I'm a casual woman and pretty plain. I enjoy discussing all sorts of things, because I'm a researcher. You know how it goes when you start off looking up "Middle Ages" in the encyclopedia and end up with 25 extra articles you intend to read linked from that first page. I like following threads and expanding my knowledge.

I have a passing interest in literature and philosophy; I love science, especially geology! I really hate people who celebrate ignorance, who don't understand the nature of science, and who somehow think learning about something with which they disagree is tainting them.

Nutrition, especially the hunter-gatherer kind, is really interesting to me. I lift weights to keep in shape (insofar as I can, dealing with a chronic back injury). I find myself suspicious of endurance athletes. The Superbowl and the Olympics are both big yaaawns. Serious sleep-aids.

I dislike children and never want to be a mother. EVER. This makes people sad for some reason.

Just to get this out of the way: I spend most of my day proofreading one thing or another, so I will notice if you don't put any effort into your writing. And it will be painful for me! :)

Rethinking the plan.

Less than three years 'til I'm 30, and I haven't really done much. The opportunity just hasn't been there--lack of money, lack of family support, etc.--to do some of the things I always thought I'd have done by now: move somewhere that has a future. Travel a bit. Figure out what I want to spend the rest of my life doing (or at least a good portion of it). At this point, I fear that last question will never be answered.

I'm going overseas for the first time in a month or so, and of course I'm excited about that.

I'm kind of an information sponge, and that annoys people to hell and back. People say, " You think too much!" One friend thinks it's pretty cool, though. :) It's what I'm good at, so I doubt I'll stop any time soon.

I don't really know--it's not like anyone tells me these things. Perhaps my propensity to listen rather than speak?

If you sort of like fantasy and haven't read The Last Unicorn, you are missing out. It is not a book for girls. All ages and sexes can enjoy.

There's this book, Random Harvest, by James Hilton (originator of the term "Shangri-La"), about a man who loses two years of his life due to a couple of freak accidents. It's one of those pre-1950's British novels that takes its time starting, wraps you up, and ends beautifully. It is my favorite novel.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Left Hand of Darkness, also by Le Guin, are captivating for different reasons. I do love anthropological sci-fi. A lot of guys like the space battles... I prefer reading about the perspective of a dude describing the sexual habits of a race of people who are only male or female for one day out of the month. And it varies from month to month.

I'd play video games if I had the budget for them. I am one of the weirdos who thought FF12 was brilliant. The first game I ever loved was Star Tropics. That was epic to an eight-year-old.

Music: A lot of Brazilian stuff, classical, some folk a la Jonathan Edwards. I dislike modern country music a great deal, but the older stuff is fun. There are some genres I typically won't listen to, but I can usually find an exception to most. Seal has been my favorite English language singer for a long time, although I opine that his older two albums are vastly superior to the later stuff.

Could live on antipasto platters.

Movies...I haven't seen many, to be honest. I think my tastes run counter to those of people I know, and I was tired of their heckling. But no movie really stands out as a favorite, and there are few I would watch twice.

Anyone who says "air" or "water" is copping out.

1. Privacy.
2. Treasure.
3. Cardigans, hoodies, etc.
4. A rich inner life.
5. A lot of down time so I can think things through. Ploddingly, pedantically, eternally. . .
6. Lots of sleep.
7. Really good space heaters.

I compose elaborate, multi-part daydream-stories in my head and never write them down. They are usually cheesy, anyway!

Doing the same thing I do every night, Pinky.

I've had a bad streak of guys who seemed really normal while we were involved, and then after the inevitable breakup, they became bizarro creepsters. One threatened to ruin my reputation in vague, menacing ways; one tried to convince a professor of mine I had plagiarized (when I had not done so); one sent me harassing emails, unwilling to stop until I asked his new girlfriend to please reign him in. I realize I am the common denominator here, but years of hashing it out with myself and others has not revealed any reason why it might be my fault, except that I am, perhaps, a freak magnet.

You gotta have a hook, man.

(I do not mean that literally oh god)