr. Widget got cancer, but then he got better). Be sure to read about the babies. Mr. Widget and Miss Lily are my heroes. I used to have their calendar. This stuff is like Best in Show, but real.
  • speaking of widgets, that's my dog's name! she looks exactly like blue dog. except she's gray, not blue. my new kitten is hotsy! because when i had arf the 20-year-old cat euthanized, my friends took me around the corner to a jewish deli for matzo ball soup (a d.c. tradition for mourning pet owners) and above our booth was a picture of hotsy alperstein so i decided it was indeed fate, my next cat would be named hotsy alperstein. anyway. 43, female, reporter. passionately in love with my life's soulmate, also a journalist, who is currently jobhunting in d.c. so that we may live kinkily ever after. we were together 20 years ago, married others, split from others, reunited. there's a book in it. his name is tattooed on my ass! as most of you already know. heh. on my desk is one of my prized possessions, a press release photo of boris yeltsin being presented with a can of spam at the hormel foods factory in june 1992. also on my desk is a statue of a skinny extraterrestrial smoking marijuana and wearing a skull cap with a pot leaf on it. i got it in a weird store in scotland. i'm in the process of getting my web site, motorcadecam, up and running again. oh dear, this is more than two paragraphs. i'm a happy person who enjoys life, laughs a lot and loves mofi.
  • Sadly, I'm not quite as interesting. I'm sure that the only greek my high school teachers was Ouzo. But they were influential in teachimg me to not drink too much of it. I'm a raving hippie-commie-pinko, trapped in the Prozacian suburbs of eastern Kansas City. I once had a job, but that was years ago and I forget what it was. I'm currently swindling people who think that I am some kind of web designer. Ha. Lovely wife, swell kids, too many goddamn cats. Is it noon yet?
  • 23/male/India(na)* Studying mathematics. Grew up in Bombay. I've had a privileged life, compared to most Indians. My father has his own post-production firm (edit TV serials,commercials,movies. Also make commercials & computer graphics for above). As a result, I've had a very different childhood, as opposed to a "regular" one. I'd spend oodles of time at the studio, and as reward, I got to meet & hang out with a lot of Indian media & entertainment personalities. I got to see how "showbiz" is conducted firsthand and never had to be disabused of a lot of silly, naive notions, pertaining to the 'real world'. I did have more or less, a permanent group of "regular" friends from school and the neighbourhood, but the other group were a lot more 'colorful'. I would meet an average of 10 new people every week. You learn a lot. I love music, computer graphics and reading (mostly non-fiction nowadays and generally science-oriented, but have read a lot of fiction). In music, I tend to like works and not genres as a whole, but I do gravitate towards classical and electronica. I had a dog for 14 years (starting when I was 5) and would love another one. The US has been cool (figuratively and literally). I've travelled to neighbouring states, but am saving up to visit both Coasts, probably the East, preferably this summer. *currently in Indiana, from India.
  • Boris Yeltsin. Ceremonious Presentation. Spam. That may be the best thing I've ever heard of, SideDish.
  • Some relevent (and not-so-relevent) info about me can be found in my profile. I'm currently in first year engineering, and plan on specializing in engineering chemistry in second year. I have my life pretty much planned, up to four years from now. After that, I have no clue what I'll be doing, or where I'll be. Growing up in a relatively small and conservative-minded community was not the best thing for me, and I consider going to university one of the best decisions I have ever made, both for my education and mental health. Beyond that, there's not too much to tell, besides random details: I love to write, I play the trumpet (and I'm learning guitar), I have an unhealthy obsession with sugar, my favorite movie right now is Shaolin Soccer (but my preferences vary), and I'm currently caught in the a love triangle with two other guys... That's about it.I consider going to university one of the best decisions I have ever made, both for my education and mental health. Beyond that, there's not too much to tell, besides random details: I love to write, I play the trumpet (and I'm learning guitar), I have an unhealthy obsession with sugar, my favorite movie right now is Shaolin Soccer (but my preferences vary), and I'm currently caught in the a love triangle with two other guys... That's about it.
  • Yech. That wasn't supposed to happen...
  • After reading through the other thread yesterday, I went back and updated my profile. Other than that I think one of the major factors in shaping who I am is how much I've moved. I was a military brat until I was 13 and then I bounced around between my divorced parents until I went to college. When I look back on my life, it's comprised of the people I've met as I moved (as of last June, that was 27 times. I'm moving this fall so that will be 28--one for ever year of my life). It's been an interesting experience for me to try to define what "home" is. Also, if anyone wants packing tips or a guide to moving the easy way, just drop me a line ;)
  • Blaaargle Blingle Blaaaaaaaaargh!
