100 Things Readers Might Want to Know

[truepenny]

I can't tell if I'm being egotistical, over-helpful, completely lame, or what, but this is something I was wishing for recently when checking out people from my "Friends of" list, the "Similar Interests" search, and other people's "Friends" lists: a single post that would tell me, not necessarily more about the person, but more about their LJ and what they use it for.

So I'm going to mutate the 100 Things meme. Some of this will look like my original 100 Things, and some of it won't. This post will also be subject to modification as my 100 Things change and as I add links. Lots of links, 'cause, hey, that's what the web is for (and what I should have done with the damn meme in the first place).


March 20, 2003
WARNING: the links may not take you exactly where you expect.

1. I want world peace.


2. I'm INTJ.


3. I have a virulently overdeveloped sense of privacy and personal space, which means that there's a lot of things about me that I don't talk about in my LJ. Suck it up and deal.


4. I was raised entirely outside organized religion and have come to the conclusion that I'm not missing much. I will not discuss my spiritual beliefs or lack thereof (see #2), but if you're easily offended by the profaning of sacred cows, you might want to back away slowly.


5. Um, also? My posts tend to be larded with obscenities. Again, if you're going to be offended, back away slowly. Hell, you might want to run.


6. Mostly I talk about books. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And my writing.


7. There will be frequent fits of whingeing about the writing.


8. My likes and dislikes about books are strong, opinionated, and frequently intemperately articulated. I will be sorry if your opinion doesn't match mine, but I won't swerve aside from saying what I think.


9. Aside from being introverted, I am extremely shy, although I'm starting to get better about it.


10. Did I mention I'm a control freak?


11. I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which when I was a child still called itself "The Energy Capital of the World."


12. Both my ears are triple pierced. (I mention this because it's one of the things that particularly pleases me about myself.)


13. I am shamelessly addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I'm loving Season 7.


14. I double-majored in Classics and Literature (the bastard offspring of my undergraduate institution's English and Comp. Lit. departments, i.e., English lit. with a side of French).


15. I have a Master's in English Literature.


16. I am close to getting my Ph.D (also in Eng. lit.). I talk about my dissertation. A lot.


17. My specialty is English Renaissance drama. (Warning: the Gunpowder Plot Society people may be on crack. But isn't it cool that they exist? Also check out these people, and there's also a transcription of Guy Fawkes's trial.)


18. Languages: I read French fairly fluently; I'm competent in Latin and Middle English (and here's a more official take on St. Thomas a Becket, whose feast day is December 29 and whose vestments are in Sens Cathedral), can still struggle along with Old English, do not claim any longer to be able to cope with Ancient Greek. I can sight-read sheet music about as well as I read French.


19. Despite the advanced degrees and the hardcore geekiness, I'm not really cut out for academia.


20. I am (drumroll please) A Writer.


21. God, could I sound more pompous, pretentious, and generally objectionable?


22. I write fantasy and horror (with one aberrant science fiction story). My horror stories tend towards the M. R. Jamesian. The fantasy's all over the map.


23. My aspiration is to be able to write like a cross between Gene Wolfe and Ellen Kushner. Also Kelly Link.


24. I love poetry, but I cannot cannot cannot write it. I was in grad school before I finally admitted this.


25. I've sold seven short stories. One has been published in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. The rest are all in press.


26. I have one standalone novel that's out making the rounds.


27. And then there's The Project, which I began in 1994. It's a four book series; vol. 1 has just been finished; vol. 3 is already written; vol 2 (which is the second half of the novel I originally wrote ca. 1994-98) is floundering around in the shallows; vol. 4 is waiting, fingers steepled and a mocking smile on its lips.


28. I have no impartiality when it comes to my own writing ability. Some days I think I'm brilliant; some days I think I should just degauss my hard drive and save everyone the bother.


29. I will post my Buffy the Vampire Slayer dreams (tidily behind cut-tags), although I'll spare y'all (most of) the others.


30. I learned to read when I was three.


31. I seriously don't know what would have happened to me growing up if I hadn't had books.


32. I read with both concentration and speed.


33. I still revert to a sullen three-year-old when dragged away from a book I'm reading for the first time.


34. As a child, I read omnivorously, including a bunch of stuff I bet my parents didn't know I was reading and wouldn't have wanted me to.


35. These days I mostly read genre fiction, heavy on the mysteries. I prefer old-fashioned mysteries, but abominate cozies.


