Getting to know you...

[ciroccoj]

I'm borrowing this (mostly) wholesale from tudorlady:

I know very little about some of the people on my Friends list. Some people I know relatively well. I read your every entry, or we are good friends and hang out all the time, or we chat occasionally. Some of you, I hardly know at all. Perhaps you lurk, perhaps lurking is creepy... jk. But you Friended me so let's get to it.

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 so and so - she likes Hello Kitty and gay porn."

I'd love it if every single person who Friended me would do this. Yes, even you people whom I know really well. Then do the same on your own journal. Or don't, whatever turns your crank :)

Comments

[scrtkpr.livejournal.com]

I think the most fascinating fact about me is that I gave birth to an 11 pound baby, but you knew that one, didn't you? Um...I'm double-jointed, too. I can gross people out with how far back I can bend my fingers. And I like gay porn. lol

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

*blinks rapidly*

I pretend to be a small orange-and-white hamster online?

My first experience with any kind of interactive Internet was a text-based MMORPG called LambdaMOO. I still have that character, and that character's name is DragonStar.

... squee?

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

When I build a house someday, I want it to have stuff like greywater recycling and a hypocaust under the floor and solar cells for stuff like the water heater, and assorted other stuff like that. Not because they're nifty, although they are, and not because I feel a particular need to be all crunchy granola, but because it'll be cheaper in the long run to reduce the energy costs.

[sidravitale]

1. I love environmental law and indigenous peoples rights, and human rights issues, and all kinds of stuff like that.

2. I collect maps.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

Hello. I am currently drooling over the Playmobil Roman Colosseum (http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/toys/playmocolo.php) and Roman Trireme (http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/toys/playmoromanboat.php) sets. I am thinking that I would sacrifice most of my LOTR figures for the time being, to have room to set them up. *wants*

Yes, I'm pathetic. ;-)

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

1) I have had sex on a very rocky beach while harbor seals watched intently. It was chilly and rainy, so we had the beach to ourselves, except for the seals.

2) I always wear at least three rings, unless I'm mixing meatloaf or kneading bread or otherwise doing something which would be interfered with by the rings (say, electrical work? I like to survive my house repair projects.) These rings are my wedding band (plain gold), my engagement ring (an oval-cut sapphire) and a silver friendship ring on my other ring finger. All are gifts from Estel. I also often wear several other rings, but they change with my mood and my fashion statement for the day. At the moment, there's a celtic interlace silver band on my left middle finger.

3) My first fanfiction was for Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague. I was eight. When I was ten, I wrote "Jonathon Livingston Seagull visits Morris Adler Elementary School," which was twenty-four pages long and involved myself as a Mary Sue who saves the gull from choking on gum. My teacher told me I should grow up to be a writer.


4) I like asparagus and artichokes, but they were each an acquired taste. I remember hating them as a kid.

5) I kinda want to build a haybale house. Just or the crunchy-granola reasons.

[officerjudy.livejournal.com]

Damn, everyone has interesting sex stories but me! (One thing about the sole sexual experience I've had that I always tend to forget is that I was drinking Diet Pepsi the whole time. I'm *that* addicted.)

Okay, here's one you probably don't know: One of the reasons that I don't want to ever have a baby is that if I did, I'd want to keep it. Because I love babies when they're tiny and squishy and have Easter-chick hair. However, I don't like children once they get to around talking age, thus it would be a very bad idea.

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

OMG I love Playmobil! They were my absolute favorite toys when I was little.

[azeraeis.livejournal.com]

I like cheese.

I am an ex-English teacher (not because of the students).

I don't neccessarily like to be social but I love to be around social people.

[13oct.livejournal.com]

I am a global nomad... with out a choice!

Was a former working woman/party girl who is now a stay at home mum to two kids. (Well, the second one is due in three months!)

Love history/traveling/and reading. In no particular order.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I can gross people out with how far back I can bend my fingers.
Cool! Me too! I can bend all of them back to a 90 degree angle, and I can bend my left pinky back till it touches the back of my hand :)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

My first experience with any kind of interactive Internet was a text-based MMORPG called LambdaMOO.
Lambda... MOO. ::snicker::

...squee!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

and not because I feel a particular need to be all crunchy granola,
I think I was laughing for about five minutes after I read this - the image is just too damn funny :D :D :D

but because it'll be cheaper in the long run to reduce the energy costs.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to having enough money to save money on energy. I'd love a solar cell. They cost about $3000, though - at least, they did about 5 years ago.

::blink:: ::blink::

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

... are you me?