  • just turned 30. spent my childhood bouncing between michigan and montana (yes, for some reason i've always lived near the anti-government wackos... not by choice). met a girl on a date in high school, been married to her now for 5.5 years - guess i got lucky the first try. went off to college, bachelors in zoology from michigan state. now i'm a 5th year PhD student, still at MSU, still in zoology. i harbor a deep and abiding love for mammals of all sorts, especially the weird ones. google says that i'm an expert on armadillos. i will not argue with google. that site is a hobby, but it's been up since '95 and as such gets a damn respectable page rank (#1 when i posted this..) armadillos are neat and all, but i actually study circadian rhythms in a diurnal rodent. i teach college both because i love it and to pay my way through grad school. i have two cats, courtesy of a stint teaching an anatomy class (one of my students asked me if i wanted two kittens.) they are horrible little monsters, but we love them.
  • ps - gyan - new postdoc in our lab is from southern india. he had kind of a hard time adjusting to the michigan winter weather. he was ok with things until we translated average winter low temp from degrees F to degrees C - his eyes bugged out. we were proud of him the day he steeled his courage and made his first snow angel. oh yeah and i don't know about a favorite movie (there are so many i like!) but i'm a big fan of hemingway, steinbeck, tolkein, and a whole host of sci-fi writers.
  • 53(I think)/M/Oregon/USA I am also a MeFi member but heard about this site on metatalk and like the vibe here.
  • As a boy, I had temper tantrums sort of like the Hulk, less the testosterone. Now, I'm like a puppy
  • When I was thirteen I realized that, at the current rate of the advance of technology, I would never fly in a spaceship and visit other planets, and that I was born far too early because that was definitely what I was meant to do. Instead, twenty years later, I find myself in a ten-year love-hate relationship with New York City while I still pine for my lost city of Seattle — the mountains! the trees! the coffee! By day I design book jackets for a small-to-medium-sized publishing company. By night I write plays (mostly stageplays, a couple of screenplays) which have had some success. I'm also one of the producers and head writers on a fun on-going project called theAtrainplays (which is actually currently running, and if any NYMoFites want to come see, I'm writing for next week's program). And, luckily, happily, after blundering around in a youthful marriage that didn't work out and the subsequent post-divorce dating frenzy, I have found, or have been found by, a woman I feel lucky to spend the rest of my life with (although we're not married, yet). We live in a cramped but many-roomed apartment in noisy Hell's Kitchen. From our bedroom window we can see the Empire State Building glowing at night. And during last year's blackout, we could even see the stars.
  • Looking at my profile I just realized I copied much of it. Couple of additional, unnecessary fast facts: voracious reader (fiction mostly, but soft spot for science non-fiction, as well as science fiction/fantasy, come to think of it), voracious listener (current favorites: Gomez, Badly Drawn Boy, Stars, Lost in Translation Soundtrack, Tim Easton), voracious watcher (love Lost in Translation, am a LOTR fanboy, Triplets of Belleville), and am giddy with technolust toward my new iPod.
  • [b]certainsome1[/b], I need to get my hands on ToB.
  • I love the developing mystery of piecing together tidbits from posts and comments to make a personal impression of online community members. And I think there are few things like reading a 'personal profile' for dimming (even slightly) the possibilities an open mind and positive discussion. Of course I have read everyone's responses so far, so call me hypocritical or weak-willed for not staying away - you're right. There, is that enough about me? Oh, and I lead the quite vanilla life of a white southern california boy to whom nothing much interesting has happened (yet) except 3 unplanned children and an unplanned wife - none of whom there is enough time to appreciate or love. And I love watching people and hearing people speak in languages I dont understand.
  • 31, F, Nash-vegas, Tennessee. Somewhere in a past life, I think I was a party planner. Something fun, arty, creative but very high pressure. It spills out occasionally in this life. Or maybe I just notice it more since I'm an accountant at a law firm. You know, stark contrasts and all. I've lived all over the deep south, except for that one misguided year in Utah. (If you're not Mormon and you don't ski, I don't recommend it.) I moved to Nashville last year for a guy I was dating. I knew he was the one on our first date when I looked over and he was calmly chatting away, with a red M&M shoved up one nostril. And he still tries to make me laugh every day. (SideDish, I'm rooting for you both!)
