Who the hell are you people?? :)

[denny]

I want to know more about the people who read my journal. Those of you who feel that I already know you well are not exempted from answering :)

I would like you to provide some or all of the following: your name, your age, your occupation/studies, your living arrangements, what makes you tick, what you're into, what labels (or lack thereof) you might use to sum up your existence... amusing quirky factoids appreciated, but not essential.


Idea stolen from jinxremoving's journal, after it goaded me into providing a rather longer answer than I originally intended.

My reply went like this:
My name is Denny, and I'm 30 years old.

I'm currently unemployed due to injury but I'm usually a computer programmer (mostly web-related software development). I did a BSc in Computing as a nominally mature student, finishing a few years ago - I graduated first class with honours, which is without doubt the single biggest achievement of my life (I failed half my GCSes and all 4 of my A levels, mostly due to not being all that interested at the time). After that I worked at Cambridge Uni for a bit doing AI research, which was a lot more interesting than web development but a lot less rewarding financially, hence my current work - at present, I feel I get more fun out of having money at the weekends than I would out of enjoying the weekdays. This may change again in a few years.

I live alone in a sadly cliched semi-detached 2 bedroom house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Milton Keynes, but I'm hoping to move to London as soon as I can find work there - I want to live nearer to Torture Garden and the other big fetish clubs, and make the most of my 30s as my 20s were a bit quiet.

I'm lazy in an applied kind of way sometimes, and in a life-destroying kind of way at other times. My life philosophy is definitely hedonistic - as far as I'm concerned, I'm here to have fun - all else is based around that premise.

Despite that, I seem to get involved in political activism quite a lot, first with relation to legislation concerning motorcyclists, then moving on to 'net and privacy related issues. I also did as much as I could in the anti-war stuff recently, including being in the biggest London march, messy bit at the end and all. I guess I'm just not very good at turning the other cheek when I feel my lifestyle is being threatened by legislation etc, and I seem to perceive these threats at a longer range than many of my friends.

I'm happy to be labelled, these are some of the ones that spring to mind: geek, biker, metaller/goth/raver, fetishist. There are undoubtedly more, I don't kid myself that I'm particularly unique in any aspect of my life.

Quirky factoid: erm... I currently have two titamium plates and 14 screws in my right shin after a car pulled out in front of me and my motorbike. Does that count as quirky?

Comments

[kissycat1000.livejournal.com]

Argh you want an essay? Meep!

You know my name, it's not for public consumption though. I'm 25 (again again again).

I'm a mummy to two kids, both are special needs, one is badly autistic and unfortunately I can't earn the £10 per hour it'd cost (minimum) to have him looked after while I work, so I'm living on benefits currently. I'm divorced from Rob who brought up Tianna (11) since she was 3 months old, and he is Jordan (5)'s biologocal father. I don't have qualifications as such, having had a child when I was 16, rather stupidly. Your assumptions about me based on this fact may well be accurate when applied to my life at that point, however I'm not that person any more.

I live in a rented 3 bedroomed house with my children, frequent visitors are my boyfriends azekeil and ev1ldonut but they don't live with me. I'm polyamorous, bisexual, and open/out to my friends and some of my family, at least those that need/want to know. azekeil is in the process of moving to my town to be closer to me, while ev1ldonut lives 45 miles away.

I'm a typical Leo. Lazy, proud, egotistical, friendly, loving, generally a good person if you can cope with my constant need for attention. And I've just been told I must include 'vain' and 'stubborn' here too.. ;)

I dislike being labelled as I feel like a fraud when one is applied that I don't feel fits me, and none of them properly do. I'm not a Goth though I do dress like one, I have goth friends, love goth music.. but I came here via rock and metal (with some R&B on the way) and consider myself somewhat of a mix of metal and Goth, though neither really fit.

