Greenwich MEAN Time!

[The Prime Meridian]

Hello! No, I'm not from England. Yes that title is a geography/username pun. No, I'm not sorry.

 

I'm a woman in my early 30s who's been lurking here a few years, and amassing great piles of underroos for even longer. After finishing my master's degree despite a tough fight against depression and anxiety, I hit a huge wall in the form of... more depression and anxiety. Not helped by an anemic job market. And then someone hired me... for Loathsome Retail Position. As a person, I got worse as the years passed, like employers did on my many job applications. (I was almost at the point of sending a piece of paper with my resume saying, "Please? I work at Loathsome Retail Position. ...please..." Maybe with a stick picture of me in crayon, dying horribly on the floor.). The only good thing about that job is it kept you constantly moving, and was pretty physically demanding. It kept me strong- not svelte, but strong is good.

 

Now I've finally gotten hired at the bottom rung of my field, and it is markedly more sedentary. I now MUST exercise often and invest in better foods (Loathsome Retail Position didn't pay much- noodles can last a while at a dollar a box, but veggies and lean meats are expensive, yo!). Hopefully the new work will lend me that opportunity (a little more pay + free gym admission = progress?). I especially want to learn how to lift weights safely and effectively. I'm walking and going to Curves before I start sitting for large chunks of my day, so not all will be lost.

 

Basically, I want to stop hating myself. It's tiring and only leads to the Dark Side. To do that, I need to get stronger and healthier, and hopefully make a bunch of new nerd friends along the way. Depression and anxiety are always something I'll fight, but I'm out of the lowest dungeons where that's concerned. Definitely, I want to lose a few dress sizes somewhere in Narnia (like... 'Strawberry-happy-to-never-be-going-back-to-London' lost), and maybe find my face and waist again. I'm about a size 18-20 U.S., and I'd like to hit a size 16 by October. Oh, and I also want to complete one of those big-kid outdoor obstacle courses (Tough Mudder/Warrior Dash/Zombie Run, etc.).

 

What else?... I used to fence (badly), and would love to get back into it when I'm able to. I have diverse nerderies that I can expound upon if anyone asks (this post is long enough). Soon I shall have time and money to catch up on games I missed out on for 10 years of college, and buy some soundtracks I like. If I can find a tabletop gaming group, with all the weekends I now have open, that would be grand. And maybe I'm a compulsive rambler and scare people off, but this is kind of a big step, and I'm trying!

 

TL;DR: Greetings, my name is The Prime Meridian, and I need to become better and less pathetic. Hope to see you on a regular basis!

[bker1370]

Welcome aboard, feel free to ramble away...  and, of course, we would all love to hear about your diverse nerderies LOL

[Bookish Badger]

21 hours ago, The Prime Meridian said:

Oh, and I also want to complete one of those big-kid outdoor obstacle courses (Tough Mudder/Warrior Dash/Zombie Run, etc.).

 

Me too me too! I plan on running the Warrior Dash in 2017, and the Dirty Dash looks like a lot of fun too. (Or maybe I just want a t-shirt that says "I play dirty.") Since I am about 100 pounds away from my goal weight and am in no shape to dash anywhere, I've got some work to do in the next 15 months or so. So you sure aren't alone in that regard!

 

Oh, and this is one place where expounding on nerderies is not only tolerated but encouraged, and in some cases demanded.  

[The Prime Meridian]

3 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

 

Me too me too! I plan on running the Warrior Dash in 2017, and the Dirty Dash looks like a lot of fun too. (Or maybe I just want a t-shirt that says "I play dirty.") Since I am about 100 pounds away from my goal weight and am in no shape to dash anywhere, I've got some work to do in the next 15 months or so. So you sure aren't alone in that regard!

 

Hey, that's a good way to go about it: just pay for admission to one of them well in advance. You can do it! *raises hand for fistbump*

 

But anyway, just remember that you guys asked for the following:

 

We'll start on videogames: I can tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro (the first installments for those latter three), Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasies 6 through X-2, Tactics, and FF7: Crisis Core. A bit less knowledgeable about FFs 1-5, Mystic Quest, Zelda 3, Super Metroid, and several other 90s SNES JRPGs. I suck at anything Mario-related (including Mario-Kart, SSB), but they're still fun.  I also recently played through Morrowind and Knights of the Old Republic. I own the second KotoR, but it won't install. I played through the main storyline of vanilla Skyrim during a couple of limbo months when I was babysitting for relatives who had a Playstation. Later I bought it on a huge Steam sale, but need a more robust machine for it. I've played Adventure Game Studio/Flash/HTML3-types of point and click games since the early 2000s, as well as text adventures since the mid-1990s. (Think MOTAS, 7 Days a Stranger, Zork II, etc.).

 

I think my first treat to myself after I complete a single pull up, lose a dress size, or survive midterms (because New Job is in higher ed) is to start Oblivion or Dragon Age Origins. Maybe I'll join World of Warcraft, if only because I know people who still play and the social aspect would be fun.

 

I was WAY into webcomics from about 2001-2011, then stuff happened, and then I wasn't. I did just start rereading Last Days of Foxhound, and it's still as hilarious as I remember. I got pretty far into 8-Bit Theater at one point.

