Social profiling

[Ron Edwards]

OK, I hate - really hate - this kind of topic. I've rolled my eyes every time it's come up in previous discussions and semi-abused my position as content moderator to squelch it.

So it seems wholly appropriate to be the person to start it here.

List no less than two, no more than five non-gaming related activities or facts that characterize you, subculturally. They can be hobbies, jobs, life-styles, preferences, whatever.

Do not provide commentary on anyone else's post, do not provide commentary on your own.

1. I hitch-hiked all 'round the U.S.A. in the early 1980s.

2. My mom (1931 -) is a feminist social activist specializing in issues of childbirth and medical practices, very countercultural during my childhood.

3. My dad (1926-1994) was a highly conservative and militaristic veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

4. Yes, my Ph.D. dissertation concerned the evolution of mammal genitals, specifically megabat penis and uterus anatomy.

5. I practice and study martial arts and have indeed "really used it," though rarely.

Best,
Ron

[Paganini]

Ron, I don't like your restrictions! I want to hear anecdotes . . . tell us about your martial arts experiments!

1. I play Go. Yesteraday I finally got a confirmed rank (21 kyu) on KGS... (YEEESSSSS! This counts as non-gaming, right?)

2. I'm a professional musician - violin. In fact, I'm leaving for work, which happens to be in Springfield IL, in about an hour, and will only be able to participate in the festivities if I can dig up net access somewhere while I'm up there.

3. I did a year of technical school before dropping it cos it interferred with music. I'm still into computers, though. Not just games, either, though games are cool. (Who here likes UT 2003?)

4. Like Ron, I practice a martial art (Tai Chi Chuan). Unlike Ron, I've never "really used it."

5. I like knives. I throw them at things. They stick when I do that. My knives are 13 inches long and weigh almost a pound each.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Here's mine:

1. I grew up in an incredibly remote home in nowhere, South Alabama, under the tutelage of conservative religious folk, and spent all my time either reading, gaming, or toiling in the hot sun.

2. Besides gaming, my loves are my fiancee, cooking, and rock music.

3. My favorite book is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and my favorite movie is Say Anything.

4. Yes, I spent four years in the Army. Besides the resulting marriage and divorce, they were the best four years of my life. I was a Korean-language signals intelligence analyst, but enjoyed my time in the motor pool with my Hum-Vee much more.

5. Clinton R. Nixon really is my name.

[Lazy Smurf]

OK, I hate - really hate - this kind of topic. I've rolled my eyes every time it's come up in previous discussions and semi-abused my position as content moderator to squelch it.

So it seems wholly appropriate to be the person to start it here.

List no less than two, no more than five non-gaming related activities or facts that characterize you, subculturally. They can be hobbies, jobs, life-styles, preferences, whatever.

Do not provide commentary on anyone else's post, do not provide commentary on your own.

1.  I am three apples high, er, tall.  ;)

2.  "mom" What is mom?  Smurfs are found under shrooms, usually.

3.  I think that Azrael is a great big meanie, for all that he is a pussy.

4.  Speaking of cats (and if you thought otherwise shame on you!) I have always wondered why certain prehistoric marsupials were classified as felines.  Anyone here with a degree of knowledge that could tell me how ancient predatory marsupials could evolve feline traits?

5.  I practice and study lazi fu and have indeed "really used it," though rarely.  (It's hard being lazy!)[/quote]

[Jonathan Walton]

1.  I'm fairly fluent in Chinese (Mandarin dialect) after spending 10% of my young life in Beijing and traveling other parts of the country.

2.  I've spent time in 3 of the world's 5 remaining Communist countries (viva la revolucion!).  PM me if you want to guess which ones.  The first one's free.

3.  I play the banjo and have a strong interest in progressive bluegrass (yes, you could call it "prog-grass" if you really wanted to).

4.  I'm planning to direct an outdoor production of Milton's "Paradise Lost" next year, based on a dramatic adaptation that I'm currently working on.

5.  I make comics by shooting digital photos and the combining them into pages in Photoshop, which have been published in campus newspapers and a nationally distributed magazine abuot study abroad in China.  You can find them here.

[Lugaru]

Ok...

1) Both my parents have doctorates in Chemestry, but I dropped out of Biochemestry to persue my own destiny moving in with a Music Buisness major in Boston.

