Top Ten list
in answer to recent query by kirsten_faith
kirsten_faith asked us to write down 10 things we love so she could get to know us all a little better. It took me so long to write (what? she specifically asked for extended answers!) that I thought I’d post it here too. Let me know if you’ve written one yourself - I’d love to read it.”
I am re-ordering them slightly, and I doubled some I felt went together (with explanation). But it was UNCANNY how much rebeccavoy and I had in common.
1. Jesus Christ
As much as everyone in fandom thinks Amanda Tapping is my #1, due sadly in part to a lack of balance in my social networking posts, Jesus is my #1. I don’t love my flisters any less if they believe otherwise; this just happens to be what I think/how I feel, as Daniel Jackson would say. I try not to be pushy or preachy or judgmental (or what the world calls “intolerant”), but I have conservative beliefs.
I believe in the inerrancy of scripture (which I believe is “God-breathed”), that Jesus is the Son of the living God. He is my personal Lord and Savior. I believe in heaven (eternal life=eternity in the presence of God) and hell (eternal death=outside the presence of God). I celebrate His birth in December, even if it is scheduled around a pagan holiday and traditions rather than the “proper” time of year. I celebrate his death and resurrection at Easter. In between, I try to live according to what the Bible teaches as best I can at my current level of understanding.
I attend church and participate in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), an intensive weekly Bible study. www.bsfinternational.org
2. Amanda Tapping
While Sam Carter was not my first character (nor Amanda Tapping my first actor) obsession, I definitely would have to say both have exceeded the fangirrrrlishness of any earlier fixation (Stefanie Powers, Lindsay Wagner, Kate Jackson, Ally Walker…). Perhaps it is because I have met Amanda several times or because Stargate went on for so long, or perhaps (and of course, I think this the most likely explanation) it is just because of the awesomeness of both Amanda and Sam - and now Helen. :)
3&4. Reading & Writing
I combine them, for without the one, there is not the other. I probably owe both to my older sister who (1) took me to the public library weekly and (2) also loved to write. I began reading on my own at about age 4 when my much-older sibling became a teen and too busy to read to me any more. I was already “writing” stories - in a silly sing-song way. I used to walk along the curb and tell myself stories, sometimes singing them. Weird, yes. Never claimed I wasn’t!
I had no encouragement toward writing (other than the older sister who liked to do it) until fourth grade, by which time I pretty much read *at least* one book a week, usually two. Both things totally took off from there. The public librarians used to try to chase me back downstairs to the kids’ section, but I had pretty much read all of those by sixth grade.
I discovered fan fiction online in about 2001 and devoured most of Heliopolis, Jackfic, Samjack, etc.Started writing it about then as well.Tag on eljay: majorsamfanfic.
5. Drawing & Painting
I started this as a kid, too. My brother did it, so I wanted to. I didn’t know until many years later we got the talent from our mom, who had done a lot of the sketches for her high school paper and year book. I like to do distinctly different things in different media:
Pencil/charcoal: draw faces
Watercolor: butterflies, flowers, birds
Oils: landscapes (wet on wet technique a la Bob Ross, Alexander)
6. TV/Movies (specifically Scifi & Mystery/Suspense Genres)
I still remember my very first sci-fi. Star Trek - The Original Series. It was on very late, and at age 7 (almost 8), that was the only night I was allowed to stay up past 8 or 9pm. We watched it as a family on our black and white television, and my cousins tried to tell me Mr. Spock looked green on their color TV. ST:TOS was only the first of many sci-fi shows to which I have been (and still am) addicted.
I have taken very few (I can think of one, other than weekend religious retreats or music/writing conferences) vacations in the last 25 years that did not revolve around attending a sci-fi convention. I probably attended at least 20-30 Star Trek ones put on my Creation Entertainment in the late 80s and early 90s. Fast forward to 2004, and I started going to Stargate cons. Had planned to go in 2001, but that’s a long story. Since then, well, as I said, I’ve seen Amanda at least ten times, and I have attended a half dozen that didn’t involve her, too. Since August 2004, I’ve been to 3 GABIT AT events of the 4 they have had, 1 Wolf Events SG con (SG-10 2005), 1 Gatecon, 1 Creation Grand Slam in LA, 3 Creation New Jersey Stargate cons, 2 Creation Chicago Stargate cons, 1 Creation LA Stargate con, 2 Creation LA/Burbank Farscape cons (for Ben/Claud), 1 Creation Vancouver Stargate con, 2 Atlanta Dragon*Cons and 5 San Diego Comic-Cons.
When I used to come home at lunch from grade school, my mom would be watching Perry Mason. She had a subscription to Ellery Queen Magazine, too, and I read every one of them. We watched Mission: Impossible, The F.B.I., It Takes a Thief, Ironside and many other police, court, crime dramas. Too bad they don’t have Mystery genre cons, but I have seen David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel from Bones at San Diego Comic Con.
