Where Worlds Collide and Galaxies Sing...
I've been asked by a number of people, “Who are you?” or “What kind of person are you?” Well, there are really two answers to these not-so-simple questions. The short version – I am a multi-generation explorer and adventurer, third generation artist, third generation book hound, third generation science nerd, second generation scifi/fantasy geek, consummate audiophile, a writer, and a spiritualist who is also insatiably curious and a habitual researcher with a science oriented, logic driven, analytical mindset that has a rather warped, twisted, off-center, and slightly morbid sense of humor, and a feline personality. I’m actually a shy, reserved, laid back, easy going type person who is generally easy to get along with; but I’m also an intensely assertive, aggressive, dominant, independent woman who will fight to protect those closest to me. Oddly enough I’m apparently a natural leader (at least among many of my friends) who hates being in the spotlight and the center of attention (which is why you’ll never get me on stage, at a podium, or in front of a camera or an audience) who loves to role play among friends and play with costumes and such. How I manage to reconcile such completely opposing sides of myself I will never know. **chuckles and shakes head**
Then there is the essay… Yes, you read that right. To expand on the short version above, I’m a very eclectic type person with a wide range of interests from a family that is just as eclectic and rather a bit strange, believe me. Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.
My father’s father was in the Army Air Corps (formerly the Army Signal Corps in WWI and became the US Air Force in September of 1947) doing photography over northern Africa in WWII. After leaving the military, he worked for Boeing Aerospace, who sent him to Cape Canaveral in Florida to build wiring harnesses and write launch manuals for some of the Gemini and Apollo capsules in the 1960’s, he actually knew some of the Astronauts at the time. While there, he was also volunteer deputy sheriff in Titusville, Florida, then returned to Washington State in 1969. He kept up with photography as a hobby for the rest of his life and eventually retired from Boeing and spent the remainder of his life in Northwestern Oregon where he died in 1991. His father (my great grandfather who died in 1970) was part of the early 1900’s Pacific North West logging expeditions and helped settle the Oregon coast back when you had to backpack in 3-5 days on foot or by mule, while his maternal grandfather (died sometime 1880’s) was a riverboat captain on the Columbia River ferrying people to and from Portland Oregon in the mid 1800’s. My mother’s father (died 1970) did paintings of tall sailing ships and flower arrangements in college and loved reading old Western novels while he spent his days as a door-to-door salesman. My father (died 1998) was career USAF 21 years who also did armed security part time while in the Air Force, then full time after leaving military service. He was an avid reader of classic scifi authors like Heinlein, E.E. Doc Smith, H.G. Wells, and others, and his artistic endeavours went towards drafting, usually airplanes, cars, and trains. My mother (a cancer survivor) is a generally artsy craftsy type person, from painting landscapes and drawing still life and portraits to sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, embroidery, beadwork, leatherwork, and even quill work. She has a science oriented mindset with a head for numbers, which lead her from Marine Biology to Accounting. She has always been into classic horror (Dracula and anything with Vincent Price in it) and science fiction – Star Trek, Day the Earth Stood Still, Time Machine, War of the Worlds, and many others. She is also an avid reader of scifi, fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery novels.
And then there’s me, the geek born in September 1974. I have been drawing since I could hold a pencil at age two, and at that same age I somehow utterly destroyed an old 1970’s steel Tonka dump truck (I even managed to un-roll the rolled edge of the sheet metal). It’s not that I was being destructive, mind you; I was actually trying to figure out how it worked and how it was put together. I still do that, actually. I got hooked on Dinosaurs at age four, even creating my own fanciful Dinosaur creature in clay with interchangeable tail weapons. Of course that progressed into Paleontology, Zoology, animal biology, ecology, and such. Growing up in the Pacific North West seeing mountains and ocean all around me every day, I got into Geology, Plate Tectonics, and Volcanism (as in volcanoes, not the Star Trek aliens), especially after seeing how the continental plates have shifted over time from the Pangaea Supercontinent to the seven we have now. At age eight, I got into Astronomy and Astrophysics, which progressed through what NASA has done for Space Exploration into an interest in technology, robotics, engineering, mechanics, and such. Growing up with the Muppets and awesome movies and TV shows, I also got into movie special effects, animatronics, puppetry, cell animation, CGI, costuming, props, etc, wanting to know how they do all that. I also got into things like Cultural Anthropology and Egyptology, ancient mythology, cultural art and architecture.