I can't believe you just got me to write all that.. :P

[adjectivegail]

name: Asrana. You know my real name, but I would thank you to avoid using it online.

age: I always have to think about this one. What year is it? 2003? Then I'm 23.

occupation/studies: I'm currently temping as a medical secretary to the psychiatric department of an NHS hospital in Hackney, north-east London. It's fun and interesting, and I'm good at it. As for studies, I'm still trying to decide if I want to apply for a 2 yr PT MSc in Public Health with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (or LSHTM, because it's a mouthful), but the £4000 tuition fees and the fact that I'm not sure what I'd do with it afterwards are niggling at me. Oh, and I graduated with a 2:1 in Microbiology from Liverpool University this summer.

living arrangements: I'm renting a room in the house of lolliepopp, ajva and sweinhodge but actually I'm only there about one night a week. The rest of the time, I'm usually to be found in the busy house of aegidian, djm4, elfgeek, lizw, occasionally sgloomi and B, C, and R. Not to mention the *counts* 6 pets :) It's always fun.

what makes you tick: Er... I've no idea. Public health-related issues get me going pretty quickly; thoughts about transmission and spread of diseases, monitoring, the logistics exercise that is containment and treatment without cross-contamination... I find it very exciting and interesting but at the same time I'd really rather keep it all a very large physical distance away from myself and my loved ones *grins*

what you're into: Define "into". Variously, public health/epidemiology/etc, cross-stitching (no, this is not the same as embroidery. duranorak says it's even more boring *g*), at the moment I still enjoy building computers (I've been told this wears off after a while), I tend to prefer smaller groups of people in quieter social settings rather than pubs/clubs/noisy places. I have a crush on John Taylor I am very tentatively and overly-intellectually exploring polyamory. I am less tenatitvely and less overly-intellectually having fun with bdsm. I have been almost permanently broody for kids since I was about 14, but plan to not have any for another 5 to 10 years. Much to aegidian's relief *g*

what labels (or lack thereof) you might use to sum up your existence: labels tend to irritate me fairly rapidly as they never really fit. I also have, or at least think I have, very poor insight into the way others perceive me and therefore have no idea how they'd classify me which, when it comes to labelling, I tend to think of as being the more relevant point. And therefore there's more scope for it going wrong... I'm not going to guess.

amusing quirky factoids: Er. *blanks* I've no idea.

Fairly bloody useless, then.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Hm. And this would also seem to be my reflection upon the year. I'm currently too busy to slow down. Too slow to speed up. Am currently trying to re-establish myself in a new place in a new town, which is taking all of my various efforts - emotional, physical, financial.

Would otherwise like to consider myself open to my friends and open to suggestion, but for these caveats. Otherwise I've got a secure job in Bristol that pays reasonably, but looking to upgrade.

I sense a summer of spreading myself out a bit more and connecting more. That's all I can be even vague about at the moemnt.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

My name is, annoyingly, Dan Sheppard. I was born in June 1975, so that makes me in my late twenties, I don't really keep track any more. I work for Cambridge University in an infuriating semi-academic semi-administrative no-mans land, though I should be shifting departments in the new year. I don't want to do this in the long run, I want to do something which actually involves manufacture, but I'm not very dexterous.

I live on my own in a three-up-three-down on Histon Road in Cambridge. It's a busy road, which I like, I can lie in bed and imagine that the swish of the cars at rush hour is the tides.

I like philosophy, particularly logic, metaphysics and ethics, though I don't really like talking about it because I think people often talk about philosophy as an exercise in oneupmanship and are deliberately obscure, and it makes other people feel uncomfortable, like it's somehow cleverer than talking about shopping or the weather.

This makes it quite a lonely pursuit, as it's not really possible to share some of the things I value the most. I like Dialetheia, am probably a Friesian, and love Schopenhaur and Nietzsche, who I think are misunderstood. I have an odd notion of existence. I wish I was any good at an art.

If someone called me a goth, I'd not deny it, similarly a geek. I'm naturally rather shy, though I realise that it's counterproductive self-indulgence, though when I'm having a hard time I lose the energy to resist that flaw. I like almost everyone, and enjoy company, but I'm easily frightened. I like submarines, because they remind me of me.

Lots of the things I like end up being German, which is strange, and I'm slowly learning the language to try to get closer to originals.

I like cooking and clothes-making, and electronics to wile away weekends, though i quite like cleaning, shopping and tidying, reading, clubbing, the flicks, the theatre, and suchlike. I feel embarassed that that doesn't sound very rock-and-roll.

I love music people call werid or just sad, Merzbow, Aphex Twin, EN as well as the usual 80s-victim stuff like The Cure, Depeche Mode, and so on.

I am politically active in the preservation of woodlands, legalisation of entheogens, and maintaining regional differences. This seems to be separate to what most of my friends are interested in politically, which can be quite lonely.

