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fabrisseThis is a five words meme that I got from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
severity_softly.
If you want to play, I'll give you five words, but it's not required.
Sinceseverity_softly and I know each other originally through a fandom, Criminal Minds for those playing along, two of the prompts are related to it.
Spencer Reid -- my favorite character on the show. He's the one who caught me.
I'd seen the ads all over LA before it premiered, and, other than in The Princess Bride, I don't care much for Mandy Patinkin. The TWoP thread title didn't help either. But one Wednesday about five weeks after the show started, I flipped through channels and caught an episode -- didn't find Patinkin too bad -- and by the time the episode Derailed had finished a couple of weeks later I was hooked. This was my only Must Watch show on network television for a long time. It's still one of only about three (Fringe and Glee for those who want to know).
The thing about Reid is that, like Daniel Jackson in Stargate, he should be impossible. The ability of the actor keeps him from being so. Yes, it's a little odd that he has three Ph.D.s, had them before he was 21, and not one of them is in psychology even though it would be the subject most useful to his job. He's socially awkward, but not more so than some of my friends -- or than I've been in some situations. (I firmly believe he had a sex life in college, but has a hard time reading the signals indicating amorousness in this new tribe he's part of.) Yes, we keep being told he's a genius, but we're also shown it. He's probably the best pattern reader I've seen depicted, with Daniel Jackson coming a close second.
Moreover, he's the strongest damn person on his team. He has never flinched at a crime scene. He did quite a bit of flinching while he was being held hostage; the character has said "I do my best work under extreme terror" and that's been proven. But that's just it, he's terrified and goes ahead and does it anyway. Whether it's talking down a killer who has him trapped or shooting someone holding a room full of hostages, he does the job in front of him and deals.
The fact that the actor is easy on the eyes and seems to have a goofy personality with a bent toward creativity is very nice too. I can cope with characters I love from actors I can't stand, unlike some people, but it's nice that the little I know about the man indicates he's not actively evil. It helps me like Reid by not having to put something aside.
RPG -- The one for Criminal Minds is the first on-line one I've participated in. I find it difficult, partially because the character I'm playing is peripheral to the main plots and partially because I often find myself disagreeing with others' characterizations. Sometimes, it will illuminate something in a character's personality that I've missed. It's fascinating to read and be a part of. I hope to do more. I admit, I was seriously disappointed that someone else beat me to Reid. *G*
DC -- much to my surprise, it means home.
I grew up here, or at least in the Virginia suburbs. I worried about coming back because I feared it would be a step backward for me. Instead, I feel like a weight is off my shoulders. I can read the sky and know the weather here. I never learned that in Los Angeles, although I wasn't too bad at it in Boston. It's easy for me here.
DC is distinct from Washington. DC is the city where people live. Some people work in it too, but around here, most of the people work in Washington -- the place where the Federal Government meets. DC, well, there are city jobs, like mine, and there are some private sector jobs too, but most of the big jobs, even in the private sector, are part of Washington.
There's overlap. Not everyone on the Mall is a tourist. Not everyone in the museums is a tourist. Though you can pretty much bet if you're hearing someone remark about all the black people they see, they're tourists.
DC doesn't have representation in Congress, and Washington doesn't care.
DC has thousands of trees and glorious springs with birds singing. Washington has flower beds and cherry blossoms. I love both. The grand architecture of Washington is beautiful, but DC is the child who smiles at me when I'm on my way into the grocery store.
Homemade soup (I haven't been friends with your journal long, and have seen it twice now!) -- I am a cook. Just as I also say "I'm an analyst," it has nothing to do with my job or my interests: it is who I am. So in a cold winter with poverty knocking at my door (last year, not this one), I started to look into the best way to keep myself warm, fed, and healthy. Homemade soups were a great way to do it. Most of the time, I'm working without a recipe. I look in the cupboards and refrigerator or freezer and see what I have and what I can use. From that has come Jerusalem Artichoke soup with buttermilk or Navy bean and Cabbage soup. The ones that are less successful, I either don't post the recipe on LJ or I indicate what I'll try differently next time.
When I was at Arisia last month, I had three different people ask me about when I'd come to Boston and cook. I felt chuffed all weekend. These soups are one aspect of a much wider part of my being.
Genius -- I fall into the same traps most people do and see it as something external and inspirational -- reading speed, lightning computations, drawing from memory. On the other hand, many of my friends are Geniuses of one sort or another and often don't have any of the externals people associate with the word. Hell, technically I'm one, if you believe IQ tests, although you wouldn't know it from my grand tradition of underachievement. (Don't get me wrong, I love most of the life I've led, but I know I haven't "lived up to my potential" as my teachers would say. I hope to go back and get a Ph.D. once I've figured out the money to do so, but I also know that just having the sheepskin means nothing on its own.)
Real genius works. The whole thing about 10,000 hours of persistence bringing mastery is something I believe in. Maybe having a particular genius (mathematical, artistic, musical...) allows a person to do some of it more easily at first. Maybe it gets you out of a couple of thousand hours of practice, but I don't think so.
Geniuses often have wide ranges of interests which is how they can make links between disparate areas and come out with new theories to explore. I love the conversations I can have with a group of friends. It might leap among subjects; no one seems to mind explaining a point to the person in the room who knows less or nothing about the subject (usually me, I admit). Conversations and word games and other games and art and music and sex and all the links that might come from them are all part of genius.
True geniuses don't care if a theory proves false. The information gleaned from that proof can lead them, or someone else, down a new path to a new theory that revolutionizes the world.
severity_softly.If you want to play, I'll give you five words, but it's not required.
