The Slice

Oh HAI, livejournal. I should update you, but tabular_rasa kindly asked me some questions I'd rather answer before I forget. If you'd like 5 questions, reply "Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock!" in the comments.

What is your favorite thing about where you live? (Take that to mean what you will: your city, your neighborhood, your home itself, etc).
I wish I could say I adjusted to being a city person (if you can even count Reno as a city, with its "Biggest little city!" status), but even though I lived there about ten years, I never quite adjusted. This isn't to say that I would never consider living in a bigger city than I'm used to, but given where I grew up, I'm pretty comfortable with small towns.

This town is particularly nice because it's not big and crowded with people, but it's also not so far away from places that are both less populated (like my parents' place) and places that have much more going on (like Reno or the Bay Area or, you know, an airport). It's pretty much the best of both worlds because I can hide from people when I want to but get to wherever else I'd like to be without much trouble.

Long story short, I like the size of where I live. Plus my house is pretty awesome too.

What is the last new thing you learned?
I think it was that there's another size of bed. I'd never heard of an Olympic Queen before, but I don't think it's very common. Ebay has a buying guide on bedding for them. I guess the difference between a normal queen and an Olympic Queen is about six inches in width. I only learned about this because the bedding we bought had measurements for an Olympic Queen.

(We got our bed today. It's giant and hopefully will be much more awesome than sleeping on the floor.)

If you could know your own future, would you want to know? Why or why not?
Hmmmmm. That is a hard question. On one hand, I'd like to know because I'm pretty paranoid about wanting to do a good job and would like to know that everything turns out okay in the end. On the other, I still want to believe that I can change things for the better if I keep trying to improve. I want to believe that I have control over my life to some extent, and if I knew what happened in the future, I might not strive or try to do other things that weren't in line with what I already know. (I may have some control issues and seen too many movies on time travel, haha.)

What are your thoughts on nudity? Do you like being naked? Does it depend on the context?
I think nudity is okay to some extent, though I'm sure you won't be surprised to find out it depends on the context. I am pretty modest, all things considered. The most skin I'll show is usually when I'm wearing workout clothes, and even then, it's nothing too scandalous. Since I don't have much in the way of curves to show off (and clothes don't always fit my proportions right), I don't tend to show a lot of skin to begin with, and I think I'd feel pretty uncomfortable being nude in public. I'm okay with nudity in the right situation, but I don't seek out time to be naked. I'm usually fine with it when it happens for the right reason, though. ;)

In the first round of a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock! which would you choose, and why?
I have to admit that even though I have heard of this variant of rock, paper, scissors, I had to look up the rules to find out what Spock and lizard can do. Usually, I'd pick scissors, as it's my go-to in the traditional game, but given Leonard Nimoy's recent passing and what the sign can do, I'd say Spock.

1) How have you learned about your family history? Do you find it an interesting subject?
I have learned a little bit about both sides of the family, but it's mostly fairly recent history with short snippets about ancestors thrown in from time to time.

My dad is, of course, 100% Irish. He immigrated from County Donegal to California when he was 15. I keep thinking I really ought to sit him down and record some of what he knows about his family history sometime, mostly because every time he tells me stories, I find out something completely different I've never heard before. What's unfortunate is this doesn't happen very often, as dad only gets loose-lipped about this subject when he's in the right mood (either drinking or on the rare occasion one-on-one when he's not talking about his dictionary). Even just his personal story of coming to America is pretty interesting, and that's not going back very far. Then he gets into how we had an ancestor who used to smuggle potential priests out of Ireland so they could get educated and come back to bring Catholicism to the masses, which was highly illegal at the time. Hmm.

Then again, I haven't asked my mom about her branch of the family too much, probably because her mother was the black sheep of the family. Her roots are mostly German (she's half) and a hodge-podge of other ethnicities (Scottish, English, a tiny bit of Irish, American Indian and I don't remember if she's said anything else). She hails from Wisconsin originally, though she moved to California when she was about 5. Most of what I know about Mom's folks involves stories about WWII (where grandpa has been rumored to be something of a double agent because he spoke perfect German) and how we're related to German royalty somehow. (More on that in a second.)

2) Do you have a family tree? Have you worked on completing it?
I don't think so. My mother's brother Bob has traced the German side of the family pretty far back (and has even gone over there to meet some of the German cousins), but he lives in Utah (a good place for that) and is pretty much an asshole. I don't really care to get that information from him. I think my dad might have traced some of his family back as well, but I don't know for sure. It might be kind of interesting considering his father's father had three wives, I think (one at a time because he ended up outliving all of them), so the family tree probably splits in intriguing ways. I'm not super interested in it right now. Maybe when I'm older and have more time.

