why yes, i am avoiding homework by posting on the internet

[katekat]

how could you tell?

two memes stolen borrowed from brutti_ma_buoni and ruuger:

My "Job" description (which devolved into me trying to summarize my thesis) using only the most used 1000 words:

I want to be a teacher of books, so right now I study books every day. And to be a teacher the next thing I will do is write about books from another place in a long piece that I hope will be a book some day.

That long piece is about many different things. It is about the next form of human life. It is about art that shows memories of a time, not the past, and not the present, but some other time. It is about how women who write have changed what we know about the next form of human life, and about how the reason why that next form of human life will always be about men and women no matter what other form it takes. And I think about how the people who write books about these things are also changing the way they write.

... that was weird.

And, this one is for you dear readers:

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. [Some people I know lots. Some people, if they're reading this, gave birth to me.] But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's Parker ...she likes money and cereal." I'd love it if everyone who's friended me did this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well.) Then post this in your own journal if you feel inclined. In return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an answer

Comments

[littleotter73]

That's a really cool summary, actually! I understood it much better than the one you wrote for your doctoral candidate thingy. LOL

Umm about me... I suppose I'll tell you about the otter and why it's my totem. I was hiking through the woods with my best friend from middle/high school and her dad. He's a naturalist, boy scout leader/eagle scout, and a bird watcher. As we were walking along a stream, there was evidence of beaver activity which he pointed out. And for some reason, I just said, "Otters are cooler. They don't seem to really work like beavers. They play, they swim, and they don't take life so seriously." To this day I have no idea where that came from. I'd never been into the animal. They are cute, but I'd not paid too much attention. And then I stopped and had one of those really profound moments where everything hit me all at once. I'd been taking life way to seriously and hadn't been having fun for quite a while. The otter became my spirit guide at that moment, reminding me to take the time to play. I need to listen to her more often. She crops up periodically to guide me back. In her honour, I had an otter tattooed on the side of my lower left leg, so I get a visual reminder as well.

Questions for you: What is your guilty music pleasure? Other than Japan, have you traveled/lived outside of the US?, and if so where? What drew you to graphic design?

[katekat]

I understood it much better than the one you wrote for your doctoral candidate thingy.

HA! oh dear, that probably means that I should go back and fix the doctoral statement! well, homework for another day ;)

And that is the BEST story for a username and totem animal I have EVER HEARD. And also one of the best reasons i've heard to get a tattoo too - to remind you of something seriously important that we could ALL do with remembering, you know?

And as far as guilty music pleasure for me? Beyond Adam Lambert's first album? (which i totally do like tracks off of) ... i'm not so terribly guilty about the fact that i actually like pop music, and i'm not a music snob. i love turning on the radio and singing or bouncing up and down to club tunes on road trips - they make the miles go faster.

as far as travelling non japan outside of the US, i've gone to Puerta Vallarta (spelling could be wrong there) two? three? times, and did a six week European walking thing (i had a backpack, but it mostly stayed in the hotel, not true backpacking) where I started in Amsterdam, went to Paris and Rome and Barcelona and Vienna and Berlin and Cannes and some other places in between I'm not remembering. I think every person should leave the US at least once in their lives - that trip gave me such a good feeling about living in a wider world.

As far as graphic design goes, my mom is actually a mixed media artist and has been creating beautiful things in acrylic and cloth for almost as long as i've been alive, and she always made room for me to make things (even if they were hideous) and encouraged me to do so. but i first started tinkering with layouts and formatting in MS word, and in one of the old pre-Indesign programs that allowed you to make invitations and party programs. And when the ex had a band and i helped create their first logos and stickers in MS word with different fonts. And then i worked for a web company where the designers were my friends - they were actual designers - i really consider myself a dabbler - but i got my first version of photoshop. Some of the time they'd spend after hours teaching me little tricks of the program, and then the art director actually taught a class on flash and how cool it was, and that motivated me a bit. for me design was always wrapped up in web stuff - creating websites, formatting things prettier for friends, that kind of stuff. and it spiraled out from there. i did take an illustrator class at the local community college, though i was already addicted to photoshop by the time I did that, and most of the tricks i know are from fandom tutorials. fandom has give me a lot that way that i'm really thankful for.

[littleotter73]

No No NO! That's not what I meant... because I am not the target audience for your thesis. I mean I understood it when I read it back then. I just have a much better idea now. Remember, I'm not a snooty academic (and I mean that in a respectful and loving way) that you have to impress. They way you address the Thesis committee and they way you casually tell friends is totally different. I just have a better understanding, because it involved very little thinking. :)

It's definitely special to me. I am not religious in the sense of a one religion to rule them all - no, no, no. Maybe I am more of an animist, I don't know. But it's definitely a strange thing that happened. And I was surprised when I talked to my dad about it and he revealed that he also has spirit guides and he knows all three of them. One is a snowy owl, one is fox, and I can't remember the other one. I definitely know my otter. The hawk is one of my guides as well. We have a ton of red tail and cooper hawks around here.I know I have one more that I haven't met yet. It's just out of my grasp and I need to be patient, but I am pretty sure it's a big cat of some kind.

I like Adam Lambert's first album too. I really wish he would do a cover of "The Show Must Go On" by Queen. I mean seriously. When they did Queen on AI, I thought that was the one he should've done. Sigh.

Very cool. I've always wanted to do the backpack across Europe thing. But I've resigned myself to traveling in Europe. And I agree, every person should experience a foreign country at least once in their lives, and when they do it, immerse themselves in the culture. Leave America at home.

For a dabbler, I have to say you are far more talented than several designers I know!