questions and anwers

caladri

• You're one of the people I know who's been in the Bay Area longest. Do you think that it's the best fit to your personality and needs?
• In person you often say things in very cute Midwestern-esque tones and idioms, but you don't tend to online. What affects the way you speak, in this manner?
• You're very facially expressive, and seem to be actively aware of it. Are you? Do you try to amuse people?
• You get to build a new civilization on a new planet from scratch, effortlessly. What do you take with you? Why?
• You've laid claim to 31337. Tell me about that.

omakase asked...

• What food symbolizes you and why?
• Who/what do you think you were in a past life and why?
• What positive thing do people say about you that you have a hard time believing and why?
• How can we make this world a better place?
• What did you try to learn in high school that you had a hard time understanding and want to learn now?

daltong asked...

• Are you polyamorous?
• For someone with Aspberger's, you seem awfully self-analytical and in-touch with your feelings. Discuss.
• Why purple?
• I make a concerted effort to see the world through agenderous eyes. Wait, that's not a good explanation. My eyes are female. Try again. I try to ignore or avoid gender bias as I approach the world. What do you think of that?
• Your OK Cupid profile, your LJ account, and your minimalist home page are terribly endearing. Let's go out! ...er, that wasn't a question. Would you have tea with me sometime?

And now, the answers!

...for caladri's questions:

• So far, San Francisco has the highest culture and freak ratio of anywhere I've lived; I get along quite well far more people here than I have anywhere else. The cost of living sucks, but I'm paid more than comfortably; in fact, the biggest complaint I have is that all the cool people live in SF or in in the East Bay, while my job is down here - and there's no good way to get there and back. It'd be nice to have a thunderstorm once in a while, too.
• I talk a lot more online than I do in person; the Minnesotan thing is good for a giggle, putting people at ease. It's my in-person social face, I guess. When online, in comparison, I'm usually far more direct in what I say. This may have to do with the Minnesotan ellipticality of speech, but I'm far from certain about that.
• I've been told that I'm facially expressive by quite a few people; I'm not aware of it when I make the funny expressions I apparently do. When I'm aware of being photographed, however, my expressions get a little odd. (One of the reasons I don't think I'm terribly photogenic.)
• A new civilization? I think that civilization is defined by its people; I'd probably drag a whole lot of SFBA denizens with me, as well as other like-minded types. I'd try for something like the Culture from Iain Banks' novels.
• Funny things happen when you get bored on #hack in 1995. Or maybe 1996.

omakase

• This is a tough one; I'd say I'm a pomegranate. Sweet on the inside, taking effort to get at, filled with little twisty crinkly things, not always in season, and unique-looking. (Also, most people have experienced the ersatz version - artificially flavored grenadine syrup - and don't even know what the real thing is like.)
• A past life? Maybe my older sister, perhaps Rasputin; there aren't a whole lot of people I identify with, and even fewer with whom I have a sense of me-ness. Mozart, perhaps; he was pretty damn goofy.
• Positive things about me I have trouble believing? Goodness, where to start; this is exacerbated somewhat by not knowing what people do say about me.

  As far as physical things go: that I'm not horribly fat and chubby, and that people find me attractive*. Socially: that I'm important to people, that what I say isn't just endless prattling, my emotional vulnerabilities aren't a fatal flaw, or that people like being around me. In short: that I'm a worthwhile person, socially. (Mentally, morally, etc, I have no problems - it's all tied up with being unable to gauge other people's perceptions of me. Other things, I have some sort of referent.)

• Be nice to each other, follow your heart, and keep an open mind. Pretty simple, huh?
• How to deal with people. Heh. (Academics were never the problem.)

...and last, but not least, for daltong's questions:

• Yep, I'm polyamorous, all right. Don't have any active partners right now, but I think I'm pretty firmly poly. I don't really proselytize about polyamory - in fact, I'm pretty quiet about it - but I think it's fine and dandy, and that monogamy ought to be a special case of polyamory. I suspect that many relationships would be stabler if they were approached in the same way(s).
• I've got both kinds, Aspie's and ADD! In my case, the ADD overrides the Aspieness, so while I'm unable to gauge people very well, I'm super-duper empathetic. I'm one of the most social introverted antisocial people I know...
• Because I like it, and (IMHO) it looks good on me. Doesn't really go any deeper than that.
• While gender's influence affects lots and lots of things, people very often are blind to its reach. Being cognizant of it is a Good Thing.
• I love tea! Sure!

Wow, this is a long entry.