The Obligatory About Page
Welcome to my Tumblr. Here are some guidelines that will help you decide whether you want to follow me or not, and possibly explain the things I post here.
I will not follow you just because you followed me.
You do not have to follow me just because I followed you.
The unfollow button is free to use anytime you like.
If you do unfollow me, I don’t care why.
Those things should go without saying, but some people have very different opinions on good netiquette. You should only follow what interests you; just because I find you interesting doesn’t mean you’ll find me interesting, and vice versa. And if you find you’re mistaken about choosing to follow me, stop following me. This is the Internet. You’re not obligated to listen to me. It’s a wonderful thing.
Who are you?
I’m a person who likes things and writes about them, and also hates things and complains about them. I have a degree and an unrelated job. I am like everyone else on the Internet. If you’d like to stereotype me further, I’m 25 and a lady. Onward!
What the hell is the title of this blog from?
It’s a line in a Steely Dan song called “Almost Gothic.” That’s about it. Interpret it as you like.
We might like the same things. Do we think the same things?
I’m a feminist and an atheist. If those things are distasteful to you, fair warning: I do put up posts about those things from time to time.
For the record, atheism is not a claim to know whether there is a supreme creator-being or not. Any atheist who claims they “know” this is a fool. Please do not put words in my mouth, and if you don’t know any atheists, you’re better off talking to a few before you make outrageous claims about their character. My ask box is open.
So either we agree on those points, or we’re willing to respectfully disagree. What do you like that I might like?
I like a lot of things! Most of my posts are about music, video games, TV, movies, and books. I post my own photography and occasionally write at length about whatever is on my mind at the moment. Sometimes I’ll post ten times in a day; sometimes I won’t post for three days. It’s a personal Tumblr, so it relies on my personal whims and my schedule.
You want specifics? You’re so needy. Okay, here are some things I post about, and how you can get to them.
Music. I’m a musician from a musical family, so this is an extremely important subject for me. I love all kinds of music, but I spend most of my time on jazz, and I post videos, photos, and quotes relating to it. Probably the best way to see most of what I like is to peruse the audio tag and follow the tags attached to those posts. I know sometimes I come off like a music snob because of the amount of time I spend bloviating about, say, how much John Coltrane annoys me, but the truth is I’m not very picky and there is a lot of objectively regrettable stuff in my collection that I just love.
Video games. What I currently spend most of my time doing, though not always posting about it. I got my SNES in 1992 and have been a hardcore Nintendo gamer ever since, though I also play some PC games. I currently own a SNES, an N64, a GameCube, a Wii, and a 3DS. I mostly play platformers and racing games but I like everything. For the record, I have absolutely nothing against Sony or Microsoft. I’ve just never played a system from either of them and have no interest in doing so at this point.
I have a separate blog for stupid video game posts right here. It’s overflowing with Fire Emblem: Awakening right now, but I promise I do play other games. AWAKENING IS JUST SO GOOD YOU GUYS.
Movies. There’s a movies tag. I’m not an active movie watcher because I don’t have the attention span for it, so I’m not going to go super in-depth on this point. I love them as an art form, though, I genuinely do, and as a jumping-off point for critical writing — they’re so much a product of a time, place, and culture, and so important as a result. I like mostly action movies, foreign films, war movies, and documentaries. I love comedy as well, but tend to prefer it in the more digestible TV version.
TV. American TV buffs will be disappointed with me as I only watch one current program. My favorites are all dead. Sorry, but it is what it is, and no, I don’t want to watch whatever show you like. I don’t have time. I don’t have time because I am invested in a lot of British comedy. Panel shows, mostly, but I like scripted comedy as well, of course. Here are some tags for your perusal: Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister, QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Black Books, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Argumental, The Good Life, Waiting for God, Would I Lie to You?, Mock the Week, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and — yes — more.
Books. There’s a books tag. It takes me forever to get through a book because, again, I have no attention span, so my reading pace is pretty glacial even though the physical act of reading is quick. I primarily read nonfiction (naval history, the history of Spain, empire-building, biographies, sports, science, whatever’s interesting), so you’re better off not trying to start up a conversation with me about a novel. I most likely have no idea what you’re talking about.
Sports. I tend to lapse on sports because I find the obnoxiousness of the fanbases/media so overwhelming that the only thing I can do is retreat for a season or two at a time. I did this with baseball for a couple of years and am currently doing it with hockey. It is what it is. Anyway, broadly speaking, I am a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, University of Rhode Island Rams, and the United States and Argentina men’s national football teams, to varying degrees. I also contribute to the Dodgers Baseblog here on Tumblr.
Photography. Tumblr’s tagging system is broken, so all my posts I’ve tagged with my camera’s make/model are pretty useless. You can check the dogs and Rhode Island tags, though, as those are where most of my photos go. Pictures I’ve taken with my phone are easier to find; try the Instagram, Android, or mobile tags. This should go without saying, but it doesn’t, so I’ll say it: my photographs are my property and you may not use them without credit or without my permission unless I have specifically indicated that a photograph is licensed under Creative Commons for a particular use. If I see my photo reposted somewhere without credit or consent, I will have it taken down.
Anything else, you verbose freak?
Nah, not really. That about covers this blog.
Again, my ask box is open (N.B. I reserve the right to ignore you) and I’m happy to hear questions, comments, anything constructive.
Happy Tumbling!
