Interests meme
Jul. 7th, 2008 02:56 pmFrom ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yalovetz
Comment on this post and I will choose seven interests from your profile. You will then 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.
alexander the great
I’ve always had an interest in history – especially ancient history. I think partly because you need to build a picture up from evidence and there are often missing pieces of the picture - a lot like science, but you can’t usually formulate an experiment to help fill in the missing pieces. Then, I discovered May Renault’s books about Alexander (Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games) and became interested in the picture of Alexander that she painted. I was curious as to how idealised her view was (she was obviously pro, though not blind to faults). As a consequence, I not only read a lot about him but took him as a study when doing classical civilisation at uni. He was a very unusual person, though I suppose that could be said of anyone who conquers most of their known world and topples empires.
Hmmm, I could go on and on – and maybe I will in another post sometime.
Astronomy
Was the first thing to pique my interest in science – no dinosaurs for me. The first present that my parents gave me that I remember liking (evidently, there was a time when I appreciated dolls, but I really don’t remember it) was a book called Astronomy by Fred Hoyle. I was about 8 or 9 and then proceded to confuse most adults when they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up – an Asttrophysicist of course! I got as far as the physics, as it turns out, but not the astro part. I still have an interest in astronomy and astrophysics, however.
black and white photos
Well, they can be so much more evocative than coloured ones. I really just like looking at them. I don’t think I have the photographic talent to take good ones myself. Once again, an interest derived from seeing things in books. I think there may be a theme…
body art
I love the thought of body modification – I just don’t like the permanency of much of it. So I have an interest in tattoos and piercing, but also those things just done with body paint. I guess I’m a bit of a body art voyeur – so yes, books come into the equation here too.
mythical creatures
My interest in ancient history and culture led to an interest in classical mythology. From thence to the mythology of other cultures. The way that similar creatures turn up in vastly different cultures, but with different cultural freight. For instance dragons, that are really evil in much of European mythology, but not in Asian. Simplifying things a lot there, I know. And the mythology is changing as they are reinterpreted in spec fic and role-playing games and the like. And on a really basic level, what’s not to like about a horse with wings (aside from physics and the biology being all wrong) and a pet gryphon would be fun – but might just terrorise the neighbours.
Scepticism
Goes with the science background and a desire to know how things work and with where I work (a consumer organisation for those who don’t know). If someone is trying to sell me something that’s going to cure all the illnesses in the world, they’ll have to show me the research first; if they tell me they can read my mind, I’ll want to see them do it under scientifically controlled conditions. I don’t think this is anything to do with books – I think it’s just me.
Thunderstorms
Between the ages of about 10 to 21 I lived in a house with a huge picture window in the lounge room which looked out onto a stand of very big gum trees. In those days before global warming changed the weather, we used to get thunderstorms on a regular basis – with roiling clouds and wind and, of course, lightning and thunder. I have fond memories of watching the light show and the trees tossing madly. Only when I got a bit older did I start thinking about the possibility that the trees could have blown down and done nasty things to a watcher (yes, the trees were that close)
yalovetzComment on this post and I will choose seven interests from your profile. You will then 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.
alexander the great
I’ve always had an interest in history – especially ancient history. I think partly because you need to build a picture up from evidence and there are often missing pieces of the picture - a lot like science, but you can’t usually formulate an experiment to help fill in the missing pieces. Then, I discovered May Renault’s books about Alexander (Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games) and became interested in the picture of Alexander that she painted. I was curious as to how idealised her view was (she was obviously pro, though not blind to faults). As a consequence, I not only read a lot about him but took him as a study when doing classical civilisation at uni. He was a very unusual person, though I suppose that could be said of anyone who conquers most of their known world and topples empires.
Hmmm, I could go on and on – and maybe I will in another post sometime.
Astronomy
Was the first thing to pique my interest in science – no dinosaurs for me. The first present that my parents gave me that I remember liking (evidently, there was a time when I appreciated dolls, but I really don’t remember it) was a book called Astronomy by Fred Hoyle. I was about 8 or 9 and then proceded to confuse most adults when they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up – an Asttrophysicist of course! I got as far as the physics, as it turns out, but not the astro part. I still have an interest in astronomy and astrophysics, however.
black and white photos
Well, they can be so much more evocative than coloured ones. I really just like looking at them. I don’t think I have the photographic talent to take good ones myself. Once again, an interest derived from seeing things in books. I think there may be a theme…
body art
I love the thought of body modification – I just don’t like the permanency of much of it. So I have an interest in tattoos and piercing, but also those things just done with body paint. I guess I’m a bit of a body art voyeur – so yes, books come into the equation here too.
mythical creatures
My interest in ancient history and culture led to an interest in classical mythology. From thence to the mythology of other cultures. The way that similar creatures turn up in vastly different cultures, but with different cultural freight. For instance dragons, that are really evil in much of European mythology, but not in Asian. Simplifying things a lot there, I know. And the mythology is changing as they are reinterpreted in spec fic and role-playing games and the like. And on a really basic level, what’s not to like about a horse with wings (aside from physics and the biology being all wrong) and a pet gryphon would be fun – but might just terrorise the neighbours.
Scepticism
Goes with the science background and a desire to know how things work and with where I work (a consumer organisation for those who don’t know). If someone is trying to sell me something that’s going to cure all the illnesses in the world, they’ll have to show me the research first; if they tell me they can read my mind, I’ll want to see them do it under scientifically controlled conditions. I don’t think this is anything to do with books – I think it’s just me.
Thunderstorms
Between the ages of about 10 to 21 I lived in a house with a huge picture window in the lounge room which looked out onto a stand of very big gum trees. In those days before global warming changed the weather, we used to get thunderstorms on a regular basis – with roiling clouds and wind and, of course, lightning and thunder. I have fond memories of watching the light show and the trees tossing madly. Only when I got a bit older did I start thinking about the possibility that the trees could have blown down and done nasty things to a watcher (yes, the trees were that close)
