Another meme.

[saxikath]

I shouldn't do this when I still have a bunch of top 5 lists to do, work to do, and a Mystery Hunt to get ready for, but what the heck. Swiped from gnomi.

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Comments

[cazique.livejournal.com]

what's your favorite food (cuisine, dish, whatever) to cook?
what's your favorite to eat?

[saxikath]

To cook, I guess I tilt towards vaguely Italian or vaguely Chinese. Usually more or less improvised. I also love to bake.

To eat? Indian, sushi, or my mother's linguine and clams.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Have you ever dyed your hair, or considered it? If either, what colour(s)? (I think that your hair is spectacularly beautiful, so I think I must just hoping to be Scandalized. :D )

[saxikath]

I'll reveal my Deep Dark Secret here: I do dye my hair, or rather have it dyed by a professional. It's been through a variety of shades, mostly in the reddish variety; these days, it's just highlighted. I've never dyed it any bizarre colors.

There are plenty of people I know who have never seen my hair in its natural state. :)

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Ah! Do you recall whether I saw it natural or artistically refined? Either way, it and you were lovely. :)

[saxikath]

I don't remember whether I'd started dying it or not when you saw me. (What year was that, anyway?)

[fizzixrat.livejournal.com]

Unless you started dying it when you were 15, I think I've seen it in its natural state. ;)

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Spring, 1995.

[saxikath]

Then you most likely saw it au naturel. I didn't start dying it consistently until about 1999.

[tenwii.livejournal.com]

I am going to cheat and ask 2 questions.

1) When/where did you start larping?

2) What do you do for a living (I've inferred, but wanted to ask. FWIW, I am a marine biologist!)?

[saxikath]

1) In the fall of 2001, I went to this thing called Otherworld. It was a one-weekend LARPish event -- somewhat more directed than the LARPs I've done since (there was a storyline that was being followed, and things were nudged to make sure the story happened). It was an extraordinary experience. I still think it involved some of the most amazing roleplaying I've ever seen, and some of the most stunning moments I've had before or since. I'm still incredibly envious of people who get to be on staff; you can only play once, since it only happens at most once a year, they can take only 48 or so players, and they recycle some plot elements. But oh, my, what a time it was. I could babble about it for hours, still.

Anyway, after that, I was telling cramerica about it, and he said, "Hey, you ought to try this Legends game I've been playing. I dragged lemurtanis along, and we tried it in the spring of 2002, and have both been hooked ever since.

So I came to LARPing later in life than many, but I'm a certified addict now. :)

2) (Marine biologist? How incredibly cool!) I work as an editor in educational publishing, these days in science (though I've done social studies/history and math at various times in my career). I'm working on middle school science these days.

[saphir23.livejournal.com]

How did you come to be where you are and do what you do?

(Not that I don't have any idea, but not enough of one...)

[saxikath]

Huh, that's really a good question. I mean, in some ways, that would require telling my whole life story. :)

But the basic outline would be this:

After college, I went to journalism school, thinking I wanted to be a science writer. I decided pretty quickly that I didn't like reporting, so I left the program after the first year and went back to academic grad school in history of science.

After two years in the Ph.D. program, I was burned out. I was fighting depression, had had several physical illnesses (wrist problems, pneumonia, chicken pox), and didn't really see where I was going to fit in in the academic world. So I took a year off. As it happened, I never went back; got the master's and called it done.

I needed a job for that year off, so I applied for various things. One was an editorial job at Houghton Mifflin. I ended up getting hired for a totally different position there, as an editorial assistant working on elementary social studies textbooks. In short order, they made me an editor, and I stayed there for four and a half years on a series of contract jobs. Then I worked at a dotcom doing online college history books for a year and a half; then I freelanced for a while before getting hired at my previous job, and then moving to my new job.

In the interim, of course, I discovered the NPL and local theater communities (and LARPs; see previous answer!), which shaped the non-work parts of my life.

There was a point -- ten years ago, almost! -- when I almost packed up and moved back to Colorado. After a night out with friends (<lj user=claudia_, do you remember that?), I realized that was going to be a bad idea, and decided not to. I'm glad; I might never have encountered the NPL, among other things, had I done that. That was probably more than you wanted to know. :) Sorry!

[saxikath]

Whoops, I lost the end of that. The rest of the entry was supposed to say:

claudia_, do you remember that?), I realized that my life was really in Boston and that it would be a bad idea to move. Good choice; I might never have found the NPL, among other things, if I had left then.

That's probably more than you wanted to know. :)

[saphir23.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's a nice synopsis -- about the same level of detail I'd have used if asked that question. I'm assuming the move to Boston coincided with start of college?