I need to sort my life out.

[androktone.livejournal.com]

your name - rebecca (bekki) may. Thats my ex husbands surname, I kept it out of perversity to annoy him, and because i always used to dislike my family name, "williams". I used to refuse to use "rebecca" ever and insisted all my bank accounts etc were under "bekki", but as i've got older i quite enjoy making people at work call me rebecce.

your age - 26. People say I look yonuger, but i look almost middleaged to myself.

your occupation/studies - I'm a Programme manager for a regeneration partnership that spends £28 million on various projects in Luton. I got a degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from nottingham, but a combination of being depressive, living on my own for the first time having come from a very controlling family, breaking up with a long term boyfriend during my finals, and deciding to conduct a period of self exploration with the aid of alchohol and acid resulted in me only getting a third. I didn't find the course very interesting or try very hard. subsequently I did my exams and became an MIEE Ceng. Now I don't use any engineering at all and have mostly forgotten about it, which is sad.

your living arrangements - until recently was living with james, boyfriend of 18 months, but things fell apart after he was unemployed and I had to support him for 8 months and we fought a lot - now i'm living in a 3 bed semi in Luton on my own (with the kids about half the time). Its like a 1950s model suburbia house, and is amusing me with the edward scissorhands similarities :)

what makes you tick - drawing, writing, listening to very particular songs and artists for certain moods, eating very decadent meals and drinking expensive alchohol, trying to understand my children, clubbing, taking drugs experimentally (ie not a lot, or often, but in order to have interesting experiences).

what labels (or lack thereof) you might use to sum up your existence... "single mother" :p goth, metal, tree-hugging-hippy, creative, self obsessed


amusing quirky factoids appreciated, but not essential. - I once found one of my lodgers dead in my kitchen..?

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Nicky is my real name as well as my LJ name. I'm 38.
I work as an Internet Librarian part-time and I'm also doing an MSc in Information Management and raising two children.

I'm monogamous, heterosexual and distinctly vanilla, but my bi, poly and alternative friends are all really nice about it and don't make me feel too much like a freak... :o)

Took up martial arts as a way of getting over my traumatic childhood, and discovered that I really enjoy them. I now teach broadsword fighting to students and try not to frighten innocent bystanders too much.

Quirky factoid : I can crochet and touch-type.

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

ok, I suppose I should, as I usually just lurk without saying anything...

You should know my name (I'm not putting it in a public entry though), I'm 24.

At the present moment I am unemployed due to the ending of a contract, I'm currently seeking new and greener pastures. Generally I am the techie sort, though I am also a programmer if need be. I did a BSc in Computer Science at Bristol university, which is when I fell in love with the city and is why I've been living there for a little over 6 years now.

I currently share a 3 bedroom house in the more affluent area of Bristol with 2 other guys. One of them is a great friend, the other is a guy who I met on my course at uni, and who I have steadily built up a deep loathing for. As a result, I will shortly be changing my living arrangements when azekeil moves into his newly bought house in Cheltenham. I will either be moving into azekeil's old room in our mutual friends house, or I will move to Cheltenham with him and be his lodger, I still have yet to decide which it will be.

I am a very laid-back quiet person. I'm often kind to a fault, though it is fairly common knowledge I have a wicked evil streak when the mood takes me ;) I have the patients of a saint and tolerance for far more of what life throws at me than most people seem to have these days. My life philosophy seems to revolve around the generally simple ideas of "be nice to others and generally they'll be nice to you, if not, at least you'll have the moral high ground!" and "If there's nothing you can do about it then stop worrying cos it doesn't help. If there IS something you can do, then stop worrying and DO IT!!"

I am a mono guy who has found himself deeply in love with a poly woman (kissycat1000), and yet I'm perfectly happy in this poly relationship thanks largely to azekeil being such a good friend and so supportive.

I'm not sure where exactly I fit in to life's labels. I suppose I would be mostly a metaler, though I do have Goth tendencies (like the music, like the clothes, like the people) and several unmistakably goth friends, and a distinctly goth girlfriend (no matter what she says on the matter!). I don't think I have any 'quirky facts', maybe others think I do, but if so then they haven't told me yet!

That's about all I can think of for now, though undoubtedly I'll think of something else later...

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

I knew I'd think of something else. I'm also heterosexual, though many seem to assume otherwise. *shrug*

And I also appear to have used the wrong spelling of patience. *sigh*

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

You didn't mention the eyes!!!