  • I'll try and make this one quick, there's a little bit on my profile but here's some more: 21/M/Farmville, VA (seriously) I'm currently studying graphic design at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. One of the biggest points in my life was when I went to Germany for a year as a foreign exchange student during high school. Not only did I become fluent in German, but I created bonds and friendships, as well as a love for a country, that can not be described in words. On another note, I found Metafilter not long before I found Monkeyfilter, and the pleasure of being able to voice my opinion as opposed to just lurking and hopeing a mefite will post with my thoughts has been great. And not to mention, the banana's are pretty tasty too...
  • I’ve worked in kitchens, factories, cubicles, bakeries, orchards, strip-clubs, opera houses, stinking taverns, fragrant groves; in trucks, on trains, on boats, in darkened editing rooms, on blinding soundstages. I have flipped burgers, coded assembly, sold shoes to fishermen, shared tea with a sorcerer, swum with hammerheads and heads-of-state, roomed with a transsexual, drunk with musical savants, performed before outlaws and politicans. I have appeared on stage naked, in drag and in full evening dress accompanying a leather-clad cracheuse-de-feu. I have witnessed the pursuit of the base, the banal, and the divine. Not to mention all the weird shit I’ve eaten or the strange places I’ve slept. As for things I’ve never done, I’ve never been married or had a child, never milked a cow, never been in trouble with the law, and my life-list is mired below 350 species.
  • Huh! Well I've been to paradise. But I've never been to "me" :(
  • Oh wait - there I am. Sorry :)
  • I have a pet chicken that crossed the road to be with me, not once, but thrice. True story. Maybe later I will add the tale to my profile, but I assure you it is true. For now, let it be known that when you are asked 'why did the chicken cross the road?' know that the answer is = to get to Chy's house! Three times!
  • Raoul: really?
  • qnkid: bwhaaaaa ha!
  • This is great! I must have a soft spot for these get-to-know-you threads. I discovered I have more in common with some of my fellow Monkeys than I would have guessed! I decided, once again, to follow Kimberly's lead and just add new stuff to the profile. oh, and Kimberly, (excuse the derail) my moving tip: purge, purge, purge. If it can be replaced, get rid of it- sell it, give it away, donate it to charity. Keep only stuff that cannot be easily replaced or that has sentimental value. And get a bunch of boxes that are exactly the same size- the uniformity makes them easier to load and arrange. And if you are ever in San Francisco, we'll go get a pedicure together, and *then* I'll take you out for drinks.
  • So, uh, okay. I'm kinda drunk, so this will appear much more cogent and truthful than otherwise. I promise. 18 year old male living in Warrington, UK, although I feel no particular strong bond with my geography. I veer towards the pinko/quasi-socialist side of the polical spectrum; I hold few solid beliefs but those I do hold I defend passionately. If there's one thing I know, it's when I disagree with something. The two things I love more than anything is listening to music and writing words. I write music and read words but neither with such satisfying results as the other way round. Bands I like include Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Radiohead and Sigur Rós. Although my music taste is much wider than that suggestion would suggest. Authors I enjoy reading include JM Coetzee, Chuck Palahniuk, and Douglas Coupland. I am truly geeky about the music that I listen to. Name a band, any band, and I can tell you a spectacularly uninteresting fact about them. I'm kinda "seeing" a girl who is stunningly amazing and truly gorgeous. I have no idea how that came about, as I sincerely believe myself to be a complete and utter cunt. I'm average height, skinny, longish, shaggyish hair. I've got a thing for velvet jackets. I am cynical, abusive, addictive, jaded beyond my years and a complete geek. You know, in the "cool" sense of being a geek. I guess if I lived in America I'd be called a hipster. But I don't, so I don't know how to pigeonhole myself, which gives me no small amount of distress.
  • *cackles in senility* [You go first, forky. I just deleted a post that was even crankier than my usual. I'll try again tonight.]
  • I'm new to Mofi, so I guess this is a good opportunity to introduce myself. 18/female/Vegas. I was going to say I'm probably the youngest person on here, but Blaise is apparently 18 as well. I live in Las Vegas, NV and am looking forward to leaving. Fortunately, I'm graduating in about 3 months. I'm looking at a couple colleges in California and currently leaning towards Scripps College in Claremont. I want to go into biology, probably research. I'm also kind of a music geek, and am always finding new bands to be obsessed with. Right now it's all about the The Unicorns. I also play piano, but I don't practice as often as I should. I like writing, but I'm not very good at it. I enjoy reading other people's writing though. Looks-wise; I am half-black, about 5'2, kind of average looking. I have been described as an "oreo". I guess that has some truth to it. I should probably start commenting more, but I tend to be shy in online communities. Um, that's about it. Hello to all!