36. I love genre fiction and will passionately defend its right to be considered "literature."


37. Favorite poets (aside from the metaphysicals): Sylvia Plath, Mark Doty, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Dunn, Wilfred Owen.


38. My favorite Bronte is Emily.


39. I loathe Hemingway. Also Milton.


40. I prefer Buster Keaton to Charlie Chaplin. (Warning: the Chaplin site will play music at you.)


41. Yes, I am an insomniac, thank you very much.


42. I have ocular albinism, which means I have a lot of trouble with light. This is why I identify strongly with moles.


43. My identification with moles is the origin of my username. Hamlet calls his father's ghost 'truepenny' at the end of Act I: "Art thou there, truepenny?" (

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I can't tell if I'm being egotistical, over-helpful, completely lame, or what, but this is something I was wishing for recently when checking out people from my "Friends of" list, the "Similar Interests" search, and other people's "Friends" lists: a single post that would tell me, not necessarily more about the person, but more about their LJ and what they use it for.

So I'm going to mutate the 100 Things meme. Some of this will look like my original <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=truepenny&amp;itemid=22816">100 Things</a>, and some of it won't. This post will also be subject to modification as my 100 Things change and as I add links. <strong>Lots</strong> of links, 'cause, hey, that's what the web is for (and what I should have done with the damn meme in the first place).

