![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
As there are new people on my friends list now, and as I haven't yet done the second half of this meme, and because
assimbya did one of her own, it's about time for an "about me" post: a general introduction to who I am and what my journal is. Without further ado, then:
About Me
My name is Jessica, online alias Juushika, and I'm an 20 year old female living (alone in a basement apartment) in Portland, Oregon. My birthday is August 18th, and so I'm soon to be 21. (On that note, I have an Amazon wishlist.) If your interested in putting a face to the name, I recently did a personal picspam. I have red hair that I am fairly well obsessed with: I rarely brush it, only allow my boyfriend to trim it, wash it once a week, never use heat or chemicals on it, and otherwise take very good care of it. It is my pride and joy. My personal style ranges between casual, hippy/earthy, and a sprinkling of gothic from high school and early college. I hate wearing pants, and spend a lot of time in pjs. I try to live naturally, avoiding chemicals, processed foods, medication, and both drugs and alcohol. No kidding about the drugs and alcohol: I haven't taken OTC meds (with one exception) in eight years, and I've never had a cigarette, tried drugs, or imbibed any alcohol. I am childfree, meaning that have no desire to and never intend to have children.
I am an English major at Reed College with a focus on Shakespeare. I am an unapologetic book addict, and my personal library numbers at about four hundred books and growing, although I have recently learned to use the public library to save money and increase the number and types of books I read. I real a number of genres, but love young adult fiction, the classics, gothic novels, apocalyptic/dystopic novels, and science-fiction, and generally avoid fantasy with the rare exception. I read multiple books at once, and get through about 300 pages a day.
I am an animal lover and vegetarian of eight years. Thanks to the Harry Potter sorting community Lumos (
lumos_sorting) I'm fully embracing my Slytherin side, although I am a Slytherclaw at heart. I watch and read anime and manga, normally in binges followed by months without, and my favorites are Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing, anything by CLAMP, the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and all things pre- and post-apocalyptic. Japanese culture, both traditional and modern, fascinates me, and I collect what little kawaii I can afford. My favorite Sanrio character is the Little Twin Stars. I have a similar obsession with England after living there for a year, and am developing one with Scotland. I am a movie watcher and make it a goal to memorize the entire scripts of my favorites, which include: the Underworld films, the Matrix Trilogy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Emperor's New Groove, and Love Actually. I can slash anyone and do so freely. I have a very slight involvement in the Harry Potter, anime (yaoi especially), Daily Show/Colbert Report, and Pirates of the Caribbean fandoms: largely a lurker, sometimes a theorist, sometimes a reviewer, rarely a fanfic author.
On a more serious note, I have a long history of depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and self-harming behaviors. I was on Wellbutrin for one year and found it ineffective, and have been off meds since. I am in therapy. My depression and anxiety caused me to take a medical leave of absence last spring, but I plan to go back to school in the fall. I deal with chronic back pain caused by minor scoliosis, a sway spine, and poor arches in my feet, but treat the pain without medication. I am incredibly introverted and easily become exhausted by social contact. I am a pessimist in the truest sense. I'm also an INTJ/P mix.
People and Pets in my Life
Devon - My boyfriend of three years and counting. We began dating in high school, broke up when I left for college, got together again a few months later, and have been together since. He was walked side by side with me through all of my problems, is incredibly supportive, and has been one of the best parts of my life. He is a computer geek (you have no idea) and will probably work with computers for the rest of his life. He currently lives in my hometown (two hours away), but will probably be moving up here in the fall. I see him almost every weekend.
Mum - England rubbed off on me, because I never call her Mom. My mother and I are very similar people and as a result we don't get along too wellwe argue often when living in the same house. Our relationship is much better now that I live away from home. She is very creative, independent, and stubborn, and I admire her even more than she drives me crazy.
Papa - I study French, and so I never call him anything else. Papa is an engineer at Hewlett-Packard, more extroverted than either my mother or me, tells atrociously boring stories, and is one of the kindest people I know. He and I don't talk much about personal subjects, but we do things together, like make food and go walking. He also acts as a mediator between my mother and myself.