  • Ah, but ambrosia, you're a natural redhead. I fake it. :) I generally do keep my hair red, though.
  • errr, to be honest, I'm only partly a natural redhead. I started going gray at 24 and do one of those vegetable semi-pemanent thingies to make the "unpigmented strands" blend in. /full disclosure/
  • hi mayfly!
  • I tend to agree with sandmonk that the anonymity of the internet can be very helpful for creating great discussions. That said, I too am a curious little monkey. And so, having read all of your dark personal secrets it would unfair of me not to divulge some of my own. I grew up in Indiana, but am currently going to school in the notably less flat state of Washington. Well, sort of. I'm leaving for Germany this Monday, and will be there (and likely not posting on MoFi) until August. I love to play ultimate frisbee, listen to homemade electronic music, and have spent the last month and a half putting up with annoying kids while substitute teaching. The rest of me has never been entirely happy with my geeky side, which may be part of the reason I'm not a huge poster. Although often I just don't feel like I have anything worth saying. If you're wondering what I look like, a month ago I would have directed you to my website but apparently I wasn't supposed to be hosting 200mb of pictures and now there's not much there. Some 3rd grader today said I looked like pinocchio but I don't think my nose is that big.
  • Nah...
  • I refuse.
  • I'm not the one typing this.
  • I'm just words...
  • I'm now listening to the Unicorns. I am an enormous fan of all spazzed-up loner twosomes.
  • Apart from bad ones.
  • hey stripe! say hi to my sweetie. he lives in worfelden, outside darmstadt, outside frankfurt. he's the one who looks like a cross between hamid karzai and anthony hopkins. most likely wearing his chicago cubs jacket. don't forget now!
  • Oh yeah, and my friend Daisy who lives in Munich. I'm sure you'll see her at Oktoberfest. You'll know her because she has hair.
  • But this isn't a bad one. This is good. I need CDs and vinyls and limited edition things.
  • certainsome1: I've worked on 53rd and 7th for 4 years, so I go to Clinton (Hell's Kitchen) all the time for lunch and pre-theater/lincoln center dinners/drinks! Also, I lived for a few months on 47th btw 9th & 10th. The Amish Market r00lz! heh.
  • 33, F, Minneapolis, Flyoverland, U.S. (Nasty winters and puritanical liquor laws, but otherwise a decent-ish place.) Studied linguistics in college, graduated from Brainco's interactive writing program in July, now work as a legal secretary until I find a writing gig. Married 8 years to a wonderful mad-scientist-type guy who keeps my life interesting and fun. He is also an amazing cook. We bought our first house in August. On a sad note, my 20-year-old cat died last Friday. She was a classy old gal, and we miss her something fierce. (SideDish: here's to elderly cats. Cheers.) I loved the movie American Splendor, prefer non-fiction to fiction, and like both Macs and PCs just fine. El Vez is one of my heroes and International Talk Like a Pirate Day is my favorite holiday. (arrr.) I've traveled around Spain, Canada, Mexico and the U.S., but hope to visit many more places in the coming years. It's good to meet everyone.
  • SideDish: Really.
  • All righty, finally got time to do this. 28/m/Chicago (whatup rustcellar and armaghetto!) I like improvisational comedy and have been taking classes here for just about a year now (rust and ghetto love me or hate me now. Chicago is the "mecca" of improvisation.) It's a lot different than "Who's Line is it Anyway?" but we've got that here, too. I work for a huge insurance/brokerage/consulting corporation in HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems). I live with my girlfriend of just about 3 years (ladies who would needle me, the question's coming very very soon. Very.) I'm addicted to the web, I won't lie. I went to UConn and graduated with a BS in Mathematical Statistics in 98. We won the NCAA in 99. I'm almost as tall as Ray Allen. Oh, my name's mars, thus the handle. I'll be going back to school for my second Bachelors (Fine Arts this time) in April. I like to party quite a bit, love TV, and hip hop. I like online communities, and am proud to be a member of this flourishing one. I can be quiet sometimes, as I've always claimed myself to be a better listener than speaker, but I'll chime in as a smartass from time to time, a defender from time to time, rarely an instigator. I joined MoFi in Dec, didn't check too much for a while, I come back, and now there's in-joke/memes like cockpunch, cheese, and bananas. I sort of get all of them from context, but if there's an origin, I'd love to be pointed there. Love MoFi, love the people. As I write this, the user counter is at 666... ooooh, creepy. Went to my first (probably last) monster truck rally a couple weeeks ago, I'd recommend everyone see at least one before they meet the GRAVE DIGGER!!! ger!...ger!...ger! Anything else, ask. Y'all got my addy. Thanks for the thread, fork!
