content generator from sola

[the_siobhan]

Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

400 blows
One of my ex's once asked me if I had a theme song, and I named this one without even thinking abut it. To me it's always been a song about survival in spite of being on the losing side and about standing apart from other people because of one's experiences.

dutch chicken benchmark
bcholmes has this story she tells about working in Amsterdam and trying to come to grips with how straight forward they are about sex and talking about sex. At one point, she asked a co-worker what kind of topics might be considered to riské for mixed company. The co-worker couldn't think of anything. Gay sex? No, gay sex was fine. Kinky sex? No that was ok too.

"How about sex with an animal?"

The co-worker thought about it. Finally he conceeded that it would depend on the animal.

"So what kind of animal would be considered in bad taste?"

"Say... anything smaller than a chicken."

And so the Dutch Chicken Benchmark was born.

grippy
I'm a big Stephen Colbert fan. At the opening credits of The Colbert Report a bunch of words go by that say things like "INSPIRED" "PATRIOTIC" etc. There's one that hangs out a little longer so you can get a good look at it, and for a long time that word was "grippy".

It has since been replaced by "megamerican", "lincolnish", "superstantial" and a bunch of others. But grippy is still my favourite.

pattern matching
I am fascinated by the fact that people in general have such problems learning from their mistakes, and even more difficulty learning from the mistakes of others. Our brains are supposed to be designed to look for patterns in the way our environment works, but that talent seems to grind to a halt when it comes to human behaviour.

Being able to predict the future by looking at the successes and failures of the past is a process that really interests me.

reluctant messiahs
Originally the title of a book, but I just really took to the concept that certain people have an powerful impact on others through no volition of their own.

urban planning
Mostly because Toronto is so crap at it. There are cities that really work well and ones that really don't, and I'm really interested in how the differences come to exist.

wasp factory
A really cool book by Iain Banks, and a really cool record label in Cheltenham, UK.

Comments

[ihvpave.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how often these sorts of things are called "memes" by the general public when they are more appropriately termed "lemmings" - have you ever noticed that? So it's beautifully amusing to me that you specifically say "it's not a meme!" in your tag, and yet I see "meme me!" as a comment.

All of that to say: I would ask you to lemming me, but I think most of my interests are pretty self-explanatory.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You think so, do you? :-)

agent orange
communal anarchism
extreme self-expression
juxtaposition
microhabitats
refugees from hilton head
supercharged big blocks

[ihvpave.livejournal.com]

*laugh* You just went and picked the ones no one else has for the most part, dincha? :P

Ai'ight:
agent orange
Best surf punk ever, with a kickass show. I spent a good chunk of my formative years hanging out with a buncha skate punks; as a result, Agent Orange is a seriously nostalgic trip for me and gives me happy thoughts. Kinda like listening to Jane's Addiction does (same period of my life). Plus there are times when nothing else sounds quite as perfect an expression than "Everything Turns Grey" or "Speed Kills." I'm not big on hardcore as a lifestyle, but DAMN if the music doesn't kick ass.

communal anarchism
Everyone asks about this one, and it always confuses me because it seems so obvious. Simply put, this is the idea that society doesn't necessarily require formal rules to be established by some hierarchical system, but that given the opportunity entropy forms communities that self-support and enforce. For me, this is the logical progression that comes after nihilism. Both are necessary for the radical shift in perception, but nihilism is by definition self-destroying.

extreme self-expression
This is something that I kinda have in my head and have never really tried to define/ explain... It's kinda an idea that wherever you are, you have an obligation to yourself to be precisely yourself in the most overt way you have available to you in that circumstance, without obligation to the expected paradigm. Interestingly, I am opposed to being freaky for the sake of being freaky - but I feel very much that one has a responsibility to find out what the most honest interpretation of self is, commit to it, and not merely go along with how one is expected to present. That sounds completely insane when put into words, I think, but I don't have a concise phrasing because I've never really tried to explain it.

juxtaposition
Kinda goes along with extreme self-expression, because I am completely fascinated with things that appear to have no business together and smashing them into a single state. Like the icon, there: punk rock prom queen - the indiviual bits have nothing to do with one another and appear to be in complete opposition, but it makes an interesting thought for me. Leather and lace, vlevet and velcro, pearls and pyramid spikes, cats and dogs, being a complete slob but incredibly anal retentive... it pleases me to find everyday juxtopositions and somehow find a throughline that connects them.

microhabitats
I am fascinated that there are entire ecosystems in tiny area that vary significantly from their immediate surroundings - at home, it was the entire tiny world that lived on the marshes during low tide; in a desert, it might be a tiny pool of collected water - life will prevail in any circumstance, as long as there are options. In my own yard, there's the world that has sprung up under my compost bin that wouldn't be faciliated anywhere else on my property, and the other world that lives under my giant sprawling azalea - they have vastly different lives and communities attached to them as a habitat and environment than my yard does, for example. I try to remember that there are creatures and beings who will thrive in something my neighbours may not find so appealing.

refugees from hilton head
Hilton Head is where I grew up, and it was not a particularly conducive location for anyone under the age of 50. If you didn't golf, play tennis, like boating, or wanna buy a ton of crap tchotchkes, you were pretty much outta luck. For lots of us, the only thing we were waiting for was a chance to get off the rock. To the general populace, it's presumed it was a charmed life, but... it really was pretty hideous all the way around, and it's such a weird way to grow up that it always seemed almost anologous to being a refugee 'cos no one that hasn't lived through it could understand. It's presumptuous as hell, and I know that, but it's the closest I've ever been able to come to describing it.

supercharged big blocks
Mmmm. MORE POWER! It's one of my juxtopositions: I hate that they are such fuel guzzlers and emmission controls tend to be crap on them... But I do I love the roaring of an engine with a shit tonne of cubes and horses behind it.