Allie - My sister. Her blog is here. She's an incoming senior in high school and in many ways my opposite: extroverted, fashion-conscious, smart but not an outstanding student,very social, does't have a boyfriend, plays sports, eats meat. We don't see eye to eye but we get along pretty well when we're together. We used to be a lot closer, and I regret the change in our relationship.
Dink, Kuzco, and Alfie - My guinea pigs. You can read more about them here, but sufficed to say these little buggers are the light of my life. Dink in particular is my baby and the closest to my heart, Kuzco is a scardy-boo and quite silly, and Alfie is a fluff-butt bundle of personality. I talk about these guys often.
Jamie - The family dog back home. She too has her own tag. James is a black lab with an absolutely spectacular disposition, and I love her dearly and miss her all the time. I'd go home just to visit her.
Friends - I have very few real life friends that I don't keep in contact with through LiveJournal, so all of you really are in the same place. If you have questions about my relationship with anyone in particular, just ask. There is one possible exception...
Lyz -
circle_of_ashes is one of my best friends. We met off LJ and keep in contact through letters and on LiveJournal. She is an incredibly sweet girl, generous, attentive, and creative. She aids and abets my obsession with kawaii, and I leave a lot of notes for her in my LJ entries. Hell, she even has her own tag.
Education
I am a product of the Montessori school system, which encourages independent learning, small class sizes, combined grades, first-name basis with teachers, and an open and creative school structure. I owe Montessori everything for the student I am now, and I highly support what they do. I learn best by reading and watching and so was able to blossom on Montessori, which didn't force me to interact or stay busy with menial projects. I began reading at an early age and was a bookworm from pre-school onward. Throughout my life I have been a good student. I care about my education a great deal and find my areas of study entirely fascinating.
As mentioned, I am current an English major at Reed College. I didn't start at Reed: I originally attended Whitman College for two years. Those were perhaps the worst years of my life: I lived six hours away from Devon and only saw him once a week, missed my family desperately, hated the school's English program, hated Walla Walla, which is an isolated and conservative town in the middle of a desert, and didn't get along well with the student population. After two year I finally decided to transfer to Reed. I should have taken a semester off before starting, but my parents encouraged me not to take time offthis probably contributed to my breakdown and leave of absence in the spring. I am much happier at Reed, which has a stronger English program, more rigorous classes, and a student population that I actually fit in to. Coming in as a transfer student isn't easy, and requires a lot of work in a new environment without much supportI wish I had found the school earlier. However, I have no regrets about transferring and I have (almost) nothing but praise for Reed.
My focus, as stated, is on Shakespeare, and I plan to write my thesis on the role of the witches in Macbeth. Shakespeare has been my love and passion for near ten years now, and I never tire of his plays or classes about them. I prefer the tragedies, love the histories, and enjoy studying gender roles in the comedies. I read the sonnets too, but haven't studied them in much depth. Aside from Shakespeare, I study French, am incredibly interested in religious studies (particularly Christianity and Judaism), and adore gender studies both within and without Shakespeare. I planned to minor in either religion or gender studies at Whitman, but Reed doesn't have a minor program.
I plan to go on to graduate school after graduating from Reed (whenever that happens). In the best of worlds, I plan to do my gradate work at either Cambridge or Oxford. Outside of those lofty goals, I have no specific grad school in mind. I want a PhD in Shakespeare studies, and would love to work with Shakespeare, either as a college professor or, better, as a journal editor, for the rest of my life. Failing that, I still planned to be involved in either academia or editing. I am not well suited to a nine-to-five office job, and would prefer to work from home. All of these things are, of course, entirely subject to change.
Politics, Personal Philosophy, and Religion
I am nothing if not open-minded. I believe in political and social freedom: the right to choice in all arenas, including religion, abortion, sexual partner(s), life, and lifestyle. In other words, I'm pro-church/state separation, pro-choice, pro-GLBTQ (and bisexual myself), and open-minded when it comes to choices in gender, diet, child raising, education, employment, &c. Economically I tend to be more conservative, and I believe that government functions best when it preserves choice and freedom by generally keeping its nose out of its citizens' respective business. I affiliate myself with libertarianism but generally vote democrat because, no matter the faults of the system, those that don't play by its rules condemn themselves to lose by them. I strongly dislike Bush and the current American administration, and I voted for the other guy. However, I rarely discuss politics here. I am, however, both open-minded and a feminist, and I have no doubt that those aspects are reflected throughout my journal.
