Five Words Meme

[firstfrost]

Here are my five words from desireearmfeldt. If you want me to pick five words for you, post a comment here saying "words". :)

• Projects
  Projects are how I learn things, and also how I entertain myself. I am very lucky in that I have a job in which "Laura learns something that might be useful later" is considered a good thing, so "I built a web site to let crochet octopodes fight with each other, and learned PHP and mysql in the process" or "I built a dice roller on my Palm Pilot" is encouraged. As it turned out, I did eventually get to use PHP/mysql at work, so they weren't even wrong.
  
  Knitting is a good source of projects, in that it lets me combine vegging out with something that produces tangible results (knitting and watching TV, for example). Most of my knitting projects are for other people; I think I am in general happier with projects that involve other people than ones that are just me. Nevertheless, I tend to not user-proof my little computing hacks very much; justom is always complaining about my perl scripts, that if you try to use them in deliberately wrong ways, they break. Mostly, I tell him "well, don't *do* that." (If I'm writing something for production use, I try to input check it better.)
  
  Because projects are my thing, I do end up being more frustrated than is really appropriate when they aren't working. When I can't get something to work (that is, making *no* progress rather than *slow* progress), I can really only beat my head against it for about half an hour before I have to stop. (I shampooed the carpet in the living room before we moved into our house. The first carpet cleaner I got from Home Depot just would not work. I assumed that it was that I couldn't figure out how to make it work, that I was doing something wrong, but couldn't understand what. I think I finally called chenoameg and asked her for advice when I had brought myself to the brink of tears of frustration and was incapable of rational thought, and she said something like "It's probably broken. Take it back to Home Depot and make them give you a new one." She was right.)
  
  
• People
  I am puzzled sometime as to whether I am an introvert or an extrovert; I think I saw a two-axes description somewhere that made more sense, but I have forgotten what the axes are and think of myself as a socialized introvert. I have never lived alone, and I do not want to. I tend to be mildly creeped out when both harrock and tirinian are both out of town. However, I am not good at large parties, and even more terrible at work parties; I am one of the ones who takes a piece of cake and goes back to hide at my desk.
  
  I believe people are, in general, basically decent folk who want to do the right thing. I am disppointed far less often than you would expect if you are someone who doesn't believe that.
  
  I like understanding people. I like to build psychological models of them in my head. I model some people better than others, and some are still space aliens (by which I mean "my model is neither predictive nor explanatory"). This is useful in playing NPCs in games, but it does mean I end up sympathizing with the bad guys more than the players do. (Poor Klothos.)
  
  I like discovering that I've become better friends with someone, but I am not good at putting in maintenance with people who are drifting away (those of you who no longer live conveniently near me, I'm sorry!)
  
  
• Contentment
  I think I am more happy more often than most people I know. I have the things in life that I want. I worry (slightly, occasionally) that contentment is complacency is dullness, but this also seems like fretting just for the purpose of fretting. I think this is a combination of good luck, a difficulty in staying upset overnight, and the second paragraph of "people".
  
  This is probably why I never really instigate going on vacation. I hear that other people need to get away, or want to see other places. But here is good!
  
  
• Collection
  "Hey, if you're Contract, I'm Collection. I wonder why. Maybe she's doing a mysterious Co- sort of thing."
  
  I do not have the "cannot throw anything away" gene that some of the rest of my family has, but I do collect things - most principally, books, sock yarn, and handmade bowls. By "collect", I mean "I have more than I need, but that doesn't stop me from buying more."
  
  mjperson says that I hoard yarn and I own books, but I do not collect them. He concedes that I collect bowls, though of the three things mentioned, bowls are the thing I have (mostly almost) stopped acquiring. I did acquire a piece of furniture to put bowls in, though. As far as books go, after I have read a book, I only keep it if I think someone else would want to read it, or if I liked it well enough that I would read it again if I ran out of other books to read. (Like that would ever happen.) I am much happier now that I have organized the library with the book-zapper so that I can locate any given book ("Project!").
  
  
• Whimsy
  I am glad that I got over being self-conscious. It makes being whimsical easier and more fun.
  
  I wish to be eccentric rather than annoying; capable of spontaneity rather than incapable of continuity; happy with multiple options but able to pick one without dithering. I wish to tell only those lies that I do not expect to be believed.

Comments

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and "words."

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

These overlap a little too much, but the longer I stare at them, the less any of them look right. :)

Decision
Style
Geekery
Voice acting
Communication