<lj-cut text="Or maybe I just have a thing for lists.">
March 20, 2003
WARNING: the links may not take you exactly where you expect.
<ol>
<li>I want world peace.</li>
<li>I'm <a href="http://keirsey.com/">INTJ</a>.</li>
<li>I have a virulently overdeveloped sense of privacy and personal space, which means that there's a lot of things about me that I don't talk about in my LJ. Suck it up and deal.</li>
<li>I was raised entirely outside organized religion and have come to the conclusion that I'm not missing much. I will not discuss my spiritual beliefs or lack thereof (see #2), but if you're easily offended by the profaning of sacred cows, you might want to back away slowly.</li>
<li>Um, also? My posts tend to be larded with obscenities. Again, if you're going to be offended, back away slowly. Hell, you might want to run.</li>
<li>Mostly I talk about <a href="http://www.bookslut.com/blog.html">books</a>. And <a href="http://www.upn.com/shows/buffy/"><em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em></a>. And my writing.</li>
<li>There will be frequent fits of whingeing about the writing.</li>
<li>My likes and dislikes about books are strong, opinionated, and frequently intemperately articulated. I will be sorry if your opinion doesn't match mine, but I won't swerve aside from saying what I think.</li>
<li>Aside from being introverted, I am extremely shy, although I'm starting to get better about it.</li>
<li>Did I mention I'm a control freak?</li>
<li>I was born and raised in <a href="http://www.ci.oak-ridge.tn.us/oakridge.htm">Oak Ridge</a>, <a href="http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/">Tennessee</a>, which when I was a child still called itself "The <a href="http://www.amse.org/">Energy</a> <a href="http://www.hermitage.com/oakridge.html">Capital</a> of the <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html">World</a>."</li>
<li>Both my ears are triple pierced. (I mention this because it's one of the things that particularly pleases me about myself.)</li>
<li>I am shamelessly addicted to <a href="http://www.slayage.com/"><em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em></a>. And I'm loving Season 7.</li>
<li>I double-majored in Classics and Literature (the bastard offspring of my undergraduate institution's English and Comp. Lit. departments, i.e., English lit. with a side of French).</li>
<li>I have a Master's in <a href="http://www.jmccall.demon.co.uk/history/page2.htm">English</a> <a href="http://www.pepysdiary.com/">Literature</a>.</li>
<li>I am close to getting my Ph.D (also in <a href="http://www.englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/wives.html">Eng.</a> lit.). I talk about my dissertation. A lot.</li>
<li>My specialty is <a href="http://www.toweroflondontour.com/">English</a> <a href="http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/">Renaissance</a> <a href="http://www.rdg.ac.uk/globe/">drama</a>. (Warning: the Gunpowder Plot Society people may be on crack. But isn't it cool that they exist? Also check out <a href="http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/guy/html/maina.html">these people</a>, and there's also a <a href="http://www.armitstead.com/gunpowder/trial.html">transcription</a> of Guy Fawkes's trial.)</li>
<li>Languages: I read <a href="http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/">French</a> fairly fluently; I'm competent in <a href="http://www.capitolium.org/">Latin</a> and <a href="http://www.digiserve.com/peter/becket.htm">Middle</a> <a href="http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gawain.htm">English</a> (and here's a more official take on <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14676a.htm">St. Thomas a Becket</a>, whose <a href="http://www2.art.utah.edu/cathedral/can_trin_miracle.html">feast day</a> is December 29 and whose <a href="http://www.sens.cci.fr/pgapps_uk.htm">vestments</a> are in <a href="http://www.heritagesites.eu.com/france/sens.htm">Sens</a> <a href="http://www.beloit.edu/~arthist/historyofart/gothic/sens.htm">Cathedral</a>), can still struggle along with <a href="http://hastings1066.com/">Old</a> <a href="http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a4.1.html">English</a>, do not claim any longer to be able to cope with <a href="http://www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21123a/e211wa03.html">Ancient</a> <a href="http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexicon/">Greek</a>. I can sight-read <a href="http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/">sheet music</a> about as well as I read <a href="http://www.quovadimus.org/paris/cat/2-400.html">French</a>.</li>
<li>Despite the advanced degrees and the hardcore geekiness, I'm not really cut out for academia.</li>
<li>I am (drumroll please) A Writer.</li>
<li>God, could I sound more pompous, pretentious, and generally objectionable?</li>
<li>I write fantasy and horror (with one aberrant science fiction story). My horror stories tend towards the <a href="http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GS.html">M. R. James</a>ian. The fantasy's all over the map.</li>
<li>My aspiration is to be able to write like a cross between <a href="http://www.urth.net/">Gene Wolfe</a> and <a href="http://www.sff.net/people/kushnerSherman/Kushner/">Ellen Kushner</a>. Also <a href="http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/bio.htm">Kelly Link</a>.</li>
<li>I love poetry, but I cannot cannot <strong>cannot</strong> write it. I was in grad school before I finally admitted this.</li>
<li>I've sold seven short stories. One has been published in <a href="http://www.lcrw.net/lcrw/"><em>Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet</em></a>. The rest are all in press.</li>
<li>I have one standalone novel that's out making the rounds.</li>
<li>And then there's The Project, which I began in 1994. It's a four book series; vol. 1 has just been finished; vol. 3 is already written; vol 2 (which is the second half of the novel I originally wrote ca. 1994-98) is floundering around in the shallows; vol. 4 is waiting, fingers steepled and a mocking smile on its lips.</li>
