25 Random Things
Jan. 25th, 2009 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThis 25 Random Things About Me meme's been going around Facebook. I thought I'd post it here, too.
1. I have never been able to properly snap my fingers. I just can't manage to produce the right sound. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but most of the time I don't care enough to work on it.
2. I don't have perfect pitch. I meet a lot of people who seem to think it goes hand-in-hand with being a composer. It really doesn't, though - I know plenty of composers who don't have it.
3. I went to the nerdiest summer camp of all time (yes, there is something nerdier than band camp): organ camp. It was a summer program for high school age organists, at Westminster Choir college in NJ. I ended up having a really great time, though. Not only was it a great musical experience, but I discovered that outside of the harshly cliquish and conformist climate of my school, I could in fact be well-liked by a group of my peers.
4. I love dumplings of all kinds: potstickers, gyoza, shumai, pierogi, ravioli, etc. Wrap dough around some kind of tasty filling, and I will want to eat it.
5. My favorite snack is Annie's Bunny Grahams. They are so yummy - I can easily eat a half a box in one sitting.
6. I have a massive movie-star crush on Viggo Mortensen. Mmmmmmm.
7. I have a slight phobia of vomiting (emetophobia). Luckily, I haven't done so in about 8 years.
8. I also have a weird phobia of wasps. They scare me beyond a reasonable aversion to being stung. I find them creepy and repulsive.
9. I'm one of the few people I know to have read all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels. The first 4 are pretty interesting, but I think Herbert kind of dropped the ball with the last two.
10. I look significantly younger than I am. Lots of people think I'm in my 20s. I'm kind of hoping this trend continues. ;)
11. I like being in school or taking classes. I enjoy the whole process, and even like studying. At this point I prefer writing papers to taking tests, though.
12. I look remarkably like my maternal grandmother. Sometimes looking at pictures of her can be a little weird, because I'll run across photos that are like looking at myself.
13. I have extremely vivid dreams. Many of them are like movies, with involved plots and fully fledged characters. I get full sensory perception, too. In addition to seeing and hearing, I can taste the food, perceive scents, and feel physical sensations.
14. My dreaming subconscious has also created its own city to serve as a setting for several of my dreams. It's cobbled together from parts of the various places I've lived or spent a lot of time in over my life.
15. I am not much of a fan of Broadway musicals, except for Sondheim. The genre and it's stylistic conventions just don't do it for me.
16. I'm a really good cook. It's a skill that runs in my family, but I personally think that I might be the best cook in the family.
17. I am currently completely hooked on Janelle Monae's album Metropolis: The Chase Suite. it's not even my usual sort of thing, but I just can't get enough of this.
18. I find advanced astronomy incredibly fascinating. Theoretical physics, too.
19. All of the sports I've ever been interested in taking up or have really enjoyed doing involve deadly force of some kind: fencing, archery, various forms of sword-fighting, martial arts.
20. I only recently started liking cooked fish and other seafood. Growing up, I couldn't stand the stuff, no matter how well-prepared it was.
21. I love my piano almost as if it were a person.
22. I still have all my wisdom teeth. They came in fine, and I've never had any problems with them, so they've stayed put.
23. I've never broken a bone. I may have fractured a toe once, but I've never had a full break.
24. I'm really good at picking up accents. When travelling in Britain, I have to be careful and listen to myself so as not to seem liking I'm making fun of people. I'm also pretty good with learning foreign phrases just from watching subtitled movies.
25. I love looking at modern art and listening to contemporary music because I find I can have a much more immediate reaction to it. There's no weight of accumulated cultural assessment to mediate the experience.
1. I have never been able to properly snap my fingers. I just can't manage to produce the right sound. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but most of the time I don't care enough to work on it.
2. I don't have perfect pitch. I meet a lot of people who seem to think it goes hand-in-hand with being a composer. It really doesn't, though - I know plenty of composers who don't have it.
3. I went to the nerdiest summer camp of all time (yes, there is something nerdier than band camp): organ camp. It was a summer program for high school age organists, at Westminster Choir college in NJ. I ended up having a really great time, though. Not only was it a great musical experience, but I discovered that outside of the harshly cliquish and conformist climate of my school, I could in fact be well-liked by a group of my peers.
4. I love dumplings of all kinds: potstickers, gyoza, shumai, pierogi, ravioli, etc. Wrap dough around some kind of tasty filling, and I will want to eat it.
5. My favorite snack is Annie's Bunny Grahams. They are so yummy - I can easily eat a half a box in one sitting.
6. I have a massive movie-star crush on Viggo Mortensen. Mmmmmmm.
7. I have a slight phobia of vomiting (emetophobia). Luckily, I haven't done so in about 8 years.
8. I also have a weird phobia of wasps. They scare me beyond a reasonable aversion to being stung. I find them creepy and repulsive.
9. I'm one of the few people I know to have read all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels. The first 4 are pretty interesting, but I think Herbert kind of dropped the ball with the last two.
10. I look significantly younger than I am. Lots of people think I'm in my 20s. I'm kind of hoping this trend continues. ;)
11. I like being in school or taking classes. I enjoy the whole process, and even like studying. At this point I prefer writing papers to taking tests, though.
12. I look remarkably like my maternal grandmother. Sometimes looking at pictures of her can be a little weird, because I'll run across photos that are like looking at myself.
13. I have extremely vivid dreams. Many of them are like movies, with involved plots and fully fledged characters. I get full sensory perception, too. In addition to seeing and hearing, I can taste the food, perceive scents, and feel physical sensations.
14. My dreaming subconscious has also created its own city to serve as a setting for several of my dreams. It's cobbled together from parts of the various places I've lived or spent a lot of time in over my life.
15. I am not much of a fan of Broadway musicals, except for Sondheim. The genre and it's stylistic conventions just don't do it for me.
16. I'm a really good cook. It's a skill that runs in my family, but I personally think that I might be the best cook in the family.
17. I am currently completely hooked on Janelle Monae's album Metropolis: The Chase Suite. it's not even my usual sort of thing, but I just can't get enough of this.
18. I find advanced astronomy incredibly fascinating. Theoretical physics, too.
19. All of the sports I've ever been interested in taking up or have really enjoyed doing involve deadly force of some kind: fencing, archery, various forms of sword-fighting, martial arts.
20. I only recently started liking cooked fish and other seafood. Growing up, I couldn't stand the stuff, no matter how well-prepared it was.
21. I love my piano almost as if it were a person.
22. I still have all my wisdom teeth. They came in fine, and I've never had any problems with them, so they've stayed put.
23. I've never broken a bone. I may have fractured a toe once, but I've never had a full break.
24. I'm really good at picking up accents. When travelling in Britain, I have to be careful and listen to myself so as not to seem liking I'm making fun of people. I'm also pretty good with learning foreign phrases just from watching subtitled movies.
25. I love looking at modern art and listening to contemporary music because I find I can have a much more immediate reaction to it. There's no weight of accumulated cultural assessment to mediate the experience.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 03:28 am (UTC)Re: #24: I, too, have that ability, and it's occasionally unnerving to sprite. When in the UK, I will quickly pick up the local accent. Living in DC, I can pick up any one of a number of southern inflections without realizing it. When back in Utah, my cadence slows (it sped up markedly living in Connecticut, where the pace of speech is much faster), but I can't quite do the proper "Utah" accent because I so abhor it.
Do you also find yourself able to understand foreign tongues easily?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:39 pm (UTC)Hah! Me too!