2) In mexico I served as a translator at several cultural events, earning me the autographs (and ocational kisses on the cheek) from great international stars like Ely Guerra (the amores perros soundrack, you can see her on the DVD), Lila Downs (sung at the oscar's with Caetano Veloso) and so on.

3) I recently quit smoking, cut my carb intake, started jogging/playing soccer, stopped drinking and so on. I decided why wait till Im 40 and I've had 3 heart attacks.

4) I had a buss rip one of my knee's out of its socket 4 years ago and never got surgery. Its gotten to the point where it dosent get dislocated on its own much. Right after the accident I studied Nippon Kempo and Capuera (helped me define good combat systems, ups! Gaming!)

Have a great day and "happy figging burthday forge... ratt tatt tatt tatt tatt tatt... and a happy new year"

[GreatWolf]

I'll play.

1)  I am a conservative Presbyterian and have been all my life.  In fact, my father is a Presbyterian pastor.

2)  I was married at age 19 and am the father of three lovely children.

3)  I also play go and wish that more people could appreciate the elegant beauty in the game.

4)  I studied martial arts for about a year (aikijutsu and kenjutsu), although I have not been able to do so after my move.

5)  I am a kooky Japanophile, which means that I love haiku, tea ceremonies, and tiger lilies.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Valamir]

Lets see.

1) I had perhaps the most completely normal childhood and ideal family situation growing up of most anyone I know (although I of course did not appreciate it as such at the time).

2) Since we were a couple notches shy of being affluent on the social class ladder, I didn't get as much of the cool toys and stuff that my friends got, so I spent alot of time reading instead of playing...and also alot of time writing my own games (or hacking them from memory) because I couldn't afford to go buy them.

3) I'm an investment manager by trade which makes the last few years very interesting ones (in the Chinese curse sense of the word).

4) I have a rabid passion for history which comes and goes in cycles so there's no telling which period I'll be enthralled by at the time, but I once wrote an 80 page thesis with 20 pages of footnotes on Napoleon for a European History class which got a "B" because it was "too long".

5) I'm happily married in all but the strict legal sense of the term to the most understanding and tolerant woman on the planet, whom I'll have been with 10 years come June.

[Shreyas Sampat]

1.  I am a big fan of traditional Indian dance - Bharatnatyam and Odissi, particularly.  My knees can't handle the stress of actually performing, unfortunately.

2. Despite having grown up almost exclusively in New Jersey, I speak with a distinctive Southern twang.  Accidentally.

3. I've practiced martial arts and fencing, and am trying to pick up Kendo.  This is difficult, because the local endo club meets right after my taekwondo club does.

4. My Moby Dick is a graphic novel series of the Arabian Nights... every so often you can find me agonizing over character designs.

5. I find that regular meditation has the same effects as regular strenuous exercise on my sleeping patterns.

[xiombarg]

Go, Ron!

1) I'm your basic turbogeek. (That is, in addition to gaming, I like science fiction (both literary and media), anime, Hong Kong action films, faeries, and comics (including superhero comics, manga, and indie comics)... you name it. I'm very spread out.)

2) I double-majored in English and Computer Science at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. (I love John Milton and John Keats, and yet I hate hate HATE Percy Bysshe Shelley.)

3) Religiously, I am a Wiccan... and a Discordian.

4) I love electronic dance music, but I hate to dance.

5) I am an avid member of Livejournal.

[Sylus Thane]

1. I'm a stay at home dad to a 4 and 2 year old beautiful daughters. I try and fill some of my daytime spare time,yeah right, with designing and playing with my 3d program.

2. I've been a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism for over ten years and would have to say swordsmanship has become my primary martial art.

3. I grew up just a little ways from the dead center of the United States with an occassionally frantic mom and my dad was one of the first nine navy seals. We didn't have a lot of money but dad made sure we never wanted for anything.

4. I love history, art (making and appreciating), and any musical voice that fits my mocks god criteria.

5. I have a beautiful wife that has been putting up with my crap, mood swings, wierd opinions and just about everything other odd thing about me. Gotta love her.

Sylus- my real name is Jason Palenske

[jburneko]

Hmmm...

1) I was born and raised in Southern California, most specifically I spent the majority of my youth in North Hollywood which is part of the infamous San Fernando Valley.

2) I did an undergraduate honors thesis at Lafayette College, on Artificial Emotions (the abandoned bastard child of Artificial Intelligence).