3) Is your family from the country you live in currently? Or did they immigrate from somewhere else? Where? How recently?
Yes and no. My dad was born in Ireland, though he's been in the U.S. for over fifty years. Like I said, my mother was born in Wisconsin, but from what I heard, her dad's people immigrated here because they were related to the German aristocracy that was being ousted at the time. I really ought to ask more about what happened there.

4) Are you related to someone famous? How closely related? (Feel free to either mention the person or not depending on how discreet you need to be.)
Yes. Speaking of German aristocracy, we're supposedly related to Archduke Franz Ferdinand. I have no idea how closely or if we're related to anyone else who's famous, but there you go.

EDIT: I forgot my mom's distant cousins with Jane Seymour. Also, somehow my dad's mom's side of the family (last name O'Kennedy) is distantly related to the Kennedys of near royal American fame now. Anyway.

5) Take What Country Are You? - What do you get? Is it accurate? Is this country a part of your family’s history?

You Are Australia

You have an a great life, and you consider yourself very lucky. Although you're thankful for what you have, you know you're also a bit of an underdog. You are modest, authentic, and sincere. You don't boast... if anything, you're self deprecating. You aren't formal, and people consider you to be very approachable. You remain relaxed and casual in any situation.

No surprise that I got the same result as the person I yoinked these questions from. Australia isn't in my family history, but it is a place I'd like to see someday.

Questions from the always excellent tabular-rasa. Comment with your favorite color if you'd like some questions.

( Red! )

Comment to this post, tell me you want to do the meme, and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

tabular_rasa gave me these:

Seasons
Let's see. I think every season has its good points. Winter has hot chocolate and is compatible with my indoor hobbies (knitting particularly). Spring has thunderstorms, flowering trees, and general "newness" that comes along with warmer weather showing up again. Summer has vacations and my birthday. Fall has Halloween, falling leaves, and cooling weather.

I find it interesting that my favorite seasons have shifted as I've gotten older. I used to love spring the most, but that was before I realized what weird weather it brings to Nevada the other 90% of the time we don't have thunderstorms. I used to like winter and snow a lot more when I didn't have to drive in it and worry about how cold I was going to be constantly. Summer is okay for the most part still, though I never seem to schedule enough time off and have problems figuring out how to connect with other people without our schedules conflicting. Underneath it all, fall has risen to the top of the heap, with my favorite foods, holidays, and weather happening all at the same time. Still, it doesn't last. All good things must come to an end until next year.

And my mom likes to talk about there being a season for everything. She mostly says this when something bad is happening or a relationship that was once tight is waning. I think about that a lot these days.

Children
I like children. For someone who used to go around saying she'd never have children, I actually enjoy being around them a lot (when they're being cool, that is). I used to babysit quite a bit when I was in high school (a couple times for a family with five kids even!), and it made me feel old to hear that one of the kids I babysat for back in the day graduated from high school last month. Ouch!

Anyway, yeah. I really liked babysitting because it gave me a chance to be around kids without being completely responsible for them. (Hey, I was in high school.) Plus kids are pretty hilarious most of the time and see the world completely differently-- like some magical wonderland full of possibilities where we can get kind of stuck seeing the mess on the floor and the alarm clock going off early in the morning along with the rest of the crap we have to deal with. They remind me of my own childhood, which was pretty neat for the most part, and it's cool to be able to teach things and expose little people to well-worn concepts and see them be amazed and fascinated by them.

I was never one of those girls who sat around thinking about how many children to have with an eventual husband. The rare times I did, it came down to a logical argument with myself concerning population, which lead me to think that the most I'd have is two (though that made me sad because if my parents stopped at two, I wouldn't be who I am nor have the family I have today). Aside from that, I didn't really think about potential names or anything like that except in terms of what I thought would be funny-- stuff like "Fritz" and other weird things I can't remember now. This is probably because my siblings and I all have weird very Irish names, and I thought if I were to name anyone, it would have to be something fairly uncommon. Other than that, I don't know. I've since opened my stance on having children to, "Open to and depending on what my partner wants out of life." I feel like my biological clock should start ticking any minute now, but what's the rush? It'll happen if it's going to happen.

Airplanes
I've been flying since before I was born! My parents and older sister traveled to Ireland for a month when my mom was pregnant with me, and my family traveled a fair amount since. Even as a really small child, I loved the sinking feeling in my stomach I'd get when the airplane first leaves the ground and was never afraid of flying even though I'm still semi-afraid of heights. I never really understood that one. Give me a window seat, and I'll be content to stare out of it for most of the trip unless it's a red-eye flight and/or over 13 hours long. Those kind of really suck, but the destination is usually worth the hassle.