I grew up with watching things like the old Hobbit/Lord of the Rings animated movies, Star Trek (I love Klingons!), Star Wars (Rebel Jedi, totally), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (“Hello, Buck”), Battlestar Galactica (I wanted to be in Boxy’s place!), Transformers (Soundwave!), Thundercats (I adored Panthro), He-Man and She-Ra, Bravestarr, Thundarr the Barbarian, Terrahawks (Marianation is awesome!), Planet of the Apes movies and series (“Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty APE!” XD), Beast Master (loved Ruh), Terminator (“Are you Sara Connor?”), Bladerunner, Indiana Jones, the Aliens and Predator movies (Xenomorphs and Yautja FTW!), things as obscure as Battle Beyond the Stars, VR5, Manimal, Misfits of Science, M.A.N.T.I.S., Flight of the Navigator, and The Last Starfighter, to much older stuff like old black-and-white Loony Toons and Merrie Melodies cartoons and even old Charlie Chaplain films. I also got into things like The Muppet Show, Reading Rainbow, 3 2 1 Contact, Mission Impossible, King Kong (1976), Avengers (as in John Steed and Emma Peal), Hart to Hart, Trapper John MD, Quincy ME, Hill Street Blues, 21 Jump Street, The Equalizer, Shogun, Superman (we miss you, Christopher Reeve), Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brent), Knight Rider (KARR!), Airwolf, and King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Three Musketeers stories, and even comics such as X-Men, Excaliber, and Batman. Later I ended up getting into things like Alien Nation and the new Star Trek stuff, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Blake’s Seven, the X-Men movies, Leverage, Hercules and Xena, Flashpoint, Andromeda, Farscape, Firefly (Shiny!), Babylon 5, Stealth, Stargate, the new Dark Knight Trilogy, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, and Transformers films, the reimagined BSG/Caprica series (“So Say We All!”), Warehouse 13, the live action Hobbit and LotR trilogies, The Golden Compass, Pacific Rim, Riddick, Real Steel, Spooks, newer versions of the King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Three Musketeers stories, Being Human and other various vampire and werewolf movies and shows, to historical dramas like Rob Roy, Braveheart, The Last Samurai, and Last of the Mohecans, modern action adventure flicks like the Fast and Furious movies, the Borne movies, Expendables, R.E.D., to cerebral thrillers like One Hour Photo and Gothica, as well as comedies like Sister Act and Mrs. Doubtfire.
Being an audiophile, I listen to just about everything, from Pop and mainstream Rock to Heavy Metal, Goth, and Steampunk, Techno, Industrial, Dance, RnB, Blues, Jazz, even Celtic and Medieval music and American Indian drum and flute music. I even listen to NASA recordings of the magnetosphere resonances of planets and stars! About the only things I can’t stand is repetitive Mariachi Band stuff, unimaginative Rap, and preachy Religious stuff, really. Some of the bands I listen to range from Aerosmith, Journey, Heart, America, Sting, Genesis, Cher, Bad English, Jimmy Hendrix, Steve Vai, and Janis Joplin, to Metallica, Ozzy Osborne, Black Sabbath, RATT, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Exodus, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Daft Punk, and AC/DC, to groups like Abney Park, Sisters of Mercy, En Extremo, Goth Minister, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Ministry, to people like Lorena McKennit, Maggie Sanstone, Heather Alexander, Alexander James Adams, the Dublineers, Enya, Steve McDonald, Medieval Babes, The Irish Rovers, to Scottish Bagpipes, Kicking Woman Singers, Black Lodge Singers, Xit, Redbone, and Carlos Nakai. And all that is just a drop in the bucket, really.
