ans99

So intro posts were a thing on LJ and it seems intro Plurks are a thing on, well. Plurk. But I can never think of what to say on Plurk, so I'm going to load as much stuff about myself as I can stand into this entry and then link to it forever after.

Kudos to Kristi for giving me the idea!

So, hi. I'm Ans. That is not my real name, but it's what I prefer to be called. It's short for Ansate, which is in turn short for 'ansate cross', aka 'ankh'. I really love ankhs. And I thought it was additionally pretty clever that the 'ansate' bit refers to having a handle, just as Ansate became my Interwebs handle many years ago.

I'm old. Super-old. Definitely too old for this shit. But I don't like acting my age. I figure if renegade Time Lords can get away with it I should be able to as well, even if I don't have a magical Winnebago to take me to the edge of time.

I'm genderqueer pansexual, presenting female most days. I've been married (to a cis-man, go figure) for almost 6 years. It's working out wonderfully, which is probably a surprise to everyone because I am the prickliest damn curmudgeon you ever gonna meet. Luckily my husband is a stand-up guy who loves me very much and the 10.5 years we'd been dating beforehand got him used to how absolutely horrible I am.

I suffer from depression and suicidal ideation, mainly because I think the world is an awful place and that most of humanity is disappointingly cruel and thoughtless. As you can guess, I have very few real friends or even acquaintances. I have a hard time with social interactions because I can't put on a happy face, and most niceties strike me as unbearably fake. I get along better with animals. Right now I have four bunnies (which is a long story involving sprained ankles, two separate rescue efforts, a surprise pregnancy, and lots of frustration) and two cats. They are better than children, so I will probably never have any.

I'm estranged from my parents and brother due to a history of emotional and physical abuse. I've never been close with my extended family either. I totally believe that you choose your family based on who is there for you and supports you.

We currently live in the Bay Area of California. I really like California in general; it's got so many different biomes just a few hours' drive away. And the weather, of course, is phenomenal. Spring pretty much happens in February, and winter is an extended fall except it's when everything turns green and misty like a Tolkien novel. And it has a lot of natural beauty. I call it the sunny England.

Don't ask me what I do for a living, because right now it's nothing. After wasting time getting an Animal Science B.S. and then an Animal Behavior M.S. I threw it all away to become an artist. So naturally, I now make no money. I got a degree in Graphic Design and have been slowly learning how to run my own business. My main artistic bents are photography, digital painting, and portrait drawing.

I'm also in a band with my husband, though we're on indefinite hiatus while we try to find time to do it. I sing, play piano, write the lyrics, and co-arrange the songs. All of the various artsy things I do are listed here.

I am not religious. I used to be incredibly offended by religious stuff, but I've mellowed over time. I still kind of think religion is bunk, but I wouldn't consider myself an atheist either so much as agnostic. I like general spiritual things and pagan mythology more than organized Judeo-Christian or Muslim stuff. Most of my extended family is Mormon though, and I'll defend them to the death from naysayers. Even if I never talk to any of them.

Yes, I do RP. I used to be embarrassed about it, mostly because of my age but also because nobody I knew in real life did it and it was generally looked down upon by my friends. But now I just don't give a crap. Which I guess just means I'm even older.

RP to me is collaborative storywriting. I know others have different ideas about what it is, but that's why I do it. For that reason I tend to prefer prose over action spam (my action spam usually just ends up being prose with more coding anyway, so it turns into a major pain in the ass), plotting over winging it, and backtagging over handwaving.

Even though the collaborative aspect is what I love about RP, I've fell into my share of wank and drama over the years. A lot of things happened that were unfair to me and others, and it's difficult for me to trust people in general anyway (if you were wondering why my friend count is abnormally low). I now tend to get incredibly nervous at any sign of potential strife and have abandoned games pre-emptively to avoid big stinks down the line. Basically, if people stay chill, I stay chill. And if people communicate before it all goes to shit, life is generally better. So I like games where there's no posturing, no expectations of hourly tags, and no wanky players or mods.

I have a huge roster but I don't play most of them much. It'd be kind of impossible to do that and have a life outside the computer. I'm not exactly well-known in RP anyway (and I like it that way, trust me) but I suppose I'm most known for my Master from Doctor Who. I've played him the longest. Lately I've gotten into memes and museboxes more because of the AU PSLs that can result, and because it allows me to play more characters at once.

Things that interest me:

Sci-fi/fantasy/geek stuff (think Doctor Who, Farscape, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Being Human The Magicians)

Nature and biology (Live animals as well as detritus like bones, leaves, shells, etc. Paxton Gate is my favorite place. I'm particularly partial to opportunistic and sassy animal species like corvids, foxes, rodents, rabbits, etc. And also predators, especially raptor birds and cats. I'm terrible at gardening but love trying it)