Interests again

LJ Interests meme results

1. books:
   Of all the stuff I have, I value my books the most. I was telling a friend earlier this week that I very much identify myself through my stuff, and my books are a big reflection of who I am. Most of the books I have I've read, or at least started to. Some I've not, but most of those are either ones I got from my Dad or that I got with every intention of reading but things just haven't worked in that direction. Yet.
   
   
2. complexity:
   I'm fascinated by complexity, but put off by complication. Sometimes I have difficulty in distinguishing one from the other, which can either make for a pleasant surprise or disappointment to one degree or another.
   
   
3. etymology:
   I love words and I love history. Etymology is the confluence of the two and can keep me entertained for hours. I'm currently reading "Word Lore: The History of 200 Intriguing Words." It's where I got the quote for my last post. Learning about the origin and historical development of words adds not only to my vocabulary, but also to my language skills and my knowledge of history. "Well rounded" doesn't being to cover what this does.
   
   As a programmer, I *have* to have a good handle on both key words and syntax before I feel confident enough to want to take the time to write a program from scratch in that language. For relatively small languages like BASIC and ksh, I'm a stone-cold wizard. For keyword and syntax rich languages like Perl and C, I'm still a novice. Part of this bias is a result of my pursuit of etymology beginning in jr. high school. I have to have a complete, even deep, understanding of what it is I'm writing (not that my writing reflects that very much) whether it's an innocuous lj post or a program for a key business function at my job. Without that, my discomfort is such that I avoid dealing with it. For lj that's no big deal; for my job, it can be an inconvenience or a huge problem.
   
   
4. honesty:
   I've certainly not been 100% honest 100% of my life. In spite of that, I have a strong appreciation for honesty, and deep respect for people who actively try to be honest. And not just honest in word, but honest in deed and honest in intentions--which is sometimes the most difficult sort of honesty of all to manage.
   
   
5. linux:
   I'm an oddity as far as technologists go in that I am rarely on the leading edge. My first encounter with Linux was with release 5.5 in 1997 or 1998. Today I have three different versions of RedHat going at work. I find this incredibly annoying but since RedHat changed their direction with the "Enterprise" products, cost is an issue. This has effectively stopped my linux experience dead. I don't have the time or interest or extra hardware to put up a fedora server. Linux is becomming more just another item on the resume and less and less of a interest for me.
   
   
6. night:
   I love the night. I am most decidedly a creature of the night. I feel more at home, more alive, more aware at night than at any other time of the day. This is totally not a sleep-related thing, either. It's just how I am.
   
   
7. quiet:
   I crave quiet. Dead, soundless, motionless quiet. The quiet of the night is the best.
   
   
8. science fiction:
   I grew-up on Asimov, Frank Herbert, James Blish, and most of the rest of the classic authors. Except I didn't discover Heinlien and a few others until later. But, as a consequence, I gave-up on Sci-Fi in the early 90's. I didn't like most of the new stuff. The last new Sci-Fi I read was "Salmon of a Doubt", and that's not really "new" at all.
   
   
9. talking to myself:
   I talk to myself incessantly. I constantly have a running conversation (or two or three) going on in my head all the time. Unless I'm asleep or talking to someone intently, or programming, I've got me going on in my head. When I get upset or excited I talk to me outloud. I'm sure I look like a stark, raving, madman (or a complete moron) stalking the halls at work when I'm cranked up about something, yammering away to myself about it all.
   
   
10. used book stores:
    Good used book stores are like crack to an addict for me. Bad used book stores are like... there's this line from a movie that I cannot recall that goes something like "if you want to hurt a man, you don't take away what he loves, you take it away and give it back to him broken." That's a really bad used book store.

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