7&8. Crafty type hobbies & Photography
I love to take photographs; many are at sci-fi conventions, true. I also have a macro lens obsession with respect to flowers, especially as I like to make cards out of them or paint the subject. I haven’t committed to a 365-project like rebeccavoy, but I have joined an eljay community and a Facebook community for it, the latter having “photo shootouts” with a theme word.
I’ve always been artsy-craftsy, but about 15 or 20 years ago, the rubber stamping sensation went through my circle of friends. A friend of a friend sold Stampin’ Up! products, and I went to big trade shows, too. I have given away some of my overflow, but I have a good $1,000 tied up in stamps and supplies, I would guess. For a number of years, I made all my own greeting cards. Now, I mainly do it when I do a workshop or for a special card for someone. I used to call it therapy.
From there, I went on to scrapbooking. I’ve used the rubber stamping *some* in the scrapbooks, but I have applied a lot of the know-how (and the love of photography and the sci-fi convention attendance) to scrapbooking. I even made a scrapbook for Amanda Tapping and gave it to her the first time we met.
9. Genealogy/Researching my Family Tree
A former co-worker dragged me, kicking and screaming (not literally) into this, and it became a HUGE time investment. I thoroughly enjoy it, though! Through research online, I have reconnected with a first cousin I knew only a little as well as some more distant, researching cousins I never knew anything about.
My father’s (Bratcher) line has been traced back to immigration to the Colonies from England/Ireland in the mid 17th century. His mother’s (Galloway) line has been traced to immigration to the Colonies from Scotland in the mid 18th century. Some corollary lines in Daddy’s side of the tree immigrated in about 1655 (Pleasants), mid 1600s (Burton, Hayden, Pullen). Some lines can only be traced back to the late 1700s or about 1800 (Bostick, McMullen, Whitehead). The Hankins and Clevenger lines are traced back to about 1650 (immigrated about then, but don’t have exact info).
My mother’s paternal (Clark) line has been traced to 1800; sadly I’ve been unable to take it further back. Her maternal line (Jones) is equally as difficult, and we have traced it only to the mid 19th century. (Interesting line, though, as my great-grandfather shot his Constable father to prevent him from beating my great-great-grandmother to death.) Several corollary lines in mom’s side of the tree (Albrecht, Loy, Clapp, Tilghman, Townsend and Hagan) are traceable to immigration to the Colonies in 1732, 1741, 1727, 1635, early 1600s and 1662 respectively.
Through her Tilghman line, supposedly I am related to the Plantagenets (who isn’t?), who ruled England (Edward I, II, III) around the 13th century.
10. My friends/Internetz
I count the internetz as a top-ten simply because it has broadened my horizons for friendships, kept me in contact with people who never manage to call or write and provided an avenue for me to learn and to share with respect to the above interests.
I have several distinct groups of friends.
First, there are my local friends, mostly church and BSF-related; if they are on the internetz, most of them are my friends on Facebook, rather than LiveJournal.
Second, I have my online-I-have-met-in-person (mostly at cons) friends. Having attended so many conventions, I have met MANY actors and fans, but the closest of my fan friends are those I’ve seen most often and contact regularly between conventions: Triciabyrne1978, Deaniebtvs, atomicpagan on eljay and a few others, who are on Facebook and Yahoo lists, rather than LiveJournal.
(I moderate a Yahoo Stargate group for Christian fans and have met some of them; I also mod a list for convention info and have met most of them because the list was formed out of the group I met in Chicago the first time I met Amanda. The 3rd group I mod, Amandaholics_Anonymous, includes a lot of new people I don’t really know.) A handful of SG fan friends have actually come and visited me and taken “Auntie Jill’s Whirlwind (San Francisco) Bay Area Tour” (*waves at Meaghan, Kim, Edith and Sarah*).
Of the actors I have met, I have seen Amanda the most, of course, but second runners up include Ben Browder, Colin Cunningham and Michael Shanks (not that I go to a con to see him in particular, but because he does the most of them). Of the actors I have met, besides Amanda, a few have taken permanent places in my heart - Don S. Davis, Carmen Argenziano, Fulvio Cesere, Christopher Heyerdahl - what they lack in hair they more than make up for with HEART - my homegirl, Miracle Laurie (Amanda Jr. srsly - she’s a REAL woman), Linda Hamilton (hugs n kisses), John Noble (a true gentleman) and Colin Cunningham (ZOMGosh! Amazing! Wonderful! Not enough words to describe how awesomepops he is.). Oh, and Hewlett. I *love* Hewlett! (And RDA is sex on legs. I’m just sayin’.) Have I mentioned, I own one of Jason Momoa’s guitars? :D
Third, I have my online-only-haven’t-YET-met friends. Some of them I “talk” to online more than I talk to people I *have* met in person.
kirsten_faith asked us to write down 10 things we love so she could get to know us all a little better. It took me so long to write (what? she specifically asked for extended answers!) that I thought I’d post it here too. Let me know if you’ve written one yourself - I’d love to read it.”
