I just graduated with a BFA in interior design. I may start my own business (want to invest?! it's going to be awesome) here pretty soon. I love design in general. I'm hypercritical of anything that is designed (which is, basically, everything), and thus very hard to impress. Fear not, hypocrite lecteurs, I'm not going to judge your clothes. Well, I am, because it's automatic and I can't help it, but it won't matter and I'll still like you. But don’t misunderstand me, it’s not that I’m operating under an illusion aesthetics really matter, I just like them. The good ones, anyway.

Things that matter that I do like: my family, my pets, sustainability, the sex trade. Well, maybe I don’t /like/ the sex trade, but it’s my pet cause, especially women engaged in prostitution in the US. First-world sex slaves are still enslaved, after all.

I also lived in New Orleans for a while and I loved it. Go there asap.

Winks are unfit for purpose.

*Being really busy. Sorry if I don't get back to you right away; I am anticipating this changing in a few weeks.

*Watching PBS Create. Ever since I got my digital converter box I find myself watching this channel more and more often. It's like quaaludes are being administered to me via airwaves. Everyone is so happy and excited and positive. And it's ALWAYS ON. I love it.

*Leaving my windows open; IAQ is vitally important.

*Fretting about finding a job/doing contract work that takes 3x as many hours as I get paid for.

*Hunting for Stasi porn

Rebuttals. My debate teacher even said he would 'seriously' want me on his dream debate team for rebuttals.

I'm highly skilled in cutting straight lines. Pair this with my EXCELLENT taste, and it means I can make some really nice birthday cards.

Offending my brother online with disturbing photoshopped images.

Dexterity of the fingers. I played piano for a long time and guitar for a while, too. Unfortunately having dexterous fingers is mostly useless except as a pretty lame party trick. I wish I had a piano now.

And I'm good at spotting moose in the woods when it's dark out. This can be of considerable value when driving. In places where there are moose.

Like everyone else I really have no idea what the first thing people notice about me is, although I hope it's that I look really cool.

So instead, here's what I imagine YOU would notice about me first.
* If you're a guy, there's a very good chance I'm quite a bit shorter than you, and you will notice this upon meeting.
* I'm blonde.
* My sarcasm knows no boundaries.

How many first things should there be?

* I have an awesomely outrageous gay boy friend named Waylon.

(a) The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison; Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers; Catch-22, Joseph Heller; The Beach, Alex Garland; Lolita, Nabokov; Bend Sinister, Nabokov; King, Queen, Knave, Nabokov; A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole. And the only nonfiction book of the bunch: Cradle to Cradle!

(b) Valley Girl! I cannot express ardently enough my love for this movie. In fact, I love '80s high school movies in general, especially Fast Times at Ridgemont High. SPOORLOOS. 2 Days in Paris; American Psycho; Danton; Moulin Rouge; Zoolander; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; Meet Joe Black; Hostel; Hot Fuzz; Hustle & Flow; Black Snake Moan; In Bruges; Fire Walk With Me; Eastern Promises; Videodrome; eXistenZ; Scanners (I like most David Cronenberg, except for Crash); Rushmore; The Royal Tenenbaums; I Heart Huckabees; The Door in the Floor; Wild at Heart; Sideways; The Sweet Hereafter; Sweet Land; Before Sunrise; Before Sunset; movies with sharks in them.

(c) Joy Division, Pulp, Radiohead, The Smiths, and The White Stripes. Fleet Foxes, M. Ward. I love post-punk and New Wave. Prokofiev, Debussy, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. Oh, and the Pixies. And I have a soft spot for The Moody Blues.

(d) I like Indian food. And soup, I /love/ soup. A meal in itself! Also, mango juice, and mangos. They are like nature's candy. Oh, gnocchi, too. Raspberry jam (with seeds).

(e) TV - South Park; Gossip Girl; House, MD; Dexter; Doctor Who; Prison Break; True Blood; Twin Peaks; Firefly; Lost; The OC; Buffy; Felicity; The Biggest Loser; Big Love; Ugly Betty.

(f) Styles of Stuff (furniture and architecture, mostly): Louis XIV-XV, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Empire, Second Empire, Bauhaus/International Style, Modern, Post-Modern, Brutalist, Tony Duquette, Michael Graves, IM Pei, Philippe Starck, Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Andree Putman. I really, really, really do not like Gehry.

(g) Artists: Cezanne, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Renoir, Jerzy Czerniawski, Wiktor Sadowski, Weislaw Walkuski, Bacon, Soutine, Goya, Tamara De Lempicka, Russell Mills, Folkert De Jong.

Editors

• stoatseekspig

Cute shoes, hope, a pet, the support of my family, the support of my cute shoes. YOU!

...birds. When there's a bunch of them in trees and they're all chirping at each other, I wonder what they're trying to communicate. When there's several taking a dust bath, I'm thinking it's really adorable. When I stay awake until the sun starts rising, I just love being outside and hearing the birds start to wake up. It seems so private. Also I have this Polish poster on my wall with a bird pecking out of a guy's face so that keeps them at the forefront of my mind as well.

Also Freuer's Doot Doot. I can't tell if it's brilliant or utterly, utterly terrible.

I've seen the storyline played out so many times before. Oh, that goes in there. Then that goes in there. Then that goes in there. Then that goes in there. And then it's over.

Little apple, whither are you rolling?

When bull fighters and rodeo riders get bucked, trampled, gored, or whatever, I’m pleased. They were really asking for it, and it tips the balance more towards fair, I think.

Also, I have the palate of a five year old. I don't really like wine or beer or mushrooms or dark chocolate or grapefruit, all of which I equate with adulthood, curiously. One time I tried explaining to my family that I didn't like grapefruit because it tasted bitter at the end, and they looked at me like I was a nutbar and had no idea what I was talking about. I can't be the only one who has noticed this, can I?

…it strikes your fancy. I’m sure I’d rather hear from you than not because you're really cute, so go on.

...you hate the cliche "work hard, play hard." Other cliches too, but especially this one. And "it is what it is." Has a dumber phrase ever been conceived?

Also, if you know how to put a bangin' donk on it.