<li>I have no impartiality when it comes to my own writing ability. Some days I think I'm brilliant; some days I think I should just degauss my hard drive and save everyone the bother.</li>
<li>I <strong>will</strong> post my <a href="http://www.slayage.tv/"><em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em></a> dreams (tidily behind cut-tags), although I'll spare y'all (most of) the others.</li>
<li>I learned to read when I was three.</li>
<li>I seriously don't know what would have happened to me growing up if I hadn't had books.</li>
<li>I read with both concentration and speed.</li>
<li>I still revert to a sullen three-year-old when dragged away from a book I'm reading for the first time.</li>
<li>As a child, I read omnivorously, including a bunch of stuff I bet my parents didn't know I was reading and wouldn't have wanted me to.</li>
<li>These days I mostly read genre fiction, heavy on the mysteries. I prefer old-fashioned mysteries, but abominate cozies.</li>
<li>I love genre fiction and will passionately defend its right to be considered "literature."</li>
<li>Favorite poets (aside from the metaphysicals): <a href="http://www.plathonline.com/">Sylvia Plath</a>, <a href="http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C0F07">Mark Doty</a>, <a href="http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/edisindex.html">Emily Dickinson</a>, <a href="http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C050C0E">Stephen Dunn</a>, <a href="http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/">Wilfred Owen</a>.</li>
<li>My favorite <a href="http://www.bronte.info/">Bronte</a> is <a href="http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/BS-Emily.html">Emily</a>.</li>
<li>I loathe <a href="http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/our_cats.htm">Hemingway</a>. Also <a href="http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk/">Milton</a>.</li>
<li>I prefer <a href="http://www.busterkeaton.com/">Buster Keaton</a> to <a href="http://www.charliechaplin.com/">Charlie Chaplin</a>. (Warning: the Chaplin site will play music at you.)</li>
<li>Yes, I <strong>am</strong> an insomniac, thank you very much.</li>
<li>I have <a href="http://www.albinism.org/">ocular albinism</a>, which means I have a lot of trouble with light. This is why I identify strongly with <a href="http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Vertebrata/Mammalia/Talpidae/">moles</a>.</li>
<li>My identification with <a href="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~rmacarth/moletunnel.html">moles</a> is the origin of my username. <a href="http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts/commentaryguides/hamlet_a_woman/female_hamlets.htm">Hamlet</a> calls his <a href="http://www.richardmccabe.co.uk/hamlet.htm">father's ghost</a> 'truepenny' at the end of Act I: "Art thou there, truepenny?" (<a href="" http://www.angelfire.com/oh/pretzel/dogsummary.html"="http://www.angelfire.com/oh/Pretzel/dogsummary.html&quot;"><em>Hamlet</em></a> 1.5.152); he also calls him a mole (1.5.164); <a href="http://www.literatureforkids.com/kids/boston.html">L. M. Boston</a> uses "<a href="http://www.bartleby.com/81/16805.html">Truepenny</a>" in <em>The <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1212pueri.html">Children</a> of <a href="http://www.greenknowe.co.uk/">Green</a> <a href="http://www.border-stones.co.uk/001_020/012/details.htm">Knowe</a></em> (a book I was extremely fond of as a child) as a name for a pet <a href="http://tim.rawle.org/moles/">mole</a>.</li>
<li>I've been married for four and a half years. My husband, who is a technogeek, is sometimes referred to in these pages as MH, which stands for "Minister of Hardware," a <em>nom de guerre</em> bestowed upon him by <user site="livejournal.com" user="heres_luck">. Get <strong>her</strong> to explain it. He is also known as <em>Mirrorthaw</em>, which is a partial <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=truepenny&amp;itemid=52562">anagram</a> of <em>The Minister of Hardware</em>.</li>
<li>I am a fiercely competitive over-achiever when roused. I've spent a good deal of the past seven years trying to teach myself to let that sleeping dog lie. TMSMWIMC, an acronym I may use from time to time, stands for "the madly savage mink which is my competitiveness."</li>
<li>My position on fan-fiction (from a <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=truepenny&amp;itemid=37396">reply</a> I made to <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/rliz">Zirl</a>): <em>I like slash. I wouldn't write it--I'm bored by the box of working with preassigned characters and world--but I can read it like eating popcorn. And I think copyright law is in an abysmal state--because our notions of copyright are in an abysmal state--and the entire thing needs to be rethought ANYWAY. Fanfiction is merely one place where things get murky, and my ethical stand-point, in the abstract, is (a.) get permission and (b.) don't make money off it. What it all comes down to, though, is that the thought of anybody writing fanfiction in MY world with MY characters gives me the creeping, crawling, cringing horrors. It's squicky. And so, despite my love for slash, I can't abide the double-standard of reading something perpetrated on other authors that I wouldn't want perpetrated on me.</em> The exception to this rule (because I am human and therefore fallible and self-contradictory) is <user site="livejournal.com" user="ajhalluk">. But then again, if she wanted to write fanfiction in one of my universes, I'd probably just insist that she let me co-write, anyway.</li>
<li>RPS creeps me the fuck out.</li>
<li>Mirrorthaw and I have nine bookcases in our one-bedroom apartment. Mostly it's my books.</li>
<li>If I'd known I could grow up to be such a thing, I might have become a <a href="http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/wiener/w_index.htm">bioarchaeologist</a>.</li>
<li>Most people find me <a href="http://www.goreyography.com/west/west.htm">morbid</a>. Some people <a href="http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/">like</a> it.</li>
<li>The unhappiest year of my life thus far was when I started developing breasts at the age of 12; I was really really bad at being a teenage girl.</li>