I am re-ordering them slightly, and I doubled some I felt went together (with explanation). But it was UNCANNY how much rebeccavoy and I had in common.
1. Jesus Christ
As much as everyone in fandom thinks Amanda Tapping is my #1, due sadly in part to a lack of balance in my social networking posts, Jesus is my #1. I don’t love my flisters any less if they believe otherwise; this just happens to be what I think/how I feel, as Daniel Jackson would say. I try not to be pushy or preachy or judgmental (or what the world calls “intolerant”), but I have conservative beliefs.
I believe in the inerrancy of scripture (which I believe is “God-breathed”), that Jesus is the Son of the living God. He is my personal Lord and Savior. I believe in heaven (eternal life=eternity in the presence of God) and hell (eternal death=outside the presence of God). I celebrate His birth in December, even if it is scheduled around a pagan holiday and traditions rather than the “proper” time of year. I celebrate his death and resurrection at Easter. In between, I try to live according to what the Bible teaches as best I can at my current level of understanding.
I attend church and participate in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), an intensive weekly Bible study. www.bsfinternational.org
2. Amanda Tapping
While Sam Carter was not my first character (nor Amanda Tapping my first actor) obsession, I definitely would have to say both have exceeded the fangirrrrlishness of any earlier fixation (Stefanie Powers, Lindsay Wagner, Kate Jackson, Ally Walker…). Perhaps it is because I have met Amanda several times or because Stargate went on for so long, or perhaps (and of course, I think this the most likely explanation) it is just because of the awesomeness of both Amanda and Sam - and now Helen. :)
3&4. Reading & Writing
I combine them, for without the one, there is not the other. I probably owe both to my older sister who (1) took me to the public library weekly and (2) also loved to write. I began reading on my own at about age 4 when my much-older sibling became a teen and too busy to read to me any more. I was already “writing” stories - in a silly sing-song way. I used to walk along the curb and tell myself stories, sometimes singing them. Weird, yes. Never claimed I wasn’t!
I had no encouragement toward writing (other than the older sister who liked to do it) until fourth grade, by which time I pretty much read *at least* one book a week, usually two. Both things totally took off from there. The public librarians used to try to chase me back downstairs to the kids’ section, but I had pretty much read all of those by sixth grade.
I discovered fan fiction online in about 2001 and devoured most of Heliopolis, Jackfic, Samjack, etc.Started writing it about then as well.Tag on eljay: majorsamfanfic.
5. Drawing & Painting
I started this as a kid, too. My brother did it, so I wanted to. I didn’t know until many years later we got the talent from our mom, who had done a lot of the sketches for her high school paper and year book. I like to do distinctly different things in different media:
Pencil/charcoal: draw faces
Watercolor: butterflies, flowers, birds
Oils: landscapes (wet on wet technique a la Bob Ross, Alexander)
6. TV/Movies (specifically Scifi & Mystery/Suspense Genres)
I still remember my very first sci-fi. Star Trek - The Original Series. It was on very late, and at age 7 (almost 8), that was the only night I was allowed to stay up past 8 or 9pm. We watched it as a family on our black and white television, and my cousins tried to tell me Mr. Spock looked green on their color TV. ST:TOS was only the first of many sci-fi shows to which I have been (and still am) addicted.
I have taken very few (I can think of one, other than weekend religious retreats or music/writing conferences) vacations in the last 25 years that did not revolve around attending a sci-fi convention. I probably attended at least 20-30 Star Trek ones put on my Creation Entertainment in the late 80s and early 90s. Fast forward to 2004, and I started going to Stargate cons. Had planned to go in 2001, but that’s a long story. Since then, well, as I said, I’ve seen Amanda at least ten times, and I have attended a half dozen that didn’t involve her, too. Since August 2004, I’ve been to 3 GABIT AT events of the 4 they have had, 1 Wolf Events SG con (SG-10 2005), 1 Gatecon, 1 Creation Grand Slam in LA, 3 Creation New Jersey Stargate cons, 2 Creation Chicago Stargate cons, 1 Creation LA Stargate con, 2 Creation LA/Burbank Farscape cons (for Ben/Claud), 1 Creation Vancouver Stargate con, 2 Atlanta Dragon*Cons and 5 San Diego Comic-Cons.
When I used to come home at lunch from grade school, my mom would be watching Perry Mason. She had a subscription to Ellery Queen Magazine, too, and I read every one of them. We watched Mission: Impossible, The F.B.I., It Takes a Thief, Ironside and many other police, court, crime dramas. Too bad they don’t have Mystery genre cons, but I have seen David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel from Bones at San Diego Comic Con.
