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silmaril wrote a "100 things about me" post that I very much enjoyed reading ... and she said a lot of things that got reactions from me, enough so that what I wound up writing was too long to post as a comment. (And besides, I wound up talking about myself enough that maybe it belongs in my journal instead of hers anyhow.)

In case it wasn't obvious, the emphasized, numbered paragraphs are quotes from Silmaril's post.

6. I only knew how to cook scrambled eggs when I moved out on my own. No, I didn't even know how to do rice or pasta.

When I moved out on my own I didn't know how to cook either. So I was faced with a stove, some pots and pans, and a grocery store. I bought some ingredients at the store and said, "Turn yourselves into food!", and it worked! The problem was that while I could obviously do it, I wasn't sure how I did it, which made it interesting (still does) when someone asks me, "How did you know it needed ______?" In the past few years I've been trying to figure out how I do what I do.

7. Now I know, and consider myself an experimentalist cook. Note that I didn't use the word "skilled."

I call myself an improvisational cook, though when the pantry starts looking really bare I veer into experimental to see what I can make from the meager supplies on hand.

11. I love watching the creamer mingle with the coffee, the color and the consistency changing, as I stir it.

Me too!

13. The three types of professionals that I respect immensely: Teachers, system administrators, and doctors.

<voice="timid/hopeful">Uh, well I've been two of the three in the past...</voice>

15. I've been called "bilingual". I don't know how true the claim is. Because I learned English more by reading it than hearing it (more visually than aurally), and because I'm lucky in that my native language is written phonetically, native English speakers around me sometimes ask me about the spelling of difficult words.

You read and write two languages. There's no ambiguity: you're bilingual. Whether some parts of becoming bilingual seemed "too easy" or not is irrelevant.

17. Last night I dreamed that I could play the silver flute. The truth is, I can't get a non-breathy sounding sound out of any side-type flute or a pan flute. Doesn't help when someone says it's just like playing a coke bottle, because I can't play coke bottles either. I want to learn.

Oddly, I can play most end-blown flutes except (so far) the shakuhachi (sp?) -- I can get sound out of the cap from a ball-point pen, or one of those huge water jugs from a water cooler -- but I have no end of trouble getting sound from a transverse flute. The exception is a bass flute.

26. The first computer I touched was a Sinclair ZX81.

Sinclair, as in the kit, or Timex/Sinclair, the pre-assembled version? (I had a Timex/Sinclair for a while, which I shared with my siblings.)

35. I drink for taste, and I haven't been able to cultivate a taste for beer. Thus I'm not a beer drinker, and maybe unluckily, alcoholic stuff I like might turn out to be expensive.

It took most of a couple decades to find beers I like (friends would have me taste interesting brews to see whether I'd like them or not), and I finally found a few. Interestingly, all of the beers I like are ales, but lagers are much more common here. Anyhow, I approve of drinking for taste (and that's why I was drunk so much less often than my classmates in college -- they were usually serving stuff I didn't like). You may or may not ever find a beer you like, but if you're interested I can pass some of the ones I like your way. As for turning out to like expensive stuff, I've certainly found a few Really Yummy Treats that are way out of my price range, mostly in the distilled spirits category.

42. I'm probably more afraid of Alzheimer's than I'm of cancer.

[[[shudder]]] [expletive] yes, I agree.

43. I don't know if I have a good singing voice. I've been complimented on it, on one side; on the other, my sister doesn't like it very much, and ever since it changed from child-voice to a mezzosoprano, my father hasn't accepted it very much. He thinks I should be singing lower, that my natural timbre shouldn't be that high---well, it is.

Hmph! I hereby declare that you have a nice singing voice and folks who say otherwise are poopyheads! I don't get to hear you sing often enough.

44. He might be going by what throws people off sometimes---my speaking voice is definitely alto.

For the record, I realy like your speaking voice as well.