Musically, I used to play around on a recorder (kind of like a wood flute) and a bit on a piano though I never really learned to play it properly. Since then, I was handed a bass guitar (the one and only time I was ever drunk in my life) and managed to begin adapting 6 string guitar tabs to a 4 string bass guitar, so apparently that seems to be something I should look into trying to play. I was also given a hand made Bodhran (Irish hand drum) by a dear friend of mine in Ireland which I am learning to play. That and I love singing; though I virtually never sing around other people (I think I sound horrible, so yeah). I likely won’t be playing anything in front of people either, unless it’s in a drum circle somewhere and I’m just one among many. I’ve also recorded some audio-casts on my own which I just might get back into beginning 2015, as well as being part of Nerdversity 101 as a podcaster and audio editor. I am also a movie reviewer on Movie Pilot. Again, just one among a small group and since no one can see me, I don’t feel nearly so stage shy and can open up more.
As an artist, I draw things ranging from animals and dragons to people and robots to Celtic knot work and tribal designs, I’ve even taken technical drafting in high school and worked with clay. I’ve done wood working and carving, sewing, quilting, crewel/satin stitch embroidery, bead work, jewelry making, leather working, costuming, and ceramics. I’ve even done a bit of crocheting here and there. As a writer, I have stories ranging from scifi, fantasy, animal fiction, and historical fiction to the random odd philosophical ramblings and things about my own spirituality that are either in the process of being written or are trying to steal my brain so they get written! I swear, the creative muse is some sort of ethereal zombie looking for brains because it keeps running off with mine!
As for role playing, I love it! I’ve been doing recreationist role playing since my parents started taking me to Black Powder Rendezvous (pre-1840’s mountain man/frontiersman trade gatherings) when I was two years old to medieval events and renaissance faires at age 19. I got into Table Top role playing with Dungeons and Dragons at age 18, which expanded into Marvel Universe, Rifts, Battletech, Gama World, Vampire, and Werewolf games (among others), and a year later I got into live action role playing and costumes at scifi conventions, starting at Norwescon in early 1994. By 1998, I had stepped onto the internet and began role playing via text on Yahoo email groups, chat rooms, and forums as well.
On the off center side of things, I’m actually very much nocturnal by nature. As much as it annoys me, if the sun is up, my body tells me “Time to sleep!” and when it’s dark out, my body says “Wakey wakey time!” No amount of trying to correct that has ever worked for more than a week or so before I find myself back on the “night shift” again. Add to that the fact that the actual color of my eyes is a pale silver, I am very photosensitive. Not a single light bulb in my house is allowed to be more than 40 watts or the fluorescent/LED equivalent. That is why I live in Western Washington, because we have all of two seasons here – Warm Rain and Cold Rain with about 2-3 weeks of “What is that bright burning thing in the sky?!?” sometime July-August. In other words, most of the time there’s cloud cover to dim the sun, which doesn’t make for good stargazing conditions, but thankfully a lot of the time when the clouds are sparse or nonexistent is at night, funnily enough. As for my sense of humor, there are stories, I assure you. I mostly get it from my paternal grandfather, whom I felt closer to than I did my father (long story that), as well as my mother (even though there are times she wants to strangle me for it).
There are things I love, some I used to do and wish I could do again, others I don’t do as much but am working on getting back into. I grew up going roller-skating, bike riding, swimming, and horseback riding. I have rollerblades now but was forced to get rid of my bike when I moved in with my mother. I haven’t been swimming in a while (outdoor pools aren’t open very long and most of those are full of kids while indoor pools cost money to use) and haven’t ridden a horse since I was 16. I have a 45# recurve bow but no arrows and no safe place to shoot currently, but I also have a special love for blades, thus my modest collection (one of mom’s friends calls me “Miss Cutlery”) of swords and knives. I love my shiny pokey things!