  • Raoul: the new Walt Whitman. With a little Woody Guthrie, Carlos Castaneda and Carl Sandburg thrown in for seasoning. I hope your life has been as good for you as your synopsis was for me. And, as for me: 64/F/Central Valley of Calif. (During my only, brief sortie, a couple of years ago, into a cyber world chat site, I loved it when some probably 14-year-old would whisper "A/S/L" in my ear. Answering honestly would frighten them into disappearing. While I'm mostly dull-normal, I do enjoy shocking the children, on occasion.) My profile has some stuff about me, but here's a bit more: Went to U.C. Berkeley in the late 50s/early 60s and have mostly been true to commie-pinko-liberal influences of that august institution. I don't know, and don't care, if there's some supreme being out there since it wouldn't change me if there were. I harbor a "stubborn child" inside, who says things like "you're not allowed to talk to me like that." On the other hand, I love discussing things with people who don't agree with me, and learning from those discussions. I've been married and divorced twice. Have a 35 year old daughter who is also my friend, as is my 86 year old mother. Go through phases of listening to no music, then obsessing on it - everything but rap/hip-hop, with the exception of Everlast. Love cooking and eating, and will try any food out of curiosity. Am a history junkie, and a linguistics maven. I think I said too much, I didn't say enough...
  • Looks likes it might be statistics time again! Only with a gender, age and spacial analysis added. I, too, wrote most things of importance in my profile, but to add to it, I am 26, female and currently splitting my time between New Haven Connecticut, USA (graduate school) and Cambridge, UK (research and fiance). And of course, I'm originally from Toronto, which everyone knows, because I just keep talking about it. (Funny, I never realised how attatched I was to Toronto as home until I left - I'm the third generation of my family there, and at one point all of my grandparents all lived within a mile of me. I am happy to live elsewhere, since one place is much like another, but I don't think I will ever stop having Toronto as the thing I measure everything by.) I am also inordinately proud of my new found linking ability, and so screwing up a link makes me cry.
  • I am really quite a small boy (you would be surprised), and I spent most of my 23 years living just west of the middle of nowhere (which is in Cornwall, a picturesque, dull, wet place stuck thoughtlessly on the end of Britain). Then I escaped, and things got slightly better. Now hanging around the drinking places of London, flitting between the west (work) and east (home) - I never can make my mind up. Prior to this, my escape route involved going to university in Cambridge, where (amongst a vast range of subjects - I have problems making my mind up) I studied primatology for a while. Most of the time, however, I spent writing and acting weirdy comedy-type things, with some considerable success. Just before the bit where we'd start getting paid, however, this all went wrong, although I'm not sure quite where. It's been suggested that it was at least party my fault, perhaps based on my failure to make my mind up. Still writing and performing, though - my one true ambition, and the only thing I've ever stuck at. Well, that and Talking Like A Pirate. (Some friends were quite insistent that Johnny Depp was doing an impersonation of me in PoTC.) I am in love with the music - had I to choose three, they'd be Bowie, Belle & Sebastian and Bernard Butler-era Suede. Films are great, too; Velvet Goldmine, Donnie Darko, LoTR, loads of stuff, nothing too unexpected. To pick a lineage of writers who appeal greatly to me, Borges, Douglas Adams and Charlie Kaufman would be grand. Give me more wine, and I'll probably be happy. I am still looking for that one astonishing person to spend the rest of my life with - hopefully next time I find them, they might think the same about me, which is where I seem to have been going wrong so far. That'd be nice. (Either gender's fine - did I mention I have difficulty making my mind up?) I like what I've done with my hair. Not sure about the beard, though, which is a recent addition about which I have recieved conflicting advice. I am incapable of writing anything concise (see: this post). I am cynical beyond reason, latently aggressive, arrogant and sarcastic. My friends tell me I also have good points (I'm yet to be convinced).
  • I read that as research and finance, jb.
  • ...so did I. Didn't occur to me that there was anything wrong with it, either, which is worrying...
