(no subject)

A current Comcast News headline reads, "Gene Discovery That Makes Teeth Grow."

Really? I thought it'd be the gene itself that did that, not the discovery.

Tagged by mwalimu

(Today is the fifth anniversary of my LJ. I find it timely to do a meme that gets personal.)

Comment to this post and I will give you five subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

Replying to mwalimu:

Mask -- The mask in my present icon comes from my 2006 trip to Venice, where Renaissance-style Carnival masks are sold at every turn. I'd seen a better fox mask while traveling but couldn't trace it later, so this one had to do. Alas, it's not easy to wear. It now resides somewhat creepily on a hook on the wall over my TV.

Before getting this photo, I used a still shot of Link wearing a Keaton Mask from one of the N64 Zelda games. I dug those games and thought the keaton was pretty cute. Either icon serves as a reminder that my fox persona is but a thin veneer.

Catholic -- Most of my life, I've espoused uncomplimentary views of Catholicism and Christianity in general. The influence of a few college friends and their choice literature changed that more than anything else did, starting particularly in spring 2003. For a while, I figured on staying nondenominational, but I kept deferring to RCC authorities and my most Catholic friend's reasoning until I thought, "This is silly. What's keeping me from joining in full?" I started RCIA in summer 2004 and got baptized the following Holy Saturday. It has been and still is a rocky transition, but I expect to stay with it.

Movies -- One of my favorite media for sure, tho I rarely watch movies that aren't very acclaimed. My Netflix queue has been in the triple digits for quite a while, with only a handful of TV shows, despite me usually returning the discs as soon as possible. No real favorite genres; I like to vary my viewings, possibly seeing a Bergman piece, an '80s comedy, a silent horror, a war drama, a recent action flick, a nature documentary, and a family animation back to back. When I rate them on the Netflix site, it's usually three or four stars, occasionally two or five, and never one.

Video Games -- They've fascinated me since I was about six, but my parents wisely held off on getting me a console of my own. Imagine my ecstasy at receiving an NES on Christmas at age nine. Electronic games of all post-Game-and-Watch generations remain poetry in motion for me, commercial tho they may be. All my consoles so far have been from Nintendo, tho some Sony releases tempt me. But I have not been nearly so tempted by anything handheld: tiny screens and quiet sounds outweigh the benefit of portability in my book.

Wolf -- I suspect that mwalimu misidentified my fox avatar, but hey, wolves are cool, too. When I was six and loved Peter and the Wolf, it struck me that one book's illustration made the wolf look terrifying, but a video version revealed real wolves to look an awful lot like domestic dogs. This dichotomous view made them quite intriguing. Somehow, I took much longer to get intrigued by foxes.