<li>I think I do okay with being a woman.</li>
<li>I dress like teenage boys did when I was in high school: jeans, t-shirts, flannel shirts. No make-up except occasionally eyeliner. Aside from my wedding ring, which I don't take off, I use jewelry like armor. You can track my state of nerves by the amount of metal I'm wearing.</li>
<li>I'm doing my part to revive "they/them" as the gender-neutral third person singular it was before the eighteenth century grammarians got their nasty patriarchal hands on it.</li>
<li>I want the government to concern itself with public ethics rather than private morality.</li>
<li>I make my own bread. All by hand. It's my only culinary talent, and I'm absurdly proud of it. Otherwise, I stay the fuck out of the kitchen.</li>
<li>I took typing three summers in a row, first with a manual typewriter, then with an electric, then with a computer. The experience taught me to appreciate my word processor.</li>
<li>I have a <a href="http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/">Kinesis</a> ergonomic keyboard, which I love with the passion of a thousand fiery suns.</li>
<li>Don't like kids. Don't want 'em.</li>
<li>I nit-pick. Unmercifully. At everything.</li>
<li>I have always wanted to learn <a href="http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html">ASL</a>. But I'm too self-conscious about my lack of coordination to try.</li>
<li>I try very hard to be truthful, but don't always succeed.</li>
<li>Birthdays were an excuse for public humiliation in the schools I attended. Thus I don't tell people mine unless I know and trust them.</li>
<li>I'm a Sagittarius. I was born in the mid-70s.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/">Baseball</a> is my spectator sport of choice; I was born and bred a <a href="http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/atl/homepage/atl_homepage.jsp">Braves</a> fan. If I watched more TV, I would be addicted to <a href="http://www.wnba.com/">women's professional basketball</a>.</li>
<li>Very fond of <a href="http://www.whh.org/">small</a> <a href="http://www.otternet.com/index.htm">furry</a> <a href="http://www.derbyfoxes.org/">animals</a>. Also <a href="http://www.owlpages.com/Default.htm">owls</a>.</li>
<li>The <strong>only</strong> television I watch is <a href="http://www.buffymusic.net/"><em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em></a>; I am willfully out of step with American culture.</li>
<li>I did watch <a href="http://firefly.shriftweb.org/index.shtml"><em>Firefly</em></a>.</li>
<li>Politically, I'm somewhere left of center; depending on the issue, I may be left of left.</li>
<li>My musical tastes are moderately eclectic. The Beatles, <a href="http://www.petermulvey.com/">Peter Mulvey</a>, <a href="http://www.gillianwelch.com/">Gillian Welch</a>, Neil Finn, Billie Holliday. I listen to the <a href="http://www.howardshore.com/index2.html">soundtracks</a> for <a href="http://www.lordoftherings.net/"><em>The Fellowship of the Ring</em></a> and <a href="http://www.theonering.net/"><em>The Two Towers</em></a> with frightening frequency. Newest passion: <a href="http://www.aimeemann.com/">Aimee Mann</a>.</li>
<li>I am a fan both of <a href="http://www.tolkiensociety.org/">J. R. R. Tolkien</a> and of <a href="http://tbhl.theonering.net/index.shtml">Peter Jackson</a>. Also, thanks to the extended <em>FotR</em> DVD, I am awed and delighted by <a href="http://www.wetafx.co.nz/workshop/index2.html">Richard Taylor</a>, <a href="http://www.wladca-pierscieni.pl/tworcy.asp?oi=9543">Ngila Dickson</a>, and <a href="http://www.john-howe.com/">John Howe</a>. If you're interested in reading my defense of Jackson's Faramir, look <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=truepenny&amp;itemid=42134#cutid1">here</a>.</li>
<li>I can be simultaneously snobbish and plebeian about an astonishing variety of things.</li>
<li>I am not by nature an activist.</li>
<li><user site="livejournal.com" user="heres_luck">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="renenet">, and I diagram sentences for fun.</li>
<li>I tend to quote the books I talk about and then, because this is the kind of geek I am, I cite and reference them <a href="http://www.mla.org/">MLA</a> style.</li>
<li>I have no tolerance for plagiarism.</li>
<li>Straight. White. Middle-class.</li>
<li>Loved <a href="http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/"><em>Bloom County</em></a> and <a href="http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/"><em>Calvin and Hobbes</em></a>; now extremely fond of <a href="http://www.comics.com/comics/chickweed/"><em>9 Chickweed Lane</em></a>.</li>
<li>Big vocabulary. (Duh.)</li>
<li>My favorite metaphor for my writing process is the <a href="http://membres.lycos.fr/jbsf/">Great</a> <a href="http://www.brettish.com/">Grimpen</a> <a href="http://www.sherylfranklin.com/sh-brett.html">Mire</a> from Sir <a href="http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsocy.html&quot;">Arthur</a> <a href="http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/doyle.htm">Conan</a> <a href="http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/">Doyle</a>'s <em>The <a href="http://www.literature.org/authors/doyle-arthur-conan/hound/">Hound</a> of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/hound_of_the_baskervilles.shtml">Baskervilles</a></em>. I expound upon it <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/talkpost.bml?journal=truepenny&amp;itemid=2460">here</a>. <a href="http://www.halsgrove.com/baskervillesad.html">Grimpen</a> <a href="http://members.aol.com/mfrankland/dartmoor.htm">Mire</a>'s RL inspiration is either <a href="http://www.fatbadgers.co.uk/Britain/natparks.htm#Dartmoor">Grimspound</a> <a href="http://www.britannia.com/BritHeritage/dartmoor.html">Bog</a> or <a href="http://www.richkni.co.uk/dartmoor/foxtor.htm">Fox Tor</a> <a href="http://www.stomper.fsworld.co.uk/photoPages/siwardsx.htm">Mires</a>. (I also have a thing for <a href="http://www.calibercomics.com/SHERLOCK/sherlock_holmes_brett_on_holmes.htm">Jeremy</a> <a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~tjbayne4/brett1.htm">Brett</a>.)</li>
<li>I use "y'all" without irony. Sometimes, without noticing.</li>
</ol>
</lj-cut>