  • Yipes! I was going to be the second poster last night, but I got sidetracked (what with the job and all), well I said nothing (or very close to it) in my profile. 25, Male, Rewriter/Programmer...leo! I grew up in a podunk island near Seattle only reachable by ferry. I left my highschool after my sophomore year and started attending a community college (seeing as the only classes left for me to take at my high school were wood shop, metal shop, and auto shop), went to college in a hellish pitstop on I-10 in Southern California. I was a member of a horrible fake-hippy design-a-major experimental school embedded in an even more horrible day-care for rich trust-fund jocks with no future in sports and not much ability beyond that besides alcohol poisoning, peer pressure and date rape. The lesson: avoid everything having to do with Redlands, California at all costs. Not much more to say other than that besides I got a B.S. in Complexity and the Cognitive Sciences (it approximates to something better than that, but that is technically what the degree is). I spent 4 years through high school and 1 year in college debating, even though it meant having a split shift commuting twice by ferry and hitchhiking 12 miles a day for a year and a half. Post that, I moved to hollywood for a couple years, enjoyed it, even without a car, but left for a few reasons. 1) My neighborhood got blockbusted, they built many of the great evils of contemporary American society (gaps, malls, starbucks) while plowing down the cool, sleazy, tacky stuff that made me like hollywood so much in the first place. Second, I was laid off from my dot-com when the bubble burst, which was shortly before 9/11, I genuinely did not like the direction the country was going and had an opportunity to move to Tokyo that coincided with the end of my lease. So, for the last two years I have been living in Tokyo, which has had its ups and downs (mostly downs). I am not at all fond of this place, as an understatement, but I am not moving back to the U.S. until Bush is gone (and I do a few other things). As for avocations, I have too many hobbies, but most notably, I read, write, make music, DJ, organize various events and happenings, and slack off at work. The last few months I have been trying to take it easy, but to not much avail. Also, I have been in jobs and recreations that involve typing for so long that I type fairly quicly and most everything I write ends up being long-winded. Like this. I also overuse parentheticals (like this). Right, that should be enough for now.
  • 54, F, born in britain and a boat person to canada in mid fifties with parents. (ontario) i thought i had a normal childhood until i grew up and was told different. married twice and divorced as well...now have a wonderful c/l (yech) we say companions...one 30 yr old daughter who was sexually abused by her father. two b.a.'s and two masters...loved learning...worked with criminals all my life. did the hippy thing and lots of drugs. then a mother earth thing..a professional career thing...own business thing..too many to list...all while working as well. tired myself out. manic-depressive and the government kicked me out on pension about ten years ago. tried alcoholism and suicide but decided that life was better. 5'2...small but noisy. dark hair, eyes and still look very mediterain(sp?) father died when i was 20 and mother had already left again for england so kinda an orphan..one half brother. was late to get on the web and now spend too much time trying to catch up. in between avid reading, gardening, cooking, renovating house, photography, looking after two german shepherds and a parrot and other folks i keep adopting. i wish i could stay on one track in life but too much to do and experience and so little time.
  • I [heart] anyone that has any similarity to Jack Sparrow.
  • tracicle: (three dads, two of whom are called Pete) You're the daughter of Pete and Pete? Totally cool!!! And anybody who reads MoFi and MeFi who doesn't know Way Too Much about me is NOT paying attention. My profile has 10 links about me, and in the last 8 hours, I revealed my life as a radio sidekick and terrorism victim. And if that's not enough, READ MY BLOG.
  • Blaise: I'm now listening to the Unicorns. I am an enormous fan of all spazzed-up loner twosomes. Does that include the Moldy Peaches? I guess they are more than a twosome, but they came to mind when I read that. I agree with you on the cds and limited edition stuff. I need more!
  • I forgot to say my favorite movie. This month is it is Spirited Away. Or maybe that's because it's the only DVD I own right now, and I just keep watching and watching and watching... (Next I get the Storyteller series!)
  • i'm off to the gym and then I'll do mine.... and read all these. you ask for an inch and they give you a mile...
  • 21, Male, San Francisco. Currently at UC Berkeley, 6th year and graduating (only one class away, and I'm -not- going to fail it for the third time. 175 cm, majoring physics and math. I mostly lurk, but sometimes you really have to post, and that drove me from Metafilter here. I spent some childhood summers in southern Sweden. I've always been a foreigner in any country or society. Politically, I managed to resist allowing the loud, angry commie-pinko-liberal influences of university to make me sick of my innate commie-pinko-liberalness. But I try to keep it quiet and play the devil's advocate when I can. I'm a bit bored and tired. I've thought about alcoholism and suicide, but none of my plans ever come to fruition. I probably need to get out more and stop reading monkeyfilter.
  • naxosaxur: Excellent! I write this from the corner of 47th/9th where I've lived for six years. Probably saw you at the Amish (which does r00l) or elsewhere in the 'hood. Small big world/city.
  • must... resist... creating new user named Satan for user #666... must... resist...
  • sb: loooooooved Spirited Away. Even got my non-animation-loving gf into it. One of the most beautiful, bewitching movies ever made, imho.
