interests meme

[metawidget]

raccoonbonapart chose these interests as interesting:

formative chess breakdowns

Everyone I know with this interest got wrapped up in a game of chess one time as a youth, their game collapsed, they couldn't take it, and they cried when it was over.

go-betweens

Being a bit interdisciplinary, I'm kind of interested in translators, guides, interpreters and folks who have to read specs written by folks who may or may not have a clue.

honey glazed babies

The name of a zine with two issues (making it longer-running than 40% of all zines or something) by my wife rottenfruit and one of her high-school friends and accomplices, silverspar. Also a neat mental image.

vermicomposting

We have a bin with worms in our kitchen that turns vegetable waste, eggshells and shredded confidential documents into compost. I think that's really cool and take some interest in how my invertebrate minions are doing.

masculinity

I'm a man, sometimes the baggage of that sits well with me, sometimes it doesn't. I'm quite interested in what good bits of traditional masculinity are keepers and which ones should be fed to the worms.

the decline of civilization

In all of recorded history, some people have been convinced that civilization was falling apart (whatever that meant to them). I have a tag where I grouse once in a while about people in positions of power or esteem whose social leverage seems to me to be in use tipping us over the brink into spiralling stupidity and/or rewarding people for doing bad things.

standards

I'm interested in the negotiated or dictated standards of interoperability, whether they're Web standards, grammar, laws or jargon. I feel they're pretty central to any useful idea of civilization, and as such, good ones are very good and bad ones lead to the previous interest!

Contagious part: If you want me to pick seven of your interests for you to explain, leave a comment and let me know.

Comments

[fuzzyila.livejournal.com]

pick 7

or 5

or however many

[metawidget]

Virgin prunes, bodhráns, joual, kamut, parenting, swedish and aleister crowley.

Bonus points for the deep connection between all 7!

[aeon-of-maat.livejournal.com]

ok

[metawidget]

dimmu bogir, piskies, swans, tengu, the new, anamnesis, chi na.

[aeon-of-maat.livejournal.com]

dimmu borgir were introduced to me through a book I had purchased on the topic of Himalayan shamanic and tantric practices written by two German anti-anthropologists who were also, it seems, into asatru and norwegian metal. I followed the lead and picked up their "spiritual dark dimention' and was amused. The band name is apparently taken from a volcanic wasteland in Iceland where there are the ruins of a cathedral that was consumed in the eruption several hundred years ago.
I sometimes amusingly refer to them as the "anti-ABBA" due to their tendency to mix screaming guitars with b horror flick organ synths. I saw them play last february.
piskies are pixies from cornwall.
'swans' is a classic early punk-industrial band from I think new york, in inception but other places in origin. they started off really loud, slow and aggressive with song titles like "mother my body disgusts me" and "rape" and "cop". later they found god and started singing experimental folk songs about politics and magic. very profound and very depressing. the lead singer/songwriter, M. Gira wrote a book that just lost its banned status in Canada five years or so ago. I bought a copy. I couldn't finish it.
tengu are japanese nature spirits who shapeshift between human form (always with an odd mutation, like an unnaturally long nose, or such) and that of a large raven, as well as several forms between. they are awesome and fearsome fighters who sometimes teach swordsmanship to masters who spend enough time in the wilderness to meet them and win their respect. They defend the dharma, but are heavy handed with magical consequences for those who are not pure of spirit.
the new.... well, we're just in the process of figuring out what that is at the moment. we'll let you know once it becomes 'the old'.
anamnesis is a term meaning "loss of amnesia' which in my mind is a very apt summation of the process of recovering memories.
chin na (was that my typo, or yours) is a series of joint locks and cavity presses for potentially compassionate martial arts. it involves a lot of twisting against sensitive tendons and moving the opponent out of their center of gravity.