I'm sure you want to ask me anything, even anonymously!

Ask me something:
http://www.formspring.me/xoder

It's even anonymous.

As you might imagine, I reserve the right to not answer.

Snatched from, mountainheather
Association Meme:
Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.
The subjects that she chose are:
Zip cars
Tae kwon do
polyamory
engineering
NYC

( Textactular landslideCollapse )

Ok, so I got tagged something like five times over Facebook with this one. Sorry in advance. When it imports into Facebook, I might add some tags to it. If I remember.

The 25 things meme involves rattling off 25 "interesting" things about yourself and then tagging 25 people on Facebook to make them do the same. You're also supposed to tag back whoever tagged you, so hopefully this will act as an appropriate suicide function for it once it has reached saturation.

1) I am a Discordian, mostly because it's a funner branch of Zen.
2) I am an atheist. So, yes, that means I do not believe in the literal existence of Eris, or YHWH, or whatever.
3) Truth be told, I can't really understand why anyone would look at the questions of the world and come to the conclusion that there was a god or gods somewhere as the simplest explanation.
4) In case it's not obvious, I do believe in Occam's Razor.
5) I'm tall. I normally forget this except when I'm on the train and I notice someone's head pop up above the rest of the heads. Then I think he's tall, and then I realize that I'm taller (or sometimes shorter) than he is.
6) Speaking of, I was always the tallest kid in class, and the tallest kid in school until High School.
7) I hold a Third Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. The name of the particular style is Chung Do Kwan.
8) I'm still a klutz.
9) I've had a total of seven regular students in Tae Kwon Do. One quit after a week. Three made it to yellow belt and I never see them any more. One made it to green and I never see him any more. One made it to brown belt (faboo) and then moved out of town. And one semi-current student who is a yellow belt. I hope she continues.
10) I also taught Tae Kwon Do at the Seagate Beach Club for two summers. I even had a regular student or two there, but it was mostly kids just running in and out as they pleased.
11) To tell you the truth, I felt that giving the kids the freedom to go to class or not helped me immensely. If I was stuck in a gym or studio, I'd have to maintain their attention.
12) I used to swim all the time. But I didn't swim competitively until High School. I was the fastest Freshman for the first week of practice because I already had the technique down.
13) But physical quickness has never come easily to me. I don't know if it's because I'm so big, or because I really wasn't much of a sports person as a child.
14) I love living in New York City.
15) I work in Clifton, New Jersey for a defense contractor. I do not make bombs. I make digital communications systems. (And the one I'm working on now is annoying me, but work is work and it's not actually that annoying.) My commute isn't that bad, surprisingly.
16) Speaking of my commute, I use public transit, and it does me quite well. When everyone's out because of a few snowflakes, I'm chilling in the lab with my boots on. It does take an hour each way, though.
17) I've been growing to like driving, although spatially I sometimes have trouble with the edges of the car. That is to say, I often think the car is bigger than it is and handle accordingly.
18) I'm something of a grammar nazi. I'm willing to bend to convention on occasion, but even my text messages are complete sentences.
19) I often feel out of place in traditional male gatherings. So much time is spent in negativity. I appreciate the wordplay though, and can fake it pretty well for a while.
20) For that matter, I don't much like going to "normal" parties. The loud music, dark lights, and large amount of booze are annoying and make it hard to focus. I also just feel out of place.
21) Because, you see, I don't drink. Never have, and I don't intend to. Nor do I use any other psychoactives stronger than caffeine or kava kava.
22) Not that I have anything against those who do, within reason. For instance, I think marijuana should be legalized (and regulated and taxed). What bothers me is when people get too sloppy with any intoxicant.
23) I can't believe it took me this long to mention that I'm polyamorous. I'm currently engaged to erin_trying and kinda-sorta seeing two other ladies. I'd like to have a full-on girlfriend as well as Erin, but right now I just don't have the kind of energy for that kind of pursuit, especially if I have to work too hard for it (i.e., I'd like to be sought after). Now that I write that out, it sounds kind of bad, but you wanted honesty, right?
24) Yes, I ignored the Discordian holy numbers 5 and 23 above and put nothing particularly significant in it. A Discordian is Forbidden from Believing What He Reads. That said, every thing I have put down (and will put down) is the truth.
25) It took me three days of sporadic writing during work to get this damn thing written out. Some of the rest of you had better take it eventually!

Ask me a question about each of the following:

1. Friends
2. Sex
3. Music
4. Drugs
5. Love
6. Livejournal

No matter how rude or confidential I will answer the question honestly (though I reserve the right to screen my answer or your questions or both, this is googleable, after all).
Then post this in your journal and see what questions you get asked!