By blood heritage, I’m Irish on both sides, Scottish on my father’s side, and Cheyenne through my mother’s father. I think there’s some English in there somewhere as well. As a result, I also grew up going to American Indian Pow Wows, building an outfit to dance in and learning different dance steps (the Crow Hop being a childhood favourite), ultimately ending up choosing to do fancy shawl dancing. As a result of that side of my upbringing, I became a spiritualist pagan, centering on a totemic and shamanistic path from my Celtic and Cheyenne heritage beliefs with inclusions from Nordic and Egyptian paths, as odd as that might sound to some people. In 2004, I felt myself being called to become an Ordained Pagan Matriarch, and ten years later, I feel myself called to write about my path. One thing I’ve learned over the years – if your spirit guides tell you something, you listen.
I realize it sounds really bizarre for someone to be as logic and science minded as I am to also be a spiritualist, let alone a pagan who believes in the metaphysical universe. The truth is, science is going farther and farther into proving the concepts in metaphysical spirituality as being real rather than silly superstitions. Thus so many of the subjects in science I have studied over the years – Astronomy and Astrophysics, Biology, Electricity and Magnetism, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, etc. Combining different scientific disciplines has revealed a wealth of information that most are barely beginning to scratch the surface of due to compulsory, irrational, and vehement segregation of the sciences and scientific disciplines for far too long which has disallowed them from even communicating, let alone share knowledge with each other. Imagine the huge leaps forward in knowledge and understanding, let alone technology, we could achieve in ten years time if such rigid segregation were abolished rather than being so staunchly upheld!
I am actually a rather down to Earth person, easily approachable, friendly, and easy going. I also have a strongly feline personality that stems from my tiger soul totem. As corny as it might sound, I was actually born the Year of the Wood Tiger while the Sun was aligned in the constellation Leo (if any of you look into Astrology at all). Gee, go figure right? In all seriousness though, like a Tiger, I am very gentle and sensitive, yet fiercely protective. I can be quiet and laid back, or I can show a violent temper when angered or cornered. This unassuming and seemingly unremarkable girl-next-door whom everyone forgets she even lives there has claws that leave permanent reminders not to harm those I care for. I am quick to defend others, yet retreat when personally attacked, as odd as that might sound. And like many felines, including tigers, I can be very sensual as well as quite dominant. But when it comes to a true life mate, I prefer someone who would be my equal, someone willing to accept me for who I am rather than trying to change me into something else.
Besides mutual acceptance, respect, open and honest communication, and trust, I have four simple rules which I not only follow myself, but expect others to do the same, whether they are merely friends, family, or a lover: never lie to me, never steal from me, never stab me in the back/betray/cheat on me, and never hit me. It’s sad that so many people are so incapable of following such simple rules… Instead they insist on bullying and using others, taking what they want and throwing them away like unwanted junk. Such selfish and hateful Neanderthals have no place or purpose in my life and they are the ones I leave in the dust, permanently cut out of my life. Harsh as it sounds, I have no room for such people and I know they will never change no matter how much we try to reason with them. I judge people on their own individual merits and actions, not superficial stupidity like gender, color, religion, or anything else. If only more people could live like that, then perhaps the world would be a brighter and happier place indeed.
So, do you believe me now when I say I’m an eclectic person by nature?
~>End Transmission<~
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Leathurkatt Feathurpaws 
Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music
♂+♂=
♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred
"If you run, you'll only die tired!"
"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."
"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."
BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.
THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.
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Text Readability Scores
A tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…
Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music
♂+♂=
♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred"If you run, you'll only die tired!"
"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."
"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."
BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.
THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.
Feeling generous? Please give points: Leathurkatt.deviantart.com/?gi…
Admin of:
Text Readability Scores
A tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…
