finstergrrrl | 5 interests

leftbase picked five interests from my userinfo page and i'm talking about them. let me know if you want me to pick five of your interests.

creative nonfiction
Howard Finster
Northampton
sociology
string theory

1. creative nonfiction:
it's my writing of choice. i've been writing more fiction than nonfiction lately, but i love finding a good real-life story and telling it in a compelling way. if i could just be an essayist all day, i think i'd be okay with that.

2. Howard Finster:
where my screen name comes from. he was a folk artist who lived in georgia and created Paradise Gardens, where a band called R.E.M. (you might have heard of them) filmed a video:

my aunt collects his work and took me to Paradise Gardens when i was young. he's pretty great.

3. Northampton:
home of smith college, where i went to college for two years. formative years, those. also where i met

aliyaskie, who is still yon BFF. i adore noho. i wish i could live there without having to deal with massachusetts winters.

noho is also known, incidentially, for its lesbian population.

Q. how many straight women in northampton does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. both of them.

4. sociology:
briefly considered majoring in it when i was at smith. the first day in my intro to soc class, we discussed how a) race is a social construct and b) just because it's socially constructed doesn't mean it doesn't have real consequences. that stuck with me.

5. string theory:
i see why you chose that one ;) i've been fascinated by this and related branches of physics for a long time. i read hawking when i was 11 and wanted to be an astrophysicist; since then, i've read tons of popular texts on string theory, quantum mechanics, etc. brian greene is an excellent guide, both through his books and through his PBS specials, if you want to get a good grounding in the ideas behind string theory.

ok, everyone else's turn!