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Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

40: I'm beginning to wonder whether I might have ocular albinism, too. Or at least, my sensitivity to high light levels is bad and worsening. What is testing for it like ?

52: Thank goodness, I'm not alone.

67: Politically, I either say I'm a systems programmer, or describe my politics as by Stafford Beer out of Jane Jacobs; if you must crush that down into a one-dimensional spectrum, it's probably going to count as more left than not.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

40: I'm beginning to wonder whether I might have ocular albinism, too. Or at least, my sensitivity to high light levels is bad and worsening. What is testing for it like ?

Well, when they diagnosed me, all that happened was the ophthalmologist dilated my eyes, took a look, and said, "Goodness, you're blonde all the way back, aren't you?"

Of course, this was at the age of 22, after having been misdiagnosed since roughly the age of 3. One of the great advantages of being at this particular University is the research hospital, where they know what they're doing. The doctor who diagnosed me wasn't a specialist in albinism or anything of the sort; he was just better trained and better informed than the ophthalmologists in Tennessee (which--not to cast aspersions on my natal state or anything--is no big shock).

My current ophthalmologist (who specializes in things like albinism and strabismus: eye conditions that are present in children and persist into adulthood) was telling me that they've got some kind of test now that checks the brain's responses to visual stimuli using electrodes (which sounds relatively unintrusive), but I can't testify personally.

Um, common symptoms of ocular albinism, aside from the insane light sensitivity (my window of acceptable light levels is narrower than anyone else's I know, and you can ask papersky about me and my sunglasses): nystagmus, underdeveloped foveas, a limit to one's correctability (I'm only correctable up to 20/40) ... generally, as I understand it, the albinism means that one's eyes don't quite get the finishing touches that most people's do.

NOAH has a good informational page with more specific and technical language here (http://www.albinism.org/publications/ocular.html).

It made a huge difference for me personally just knowing what was wrong and that I wasn't being a morbid, self-dramatizing hypochondriac about the photosensitivity. So if you want to ask me anything else, I'll be glad to answer.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

27. You could post the others. I certainly wouldn't mind.

My feeling about lists is that "The hour has come, but not the man." Excuse me, I mean that I feel lists say something around something interesting without actually saying it. I've thought about limiting my interests to the stuff I actually post about: food, books, writing, weather, but that isn't it either.

I actively like the way that in rasseff thread titles bear no relationship to what people are talking about in them.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I like circumlocution. *g*

[marith.livejournal.com]

I can _feel_ this meme sucking me in now. Back! Back, Sheba! *wcha!* You have work to do!


45. What's RPS?

49. Ever heard Dar Williams' "When I Was a Boy"?

62. I am genuinely surprised that you're younger than me. You've accomplished a lot.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

RPS is Real Person Slash, a phenomenon which, from what I can tell, grew up around boy-bands. It's the same as ordinary slash, only with real people. I've never read any, and I never will.

I have heard "When I Was a Boy," courtesy of heres_luck. It's a cool song.

Um, accomplished? This is clearly one of those things that looks way different from the outside of my head. But thank you. :)