I have no idea who would want to read this, but who am I to pass up an opportunity to describe myself?note But there's no way I'm going to keep this up-to-date, so I will say upfront: the following is true as of September 2011. I make no guarantees beyond that.
I am a 20-year-old college senior studying Classics. This means that I probably have a greater understand of Latin, Ancient Greek, and their relationships to English than you do. But not definitely, because I am still a college student, after all. There are classicists with far more experience wandering around this wiki, I'm sure.
Because apparently this page has become my autobiography, it has been separated into two sections. Yay folders!
I am a fairly avid consumer of all media except comics; despite a number of attempts to branch into it, I can count the number of western graphic novels I've read on one, well, finger.note Manga has enjoyed slightly greater success, but not so much that I would consider myself someone who reads manga (the way I would consider myself "someone who watches anime," or "someone who reads books," or whatnot).
I might as well go in alphabetical order like the rest of the wiki:
Anime
I have a list at myanimelist.com
that I have recently taken to updating frequently. I assure you that I have tried many more series than are listed there, but I will endeavor to list every series I try from now on. (The list of shows completed, however, is exhaustive.) Some highlights:
- Pokemon — Aside from being the anime I watched as a kid, I got back into it as a freshman in college, and it served as my gateway into the world of anime as a whole. I had previously resisted getting into anime because I knew myself and knew that I would get sucked in and never escape. ...Oops.
- Haruhi Suzumiya — Notably the first show I watched to its completion, and I did that all in one night. (I do that a lot.) Not counting Pokémon, which had about a decade's head start, it was the first show to really capture my imagination, and the franchise remains a favorite to this day. (I have watched everything Haruhi-related animated except the Churuya-san shorts, which never caught my interest, and I've read (English translations of) all 11 currently-available light novels.) Good stuff.
- Shakugan No Shana — Despite Haruhi coming first, it's Shana I look back on with the most nostalgia (or as much nostalgia as I can have for memories only a couple years old). I'm not really sure why that is, but there is a large space in the anime section of my heart for Shana—this despite my not being a huge fan of the Shana Clone archetype. The upcoming third season would probably have to do something as unforgivable as killing Shana herself for me to not watch to the end.
- Nichijou — A more recent contender, but well deserving of its place. I followed Kyo Ani to Lucky Star, which I loved, and then to K-On, which I loved, and then to this, which I love. This show's brand of humor is right up my alley, and the absolutely beautiful animation quality is icing on the cake. Of particular note is Episode 19, which is the funniest individual episode of anime I have yet seen, bar none.note While technically this show hasn't ended yet, I feel confident counting it among my all-time favorites already.
Film
While not a huge movie buff or anything, I've seen enough over the course of my life to have a fairly strong idea of which I like over others. Favorites include:
- Real Genius — My #1 all-time favorite movie that will never be supplanted due to a combination of personal significance, nostalgia, and grandfathering. I wrote my college admissions essay about how this movie affected my personal philosophy towards education, intelligence, and the application of. (To those familiar, don't worry; I don't actually run around emulating Chris Knight or anything.) While I am not a serial quoter by any means, if I do pop a random quote into a conversation, there's a reasonable chance it's from this movie.
- Serenity — I suffered from major Hype Aversion of this (and by extension Firefly) for a long time until finally my brother forced me to watch it. I loved it, went back and watched the series, then the movie again and loved it even more, then moved on to Buffy and then everything else Joss Whedon. I am now a very large fan of pretty much everything Joss does, and I owe it all to this movie (and, I suppose, my brother, who should get some credit).
- Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead — A little bit hard to describe, but I find this movie (and the play it's based on) to be supremely hilarious and poignant. I count among my more treasured memories the opportunity to perform a scene from the play in high school, as Rosencrantz.
Literature
I have read so many books. I don't even know how I would begin listing favorite books, and even a list of personally-significant books (or even writers) would be way too long, so I will instead turn to only:
- Michael A. Stackpole — I list him, when asked, as my overall favorite writer, and his original Fantasy novel Once a Hero as my overall favorite book. I don't actually think they are objectively the best out of everyone and everything I've read, but at least some of his books are in that highest tier of quality where it's really, really hard to rank things, so they serve. Stackpole specifically is significant because he was the first writer I read who really sparked my interest in reading good writing critically ("That's so impressive the way he did that just there," as opposed to reading bad writing critically, "Wow, that was a really clumsy turn of phrase.") leading somewhat-directly in my interest in my own creative writing.
Live-Action TV
As mentioned above, I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon. That aside, however, my interests in TV are usually fairly transient; I don't do well at following a current show week-by-week, as my preferred method of consuming serial fiction of any kind is the Archive Binge. With that in mind, some shows that currently hold my interest:
- Community — Definitely my favorite ensemble comedy show yet. I am eagerly awaiting the third season.
- Doctor Who — This is basically the only show that I will keep coming back to week after week. I don't always catch a new episode as soon as it's available, but for the most part I am always up-to-date give or take two weeks of error margin.
- The Amazing Race — I started watching in the middle of season 7, watched 8-14 in their entirety, then dropped away. I recently binged season 17, and am looking forward to 19.
Mythology
Well... naturally, what with Classics and all. But I don't have anything specific to say here lest I start writing a thesis; I just wanted to put this section in because of how amused (and pleased) I am that this wiki sometimes bothers to count it as a category.