3) I work as a video game programmer.  Titles I've worked on include The World Is Not Enough for the PSOne, Knockout Kings 2000 for the PS2 and Knockout Kings 2002 for the X-Box

4) My favorite book is Les Liaisons Dangereuse by Choderlos De Laclos and my favorite film is probably the modern-day updating of the same tale Cruel Intentions.

5) In general I prefer stories that focus on exposing villainy rather than explifiying heroism because I believe heroism is often too obvious and easy to carry out on paper but villainy and all its permutations (particularly those arrising from good intentions or as a means to good ends) never ceases to facinate me.  This particular interest of mine occastionally freaks my fiancee out to no end who claims that I am entirely too morbid and sometimes mutters something about, "the signs having all been there."

Jesse

[Mike Holmes]

1. I'm 34, married to one Marjorie Silverness, and have one child, a 2 yr old boy named Alexander. I'm a statistician and programmer by trade though I hold no degree (but a shload of credits from about any field you care to mention). I have a home in Wauwatosa, WI, a suburb of Milwukee, only a few blocks from where I was born.

2. My father attained the rank of General in the Wisconsin Army National Guard before retiring a couple of years ago. Seems like a weird concept, a part-time General, but believe me, it's less part time than you might think. I myself was a member of that organization for fifteen years, but left because I'm now a father, and I like my weekends for my son and gaming.

No, the unit I was in has not been activated. I was in the Field Artillery. If the regular army FA can't handle the current plan, and they have to activate reserve FA, then the plan will obviously have changed to turning Iraq into the world's largest parking lot. See, the US is relatively nice in war. This whole thing could be over in a week, but we are concerned about the people of Iraq. Really. You can start really worrying about our intentions when the leadership does decide to deploy the 57th FA Brigade.

Click here to see the equipment I used "one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer" for fifteen years.

3. I am an expert downhill skier. Not quite as good as my brother (who laughs at the Mountain Dew commercial guys because he does actual crazier stuff than them every day), but I can hold my own with most. I started skiing at the age of 4, but don't get out as often as I'd like nowadays. The General, OTOH, teaches skiing every day during the winter at a local ski hill. At age 65.

4. I have played guitar, again emulating my father (hmmm, recurring theme?), since the age of 12. And it doesn't show. I'm a total hack who plays just for the love of it.

5. Because eveybody else has mentioned martial arts experience, I'll mention mine (though I think it's kinda funny that it seems so pertinent to gamers). I took Judo for a couple of years, but never competed (and thus never achieved any belt above white). It's a fun martial art, and more effective than people think, especially if you're not really trying to hurt someone. I've been in a lot of fights, and can't say that I've used the art in them per se. But I'm also as sure that knowing Judo has helped me come out on top. That and I'm big, currently about 290 lbs (about 200 in my prime, though with 0% body fat right now, I'd be more like 210-215).

My father also taught me to fence having been on the college team at the University of Wisconsin. I follwed up with some private study, and I didn't totally suck (though I've not fenced in a few years).

The reason I'm big is that I like to eat. Oh, a lot of people say they like to eat, but they're not really serious enthusiasts like I am. I've been known to eat two large (28") pizzas at a sitting. And then snack on chips for the next four hours. I mean I really like food. I'll be gorging on wings tonight with the guys. We ususally start out with 100.


OK, that was really more than five, but I'm one of my favorite subjects. :-)

Mike

[ethan_greer]

1) I am a feminist.

2) My first love was music, and I'm a decent guitarist.

3) Yesterday my wife and I closed on a house.  I will have to change the location in my profile from Akron to Cuyahoga Falls after I move.

4) I have a fear of large bodies of water.  I will not willingly enter the ocean, and the great lakes give me serious problems as well.  Swimming pools are fine.

5) Last night I dreamed that I was in a muppet movie in which we were trapped aboard a dimension-hopping spaceship that we didn't know how to control.

[C. Edwards]

1.  I love to hike and backpack. Oh, I game every so often too.

2.  About a year ago I dropped out of the "rat race" and am hiding out in the mountains somewhere in California, working on plans to build a low impact earth-based home and generally not being beholden to anybody.

3.  My favorite beer is Dogwood Stout, made by a small microbrewery in Atlanta, Georgia that only ships their brew locally to insure freshness.

4.  I'm single, no children.  I'm hoping to fix that single part eventually.

5.  I was in the Navy for 18 months (out of a 6 year enlistment).  My left shoulder self-destructed and I was given a medical discharge.  Most of my actual combat experience comes from growing up amidst urban violence.