As mentioned, I am an INTJ/P and a pessimist/realist (often, I find they are the same thing). I have little patience for humans as a whole and I find stupidity, superficiality, and poor communication skills endlessly irritating. As a result, my sense of humor is quite narrow, and I avoid in-jokes and cliques. The friends I do make are quite important to me, and I am honest and loyal in my relationships with them. I'm not particularly sentimental, although I find books, animals, and close relationships (like the one with my boyfriend) emotionally moving. I believe in personal responsibility and have very little pity for those that don't do what they can to help themselvesalthough, with my history with depression, I do have sympathy for those that try to help themselves and find it difficult. I dislike generalizations and believe that an exception exists for any rule. I am stuck between constantly playing with an idea and the desperate desire to carry a thought through to a conclusion, which makes me something of a perpetual student: a good paper writer, but never satisfied with the paper. I don't work well in groups, I am incredibly anal-retentive, and I'm a control freak. I believe that optimism is, frankly, misplaced and dishonest, but I'll be the first to admit that my constant pessimism makes it a lot harder for me to get up in the morning. I don't believe in an absolute morality but am very much a relativist, and I think there is a place and purpose for almost any action, irregardless of whether that action is "evil." Nonetheless, productive behaviors are mutually beneficial and encouraged by society. In other words: I try to approach life rationally, without sentimentality or preconceptions, and I believe that I am responsible for my actions and their impact on the people and environment that surrounds me.
I am a recovering atheist and an aspiring pagan of the Celtic Reconstructionist flavor. I have been an atheist for a number of years now, and my lack of faith has greatly contributed to my world view as discussed above. Recently, I have felt myself drawn back towards religion (prior to atheism, I was a Wiccan) and am currently on the path towards giving it a second shot. This is a huge and unsettling change for me, and if you're interested in following me on my journey I recommend you start at the beginning and read this entry. The faith I am investigating is Celtic Reconstructionism Paganism. In order words, I am investigating, primarily through articles, text books, and recorded myth and legend, the religious beliefs of the Scottish Celts. It's a lot of reading, critical thinking, and hard work, but the more I investigate it the more it feels right to me. I do talk about CR, both my studies and my changing faith, in my journal.
About my journal
I think it's safe to say that Working Title consists primarily of three things: general updates, picspam, and book reviews. My general updates are pretty accurate chronicles of my daily life, with the boring parts mostly cut out and the interesting parts throughly commented on. My memories tend to be of specific events rather than greater trends, and so I use my journal to keep a record of my life and help me notice the larger trends that I generally forget. It also allows Devon, my boyfriend, to read up on my day to day life. Some of the the topics I discuss go beyond my day to day lifeI may discuss issues in the news, rant about fandom, or talk about anime/mangabut these topics are important or personal to me. I take full advantage of LiveJournal's tags, and they may help you to catch up on old topics or answer questions.
My card reader is currently on the fritz, but I generally post picspam every now and then. I take pictures of my daily life, the kawaii items I collect, make, or send off, and the animals in my life, in particular my guinea pigs. Dink, Kuz, and Alfie are no strangers to the camera, and I love showing them off. In general, I post images at a 400x300 ratio and LJ-cut all but the first image, so these picspams shouldn't bog down your loading time too much. If there's anything in particular you want a picture of, just ask.
Finally, I post book reviews on a very regular basis. I review almost every book that I read, although some slip through the cracks (especially during the school year). I've recently begun cross-posting these reviews to Amazon.com These reviews are primarily for my own benefit: they encourage me to read critically, help me keep track of my reading habits and book count, and allow me to glance back to find favorite authors or genres. However, I hope that they are useful to others as well, and I try to keep them fair, balanced, and largely impersonal. I infrequently review anime, manga, films, plays, and various products as well. Questions and comments on the reviews are more than welcome.