Table-top Gaming
I am a gamer; I play games. I have played a number of board games, both common and obscure, and have knowledge of a good handful of RP systems. I have played in a number of campaigns that were variants of D&D (heavily modified Birthright, slightly modified Dark Sun, somewhat modified 1st-edition AD&D), but never the "straight" D&D of my era (3.5, now 4.0). I have played in a systemless campaign, which is exactly as much fun as you imagine, as long as you're imagining tons of fun. I have also co-created a game system that may or may not ever be polished enough to show beyond friends.
Theater
I am a big fan of Broadway. To date I have seen 16 shows on Broadway (as in, in Manhattan), and some others on official Broadway tours. As with many things, a straight list of favorites would be too unwieldy, but here are some of significance:
- Wicked — My first "blockbuster" musical experience, there is basically nothing about this musical I don't find enjoyable in some fashion. If by some miracle I could have free tickets to any musical I've already seen, I would see Wicked again in a heartbeat. (However, opportunities to see a show on Broadway being as rare as they are, when given the chance I would always choose to see a show I haven't seen yet.)
- Xanadu — Fantastic and sadly not very well known, this is my favorite out of all the various shows I've seen most laypeople wouldn't know are Broadway shows.
Incidentally, I have a two-connection link to the inside of Broadway: twice-Tony-nominated actor Robin de Jesús once acted in a play with my brother. When they were both much younger.
Video Games
As mentioned above... I am a gamer. I have been playing computer games of various sorts ever since I could try my hand at Kings Quest V (as time went on I then played VI, then VII, then Mask of Eternity.) I found my home in RPGs, naturally, both single-player and MMO. Some trusted names and fond memories include:
- Bioware — From Neverwinter Nights onward, I have played every game they've developed except Sonic. In my opinion, they have never yet disappointed me—I enjoyed Jade Empire and actually loved Dragon Age II even more than its predecessor. Currently I am eagerly anticipating The Old Republic.
- ArenaNet — For a good swath of time, Guild Wars owned my soul. I'm still very fond of ArenaNet, and hold the hopefully uncontroversial opinion that their artists are the best in the video game business. Similarly, I eargerly await Guild Wars 2. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage both...
Webcomics
I have read many, many webcomics over the years; at one point, I was actively maintaining readership of upwards of 30 webcomics at the same time. It wasn't actually sustainable, and these days, a lack of literally hours every day to spend reading webcomics has reduced my list of comics I read as they go (rather than catching up every so often) to a far shorter list, which includes:
- Mega Tokyo — The webcomic I have been reading for the longest, and the only I have purchased in physical form. Because of how slowly it progresses, it's difficult to follow in real-time, necessitating occasional ArchiveTrawls, but despite this I read each update as it arrives anyway.
- xkcd — Well, It's xkcd. What can I say? The occasional gems are worth the occasional duds.
- Darths And Droids — The idea of applying a new narrative on top of an existing narrative is fascinating to me (see above, re: Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead). The fact that this does it so well...
- El Goonish Shive — Ahh, a guilty pleasure. Not the best written, not the best drawn (though the constant improvements in that respect are quite impressive), but I just can't abandon it...
- SMBC — Possibly the longest webcomic Archive Binge I've ever done. It was well worth it.
Web Original
I'm going to lump Fan Fiction in here, despite it getting its category on some pages. Okay? Okay. With that in mind...
- Mik Sunrider's ''Adventures of Tahiri'' series — This is old-school, with the series starting in 2003. Star Wars Fanfiction centered around the premise of Tahiri joining the Wraiths after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War. This series is probably the premiere example of my Good vs. Effective Writing principle—if the writing is effective and communicates what it wants to and is awesome, I will forgive any number of technical mistakes that don't confuse anything. But it has to be awesome.
- Avatar Aang: An Annotated Bibliography — This... is the most brilliant fanfic concept I have ever read. I am a better person for having read it.
- Whateley Universe — Notable largely because it defeated my Archive Binge. Because there is just. Too. MUCH.
Western Animation
I was a kid in the 90s; I watched plenty of cartoons. Sometimes I'll go and rewatch something and laugh at them (or, in some cases, with them). But there's only really one worth picking out:
- Avatar The Last Airbender. I probably don't have to justify it here. It's just... quality storytelling with quality mechanics.
...Based on a cursory poke around.
- Afraid of Needles — Good times.
- Always Someone Better — In a handful of areas, I'm good enough that I could be the best... except I'm not.
- Bookworm — Have you read the first section of this page?
- Creature of Habit — I have routines. They vary wildly depending on circumstances, but when I can fall back on a routine, I tend to.
- Forgets to Eat — And despite those routines, I will occasionally just accidentally go a day without food. Or sleep. ...Or both.
- Geek — Have you read this PAGE!?note
- Literal-Minded — Probably a good 60% of my humor in Real Life depends on either interpreting things overly literally or failing to do so. Doesn't really translate to text, though.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud — Usually only when I'm alone, though, don't worry.
- Solitary Tropes
- Eating Lunch Alone — Though more because I prefer to eat alone than because of a lack of people to eat with.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation — Well, it certainly contributed.
- I Work Alone — There is one case where I refuse to work together with anybody else: I outright cannot share control over any creative writing project. That means no "co-writing," even when it would be "mutually beneficial."
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky — I'm not really that much over average height, and I don't usually actually say my snark out loud, but any fictional character version of me would be either this or First-Person Smartass. Or maybe both. (My hair really is black, at least.)