And, guh - you're lovely :) *hugs*

[nevla.livejournal.com]

I'm known to most goths as Nevla. A curious name, the origins of which would take too long to explain and are simply not that interesting.
I'm 27 years old. I had a fun childhood growing up in the RAF until i was 16 and then settled in Cambridgeshire. I have 7 GCSEs (c+) and 2.5 A Levels. My working life has almost exclusively been within the Pharmaceutical or Clinical Research industries. The only thing i am qualified to do is SAS System (http://www.sas.cpm) Programming, and i work currently as a Systems Analyst for a highly respected Cardiac Safety Monitoring company.
I share a house with my long-term partner (who i have known for over 7 years).

I play guitar, although i haven't had any proper lessons, in the band Rome Burns (http://www.romeburns.co.uk). My life revolves mostly around my partner, my music and a series of small make-believe belief systems (including a love of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Robin of Sherwood, talking to inanimate cuddly toys and assuming everything turns out alright in the end).
My short-term memory is appaling, the reasons for which are unknown but it seems to be getting worse with age. I am also prone to periods of moodiness and mild depression, due to psycological damage from my past.
My main aim in life is to meet Alice Cooper.
My secondary aims are to give up work, travel a bit, live in a nice detached house with some land, a dog & 2 cats and earn my crust via the band.
It won't happen, but it's slightly more likely than inventing time travel so i can go back to being a teenager and try again.
Other hobbies include neglecting my Paganism, reading papery things and playing snooker.
I'm currently being monitored by bearded professors to see if i have a dangerous genetic disorder, but seem in the all clear so far.
I wear goth make-up, am tall, thin, and monogomous (i would probably be Bisexual if i wasn't in a serious relationship already).
I once fell asleep on a train and had to sleep in the park in Kings Lynn in PVC Jeans and a leather jacket at 3 degrees overnight. Keeping warm only by running up and down in German para boots, white makeup and contact lenses.
I also have a Blue Peter badge and an autograph to me from Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, Babylon5).

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Why is your name annoying? I didn't like mine as a kid, because of the usual flack for it being slightly unusual. I like it now though, especially since I altered my surname back to its 17th century form.

I like submarines, because they remind me of me.

One of the more fascinating throw-away statements in that lot. Could you expand on it?

I feel embarassed that that doesn't sound very rock-and-roll.

I think I'd be a huge disappointment to myself of five or ten years ago, for similar reasons. Although I'm probably a lot more rock and roll than I thought I'd be 15 years ago.

With regard to the conservation activism, could I point you at PlaNet (http://planetarycitizen.open.ac.uk/), a website whose original creation I was technically involved with. I'm not sure if it'll be of massive interest to you or not, but I couldn't resist sharing the link - I was quite proud of being involved with it at the time. I think there should be some overlap with what you're interested in... I know one of the editorial team is a woodlands preservation person, and the regional stuff has been mentioned in the past.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I think I should make you come back and do this again in six months :) Hope all the change and uncertainty in your life right now leads to a better future for you.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Keeping warm only by running up and down in German para boots, white makeup and contact lenses.

Um. That must have been cold...!! (sorry, couldn't resist)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I don't have qualifications as such, having had a child when I was 16, rather stupidly. Your assumptions about me based on this fact may well be accurate when applied to my life at that point, however I'm not that person any more.

Tis a good point. I've always tended to instinctively judge people who've chosen early motherhood in a negative light, even though I know full well that some of those I've met who've gone that route are extremely bright and together people by the time I meet them. Proof that you don't stop growing just because you're in charge of someone else's growth.

Personally I regard labels as loose-fit things, anything close enough will do. I can't stand a lot of goth music, the bits I do like are what I'd call dance music, or industrial/metal, but as I dress the part from time to time and hang around with others that do, I might as well take the label for its partial relevance.

I can't believe you just got me to write all that.. :P

It's a sneaky one, isn't it?

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that's a good idea. Stablility is great, but monotony is soul-destroying. Risk is the sacrifice for greater gain. Wonder if it will pay off in this specific case? Who knows.

At any rate, thought/hoped you said 'come back and visit' first time I read it. Still, must visit anyway. But we already know that. Hope life is treating you well. :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

People say I look yonuger, but i look almost middleaged to myself.