  • 23, male, Montreal. I'm the resident confused Qu
  • 28, male, Sarasota Florida. Tennessee native, six years in college, no degree. Spent the past four years in NYC (was downtown for both september 11th and the blackout, so that was interesting) working as an actor, a personal trainer, a waiter, a bartender. My grandmother has been reaching a point where she needs some help so I've volunteered to come and act as her personal valet/cook/servant whatever. Things have been a bit rocky but are beginning to normalize, still I'm afraid that I veer into depressive states a little too often. I love my ipod. I spend a lot of time working on the new mp3 blog. i was a hardcore meta-lurker and resisted joining monkey, but decided what the hell and now I'm happy to be here. i'm also a heavy gym freak, sports fan, news/internet junky and film geek. I want a woman in my life freakin' PRONTO as I left all prospects behind in the city when I came and have yet to spend much time being social up here. As soon as the weather gets a bit better, I'll start hitting the beach more. Currently working as a trainer at the local YMCA;, I need to go find a gig either showing old people how to use their computers or private personal training or bartending. I also have only a few more months before i need to make some serious decisions about the direction my life is taking. I also don't know what the hell I'm doing. But I'm trying.
  • I usually stay away from these "who are you" threads. My identity is a guarded secret. My story is on my blog and the nature of it has been talked about by other bloggers. Point: I don't come to MonkeyFilter to talk about myself.
  • Oh, and I hang out in these places where we endlessly debate about how there are so few women made for us. Then we listen to kiss's "I was made for lovin' you" and go vampiric on any nearby town. Or snortle coca
  • Sullivan - none of us did come here for that, but there have been some really interesting bios in this thread. If you don't want to give up your darkest secrets, or even your lightest ones, no harm, no blame.
  • "Went to college in a hellish pitstop on I-10 in Southern California. I was a member of a horrible fake-hippy design-a-major experimental school embedded in an even more horrible day-care for rich trust-fund jocks with no future in sports and not much ability beyond that besides alcohol poisoning, peer pressure and date rape. The lesson: avoid everything having to do with Redlands, California at all costs." lkc, except for the design-a-major experimental part, you described pretty much every undergrad atmosphere i have witnessed. I often think about leaving Redlands myself, though, so no offense taken (you did say everything). Seriously, there are at least a few redeeming factors to this pit-stop - one of them coming up real soon.
  • Yeah, I really hate exposure. But since I am curious about all of you, I'll reciprocate. F, 37 (38 on March 9th in case anyone wants to shower me with wonderful gifts!!!), Pisces/Horse. Born in Germany (Air Force), from there to Washington where I have lived ever since. Now in the quaint little town of LaConner. Am married to my third and final (no, really) husband and have two spectacularly adorable children by him. Three year old daughter and twenty-three month old boy. I am, happily, a stay-at-home mom. Low-income family, living simply and loving every minute of it. Former crack-addict, now a chocolate addict. Red head, very curvy if I lost some weight (I blame my quitting drugs, smoking and heavy drinking- I need something to overindulge in. Lexapro has practically killed my sex drive and exercise is......well, exercise.), 5'7", blue eyes and a bad gossip. Painfully naive about all things computer, but addicted to lurking, losing 4-5 hours per night doing it. Love movies, music, books, wine, gardening, art, cooking, chocolate, sleeping, gossiping, driving and having my way. Hello.
  • Late to the party. 21/m/Moscow Idaho I'm in college, I'm unsure about my major, I drink more than is perhaps healthy, I read a lot, and I hang out with my friends. I'm actually startlingly boring.
  • Does that include the Moldy Peaches? Too right. Also, Lightning Bolt, Pink and Brown, Hella, etc, etc.
  • ...Moldy Peaches... Can I just interject to say that I'm currently wearing my 'Kimya Dawson Loves Me' t-shirt? It has a picture of two bunnies holding hands. Can I just say that? O-kaaayyy. Excellent. *slouches off again, wondering who on earth those other bands Blaise just said are*
  • raoul is my new hero! and it's cool to see so many monkeys from chicago! i'm from waukegan originally. and planetfour: if you're into chicago improv you may know the name neil flynn, he started there years ago and is now the janitor on "scrubs." he's an old boyfriend of mine! fun.
  • SideDish: Not from Chicvago, but not leaving any time soon. I spent the first 25 yrs of my life in CT. Finally moved to change my scenery, and love it out here. Neil Flynn is one of the ImprovOlympic success stories, so I've definitely heard the name quite a bit. Funny guy, too.