 

Some anime, I like, and am not ashamed to say it's mostly the ones you saw on Adult Swim in the early-mid 2000s. Though Attack on Titan looks like it could be decent. I also watched the heck out of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis (do not speak to me of Universe). I'm somewhat conversant on Star Trek (though of the new continuity, I only saw the first reboot movie), and pretty well-versed on Star-Wars (I never read any of the extended universe, pre-Ep.7, but Clone Wars was fantastic). I'm slowly working my way through old Doctor Who, and have seen most of the new seasons, but I probably know the most about the Tolkien universe.

 

Books... I have been in a real reading slump lately. The last one I finished for fun was The Name of the Wind, but I've been wanting to start on the Dresden Files for a while now. People keep telling me to pick up Game of Thrones... but it doesn't interest me. I did read a whole bunch of R.A. Salvatore's stuff way back when, as well as two or three of David Eddings' series. I read some Pern books, but I lost interest. Also tried to hack through the Wheel of Time series... I think I made it a little into the fourth and just couldn't go on, haha. The Shannara series was also recommended, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

 

I want to get my late grandmother's violin fixed up and find a place to take lessons. Mostly I play brass. I listen to many kinds of music, but I guess the nerdy picks would be a lot of soundtracks, especially those from videogames, and remixes of the latter. I also like stuff by John Williams, Jeremy Soule, Joe Hisaishi, Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Kanno (I have to stop that list now, or I never will), and stand by the assertion that while the second FMA TV adaptation was great because it followed the manga, the first TV series (also good) had the superior soundtrack by far.

 

Languages interest me, and I've studied a couple on and off for years. Spanish, I can probably just ask where the restrooms are or order off a menu, and I can almost hold simple conversations in German. Duolingo has been a help.

 

Maps are one of my favorite things to study, and when I win the lottery someday, I will get me one of those water-colored Churchill-sized globes to put in a drawing room of the castle I will also build. It will be amazing.

 

I like to experiment with baking (and let other people eat it if the results didn't make Julia Child roll in her grave). I want to learn how to make good brioche and challah to bring to parties and such.

 

And I'm certainly missing things from this list.

[Bookish Badger]

21 hours ago, The Prime Meridian said:

he last one I finished for fun was The Name of the Wind, but I've been wanting to start on the Dresden Files for a while now. People keep telling me to pick up Game of Thrones... but it doesn't interest me.

 

Ohhh, you're in for a treat with the Dresden Files! Also, if you like more traditional fantasy, Butcher's Codex Alera is a great series. I haven't tried his new steampunkish series yet, but it's on my to-read list.

 

I am personally a big Song of Ice and Fire fan (Hurry up and write already, Martin!! Must have book 6!) but if it doesn't interest you, don't feel compelled. Or rather, borrow a copy from one of the friends trying to convince you, and give it a few chapters. Either you'll get sucked in, read all the existing books in a marathon, and emerge a few weeks later bleary-eyed and wondering how the heck you get to Old Town from here...or you won't. The books are too big a commitment to slog through if they aren't to your taste.

 

21 hours ago, The Prime Meridian said:

Maps are one of my favorite things to study, and when I win the lottery someday, I will get me one of those water-colored Churchill-sized globes to put in a drawing room of the castle I will also build. It will be amazing.

 

I am also a cartography nerd and fantasize about what my castle will look like when I build it! Especially the library. I want it to look like a cross between Highclere Castle and Mr. Norrell's manor house in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Except with plumbing and central air. And lots of bandwidth. And plenty of electrical outlets.

[The Prime Meridian]

Ooh, thanks. Steampunk is good if done right. I'll have to dig deeper into Butcher's stuff.

 

I don't know what my castle would look like. Who knows where I'd build or buy the thing. Maybe it'll look like something between Neuschwanstein and one of the imposing, stolid creatures you see in northern Germany, except only about 5,000ft^2. Easier all around when the zombies come. The inside will have super eccentric suites/rooms with different themes. One of those is where I'll put this: http://www.bellerbyandco.com/index.php/globes/the-churchil-globes/the-churchill-oak.html.

[Dani.L]

On 8/11/2016 at 8:03 PM, Bookish Badger said:

 

Ohhh, you're in for a treat with the Dresden Files! Also, if you like more traditional fantasy, Butcher's Codex Alera is a great series. I haven't tried his new steampunkish series yet, but it's on my to-read list.

I am one of the crazy people that actually like Codex Alera better than the Dresden Files. BUT I did only get about 5 books into Dresden Files. The new book is good-ish. Worth reading but I have difficulty actually calling it steampunk.

[Bookish Badger]

13 hours ago, Dani.L said:

I have difficulty actually calling it steampunk.

 

Yeah, that's just how it was described to me by someone who doesn't really know better, and I'm not familiar enough with the books to know what else to call them (except potentially awesome  )

 

My personal take is that most of what passes for steampunk really isn't, but that's an axe that doesn't need grinding here. I'll just leave this instead:

 

[The Prime Meridian]

Haha. Those animated mouths creeped me out, btw. I see what he's saying, and like that he doesn't take himself too seriously. But with two favorable opinions, I've got to check those Butcher series out next, now.