It's also worth mentioning that I use a few filters here on my journal. I have filters for: Self-harm and depression, where I discuss potentially triggering or upsetting topics connected to self-harm and my psychological problems. BDSM, a filter that gets used very infrequently, where I discuss BDSM and sexual topics that may make some uncomfortable. Contact Info, which gives you access to my contact info including email, phone numbers, and addresses. All other topics are accessible to my entire flist, although I may put some topics (slash, TMI, &c.) behind an LJ-cut. If you are interested in being on any of the filters mentioned above, please let me know. I may not add new people to my contact info filter just yet.
Questions? Concerns? Comments? You're more than welcome to leave them here, no matter how specific or how broad. Welcome to all of my new LJ friends! (and much love to all the old ones).
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
About Me
My name is Jessica, online alias Juushika, and I'm an 20 year old female living (alone in a basement apartment) in Portland, Oregon. My birthday is August 18th, and so I'm soon to be 21. (On that note, I have an Amazon wishlist.) If your interested in putting a face to the name, I recently did a personal picspam. I have red hair that I am fairly well obsessed with: I rarely brush it, only allow my boyfriend to trim it, wash it once a week, never use heat or chemicals on it, and otherwise take very good care of it. It is my pride and joy. My personal style ranges between casual, hippy/earthy, and a sprinkling of gothic from high school and early college. I hate wearing pants, and spend a lot of time in pjs. I try to live naturally, avoiding chemicals, processed foods, medication, and both drugs and alcohol. No kidding about the drugs and alcohol: I haven't taken OTC meds (with one exception) in eight years, and I've never had a cigarette, tried drugs, or imbibed any alcohol. I am childfree, meaning that have no desire to and never intend to have children.
I am an English major at Reed College with a focus on Shakespeare. I am an unapologetic book addict, and my personal library numbers at about four hundred books and growing, although I have recently learned to use the public library to save money and increase the number and types of books I read. I real a number of genres, but love young adult fiction, the classics, gothic novels, apocalyptic/dystopic novels, and science-fiction, and generally avoid fantasy with the rare exception. I read multiple books at once, and get through about 300 pages a day.
I am an animal lover and vegetarian of eight years. Thanks to the Harry Potter sorting community Lumos (
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
On a more serious note, I have a long history of depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and self-harming behaviors. I was on Wellbutrin for one year and found it ineffective, and have been off meds since. I am in therapy. My depression and anxiety caused me to take a medical leave of absence last spring, but I plan to go back to school in the fall. I deal with chronic back pain caused by minor scoliosis, a sway spine, and poor arches in my feet, but treat the pain without medication. I am incredibly introverted and easily become exhausted by social contact. I am a pessimist in the truest sense. I'm also an INTJ/P mix.
People and Pets in my Life
Devon - My boyfriend of three years and counting. We began dating in high school, broke up when I left for college, got together again a few months later, and have been together since. He was walked side by side with me through all of my problems, is incredibly supportive, and has been one of the best parts of my life. He is a computer geek (you have no idea) and will probably work with computers for the rest of his life. He currently lives in my hometown (two hours away), but will probably be moving up here in the fall. I see him almost every weekend.
Mum - England rubbed off on me, because I never call her Mom. My mother and I are very similar people and as a result we don't get along too wellwe argue often when living in the same house. Our relationship is much better now that I live away from home. She is very creative, independent, and stubborn, and I admire her even more than she drives me crazy.
Papa - I study French, and so I never call him anything else. Papa is an engineer at Hewlett-Packard, more extroverted than either my mother or me, tells atrociously boring stories, and is one of the kindest people I know. He and I don't talk much about personal subjects, but we do things together, like make food and go walking. He also acts as a mediator between my mother and myself.
Allie - My sister. Her blog is here. She's an incoming senior in high school and in many ways my opposite: extroverted, fashion-conscious, smart but not an outstanding student,very social, does't have a boyfriend, plays sports, eats meat. We don't see eye to eye but we get along pretty well when we're together. We used to be a lot closer, and I regret the change in our relationship.