You look about 15 in your icon. I'm not that good at judging ages these days though - which is odd, because I used to be really good at it up to the age of about 18.

listening to very particular songs and artists for certain moods

Do you listen to music more generally at other times, or do you only 'use' it in this way? I definitely use music to create/augment a mood, I hardly ever listen to it just for its own sake.

I once found one of my lodgers dead in my kitchen..?

Holy shit. That one would probably take the prize, if there was one.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I work as an Internet Librarian

What does that involve? You maintain an online resource, or you work in the 'net access part of a local library, or what? Sounds intriguing.

I'm monogamous, heterosexual and distinctly vanilla, but my bi, poly and alternative friends are all really nice about it and don't make me feel too much like a freak... :o)

That's good of them *grins*

I now teach broadsword fighting to students and try not to frighten innocent bystanders too much.

Ooh, cool. I want to get back into fencing, once my leg has healed up... I miss poking people with swords :)

[nickys.livejournal.com]

> What does that involve?

Maintain an online resource. Basically I look at websites with electronic engineering or computer hardware content and if they're good enough I write up short catalogue entries, classifications and stuff like that and then put the catalogue entries into an online library. The idea is that people can then search the library and they're guaranteed a minimum standard of relevance and quality in any hits they get.

> That's good of them *grins*

Yes, I think so.
In an interesting reversal of the way things work in 'normal' society I actually had to come out as heterosexual...

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I tried, and it ate my answer. It was long. Not doing it again now.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Watashi wa Naasu desu. (and I think you've probably been told my real name, but I don't like it...)

I'm 20 and currently a student at Newnham, Cambridge doing physnatsci (1B phys, advanced phys and maths). Um, basically I'm a physicist, or at least, I *want* to be a physicist. I live roughly half and half in a room in college and in the house my parents own in Chelmsford. My life revolves arround college, though I don't really do enough work. If I have to attach labels to myself I'm bi, poly, NotAGoth and pagan (Thelemaic, Discordian).

I get annoyed about people who think I shouldn't be *me*, and I yell a lot, but I don't really *do* anything to make people understand / fix the law (I just like yelling about things really, especailly stupid Americans, yes, I know, not all Americans are stupid, only the ones in charge).

I'm trying to learn Japanese... I'm not doing very well.

[fellcat.livejournal.com]

your name: Helen

your age: 23

your occupation/studies: Baker & cleaner, until the end of the week when I will just be a cleaner until I get another job.

your living arrangements: I share a 2½ bedroom house with olithered and my boyfriend Dan WINOLJ. aiwendel does not live here but is around a lot.

what makes you tick: N/A. I am neither a clock nor a bomb.

what you're into: computers; freedom of speech; brass banding; pretty things; gay/bi/pagan/fetishists rights; rape prevention; abortion prevention; sex positive feminism; CAST.IRON (http://www.castiron.org.uk/index.php); human rights activism; LARP; anti-EU/anti-single European currency; pro-breastfeeding; real ale; cycling; being child-free; HTML, XHTML & CSS. I only thought of that last one as (and because) I was going through adding tags and character escapes.

what labels (or lack thereof) you might use to sum up your existence: goth, geek, second baritone of doom, LARPer, bisexual, depressive, psychotic, jealous, over-weight.

amusing quirky factoids: I have two Atari STes in the loft. I was born with my left ear sticking out more than my right, and had to have it corrected at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, a place now notorious for keeping dead baby components in the cellar.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I'm interested that you list 'being child-free' and also 'abortion prevention'. I'll try to tread cautiously around these questions as it's a genuine set of enquirys, I'm not trying to set you up for an argument:

Do you think all abortions should be prevented, or do you believe that 'unnecessary' abortions should be? If all, what's your proposed solution for those who wish to be child-free, but conceive anyway? (through contraception failure for instance, or due to rape in a period of celibacy)


Less contraversially:
(xhtml+css)++

I have an Acorn Electron, a BBC B, and an original Pong console in my own house, and my ZX81 is still somewhere at my Dad's place (wobbly RAM pack, thermal printer and all). One of these days I'll try to plug some of them in and see if any of it still works :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

And I right manfully resisted the urge to point it out too. :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

*pouts*

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I was working on some kind of smart answer that made use of the phrase "I have a blue peter..." that came just after that ;)