Ten things (why not?)
Feb. 7th, 2018 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mafiefFilled out the ten things about me meme that’s floating around. Not going to tag anyone.
1) I’m married to a guy and we have two boys (three and five-year-olds).
2) I’m a scientist (geneticist). I decided I wanted to be a scientist by the third grade and been slowly settling down on what type of biology I like (which is really a lot of it). I prefer the overlooked organisms like plants, fungi, lichens, and herps (reptiles and amphibians) and much prefer to be an indoor biologist where I can carefully control conditions. The idea of setting up traps far off in the mountains to collect bobcat poop holds no appeal to me. However, I will willingly jump in a mucky pond or tide pool after a random organism. And I’ve licked a salamander (there were good reasons).
3) I’m terrified of moths. I don’t like insects that sporadically fly around and hit my face.
4) I’m mildly dyslexic. I have a hard time differentiating between my left and right hand and lowercase b’s and d’s (still). I call things by the wrong name even thought I know what it is. An example is calling an object orange and even though it is yellow. In the lab, I’ve had to overcome my tendency to flip the order of things and thus have had to devise systems to keep everything in order. One of my projects involved determining left-handed twist from right-handed twist and it took a ridiculous amount of mental effort to keep everything straight. Reading aloud is stressful. I will do it and sound very awkward but reading to the kids is an absolute must. Writing, spelling, and word pronunciation have always been a struggle for me. Because of this, I am more comfortable producing things with my hands than expressing myself through writing.
5) Teaching. Despite the dyslexia thing, I enjoy giving presentations and I’m rather good at it. I usually find myself in a position where I’m teaching whether that be through 4-H clubs, agricultural displays at county fairs, ski instructing, teaching assistantships, or teaching college level classes. Because of my experience with dyslexia, I know what it is like to struggle in school (I am not naturally gifted, but I am persistent as hell) and can often guide students through their struggles.
6) When I was 5 or 6, I had a severe allergic reaction to a medication which caused Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. I had extensive blistering on my lips, eye lids, and mucus membranes. My case was mild, which was good because I wouldn’t be here today filling out this get-to-know-you-thing. I was left with messed up eyelids and eye lashes that used to rub against my eye until corrective surgery fixed it. Also, the tissue scaring on my mucus membranes have limited my sense of taste and smell to the point that I can barely smell anything and my sense of taste is limited to what I can detect with my tongue. Thus, I don’t drink tea because it’s just hot/lukewarm water with no flavor.
7) I’ve semi-recently figured out I am gray asexual. It’s a big deal for me since I’ve thought something was wrong with me for a very long time. I do not find random folks hot or visually appealing which made conversations with other high school girls very awkward. I’m really only attracted in that way to my husband. So, yah, I’d have no problem living in a monastery being a nun.
8) I am not lefthanded. I’m predominately right, but I can write and perform tasks with some level of proficiency with my left.
9) My high school graduating class totaled 9 people. I was not the valedictorian.
10) I had an extensive hobby as a kid. My mom and I learned how to spin fibers and weave it into cloth. We wanted to keep a wool producing animal, so we settled on angora rabbits instead of sheep or llamas. I kept the average of twenty angora rabbits (max was forty) for their wool and eventually brought them to rabbit shows. The super fluffy bunny with long fluff on the face is an English angora and the type I raised. Unlike most hobbies, I could fund it by breeding the rabbits and selling the kits. I essentially had a small business as a kid. The inheritance of rabbit coat (fur) color has been worked out and I was fascinated by it. My first introduction to genetics was when I would analyze the parent’s history (pedigrees) and predict the coat color of the babies.
1) I’m married to a guy and we have two boys (three and five-year-olds).
2) I’m a scientist (geneticist). I decided I wanted to be a scientist by the third grade and been slowly settling down on what type of biology I like (which is really a lot of it). I prefer the overlooked organisms like plants, fungi, lichens, and herps (reptiles and amphibians) and much prefer to be an indoor biologist where I can carefully control conditions. The idea of setting up traps far off in the mountains to collect bobcat poop holds no appeal to me. However, I will willingly jump in a mucky pond or tide pool after a random organism. And I’ve licked a salamander (there were good reasons).
3) I’m terrified of moths. I don’t like insects that sporadically fly around and hit my face.
4) I’m mildly dyslexic. I have a hard time differentiating between my left and right hand and lowercase b’s and d’s (still). I call things by the wrong name even thought I know what it is. An example is calling an object orange and even though it is yellow. In the lab, I’ve had to overcome my tendency to flip the order of things and thus have had to devise systems to keep everything in order. One of my projects involved determining left-handed twist from right-handed twist and it took a ridiculous amount of mental effort to keep everything straight. Reading aloud is stressful. I will do it and sound very awkward but reading to the kids is an absolute must. Writing, spelling, and word pronunciation have always been a struggle for me. Because of this, I am more comfortable producing things with my hands than expressing myself through writing.
5) Teaching. Despite the dyslexia thing, I enjoy giving presentations and I’m rather good at it. I usually find myself in a position where I’m teaching whether that be through 4-H clubs, agricultural displays at county fairs, ski instructing, teaching assistantships, or teaching college level classes. Because of my experience with dyslexia, I know what it is like to struggle in school (I am not naturally gifted, but I am persistent as hell) and can often guide students through their struggles.
6) When I was 5 or 6, I had a severe allergic reaction to a medication which caused Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. I had extensive blistering on my lips, eye lids, and mucus membranes. My case was mild, which was good because I wouldn’t be here today filling out this get-to-know-you-thing. I was left with messed up eyelids and eye lashes that used to rub against my eye until corrective surgery fixed it. Also, the tissue scaring on my mucus membranes have limited my sense of taste and smell to the point that I can barely smell anything and my sense of taste is limited to what I can detect with my tongue. Thus, I don’t drink tea because it’s just hot/lukewarm water with no flavor.
7) I’ve semi-recently figured out I am gray asexual. It’s a big deal for me since I’ve thought something was wrong with me for a very long time. I do not find random folks hot or visually appealing which made conversations with other high school girls very awkward. I’m really only attracted in that way to my husband. So, yah, I’d have no problem living in a monastery being a nun.
8) I am not lefthanded. I’m predominately right, but I can write and perform tasks with some level of proficiency with my left.
9) My high school graduating class totaled 9 people. I was not the valedictorian.
10) I had an extensive hobby as a kid. My mom and I learned how to spin fibers and weave it into cloth. We wanted to keep a wool producing animal, so we settled on angora rabbits instead of sheep or llamas. I kept the average of twenty angora rabbits (max was forty) for their wool and eventually brought them to rabbit shows. The super fluffy bunny with long fluff on the face is an English angora and the type I raised. Unlike most hobbies, I could fund it by breeding the rabbits and selling the kits. I essentially had a small business as a kid. The inheritance of rabbit coat (fur) color has been worked out and I was fascinated by it. My first introduction to genetics was when I would analyze the parent’s history (pedigrees) and predict the coat color of the babies.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-08 01:15 am (UTC)