What I've been able to do without ever working particularly hard

[tim]

Imitating juli, things I've done this decade (the long version):

Got a bachelor's degree
Got a master's degree
Got accepted to 22 distinct PhD programs
Failed out of grad school once, dropped out of grad school once (separate occasions)
Dyed my hair orange, green, blue, purple, and black (not all at once)
Got three piercings (none of which I have anymore), but no tattoos
Learned a tiny amount of French
Learned C, C++, Haskell, Standard ML, Ocaml, and Coq; learned how to read Intel and PPC assembly language well enough to map compiled code back onto source code.
Wrote and submitted one conference paper (rejected) and part of another (awaiting review)
Wrote an undergrad thesis and a master's thesis
Wrote letters to the editor that were published in print newspapers
Sang in choirs as an alto, tenor, baritone and bass
Sang in an opera
Took voice lessons for the first time
Played in an orchestra
DJed on two different college radio stations
Got married and divorced
Practiced polyamory; dated people of more than one gender
Had casual sex for the first time
Got drunk for the first time
Tried marijuana in a country where it was legal
Found a religion I fit into
Had four different full-time jobs; did two internships
Met hundreds of interesting people
Met at least 39 people notable enough to have Wikipedia articles about them
Visited 12 countries (other than my own),
Lived in another country for the first time
Visited 22 states (counting DC as a state), many for the first time, and 2 provinces
Lived in four different states
Voted in three different states
Got excused from jury duty three times
Presented as (at least) two different genders
Lived at 15 different addresses long enough to receive mail
Contributed to three open-source projects; released three of my own
Learned to drive a car
Became a competent cyclist and commuted by bicycle regularly
Biked from San Francisco to LA, from Portland to Port Angeles, WA, from Vancouver, BC to Bellingham, WA, and from Olympia, WA to Portland
Biked over 100 miles in one day
Drove from Berkeley to Denver and back
Flew transatlantic nine times roundtrip
Kayaked and did squats, deadlifts, bench press, and pushups for the first time
Read several hundred books
Travelled by train from Milwaukie, WI to Portland, and from Oakland to Olympia
Took multiple interstate bus trips
Worked on three presidential campaigns
Taught a section of an undergrad class
Tutored high-school-aged students
Gave three talks, and presented two posters, at venues outside my institution
Attended 15 professional conferences
Got my name mentioned in the acknowledgments of at least four books, five dissertations, and a few papers
Wrote 7,677 LiveJournal and Dreamwidth posts

Comments

[ivy]

Huh; I did not know you were religious. (Then again, I don't talk about mine a whole lot either.) Would it be rude to ask what religion you found that fit? Normally I wouldn't ask, but it seems less rude if it's brought up.

[tim]

I've been attending Friends meetings for over a year now. I still also identify as agnostic, and I'm not sure exactly when to call myself a Quaker rather than just "someone who attends meetings", but there you go.

[ivy]

That's neat. I helped with a Quaker/Jewish multifaith wedding a while ago (despite being neither Quaker nor Jewish), and I was really impressed by all the Quaker folks I met in the process. Despite being a supposedly happy occasion, weddings so often bring out the worst in people. I'm always stunned and happy when that doesn't happen. (Alternately... if that is their worst, wow those are some very nice people.)

[touchytranny.com]

"dated people of more than one gender"

Wasn't sure if this meant "multiple people who were not all of the same gender" or "at least one person who had more than one gender while I dated them"

not knowing made me smile

[tim]

It's the first, but right after posting I knew someone would make this comment. I've never dated anyone who changed their extrinsic gender during the time that I knew them.

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

So, tell us: which part is most fun to sing? Which part do you like yourself best in? [jealous]

[tim]

Singing alto never felt right; when I was a tenor, I wanted to be a bass, but I hadn't realized yet that tenors were such a rare commodity :P Now that I'm a baritone, I like singing higher, so I wish I was still a tenor. You can't win!

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

Heh, of course. I have the same relationship with my singing voice as I do with my hair color, hair length, and gender: I want it to be whatever I want whenever I want. My singing range is fairly large (generously, E3 to C6) so sometimes I can sing tenor songs, but as my comfortable range is much smaller it doesn't happen often enough for my liking.

hi

[vera-smith.livejournal.com]

seems I can now comment . . .

Re: hi

[tim]

Good, it worked :-)