January: Just as I'm about to leave to have hot water @ my parents', the hot water returned.
February: In other news, I'm a moron.
March: Pete
April: “When I got to the train station tonight after school, I had a moment of sheer terror because no one else is here at this train station."
May: This is the Brooklyn Municipal Building.
June: Found in 125 Street Station.
July: Erin and Chris finished it before I got home last night.
August: The back side of a street sign near the train station has had this tag on it for months.
September: Someone must really dislike this person.
October: It seems we have a new artist inside the train shelter.
November: My alarm did not wake me this morning, but it's OK, because the school across the street did.
December: So it appears that there is some major problem with the test I'm currently running at work, but the bigger problem is that while my coworkers were trying to debug the issue yesterday, they managed to trip the breaker for our bench's UPS, causing the whole thing to shut down.

I can has no more cold, plz? How was your day in lolcat speak?

Remember that "Take a photo of yourself" meme that's going around? Heck, even I did it. Click the link, it's an awesome 101-word story.

1 take a picture of yourself right now
2 don't change your clothes, hair, etc
3 no photo editing
4 post these instructions with your photo

(when I first saw this, I was at work, where cameras are prohibited)

"You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes."

above text and questions, below, stolen from glib_dichotomy

Please feel free to ask any additional questions. If I like it, I'll add it to the list. If I don't like it as much, then I'll just reply. I re-read my answers thoroughly and decided not to friends-lock this. If your question is that awesome, but something I'd like to keep private-er, then I'll make a friends-only post in response to it.

1. First Name: Peter. No, not "Pete".

2. Age: 24 until September 10.

3. Location: Right now? Clifton NJ, but I live in Harlem, NYC

4. Occupation: Systems Test Engineer for a defense contractor. Yeah, yeah, military-industrial complex, I know. I worry about the over-militarized nature of our economy, and I'm also concerned that I may get laid off if who I want to win in November does. To be fair, I don't make munitions, just communication systems. To be unfair, one of the three "domains" of the system I'm working on is for a "smart" minefield. Sorry.

5. Partner: My primary is erin_trying (formerly of shoujo_mallet). We live together in Harlem with five other people (some on LJ, some not). There is one new development on that front, but I'm not sure how hard or fast to pursue it, or if it's a good idea to do at all, but that's just my second-guessing nature.

6. Kids: Not at this time, thank you.

7. Brothers/Sisters: Two younger brothers. I'd link to them, but they don't believe in the Internet.

8. Pets: No, thank you.

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
1) Doing Tae Kwon Do just about as much as I can.
2) This week I'll be doing my first road race (outside of TKD camp), 3.5 miles in Central Park. I'm not worried, but I still think I could have trained more.
3) I love erin_trying more every day.
4) After this summer, I will start taking courses in Security to prepare for an intra-company career change.

10. School: I have a BS in Electrical Engineering (with a Computer Engineering concentration) from RIT ('06). At this rate, I will have an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology by the end of this upcoming academic year ('09), and possibly also a Graduate Certificate in "CyberSecurity" by the same timeframe. The last two will be paid for, hopefully in full, by my employer (assuming I can keep my grades up, that is).

11. Parents: I have two. They live in Brooklyn, in the house I grew up in. One of the reasons I'm hesitant to have kids is that I don't think I could live up to even one-eighth their example.

12. Who are some of your closest friends?: Well, obviously erin_trying. Outside of that, I guess Carrie [not linking unless she wants to], since we talk a lot. I still consider faboo and malual to be very close friends of mine, even though I rarely see them. I've become a lot closer with angst_pirate since I started teaching her TKD. Of course, this answer is not intended to be complete, or even sane, so please don't be offended that I didn't keep adding to this list instead of going back to work.

Everyone has things they don't blog about.

Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. I reserve the right to filter appropriately.

Comments screened.

So many of you have posted this quiz lately (as in the past five minutes), I thought I should follow suit. Some questions I have a hard time with, like the minimum wage question (it needs to be higher, I believe, but I'm not sure about long-term and generalizable strategies that actually work). Interesting that it picked two Dems I've heard little about in my top three.

82% Bill Richardson
80% Mike Gravel
80% Chris Dodd
79% Barack Obama
77% Dennis Kucinich
75% Hillary Clinton
75% John Edwards
71% Joe Biden
45% Rudy Giuliani
41% John McCain
37% Ron Paul
35% Mike Huckabee
34% Mitt Romney
29% Tom Tancredo
26% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Your Aspie score: 63 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 152 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

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Anyone else remember the great "No, I've got Aspergers'" wars on /. Essentially everyone is trying to prove to everyone else how their unwillingness to learn proper social mores means they're going to become an über-genius like Rain Man or some shit. [Do not get me wrong, I'm sure there were some people posting who are genuine sufferers of this condition, but I got the impression like many were treating Aspergers' like it was some kind of geek badge of honor.]