Also, hey, I'll be on a plane to Albuquerque soon! Sweet. ;)

Cooking
I'm surrounded by good cooks in my family. My sister is a pastry chef, and my mom is a dietician by education who helped launch three restaurants in the context of the casino business. Me? I like cooking, but I can't say I'm particularly gifted at it. I have a few things I can make fairly well, and I'm exploring new dishes when I'm not too lazy to cook, which is most nights. On those nights, I have a lot of shortcut dishes I make which border into trashy territory, but whatever. I haven't gained a million pounds yet, so I must not be doing too badly.

Video games
I like and loathe video games. I've played them since I was about seven years old, when my dad bought our first computers. Back then I liked games where I could learn things, like Number Munchers and most games from these guys (my favorite being Treasure Cove! OMG!). My parents were pretty big on educational games for obvious reasons, but we liked them too. I thought certain other games were fun, like Jazz Jackrabbit and the original Duke Nukem, but I was never very good at any of them.

The terrible part about video games is they bring out my competitive side, and playing against other people is usually a recipe for disaster because no matter how much I practice, I don't seem to get any competitive edge. Couple my desire to play well and win with my general inability to actually play these kinds of competitive games well and anyone talking about how much better they are than I am if I lose badly, and you'll end up with me in a very pissy mood. I hate how dumb I can get about that sort of thing, so I try to avoid that as much as possible. If anything, I play more non-competitive games, like puzzle games or The Sims, instead, though I haven't been doing that much at all due to lack of time lately.

Funny story: I guess my parents also bought us a Nintendo game system around that time (or maybe when I was younger) for Christmas, and I was snooping around in the closets before then. I saw the Nintendo box and came out to tell everyone about it.
My mom turned to me and said, "You didn't see that."
I apparently said, "No? Erase, erase, erase," while waving my hand in front of my face.
It must have worked because I didn't remember it, nor did anyone else, until we discovered the Nintendo in that same closet sometime during my high school years.

Whew! Okay. Life is pretty filled to the brim with happenings right now, but I don't want to deal with it here at the moment. I'm sure this will change soon, but you know, that's probably enough given my near-perpetual sleepy state these days. Happy longest day of the year. I'm going to go watch tv and chat before I have to go to bed. Sounds like a plan to me.

Stealing this because I don't quite feel like going to bed yet. Thanks as always, quiz master tabular-rasa.

( Survey! )

Rules
1. People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new, original question.
2. Tag six people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.

I stole this from frozendoll, and I'm also not tagging. Just looking for one last silly thing to do before bed.

( Read more... )

Yeah, okay. This show sucks. Go to bed.

I'm trying to be better about actually posting these things. I keep forgetting for months at a time. I guess it doesn't really matter in the long run since most of my answers are silly, but sorry anyway!

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload) 5 songs you love that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

( tabular_rasa gave me O )

Today's Leo Horoscope:
Jul 14, 2009

You are the secret jewel, dear Leo, and you are apt to be extremely loving and devoted to those who recognize this in you. There is no reason to shrink back and hide. Put on your most royal air and flaunt your stuff - both inner and outer. Your peaceful, charming nature is shining through, and you are radiating the god-like qualities you have within. Whoever shares your company tonight is extremely lucky indeed. Make sure this person is worthy of you.

I am not sure what's going to happen tonight. Wish me luck and guidance, please.

I seem to do this every year. It's a good diversion and a way to see where this journal has taken me over the last year. Enjoy.

INSTRUCTIONS: Take the first sentence or two from the first post of each month of 2008. That's your year in review.

( Read more... )

Hmm... I'm not sure I like all those entries. Perhaps I should make an effort to be more positive and less self-absorbed. Like that will ever happen.

I KID! I KID!

This is the new version of the "[your name] needs" Google meme. Go to google.com and type in [your name] followed by each word to find a sentence about yourself (theoretically, it will most likely be about someone else, though unless you're a celebrity). : ) Putting it in quotes will help you get back a good sentence.

I meant Fiona! Oops! (Totally stole this from Kassi)
1. Needs: fiona needs to go on a diet seriously.
2. Looks like: I don't think Fiona looks like crap in those pictures...just kinda like an ill Russian peasant. :)
3. Says: Fiona. says (15:05): and I blew it too hard so it splurted on my face and keyboard
4. Wants: Varma said Fiona wants to continue the fight for justice till all those involved in the alleged cover-up of Scarlett's murder are prosecuted.
5. Does: Fiona does not judge a dog on height alone.
6. Hates: Fiona Hates Men In Speedos.
7. Asks: Fiona asks no questions and smiles politely at the nurse.
8. Goes: Fiona goes undercover in the celebrities' house to gain the wife's trust and find out what they're not telling the authorities.
9. Likes: Fiona likes licking steamy windows by mooflyfoof.
10. Eats: Fiona Eats Seductively
11. Wears: Fiona wears low-cut dresses that reveal some cleavage.
12. Was arrested for: Fiona was arrested for drink driving whilst in Tinkerbell.

HA! Well, that was fun. Thanks, friendslist.