I'm a tumultuous culture-nerd with too much and too little time on my hands.
I'm proud of my moxie and frustrated when forms won't render HTML.
I like things that make my brain hurt, lots of freedom, and coffee in anything but the actual hot drink.
I can't stand totalitarianism/dogma, Daniel Defoe, or excruciatingly long lists of statistics.
I'm an activist, a devil's advocate, and a shameless heathen glamorpuss.
(I'm also fond of playing with syntax, parallel sentence structures, and groups of threes, in case you couldn't tell.)
I share a mindset, and a birthday, with Thomas Paine.
I'm a hippie with a type-A personality, and an obsessive-compulsive anarchist.
I'm a beatnik and a peacenik, and the secret service makes me nervous.
I'm a rebel with a cause, and a redstocking without a card.

Off-OK, you can find me on LibraryThing, Flickr, BookMooch, and deviantART.
Also: Jill of All Trades -> I blog.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions, or even Just Because. (Although be warned: while I love getting messages, I'm a hopeless procrastinator when it comes to answering them.)

- Miz L.

I am an atheist, an anarchist, and an anthropologist

Currently attending Centre College (Danville, KY), where I'm majoring in Anthropology, and double-minoring in International Studies and Environmental Studies. Wrapping up my last year (whohoo!), and processing my recent class/trip to Peru (in January - also trying to process all the photos I took there before the online editing program I use goes under :( ).
Trying to balance the work I have to do with the work I want to do (namely, lots of projects around the house). Obsessing over mid-century modern design for no apparent reason. Doing different sorts of community service as part of my scholarship. Reading lots of different books at once (recently finished: A Natural History of the Senses; almost completed: Robbins's Another Roadside Attraction; in the middle of: Sex at Dawn). Looking towards the future, and living.

Coming up with ideas for projects. The arts. Organizing objects, and groups of people. Taking my time with things. Researching and finding resources. Observation, and picking up on details that most people miss (although unfortunately for me this doesn't carry over into being able to interpret many social signals of mainstream American youths). Baffling and confusing other people. Alliteration. Photography. Origami, making things with paper, and general artsy-craftsiness. Doodling trees and vines.

My size (I'm tiiiiny). This usually leads people to one of two conclusions:
1) I'm extremely small and considerably older than I actually am; or
2) I'm 12.

C'est la vie.

Lately, on my campus, I also get noticed for actually "looking nice"/having style to go to class (rather than wearing a sweatsuit and/or pajamas). I don't think it's necessary to do so, but that's the way I am. It also assists in reducing the number of people who think I'm 12.

Authors:
Haruki Murakami, Tom Robbins, Joseph Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Michael Shermer, Marvin Harris, Noam Chomsky, Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kris Reisz, George Orwell, Douglas Adams, Michael Pollan, Howard Zinn, Daniel Dennett, Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas Pynchon, Edward R. Tufte.

Books:
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation - Seamus Heany (trans.), Brave New World - Aldous Huxley, Catch-22 - Joseph Heller, Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn, Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov, Perilous Times - Geoffrey R. Stone, The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie, Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder, John Dies At The End - David Wong, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs. Also read lately, and loved, Reversed Gaze by Mwenda Ntarangwi and The Earth Knows My Name by Patricia Klindienst.

For more books I like and have read/am reading/intend to read, check out my LibraryThing profile.

Movies:
Kontroll, Bubba Ho-Tep, Secretary, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Why We Fight, I Was a Teenage Feminist, The Princess Bride, A Little Bit of So Much Truth (Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad), Life of Brian, Goodbye Lenin!, Iron-Jawed Angels, Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledované vlaky), Annie Hall, What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Whatever Works, Brick, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Foxy Brown (thank you, Independent Film Channel!). What I've seen so far of Luis Bunuel (La Voie Lactée/The Milky Way, Le fantôme de la liberté/The Phantom of Liberty, and Cet obscur objet du désir/That Obscure Object of Desire). Also really enjoyed Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which apparently makes me weird and/or pretentious, depending on who you talk to. Lots of things I want to see, but haven't gotten around to yet.