  • [Yesterday not such a good day for me. Let me try again.] Just turned 40, going on 80. Male, last time I checked. Born and raised in deep Dixie, the union of Georgia chicken farmers and German potato farmers; now I split my weeks between Seattle and the tiny hamlet of Mazama, both in the state of Washington, USA. Married for 13 years to a city chick, who is why I still spend any time in Seattle at all. Two elderly cats; no children. I cook for the family on the days that I'm in town, and play long-distance nutrition nanny on the other days. I have no patience with most forms of visual entertainment: don't own a television, viscerally loathe all spectator sports, don't care for theater, dislike most movies and the entire cinema experience, but do have season opera tickets. (Having said that, Les Triplettes de Belleville rocked my small, self-centered universe.) Stopped listening to new pop music after Public Enemy, more or less, though bits and pieces do float through the fabric of culture into my skull. Computer games can devour me like rock cocaine to a crackhead, so I avoid their siren song. Much of my city-side social life takes place over the dinner table. My cell phone stays in the highway car, switched off, but I do carry a beeper for the fire department. I prefer to avoid the telephone. I am happiest when outside and alone. Running and skiing keeps me sane. My life's ambition is to play the Bartok piano sonata.
  • dxlifer: now have a wonderful c/l (yech) What's a c/l?
  • oh....that's the acronym for common law....which is how we are legally defined here....lacking the blessing of formal marriage to each....*sigh* still being married to others doesn't just cut it. i simply hate the expression, that's all. our whole legal system is still rooted in the 'common law' system from england.
  • blaise: Thanks for giving me some new bands to look into! I have heard the names of those but had no idea who they were. If they are spazzed-up loner twosomes as well, I can't wait to check them out. flashboy: I have one too! Appropriately, mine is a monkey. In a ballerina dress.
  • late as usual, but... 30 in 13 days, male, Portland. Beyond that, you'll have to find my personal ad on that service that all the cool sites seem to use.
  • Sorry Mayfly. I think I'm the youngest here, I just turned seventeen last saturday. Goo goo ga ga. I live in Dallas but was born in England and am (probably) a northern boy in a southern town. Life is sweet like chocolate! I'm out of things to write. For more about me, check the profile.
  • Sandmonk: Are you a student there, or a resident? My experience isnt completely unique, many of my friends seemed to enjoy it, but also after leaving it many also felt like it was an especially bad experience. Having visited many schools in the area, and others nationwide, I think it was pretty uniquely bad, for a number of reasons that I won't get into, not to mention its separation from the town itself. The actual town is OK, I am not a huge fan of the inland empire (obviously), but I think some of the appeal of the town was lost on me, my parents and grandparents all seemed to like it, especially the number of antique stores, though I was always a little turned off by the various claims-to-fame: Most churches per capita, home of the first stop light, and the town the originated the pledge of alliegence. Then again, those are just claims. But thats just me. The reptile store is pretty cool though.
  • Scott: I have a personal ad there too. Though its been up for a year and I still havn't gotten a single reply. I can't figure out why. Maybe I should use a newer picture.
  • lkc: Go with the new picture, it shows your sensitive side.
  • Oh what the hell... I'm a boring mexican geek, M, 24, Aries(Greek), Ram(Chinese). I like mountain hiking (My home town is surrounded by a mountain range). I read few books a year. I play computer games often but I prefer to create weird programs or write short stories. Which I almost never end, and never publish. I should copy this to my bio to save time.
  • I'm a classically trained stage actor who does lots of regional theatre in the Mid-Atlantic region, is the voice-over guy for lots of silly products on the radio, and I also teach acting at a variety of Universities (Cornell, Temple, Towson). Just moved from Baltimore to Worcester, Mass. because my lovely wife was offered a kick-ass job at UMASS (she is a director of a medical think tank and contributes Medicare policy for the Feds). 41, need to lose a few pounds, had my mid-life depression about two years ago and am out the other side better than ever. Rabid lefty Dem, loves to laugh, loves Ray Bradbury in the fall and Ovid in the Spring, collects artifacts from the 40's, trying to forgive Mommy and Daddy, trying to live graciously. What Is Hard: realizing I don't have to be perfect, I just want to be excellent. What Is Easy: sometimes when the light is just so and the kitties are purring, everything is Right and makes Complete Sense.
  • *adds 2 years to everyone's comments* *wonders how much has changed*
  • Hhmmmm, GramMa never posted anything on this thread. Perhaps I shall have to rectify that. But not tonight. **builds suspense**
  • Wait, you guys have lives? Ummm..yeah, I have one too. No, really. Let me just go make it upgather my data together.