Here's 25, meme-wise
Jan. 5th, 2003 12:25 amLike ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hopeforyou, I'm going to post these in sections...
1. I may be marginally an extrovert, but with poor social skills. I need to be around groups, but am ill-equipped to interact with them.
2. My first (unrequited) crush was at a summer Governor's Honor's Program, away from home at age 17. My first love was (platonically) a woman that I met on a bus tour of my home state, given to the top 20 or so graduating high school seniors in the state -- it was also my first poly experience, as she would cuddle in the back of the bus with me on one side and another guy on her other side. Having no other knowledge of dating rules, this seemed to me like a perfectly reasonable arrangement J.
3. Going far away to college, I had no dating life for several years. Being at a university with a 4:1 M/F ratio didn't help. I then married the first woman that agreed to see me on a regular basis. We've been together ever since, so it must have been an OK choice ;-).
4. In grammar school at age seven, I could do the 10 and 11-year-olds' mathematics and spelling better than nearly all of them. Mr. Geer, my school principal, used to take me from classroom to classroom, put me in front of a blackboard, and tell me to solve some of the given grade's current homework. Thus was I used to shame and humiliate the older children in my school, in an effort to cajole these kids to perform better ("look, this second-grader does your work better than you!"). As far as I recall, this wasn't an effective strategy.
5. From age seven until age fourteen, I had no friends at school.
6. Only student activities (band, yearbook) and niche classes (French, field biology) finally gave me a path out of isolation. I was respected and eventually liked, in a mascot-like way.
7. I didn't lose my virginity until my early 20s, in college to a woman a few years older. It was nonconsensual, I wanted out. She wanted another cherry for her collection. Ten years later, I asked her why, over lunch. She looked away and mumbled that she thought she'd been doing a favor for another hapless geek. She had "helped" several in the same way.
8. I draw energy from crowds, bustle, movement, and good conversation -- my Myers-Briggs type is eNTp.
9. In an 1800-person high school, I was elected student body president. This meant that I got to do morning announcements, run school dances and Homecoming, raise funds for a lunchroom sound system, and (best of all) be the master of ceremonies at school assemblies and Friday pep rallies.
10. I had a stand-up routine that could keep people laughing with me, instead of at me. I felt the power of oratory, rhetoric and bringing hundreds to their feet. A huge rush...
11. As a teenager I was electable, charismatic but not date-worthy. Younger kids asked for my autograph. But at the same time, over a nine-month period I was turned down, stood up, cancelled, or otherwise rejected by various girls (as far as asking them out for dates went) 34 consecutive times. Yes, thirty-four times in a row without a date.
12. Eleven of those were associated with our high school prom, which I had to attend ceremonially.
13. My birthday saint (July 22) is Mary Magdalene.
14. I have taught adult Bible study groups at my church (St. Timothy's, www.sttims.org) in the past.
15. I have a pilot's license -- specifically, PP-ASEL -- and a 2nd-class medical certificate. I haven't flown in the past few years, but I keep my meds current just in case. Before I could take anyone else up, I'd now need some flight instruction and study to get a Wings level or pass a biennial check ride. Flying is a great experience... liberating, exploring, soaring, feeling vibrantly alive. I wish I could afford to do more.
16. However, I still haven't driven a stick-shift automobile.
17. I have flown beginner-level flights in hang gliders.. seeing nothing below one's feet, that's a strange experience...
18. For five summers in a row, I've done field research at a remote camp on Devon Island in the high Arctic, 76 degrees north. The camp borders a large impact crater.
19. My favorite authors are C.J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Connie Willis and Elizabeth Moon.
20. I homebrew occasionally... I'd do it more if I could find a way to disperse the end product. Five gallons of porter takes a long time to disappear... and I'm a good brewer. I have my own mash-tun, too.
21. Cooking and baking come fairly easily to me, and I like to improvise under pressure. It's all chemical engineering, anyway (grin).
22. After my first kiss ever (see #2), I've never since kissed a woman smaller than a size 18... not because I fancy BBWs particularly, but because anyone smaller is out of my league, not one person has ever been interested. I really am lucky to have whatever relationships and partners that I have (or have had)... without regard for physical attributes.
23. I half-expect sweeties to depart at any time, after they figure out whatever-it-is that keeps everyone else at bay. Even years later.
24. Sometimes I'll teach geology or other science units as a classroom volunteer -- I really enjoy this. I fancy that I'm a good teacher, and have some talent for explaining concepts in graspable ways. Seeing a spark of curiosity in an 11-year-old's eye is unmatchable.