Dink, Kuzco, and Alfie - My guinea pigs. You can read more about them here, but sufficed to say these little buggers are the light of my life. Dink in particular is my baby and the closest to my heart, Kuzco is a scardy-boo and quite silly, and Alfie is a fluff-butt bundle of personality. I talk about these guys often.
Jamie - The family dog back home. She too has her own tag. James is a black lab with an absolutely spectacular disposition, and I love her dearly and miss her all the time. I'd go home just to visit her.
Friends - I have very few real life friends that I don't keep in contact with through LiveJournal, so all of you really are in the same place. If you have questions about my relationship with anyone in particular, just ask. There is one possible exception...
Lyz -
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Education
I am a product of the Montessori school system, which encourages independent learning, small class sizes, combined grades, first-name basis with teachers, and an open and creative school structure. I owe Montessori everything for the student I am now, and I highly support what they do. I learn best by reading and watching and so was able to blossom on Montessori, which didn't force me to interact or stay busy with menial projects. I began reading at an early age and was a bookworm from pre-school onward. Throughout my life I have been a good student. I care about my education a great deal and find my areas of study entirely fascinating.
As mentioned, I am current an English major at Reed College. I didn't start at Reed: I originally attended Whitman College for two years. Those were perhaps the worst years of my life: I lived six hours away from Devon and only saw him once a week, missed my family desperately, hated the school's English program, hated Walla Walla, which is an isolated and conservative town in the middle of a desert, and didn't get along well with the student population. After two year I finally decided to transfer to Reed. I should have taken a semester off before starting, but my parents encouraged me not to take time offthis probably contributed to my breakdown and leave of absence in the spring. I am much happier at Reed, which has a stronger English program, more rigorous classes, and a student population that I actually fit in to. Coming in as a transfer student isn't easy, and requires a lot of work in a new environment without much supportI wish I had found the school earlier. However, I have no regrets about transferring and I have (almost) nothing but praise for Reed.
My focus, as stated, is on Shakespeare, and I plan to write my thesis on the role of the witches in Macbeth. Shakespeare has been my love and passion for near ten years now, and I never tire of his plays or classes about them. I prefer the tragedies, love the histories, and enjoy studying gender roles in the comedies. I read the sonnets too, but haven't studied them in much depth. Aside from Shakespeare, I study French, am incredibly interested in religious studies (particularly Christianity and Judaism), and adore gender studies both within and without Shakespeare. I planned to minor in either religion or gender studies at Whitman, but Reed doesn't have a minor program.
I plan to go on to graduate school after graduating from Reed (whenever that happens). In the best of worlds, I plan to do my gradate work at either Cambridge or Oxford. Outside of those lofty goals, I have no specific grad school in mind. I want a PhD in Shakespeare studies, and would love to work with Shakespeare, either as a college professor or, better, as a journal editor, for the rest of my life. Failing that, I still planned to be involved in either academia or editing. I am not well suited to a nine-to-five office job, and would prefer to work from home. All of these things are, of course, entirely subject to change.
Politics, Personal Philosophy, and Religion
I am nothing if not open-minded. I believe in political and social freedom: the right to choice in all arenas, including religion, abortion, sexual partner(s), life, and lifestyle. In other words, I'm pro-church/state separation, pro-choice, pro-GLBTQ (and bisexual myself), and open-minded when it comes to choices in gender, diet, child raising, education, employment, &c. Economically I tend to be more conservative, and I believe that government functions best when it preserves choice and freedom by generally keeping its nose out of its citizens' respective business. I affiliate myself with libertarianism but generally vote democrat because, no matter the faults of the system, those that don't play by its rules condemn themselves to lose by them. I strongly dislike Bush and the current American administration, and I voted for the other guy. However, I rarely discuss politics here. I am, however, both open-minded and a feminist, and I have no doubt that those aspects are reflected throughout my journal.