I am polyamorous and straight. But y'all knew that already. So do my parents, and even a few extended relatives.

Leave a post. I will tell you something awesome about you.

Everyone needs an ego boost sometimes.

See where my LJ friends are: http://rezendi.zigamorph.net/friendsmap.htm?userName=xoder

I tried out TrustFlow II for LiveJournal. The following people not on the friends list for xoder are close by:

• inspirologie (250 - 300)
• zimwy (350 - 400)
• jluke (400 - 450)

( More results below the cut...Collapse )

Created by ciphergoth; hosted by LShift.

TrustFlow II: Who is closest to your friends list?

1) I'll tell you why I friended you
2) Associate you with something
3) Tell you something I like about you
4) Tell you a memory I associate with you
5) Associate you with a character
6) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you
7) Tell you my favorite userpic of yours
8) In return, feel free to repost. Or not. Or whatever.

So, it's been too long since I last posted, so I'll need some post ideas. Ask me a question, any question, and I'll answer it in a future post. All comments are screened and when I post the questions, I won't identify the asker. Also, I'll try to keep the posts public, for my amusement, as well as the amusement of my Facebook feed reader. (By the way, rosefox made this userpic for me and Erin because we say it a lot, so there!)

Reply to this, and I will tell you my favorite icon of yours!

Then, repost this in your journal with your favorite icon!

(Click here to post your own answers for this meme.)

✓ I miss somebody right now.	× I don't watch much TV these days.  (Depends on how you define "much." During the summer, I've been primarily watching TV because its cooler than where the computer is.)	✓ I own lots of books.
× I wear glasses or contact lenses.  (Still 20-20ish, although I do notice a)	✓ I love to play video games.  (My biggest games lately are "jewels" on my RockBox and Enigma on Windows/Linux)	× I've tried marijuana.  (I don't do psychoactives)
✓ I've watched porn movies.	× I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.  (I don't *think* so)	✓ I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
✓ I curse sometimes.  (Where "sometimes" is "quite a bit")	× I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.  (I don't think so.)	× I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.  (I'm afraid I'd play with it in public and/or forget I have it when going into "sensitive" locations (courts, churches, the subway, your mom))

( holy crap this is big!Collapse )

Leave a comment telling me why I'm on your friendslist. Then post these instructions in your LJ and see why people have you on theirs!

Leave your name, and...

1. I'll respond with something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours

( Most popular LJ users among friendsCollapse )</p>

Find a friend

Today is ask me anything day.

So go to it. And if you have multiple questions, go to it again and again!

( Me, in doll formCollapse )
If anyone wants to fine-tune it, please do not hesitate. Or, even better, post yourself!

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and get a letter (if you're up to playing).

Write ten words beginning with that letter, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why.

Thanks to msanborn I got the letter "D", so here we go in no particular order:


1. Delight: If you cannot experience childlike delight, you have already died.

2. Death: The only thing that you must do yourself. You cannot avoid it, or make someone else do it.

3. Doom: A fun word to say. DOOOOOOM!

4. Daylight: The reason I have sunglasses. Although I do enjoy the feeling of sunlight on my skin.

5. Delete: The backwards backspace.

6. Dork: Whale dick¹. Also: me.

7. Detritus: I try to cut off the detritus, but sometimes sentimentality gets the best of me. I'm not a full-scale hoarder by any means, but it can be difficult to get me to throw things out that I have not already decided should go.

8. Discordian: A philosophy where I don't have to take anything seriously (and if I do, I'm doing it wrong)? Precisely what my aneristic mind needs to take care of itself!

9. Diplomatic: I've been told I'm too diplomatic. Like the other day I asked a sales rep some questions. She had to put me on hold, and I apologized for the inconvenience. My dad chastized me: "It's her job!"

10. Dictionary: I almost refrained from looking in one to find the last word. Then realized that the title was enough. D'oh¹!


¹ Bonus D-word!!!
² In addition, please note that the icon is a D-word!

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Edits:
2006-04-26 1155: kgola tagged me with the letter J
2006-04-29 1040: mountainheather tagged me with the letter F [friends-locked post, sorry]
2006-05-02 1431: misch tagged me with the letter Y.

RULES: 1. You must answer honestly
2. You must tag five people

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I tag:

faboo
malaul
mountainheather
comadrug235
kgola

I tried out TrustFlow II for LiveJournal. The following people not on the friends list for xoder are close by:

• inspirologie (250 - 300)
• zimwy, jluke (350 - 400)
• shoshie, flipsilk (400 - 450)

( More results below the cut...Collapse )

Created by ciphergoth; hosted by LShift.

TrustFlow II: Who is closest to your friends list?