Since
severity_softly and I know each other originally through a fandom, Criminal Minds for those playing along, two of the prompts are related to it.Spencer Reid -- my favorite character on the show. He's the one who caught me.
I'd seen the ads all over LA before it premiered, and, other than in The Princess Bride, I don't care much for Mandy Patinkin. The TWoP thread title didn't help either. But one Wednesday about five weeks after the show started, I flipped through channels and caught an episode -- didn't find Patinkin too bad -- and by the time the episode Derailed had finished a couple of weeks later I was hooked. This was my only Must Watch show on network television for a long time. It's still one of only about three (Fringe and Glee for those who want to know).
The thing about Reid is that, like Daniel Jackson in Stargate, he should be impossible. The ability of the actor keeps him from being so. Yes, it's a little odd that he has three Ph.D.s, had them before he was 21, and not one of them is in psychology even though it would be the subject most useful to his job. He's socially awkward, but not more so than some of my friends -- or than I've been in some situations. (I firmly believe he had a sex life in college, but has a hard time reading the signals indicating amorousness in this new tribe he's part of.) Yes, we keep being told he's a genius, but we're also shown it. He's probably the best pattern reader I've seen depicted, with Daniel Jackson coming a close second.
Moreover, he's the strongest damn person on his team. He has never flinched at a crime scene. He did quite a bit of flinching while he was being held hostage; the character has said "I do my best work under extreme terror" and that's been proven. But that's just it, he's terrified and goes ahead and does it anyway. Whether it's talking down a killer who has him trapped or shooting someone holding a room full of hostages, he does the job in front of him and deals.
The fact that the actor is easy on the eyes and seems to have a goofy personality with a bent toward creativity is very nice too. I can cope with characters I love from actors I can't stand, unlike some people, but it's nice that the little I know about the man indicates he's not actively evil. It helps me like Reid by not having to put something aside.
RPG -- The one for Criminal Minds is the first on-line one I've participated in. I find it difficult, partially because the character I'm playing is peripheral to the main plots and partially because I often find myself disagreeing with others' characterizations. Sometimes, it will illuminate something in a character's personality that I've missed. It's fascinating to read and be a part of. I hope to do more. I admit, I was seriously disappointed that someone else beat me to Reid. *G*
DC -- much to my surprise, it means home.
I grew up here, or at least in the Virginia suburbs. I worried about coming back because I feared it would be a step backward for me. Instead, I feel like a weight is off my shoulders. I can read the sky and know the weather here. I never learned that in Los Angeles, although I wasn't too bad at it in Boston. It's easy for me here.
DC is distinct from Washington. DC is the city where people live. Some people work in it too, but around here, most of the people work in Washington -- the place where the Federal Government meets. DC, well, there are city jobs, like mine, and there are some private sector jobs too, but most of the big jobs, even in the private sector, are part of Washington.
There's overlap. Not everyone on the Mall is a tourist. Not everyone in the museums is a tourist. Though you can pretty much bet if you're hearing someone remark about all the black people they see, they're tourists.
DC doesn't have representation in Congress, and Washington doesn't care.
DC has thousands of trees and glorious springs with birds singing. Washington has flower beds and cherry blossoms. I love both. The grand architecture of Washington is beautiful, but DC is the child who smiles at me when I'm on my way into the grocery store.
Homemade soup (I haven't been friends with your journal long, and have seen it twice now!) -- I am a cook. Just as I also say "I'm an analyst," it has nothing to do with my job or my interests: it is who I am. So in a cold winter with poverty knocking at my door (last year, not this one), I started to look into the best way to keep myself warm, fed, and healthy. Homemade soups were a great way to do it. Most of the time, I'm working without a recipe. I look in the cupboards and refrigerator or freezer and see what I have and what I can use. From that has come Jerusalem Artichoke soup with buttermilk or Navy bean and Cabbage soup. The ones that are less successful, I either don't post the recipe on LJ or I indicate what I'll try differently next time.
When I was at Arisia last month, I had three different people ask me about when I'd come to Boston and cook. I felt chuffed all weekend. These soups are one aspect of a much wider part of my being.
Genius -- I fall into the same traps most people do and see it as something external and inspirational -- reading speed, lightning computations, drawing from memory. On the other hand, many of my friends are Geniuses of one sort or another and often don't have any of the externals people associate with the word. Hell, technically I'm one, if you believe IQ tests, although you wouldn't know it from my grand tradition of underachievement. (Don't get me wrong, I love most of the life I've led, but I know I haven't "lived up to my potential" as my teachers would say. I hope to go back and get a Ph.D. once I've figured out the money to do so, but I also know that just having the sheepskin means nothing on its own.)
Real genius works. The whole thing about 10,000 hours of persistence bringing mastery is something I believe in. Maybe having a particular genius (mathematical, artistic, musical...) allows a person to do some of it more easily at first. Maybe it gets you out of a couple of thousand hours of practice, but I don't think so.
Geniuses often have wide ranges of interests which is how they can make links between disparate areas and come out with new theories to explore. I love the conversations I can have with a group of friends. It might leap among subjects; no one seems to mind explaining a point to the person in the room who knows less or nothing about the subject (usually me, I admit). Conversations and word games and other games and art and music and sex and all the links that might come from them are all part of genius.
True geniuses don't care if a theory proves false. The information gleaned from that proof can lead them, or someone else, down a new path to a new theory that revolutionizes the world.