25. My favorite color is dark sky blue, and my favorite numbers are seventeen and five. I drive Fords.
hopeforyou, I'm going to post these in sections...1. I may be marginally an extrovert, but with poor social skills. I need to be around groups, but am ill-equipped to interact with them.
2. My first (unrequited) crush was at a summer Governor's Honor's Program, away from home at age 17. My first love was (platonically) a woman that I met on a bus tour of my home state, given to the top 20 or so graduating high school seniors in the state -- it was also my first poly experience, as she would cuddle in the back of the bus with me on one side and another guy on her other side. Having no other knowledge of dating rules, this seemed to me like a perfectly reasonable arrangement J.
3. Going far away to college, I had no dating life for several years. Being at a university with a 4:1 M/F ratio didn't help. I then married the first woman that agreed to see me on a regular basis. We've been together ever since, so it must have been an OK choice ;-).
4. In grammar school at age seven, I could do the 10 and 11-year-olds' mathematics and spelling better than nearly all of them. Mr. Geer, my school principal, used to take me from classroom to classroom, put me in front of a blackboard, and tell me to solve some of the given grade's current homework. Thus was I used to shame and humiliate the older children in my school, in an effort to cajole these kids to perform better ("look, this second-grader does your work better than you!"). As far as I recall, this wasn't an effective strategy.
5. From age seven until age fourteen, I had no friends at school.
6. Only student activities (band, yearbook) and niche classes (French, field biology) finally gave me a path out of isolation. I was respected and eventually liked, in a mascot-like way.
7. I didn't lose my virginity until my early 20s, in college to a woman a few years older. It was nonconsensual, I wanted out. She wanted another cherry for her collection. Ten years later, I asked her why, over lunch. She looked away and mumbled that she thought she'd been doing a favor for another hapless geek. She had "helped" several in the same way.
8. I draw energy from crowds, bustle, movement, and good conversation -- my Myers-Briggs type is eNTp.
9. In an 1800-person high school, I was elected student body president. This meant that I got to do morning announcements, run school dances and Homecoming, raise funds for a lunchroom sound system, and (best of all) be the master of ceremonies at school assemblies and Friday pep rallies.
10. I had a stand-up routine that could keep people laughing with me, instead of at me. I felt the power of oratory, rhetoric and bringing hundreds to their feet. A huge rush...
11. As a teenager I was electable, charismatic but not date-worthy. Younger kids asked for my autograph. But at the same time, over a nine-month period I was turned down, stood up, cancelled, or otherwise rejected by various girls (as far as asking them out for dates went) 34 consecutive times. Yes, thirty-four times in a row without a date.
12. Eleven of those were associated with our high school prom, which I had to attend ceremonially.
13. My birthday saint (July 22) is Mary Magdalene.
14. I have taught adult Bible study groups at my church (St. Timothy's, www.sttims.org) in the past.
15. I have a pilot's license -- specifically, PP-ASEL -- and a 2nd-class medical certificate. I haven't flown in the past few years, but I keep my meds current just in case. Before I could take anyone else up, I'd now need some flight instruction and study to get a Wings level or pass a biennial check ride. Flying is a great experience... liberating, exploring, soaring, feeling vibrantly alive. I wish I could afford to do more.
16. However, I still haven't driven a stick-shift automobile.
17. I have flown beginner-level flights in hang gliders.. seeing nothing below one's feet, that's a strange experience...
18. For five summers in a row, I've done field research at a remote camp on Devon Island in the high Arctic, 76 degrees north. The camp borders a large impact crater.
19. My favorite authors are C.J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Connie Willis and Elizabeth Moon.
20. I homebrew occasionally... I'd do it more if I could find a way to disperse the end product. Five gallons of porter takes a long time to disappear... and I'm a good brewer. I have my own mash-tun, too.
21. Cooking and baking come fairly easily to me, and I like to improvise under pressure. It's all chemical engineering, anyway (grin).
22. After my first kiss ever (see #2), I've never since kissed a woman smaller than a size 18... not because I fancy BBWs particularly, but because anyone smaller is out of my league, not one person has ever been interested. I really am lucky to have whatever relationships and partners that I have (or have had)... without regard for physical attributes.
23. I half-expect sweeties to depart at any time, after they figure out whatever-it-is that keeps everyone else at bay. Even years later.
24. Sometimes I'll teach geology or other science units as a classroom volunteer -- I really enjoy this. I fancy that I'm a good teacher, and have some talent for explaining concepts in graspable ways. Seeing a spark of curiosity in an 11-year-old's eye is unmatchable.
25. My favorite color is dark sky blue, and my favorite numbers are seventeen and five. I drive Fords.
