Answers

why the why the why

The what?

Smurfy smurf Smurf?

Considering past nicknames, I almost read this as a proposition. *blink*

What was your favorite thing to do as a kid?

I guess if I was going to pick just one, I'd say waking up at four in the morning, going downstairs and wrapping myself in my blue and green patchwork quilt and then spending the next couple of hours watching the stars, trees, lake and mountains. I was kind of a weird kid.

I really liked spending time outside. And climbing. And reading. These could be combined well -- I'd cheerfully climb a tree and then hang out in the tree reading a lot. (Or a cliff along the beach, though when my baby brother hit about four it turned out that he had the same kind of balance, and would tend to follow up to my perches. I adored him, but this was unnerving.) I loved camping. And making things (my first attempt at making a brick oven was when I was about nine). I liked playing with computers, and hanging out with my dad's grad students. Making up odd mathematical puzzles and stories were also up there.

Are you familiar with the music of Jonathan Coulton? Perhaps you should give it a listen. www.jonathancoulton.com

Thank you! I have heard of him, and heard one or two things, but I haven't gotten around to finding more... because I have no life.

How do you like Cleveland so far? How is it different, socially, from Seattle?

So far it's pretty much worked for me... but I don't feel like I have much sense of it. See above the bit about not having a life.

Mostly I train, do school and research stuff, and spend time with my room mate. I like a lot of the people at school, especially in the department. I like a bunch of the people at the farmer's market. I barely know anyone else.

In Seattle I had this great extended community. I still wasn't very social, but when I felt like doing something social there were a lot of options. Here... oh, it's different in so many respects. I'm the kind of person who won't get around to going clubbing unless it's really easy to do so. So I haven't here, and I might just not. (But I really enjoy dancing, darn it.) There seems to be a lot less of the whole alternaculture thing... some of it is that I haven't connected with people much, I'm sure, but I can just be taking a plane back to Seattle and all the sudden I'm surrounded by all these tatooed overeducated alternageeks, who it turns out used to work with someone who dated an ex of mine or something like that.

I still feel like I'm puzzling out how things work here. Like the whole race thing is just different and strange - deeper divisions, and linked to cultural divisions that kind of confuse me. It's a much poorer city, of course, and in a lot of ways I kind of like that. When I was growing up Seattle was pretty depressed, and its current affluence makes me twitchy sometimes. I like all the old buildings. I like the more laid back street culture, sometimes. But... heck, I went to a poly meet-up, and was surprised how culturally apart I felt there. (West Coast Chick!)

Eh. I like my life. I don't really know Cleveland, though.