7&8. Crafty type hobbies & Photography
I love to take photographs; many are at sci-fi conventions, true. I also have a macro lens obsession with respect to flowers, especially as I like to make cards out of them or paint the subject. I haven’t committed to a 365-project like rebeccavoy, but I have joined an eljay community and a Facebook community for it, the latter having “photo shootouts” with a theme word.
I’ve always been artsy-craftsy, but about 15 or 20 years ago, the rubber stamping sensation went through my circle of friends. A friend of a friend sold Stampin’ Up! products, and I went to big trade shows, too. I have given away some of my overflow, but I have a good $1,000 tied up in stamps and supplies, I would guess. For a number of years, I made all my own greeting cards. Now, I mainly do it when I do a workshop or for a special card for someone. I used to call it therapy.
From there, I went on to scrapbooking. I’ve used the rubber stamping *some* in the scrapbooks, but I have applied a lot of the know-how (and the love of photography and the sci-fi convention attendance) to scrapbooking. I even made a scrapbook for Amanda Tapping and gave it to her the first time we met.
9. Genealogy/Researching my Family Tree
A former co-worker dragged me, kicking and screaming (not literally) into this, and it became a HUGE time investment. I thoroughly enjoy it, though! Through research online, I have reconnected with a first cousin I knew only a little as well as some more distant, researching cousins I never knew anything about.
My father’s (Bratcher) line has been traced back to immigration to the Colonies from England/Ireland in the mid 17th century. His mother’s (Galloway) line has been traced to immigration to the Colonies from Scotland in the mid 18th century. Some corollary lines in Daddy’s side of the tree immigrated in about 1655 (Pleasants), mid 1600s (Burton, Hayden, Pullen). Some lines can only be traced back to the late 1700s or about 1800 (Bostick, McMullen, Whitehead). The Hankins and Clevenger lines are traced back to about 1650 (immigrated about then, but don’t have exact info).
My mother’s paternal (Clark) line has been traced to 1800; sadly I’ve been unable to take it further back. Her maternal line (Jones) is equally as difficult, and we have traced it only to the mid 19th century. (Interesting line, though, as my great-grandfather shot his Constable father to prevent him from beating my great-great-grandmother to death.) Several corollary lines in mom’s side of the tree (Albrecht, Loy, Clapp, Tilghman, Townsend and Hagan) are traceable to immigration to the Colonies in 1732, 1741, 1727, 1635, early 1600s and 1662 respectively.
Through her Tilghman line, supposedly I am related to the Plantagenets (who isn’t?), who ruled England (Edward I, II, III) around the 13th century.
10. My friends/Internetz
I count the internetz as a top-ten simply because it has broadened my horizons for friendships, kept me in contact with people who never manage to call or write and provided an avenue for me to learn and to share with respect to the above interests.
I have several distinct groups of friends.
First, there are my local friends, mostly church and BSF-related; if they are on the internetz, most of them are my friends on Facebook, rather than LiveJournal.
Second, I have my online-I-have-met-in-person (mostly at cons) friends. Having attended so many conventions, I have met MANY actors and fans, but the closest of my fan friends are those I’ve seen most often and contact regularly between conventions: Triciabyrne1978, Deaniebtvs, atomicpagan on eljay and a few others, who are on Facebook and Yahoo lists, rather than LiveJournal.
(I moderate a Yahoo Stargate group for Christian fans and have met some of them; I also mod a list for convention info and have met most of them because the list was formed out of the group I met in Chicago the first time I met Amanda. The 3rd group I mod, Amandaholics_Anonymous, includes a lot of new people I don’t really know.) A handful of SG fan friends have actually come and visited me and taken “Auntie Jill’s Whirlwind (San Francisco) Bay Area Tour” (*waves at Meaghan, Kim, Edith and Sarah*).
Of the actors I have met, I have seen Amanda the most, of course, but second runners up include Ben Browder, Colin Cunningham and Michael Shanks (not that I go to a con to see him in particular, but because he does the most of them). Of the actors I have met, besides Amanda, a few have taken permanent places in my heart - Don S. Davis, Carmen Argenziano, Fulvio Cesere, Christopher Heyerdahl - what they lack in hair they more than make up for with HEART - my homegirl, Miracle Laurie (Amanda Jr. srsly - she’s a REAL woman), Linda Hamilton (hugs n kisses), John Noble (a true gentleman) and Colin Cunningham (ZOMGosh! Amazing! Wonderful! Not enough words to describe how awesomepops he is.). Oh, and Hewlett. I *love* Hewlett! (And RDA is sex on legs. I’m just sayin’.) Have I mentioned, I own one of Jason Momoa’s guitars? :D
Third, I have my online-only-haven’t-YET-met friends. Some of them I “talk” to online more than I talk to people I *have* met in person.