I took International Environmental Law two years ago, Civil Liberties last fall and Aboriginal Law in January. And I've been collecting maps for Daniel's geography tests - at least, that's the excuse I'm using right now ;)

Re: ::blink:: ::blink::

[sidravitale]

A-ha. I took Indigeneous Peoples' Rights last year. So, we must be (slightly) different. :-) Aside from the whole you-go-to-school-in-Canada and I-go-to-school-in-the-US thing. Trivial, IMO.

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

*points at mynuet*

She introduced us to it. It was rather fun, methinks.

Of course, whenever someone wanted to play in the RPG sections with weapons and stuff, we had to go to the Academy, and learn from the Bovine Illuminati.

It was a very silly MOO.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I am currently drooling over the Playmobil Roman Colosseum and Roman Trireme sets.
... and now, so am I. OMFG, that is amazing. I'm itching to get my hands on those sets - and OMG!!! did you see the mini-sets? !!!! It's an overload of Cute!! The tiny little Noah's Ark! The teeny-weeny pirates! The itsy bitsy princess castle!

::hyperventilates and falls over::

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons that I don't want to ever have a baby is that if I did, I'd want to keep it. Because I love babies when they're tiny and squishy and have Easter-chick hair.
OK, so, I have to admit, my jaw literally dropped when I read this :D :D :D

Yeah, they are incredibly adorable, aren't they? What gets me is the absolute innocence in their eyes. Whatever they feel is right there, no faking or hiding anything. That, and the way their little hands grip onto your finger instinctively, does me in every. single. time. I get a (very brief) "Want one of mine own!"

Then I think of colic and night feedings, and it goes away real fast ;)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I am an ex-English teacher (not because of the students).
Oh, cool! I'm an ex-computer teacher :)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Was a former working woman/party girl who is now a stay at home mum to two kids. (Well, the second one is due in three months!)
Hee - different kind of working and partying, isn't it ;)

[azeraeis.livejournal.com]

Why did you stop teaching?

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I had been teaching for four years, in a prison, and while it was very rewarding work, I just couldn't see myself doing it for the rest of my life. Partly because after four years, I was starting to see some of my students come back into the system after having sent them off with such high hopes and... yeah. Plus there was the abysmal pay, and I was living in Ontario during the Conservative gov of Mike, whose favourite scapegoats were teachers and doctors. Somewhat demoralizing. So, when Justin was born, I went on maternity leave and started looking for a new career.

Why did you leave teaching?

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Conservative gov of Mike,
Heh make that the Conservative gov of Mike Harris. I wasn't on a first-name basis with the guy ;)

[azeraeis.livejournal.com]

I left for two reasons. A large part of it was the bureaucracy that has focused on teaching, California has increased its requirements for becoming a teacher at an exponential rate over the last few years. Where you could once complete the state requirements to become a teacher in about 18 moths as a full time student, the new requirements have stretched this out to about 31/2-4 years. This would all be well and good if the new rules did anything to strengthen the abilities of new teachers but they instead make the additional cost of becoming a teach prohibitive and waste their student's time with classes that are repetitive (CA law requires you take three of their classes twice each) and vapid. The only persons really benefiting from the new regulations are teachers that are already in the system since they can demand a pay raise based on how high the standards now are to become a teacher...a wonderful scam that drives new teachers away. I'm not saying teachers as a whole shouldn't more but this is a fake solution that is only exacerbating the problem, not helping to fix it.

The second part is that I came home from school on most days and felt I hadn't done enough to reach my students. I'm not a person that is willing to sacrifice everything even for a cause I believe in, a weakness I must admit. To be a teacher today is to have it be all you are and know that even your immense sacrifice is not enough because there are always those looking to undercut, undermine, and blame you (including other teachers)....I'm just not that selfless. If I could have only ever been a teacher 24/7 I might have made a difference, as it was I wanted a little bit of a life outside the school so all I was was a detriment.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

This would all be well and good if the new rules did anything to strengthen the abilities of new teachers but they instead make the additional cost of becoming a teach prohibitive and waste their student's time with classes that are repetitive (CA law requires you take three of their classes twice each) and vapid.
Heh, yeah, same here. The teacher training program consisted of one year's worth of instruction: nine weeks spent in the field, working with real teachers and students and learning all sorts of interesting and practical things about the profession... and the rest of the year, where we sat around and discussed obscure educational theories, learned how to use blackboards and overheads, made a million bulletin boards and bubble maps, and generally wasted our time and money. And they were on the verge of making B.Ed a two-year program. Ugh.

The only persons really benefiting from the new regulations are teachers that are already in the system since they can demand a pay raise based on how high the standards now are to become a teacher...a wonderful scam that drives new teachers away.
Again, same here.

If I could have only ever been a teacher 24/7 I might have made a difference, as it was I wanted a little bit of a life outside the school so all I was was a detriment.
Yeah, it's too important a profession to be done half-assedly. Also a big part of why I left. I didn't have it in me to do it 24/7 either.