47. I play roleplaying games. Regularly.

*sigh* I used to. Stopped having as many opportunities, then stopped having enough free time, and sort of drifted away from that. I miss it.

49. Beautiful, elegant designs/ideas/proofs give me an elation and pleasure that's very hard to describe. The moments when connections are made in my brain and the aforementioned beauty hit me are to live for.

YES! YES! YES! (And non-mathies give me the strangest looks when I try to explain that.)

50. I used to be a Beatlemaniac. Thirty years late, but, hey. I still like the music quite a bit.

I discovered the Beatles only a few years too late, but they're timeless.

51. I like manual transmission better than automatic. I like DOS better than Windows, and UNIX better than DOS. Call me a control freak.

Okay, you're a control freak. But you're my kind of control freak. (Automatic transmissions are more convenient in stop-and-go rush hour messes, but that's the only time I prefer them.) I also like manual cameras or cameras where the automation can be overriden.

52. I don't think I've watched a single movie or read a novel that "changed my life" (meaning, worldview. Otherwise, for instance, Star Wars and the Wheel of Time definitely changed my life). My feelings and opinions are, rather, the result of years of accumulation.

I've watched/read several that made noticeable adjustments to my worldview, and I think that sort of counts even if it wasn't a radical shift from one input. I can think of a few that might have spurred a radical worldview shift if I hadn't already been nudged in those directions by other works, but perhaps I had to be prepared for the Major Influences by all the minor influences first... I should probably post something in my own journal about the works that have influenced me.

54. I have no idea how to follow fashions in clothing and accessories.

So lead instead of follow. ;-)

64. Yes, "C". I don't like F. Or inches. Or miles. Or ounces. This isn't snobbery; I'm just practical, and Imperial system is anything but, compared to the Metric.

I'm accustomed to Imperial units for many everyday measurements: inches, miles, yards, ounces, pounds, all just because they're what I grew up with ... but as soon as there's any calculations to be done, I really want metric units. I don't think math with miles and gallons and pounds, but I'm not used to feeling weight and thinking immediately in Newtons. For some everyday things I can use either system comfortably -- litres, centimeters, Kelvins. Oh yes, I prefer K instead of C or F. Saves me adding the offset if I have to do a gas law calculation, and winter temperatures sound so much more comfortable if you say "it's 270K out" instead of "gee, it's three below."

65. I think empathy is extremely underrated.

*nod*

83. I've been hugged by complete strangers in elation at the moment a design/program/whatever of theirs finally worked, and have understood the feeling completely. Been there a few times myself, too.

I enjoy that feeling, and I enjoy being present when other people experience that feeling.

87. I also believe that one of the best things you can give your students/children is the love of learning for learning's sake.

Hear Hear!

92. But I'm a musical fan.

I wasn't one until I started playing bass in the orchestra pit. Then I started wondering how I'd overlooked the genre for so long.

93. I can't watch on-screen violence. I am too empathic.

I can watch violence, but I sometimes have to change the channel or leave the room when a character suffers extreme embarrassment. That was the main reason I didn't watch sitcoms for part of the 1970s and 1980s -- they all seemed to use the same plot: character lies, character spends the next twenty minutes covering up the lie, lie is discovered, character is embarrassed.

100. I have so many things that I like to do (including some aspects of my profession) that some fall by the wayside as time passes, and I regret them. I also regret not being able to pick up some new stuff, like the oboe. And, paradoxically, I definitely do not regret filling up my life that way---I want to live fully.

I could almost say "me too" here, except that I don't feel I'm living as fully as I want to. (The fibromyalgia contributes to that, as some of the time I should be Living is spent just trying to cope with exhaustion and pain and trying to convinve my body to work. But I still feel bad about not doing more of the things I know I want to do.)

Obviously this post is meant mostly for Silmaril to read, but I figured I'd share it here instead of emailing it privately in case anyone else is interested in what I reveal about myself in my reactions to what she wrote about herself.