As mentioned, I am an INTJ/P and a pessimist/realist (often, I find they are the same thing). I have little patience for humans as a whole and I find stupidity, superficiality, and poor communication skills endlessly irritating. As a result, my sense of humor is quite narrow, and I avoid in-jokes and cliques. The friends I do make are quite important to me, and I am honest and loyal in my relationships with them. I'm not particularly sentimental, although I find books, animals, and close relationships (like the one with my boyfriend) emotionally moving. I believe in personal responsibility and have very little pity for those that don't do what they can to help themselvesalthough, with my history with depression, I do have sympathy for those that try to help themselves and find it difficult. I dislike generalizations and believe that an exception exists for any rule. I am stuck between constantly playing with an idea and the desperate desire to carry a thought through to a conclusion, which makes me something of a perpetual student: a good paper writer, but never satisfied with the paper. I don't work well in groups, I am incredibly anal-retentive, and I'm a control freak. I believe that optimism is, frankly, misplaced and dishonest, but I'll be the first to admit that my constant pessimism makes it a lot harder for me to get up in the morning. I don't believe in an absolute morality but am very much a relativist, and I think there is a place and purpose for almost any action, irregardless of whether that action is "evil." Nonetheless, productive behaviors are mutually beneficial and encouraged by society. In other words: I try to approach life rationally, without sentimentality or preconceptions, and I believe that I am responsible for my actions and their impact on the people and environment that surrounds me.
I am a recovering atheist and an aspiring pagan of the Celtic Reconstructionist flavor. I have been an atheist for a number of years now, and my lack of faith has greatly contributed to my world view as discussed above. Recently, I have felt myself drawn back towards religion (prior to atheism, I was a Wiccan) and am currently on the path towards giving it a second shot. This is a huge and unsettling change for me, and if you're interested in following me on my journey I recommend you start at the beginning and read this entry. The faith I am investigating is Celtic Reconstructionism Paganism. In order words, I am investigating, primarily through articles, text books, and recorded myth and legend, the religious beliefs of the Scottish Celts. It's a lot of reading, critical thinking, and hard work, but the more I investigate it the more it feels right to me. I do talk about CR, both my studies and my changing faith, in my journal.
About my journal
I think it's safe to say that Working Title consists primarily of three things: general updates, picspam, and book reviews. My general updates are pretty accurate chronicles of my daily life, with the boring parts mostly cut out and the interesting parts throughly commented on. My memories tend to be of specific events rather than greater trends, and so I use my journal to keep a record of my life and help me notice the larger trends that I generally forget. It also allows Devon, my boyfriend, to read up on my day to day life. Some of the the topics I discuss go beyond my day to day lifeI may discuss issues in the news, rant about fandom, or talk about anime/mangabut these topics are important or personal to me. I take full advantage of LiveJournal's tags, and they may help you to catch up on old topics or answer questions.
My card reader is currently on the fritz, but I generally post picspam every now and then. I take pictures of my daily life, the kawaii items I collect, make, or send off, and the animals in my life, in particular my guinea pigs. Dink, Kuz, and Alfie are no strangers to the camera, and I love showing them off. In general, I post images at a 400x300 ratio and LJ-cut all but the first image, so these picspams shouldn't bog down your loading time too much. If there's anything in particular you want a picture of, just ask.
Finally, I post book reviews on a very regular basis. I review almost every book that I read, although some slip through the cracks (especially during the school year). I've recently begun cross-posting these reviews to Amazon.com These reviews are primarily for my own benefit: they encourage me to read critically, help me keep track of my reading habits and book count, and allow me to glance back to find favorite authors or genres. However, I hope that they are useful to others as well, and I try to keep them fair, balanced, and largely impersonal. I infrequently review anime, manga, films, plays, and various products as well. Questions and comments on the reviews are more than welcome.
It's also worth mentioning that I use a few filters here on my journal. I have filters for: Self-harm and depression, where I discuss potentially triggering or upsetting topics connected to self-harm and my psychological problems. BDSM, a filter that gets used very infrequently, where I discuss BDSM and sexual topics that may make some uncomfortable. Contact Info, which gives you access to my contact info including email, phone numbers, and addresses. All other topics are accessible to my entire flist, although I may put some topics (slash, TMI, &c.) behind an LJ-cut. If you are interested in being on any of the filters mentioned above, please let me know. I may not add new people to my contact info filter just yet.
Questions? Concerns? Comments? You're more than welcome to leave them here, no matter how specific or how broad. Welcome to all of my new LJ friends! (and much love to all the old ones).