Music:
All sorts of things, although certainly not "everything." At any given moment I can be listening to blues, jazz, rockabilly, indie, classical, random remixes of things (I have a techno remix of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," which is actually better than it sounds), reggae, international/ethnic, rock (although I usually don't touch angsty pop-rock with a 10-foot pole), psychedelia, acoustic hippie folk songs, angry political music, and so forth. Some bands I like (which will be added to as I think of things): Gogol Bordello, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ford Theatre Reunion, Morphine/Mark Sandman, Tom Waits, Elysian Fields/Jennifer Charles/Lovage, Saul Williams, The Coup (one of those angry political bands - check 'em out), The Beatles/John Lennon, Billy Joel (it's a family bonding thing), Niyaz, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Chuck Berry, Gershwin (this piano player's heart palpitates to Rhapsody in Blue), Jean-Claude Vannier, Wax Tailor, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Franti/Spearhead, Nina Simone, Sleater-Kinney, Veruca Salt, Selda, My Brightest Diamond, Pomplamoose, Jenny Lewis and her various collaborations, Neko Case and her various collaborations, Flobots (more angry political music). Also listen to various podcasts. Loving "Lord Muck's Nasty Grind," which you can find here — lovely mix of retro/vintage and contemporary "garage, punk, rockabilly, psychedelia and dirty, lowdown, sleazy trash!" Hasn't been updated in a while, which is a shame because it's highly addictive.

Food:
Chocolate. Cheese. Fruit. Bread. I could live on what you see French people in movies eat (if it weren't for all the alcohol). Seriously though, give me some dark chocolate, plums, brie, and...any kind of bread, and I will be in food-heaven. It doesn't take much.
I don't eat much meat - don't care for it - but tofu (along with the near-universal cultural ramifications of refusing an offering of food...anthropology, remember?) prevents me from becoming vegetarian. I don't like food that pretends to be other food, and I think I'm allergic to soy, anyway. (I like the idea of it, but I can't keep it down. Ugh. Same with Thai.)
I make a wicked zucchini bread.

Same as any other human being:
1. Basic needs (food-shelter-clothing),
2. a sense of belonging,
3. care/love,
4. rewards, and
5. Self-actualization, which to me is deeply tied to learning. The day I stop learning is the day I shrivel up and die, like a sponge without water.
On a more personal note:
6. At this point in my life, I don't think I could do without my wonderful partner (mdbento) - he's the best loving and supporting comrade one could ask for. :)

People (as in humanity). Culture. Motivations. Fascinated by human nature (anthropologist, remember?).
The intersection of art, earth, and radical politics. Trying my hand at guerilla art and guerilla gardening. Want to do something with Crimethinc, but not sure how I can best help.
Design. (I just got three sheets of Eames stamps. Happy! ...Yeah, I'm a nerd.)
Racism. Sexism. Zucchini. My cats.
The social stigma attached to feminism and atheism, and what it means for someone in the Bible Belt who's both at the same time. (Maybe it means I should take some self-defense classes?)
Radical love and alternate relationship models.
I've caught the gardening bug to a pitiful extent. I can't see something with seeds anymore without wondering if I could extract the seeds and plant it. Fortunately, I've recently found a book that should come in handy for this practice.

Packing up for Lexington, if not already there - spending time with someone special (mdbento), and fleeing the weekend-campus-party-scene as quickly as possible.

I am coopting this section and turning it into "Random information about me." TAKEOVER!

- I was (somewhat) a "test tube baby" - the doctor that helped out my parents was later on the team that cloned Dolly the sheep. [Add to edit: Oh hey look he's back in the news again. Oh no, attack of the Miz L. clones eminent! Everyone run!]

- I was born blue, and later turned orange. No, literally. (The doctors said I'd be perfectly normal...little did they know!)

- I was homeschooled from first grade through high school. I'm one of those rare hippie science-y homeschoolers. I got to pick my own school song ("Imagine" - John Lennon) and mascot (peace dove), which made my graduation the most awesome one ever. I had FFRF symbols on my cake, yo.

- Oh, and my aunt got me a can of pepper spray for my graduation present. I'm afraid to open it.

- Downside of the trial-and-error nature of early homeschooling: have to hold out my hands in an L-shape to remember which direction is left and which is right.

- Upside of homeschooling: already familiar with much of the material in my classes (at a very tough college). Whoo-hoo!

- It took me until I was about 14 or so to figure out how, exactly, most of my relatives are related to each other.

- I have irrational obsessions with cacti, fossils, and mid-century modern design. (Mmmm, Eames stamps...oh, sorry, am I repeating myself?)

[Will add to later as I remember things.]

You have something to say. Do not confuse this for "if you want to," as they are actually two very different things.

I don't mean to be harsh, but consider this: I get messages from random people all the time. At least 50% of them are almost exclusively about my photos of myself, my appearance, my hairstyle (?!), etc. C'mon people, it's nice to be flattered once in a while, but it's getting old, and it stifles actual conversation (and indicates that you haven't bothered to actually read my profile, besides). If you want to stand out/impress me, you've got plenty of material to work from besides some pretty pictures. It's not that hard, I swear!

- Miz L.